Still from “Green Room.” Photo courtesy of A24
This year’s Sundance has already come and gone which means there’s a whole flurry of titles backed by the kind of buzz and critical praise that get us all excited as film fans. There selections were almost too plentiful to choose from. Yet, here are the five films we’re most excited to see.
1. “The Birth of a Nation”
Photo courtesy of Bron Studios
A lot has been reported on Nate Parker’s directorial debut (about the Nat Turner led slave rebellion during the 1830s), specifically over the record-breaking distribution deal arranged between the film and Fox Searchlight Features. However, it was critically praised as well as having won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize. Although its budget was fairly sizeable for an independent feature, not only does Parker also star as the controversial historical figure, but it features Armie Hammer and 90s crush bait Penelope Ann Miller as well.
2. “Green Room”
Photo courtesy of A24
“Green Room” has already been busting doors and shaking things up at other festivals. But the latest film by Jeremy Saulnier is poised to be the adrenaline rush flick of the year. The premise is deviously simple: a punk band is trapped in the green room of a dive bar. And because they witnessed the murder of a patron, they most fight their way through a gang of white supremacists that want nothing more than to see them dead. It’s a great idea but that’s not all; Saulnier’s last feature “Blue Ruin” was a brutal, galvanizing revenge-noir tale. Oh… and Patrick Stewart plays the supremacist leader. I repeat: Patrick Stewart plays a skinhead.
3. “Manchester By The Sea”
Photo courtesy of the Sundance Institute
Eliciting just as much buzz as Nate Parker’s “Birth of a Nation,” Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea” boasts a potentially star-making performance by Casey Affleck. Portraying a down-on-his-luck misanthrope who returns to the scene of an event that had traumatized him years earlier, Affleck must find a way to reconnect with those he left behind while coming to terms with his own personal demons.
4. “Wiener-Dog”
Photo courtesy of the Sundance Institute
In 1996, director Todd Solondz took home the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for his film “Welcome to the Dollhouse.” Twenty years later, Solondz unveils a pseudo-sequel at the festival that launched his career. “Wiener-Dog.” Essentially an anthology film utilizing the titular Man’s-Best-Friend as the connective tissue, Greta Gerwig plays the grown up Dawn Wiener (originally portrayed by Heather Matarazzo in “Welcome to the Dollhouse”) while Julie Delpy, “Killer Joe” playwright Traci Letts and Danny DeVito make appearances.
5. “Under The Shadow”
At every Sundance Film Festival there is a much talked about genre film, a tradition that goes back to the attention “The Blair Witch Project” enjoyed after its premiere at the 1999 festival. But what makes “Under The Shadow” an interesting exception? It’s an Iranian horror movie. Although a true cineaste might be quick to point out “hey, wait a sec! Wasn’t ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’ an Iranian horror movie as well?!” Why, yes it was! But it was shot near LA in California and was approached with a hyper-realized, post-Tarantino, almost “Sin City” kind of way. And I loved “Girl Walks Home Alone at Night” but “Under The Shadow” seems akin to 2014’s fantastic “The Babadook” while “Girl Walks Home” might owe more to “Pulp Fiction.”
Honorable mentions: “Love and Friendship” (Sundance perennial Whit Stillman returns with his adaptation of the Jane Austen novel), “Sleight” (inner city youth escapes his plight through magic tricks and sleight of hand), “Swiss Army Man” (the film that polarized critics and festival attendees. Yeah, Daniel Radcliff playing a flatulent corpse may have something to do with that. But it sounds so crazy we’ll have to check it out), and “Morris From America.”
