The genius (for lack of a better term) of the Jackass extended universe is not that they brought in Francis Ngannou to test whether an athletic supporter can provide adequate protection against his fierce punches, but that it is likely only the fourth-worst way to sustain a groin injury that’s depicted in Jackass Forever.
Sundance 2022: Festival Roundtable
Last weekend, the Sundance Film Festival concluded its second year of holding the festival entirely online. After returning from the virtual mountaintops and packing away our imaginary snow boots, Josh, Chase, and Morgen unpack some of our highlights, lowlights, and predictions from our ten days in virtual Park City.
Sundance 2022: Awards Weekend
The Sundance Film Festival announced all of its awards on Friday afternoon, with audience awards going to Navalny, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Girl Picture, The Territory, and Framing Agnes. Grand jury prizes were awarded to Nanny, The Exiles, Utama, and All That Breathes. I had missed a bunch of these during the premiere and second-screening windows; so I was grateful that the festival dedicated its final weekend to third showings of all of them so that I could catch up with a few more before packing up my virtual snow boots until next year.
Sundance 2022: Neptune Frost
A futuristic look at life and death that still deals with the same struggles Black people suffer through today whether they’re American, Australian or African. Neptune Frost follows one person’s journey through life, the afterlife, and beyond in this strange tale of what it means to survive through the lens of social justice and technology.
Sundance 2022: My Old School
What if you found out you were going to school, and even best friends with, a complete stranger? That’s the oddly intriguing premise of this strange, winding documentary. A young man named Brandon Lee enrolled at Bearsden Academy, a secondary school in a ritzy suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. Over the course of the next year or so, he went from a nobody to the lead in the school play, everyone’s pal and the life of the party. Little did they know, he had a secret that would throw everyone he’d met there for a loop.
Sundance 2022: Living
question for another day, but if you’re going to make one — as Oliver Hermanus did — there’s perhaps no one quite like Kazuo Ishiguro to craft a symphonic tribute to the deep wells of emotion lurking within the stoic reserved protocols of a formal bureaucracy.
Sundance 2022: Sharp Stick
Conceived and filmed during the pandemic, Lena Dunham’s return to feature filmmaking is the most mind-boggling misfire that I’ve seen at the festival so far.
Slamdance Film Festival, where avante garde is the norm
Slamdance, founded in 1995, is a film festival that runs literally alongside Sundance in Park City, Utah. In their own words they are a film festival for filmmakers by filmmakers. Unlike Sundance, the unique part of Slamdance is the submission requirements: every one must be feature-length, a directorial debut without U.S. distribution, and budgets of less than $1 million USD. Many amazing artists have debuted their work at this festival like Bong Joon-Ho, Christopher Nolan, Anthony & Joe Russo, Rian Johnson, and our very own Lynn Shelton. To say that it’s a hotbed of talent is putting it lightly to say the least.
Sundance 2022: Docs Roundup
Sundance has gained a reputation as a launching pad for documentary films that are bound to catch popular attention. Brief reviews of some of the festival’s highlights, including stories about Boeing, Kanye West, and Lucy and Desi.
Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers is a smart and affecting melodrama
Spain’s greatest cultural export, Pedro Almodovar (no offense, Picasso), returns with another deeply moving and powerful melodrama. It was an emotional experience for me, and I broke down crying in my car when I left the screening.