Posts Tagged ‘Sundance reviews’
 

 

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “American Animals” & “The Kindergarten Teacher”

  AMERICAN ANIMALS (no distrib):  It’s not easy to come up with a new spin on the venerable heist movie genre, but writer/director Bart Layton has managed just that with American Animals.  Layton had been until now...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Reviews: “When You Finish Saving The World” & “Fresh”

  It’s the second consecutive Virtual Sundance, with safety, convenience and isolation in place of weather, shuttle buses and community.  Over the next several days, we’ll be bringing you reviews of several Su...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Reviews: “Nanny,” “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande” & “Resurrection”

  NANNY (no distrib):  Think Netflix’s Maid, but as a (sort of) horror movie.  Aisha (Anna Diop) is an undocumented Senegalese immigrant in New York who works as a nanny for the daughter of a well-off couple, Amy (...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Sundance Reviews: “CODA” & “Censor”

  A year ago, the idea of a “virtual film festival” would have seemed extremely far-fetched, but it’s become a regular practice in pandemic times.  The latest festival to take this path is Sundance, whic...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Sundance 2024 Film Reviews: “The American Society of Magical Negroes” & “Sasquatch Sunset”

  THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MAGICAL NEGROES (Focus/Universal – March 15):  The title of Kobi Libii’s first feature refers to the unfortunately well-established movie trope where a noble Black character exists o...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “The Last Word” & “Thoroughbred”

  THE LAST WORD (Bleecker Street):  Shirley MacLaine does the irascible codger thing.  She’s smart enough not to overplay the very familiar hand she’s been dealt by screenwriter Stuart Ross Fink and director ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Call Me By Your Name,” “Fun Mom Dinner,” “Before I Fall” & “Wind River”

  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 ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY @ SUNDANCE 2013: “The Spectacular Now”

  The screenplay for THE SPECTACULAR NOW, a Dramatic Competition entry at Sundance, was written by the team of Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, who also wrote (500) Days of Summer, but the new film has none of the b...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

ShowbuzzDaily’s Sundance 2022 Reviews: “Living,” “Call Jane” & “Watcher”

  LIVING (no distrib):  Over the years, there’s periodically been talk about remaking Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 masterpiece Ikiru, including a rumored updated US version that would have starred Tom Hanks in the le...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Reviews: “Shirley,” “Surge” & “The Climb”

  SHIRLEY (no distrib):  Josephine Decker’s film isn’t really a biography of the horror writer Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery), played here by Elizabeth Moss.  The script by Sarah Gu...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Virtual Sundance Review: “Judas and the Black Messiah”

  JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH (Warners/HBO Max – February 12):  The title refers to the FBI informant Bill O’Neal (played here by LaKeith Stanfield) and the Illinois Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton (Daniel ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance 2022 Reviews: “God’s Country” & “Phoenix Rising”

  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 Y...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

ShowbuzzDaily Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Come Sunday” & “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”

  COME SUNDAY (Netflix):  American films that feature religious figures tend to come in two varieties:  the cloying “faith-based” dramas that play quite literally to the choir, and the “edgy” film...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Miss Americana,” “Ironbark” & “Scare Me”

  MISS AMERICANA (Netflix – January 31):  There are certainly areas of Taylor Swift’s life that are carefully elided in MISS AMERICANA (her actor boyfriend’s face and name are absent, for example, and th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance 2015 Capsule Reviews

  Every year when I arrive at Sundance, I swear to myself that I’ll review each film there as soon as I’ve seen it, but after making the effort to keep up for the first day or two, a daily screening sched...
by Mitch Salem