Sundance review: Eliza Scanlen proves ecstatic anew in 'The Starling Girl'

by Jason Adams

Usually when I write about getting “representation” on-screen I’m talking about the gay stuff – like when Call Me By Your Name knocked me flat with its warmly lyrical depiction of a neurotic gayling’s first same-sex longings. And there was gay stuff at Sundance this year that I felt deep in my bones – the darkly funny internalized homophobia of Sebastián Silva’s Rotting in the Sun squarely hit the mark.  But no movie felt more like a mirror at this year’s fest than did writer-director Laurel Parmet’s debut film The Starling Girl, which explores the world of rural Christian fundamentalism with the crystal cold precision of one who barely survived that very thing. I speak from my own experience...

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Abe’s Sundance Jury of One

We will have a few more Sundance reviews from Jason and Nathaniel who attended the festival virtually. Abe Friedtanzer was there in person so here's his wrap-up - Editor

Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Flora and SonIt was great to be back in-person at the Sundance Film Festival for the first time since 2020, when future Oscar-winning films Promising Young Woman, Minari, and The Father all made their debuts. It was also my first real taste of winter since the start of the pandemic, and it was quite chilly! But I had a wonderful time and there’s something very unique about this festival. I saw 33 films while in Park City, plus a few more online. I didn’t manage any days of five movies but averaged three or four. It was also a nice surprise to see two of the best films on the last two days. A few of these have distribution already, and if that’s the case, it’s noted. My favorites are after the jump...

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Sundance Review: 'A Thousand and One' and Teyana Taylor shine bright

by Jason Adams 

Sneaking up on you like an A train out of a dark subway tunnel, first-time feature writer-director A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One (which just won the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and is hitting screens on March 31st) is one of those magical small movies that plays its big dramas so low-key that the tumult you find your heart in by its last act comes as a total surprise. With a tremendous and blessedly unsentimental performance at its heart from singer-turned-actress Teyana Taylor, A Thousand and One wears its Moonlight influences proudly on its sleeve but still manages to be its own thing - and what a beautiful thing it manages...

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Sundance: 'Eileen' is the movie 'Carol' couldn't be

by Jason Adams

The blonde woman in expensive clothes explodes into the dowdy brunette’s life like fireworks. She just appears one day, flung out of space, and nothing will ever be the same for the Plain Jane working girl again. Everything is upended in Midcentury America, surprise feelings warming in the brunette's belly she doesn’t even have a name for, inspiring a sudden need to run. And yes you’d be forgiven if you thought I was speaking about Carol, Todd Hayne’s 2015 masterpiece about a love affair between Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, who no matter what Harge says were not ugly people. 

No I speak of a different lesbian potboiler that just popped off at Sundance this year, director William “Lady Macbeth” Oldroyd’s Eileen, based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s 2015 novel...

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Sundance: Penélope Cruz and Luana Giuliani are Radiant in ‘L’Immensità’

By Abe Friedtanzer

People who don’t fit a particular mold have existed since long before society had a label for them. Poor mental health was often assigned as a reason that someone might not be “normal,” an unfortunate part of history that still persists in many places today. L’Immensità, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival last fall (here’s Elisa’s take) and now arrives in North America at another major film festival, is a colorful portrait of a trans teenager misunderstood by just about everyone around him, and his loving mother, who also struggles to be taken seriously when she seeks to find joy in her life despite her abusive marriage...

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