There was plenty to see at Sundance Film Festival this year. Steve Newall selects some highlights from afar.
Bunnylovr
Exploring the bitter nuances of father-daughter relationships, Bunnylovr sounds like something hewn from the mumblecore mould by a new generation. First-time feature director Katarina Zhu writes, directs and stars as a New York cam girl balancing a toxic client relationship and her estranged dad—it’s also the first producing credit for Rachel Sennott, Zhu’s acting classmate at NYU, who appears in a supporting role.
By Design
You just can’t improve on perfection, so why would we try to better how the Sundance synopsis begins: “A woman swaps bodies with a chair, and everyone likes her better as a chair.” Juliette Lewis leads a cast that also includes Mamoudou Athie, Melanie Griffith, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney, Udo Kier. And, presumably, a really cool chair.
Jimpa
The performances of Olivia Colman and John Lithgow as father and daughter have been praised in this unorthodox family portrait by Sophie Hyde (director of 2019’s Animals). Hannah (Colman, a stand-in of sorts for Hyde herself) is visiting her gay dad (Lithgow) in Amsterdam—with her nonbinary teenager in tow. Yes, it all sounds a bit Sundance-worthy, but with Lithgow also showing up in fine but much more sinister form soon in The Rule of Jenny Pen, 2025 is a good year to see his range.
Middletown
The democratisation of recording technology in the 1990s led to many unexpected consequences—and this is one of them. Thirty years after they were armed with filmmaking tools (in that unique window of time between their availability and the rise of smartphones and social media) former high school classmates revisit how their reporting uncovered “a vast conspiracy involving toxic waste that was poisoning their community”.
Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
You know how house music originated in Chicago? Cool. Dance music aficionados (as well as the culturally curious) should be enraptured by this doco on Vince Lawrence, co-writer of On & On, frequently labeled the first house music song pressed to vinyl. Lawrence’s story is about more than the grooves on the record though—it’s also about repression, persecution, and the escape that forging a new community around a (then) underground genre can bring.
Opus
Mark Anthony Green’s debut feature sees young writer Ariel (Ayo Ediberi) invited to the private compound of a former pop star (John Malkovich) who disappeared from public view decades earlier. Shit’s gonna get cult-y, says the trailer. Looking like a darkly comic horror (not surprising given this is being released by A24), the supporting cast also offers plenty of watchable potential in Juliette Lewis, The White Lotus‘s Murray Bartlett and Beef standout Young Mazino.
Predators
In an era where we’re drowning more than ever in true-crime vicarious awfulness, it’s the perfect time to revisit one of the shows that got us here. Twenty years ago, To Catch a Predator went to air, seemingly helping to fight the scourge of adults grooming kids, but doing so with an air of sordid entrapment that remains controversial today. This new doco traces the rise and fall of the show, the imitators inspired, and the moral complicity of audiences.
Prime Minister
Winner of the Sundance Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary, Prime Minister is an intimate account of former NZ PM Jacinda Ardern’s five years in power. Featuring footage shot by Ardern’s husband and unheard audio clips recorded by the Alexander Turnbull Library’s Political Diaries project, this will push all sorts of buttons with Ardern fans and detractors in Aotearoa. Further afield, audiences may take to this personal pic with fewer biases…
Rabbit Trap
A Welsh forest in the 1970s adds an eerie folk horror backdrop to a young couple’s adventures in audio here. The Davenports (Blue Jean’s Rosy McEwen and Monkey Man himself Dev Patel) spend their days manipulating tape and oscillators (her) or collecting field recordings (him), but things take on an otherworldly fable-like dimension with the arrival of a mysterious child with even less clear intentions.
Rebuilding
Challengers’ Josh O’Connor leads this rural tale that might resonate more in Los Angeles now than it may have pre-bushfires. Like many in the City of Angels, rancher Dusty (O’Connor) is having to rebuild after losing everything when his family ranch is consumed by fire. As a small-town community tries to reconnect and reestablish, this is likely to resonate with anyone affected by our increasing natural disasters—and those who’ve been empathising in response to similar events near or far.
SLY LIVES! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
Remember when Questlove won an Oscar for 2021’s Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). It happened immediately in the aftermath of “the slap” so was slightly overshadowed (if extremely deserved). There’s no one better to document the life, career, and legacy of Sly and the Family Stone, with all the big names (D’Angelo, Andre 3000, Clive Davis) you’d want. Betting big on this one.
Train Dreams
Netflix swooped after this got rave reviews, buying a film that comes across like a meditative celebration of the men who built America’s railroads. If you’ve ever wondered, as I have, about the difficulties and dreams that filled the days of labourers toiling away in unforgiving remote areas we now traverse without a second thought, this is one for you. Maybe, perhaps especially, it’s for you if you haven’t. Praise for director Clint Bentley and lead Joel Edgerton hints towards some Malick-ian qualities.
