The Sundance programmers, one has to assume, are big fans of TV’s Happy Endings. Casey Wilson is part of that show’s wonderful ensemble, and one of its most reliably hilarious members. The news that she was co-writing (with co-star June Diane Raphael) her own comedy vehicle must have seemed promising. Yet at some point […]
MAYDAY: The fantasy whatzit is a Sundance staple, and Mayday fits into that category. (Paradise Hills was a recent example from a past festival.) Ana (Grace Van Patten), short for Anastasia, is an ignored and abused waitress who finds herself swimming through a portal to what turns out to be an otherwise deserted island […]
LATE NIGHT (Amazon): It’s legitimate to note that the thoroughly mainstream and commercial Late Night belonged at Sundance just about as much as The Devil Wears Prada would have, since to a large extent it transposes Prada from fashion to the world of late-night talk shows. The festival’s decision to host Late Night (which paid […]
GOD’S COUNTRY (no distrib): A deliberative character study that’s also a thriller of sorts, anchored by one of the best performances of Thandiwe Newton’s career. When two hunters (Joris Jarsky and Yellowstone‘s Jefferson White) park their pick-up on college professor Sandra Guidry’s (Newton) land for their convenience, they’re messing with the wrong person. Sandra’s […]
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME (Sony Classics): Luca Guadagnino’s sumptuous gay romance has been anointed as the Sundance entry most likely to figure into next year’s Oscar race, and it’s easy to see why. It combines the appeal of traditional prestige drama (James Ivory, who practically invented the modern version of that genre, is […]
The old truism that Park City empties out during the second half of the Sundance Film Festival, making it possible to see all the hot titles that premiered at the festival’s start, is far less true than it used to be. It was impossible to get into the festival’s big buy, The Way, Way […]
HORSE GIRL (Netflix – February 7): Every one of the four films Jeff Baena has directed had its premiere at Sundance, with Horse Girl following Life After Beth, Joshy and The Little Hours. It’s an impressive accomplishment for a filmmaker who hasn’t made a particular commercial or critical breakout hit. Horse Girl may have […]
SHARP STICK (no distrib): Lena Dunham is certainly no stranger to the concept of art as provocation, but it’s difficult to understand what Sharp Stick, her first feature film in a dozen years, and her first solo venture since Girls, is even seeking to provoke. It centers on Sara Jo (Kristine Froseth), a bubbly […]