Sundance 2019 Film Festival Preview: 25 Must-See Films - Page 5 of 5

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“The Souvenir”
A pupil of Derek Jarman, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg spent over a decade of her career in TV and then only made her first feature in 2009 (“Unrelated” with Tom Hiddleston), but her film career, always intimate and mesmerizing, has been steadily rising ever since. Her latest, “The Souvenir” attracted lots of talent right away including Martin Scorsese as an executive producer and Tilda Swinton as one of its stars. A24 soon followed and already has U.S. distribution rights for later this year. Co-starring Honor Swinton Byrne (Tilda’s daughter), Richard Ayoade, and Tom Burke, “The Souvenir” centers on a young film student in the early ‘80s who becomes romantically involved with a complicated and untrustworthy man. But that’s not all, later this summer, Hogg will start production on “The Souvenir – Part 2” which includes the entire original cast plus Robert Pattinson. A24 is behind the sequel as well and it’ll all make for an intriguing launch at Sundance as part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition section.

“Adam”
A coming of age comedy about sexual identity and comedy of errors movie about mistaken gender identity? Sounds like just what we need these days. “Adam” is directed by Rhys Ernst, a producer on Amazon’s “Transparent,” who also directed the season-four finale. His latest stars Margaret Qualley, Nicholas Alexander Ashlie Atkinson, and Mj Rodriguez. It centers on a high school kid who comes and visits his older sister in New York, becomes intertwined in her LGBTQ community, becomes smitten with Gillian (Bobbi Salvör Menuez) who misidentifies his gender and he can’t quite bring himself to correct her error as the two grow closer. James Schamus, formerly of Focus Features, produces.

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“Blinded By The Light”
From the director of “Bend It Like Beckham,” “Bhaji On the Beach,” and “Bride and Prejudice,” it’s been a minute since Gurinder Chadha had a hit. But she’s one of the U.K,’s most respected filmmakers and she might have a big crowd-pleaser on her hands that’s been scheduled to play during peak hours of Sundance’s first weekend. “Blinded By The Light” is set in 1987 during the austere days of Thatcher’s Britain, where a teenager learns to live life, understand his family and find his own voice through the music of Bruce Springsteen. The movie stars Viveik Kalra, Hayley Atwell, Rob Brydon, and Nell Williams and features a score from “Slumdog Millionaire” composer A.R. Rahman.

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“I Am Mother”
An Australian thriller-science fiction film starring Hilary Swank, “I Am Mother” centers on a teenage girl is raised underground by a kindly robot “Mother”(voiced by Rose Byrne) — designed to repopulate the earth following the extinction of humankind. But their unique bond is threatened when an inexplicable stranger arrives with alarming news. Co-starring Clara Rugaard, ‘Mother’ is directed by Grant Sputore, an award-winning commercial director whose work has been recognized at almost every major international advertising award show across the globe. It’s also slotted at peak times during the festival which means the Sundance festival organizers are feeling strongly about it.

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Honorable Mention
If 25 films feel like a lot, it’s actually scratching the surface and we could have easily added two dozen more films. What else to watch? Well, in the MIDNIGHT section, JD Dillard, the director of promising Sundance NEXT films “Sleight” has a Midnight title with Kiersey Clemons called “Sweetheart,” and he loves to bend genres with high concept films. “MEMORY—The Origins of Alien” a documentary about Dan O’Bannon’s screenplay before it finally turned into Ridley Scott’s “Alien” sounds fascinating. Patrick Brice’s “Corporate Animals” (he, the director of “Creep”) with Demi Moore and Ed Helms, could be a standout too. the WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION selection could have some good stuff too including “Divine Love,” “Monos” (score by Mica Levi) and Aussie filmmaker Mirrah Foulkes‘ “Judy & Punch” starring Mia Wasikowska. The U.S. DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION always has good stuff and highlights include the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doc “Knock Down the House,” “Midnight Family” and “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” but DOCUMENTARY PREMIERES really has all the starry docs including Nick Broomfield‘s portrait of Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse, Marianne Ihlen (“Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love”), Stanley Nelson’s “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,” Alison Klayman‘s doc “The Brink” tracking the rise of the alt-right and centered around former White House staffer Steve Bannon, and the one that perhaps everyone is waiting with bated on, “Untouchable,” about the rise and fall of former Sundance king Harvey Weinstein. There’s also the Michael Jackson “Leaving Neverland” doc in the Special Events section, but it’s getting and death and bomb threats and don’t be surprised if it gets pulled. Special Events also includes a new Gregg Araki series (“Now Apocalypse” and an Amy Berg (Women’s March doc “This Is Personal”).

This takes us to the U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION section, i.e. the ever-important potential breakouts-of-tomorrow section. You could find your next Barry Jenkins or Ava DuVernay. Everything in here is a potential hit that no buyer wants to miss, but based on the screening schedules, always a bit of a tell, the ones to look out for are “Big Time Adolescence” with SNL star Pete Davidson, “Luce” with Naomi Watts and Tim Roth (and a score by Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury of “Annihilation“), “Gook” filmmaker Justin Chon’s “Ms. Purple,” and Joe Talbot’s “The Last Black Man in San Francisco.” NEXT has good stuff too including “Paradise Hills” with Emma Roberts, Awkwafina, Eiza González and Milla Jovovich, “Premature” and “Selah and the Spades.”

Finally, there are the big PREMIERES and some of those highlights include the Netflix film “Paddleton” with Mark Duplass and Ray Romano, Gavin Hood’s “Official Secrets” with Keira Knightley, Ritesh Batra’s “Photograph,” “The Mustang” with Matthias Schoenaerts, and the not-so-surprising “surprise” film “Fighting with My Family,” a wrestling dramedy from director Stephen Merchant starring Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Vince Vaughn and Dwayne Johnson. Stay warm, happy Sundancing, and look for our non-stop coverage. The Sundance Film Festival runs Thursday, Jan 24 through Sunday, Feb 3.