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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Sundance: Thandiwe Newton finally gets a film worthy of her with 'God's Country'

by Matt St Clair

Thandiwe Newton has been a riveting screen presence throughout her career whether or not the films haven’t matched her level of excellence. With just a sharp glance or an emotive line reading, she always finds ways to grab your attention . The new Sundance thriller God’s Country, helmed and co-written by Julian Higgins, is finally a star vehicle worthy of her beguiling gifts...

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Sundance: In 'Utama,' home is where you die

by Cláudio Alves

Before he became a film director, Alejandro Loayza Grisi was a still photographer. Looking at his debut feature, Utama, it's easy to see the remnants of a photographer's sensibility, now transmuted into cinematic storytelling. Along with DP Barbara Alvarez, Grisi has framed the Bolivian highlands as a presence more important than any human. The cliché of the landscape being a character is not only present but transcended, to the point that the natural vistas become something of a cosmic deity. They're titan-like, cracked earth making up a wrinkled visage. The river is its mouth, once a gaping maw spewing life. Nowadays, it's just the sliver of a grimace, growing thinner, drying into oblivion.

This land is dying, and so are its people…

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