Sundance: 'The Janes' Brings Context to Modern Women’s Struggles

by Eurocheese

"The Janes" are a popular topic at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and given the way women’s rights are under attack in the US today, their story remains relevant. Earlier in the festival, the fictional Call Jane highlighted one woman’s story when she became involved with this group. In The Janes, documentarians Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes show the real women who lived this history, detailing the backstory of this group and showing us what a future with restricted women’s rights might look like...

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Interview: Fran Kranz on His Directorial Debut, ‘Mass’

By Abe Friedtanzer

In the middle of this second virtual Sundance, I was fortunate to be able to revisit one of the highlights of the first virtual edition which is now eligible for awards consideration: Mass. It’s been troubling to see that, despite initial early buzz for the film and for its cast, particularly Ann Dowd, it’s missed out at a number of important precursors, including that SAG Cast nomination that should have been... 

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Sundance: 'Hatching' or Mommy Issues – The Movie

by Cláudio Alves

Motherhood is a subject ripe for horrific extrapolation. Some might regard their offspring as hopeful mirrors, wishing them to be an improved reflection. Disappointment, when it unavoidably comes, is a spiky cruel monster. There are others for whom birthing a mirror is the worst possible fate, the child a magnifying glass of perceived faults. Moreover, the similarity can feel draining, a youthful leech sucking out its mother's lifeforce, a constant reminder of mortality. Hanna Bergholm's Hatching takes these perceptions of motherhood and mixes them with body horror, cranks them up to eleven, and ties everything up in a pink satin bow that reeks of vomit and discarded flesh…

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Sundance: Creative Storytelling in ‘My Old School’ and ‘The Cathedral’

By Abe Friedtanzer

Alan Cumming appears in My Old School

Screening multiple films a day at a festival can lead to the discovery of unexpected thematic connections. Initially, My Old School and The Cathedral, may seem to be completely unrelated films, but, seeing them within twenty-four hours of each other (with two or three others in between), I was surprised by their similarities. They both grapple with memory and history on a very specific level, and do so in inventive manners… 

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Sundance: 'Master' is a fine horror debut

by Matt St Clair

Mariama Diallo’s feature debut Master is a horror film about the anxieties of being a Black woman in a predominantly white space. Diallo stresses such perturbations by blending paranormal elements with real-world institutional prejudice and the all-too-petrifying feeling of being an outsider. Although certain story elements outweigh others, Master thrives on its slow-burn execution and sheer demonstration of danger lingering around every corner...

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