Murtada Elfadl closing out his Sundance coverage. Thanks, Murtada!
My first ever Sundance was a blast. So much so I’m already making tentative plans to return next year. Please indulge my 'jury of one' as I hand out awards in traditional categories and ones made up just for your reading pleasure. Please note that I only had time to see 23 movies. Some of the more popular ones I missed included the documentary One Child Nation , Shia LaBeouf's vehicle Honey Boy and the popular comedy Brittany Runs A Marathon. So take all this with a grain of salt...
Best Film: The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Unabashedly loved this one. A whimsical paean to friendship and to the history and beauty of San Francisco. It was so appropriate that it won a special award for artistic collaboration - in addition to best director - because Jimmie Fails, the lead actor, and Joe Talbot, the director, wrote it together and were inspired by their friendship.
Best Actress: Alfre Woodard, Clemency
This is was the first film I added to my schedule solely because it featured Woodard in a leading role. And boy does she deliver. Whole scenes are played just on her face. And words were never less necessary. Simply marvelous.
Best Actor: Jonathan Majors, The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Majors treds the fine line between quirky and real. He takes an idiosyncratic character that could have become a collection of tics in a lesser actor’s hands, and gives him layers of pathos. He’s so good he might win an Oscar.
Best Screenplay: Lulu Wang, The Farewell
All the characters are finely and fully drawn. All the situations are authentic. It's funny, it’s wistful. It breaks our hearts and mends them right back. Despite leaving Sundance with no prizes, I think it has the best chance of breaking out.
Most Subversive: This is Not Berlin
A story about a teenage pansexual who is part of a queer activist artistic collective in 1986 Mexico City. They march, they dance, they fuck and they protest the World Cup which is taking place in their city. Need I say more? This was exhilarating, sexy and so much fun.
The Next Blockbuster: Late Night
This is the sort of polished broad but well-made comedy that should make a killing at the box office. And what a treat it is to see Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson lead a movie, trade barbs and pointed one liners at each other while entertaining us.
A Meme in Waiting: Annette Bening, The Report
Bening has so many reaction shots and purses her lips so many times as Senator Dianne Feinstein that she is bound to become a meme once The Report is released and can be gif-ed. In the meantime behold that smirk and that wig.
When Great Acting Saves the Day: Luce - Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr and Naomi Watts
Luce is provocative, dealing with issues of race, privilege, identity and social injustice. It is also a sorta thriller but one that takes its time explaining every single motive while its characters sit around and tell us what’s happening. However Spencer (in her best role ever), Harrison and Watts are attuned to the truth of who they are playing and manage to make these characters believable even if they sometimes do not talk like real people do.
When Great Acting is Not Enough: Them That Follow - Alice Englert, Olivia Colman, Kaitlyn Dever, Lewis Pullman, Walton Goggins
The community of Pentecostals who worship Jesus through snakes in this film, are drawn broad, big and at 150% overheating. I mean Colman’s character is literally called “Slaughter Sister.” But the actors find just the right restrained temperament to carve out reasonably believable people out of them. Still the film around them has an air of cultural tourism and contains utterly predictable situations we see a mile away.
Not What it Seemed Like: Hail Satan!
This is not a documentary about Satan worshippers. It is... but once documentarian Penny Lane fixes her camera at them we discover them for what they really are. They are rebellious free thinkers who are leading the political protest to keep religion and state separated in the US and around the world. I’ve found myself agreeing with most of what they preach. Even the nutty rituals seem like fun.
Best Lyft Driver Story
I’ve taken more cars to get around in a few days at Park City, than I have all year in New York. Those of course come with meeting lovely people and a bit of chatter. Shout out to Kenneth who told me that he spent a night “between the satin sheets in Raquel Welch's bed.”
Alas, he was house sitting for a few days for the legendary movie star, way back in 1980s. He knew her through a friend who worked for her at the time. But what a good punchline!