The Sundance Movie Competition can admittedly be distilled to a couple fleeting photos. Like, say, Elizabeth Olsen being photographed on the bustling, wintry Major Road in a form-fitting parka and snow boots.
Organizers in all probability know this. That’s why, in honor of the fortieth anniversary of the premiere impartial movie pageant based by Robert Redford, they put collectively a slideshow earlier than each single screening that featured candid images of among the brightest stars and filmmakers who premiered their initiatives in Park Metropolis, Utah.
In a captivating montage that dated again to the Eighties, audiences caught photos of a fresh-faced Kevin Bacon (The Huge Image), Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Canine), Jake Gyllenhaal (The Good Woman), America Ferrera (Actual Girls Have Curves), Zach Braff (Backyard State), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) and Timothée Chalamet (Name Me by Your Title).
And only for good measure, there was even a shot of Taylor Swift on the premiere of her Miss Americana documentary on opening night time in 2020. You realize, again when she was merely an A-list music star.
Thanks for a memorable summer season, Barbenheimer. You deserved a greater and extra coherent film, Captain Marvel and Ant-Man. That title alone was a win, Cocaine Bear. However the flip of the calendar means it’s time to get excited a couple of recent slate of flicks. And regardless of all these stop-and-start productions and delayed releases on account of […]
All of which is to say that in spite of everything these years, the Sundance expertise serves as an essential stepping stone en path to greatness. For the 2024 version, held from January 18 to twenty-eight, stalwarts comparable to Kristen Stewart and Aubrey Plaza promoted their work alongside up-and-comers like Maisy Stella and Jay Will. In the meantime, among the most iconic celebrities of all time popped up in unforgettable documentaries, and Robert Downey Jr. confirmed up on opening night time to salute his Oppenheimer director (and Sundance alum), Christopher Nolan. And sure, all people nonetheless partied on Major Road prefer it was 1999. (That was the yr of The Blair Witch Mission, btw.)
Scroll down for more information on the ten buzziest movies from the 2024 Sundance Movie Competition. Examine them now, then catch them in a theater — or, more likely, on a streaming service — later and speak about them in perpetuity.
‘A Actual Ache’
This deeply affecting tragicomedy earned a well-deserved extended standing ovation on a snowy Saturday afternoon. A stellar Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin play close-knit cousins touring to Poland to honor the homeland of their just lately deceased Holocaust survivor grandmother. One is a high-strung neurotic taking a tablet for his OCD; the opposite is an enthralling screwup who cuts straight to the core together with his sharp observations. (Guess who performs who.) Throughout their journey — wherein they go to a focus camp — they meditate on whether or not connecting with the ache of the previous can alleviate the ache of the current. Eisenberg wrote and directed this top-tier work, drawing on his personal familial roots. Offered to Searchlight for $10 million!
‘A Actual Ache’ Premiere Neilson Barnard/Getty Photographs
‘A Totally different Man’
Right here’s Sebastian Stan as you’ve by no means seen him earlier than. That’s no oversell contemplating he distorts his face to render himself unrecognizable in a unusual (even by Sundance requirements) thriller. His character, Edward, is an insecure, struggling actor coping with neurofibromatosis who undergoes radical reconstruction surgical procedure so he can look, effectively, like Sebastian Stan. That’s when his issues actually start. For starters, his former next-door neighbor (Renate Reinsve) writes a play based mostly upon their earlier platonic Magnificence and the Beast–esque relationship, however Edward can’t disappear into the function due to his good-looking new options. Confused but? Welcome! And but the message about inside magnificence haunts.
‘The Biggest Evening in Pop’
For anybody acutely aware within the Eighties, this wildly entertaining documentary — which charts the making of the charity pop single “We Are the World” — is nostalgia for the soul. For anybody else? Right here’s proof that on a January night in 1985, dozens of music icons checked their egos on the door and pulled an all-nighter in a shabby music studio in Los Angeles for the actually worthwhile reason for African famine aid. We’re speaking Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Surprise, Cyndi Lauper, Tina Turner and too many extra to listing right here. “We Are the World” cowriter (and present American Idol choose) Lionel Richie serves because the de facto narrator, and wow, this man has tales. Streaming on Netflix beginning January 29.
‘The Biggest Evening in Pop’ Courtesy of Netflix
‘Tremendous/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story’
Earlier than Henry Cavill or Tom Welling or Brandon Routh or Dean Cain, there was Christopher Reeve. In some ways, the actor will all the time be the definitive Superman. (Simply neglect about that bizarro A.I. cameo in final yr’s The Flash.) This documentary chronicles his exceptional life — beginning together with his rise to stardom portraying the strapping comic-book superhero after which, following a tragic equestrian accident in 1995, turning into a real-life superhero as he makes use of his paralysis to boost cash and assist others. His beautiful blended household and mates weave collectively anecdotes and let the viewers have a good time a person who was a lot greater than his iconic character. Convey Kleenex.
‘Presence’
Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh has been delivering the products at Sundance since Intercourse, Lies & Videotape in 1989. His newest is a low-fi supernatural delight. It’s instructed from the angle of the titular presence by having the digital camera observe and observe a household of 4 (led by Lucy Liu and This Is Us’ Chris Sullivan) as they transfer into a brand new home and settle in. There goes the spirit because it strikes round just a few books and shakes garments unfastened from a closet and customarily fills the home with a way of impending doom. However what is admittedly happening? The reply proves shocking, which isn’t actually shocking in any respect contemplating Soderbergh is a grasp at his craft.
The 2024 Sundance Movie Competition has commenced, and the celebs are displaying up in model. Kristen Stewart attended the occasion’s opening night time gala on January 18 in Chanel, and Malia Obama rocked the crimson carpet screening of her brief movie, The Coronary heart, that very same day in an effortlessly cool ensemble. At some point later, Julia Fox […]
‘Rob Peace’
Robert Peace was a math and science prodigy who grew up in New Jersey, the son of a hard-working mother and a father (maybe wrongly) convicted of homicide. His mind took him all the best way to Yale College on scholarship, however he then began spiraling and dealing medicine and ended up shot to loss of life at age 30. The tragic story was beforehand instructed by Peace’s former roommate within the e-book The Brief Life and Tragic Demise of Robert Peace; now Chiwetel Ejiofor, in his second directorial effort, brings it to the display with a delicate and honest contact. Jay Will (Tulsa King) excels within the title function, whereas Camila Cabello, Mary J. Blige and Ejiofor are sturdy in supporting elements. Solely these with no coronary heart received’t be moved — to not point out offended about what might have been.
‘Winner’
Right here’s the fascinating true story behind Actuality Winner. As in, the vegetarian CrossFit-teaching, gun-toting Texan Air Pressure veteran whistleblower named Actuality Winner. Whereas working as a translator on the NSA in 2017, Actuality (a spitfire Emilia Jones) comes throughout jaw-dropping intel that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election. She leaks essential paperwork to the media, resulting in an arrest and main jail time. Although Actuality’s distinctive drama has been instructed earlier than (just lately in an HBO mission with Sydney Sweeney), this jaunty entry is super-solid and helped by Jones’ relatable efficiency. Good supporting turns from Connie Britton and Zach Galifianakis too.
‘Winner’ Premiere Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Photographs
‘My Outdated Ass’
Don’t, I repeat, don’t choose a film by its admittedly terrible title. In any other case, you’re liable to overlook a traditional Sundance coming-of-age gem. On the cusp of leaving for faculty, self-involved Elliott (Maisy Stella) goes on a mushroom journey and comes face-to-face with the 39-year-old model of herself (Aubrey Plaza). The extra lived-in model of Elliott affords some recommendation — as a result of older equals wiser, proper? Proper?! — and in some way, someway stays in contact. The encounter adjustments the teenager from deep inside, as she finally learns a timeless lesson: Life can beat you down, however having fun with the second is one of the best feeling on the planet. Completely real and transferring.
Hallmark Media is following up its 2023 “Countdown to Christmas” programming with a brand new slate of 2024 rom-coms for followers to take pleasure in. The community kicks off the brand new yr with 4 recent Hallmark Channel options, starting with Love on the Proper Course, which premieres on January 6. Ashley Newbrough, who performs golfer Whitney within the […]
‘Love Me’
No large deal, just a bit sci-fi odyssey that spans 5 million years and makes an attempt to embody the complete voyeuristic social media expertise. And it type of succeeds! Possibly? Deep into the long run, a solar-powered buoy (voiced by Kristen Stewart) bobbing within the ocean “meets” an orbiting satellite tv for pc (voiced by Steven Yeun). Determined for a reprieve from solitude, the buoy begins absorbing the Insta feed of married influencers Deja and Liam (Stewart and Yeun in flesh-and-blood type). She turns into her avatar; he reciprocates — and the 2 study that even an A.I. relationship has its points. (Much less revelatory: Don’t purchase into the private spotlight reels posted on-line.) Each actors command the display even when the tedious screenplay falters.
‘Freaky Tales’
Set in Oakland in 1987, this electrifying affair weaves collectively 4 out-there interconnected revenge tales. In the simplest chapter — it’s really not even a contest — an underworld mobster (Pedro Pascal) embarks on one final shakedown whereas his pregnant spouse patiently waits within the automobile. (He additionally interacts with an A-list star in a video retailer; the cameo introduced down the home through the opening-night premiere.) With its excessive blood-soaked rampages, overlapping characters, pop-culture references, subversive humor and offbeat needle drops, the anthology comes off as each a knockoff of the Tarantino oeuvre in addition to an homage. Is that fallacious? Judging by the wild applause on the finish, the reply isn’t any.
