Sundance Film Festival 2024

A Real Pain is a really impressive follow-up for Jesse Eisenberg, who found minimal success with his debut film When You Finish Saving the World. Eisenberg manages to delicately write and direct a much more personal and heartfelt film this time around. He and his co-lead Kieran Culkin play cousins dealing with some incredibly heavy generational trauma and painful life experiences as they confront their differences and similarities in some very profound ways. They have truly tremendous chemistry together as they bounce this sleek, witty, and topical screenplay off of each other. I did wish the film had conveyed more of a thematic climax, as the film sort of just trailed off by the end when a more conclusive and satisfying ending would have been appreciated. But this quibble does not detract from the fact that Culkin is a gem here. He turns up his naturally charismatic self to the max, stealing scenes left and right with his utterly captivating charisma and soul-stirring emotional moments. 

8/10

Union is a gritty, raw, and occasionally hard-to-watch documentary about the efforts and sacrifices made to give the workers at Amazon the labor union they have long deserved. It is sometimes funny, sometimes heartfelt, and sometimes downright uncomfortable as we watch these people go through strife, conflict and celebration. The film starts off a little slow, but once it reels you in, you'll get caught up in every turn it takes rooting for these people. I hope this film lands on the scene like a thousand tidal waves because this film is an essential viewing for any American that does not understand how unions work.

8/10

Handling the Undead is a slow, methodical, and somewhat confusing new take on the zombie genre. In it, we follow the lives of 3 different families as they witness their loved ones come back from the dead. The film’s building of dread was well done, but that’s the main positive I have. I really wanted to appreciate this film’s attempt at doing something different from your standard horror movie. However, the movie felt sucked bone-dry of any kind of entertainment and was boring beyond belief. Nothing happens until the final 20 minutes, and while the ending was fine, none of it felt earned because we barely knew these people in the first place. I wish this film was more focused instead of jumping character to character. 

4/10

Dìdi is beautifully made, subtly poignant, and cringe-worthy in the best of ways. I'm a huge sucker for a good coming-of-age film, and this one hit the ball out of the park for me. Director Sean Wang masters adolescent humor and teenage anxiety, transporting me back to my childhood like nothing has since Boyhood. Izaac Wang and Joan Chen are frankly mesmerizing as they navigate teenage years and parenthood respectively, bringing tears to my eyes several times. This film made me rethink integral pieces of my own childhood and realize how small that stuff was looking back on. It was just a brilliant and lovable film that I could’ve watched for hours on end.

9/10

Never Look Away is an uncompromising, unfiltered look at legendary war correspondent Margaret Moth and the horrors she witnessed, documented, and dealt with. Ultimately, the film takes visual swings that often don’t pay off, including a shot of a person wrapped in a shawl (meant to symbolize a fetus coming out of a cocoon) that deeply confused me. The film just felt a bit disjointed overall, deliberately cutting away from crucial moments and subjecting to staring at toy figurines instead. As a biopic documentary, it failed to give me a grasp as to who Moth was outside of her being brave and getting some gnarly war footage. Never Look Away was too distant, aimless, and unfocused for me to truly get into. 

4/10

Love Me, a sci-fi romantic twist on Wall-E, is a gigantic swing of a film. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting going in and am unsure of what I just watched coming out of it. The Sundance description line was a mere “Long after humanity’s extinction, a buoy and a satellite meet online and fall in love”, and the film isn’t much more than that. Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun play a buoy and a satellite respectively who are alone in a world where they are the only “living” things. There are really interesting ideas that almost pay off, but the film prefers to stay surface level and vague instead. Between their voice acting and subsequent live action acting, Stewart and Yeun are entrancing and keep the film afloat. Their chemistry is palpable, even when they’re only talking to each other as a buoy and a satellite. The film is very cute, and I was entertained from start to finish. However, as much as I admire the attempt, the film was just a bit too overwrought for me to really love.

6/10

Exhibiting Forgiveness absolutely wrecked me. This film about coming to grips with the past, generational trauma, estranged family, and learning how to forgive handles all these themes with proper delicacy and weight. The entire ensemble carries this film like none other, with a career best turn from Andre Holland and equally brilliant performances from Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and John Earl Jelks. There is incredibly tasteful long-shot camera work that works with color beautifully and paints inspired character-focused scenes. It is an absolutely draining experience, as there is no time to breathe as each scene hits like a brick wall for the entire 2-hour runtime. Exhibiting Forgiveness is an absolute home run from debut filmmaker Titus Kaphar, whom I can’t wait to see more from. This one is going to sit with me for quite a while.

9/10

Rob Peace is a pretty generic biopic that hits all the beats it should but fails to say anything unique about its focus. Jay Will in the lead role of our titular character is fantastic and carries the film with a ton of heart and soul. As a whole, the story of Rob Peace is a dynamic one, even if the filmmakers failed to differentiate it in a meaningful way. Though Rob Peace was an interesting enough watch, it doesn’t leave me with anything to chew on by the end.

6/10

Suncoast is a very heartfelt and well-made coming-of-age film, even if it’s fairly cliché. We follow a young impressionable teenager (Nico Parker) who's gone through some hardship in her life, meets new friends, meets a mentor (Woody Harrelson) to teach her about life, overcomes grief, and repairs her fractured relationship with her mother (Laura Linney). Some things really don't work here, as Woody Harrelson's character feels like an afterthought and Laura Linney’s character is so unlikable that it’s difficult to root for her redemption. The shining light through all of this, though, is Nico Parker, as she is absolutely glorious in the lead role of Doris and absolutely shattered my heart. The film makes some missteps here and there, but Nico keeps the film watchable the entire time and has an incredible scene near the end despite the film’s rocky moments. 

7/10

I’m incredibly sad to say that Stress Positions did not work for me at all. Though the movie had a lot of potential, most of its screwball comedy appeal was lost to overdone direction and overzealous script editing. Choppy editing back and forth from characters we’re never able to get attached to and incoherent voice-over monologues that attempt to be deep but are unsubstantiated by the story turn this potential stud of a screenplay into a jumbled mess of a film.

5/10

As a whole, I had a great time with this year's crop of Sundance films! There were some highs and lows (as typical with Sundance), but the highs were great and include films I fully intend to rewatch and experience again. I highly recommend everyone to try virtual Sundance for themselves and see what Sundance has to offer for them. It’s an adrenaline rush going through so many films in such a short span, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I can’t wait to experience it again next year!