By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week I took in the first major film festival of the year for the first time in my life, and I could not have wished for more- here’s hoping this virtual element is something festivals preserve even once things get back to blessed normal.
All photos are courtesy of the Sundance Institute, and these reactions are as knee-jerk as can be- but man, it was a haul!
And yes, I went ahead and ranked all 37 of them from first to best in this post, as unscientifically as possible.
111. CODA
This was the big winner at Sundance this year, also selling to Apple for a new record amount, and it’s all deserved. Emilia Jones stars as the titular Children of Deaf Adults who’s torn between helping her family (her older is also deaf) and their fishing livelihood and pursuing her dreams as a singer. It avoids the pitfalls of cliché every time it threatens- just a wonderful, funny, beautiful film. A Toast.
112. Mass
Fran Kranz’s setup here is simple- two married couples stare at each other across a table in a church basement. They’re here because one of their sons killed the other in a school shooting. The rest of the film is a conversation that seems to explore every human angle of this situation, and it is completely fascinating. Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd, and Reed Birney are all tremendous. A Toast.
113. Passing
Rebecca Hall’s directorial debut would make most any seasoned vet proud. Tessa Thompson stars as a woman who reencounters a childhood friend (Ruth Negga) who is “passing” as white, even married to a racist white man (Alexander Skarsgard, who is really collecting this type of role), but drawn to her former life and people. A tragedy worth of F. Scott Fitzgerald ensues. A Toast.
114. Judas and the Black Messiah
Shaka King’s story of the Black Panthers leading up to young, charismatic leader Fred Hampton’s death (Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar-worthy) is gripping in its focus on character (Dominique Fishback as Deborah Johnson, Hampton’s girlfriend is also excellent). The movie arguably belongs to LaKeith Stanfield, though, the craven Judas to Hampton’s J. Edgar Hoover-monikered Hampton. The sky is the limit for him, and it’s never more apparent than here. Two Beers.
115. Flee
That this could very well land an Oscar nomination next year in the International Film, Documentary, and Animated Film categories, which demonstrates both how good, and what a unique beast, it is. The rotoscoped animation is a bit of a necessity- the protagonist telling his family’s terrifying story of fleeing from Afghanistan via Russia across years would put himself and his family, scattered across Europe now, at risk- not every escape was strictly legal. Riveting. Two Beers.
116. Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questlove, makes his debut with this exuberant documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which took place 100 miles from a little festival you’re more likely to have heard of- Woodstock. Questlove makes the case, with 50 years-lost footage, that not only was the lineup every bit as legendary (Steve Wonder, The Staples Singers, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone… and on and on), but that it was every bit as culturally impactful, prefacing the long overdue Black Pride movement that would arise in the 70s and still resonates today. Just a blast. Two Beers.
117. The Sparks Brothers
This another debut of a sort- Edgar Wright’s first documentary. He brings his normal high-energy approach to the subject of Ron & Russell Mael, otherwise known as Sparks. Don’t worry, if you haven’t heard of them, neither have I, but Wright is just so goddamned excited to introduce them to us (and they very clearly influenced so many cool people interviewed here) that it’s impossible to resist. Vive Sparks! Two Beers.
118. President
Good thing the last two documentaries were uppers, because this one from Camilla Nielsson is quite the downer, following the 2018 Zimbabwean Presidential election, pitting wildly popular opposition leader Nelson Chamisa against Emmerson Mnangagwa, backed by the military and former Vice President for longtime and only recently deposed dictator Robert Mugabe. Apologies to nobody, but this is what a stolen election looks like, and as the pinchers of the corrupt establishment start to close it’s hard not to despair. Two Beers.
119. Night of the Kings
One of the few films at this year’s festival to have debuted elsewhere, Cote d’Ivoir’s International Film Oscar submission this year has a good chance of making the cut. Bakary Kone is a young pickpocket sent to prison led by a despotic criminal who informs he’ll be that night’s entertainment – a storyteller. With the help of a chicken-bearing Denis Lavant, he soon realizes he’d better take his time, and so a story combining his own criminal experiences and highest fancies ensues. It’s not for nothing City of God is name-dropped. Two Beers.
120. A Glitch in the Matrix
Room 237‘s Rodney Ascher returns, but instead of examining those who read deeper meeting in The Shining, here he delves into the world of Simulation Theory- the idea that we’re living in a simulated reality, likely computer generated, that yes, The Matrix, vastly increased the footprint of. As always he lets the ‘experts’, here hidden behind grotesque digital avatars, present their case- and whatever you believe, a might compelling case it is. Two Beers.
121. The World to Come
This was another festival favorite from the few that did take place last year, starring Katherine Waterson and Vanessa Kirby (who’s had quite a year!) as dissatisfied frontier wives of husbands with varying degrees of obliviousness and active cruelty in Casey Affleck and Christopher Abbott respectively. This is a love story, which you may well expect, but it goes some unexpected places, too, and Mona Fastvold directs with control and emotional intelligence. Two Beers.
122. Hive
This was arguably the other big winner of Sundance, capturing 3 awards on the International side of the competition, and it’s easy to see why. Director Blerta Basholli and star Yllka Gashi tell the true story of a woman whose husband remains missing from the Balkan conflicts and who can wait no more to start providing for her family despite all of the cultural onus on assuming this “man’s role”. Deftly told and well acted by all involved. Two Beers.
123. Violation
Our last other festival-debuter lands in the Midnight section, and for good reason. This rape revenge tale is scathing and utterly explicit in several different senses, but also incredibly knotty and complex- this isn’t your garden variety rape of the innocent yields ultraviolence exploitation film, but rather one that envelopes you in moral ambiguity. Two Beers.
124. Fire in the Mountains
This is another international film focused on a woman pushing back against a patriarchal society with her business acumen and drive to succeed, but it doesn’t quite develop character as well as Hive, choosing to keep a remove in place that has its own formal pleasures but dulls the impact of a film utterly filled with righteous fury. Three Beers.
125. Misha and the Wolves
Frankly, I’m here for the Netflix true crime style of documentary filmmaking, and Sam Hobkinson has found a story here worthy of the slickly presented chronological approach. In short, a Holocaust survivor writes a memoir of her wartime experiences that first finds great success, at least until she sues her own publisher and that person starts to scrutinize the facts in an effort to lesson the penalty of losing the suit. To say anything more would be criminal. Two Beers.
126. In the Same Breath
One Child Nation‘s Nanfu Wang again examines her native country’s societal and governmental failures. This time she had a front-row seat, attending 2020 Lunar New Year festivities in the biggest city nearby her hometown… one Wuhan, China. This is a meticulous teardown of the initial coverup attempts by her birthplace, and then one of her adopted home- the United States, as the virus spreads there and she sees the same sort of response. Two Beers.
127. First Date
This is the kind of film that Sundance purportedly used to be about- a true independent, low-budget yet ambitious film unafraid to entertain a wide mix of tones. A kid decides to buy a junker to pick a girl up for a date he never thought she’d grant him, only to proceed to have the unlikeliest day ever. It’s rare to see this kind of tonal and genre verve outside of Korea, and writers/directors Manuel Crosby & Darren Knapp largely keep the train on the tracks. Here’s to future well-deserved opportunity coming knocking. Three Beers.
128. Strawberry Mansion
The Albert Birney/Kentucker Audley duo are quite popular around these here parts, with their Sylvio being a favorite of several of our writers in 2017. Now they have an even more ambitious follow-up, a Brazil-style light sci-fi about an auditor of dreams who finds someone resistant to the advertising-heavy intrusions that others including himself have- nefariously, it turns out. This is another beautifully imaginative and resourceful film from the duo. Three Beers.
129. John and the Hole
Visual artist Pascual Sisto and Birdman writer Nicolas Giacobone team up for this Cannes 2020 selections that has shades of Yorgos Lanthimos and Michael Haneke in its story of, well, John, and his curious method of achieving a little independence that is indeed hole-related. Young Charlie Shotwell is a sociopathic cipher who brings an air of genuine menace to a film that perhaps could use a bit more of it. Three Beers.
130. Cryptozoo
Dash Shaw’s film was described in its introduction as a true unicorn- a feature-length, independently produced American animated film. It just so happens it’s also about unicorns, or cryptids rather- a whole zoo of them run by a pair of do-gooders who wish to reveal them to the world and prevent them from falling into the hands of the Military. Animated in an unpolished yet interesting style reminiscent of alt comics, this is an original indeed. Three Beers.
131. Land
Robin Wright is another star making her debut behind the camera this festival, and she certainly has no issues crafting a great-looking and generally engaging film from the story of a woman retreating to the wilderness after a great loss. I wasn’t as struck as some others, though, particularly due to her penchant for double-underlining her points, but it’s a fine film nonetheless. Three Beers.
132. On the Count of Three
TV star and creator Jerrod Carmichael makes his feature debut here in this dramedy about a pair of friends (Carmichael and Christopher Abbott again) who make a suicide pact to shoot each other by the end of the day. This is an unruly and hugely ambitious film in the tones Carmichael wishes to mix, but he and Abbott deliver live-wire performances in their own ways and you have to appreciate the chutzpah here. Three Beers.
133. Captains of Zaatari
This quite short documentary came about when Ali El-Arabi met a couple of soccer-playing teenagers in the course of shooting a documentary about the Zaatari Syrian refugee camp in Jordan. Mahmoud and Fawzi do succeed in their chosen sport, traveling to play in a tournament in Qatar big enough to be televised, but it’s the news conference after, when they announce to the world that “All a refugee needs is an opportunity, not your pity.” that really gets you. These two endearingly fast friends make the most of theirs, and hopefully help open the doors to many more. Three Beers.
134. I Was a Simple Man
This Hawaii set film about a old man on the precipice of passing on whose dreams cross decades to his youth and the more wild and untamed Hawaii of that time is most fixated on setting a tone of nostalgia and dense undergrowth under shimmering stars. Christopher Makoto Yogi’s approach isn’t for everyone, but he’s crafted an undeniably beautiful and pensive film. Three Beers.
135. The Pink Cloud
The marketing materials for this film made great shrift of ensuring us this was shot before COVID– it is, after all, a story of a pink cloud that suffocates human but not animal life in under 10 seconds, driving the populace indoors. The characters played by Renata de Lelis and Eduardo Mendonca find themselves quarantined together suddenly after a one night stand, and it’s not certain when this danger will pass, despite there apparently being no danger of starvation or deprivation of any form but mental. So yeah, this strikes a chord. Three Beers.
136. At the Ready
This is a conventional documentary about a fascinating subject. The Border Patrol has an ROTC-like program at an El Paso high school that director Maisie Crow follows over the course of a year from the classroom to competitions. This is the year of children in cages, however, and the almost uniformly Latinx students, some with family just over the border, start to shift in interesting ways from their original Law & Order-focused mean. Three Beers.
137. Playing with Sharks
This is, again, a conventional documentary about a fascinating subject. This time it’s Valerie Taylor, the Australian woman who shot the most terrifying real parts of Jaws, and then has devoted her life to combatting the many misunderstandings of sharks that film and a scientific community never as daring as she in getting close to their subject helped engender. There’s just some incredible footage here, as well as an admonition to leave these largely endangered and certainly misunderstood creatures be. Three Beers.
138. All Light, Everywhere
Okay, now this is an unconventional documentary about a perhaps less fascinating subject. It seems to have perhaps begun as the examination of a company that makes police bodycams as well as tasers, that spins into the always closer than you might think relationship between the development of guns and the camera. It’s elliptically told and privileges style over perhaps substance, or at least clear through-lines, but it’s full of interesting detail nonetheless (the side story of the proposed live Google Map-like surveillance of Baltimore’s inner city neighborhoods is worth a documentary of its own- which, perhaps, is what this is). Three Beers.
139. El Planeta
Film festivals often mistake quirk for comedy, and director and star Amalia Ulman certainly provides plenty of the former in this story of a single Spanish woman living with her mother (played by Amalia’s own mother Ale) and having various low-key misadventures in love while her mother struggles to maintain the façade of wealth that turns her into (and embroils her daughter in the machinations of) a con-woman and low-key criminal. Three Beers.
140. In the Earth
Ben Wheatley was perhaps unsurprisingly one of the first filmmakers to shoot after the initial COVID shutdowns, and if you’re going to do it, a forest-based horror film is the logical choice. Here he returns to the British pagan horror roots that entwine some of his most famous early horror work, but with a visual polish he’s clearly picked up since then. The setup is pretty straightforward, though, and even the psychedelic freakout at the end feels a bit like old hat for Wheatley. A must for fans of his, though. Three Beers.
141. Eight for Silver
After Metro Manila, I’m always down for what Sean Ellis is cooking, and here it’s a relatively unique take on the werewolf genre. Sure, there’s gypsies and silver bullets and late 1800s misty moors, but the creatures here are far from your grandpa’s werewolves, and Ellis shoots with a stylish touch that always keeps things interesting. It’s just a pity the character work doesn’t match the aesthetics, or this would really be something. Three Beers.
142. Wild Indian
In another world, Michael Greyeyes would have received Oscar buzz for his turn as Sitting Bull in the fairly ignore Jessica Chastain film Woman Walks Ahead. Here he gets a wholly different role as one of two Native American boys witness to a shocking crime, who grows up to be a Patrick Bateman-like businessman who now goes by “Michael Peterson”. Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr. delves deep into the self-loathing of the character influenced by his upbringing and the cultural devastation of the preceding three centuries of his people’s history. Three Beers.
143. Life in a Day 2020
Ridley Scott and Kevin Macdonald have again 10 years later made a crowdsourced documentary film that ties together footage submitted by people all over the world that was shot on a single day- July 25, 2020. One must assume this was planned before COVID became the ruler of everyone’s daily lives, and I think the film as a whole suffers from this- we’re already very used to most communication with the outside world being through our cellphone cameras. Still, the editing of clearly humanity-wide concerns and customs together across the course of a day remains compelling. Four Beers.
144. Users
This kind of has quite a bit in common with Life in a Day 2020, progressing as it does in a stream of consciousness predicated on director Natalia Almada’s preoccupation for what the technology-led future will look like for her young son and his entire generation. It’s beautifully shot, and flows well across its short runtime, but also feels like it could have used more thematic structure to hit the way it may have been intended to. Four Beers.
145. Sabaya
Sabaya is the name for Kurdish girls and women who were kidnapped by ISIS and forced to be their prostitutes and “wives”, and there’s no denying the immediacy and importance of director Hogir Hirori and his subjects’ work going into the notoriously dangerous Syrian refugee camp Al-Hol to retrieve the sabaya they can find. The documentary may be too on the ground, though, and lacks the context to always understand the actions of these remarkable people. Four Beers.
146. Censor
Plenty of credit is due Prano Bailey-Bond’s vision and technical acumen in her horror film about a British film censor in the era of “the Nasties”- cheap exploitation flicks that rallied Margaret Thatcher conservatives against the horror film industry in general. Unfortunately, and despite lead Niamh Algar’s best efforts as well, the story of the flashbacks triggered by one such film she’s evaluating doesn’t hold together well enough for the horror parts to work very well. The beginning scenes when she’s doing her censor work are a lot more interesting. Four Beers.
147. Prisoners of The Ghostland
Look, you don’t pair up Japanese punk provocateur Sion Sono and Nicolas Cage and expect Oscar material, and there are undoubtedly specific scenes here and there that live up to the promise of Sono’s unique filmmaking eye and Cage’s intensity and enunciation. However, how a movie from those two about a Japanese cowboy brothel prisoner who is put in a leather suit with bombs attached to his arms (if he gets slappy) and testicles (if he gets horny) and sent out into the post-apocalyptic Ghostland to find the brothel owner’s granddaughter is so low-energy is inexplicable. There are individual moments here that rank with some of Cage’s finest, but maybe the inevitable gifs will be enough for you. Six Pack.
