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Train Dreams, The Things You Kill, After Life, The Alabama Solution, DJ Ahmet
Train Dreams ***1/2 [Premieres]
What does it mean to feel connected? That’s a question with dozens of different tendrils, and somehow it feels like co-writer/director Clint Bentley—adapting with Greg Kwedar a novella by Denis Johnson—manages to touch on nearly all of them in a sure-footed, emotionally rich drama.
Special screenings of Audience Award winners Sunday, Feb. 2
At a ceremony in Park City Friday morning, the Sundance Film Festival announced award winners in juried and audience categories for the 2025 Film Festival.
Peter Hujar's Day, Bubble & Squeak, Brides, Magic Farm, Serious People
By Scott Renshaw except where noted
Peter Hujar’s Day **** [Premieres]
When you describe the latest from director Ira Sachs as two actors performing the transcript of a 50-year-old interview, it hardly sounds like the stuff of stirring cinema—but Sachs turns it into something so layered that it feels like a major work. The interview in question was conducted on Dec. 19, 1974 in New York, when photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) followed up on the request of his friend, writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall), to chronicle in detail what he did the previous day, no matter how mundane.
By Scott Renshaw and Aimee L. Cook
Jan 31, 2025 7:00 am
Oh, Hi! ** [Premieres]
It’s kind of sad when the whole vibe of a movie suggests the idea that it’s clever and edgy, but instead it plays out as depressingly retrograde, and that’s kind of what you get in writer/director Sophie Brooks’ attempt at romantic farce.
By Scott Renshaw and Aimee L. Cook
Jan 30, 2025 6:55 am
Sorry, Baby; Selena y Los Dinos; Sally; The Ballad of Wallis Island; Didn't Die and more
Sorry, Baby ***1/2 [U.S. Dramatic]
There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to tell a story about the aftermath of sexual assault, and writer/director/star Eva Victor somehow crafts an affecting, improbably entertaining narrative out of the reality that there’s no “right” or “wrong” way to react to such an event. The story weaves back and forth through several years in the life of Agnes Ward (Victor), as she deals with being raped by her advisor while completing her thesis as a graduate literature student.
By Scott Renshaw and Aimee L. Cook
Jan 29, 2025 7:12 am
The Wedding Banquet; Atropia; Love, Brooklyn; Zodiac Killer Project; Khartoum and more
The Wedding Banquet *** [Premieres]
A lot has changed for queer people in the past 30 years, and a lot hasn’t—and co-writer/director Andrew Ahn finds a solid balance between the two in his remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 art-house hit. In this incarnation, gay Korean immigrant Min (Han Gi-Chan)—facing an ultimatum from his grandmother (Minari Oscar-winner Youn Yuh-jung) that could threaten his legal status in the U.S.—attempts to set up a green-card/beard wedding with Angela (Kelly Marie Tran), the best friend of Min’s long-term partner Chris (Bowen Yang).
Rebuilding, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Sunfish and Other Tales from Green Lake, Predators and more
Rebuilding *** [Premieres]
Sometimes a Sundance film premieres into a moment a filmmaker couldn’t possibly have anticipated—and thus there’s an added resonance to tale about people trying to put their lives back together after their homes are destroyed by a devastating wildfire. In Max Walker-Silverman’s feature, those homes are in rural Colorado, with the focus on cattle rancher Dusty Fraser (Josh O’Connor) as he tries to figure out what comes next after his entire ranch is lost.
By Scott Renshaw and Aimee L. Cook
Jan 27, 2025 7:18 am
It's Never Over, Jeff Buckley; Folktales; The Perfect Neighbor; Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Two Women and more
(By Scott Renshaw except where noted)
It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley **1/2 [Premieres]
The “tragic artist” bio-documentary is its own entire sub-genre at this point, so it feels like filmmakers need to be putting in a little more effort in order to inspire a response more substantial than, “Huh.” Unquestionably, it was a tremendous loss when Buckley—a singer-songwriter with an angelic voice and matinee-idol looks—drowned in 1997 at the age of 30, with his acclaimed debut album Grace his only recording. Director Amy Berg certainly provides a comprehensive character study, exploring his childhood with a single mother his discomfort at comparisons to his biological father, musician Timothy Buckley; and his struggles with fame, likely intensified by undiagnosed mental health issues.
By Scott Renshaw and Benjamin Wood
Jan 26, 2025 7:00 am
Omaha, The Librarians, Andre Is an Idiot, Ricky, GEN_, Prime Minister, One to One: John & Yoko
(Reviews by Scott Renshaw except where noted)
Omaha **1/2 [U.S. Dramatic]Well-acted, well-meaning miserabilism is still miserabilism, and director Cole Webley—working from a script by Robert Machoian—can’t find enough notes to play beyond “well, this is all going to end in tears.” It opens with widowed single dad Martin Harper (John Magaro) waking up his two kids—9-year-old Ella (Molly Belle Wright) and 6-year-old Charlie (Wyatt Solis)—and packing them into the car for an impromptu road trip to Nebraska, precipitated by getting evicted from their Nevada home. Most of what follows involves Martin trying to make the trip seem like an adventure when it’s clearly not, and young Wright is particularly impressive as we spot her gradual realization that Dad doesn’t fully have things under control.
By Scott Renshaw, Aimee L. Cook and Benjamin Wood
Jan 25, 2025 7:00 am
Jimpa, SLY LIVES!, Twinless, By Design, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, The Dating Game
Jimpa **1/2 [Premieres]
Early in writer/director Sophie Hyde’s feature, Australian filmmaker Hannah (Oliva Colman) tries to pitch her latest idea to potential financers, saying she wants to do a story that’s about kindness, not conflict. It’s a pretty bold up-front statement for what Hyde is attempting here, and I’m guessing it will work for some viewers—I’m just not one of them.
