January might be a desolate month for new movie releases on streaming or at the theater, but we get the annual festival that kicks off the year. The hope every year is that some unknown talent is noticed and brought to everyone’s attention. And while these movies may not be for everyone (or sometimes anyone), the Sundance Film Festival is off to a solid start.
Talk to Me
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and opens the door to the spirit world forcing them to choose who to trust: the dead or the living.
Where did this movie come from? Every Sundance Festival has me eagerly awaiting the latest horror offerings. They’re often too indie for wide releases or large audiences. But this festival has their first horror movie in years that has all the potential to be something massive. The concept is so simple, teens go to a party where it’s claimed that you can see ghosts after doing a simple ritual. A volunteer shakes hands with what seems to be a ceramic hand, and then they say “Talk to me.” When the concept is put to use, the results are immediately horrifying. Talk to Me could easily revitalize teen horror movies. Its characters are selfish and naive. Their impulsiveness has real consequences. It has both horrifying imagery and the skill to pull off unseen horrors. Not that I want the idea to be watered down by sequels, but this could easily be the next major horror franchise. Tier 1
Magazine Dreams
Jonathan Majors stars as Killian Maddox, a stacked amateur bodybuilder. Since his youth, he has dreamed of achieving the peak of his craft – the cover of a fitness magazine.
Magazine Dreams is extremely reminiscent of movies like Nightcrawler. Majors plays his character on the spectrum of mental illness. He cannot quite speak to others without lashing out and intimidating them. He wants connection, but can’t remove his singular focus of winning bodybuilding championships and talking about his fitness idols. His initial quirks are made even more violent as we see him attempt to be more social. Majors will get plenty of praise throughout the year for this performance. However, what prevents this movie from competing among its peers in the sigma male movie genre, is the absence of an auteur and little focus on consequential pacing. This movie is intense and worth watching, but could be 20 minutes shorter and, in turn, be more riveting. Tier 2
The Pod Generation
Emilia Clarke and Chiwetel Ejiofor play a rich New York couple looking to start a family in a tech-infused world. A tech corporation has created pods/portable wombs that can carry children for you until they’re ready to be born.
The problem with many sci-fi indie flicks is that they want so badly to feel like our world but with a pat-on-the-back clever high concept. This is the case with Pod Generation. The premise is essentially What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Pod Person. This couple bicker and worry about certain stages of the baby’s growth in the electric womb. They get jealous when they feel the other person is connecting with the pod more, or inversely, they get resentful if one of them isn’t caring enough. This would be cute and endearing if they acted anything like real humans instead of trying to play it Charlie Kaufman-esque, but nothing rings true or sincere within. Tier 3
Radical
Based on a true story, Radical follows a teacher in a Mexican border town full of neglect, corruption, and violence, as he tries a radical new method to unlock their students’ curiosity, potential – and maybe even their genius.
We’ve all seen inspirational teacher stories before, and they’re usually pleasant surprises every time, so I didn’t expect much more for Radical. Star Eugenio Derbez (CODA, Instructions Not Included) is such an amazingly affable lead and he brings the right amount of heart and empathy to this story where 6th graders in an impoverished Mexico town don’t have any support from their teachers or families. Yes, he plays an unconventional teacher type that we’ve seen before, but you’ll easily catch the passion that his character has for their futures. Oh, and did I mention I cried? So will you. Tier 1
Other People’s Children
This french movie tells the story of a childless woman who often wonders if it’s too late to start her own family. She starts dating a single dad and takes on the long term role of his daughter’s de facto guardian.
This is a very low key french movie that doesn’t quite seem to have a point, until the last third when the themes collide. Virginie Efira is so believable as a woman who races against age and expectations to find lasting happiness and love. The content within the movie is very European (IYKYK), but beyond that, the plot of the daughter finally trusting and embracing the main character is incredibly sweet. Also, at no point does the movie rely on tropes that most audiences are used to. The risks seem disappointing until the film’s several epilogues, which bring heart to a story that so many people experience. Tier 2
Birth/Rebirth
A morgue technician successfully reanimates the body of a little girl, but to keep her breathing, she will need to harvest biological materials from pregnant women. When the girl’s mother, a nurse, discovers her baby alive, they enter into a deal that forces them both down a dark path of no return.
I always overhype the Midnight section of Sundance. I hope that each movie will be an experimental horror flick that feels entirely unique. Birth/Rebirth is less a horror movie, and more of a slowly developing story leading to a huge moral quandary. It’s more a slightly unnerving story, than it is impactful. Both leads, Brenda Wool and Judy Reyes (Scrubs) are great. The movie might only be worth watching for their respective performances. The end brings the movie together, as long as no one expects a thriller or scary experience. Tier 2
Theater Camp
After the founder of a summer theater camp falls into a coma, her influencer son and her theater directors attempt to run the camp and keep it afloat.
Ben Platt and the writers/performers of their short film of the same name now extend the length of the joke to 94 minutes. This movie surprised me from the get-go with how funny it was, but then I could see why I enjoyed the off-centered awkwardness of it all – It’s derivative of Christopher Guest mockumentary classics, though without the talking head interviews. Most of the actors are hamming it up to bring to life what a podunk theater summer camp would be like. Ben Platt and Molly Gordon as the two stage directors seem to be missing the joke, however. They both play this as a coming-of-age drama. I watched with with my daughter who has aspirations for the stage and she was cracking up for the first twenty minutes, but we both realized the story loses all steam soon after. Worth a watch when it will inevitably be on streaming platforms. Tier 2
Fair Play
An unexpected promotion at a cutthroat hedge fund pushes a young couple’s relationship to the brink, threatening to unravel far more than their recent engagement.
Fair Play unravels like a thriller on a very personal level. Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich are so captivating as the couple who breaks their corporate rule to not date coworkers. That becomes far more complicated when they get engaged and one of them becomes the other’s boss. Very quickly, we see the power dynamics that can destroy a relationship, reputations, and souls. As the audience, we get the voyeur view of this relationship falling apart and make our snap judgments of the terrible ways these two treat each other. This relationship thriller is already bought by Netflix and is well worth the watch. Tier 1
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