2022 Sundance Film Festival Reviews
Our first experience with Sundance was a good one! We were able to watch eight movies — seven premiering for the first time ever, one making its United States premiere — and I think we both liked all of them! There were a few big ones we didn’t get to catch, but I’m sure we’ll get to them. In this post, we’ve done some quick reviews of each of the movies we got to see, and we also listed some related movies or genres for each movie to let you know if you might like it. If you’re interested, definitely keep an eye out for these when they hit streaming!
Our Reviews:
Thursday, January 20: The Princess (directed by Ed Perkins)
For Fans Of: Documentaries, the '80s-'90s, The Crown, Harry and Meghan
Erin: I have been a Princess Di fan since I was gifted her Beanie Baby as a child. She was so real, with her heart shining through that stoicism that the Royal Family always portrays. This documentary is a really great primer for anyone who wants to know more about the People’s Princess. What takes this doc to another level is that it is only told through old footage, without an interview to be found. The parallels to the more recent experience of her youngest son and his wife can’t be ignored in this piece, and all I can say is Team Harry and Meghan.
Tom: Conversely, going into this I knew literally the broadest of broad strokes about Princess Diana - she was a princess, the paparazzi were terrible to her, and she died. This filled in a lot of those blanks for me and as Erin noted, the contemporary footage helped me understand just how rampant the coverage was and how brutal it could be. I didn’t need any more reason to dislike the British royal family, but this helped.
Friday, January 21: Call Jane (directed by Phyllis Nagy)
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Sigourney Weaver, and Kate Mara
For Fans Of: Hidden Figures, Carol, Vera Drake
Erin: This felt like a Kidz Bop version of less popular but much more effective and interesting movies about abortion. I do understand that this could have been made to be marketed to a more conservative audience, but it felt a little bit like a “very special episode” to me. I say, just watch Vera Drake instead.
Tom: There’s a purpose for this movie, and it’s the same purpose for something like Hidden Figures: it’s a popcorn tale that treads on important issues without tackling them super in-depth. It’s a Hollywood thesis statement on why it’s important to have access to safe abortion and the right to choose. It’s not a super hard hitter, but it’s good enough. Elizabeth Banks was really good!
Saturday, January 22: The Worst Person in the World (directed by Joachim Trier)
Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielson Lie, and Herbert Nordrum
For Fans Of: European movies, character studies, Normal People
Erin: Lead actress Renate Reinsve is a superstar, with this role feeling less like acting and more like a diary entry come to life. It’s like a Bildungsroman (yeah, I know big words 💅🏻) for millennials who are still trying to figure things out, and I found it to be a fascinating watch, plus it made me feel lots of emotions!!
Tom: This was the best movie we watched at Sundance, I think. It had a lot of the meandering qualities of movies I like, coupled with emotional weight and some genuinely funny moments. The performances elevated an already strong script and there are a lot of shots and scenes I found myself thinking about long after it was over. It’s a millennial’s coming-of-age story and while I didn’t exactly do much of what Julie does in this movie, I found her extremely relatable.
Saturday, January 22: When You Finish Saving the World (directed by Jesse Eisenberg)
Starring: Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard
For Fans Of: Jesse Eisenberg, family dramas, The Squid and the Whale
Erin: I feel like Jesse Eisenberg’s mood board for this movie was a big picture of Noah Baumbach surrounded by smaller pictures of TikTok view numbers. Julianne Moore is a revelation of course, and I really really liked the final act of this family drama about a mother and son who just don’t seem to get each other.
Tom: Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut was the most Jesse Eisenberg movies in the history of Jesse Eisenbergs. I happen to really like Jesse Eisenberg so I enjoyed this movie, especially after I loved his role in The Squid and the Whale. Julianne Moore is the GOAT (and I will support this with a blog post sometime in the future), but Finn Wolfhard deserves a lot of praise for his performance in this. It’s not easy to act opposite Moore and not get blown out of the water. He’s better than Stranger Things!
Sunday, January 23: 892 (directed by Abi Damaris Corbin)
Starring: John Boyega, Michael K. Williams, and Connie Britton
For Fans Of: Dog Day Afternoon, Inside Man
Erin: I really liked the first half of this tense drama, a film about a veteran who robs a bank to try to get his disability payments from the VA. John Boyega and Nicole Beharie gave stellar performances, and I always love Michael K. Williams. I just thought the second half dragged a bit, and wanted the tension to stay fresh for the whole run time.
Tom: Watching this movie and seeing how amazing Boyega was just reaffirmed in my brain that Disney and Lucasfilm really screwed up by not giving him a bigger role in the latest Star Wars trilogy. He’s amazing in this — I truly didn’t even remember that I was watching a performance at times. The movie got a bit repetitive and formulaic but when our reaction at the end was “wow, I didn’t even know this happened in 2018,” we realized that that was the point of making the film. It’s important. RIP Michael K. Williams too. His role in this as a down-to-earth, compassionate negotiator — the true heart of the film — is a proper sendoff.
Sunday, January 23: Master (directed by Mariama Diallo)
Starring: Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, and Amber Gray
For Fans Of: Get Out, movies with twists, social critiques
Erin: I was not convinced during the opening half an hour, but this campus thriller pulled out ALL THE STOPS. The twists! The turns! The Regina Hall of it all! I don’t want to say too much, but I think that this will have Twitter ablaze when it streams in a few months.
Tom: The obvious comparison to make with this movie is Get Out, given that it’s a horror-drama about race in America, but it’s not a carbon copy at all. It leans way more into the horror aspects and it’s more focused on a single aspect of racism — higher education. Nevertheless, I really liked this one and it’s gonna be fun to see what people think of it when it hits streaming services.
Monday, January 24: Resurrection (directed by Andrew Semans)
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Tim Roth, and Grace Kaufman
For Fans Of: The Gift, psychological thrillers
Erin: I was Screaming with a capital S during the last half an hour. Ugh what do I even say about this one. It’s funny because it’s one of those “I don’t want to give it away” things but also I feel like I understood less than 50% of what it was trying to say? But I don’t care because Rebecca Hall is a total revelation and deserves every award? It is truly truly wild. 😱 Oh! And PS: a title change is necessary in my opinion. There are too many movies with Resurrection in the title. Maybe Kindnesses instead??
Tom: Hahahahaha this movie is nuts. Rebecca %$&#ing Hall is incredible in this, as is Tim Roth as her former groomer/lover/stalker that she just can’t shake. Sometimes I get caught up thinking too deeply about movies, and while I do think this movie had some things to say, I was just along for the ride. The last ten minutes need to be seen in a theater because for the love of God people’s reactions are going to be wild. I read somewhere that Hall’s performance is going to join Toni Collette’s in Hereditary as too “genre” for the Oscars, but man she would deserve next year’s Best Actress for sure.
Tuesday, January 25: Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. (directed by Adamma Ebo)
Starring: Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown
For Fans Of: The Righteous Gemstones, mockumentaries
Erin: This was a good one too! It’s a dramedy mixed with a mockumentary with some really strong lead performances. Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall play the pastor and First Lady of a mega church in Atlanta trying to recover from scandal. Sterling K. Brown is so fun and over the top, and Regina Hall brings the heart and emotion into the film. I thought there were tone and structure issues with this one, but it has “Knuck if you Buck” in it so I don’t care all that much.
Tom: As Erin alluded to, there’s a scene in this movie where the mega church pastor played by Sterling K. Brown, after so much posturing about how holy he is and how he’s a man of God trying to make his way in the world, sings every single word of “Knuck if You Buck,” the Crime Mob classic, and he’s joined by his First Lady (Regina Hall) for the second verse. It’s one of the funniest scenes in the movie, and it’s a movie where one of the climactic speeches is given by someone wearing the face paint of a mime. It’s a good one and a definite recommend.