The 2019 Sundance Film Festival saw a festival in flux. Amazon Studios dominated the acquisitions front picking up five different films at almost unheard of prices while A24 arrived with five films and left with six. How many will we be talking about a year or two from now? That remains to be seen on the narrative side given the last two Grand Jury U.S. Dramatic winners, “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” and “I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore,” were quickly forgotten.
‘Clemency’ & ‘Brittany Runs A Marathon’ Top 2019 Sundance Film Festival Award Winners
Keeping that in mind and with apologies in advance to the documentary filmmakers, here is a quick look at the best and the worst of 10 days in Park City.
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Best: “The Farewell”
Perhaps the most elegant tearjerker at the festival this year, Lulu Wang’s semi-biographical tale centers on thirtysomething Billi (Awkwafina) who is struggling to get her career off the ground in New York City and her relationship with her beloved grandmother Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) who lives in mainland China. When her extended family learns Nai Nai has advanced lung cancer they all return to China to hold a wedding banquet for one of Nai Nai’s grandsons (Billi’s cousin who grew up in Japan) as an excuse to see her, potentially, one last time. Billi has to come to terms with the fact her family won’t tell Nai Nai she has cancer until she’s much closer to her deathbed (something illegal in most Western countries). The visit to China also is a deep dive into her Chinese heritage and how different (and similar) things are between the East and the West. The entire cast is superb, but Awkwafina is heartbreaking in her first real dramatic role. – GE [Jordan’s review]
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Best: “The Last Black Man in San Francisco”
Director Joe Talbot and co-screenwriter and star Jimmie Fails have been lifelong best friends. Their first cinematic collaboration is nothing but a stunning and moving indictment of the pain gentrification has caused in their hometown of San Francisco. Thanks to a stellar turn from Fails co-star Jonathan Majors, “Black Man” also challenges the viewer to confront stereotypes of what the media and everyday people think it means to be a person of color and, most importantly, how the death of a city can be due to the actions of the truly wealthy and no one else. Talbot demonstrates a gifted eye and purposeful vision in his feature-length debut. [Review] – GE
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Best: “Luce”
Julius Onah’s adaptation of J.C. Lee’s play uses the story of the survivor of an African civil war adopted by a white American family to play with racial perceptions in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. Kevin Harrison, Jr. is spectacular as the title character, a High School senior who finds himself in the center of a dispute between his teammates on the track team and a tough teacher wonderfully portrayed by Octavia Spencer (who could be looking at a third Oscar nomination if the film is positioned correctly). Luce is a stellar student, but his actions force his parents, played by Naomi Watts and Tim Roth, to question his true motives and whether they’re partially responsible for creating what many might call a manipulative monster. – GE [Jordan’s review]
Worst: “The Sunlit Night”
Filmmaker David Wnendt is best known for 2013’s “Wetlands” and the 2015 Hitler in the 21st Century comedy “Look Who’s Back.” With “The Sunlit Night” he tries to weave multiple narratives that center on a New York City artist who is at a career crossroads (Jenny Slate), a first generation Russian immigrant who has tried to keep his father’s bakery afloat (Alex Sharp), his distant and quirky mother (Gillian Anderson), a Norwegian painter who isn’t good with people (Justus von Dohnányi) and, um, an American working at a Viking live-action museum in Norway (Zach Galifianakis). There is actually no reason for Galifianakis to be in the movie except for comic relief, but Wnendt completely misuses him anyway. In fact, he somehow misuses everyone. The film is pointless except for some very pretty shots of northern, desolate Norway. You see Slate and Sharp’s characters eventually ending up with each other early on in the film, but they don’t even meet until almost the third act and, despite the best efforts of the actors, have zero chemistry. The entire cast is doing their best to make the material work you just wonder how Wnendt could direct them in what appears to be three to four different movies. This is one of those films that normally debuts at TIFF and is never heard from again. – GE
Worst: “I Am Mother”
Well, the droid is sort of cool, but beyond Weta Workshop’s magic, this is one sci-fi thriller where almost everything seems too overtly familiar. Human existence ending apocalypse? Check. Robots seemingly ruling the earth? Check. Robots thinking they know what’s better for future mankind? Check. Human realizing Robots don’t know what they are doing? Check. Human turning on Robots, continuing the never-ending cycle of man vs. machine? Check. Production design that looks like someone mixed a cheap SyFy movie with the scraps of “Terminator Salvation” or “Divergent”? Check. You’ll be lucky to see it on a plane? Check. [Review] -GE
