Structured into three acts with a tantalizingly withholding amuse bouche of a prologue, the vibes are immaculate. Frustratingly, the whole thing self-immolates in its final chapter and destroyed all the goodwill that it worked so hard to build. Early reactions seem far more forgiving than mine.
Maxxxine Serves up Girl Power Marinated in Gore and Grime
Maxxxine (2024 | USA | 104 minutes | Ti West) Maxxxine may be set in a Reagan-era Los Angeles that’s been buffed …
Desperation and luck drive the story in Escape
From the moment we meet him, Sergeant Lim Gyu-nam (Lee Jee-hoon) is desperate to find a way out of North Korea and into a seemingly promised land to the South. Planning for what seemed like years, he has his route mapped and a thought-out plan to escape while he’s still in the military with familiar surroundings and path out, but on the cusp of action things fell apart.
Roundtable: Our Favorite Movies of 2024 (So Far)
We’re just past the halfway point of 2023; so to commemorate the occasion a few of you friendly neighborhood SunBreakers took stock of the films we’ve seen so far.
With Kinds of Kindness Yorgos Lanthimos delights in a triptych of sadness
My first reaction to Yorgos Lanthimos’s new absurdist black comedy anthology was that it was nice to see him getting weird again.
Copa 71, or how to memory hole an entire World Cup for 50 years
There’s something remarkable about the opening scene of Copa 71. Brandi Chastain, hero of the winning American team of the 1991 Women’s World Cup, is given a tablet and shown footage of the 1971 Copa tournament, a massive women’s soccer competition in Mexico City two decades earlier than the first official FIFA Women’s World Cup. She had no idea it even existed. I suspect many other diehard women’s sports fans didn’t either (I certainly didn’t).
Jeff Nichols revisits a rough and tumble motorcycle club in The Bikeriders
Taking inspiration from Danny Lyon’s iconic book of photography The Bikeriders, director Jeff Nichols uses his admiration for the images of mid-century motorcyclists as the basis for a fictionalized account of a Chicago-based motorcycle club.
June Squibb is an unlikely action star in Thelma
This caper starring June Squibb as a 93-year-old granny on a Cruise-inspired impossible mission to avenge her honor after being phone scammed & Fred Hechinger as underemployed Grandson of the Year might be the Most Sundance Movie of the fest: impeccably made, note-perfect, heartwarming comedy.
SIFF-favorite Ghostlight returns for an encore performance
Directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson leverage the chemistry of a real-life family in crafting a drama about a working-class Chicago-area household. When we first meet the family in a principal’s office as they’re still reeling from the aftershocks of an unspecified trauma and the mounting stress of a looming lawsuit.
Netflix’s Ultraman: Rising pulls classic Japanese sci-fi and your heartstrings
Kenji goes out on his first mission as the Ultra hero and finds himself stuck with Emi, a pint-sized Kaiju. He’s convinced by his estranged father that he has to keep Emi safe and raise her as his own.