Sundance 2025 – End of Day TWO
Article by Mark Woodring
I know, I know… I didn’t do a post for Day ONE of Sundance, but that’s because it was day one… you know: check in, pick up credentials, then scoot over to see what movies could be seen in a half day.
But I did see two MIDNIGHT section movies on day one: a little post-apocalyptic zombie movie called Didn’t Die, along with a crazy little fairy tale called The Ugly Stepsister.
Day Two brought a few more films, including a documentary called 2000 Meters to Andriivka, a North Face-sponsored, true-adventure called Trango, and another documentary called Prime Minister.
So what did I think?
**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk. Until then, you can read Mark’s thoughts below, then use the link below to watch his reaction to films from day 3. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Didn’t Die
Started the festival with Didn’t Die, which has an interesting concept, with a podcaster traveling the country and speaking to those folks who “didn’t die” in the zombie apocalypse. It is interestingly pointed out later in the movie that it’s not a podcast; it’s broadcast over the radio. Anyway, the film would be better if that’s what it was actually about: showing us the people she talks to and how they are surviving, what they’ve lost, etc.
Instead, she has reached the end of her journey and returned to her home and reunited with her brothers and the older brother’s wife, who are holed up and defend their home from the increasingly scarce zombies. Comfort breeds complacency.
An encounter with an old flame who has somehow found an orphaned baby complicates things further.
Didn’t Die is an interesting film, but one which couldn’t quite decide what it wanted to be: the zombies were underplayed, although there is a twist to their behavior which was interesting. The family drama was the main thrust of the film, but it was also a bit undercooked. And they completely missed the more interesting movie which I mentioned above.
Didn’t Die isn’t a bad film, but it definitely could have benefited from another pass over the script and the asking of some hard questions, like “does this work?” or “is this enough?”
The Ugly Stepsister
The Ugly Stepsister is this year’s In A Violent Nature. If you’ll remember, I loved that one, and this one is sure to be equally divisive for audiences. It’s a closer, non-Disney version of the old Cinderella fairy tale, part fantasy, and more than a goodly bit body horror, with enough squirmy scenes that the entire screening audience was making the same noises at the same times throughout.
It was glorious.
But not for the weak.
The cinematography is wonderful, and it is subtitled, so you’ve been warned, lol.
I loved it.
2000 Meters to Andriivka
2000 Meters to Andriivka is the spiritual sequel to 20 Days in Mariupol. Cobbled together mostly from body and helmet cams of the Ukrainian soldiers fighting their way through the titular 2000 meters of “forest” separating two minefields, as they attempt to retake the village, cutting the Russian supply lines during the counter-offensive of 2023.
An unvarnished and bloody look at actual war for people who are more likely to consider asking to speak to a manager as a conflict, 2000 Meters to Andriivka should remind everyone that Ukraine did not ask to be invaded and calls for them to stop fighting is the moral equivalent of saying “Russia is in the right.”
On what planet are we now considering Russia the good guys?
No one wants unending war, but as my father used to tell me, put want in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.
There; that’s as close to politics as you’ll get here.
This movie is, by its construction, less cohesive than 20 Days in Mariupol, but it’s no less powerful a reminder that evil, unchecked, will brutalize not just today, but tomorrow, and generations to come.
Trango
Trango is an interesting, if short for a feature (~45 minutes), entry in the increasingly mainstream genre of adventure filmmaking.
Watch as our intrepid climber/skiers attempt the first ski decent of Trango, a mountain in Pakistan I’d never heard of. It looks absolutely, unbelievably impossible, and it does take two attempts in two years simply to reach the summit after a series of avalanches, weather, and illness curtailed their first attempts.
Films like this, shot beautifully even with the limited camera availability of such a climb, really impress with how the technology can be used to bring otherwise unthinkable realities to audiences.
This is in contrast to technologies being used to bring non-realities to audiences; as impressive looking (or “visually stunning” if you will) as they may be, they’re not REAL, and so there will always be a sense of being “fake.”
Trango, like Free Solo before it, brings the real world, the one we live in, to our eyes in ways that a fantasy land simply cannot, and it’s all the more powerful, then, to see real, live human beings beat it, best it, at least in this moment, knowing that sometimes they don’t, and they must either retreat, or often die in the attempt.
Trango is starkly beautiful filmmaking, and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to see it.
Prime Minister
Prime Minister, the story of New Zealand’s youngest leader, Jacinda Ardern, who cobbled together an unlikely governing coalition to lead New Zealand through a tumultuous time of multiple tragedies.
From her unlikely rise to the position, to her inevitable fall at the hands of world events, she weathers it all with a humanity and compassion that is unusual for politicians around the world.
Not that such compassion can save anyone from the swing of the pendulum when things aren’t going so well. Politicians are targets, convenient places to hang general frustrations with the world writ large, and she was no exception.
As it did in real time, the COVID pandemic and response occupy a bulk of the runtime of the film. I found one or two inclusions in this segment to be more message oriented than might have been necessary, though my audience was receptive to them from their reaction.
Prime Minister is a well put-together look at a transformative politician, but one who recognized that gains in a particular partisan/ideological direction often fall back to center or beyond, and that should be a lesson for politicians and ideologues everywhere: your side isn’t the only side, and will, eventually fall out of favor with the governed.
Now pay attention, because this is the important bit of this: if it doesn’t, then you’re not governing, you’re ruling, and there is a huge difference.
Prime Minister is a great watch for those who don’t live under a parliamentary system of government, where coalitions are necessary to accomplish anything.
Watch for this one to end up somewhere, soon.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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