David Bolen/Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Thelma (2024)
Writer-director Josh Margolin has taken direct inspiration from the “Mission: Impossible” movies (Tom Cruise is thanked in the credits) to make an action movie starring an elderly woman which does not once patronize her. It takes the dual challenges of being old and caring for the elderly and turns them into riotous action sequences filmed by David Bolen with all the flash of a thriller, and with Simon Astall’s music hitting the same dramatic notes. Climbing two flights of stairs is no small achievement when your body is winding down, so it’s a completely fair comparison, and kind of surprising no one has done this before. This is also the first starring role of June Squibb’s film career, and considering her acting career has lasted over 70 years, better late than never – but oh, what a loss, because she’s wonderful. Funny, devious, charming and with a determination to assert herself that never turns to bitterness, Ms. Squibb’s Thelma is an absolute delight. From the Sundance Film Festival onwards, this will redefine crowd-pleaser.
Continue reading “Easy Prey” »
Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Kneecap (2024)
Look, either you think it’s hilarious that a man shouts a well-known terrorist slogan at the point of orgasm, or you’re not going to enjoy “Kneecap.” But not enjoying this movie would be a big mistake. It is simply the best movie ever made about being young in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and a strong new addition to the canon of movies about disaffected youths finding their voices through rapping about sex and drugs. The fact their language is Irish means the movie, and the real-life band of the same name this is about, is a fresh new take on language preservation and so-called minority culture rights. It is the first ever Irish-language movie shown at the Sundance Film Festival, and made with a screaming sense of humor that is, from start to finish, a joy.
Continue reading “Acting the Maggot” »
Gerald Kerkletz/Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Veni Vidi Vici (2024)
As with “Love Me,” “Veni Vidi Vici” is another movie aimed at 13-year-old girls from the Sundance Film Festival that has not been marketed as such. The clue is in the age of the narrator, Paula Maynard (Olivia Goschler), the cosseted daughter of an Austrian gazillionaire who is learning what capitalism allows the privileged to get away with. And her family is indeed privileged. Her stepmother, Viktoria (Ursina Lardi), wants another baby, so is shopping for surrogate mothers – “your sperm, my egg, her stretch marks” – and her father, Amon (Laurence Rupp), a hugely successful businessman, murders people for fun.
Continue reading “Affluenza” »
Emily Kassie/Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Sugarcane (2024)
One of the worst things about adulthood is realizing there’s no worst story out there. Someone will tell you about a story about rape, torture, child abuse, exploitation, or being sold by their drunk mother for beer money; and you never get to think “this is the worst story I will ever hear.” But the greatest thing about adulthood is that you have power and agency which children are denied; and the greatest thing about great adults is that they use their agency and power to improve things, if not only for themselves, then for other former children. Canada has some dark, shaming history in its treatment of its children, most notably the “scoop” – its practice of forcing indigenous children into residential schools where their connection to their language and culture was tortured out of them. It bears repeating that one residential school had its own electric chair. But the best thing about Canada is that it is finally beginning to face up to those horrible, horrifying wrongs. “Sugarcane” is about one family and several communities’ attempts to address the awful things that happened at one residential school: St. Joseph’s Mission in British Columbia. This is an important documentary about courage and the different ways people seek justice, but be warned, it also contains some of the worst stories you could ever hear.
Continue reading “The Stolen Children” »
Arun Bhattarai/Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Agent of Happiness (2024)
Bhutan has made itself famous for its happiness index, for which 75 people criss-cross the nation asking the people they encounter around 150 questions about their personal happiness out of a scale from zero to 10. The survey is mainly in English, which is a surprise, and the king uses it as a base for developmental decisions around the nation. “Agent of Happiness” follows several of the surveyors as they complete their work before focusing in on Amber Kumar Gurung, who is a charming man in his early 40s who cares for his mother and is in a tricky personal position. He is ethnically Nepali; and his family was stripped of their citizenship when he was a toddler, meaning his entire life has been shaped by his statelessness. No full-time work, no wife and family, and only limited hope for the future. Directors Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó undertake in-depth filming with the most interesting interviewees Mr. Gurung comes across, but also had the sense to follow Mr. Gurung as he searches for happiness for himself.
Continue reading “Sunshine and Rainbows” »
Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Sebastian (2024)
The young writer at the heart of “Sebastian,” Max Williamson (an astounding Ruaridh Mollica), doesn’t seem to know how lucky he is. As many queer authors in London can tell you (ahem), it’s not usual to find a literary agent based on short stories written in university, nor for your first book to get such rave prerelease reviews that you’re personally profiled in the newspapers, complete with a professional photoshoot. If you have a job freelancing for a serious monthly magazine there’s no way you’d dismiss even the most boring advertorial as beneath your talent, when that writing work affords a London rent. And even if you were the most gilded literary talent in your city, your peers in your creative writing workshop will never, ever applaud your work. They’d nitpick out of jealousy. But having said all that, the device of the ongoing deconstruction of Max’s writing is clever meta-critique of the plot of “Sebastian,” in which this young man with such obvious talent decides to risk it all by delving into sex work. Gay sex work, no less. It’s a tremendous high wire act; and it’s a testament to the bravery and skill of everyone involved that the movie succeeds completely.
Continue reading “Writer’s Tricks” »
Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Love Me (2024)
In 2008 the robots left behind after life on earth becomes extinct had a VHS tape of “Hello, Dolly!” to teach them about love in “Wall-E.” In 2024 the robots left behind after the Earth becomes extinct in “Love Me” have the entire internet, or at least a version of the internet in which pornography does not exist. That means the whole movie is actually aimed at 13-year-old girls, and leaves the adults wishing for better use of the incognito button.
Continue reading “All Is Full of Love” »
Courtesy photo
MOVIE REVIEW
Fighter (2024)
“Fighter” is much, much more interesting than its topline, a.k.a. the Indian answer to “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Born to Fly.” The influence of American war movies and all their cheery flyboys is strong, but “Fighter” is much more pointed than either of the American and Chinese celebration of their armed forces in that it has a clear conflict and enemy: Kashmir, and terrorists who commit crimes against Indian citizens while finding shelter in Pakistan. This specificity is very unusual in recent worldwide blockbusters and means that the relentless patriotism, such as a poem about how no coffin is more beautiful than one draped with an Indian flag, is way more meaningful.
Continue reading “Air Show” »
Sundance Institute
MOVIE REVIEW
Exhibiting Forgiveness (2024)
It’s not so much that this movie has strange ideas about the healing power of art. It’s that it has strange ideas about the healing power of forgiveness. Here forgiveness is not a gift you give yourself. Instead it’s something other people have the right to, without apology or doing the work to set things right. This strange sense of entitlement is the hook on which hangs a difficult family history and how it has shaped an artist. So the choice of the word “exhibit” in the title is appropriate: it’s only a feeling of the real thing.
Continue reading “Ghost From the Past” »
Courtesy photo
MOVIE REVIEW
Captain Miller (2024)
While it feels like a western and looks like a war epic, “Captain Miller” manages to have its cake and eat it. The movie preaches a message of antiviolence while amassing a body count in the thousands. Five bomb and fire experts are thanked in the credits, which understates how many explosions take place and how much stunt work must have been necessary. But despite the extraordinary amount of mayhem, the overall message is one of disgust for violence and the unjust systems which make violence inescapable.
Continue reading “Eye for an Eye, Captain” »