The online portion of Sundance went from January 25 through 28. Our pass allowed us to watch 10 movies, which was a pretty good deal — better than some years, but nothing compared to 2021, when the whole festival was online, and the pass was all-you-can-eat. That year we watched 25 movies, which was insane.
The quality of the films this year was also good. There was nothing we actively disliked, and only one or two things we were lukewarm about. The best thing we saw was LOVE ME. I thought the second best thing was THELMA. I think my partner would say it was BRIEF HISTORY OF A FAMILY.
Here are the films we saw:
A REAL PAIN — Jesse Eisenberg directed, wrote, and starred in this film. He and Kieran Culkin play mismatched cousins who go to Poland on a Jewish heritage tour, to see where their recently deceased grandmother grew up. A nice low-key mix of comedy and drama, where truths are spoken and learned, and a few laughs are had — by the audience, not necessarily by the characters. It was a good way to start the festival, and the film will likely appear in theaters.
BRIEF HISTORY OF A FAMILY — A Chinese film about a high school student who befriends a fellow student and becomes entwined with his friend’s upwardly mobile family. There’s a lot going on under the surface, although it’s not always clear what it is. What is clear are the parents’ attitudes to their son’s friend, and what it means for the family. This was pretty good.
EVERY LITTLE THING — I was anticipating this film with trepidation. I like watching hummingbirds, but would I enjoy watching them for 90 minutes? I needn’t have worried. The film, about a woman in Los Angeles who rescues and rehabilitates hummingbirds, is great. Excellent footage of the birds, who are individually recognizable throughout the film, and the woman’s story is interesting, too.
HANDLING THE UNDEAD — One day, somewhere in Norway, something happens and the dead (or at least the freshly dead) rise, and recently bereaved families have to deal with the return of their loved ones, who aren’t all there. It’s a zombie film with a twist. The zombies are benign, mostly, but the film is mostly about the survivors. The film starts slowly, but I think it rewards patience.
LITTLE DEATH — David Schwimmer plays a screenwriter in LA going through an existential crisis, which is inventively conveyed through CGI and animated sequences. Then the film goes in a completely different direction. I’m all for experimental filmmaking like this, but sometimes a film like this runs up against the physical limits of storytelling. The film is interesting, but not entirely successful.
LOVE ME — After the end of humanity, two left behind AIs, one in a satellite orbiting the earth and one in a buoy on the ocean, make contact, then fall in love. The love evolves over a billion years. Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun play the AIs in various forms over the years. This is very inventive filmmaking, and we thought it was great. I really hope this finds its way to theaters and people can see it. We thought it was the best thing we saw, and I would eagerly see it again.
ROB PEACE — Based on the true story of a young Black man, the son of a low-level drug dealer in New Jersey in the 1990s, who gets admitted to Yale, where he excels as a biochemistry/biophysics major and a water polo player. He’s also dealing weed to raise funds to free his father, who has been imprisoned for a murder he may not have committed. Jay Will does a great job playing Peace, and Chiwetel Ejiofor wrote the screenplay, directed, and plays the father. It’s well done, but very conventional storytelling, and we were really hoping for more. Also, when we dug more deeply into the story — there’s a good article in Wikipedia — it seems like Peace’s real story was both more complicated and more interesting than was conveyed in the movie. I wish we could have seen more of that.
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT — A documentary about the independence of the Congo and how its founding leader, Patrice Lumumba, was undermined and eventually overthrown by the machinations of the Belgians, with assistance from the US and the UN. Alongside this story is the US government’s use of leading jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie as unwitting propaganda weapons to distract the world from what was going on in the Congo at the time. Very long (150 minutes), but interesting and worthwhile. It’s impressionistic storytelling entirely using archival footage. The only new elements are some captions to help provide context. I’m not sure where people will be able to see this, but if you’re interested in post-WWII history, or jazz, it’s worth seeking out.
THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES — The filmmaker, a young Moroccan woman, wonders why there are no photographs of her childhood, so she gets her family and their neighbors together to try to figure it out. She learns why there are no photographs, and she also learns about a bunch of other things that nobody talks about. All of it centers around her grandmother, the matriarch of the family, who is not a very sympathetic character. Part of the explorations of the family’s past involve the constructions of detailed models of the neighborhood and other related locations. An interesting film, if not entirely successful.
THELMA — A 93-year-old woman loses money in a telephone scam. She decides to find the scammers and get the money back. Nothing that happens is inappropriate for characters of that age, but somehow all of it is very badass. I loved it. A great cast, with June Squibb as Thelma, plus Richard Roundtree (in his final role), Parker Posey, and Malcolm McDowell. My second favorite thing at the festival. I really hope this makes it to theaters or streaming, so people can see it. I think it will.
We also saw several short film programs that I won’t go into in any depth. I’ll just say that we particularly liked FLAIL, about one busy day in the life of a personal assistant in LA; THE LOOMING, a horror film that’s also an allegory about dementia; BOB’S FUNERAL, where the filmmaker compares the eulogies at his father’s and grandfather’s funerals; and SAY HI AFTER YOU DIE, where a woman’s recently deceased friend comes back to visit her as a porta-potty. If you come across any of these, be sure to see them.