For the second year in a row, The Visually Stunning Movie Podcast will be covering the films at the Sundance Film Festival. I don’t have to tell you all that it is nigh unto impossible to see every film selected for Sundance. Unfortunately, choices must be made, whether based on scheduling or preference.
As such, here is a list of a few films I’d like to catch, and plan on trying my hardest to. This list is not all-inclusive, of course, nor is it a guarantee I’ll be able to make it into all of them, but I will be trying.
By category (with the program description. All photos courtesy of Sundance.org):
US Dramatic Competition:
Nine Days
In a house distant from the reality we know, a reclusive man interviews prospective candidates—personifications of human souls—for the privilege that he once had: to be born.
Director: Edson Oda
Palm Springs
When carefree Nyles and reluctant maid of honor Sarah have a chance encounter at a Palm Springs wedding, things get
complicated the next morning when they find themselves unable to escapethe venue, themselves, or each other.
Director: Max Barbakow
Save Yourselves!
A young Brooklyn couple heads upstate to disconnect from their phones and reconnect with themselves. Cut off from their devices, they miss the news that the planet is under attack.
Directors: Alex Huston Fischer, Eleanor Wilson
US Documentary Competition
Be Water
English and Chinese with English subtitles
In 1971, after being rejected by Hollywood, Bruce Lee returned to his parents’ homeland of Hong Kong to complete four iconic films. Charting his struggles between two worlds, this portrait explores questions of identity and representation through the use of rare archival interviews with loved ones and Bruce’s own writings.
Director: Bao Nguyen
Boys State
In an unusual experiment, one thousand 17-year-old boys from Texas join together to build a representative government from the ground up.
Directors: Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine
Dick Johnson Is Dead
With this inventive portrait, a cameraperson seeks a way to keep
her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, they confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
Director: Kirsten Johnson
Feels Good Man
When indie comic character Pepe the Frog becomes an unwitting icon of hate, his creator, artist Matt Furie, fights to bring Pepe back from the darkness and navigate America’s cultural divide.
Director: Arthur Jones
Spaceship Earth
In 1991, a group of countercultural visionaries built an enormous replica of Earth’s ecosystem called Biosphere 2. When eight “biospherians” lived sealed inside, they faced ecological calamities and cult accusations. Their adventure is a cautionary tale but also a testament to the power of small groups re-imagining the world.
Director: Matt Wolf
World Cinema Dramatic Competition
Possessor
Vos is a corporate agent who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of the company. When something goes wrong on a routine job, she finds herself trapped inside a man whose identity threatens to obliterate her own.
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
Premieres
Tesla
Highlighting the Promethean struggles of Nikola Tesla, as he attempts to transcend entrenched technology—including his own previous work—by pioneering a system of wireless energy that will change the world.
Director: Michael Almereyda
Documentary Premieres
The Go-Go’s
As the first all-female band to play their instruments, write their songs, and have a number-one album, the Go-Go’s made history. Underpinned by candid testimonies, this film chronicles the meteoric rise to fame of a band born in the LA punk scene and became a pop phenomenon.
Director: Alison Ellwood
Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind
Exploring actor Natalie Wood’s life and career through the unique perspective of her daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner, and others who knew her best. An examination of her personal and professional triumphs and challenges, which have often been overshadowed by her tragic death at age 43.
Director: Laurent Bouzereau
Spotlight
The Assistant
A searing look at a day in the life of an assistant to a powerful executive. As Jane follows her daily routine, she grows increasingly aware of the insidious abuse that threatens every aspect of her position.
Director: Kitty Green
Midnight
Amulet
Tomaz, an ex-soldier now homeless in London, is offered a place to stay at a decaying house, inhabited by a young woman and her dying mother. As he starts to fall for Magda, Tomaz cannot ignore his suspicion that something insidious might also be living alongside them.
Director: Romola Garai
The Night House
A widow begins to uncover her recently deceased husband’s disturbing secrets.
Director: David Bruckner
Relic
When Edna, the elderly and widowed matriarch of the family, goes missing, her daughter Kay and granddaughter Sam travel to their remote family home to find her. Soon after her return, they start to discover a sinister presence haunting the house and taking control of Edna.
Director: Natalie Erika James
Scare Me
During a power outage, two strangers tell scary stories. The more Fred and Fanny commit to their tales, the more the stories come to life in the dark of the Catskills cabin. The horrors of reality manifest when Fred confronts his ultimate fear: Fanny is the better storyteller.
Director: Josh Ruben
As I said, this list is hardly all-inclusive of the films I’d like to, but a sampling of what I think I can realistically schedule and see. I may miss some of these and see some which aren’t on this list; either way, I expect some great films.
See you all in Park City!
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