Sundance 2020 Recap

The month of January is now in the rear view mirror and you may have noticed the lack of January movie reviews on this blog. In fact, the only movies I even saw in a regular theater were "1917" and "Just Mercy," two 2019 releases that were expansions, not new releases. That means I didn't see any new January releases. But don't worry, it's not because I'm slacking. Yes, it's true that there was a huge lack of quality releases, but I was mostly preoccupied by the Sundance Film Festival. As such, I didn't get around to "Bad Boys for Life," "Dolittle," "The Gentlemen," or any of the four horror movies that were released. And I don't really know if or when I will. Regarding Sundance, I've lived most of my life within an hour of the festival, yet never even went to a single showing prior to this year, which is a huge injustice. My friend and I tried to remedy that last year, but failed epically. So we learned from the experience and remedied it this year, meaning I have four movies that I saw that I want to talk about. Also, since I researched a whole ton of Sundance films in order to figure out which ones I wanted to see, I do want to quickly mention a handful that I didn't get tickets for that I am looking forward to seeing whenever they get their regular theatrical or streaming releases.

WORTH

The first of four movies is honestly the one that I'm the least ecstatic about, but it's still a fairly interesting film that gives a perspective on 9/11 that I hadn't considered. It tells the story of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and all the controversies surrounding it when Kenneth Feindberg first set it up. Michael Keaton stars as Feindberg, with Amy Ryan playing one the people who helped him out and Stanley Tucci playing perhaps his biggest critic. All three of these people do an excellent job in their roles, yet it's Stanley Tucci that was the standout for me. He's adamantly against everything Feindberg is setting up, yet his approach is so calm and civil that catches everyone off guard, both the characters in the movie and me watching the movie. I think the biggest issue for me here is that the movie drags on quite a bit as it tries to fill two hours of run time, despite the content being better suited for a 45-60 minute documentary instead of a feature-length drama, so a lot of the sequences felt a bit repetitive. But it does also touch on the interesting subject of what the value of life is. Is it even morally right to assign a number value? Personally I'm used to stuff like life insurance and whatnot, so I didn't get the huge fuss. But the questions raised were still provocative. 

KAJILLIONAIRE 

This here was the highlight of my Sundance experience. It's funny, though. After my initial research, there was a reason why I put this on my list, but after we got the tickets and were waiting in line, I forgot what that reason was. Given that no reviews to these movies are available prior to their release here, I had literally no idea what I was getting myself into. And after seeing the movie, I have no idea how to properly describe this to you. The movie is just so wacky and bizarre that giving a brief summary doesn't do it justice. The initial setup involves a family of three who live by committing small heists and scams just to get by. All three are somewhat disconnected from reality in terms of their mental state. From that initial setup, the movie goes in so many strange directions, none of which I saw coming. Yet I loved every second of it as I was hysterically laughing the entire time. With this type of summary, "Parasite" is actually the best comparison I can come up with, although it is more comedy and less thriller, making something like "Napoleon Dynamite" another good comparison. The wackiness is infectious and there's enough heart in there to make you actually care. A24 purchased the rights to this. As soon as they release this, I will let you all know.

RELIC

If you've ever watched "The Babadook," this next film is the one you need to see. "The Babadook" is an excellent horror film because it's not just a creepy and intense ride, but it also has a lot to say about mental illness. Casual audiences complained about "The Babadook" not being scary enough or not revealing the monster. But I claim anyone who says that completely missed the whole point. I bring up "The Babadook" here because "Relic" is a horror film that follows the exact same formula. It's about a mother and daughter visiting their grandmother, who is not well. This old lady is both charming and sweet, yet extremely scary and crazy when she loses it. While the sequences of her chasing the two younger girls around the house do make for some classic horror sequences as it also combines reality with the supernatural, the movie is essentially a metaphor for dementia, meaning the themes here will last a lot longer than your average horror film if you give yourself enough time to digest it. The movie does leave some things open to interpretation, but lucky for me the director walked on stage afterwards and talked all about her movie, which helped make everything click. Gothic horror and some Eastern, Asian horror were some of her influences.

LOST GIRLS

Last but not least, the final movie I saw was perhaps the one I was most looking forward to. When I created my list of movies I wanted to see, this was at the top of the list and I was happy that we got tickets to it as it seemed right up my alley. The movie is a crime thriller focusing on the true story of the Long Island serial killer, a yet to be apprehended (or even identified) killer who preyed mainly on female prostitutes over a span of nearly 20 years from 1996 to the mid-2010s. What makes this movie fascinating, and quite somber, is that it tells the story from the perspective of the families who are missing their daughters/sisters. A huge injustice took place in this investigation because law enforcement didn't seem to care too much due to the victims being prostitutes. Yet the movie attempts to show that, even though perhaps these girls' lifestyles aren't the greatest, they are still human beings with families and lives who deserved better. In the previous three showings I saw, a loud round of applause ensued when the credits rolled. With "Lost Girls," no such applause took place because we were all in stunned silence with how sad and somber this is, which is a powerful sentiment in its own right. Netflix has the rights to this one and they will be releasing it in the U.S. on March 13.

OTHER MOVIES TO LOOK FORWARD TO:

As I said in my introduction, in addition to talking about the four movies I saw, I also wanted to bring up some movies that I didn't see that I am looking forward to. There were 118 movies that played, making it impossible to see all of them, even if I was rich enough to do so. When you choose to see a Sundance movie, you're taking a big chance because you don't know which movies are the ones to see. I think my friend and I made four good selections, especially with "Kajillionaire," but here are some other ones that I will anxiously waiting their release.

- "Minari" -- This one wasn't on my radar at all, but it won the Grand Jury Prize, Sundance's top award, so it is on my radar now.

- "Promising Young Woman" -- This is the movie that I thought was going to win the Grand Jury Prize because this is the movie I was hearing the most buzz from. This is a thriller starring Carey Mulligan that apparently has a lot of crazy twists or some sort of shocking events that had audiences floored. So it now has my attention.

- "Palm Springs" -- This is a comedy led by Andy Samberg that broke the record for biggest purchase out of Sundance... by 69 cents. $17,500,000.69 was the official price tag. The movie is also a time loop movie surrounding a wedding. I'm a sucker for that type of movie. And this seems like a unique take on it with the romcom time loop angle.

- "Save Yourselves!" -- A movie about a couple who decide to disconnect from the world and ditch their phones for a weekend, causing them to completely miss an alien invasion that happens. That premise alone is crazy enough for me to be intrigued. 

- "Shirley" -- I'm not exactly sure what this movie is or the genre it belongs in, but the premise involves a couple who moves in with a 1900s horror and mystery writer named Shirley Jackson, intending on starting a new life, only to be caught in a psycho-drama that inspires her next novel.

- "Zola" -- A movie that is based on a tweet thread that went viral. That right there is enough to grab my attention as that's not often a source for movies. But said tweet thread was 148 tweets long and was about this girl's trip she took in Florida with a stripper named a stripper named Jessica. I need to make sure the content is safe enough before jumping right in, but I'm intrigued by the idea and the source material it came from.

- "Ironbark" -- This was a movie on the top of our lists when we were researching and planning out, perhaps because of the presence of Benedict Cumberbatch. It was also one that was really hard to get tickets to, which is part of the reason why we didn't see it. So the popularity factor seemed positive. It's also a true story about a man who helped the CIA penetrate the Soviet nuclear program during the Cold War, so there's potential there.

- "Tesla" -- A biopic of Nicola Tesla. Biopics can go either way, but this has a good cast, led by Ethan Hawke in the lead role and is currently at 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. That's an extremely early score, but it suggests that the reaction was positive.

- "Amulet" -- My friend and I knew that we wanted to see a horror film given how many good ones have come out of Sundance. I think we made an excellent choice with "Relic," but "Amulet" seemed to be the other horror film that was getting strong buzz, so it's on my radar whenever it comes out.

- "Bad Hair" -- This movie is another horror film we considered, although this one is more of a horror comedy about someone whose hair is haunted. I broke up in laughter when I read that premise and wanted to see it right away. The reaction was mixed, but the buzz was that it's a self-aware, B-movie type of horror film. So it makes sense that not everyone is on board.

- "Never Rarely Sometimes Always" -- This is a movie that is coming to theaters pretty quickly. Focus Features is releasing it on March 13. It's about two teenage cousins who embark on a journey to New York City following an unplanned pregnancy. Reading the premise made me think this could go either way in terms of quality, which is why we didn't pursue getting tickets, but so far it's among the large handful of Sundance films that have an early 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's looking quite positive at the moment.

- "The 40-Year-Old Version" -- This will be the last movie I bring up, but there's obviously a lot more. Feel free to search them out on your own and get excited for their releases. In regards to "The 40-Year-Old Version," it's about a New York playwright who becomes a rapper at age 40. It also took home the award for best directing at Sundance and also carries a 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment, so that tells me it's worth looking out for.