SUNDANCE 2019: ADAM’S TOP 10 PICKS
Article by Adam Mast
Sources (Sundance.org)
Sundance 2019 is upon us and this year’s fest will be quite the milestone for yours truly as this will mark my 25th consecutive year attending. My very first Sundance experience was Giuseppe Tornatore‘s A PURE FORMALITY way back in the mid-90’s at Salt Lake City’s legendary Tower Theater and from that moment, I became a lifer.
All these years later, Sundance continues doing what it does best: Providing a platform for independent storytelling from around the world. True, this festival becomes more and more crowded with each passing year but it’s worth braving freezing cold temperatures and waiting in obscenely long lines if it means the trade off is getting to experience a truly memorable piece of art. This is to say nothing of the countless and most welcome film conversations that take place with fellow Sundancers.
Per usual, Team Cinemast will be making the trip to Park City to take in all the glorious cinematic goodness Sundance has to offer and as expected, there’s a wide range of titles to choose from. Features, documentaries, short films, and special events galore!
Just a couple of weeks back, our very own John Pugh shared a list of titles he’s most looking forward to at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Not to be outdone, I thought I’d do the same.
Here are 10 noteworthy not-to-be-missed titles in alphabetical order:
THE BOY WHO HARNESSED THE WIND
Category: Premieres (United Kingdom – World Premiere)
Director and screenwriter: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Producers: Andrea Calderwood, Gail Egan
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Maxwell Simba, Lily Banda, Noma Dumezweni, Aissa Maiga, Joseph Marcell
Synopsis: Against all the odds, a thirteen-year-old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine. Based on the true story of William Kamkwamba.
DOCUMENTARY NOW!
Category: Special Events
Creators: Fred Armisen and Bill Hader
Producers: Taran Killam, John Mulaney, and James Urbaniak
Cast: Fred Armisen, Cate Blanchett
Synopsis: Internationally acclaimed performance artist Izabella Barta (Cate Blanchett, channeling Marina Abramović) is preparing for a major career retrospective in “Waiting for the Artist.” As she pushes herself to create a worthy centerpiece, Barta surprises both her critics and her supporters by inviting her former lover and collaborator, Dimo, to the exhibit’s premiere.
EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE
Category: Premieres (U.S.A. – World Premiere)
Director: Joe Berlinger
Screenwriter: Michael Werwie
Producers: Michael Costigan, Nicolas Chartier, Ara Keshishian, Michael Simkin
Cast: Zac Efron, Lily Collins, Haley Joel Osment, Kaya Scodelario, John Malkovich, Jim Parsons
Synopsis: A chronicle of the crimes of Ted Bundy from the perspective of Liz, his longtime girlfriend, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.
HONEY BOY
Category: US Dramatic (U.S.A.)
Director: Alma Har’el
Screenwriter: Shia LaBeouf
Producers: Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, Anita Gou, Christopher Leggett, and Alma Har’el
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Lucas Hedges, Noah Jupe, and FKA Twigs
Synopsis: When 12-year-old Otis starts to find success as a child television star in Hollywood, his ex-rodeo-clown father returns to serve as his guardian. When Otis isn’t on set charming audiences, he spends his days with his father at an extended-stay motel on the edge of the city, enduring his overbearing father’s abuse. Honey Boy follows two threads of time, watching father and son’s contentious relationship and their attempts to mend it across the course of a decade.
LIGHT FROM LIGHT
Category: NEXT (U.S.A.)
Director and Screenwriter: Paul Harrill
Producers: James M. Johnston, Kelly Williams, Toby Halbrooks, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Headington, Theresa Steele
Executive Producers:Jonathan Duffy, David Lowery
Cast: Marin Ireland, Jim Gaffigan, Josh Wiggins, Atheena Frizzell, David Cale
Synopsis: Single mom Shelia, gifted with sometimes-prophetic dreams, moonlights as a paranormal investigator while working at a car-rental service counter and raising her teenage son, Owen. After her appearance on a local radio program, she’s contacted about Richard, a recent widower who thinks his wife may be haunting his East Tennessee farmhouse. Agreeing to help, Shelia brings along Owen and his sweet classmate Lucy in hopes of understanding the mystery.
THE NIGHTINGALE
Category: Spotlight (Australia – North American Premiere)
Director and screenwriter: Jennifer Kent
Producers: Kristina Ceyton, Bruna Papandrea, Steve Hutenski, Jennifer Kent
Cast: Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr, Damon Herriman, Harry Greenwood, Ewen Leslie
Synopsis: 1825. Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of Aboriginal tracker Billy, who is marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
SHOOTING THE MAFIA
Category: World Cinema Documentary (Ireland/U.S.A.)
Director: Kim Longinotto
Producers: Niamh Fagan
Executive Producers: Dan Cogan, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Regina K. Scully, Elena Foster, Lesley McKimm
Synopsis: In the streets of Sicily, beautiful, gutsy Letizia Battaglia pointed her camera straight into the heart of the Mafia that surrounded her and began to shoot. The striking, life-threatening photos she took documenting the rule of the Cosa Nostra define her career.
Battaglia was quite the catch. She married young and had children, yet her restless spirit refused to renounce her passions. Breaking with tradition, she devoted herself to photojournalism. Battaglia’s lens was defiant: though her life was in danger she fearlessly captured everyday Sicilian life—from weddings and funerals to the brutal murders of women and children—to tell the narrative of the community she loved that had been forced into silence.
THE REPORT
Category: Premieres (U.S.A.)
Director and Screenwriter: Scott Z. Burns
Producers: Steven Soderbergh, Jennifer Fox, Scott Z. Burns, Kerry Orent, Michael Sugar, Danny Gabai, and Eddy Moretti
Cast: Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Ted Levine, Maura Tierney, Michael C. Hall
Synopsis: Senate staffer Daniel Jones is assigned the daunting task of leading an investigation into the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program. After analyzing extensive evidence, he learns about the “enhanced interrogation techniques”—proven to be brutal, immoral, and ineffective—that the CIA adopted after 9/11. When Jones and the Senate Intelligence Committee attempt to release the results from his investigation, however, the CIA and White House go to great lengths to prevent the truth from getting out.
SWEETHEART
Category: Midnight (U.S.A.)
Director: JD Dillard
Screenwriter: JD Dillard, Alex Theurer, Alex Hyner
Producers: Jason Blum, JD Dillard, Alex Theurer, Alex Hyner, Bill Karesh
Cast: Kiersey Clemons, Emory Cohen, Hanna Mangan Lawrence, and Andrew Crawford
Synopsis: Washing ashore onto a desolate island, Jen (Kiersey Clemons) has already survived a harrowing ordeal. Stranded and alone, she searches for shelter. Finding only the scattered remains of a long-abandoned campground and weary from her terrible journey, she collapses in hope of a peaceful rest. But night is when it’s most dangerous here. That’s when the creature comes. And when it slithers out of the water, it must feed.
VELVET BUZZSAW
Category: Premieres (U.S.A. – World Premiere)
Director and screenwriter: Dan Gilroy
Producer: Jennifer Fox
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Zawe Ashton, Tom Sturridge, Natalia Dyer
Synopsis: A thriller set in the contemporary art world scene of Los Angeles, where big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce.
(Bonus) SURPRISE SCREENING
For the last several years, Sundance has treated Sundance Audiences to a top-secret surprise screening of an upcoming film. In 2016, it was the charming Hugh Jackman/Taron Egerton-headlined underdog sports movie EDDIE THE EAGLE, in 2017 it was Jordan Peele‘s smash hit GET OUT, and last year it was Jason Reitman‘s underappreciated motherhood tribute TULLY.
Our team compiled a list of top 10 predictions but as fate would have it, the Surprise Screening is no longer a surprise. Too bad, because we actually had it listed in our predictions.
The surprise screening will be Stephen Merchant‘s new wrestling comedy-drama, FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY. Starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Vince Vaughn, and Nick Frost.
OTHER NOTEWORTHY FILMS PLAYING SUNDANCE 2019:
AMAZING JONATHON, APOLLO 11, ASK DR. RUTH, BIG TIME ADOLESCENCE, BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (20TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING), CLEMENCY, THE HOLE IN THE GROUND, I AM MOTHER, LITTLE MONSTERS, LOVE,
The 2019 Sundance Film Festival runs from Jan. 24th-Feb. 3. For tickets and detailed Festival info, click here!
Watch for our Sundance coverage here at Cinemast.net throughout the festival run.
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