The variety of people that attend the Sundance Film Festival is both unique to the time and place yet entirely universal. Park City seems to attract people from all over the world, whether that be as filmmakers, volunteers, or viewers. The writers/directors I had the privilege of speaking with, such as Remi Weekes, Alexandre O’Phillipe, and Natalie Johns, each came from various places around the world. Each brought their unique perspectives to the audience through their work. There was also a wide variety of people at the festival that came to volunteer. It was refreshing to see that the festival hired people from numerous backgrounds, ethnicities, and religions. As far as those that attended the festival as viewers, a large portion of the crowd seemed to be locals, most of which could be identified as wealthy WASPs donning “mountain chic” fur coats and hats.

One of the best films I saw Sundance was also one that appeared to receive little to no critical attention: Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor. The first thing that I recognized liking about it was perhaps the most simple, being that the film had a clear and well executed direction. I think the reason this basic and essential aspect was so appealing to me is because it was so refreshing to see a film that actually felt “finished”. So many movies, like Promising Young Woman and Zola, felt like they were rushed out of the editing room so they could premiere at Sundance, even though they were very clearly rough cuts. So when I saw Possessor, a film that actually felt ready, I was blown away. That being said, it had a very interesting plot, that I personally thought could have been expanded upon a little further, and good performances from Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott. One could definitely view it as a feature-length, highly stylized Black Mirror episode, and they wouldn’t be out of line seeing it that way. Overall, it first and foremost made me very excited to see what the young Cronenberg will do next. 

There were several films I was able to see without much or any prior knowledge. One of them was the episodic documentary Untitled Pizza Movie. I decided to get a ticket for this screening because the stills had an old school, VHS look to it that was interesting. Unfortunately, the film ended up being one of the biggest disappointments of the festival for me. Its “episodes” had no clear narrative structure, a fault that was reinforced by the film’s repetitive and directionless editing. The b-roll entirely consisted of shots of New York in the winter with psuedo-poetic narration about the “decay of urban society” or one of the same dozen objects rotating on a stand in a white room. I say this with complete honesty, every 2-3 minutes it cut back to the same shot of an old camera rotating in a white room, regardless if it was related to the scene or shot. 

Premieres, Cows, and (of course) Banksy!

Premieres, Cows, and (of course) Max Richter!

theaters, premieres, directors, and banksy!