The 2024 Sundance Film Festival has come to a close. And while, it hasn’t been my favorite in the last dozen years of attending the festival, there have been some very notable films. Mostly, I think I’m just sad that I didn’t get a new horror classic that previous years have delivered. For now, here are a few reviews and my final ranking of what I saw this year.
Hit Man
A professor moonlighting as a hit man of sorts for his city police department, descends into dangerous, dubious territory when he finds himself attracted to a woman who enlists his services.
Director Richard Linklater is a Sundance favorite and returns to Sundance every few years to deliver a unique film experience. This year, he brought the movie that’s sure to get the most buzz of this year’s entries. Glen Powell, who helped write the movie, stars as a phony hit man tasked to bust those trying to purchase his services. Powell’s character is a geek, who just happens to be able to improv a persona well. Hit Man is a total crowd pleaser, which upsets me that Netflix purchased the rights, and thus won’t be playing in theaters. It veers more into comedic territory than anything else, but the humor is situational and genuine given the circumstances. Hit Man has the potential to be one of the year’s best and is easily my favorite film of the festival. A-
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Super/Man details Reeve’s near-fatal horse-riding accident and the treatment and care that followed. These events are spliced with footage of his rise to fame.
This documentary utilizes interviews with Reeve’s children and friends as they discuss the life and struggles of Christopher Reeve. These interviews are spliced with older TV interviews, but also home videos the family has taken over the past few decades. Obviously, this is a emotional doc, but it also showcases the hope and consistent work his family went through. There’s so much detail that Super/Man goes into, but most importantly it shows what his wife, Dana, sacrificed for him because of love. Reeve was once the character that made us believe a man could fly, but with his foundation, he brought light to disability rights. I personally loved the artistic choice to occasionally show a granite statue of Reeve adrift in space, which showed kryptonite where weakness took over, yet also highlighted the strength of his will. B
Kneecap
There are 80,000 native Irish speakers in Ireland. 6,000 live in the North of Ireland. Three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This anarchic Belfast trio become unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.
Kneecap was a very unique film-going experience. There is such a focus on not allowing an indigenous tongue to disappear, but the movement is brought to light because of a crass rap group. I really enjoyed watching this movie unfold with its Trainspotting vibes. However, I’m a bit mixed as the actual Irish group, Kneecap stars in this quite-fictionalized version of their rise to notoriety. They don’t quite have a gripping story, given that this is a fairly new band, but with the music and anarchistic vibe of the movie, it’s still a blast to watch. Michael Fassbender appears inconsistently to give the movie weight, and I wish he had been given more screen time. While watching this, you should expect to be reading subtitles consistently, as the majority of the movie is spoken in Gaeilge. I’d happily watch this again just for the soundtrack. B
Exhibiting Forgiveness
A Black artist on the path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a recovering addict desperate to reconcile. Together, they struggle and learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving.
André Holland easily wins the best actor of the festival in my opinion. He quickly channels trauma, joy, and anger through this character. There’s so much nuance with every performance within Exhibiting Forgiveness. As the audience, we want him to just immediately forgive his father, but flashbacks rope us into the pain that the father caused the family. There is a fair amount of melodrama in the third act, which took away from some sincerity, but the film gets back to its heart through its quieter moments. Holland’s painter protagonist has a tendency to destroy his artwork, but while doing so, somehow improves the work. It hurt to see these pieces tarnished, but the final product felt true to the character. B
Between Two Temples
A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student.
Jason Schwartzman was born for indie movies. He might be the quintessential not-quite-relatable quirky character these movies need. Between Two Temples double down on the indie feel by adding a grain filter throughout the movie. It feels a little less than genuine. Yet, there is one shining aspect to this movie, Carol Kane. She plays an often aggravating character, but you can’t help but pay attention anytime she’s on screen. This movie made me long for performances of older Hollywood heavyweights who don’t get these kinds of roles anymore. Sadly, this movie delves into the weird and purposely unconventional in an attempt to make the audience feel awkward. There’s plenty of awkward build-up throughout the movie, but even then, the ending feels rushed just to shock the other characters in the movie, but also the audience. C-
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