While the general consensus is that Sundance in 2018 is the annual "good, bad" version, there's still a lot of "good" stuff. The four of us contributors braved the weather in Park City to line up for the premiere, and there was nothing wrong with taking it out and putting it on your Letterboxd watchlist. This is to say that the films come from multiple shows at this year's festival, including the American Theater Competition, the Next, and even a pair of noons. There may not be much "good" this year, but there are "good" in every place you see, especially in these twelve movies.
"Flame" is a great alternative to Sundance's highly competitive American theater category, and I'm sure it will excel in March at the SXSW film spree in Austin. But it's a film that doesn't easily fit into any festival standard. Instead, it transports the viewer to the tender, romantic soul of a song by its eponymous, underrated country singer-songwriter Blaze Foley. From the beginning, director Ethan Hawke's films didn't have the same rhythms as a typical musician's film, and its ear music, visual narrative eyes, and attitude toward human nature created a gorgeous spectacle, though many musicians were not familiar with it (and they would be). Ben Dickey's performance, as Foley, received a special performance award from a jury that included Michael Stuhlbarg and Octavia Spencer, and it was just the first of its many treasures. Like Foley himself, this is a superbly gentle, lyrical film of its own, with an overall warmth only such a confident, sincere art.
The buzz after Ari Aster's world premiere was Sundance's first thriller since "The Witch," but the midnight buzz tends to be a little bit, and we can say that the style is biased, with the film often sinking during the daytime play. "Hereditary" can work anytime, anywhere. It's a truly disturbing, horrible, emotionally devastating film that actually draws a resemblance to a traditional Sundance family drama — after the core story of its family's collapse , the unimaginable losses that could occur at Sundance College — well, all hell literally shattered. "Heredity" is a "strapping" horror movie that will put you to sleep in the lights.
Seven years after "Bones of Winter," writer and director Debra Granik returned to a father and daughter living on a public land outside of Portland, Oregon. Having PTSD in his daily life makes him "restless," but his daughter, inspired by Thomas Harcourt McKenzie, is growing up before his eyes. Society has been trying to seize on this pair and give them shelter and stability, and we see what it does for a previously strong alliance, and we feel the emotions brewing below. It's a beautiful, sincere, authentic film, and let's hope Granik doesn't spend seven years making another film.
Unless directors Panos Cosmatos and Nicolas Cage work together again, there will never be another Midnight movie like "Mandy," which only started at Sundance. Cosmatos' dedication to his exaggerated style of the '80s made the revenge thriller the most psychedelic first half of the film, but when Cage took center stage, the film exploded a million times. As the director of Beyond the Black Rainbow, Cosmatos reinvents himself before our eyes as a high-pressure action filmmaker, and Cage ascends to the status of midnight movie god in the next amazing (amazingly bloody) battle. Even the weapons in "Mandy" will bring more shock than the most adored classics. "Mandy" is the noblest entertainment on earth, and this highway on earth is made possible by a refreshing combination of a mad director and a crazy crazy actor.
Fans of "Proper Behavior" won't be disappointed by Desiree Akhavan's sweet, sympathetic, but brutally honest film about surviving gay conversion therapy. Adapted by Acacia and Cecilia Froggiel of Emily M. Danforth's famous book The Reform of the Cameron Post (Grand Jury Award, American Drama Award winner), came as Cameron set out with another girl at the ball, moving from a conservative family to a conversion center. Akavan follows the lives of these manipulated outcasts, accumulating wisdom in a quiet and harsh environment, as some of them manage to break freedom and others prove unlucky. With "The Perfect Show" by Chloë Grace Moretz, Sasha Lane and Jennifer Ehle (who led the thrilling Nurse Ratched), "The Education of cameron Post" is the film we need to receive and understand today. Let's hope the MPAA makes it a little easier at this point and allows young teens to see it everywhere with their identity.
I want to remember the last time I dedicated myself entirely to a family drama, the moments of generosity and the lavish rhythms that preceded Tamara Jenkins' endlessly generous "private life." I immediately remembered Kenneth Lonergan's films. Jenkins' elegant film (which she wrote and directed) follows the lives of 40 couples who challenged reproduction (Catherine Hahn and Paul Giamatti, an impending legendary screen duo) and their beloved directionless niece Satie (Kelly Carter) agreed to donate her egg to her "artist chief". Full of humor, frustration and most importantly love; "Private Life" miraculously provides the viewer with a sympathetic shot of a painful battle, often whispered and rarely discussed in public. Ignore people who "can be shortened". This movie is as long as it takes. Personally, Jenkins's wisdom and wit permeated from all her characters was no longer enough.
Aside from trying to get public WiFi to work, the second biggest hobby held in Sundance this year was telling fellow citizens about a world cinema documentary work, "Shirkers," which won a special director's award last Saturday. It takes about two minutes to fully draw Sandi Tan's real-life filmmaking Odyssey, whose life story is bound to be created for someone's favorite film. Here, she tells the story of a narrative film she created with friends, as a movie- and music-loving teenager living in Singapore in the '90s. The project is called "Shirkers," and in the sad tradition of film history, her efforts were almost wiped out by a man who was a director who disappeared before all the film reels disappeared together. Now, "Shirkers" is the name of her documentary, which tells the story of this fascinating project, her pursuit of film after such trauma, and what happened when the reels proved not to disappear. The film here is unique, with vivid visual details and a clear rhythm that makes the film complete with joy. Tan beautifully crafted every different part of this dazzling tapestry made by a woman's love of cinema, while sharing these fascinating, infectious real-life stories that must be seen and believed.
Comedy is very rare in Sundance, and many people may be suspicious of them. Although divisive, Boots Riley's "Sorry to Bother You" was the clear winner of this year's burlesque film production. The film is a strange social satire that covers unions, exploitation, slavery, capitalism, and crypto-conversion. Lakeith Stanfield played Cassius Green, a minimum-wage worker who was promoted in his shady company, but whose success came at the expense of his friends and others of color. Amazing performances in the film include Terry Crews as Cassius's uncle and landlord, Steven Yeun as Emie Hammer, the organizer of the Secret Alliance as Jeff Bezos, and Tesson as Tess Thompson's "Sorry to Bother You" which is both witty and visually hilarious. Occasionally immersed in surrealism to convey information.
There are a lot of sundance movies this year that deal with sexual abuse or harassment, but none have found an old wound as painfully as Jennifer Fox. In this mix of confessions and fictions, a 13-year-old Jenny spends the summer at her riding instructor's home, where she is introduced to a running coach who is manipulating her trust in order to sexually assault her. There is no sugar-coated "story". The film is a chilling work, hard to watch, and hard to remember, but it's a memorable film that tells the story we tell ourselves in order to survive. As an adult, Jenny (who plays an incredible Laura Dean) refuses to be defined as a victim. Like many people in our lives, she buried her pain in the past and went along the way. Her attack didn't define her, but it shaped her. The final scene of the film is a sober and sad man: the culmination of righteous anger, forgiveness and peace with your past.
Be wary that, without knowing the circumstances of the story, it is best to enter "Three Equal Strangers" (winner of the Special Jury Award for American Documentaries). This year was 1980, and to our surprise, three strangers — Bobby Shafran, Eddy Galland and David Kellman — were discovering that they were triplets, divided into different families through adoption agencies after birth. It's all a lot of fun and fun for all three of them as they become American couples, business partners and the lives they're invited to every New York party. But the truth of their separation will inevitably emerge. Wardell treats his thrilling documentary as an intricate detective story through re-enactments, archival footage and interviews with transcripts of conversations. Step by step, he intervened in his audience, revealing not only a heartbreaking story of family tragedy, but also a disturbing corruption that bore disturbing resemblance to the catastrophic human greed and miscalculations of history.
The three brothers, separated by only a few years, cling to each other and spend a tumultuous time in their parents' difficult marriage. While "Our Animals" follows the adventures and struggles of the brothers, the youngest, Evan Rosado, comes into the film's focus. An important aspect of the film is difficult to pick out. The cast is tight and tight, no different from the family, and the performance is extremely moving. But the outstanding aspect is the film of the film. "Our Animals" doesn't look like the other movies I've seen in Sundance. Taken at 16 mm, the images look as if they were created by dark oil painting paint. This effect makes Jonah's world look even more frightening, and more dreamy, as his reality slips into the animated sequence of the painting. The film is so gorgeous that it even makes the drone footage look ethereal, not pedestrian.
Haunting is the best word to describe Lynne Ramsay's adaptation of a book by Jonathan Ames, a multiple winner from the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, which premiered in North America this year in Sundance this year before the Amazon version released in April this year. Joaquin Phoenix Star is a suicidal, possibly insane assassin, who was eventually burned to death after he was involved in the rescue of the daughter of a politician in the sex trading circle. Like "Driving" and "Taxi Driver," this ultra-violent thriller oozes out style, but Phoenix's bold work justifies something more tragic and reliable. This will be the kind of movie that people will talk about when they are finally released in theaters.