WITH ITS FINAL OUTING IN THE BEEHIVE STATE, THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL FEATURED ONE OF ITS BEST LINEUPS IN QUITE SOME TIME!It was a bittersweet year for Sundance Film Festival attendees as the legendary independent showcase (I’ve been attending since the mid-1990s) prepares to leave the state of Utah for its new home, Boulder, CO in 2027. That said, this last dance in the Beehive state offered a well-balanced roster of memorable films for lovers of independent cinema. The following five titles represent my favorites of the bunch. Here they are, in alphabetical order;
BROKEN ENGLISH
This documentary hybrid from Ian Forsyth and Jane Pollard, pays tribute to the great 60s singer Marrianne Faithfull who would eventually go on to have a decades-spanning career. Featuring interviews with Faithfull (then and now), passionate narration by Tilda Swinton, and live performance footage by many of the artists Faithfull has inspired through the years (Courtney Love and Nick Cave among them), this thoughtful and intellectual look at a musical legend (a lovely entertainer who comes across as both salty and sweet) is beautifully shot and gets bonus points for shaking things up and taking a slightly different approach to documentary filmmaking.
TAKE ME HOME
Writer/director Liz Sargent has expanded her effective short film “Take Me Home” into an equally effective feature. Shot like a documentary, this movie follows an elderly couple (beautifully played by Marceline Hugot and Victor Slezak) in their golden years that struggle to provide for their adult child, Anna, a cognitively disabled 38-year-old whose personality is as big as her heart. One of the things that makes this movie so special is that the role of Anna is beautifully played by Anna Sargent, Liz’s real-life cognitively disabled sister. Like “Peanut Butter Falcon” before it, this casting choice brings a whole new level of authenticity to this movie. “Take Me Home” has a sweet side but it’s also honest when it comes to the many themes it’s delving into. Preparing for the future, the perils and pitfalls that come with health care, the challenges that come with raising a child with special needs, etc. This movie has a lot to say and the fashion in which it explores these things make for a rich and sometimes unpredictable experience. The ending of the film–which is somewhat open to interpretation— will be jarring for some but as a whole, this is a sensitive, funny, thoughtful, and heartfelt look at the life of the kind of exceptional individual we rarely get to see represented in the movies and I was really moved by it.
THE INCOMER
If you’re a fan of warm-hearted UK efforts like “The Ballad of Wallis Island” and you like the quirky (and quick-witted) sense of humor at the center of little seen-gems like “Brian and Charles,” then “The Incomer” is going to be right up your alley. It certainly worked for me. This hilarious comedy from writer/director Louis Paxton plays like a humor-tinged Scottish folk tale. “The Incomer” follows Daniel (played by an affable Domhnall Gleeson), an awkward official who makes his way to a remote Scottish island where he’s ordered to relocate Isla and Sandy (energetically played by the charismatic duo that is Gayle Rankin and Grant O’Rourke), a pair of slightly eccentric, childlike, and in some cases, unhinged, siblings who’ve been living there in near solitude for years. Not surprisingly, craziness ensues. This movie is hilarious and charming in equal measure. But for all the funny business and charm, “The Incomer” also has something to say about moving on from your familiar surroundings. It also has plenty of profound things to say about conquering your fears and simply being yourself. A wonderful film from top to bottom.
THE SCREENER
This one is a bit of a cheat as it wasn’t actually a movie but rather part of Sundance’s episodic program. “The Screener” is comprised of 5 thirty-minute episodes and we were treated to 3 of the 5. This fiercely hilarious and shrewd skewering of the film industry comes from the great independent film legend, Jim Cummings, the unique voice behind “Thunder Road.” It sort of plays like the independent film equivalent of Seth Rogen’s “The Studio” only for my money, this series is more clever (if a tad more inside.) The setup is pretty simple; A screener copy of an independent film is leaked online by way of a talent agency following a private advanced screening and once the movie makes its way on to the internet, all hell breaks loose. The energy of this series (not to mention the moments of entitlement and excess) recall titles like “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Succession” while the breakneck pace and colorful wordplay recall the best of Aaron Sorkin, “The Screener” emerged as the best thing I saw at Sundance this year. It may not have the weight of the most-talked about prestige dramas of the fest but holy cow does this thing fire on all cylinders. And it’s purely independent. Interestingly enough, the stellar ensemble cast is mostly unrecognizable, but trust me when I tell you, they will be recognizable after this show gets picked up. And if “The Screener” doesn’t get picked up, it’ll be a bigger crime than leaking a screener onto the internet!
UNION COUNTY
While many eyes seemed to be firmly focused on the much talked about festival award-winner “Josephine” (I feel like I’m alone in my observation that, while far from a bad movie, it’s not as profound as it aspires to be despite the gut-wrenching subject matter), this compassionate, hard-hitting, and quietly devastating look at addiction came across as more enlightening and authentic. Featuring a beautifully understated (and nuanced) turn by Will Poulter (who also serves as the film’s producer), this docudrama from writer/director Adam Meeks finds a twenty-something struggling while in a rural Ohio recovery program. This intimate little indie certainly doesn’t shy away from the negative aspects of drug use, but it also refuses to become the doom-and-gloom drama you might be expecting. On the contrary, this outstanding and wholly empathetic film (which features both actors and real-life addicts in its cast) suggests that hope is alive and well, even in the darkest of times. The cast here is exceptional but a special shout out to Annette Deao. This woman is to be commended for her three decades plus career in assisting those in recovery but as it turns out, she’s also a pretty damn good actress. “Union County” is the kind of film that should be required-viewing at recovery centers.
To the Sundance Film Festival, I say thank you for decades of wonderful film-centric experiences in the state of Utah.
