Sundance Review: Summer of Soul (...Or When The Revolution Could No Be Televised)

by Murtada Elfadl

1969 is remembered for many events, among them Woodstock. But that same year another concert event just as momentous took place in New York City, The Harlem Cultural Festival. It had a killer set of performers -  Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Sly & The Family Stone to name just a few. Yet until a few days ago I bet you didn't even know it had happened. I certainly didn’t until I saw Summer of Soul (...Or When The Revolution Could No Be Televised), Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s joyous documentary which premiered on the opening night of Sundance 2021.

A good music documentary needs good music and Summer of Soul has that in spades...

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Sundance: Discussing Grief in “Mass”

By Abe Friedtanzer

 It’s always interesting to see actors step behind the camera to direct, both for the subject matters they choose and the times they decide not to cast themselves in their projects. I was particularly moved by William H. Macy’s debut in that role with Rudderless, which played at Sundance in 2014 but didn’t go very far after that. It dealt with a father struggling to connect with his late son through his music after a school shooting. Now, Fran Kranz, who I always remember as Topher on Dollhouse, is exploring a similar concept as writer and director of Mass.

The film opens with church staff members setting up a room for an awkward meeting set to occur between two sets of parents...

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Sundance: “On the Count of Three” review

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

Meeting characters at a moment where they want to end their lives is a complicated endeavor. It’s important to introduce them and explain who they are while communicating what has happened to get them to this mental place. Such narratives are often melancholy, but they can also be unexpectedly funny, as is the case with On the Count of Three...

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Sundance: Clifton Collins Jr. in “Jockey”

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

It feels like there’s at least one memorable horse movie every year at Sundance. Dream Horse played last year (as did Horse Girl), The Mustang was a hit in 2019, and Chloé Zhao’s The Rider screened in 2018. There’s just something about the bond between man and the animal that’s not necessarily known as his best friend but is still thought of in quite an endearing manner. The best of those films tend to focus just as much on the human protagonist’s own internal and interpersonal struggles as they do on their relationship with their prized steed. This year’s signature Sundance entry, Jockey, does just that… 

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Sundance: "John and the Hole" review

by Jason Adams

Titled like a Bible story or a fable of ol' Aesop's (or perhaps it's the start of a dirty limerick), John and the Hole does indeed contain both a John, and a hole. John, played by Captain Fantastic's Charlie Shotwell (and seen just recently doing the disaffected youth thing, and to better effect if you ask me, in Sean Durkin's The Nest), is an absent-eyed 13-year-old sociopath who only seems to spurt to life when playing video-games and screaming obscenities at his best friend via headset. Otherwise he wanders his cavernous home in a daze, occasionally aided by some pills he steals from his parent's drawer...

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