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The Monkey, The Unbreakable Boy, Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts, No Other Land and more
Oscar-Nominated Short Films – Documentary ***1/2
This year’s crop of short docs is one of the best in recent memory, in large part because even when they’re approaching hot-button topics, they do so without being strident. Kim A. Snyder’s Death by Numbers deals with the legacy of the 2018 Parkland, Florida high-school mass-shooting, but does so through the compelling words of survivor Samantha Fuentes.
Captain America: Brave New World, Paddington in Peru, The Gorge, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy and more
Armand **1/2
There’s so much going on in this psychological drama from writer/director Halfdan Ullman Tøndel that I wish I could cherry-pick the interesting stuff, and leave behind everything that feels forced and unfocused. It opens after-hours at a Norwegian school, where Elisabeth (Renate Reinsve) has been called to a meeting about an “incident” involving Elisabeth’s 6-year-old son Armand and classmate Jon.
Love Hurts, I'm Still Here, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Bring Them Down, Kinda Pregnant
Bring Them Down ***
In both narrative structure and thematic undercurrents, writer/director Chris Andrews takes familiar “revenge thriller” elements and twists them into something both viscerally gripping and heartbreaking. In contemporary Ireland, sheep farmer Michael O’Shea (Christopher Abbott) finds himself in a dangerous battle with his neighbor, Gary Keeley (Paul Ready), when he suspects that Gary has stolen two of Michael’s valuable rams and tried to pass them off as his own.
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
