The world’s biggest independent film festival, housed right here in Utah, has celebrated another year of big successes, disappointments and major purchases from every streaming channel hungry for content. The best part about attending the festival is walking into a movie with as little knowledge about it as possible, so here’s a short preview of movies you might see in the next year, spoiler free.
Kajillionaire
A woman’s life is turned upside down when her criminal parents invite an outsider to join them on a major heist they’re planning.
Writer/Director Miranda July returns to Sundance with a stellar cast – Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins, Evan Rachel Wood, and Gina Rodriguez. This plot centers a family of near-homeless grifters who are always looking for their next small-scale scam. These are ugly people both inside and out, but their daughter starts to drift from her parents when she realizes she has never been treated like a daughter.
Debra Winger and Gina Rodriguez are the highlights here, though everyone does a great job. My issue with Kajillionaire is that it feels like it’s just checking off every box of what a Sundance movie needs to be. It’s a very indie-for-indie-sake experience. Other than the performances, it’s not a very accessible movie. It jumps between completely awkward and heartwarming, but like the main character, it has no idea where it stands. C
Save Yourselves!
A young Brooklyn couple head upstate to disconnect from their phones and reconnect with themselves. Cut off from their devices, they miss the news that the planet is under attack.
The concept behind this end-of-the-world flick is near brilliant. Two millennials, who aren’t good at much at all and can’t survive without technology, somehow attempt to fight for that survival when aliens attack. Su (Sunita Mani) and Jack (John Reynolds) start the movie off strong and are hilarious together. They have fantastic chemistry and carry most of this low-budget apocalyptic comedy.
The aliens are completely non-lethal in appearance and that adds to the comedy. However, Save Yourselves does not know when to quit while it’s ahead. The third act just meanders and takes a 15 minute detour into a drug trip, which didn’t fit the movie at all. Save Yourselves has some funny things to say about beta behavior and the dependence on technology, but needed some thrills to intersperse with the non-stop nagging and frenzied attempts at humor. C
Impetigore
Maya with her best friend, Dini, tries to survive in a city without a family. She realized that she might inherit a property from her rich family. Maya returns to the village with Dini and unaware of the danger was waiting for her.
This Indonesian horror movie, directed by Joko Anwar, feels like a product of Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and I’m not upset about it. The small village is cursed, the house the protagonists stay at feels haunted, but the real terror comes from the blood-thirsty villagers.
This slow burn horror movie takes so much time to get to the reason behind the horror, that it dumps seven minutes of flashback exposition all at once. The story does all come together and feels fresh based off its environment and local mythology, but audiences may have lost interest by then. Impetigore starts off with an absolutely terrifying scene, but isn’t able to keep up the scares and replaces them with some ick factor. C+
Tesla
The intriguing life of Nikola Tesla, as a young man in NYC. He rises through industry in a constant competition with Thomas Edison in an attempt to create the perfect power source for a growing nation.
Ethan Hawke is perfectly cast as the muted Nikola Tesla. He is passive, but always in his own head about what technological improvements are needed for society. He plays the role in a near-method performance where even casual acquaintances are beneath the work that Tesla needed to pursue. Also, Kyle McLachlan, as Edison, steals every scenes he’s in.
It’s unfortunate, however, that this biopic is a mess. For the first third, it felt so fresh with its use of period environments combined with a modern narration that alluded to Google and modern technology. It had so much potential about why Tesla is considered a cult favorite inventor, but not the icon that people perceive Edison to be. I wish this movie were more about the competition between these two brilliant minds instead of jumping from place to place and having exposition cover the important events. Despite great performances, Tesla has no electricity to it. C-
Nine Days
A reclusive man conducts a series of interviews with human souls for a chance to be born.
Nine days is a movie that lives or dies based on its high concept. Every line of dialogue and every shot in the first half hour requires your attention. This may be the most original film I’ve seen in a long time and requires a truckload of exposition, but the performances and script deliver that with ease.
The cast of Nine Days is amazing, notably Winston Duke, Zazie Beetz, Benedict Wong, Bill Skarsgard, Tony Hale, and Arianna Ortiz. The interviews that take place over the course of the titular nine days instructs the interviewees and the audience just how beautiful, painful, and joyful life can be. This movie is heavy and has very little levity, but the underlying message of acknowledging beauty in everyday life hits home in a sincere way. B+
His House
A refugee couple makes a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, but then they struggle to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface.
Director Remi Weekes presents His House as a heartfelt story about an asylum-seeking couple being relocated to a hard British project. The two main characters (played by Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku) are good people who have dealt with their fair share of tragedy in an attempt to emigrate. Though, what seems to be the worst luck, the apartment they are confined to, is haunted.
His House bucks the question of “Why wouldn’t you just leave a haunted house and never come back?” In their case, if they leave, they’ll be arrested and detained. This movie wastes no time in delivering the scares. Whenever night falls, the haunting presence makes itself known. For added depth, these aren’t just jump scares with little purpose more than scaring the audience. The presence manipulates the two characters in different ways. His House has already been bought by Netflix. Watch it soon and you’ll see plenty of great looking creature designs. B
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