It’s time once again for the annual Sundance Film Festival. This year’s festival is an entirely different experience from the typical slushy Park City streets and the hours long lines standing among a few hundred fellow elitists. With the world still in a pandemic, the festival has currently moved online. In order to watch these new movies, you just set your schedule and watch everything from the comfort of your living room. In that way, the festival loses some of its flavor, but the movie selection is as unique as ever.
CODA
Ruby (Emilia Jones) is the only hearing member of a deaf family. At 17, she works mornings before school to help her parents and brother keep their Gloucester fishing business afloat. But in joining her high school’s choir club, Ruby finds herself drawn to both her duet partner and her latent passion for singing. Her enthusiastic, tough-love choirmaster hears something special and encourages Ruby to consider music school and a future beyond fishing, leaving her torn between obligation to family and pursuit of her dream.
This festival got off to such a strong start with this amazing premiere. The title CODA is not only descriptive, but brilliant as well. Quite literally, it stands for Child of Deaf Adults. Also, musically, a Coda is a concluding segment of a piece of music, a dance, or a statement. It’s usually short and adds a final embellishment beyond a natural ending point. These definitions are so perfect for Ruby, who feels the tug of both family and her own interests.
CODA is one of the most formulaic films from this year’s festival, but the formula is completely effective. The characters are so defined, that you can see the events from their viewpoint. The highlight of the movie is Ruby’s choir teacher (played by Eugenio Derbez). Every scene he’s in is magical. Not only was CODA dramatic and hilarious, but it also brought me to tears more than once. Apple bought this film for $25M, so you’ll see it on Apple+ sometime later this year. A
Censor
In the Thatcher-esque British 1980s, Enid lives a quiet life and has a career of screening international horror films to see if they will be allowed or banned in the UK. After viewing a strangely familiar video nasty, she sets out to solve the past mystery of her sister’s disappearance, embarking on a quest that dissolves the line between fiction and reality.
Censor is a horror movie made for VHS-era splatter horror fans, but specifically trying to emulate the stylish workings of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci. Sundance has a penchant for slow-burn horror and this is no exception. For much of the runtime, there was no sure direction, but also thankfully no predictability. Everyone involved here, especially lead Niamh Algar, gives a subdued performance. It makes it incredibly difficult to relate to her descent, but also fits the eclectic genre Censor strives for. The patience-testing narrative does conclude in a truly insane way that makes the experience something unforgettable. Though, I can only recommend this to fans of Italian horror. B-
Judas and the Black Messiah
Judas and the Black Messiah tells story of Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya), Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, and his fateful betrayal by FBI informant William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield).
Warner Brothers decide to premiere its high caliber acting showcase Judas and the Black Messiah in the middle of the festival. It is definitely a studio picture and feels removed from its independent colleagues surrounding it in the schedule. Though, the themes are quite similar to the other films. Kaluuya and Stanfield are at the top of their game here. Jesse Plemons gets a few understated scenes as an FBI agent that correlates with his informant O’Neal. While this insider story is nothing new, it feels just as topical today as the time period it was set in. You can find this in theaters and HBO Max on February 12th. C+
Cryptozoo
Cryptozookeepers try to capture a Baku, a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown.
Sundance is such a unique experience. All I know about a movie is a one or two sentence synopsis and that’s it. Generally, I don’t even see an image from the upcoming movie. So, when Cryptozoo began, I was shocked to find that it was a hand-drawn feature. Not only that, but it’s a very adult cartoon. This road movie follows an eclectic group of characters, both human and mythological, as they seek to protect the beasts that many look down upon. It seeks to make a case for prejudice and toxicity, but it would have worked best an a short film. At 1 hour 35 minutes, it’s entirely too meandering to make a solid point. I kept watching this for the crudely-drawn animation and the experiment that was Cryptozoo. I enjoyed hearing the voices of Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Peter Stormare and Jason Schwartzman. Also, instead of focusing on internationally popular cryptids (Sasquatch, Nessie, etc), it spends its narrative on fantastical creatures from mythology (Chimera, Gorgons, etc). This is one of the strangest Sundance movies I’ve seen in the past decade. D
John and the Hole
A coming of age psychological thriller that plays out the unsettling reality of a kid who holds his family captive in a hole in the ground.
If that synopsis sounds strange, welcome to Sundance. I love that experimental films get a chance to be shown to a sizable audience with the festival. Often, these kinds of experiences have to be sought out to be seen. To sum up this movie, it is like Home Alone, but a really boring Kevin puts his family in a hole so he can play video games, eat chicken wings and go swimming. There are bigger themes at play here and the messaging of going into world alone is impactful, but it gets lost in a framing structure and narrative leaps that fall apart at the seams. I get that the family in the hole are not the focal point or the film’s message, but they were underutilized highlights. Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Ehle, and Taissa Farmiga were all great and I could have easily enjoyed their captive plot far more than the standard indie film John and the Hole became. C-
On the Count of Three
Two guns. Two best friends. And a pact to end their lives when the day is done.
This film, directed by and starring Jerrod Carmichael, could not have a more dour premise. Yet, somehow there is beauty, redemption and hilarity found within. These two friends feel like they’re living on borrowed time and they give themselves one day to fulfill some unfinished business. At just 84 minutes, this movie clips along. I found myself wishing that I’d get more time with these tormented characters played brilliantly by Carmichael and Christopher Abbott. There isn’t quite enough time to delve into the theme of depression and suicide rates among men, but it does show just enough of what makes these two characters the way they are. This is the opposite of a light-hearted dramatic-comedy, but still comes with so much heart. B+
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