It’s that time of year again…SUNDANCE!
As we pull out our coats and head to the land of snow and movies, we can’t help but get giddy at all the possibilities. While the schedule can get a bit overwhelming…and the program guide reads more like a calculus textbook than an introduction to the 2018 Oscar nominations. But not to worry. We’ve scoured the text and written notes in the margin, working to come up with our list of Must See films at this year’s festival.
Without further ado…
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL: TRUTH TO POWER
It was the polar bear on a shrinking ice cap seen ‘round the world. It was also 2006. Ten years later, Al Gore is back with a follow up to check in our progress (or lack thereof). I’ll be interested to see if the sequel can rock the boat as much as the original did. -- Katie
MANIFESTO
Cate Blanchett reenacts the twentieth century’s most famous art manifestos from Futurists through today in an art installation turned film. Was that the most pretentious sentence you’ve read all year? Probably. But Blanchett can knock anything out of the park and I trust her to do the same here. -- Katie
78/52
It took 78 setups and 52 cuts to deliver the highly choreographed two-minute shower sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 thriller Psycho. Now, some 50 years later, we get to examine the creative decisions that went into that shoot, decisions that would ultimately pave way to a genre transformation and decades of unprecedented film violence. -- Stephen
INGRID GOES WEST
Social media stalking goes IRL in this Matt Spicer-directed film about a young woman who moves to Los Angeles to befriend her favorite Instagram “influencer”. The film stars Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen and sounds like it could be a millennial’s comedy dream. -- Katie
MAJORIE PRIME
After we all binged Black Mirror last fall, Marjorie Prime seems to be in the same incredibly good-yet-depressing genre. Not only is it a great Transformer pun, but it also tells the story of 86-year-old Marjorie in the near future, accompanied only by a handsome new companion (Jon Hamm) who looks like her deceased husband. What could possibly go wrong? -- Katie
REBEL IN THE RYE
J.D. Salinger is one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He is also one of the most secretive. Director Danny Strong attempts to chronicle the young man’s journey as he finds himself on the shores of Europe fighting in World War II. This one could go in a million different directions; however, when it comes to Salinger I’m willing to make it a priority. -- Stephen
THE BIG SICK
Good romantic comedies are hard to come by these days but it sounds like writers and real-life-couple Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon want to change that. Based on their real-life courtship and starring Nanjiani and Zoe Kazan, they may just succeed at bringing the rom-com genre back to the modern age. -- Katie
