Sundance: 'Talk to Me' is a handshake with Hell itself

by Jason Adams

See one horror movie about grief and you've seen every horror movie, or so it feels sometimes. Dead children, siblings, parents, spouses -- the genre is littered with beloved corpses winking back at us from the other side of oblivion. I'm writing this on day one of virtual Sundance and I've already seen three movies of this sort! But we keep coming back to the Babadook Special because it works. It's what we fear the most. Death for ourselves is one thing, but seeing the people we love the most slip away is something tangible; something that we'll all experience and then be expected to exist on the other side of. When I was little it was losing my parents that I feared the most of all.

For teenager Mia (newcomer Sophie Wilde), the lead in the Philippou brothers' unsettling new horror flick Talk To Me (playing Sundance 2023's Midnight program), it is her Mom that she's grieving...

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Sundance 2023 World Cinema Competition Program

by Nathaniel R

Kiti Manver stars in "MAMACRUZ"

The Sundance Film festival is just a month plus away (January 19th-29th) with tickets going on sale December 13th for online packages, December 16th for in person packages, and January 12th for individual films. We are always very excited about the World Cinema Program which usually has great finds not to mention future Oscar submissions. For example the 2022 roster included five current Oscar hopefuls: Bolivia's Utama (Grand Jury Prize), Finland's Girl Picture (Audience Award), Brazil's Mars One, Australia's You Won't Be Alone, and Ukraine's Klondike and most of the other titles were also very well received. What treasures await us this year?

Here is the list of films. Which should we prioritize for Team Experience coverage in January? 

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Sundance 2023: US Dramatic Competition Lineup

by Nathaniel R

Jonathan Majors as a bodybuilder in "Magazine Dreams"

Team Experience will be covering Sundance 2022 again following our multi-writer coverage last year. The festival returns to "in person" this year January 19th-29th but many of the films will also be available for virtual festival goers. TiIcket packages go on sale December 13th with individual film tickets on sale January 12th.

So let's look at what will be playing and you tell us what you're most interested in!  First up the US Dramatic Competition program...

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Pleasure To Meet You

by Jason Adams

I hope you'll forgive me since I'm the member of Team TFE that pays the scantest attention possible to Awards Season, but when I watched half of the Independent Spirits this past weekend I was extremely confused to see that Ninja Thyberg's porn industry drama Pleasure had been nominated for a few awards, and it threw me down a rabbit hole of confusion with regards to that movie's release. I saw it at Sundance last year (that is in 2021) and I was blown away by it, and I had been waiting, waiting, waiting, for news of a release...

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Sundance: 'The Territory' is a winner!

by Cláudio Alves

Settlers fight their way into the land. Inspired by colonialist ideals of manifest destiny, they go on a journey of discovery and conquest. This is how new countries are born, with blades cutting down the wilderness and burning paths. However, the settlers are not alone. Deep in the mysterious unknown, indigenous people reside in a land that's been their home for millennia. These adventurers wear cowboy-like hats while their enemies, abstracted into an exotic other, fight with feathers in their hair. The two forces clash, but theirs is not a fight of equals. Invaders calling themselves heroes have numbers and firepower on their side, centuries-old systems built to perpetuate violent domination. Even their bodies carry weapons, sicknesses they spread to the natives, killing them in active genocide. 

No, this is not an old-fashioned western of less enlightened days nor a chronicle of historical crimes. This is the story of our days. This is The Territory…

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