2021 Movie Preview – 10 Picks From Sundance

February 12, 2021

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About a year ago, I started a series of 2020 movie previews with a look at the Sundance Film Festival.  My recommendations were based solely on what I read by critics and fans who had attended the festival, since I hadn’t seen anything yet.  Looking back on that list, which you can find here, along with some background on the festival, there were a few movies that I really enjoyed and are now in the awards season discussion (like Minari, Promising Young Woman, and Boys State).  There were also a few films that still haven’t been released, having fallen victim to the constantly shuffling movie calendar. 

This year, with the pandemic still causing restrictions on large gatherings, the organizers of the festival shifted gears to make it mostly virtual, with a few drive-in screenings.  The number of films showcased was smaller than previous years, with more focus on movies looking for distributors, and fewer films using the festival for a premiere screening to grab some publicity.  Despite the smaller selection, there were still a number of wonderful films I was able to check out, and the scheduling and technical setup was outstanding.  You could watch a screening on a tablet, a laptop, or even stream it to your TV with ease.  They also offered a flexible scheduling window which allowed you to pick and choose the best time to watch a movie.  Being hunkered down in the dead of Winter in Connecticut, my wife and I enjoyed a number of great new movies from the comfort of our house.  I hope the festival organizers continue to offer some sort of virtual offering next year, as it’s highly unlikely I will be going to Utah in the dead of Winter, pandemic or no pandemic. 

OK, here are my ten recommendations – some of these will be available soon, and some we’ll have to wait a little bit, but you can count on me keeping you updated as these films find distributors. 

Now Screening – Judas and the Black Messiah

OK, I’m cheating a little bit, because this is the only film on my list that I haven’t seen yet.  I didn’t get a chance to watch this one, which premiered at the end of the festival.  I decided to spend my time watching movies I knew I wouldn’t be able to see anytime soon, and I knew that Judas and the Black Messiah would be released today, in theaters and on HBO Max.  This is one of the films Warner Bros. decided to release on its streaming service for 30 days (the Wonder Woman 1984 model), in addition to the traditional theatrical release.  You may have watched the new Denzel Washington film The Little Things, which was released under the same streaming setup.  If you did watch that one, my condolences.  Boy, that plot was a bit of a mess and despite the presence of Denzel, it was pretty disappointing to me.  How the heck did Rami Malek win an Oscar again?  OK, moving right along.

Judas and the Black Messiah is the true story of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton (played by Daniel Kaluuya, the star of Get Out) and William O’Neill, an FBI informant played by Lakeith Stanfield (excellent in 2019’s Uncut Gems), who infiltrates the Black Panthers to take down Hampton.  Although I haven’t seen this movie yet, it has gotten very strong reviews, particularly for the two lead performances, and is receiving awards attention.  This is the one time that a Sundance premiere can be eligible for the upcoming Oscars because the Academy extended the release date deadline from December 31 to February 28.  Kaluuya was nominated for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award, and I expect we’ll see his name when the Oscar nominations are announced.  This one is on my short list to watch soon.

Celebrating a Forgotten Music Festival – Summer of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Anytime I can watch footage of legendary musicians performing at a music festival, count me in.  In his directorial debut, Ahmir Khalib Thompson (better known as Questlove, drummer for The Roots) pieced together never before seen footage of the Harlem Cultural Festival, held in the Summer of 1969, interspersed with interviews with musicians who were part of the show, fans who attended, and others who were influenced by the event.  The fact that the festival was filmed and never aired (the footage sat in a basement for 50 years) is astonishing, and the fact that it survived to be featured in a film is miraculous.  Featuring Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The 5th Dimension, Sly & The Family Stone, and so many more, we get a feel for what it was like to be on the grounds watching this amazing event unfold, and hear how much the culture of Harlem meant to those who experienced it.  Summer of Soul was a monster hit at Sundance, winning The Grand Jury and Audience Awards (Best Picture Equivalents) for Documentary Feature.  Shortly after the festival ended, it was acquired by Hulu for a price that broke the documentary record set by Boys State last year.  Look for this one on Hulu later this year.

Take Me Back To A Simpler Time – Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

If you are a fan of behind the scenes documentaries and love Sesame Street (c’mon, who doesn’t?), this is a fun look at one of the most influential television shows in our lifetimes.  Using interviews with the creators, puppeteers, and writers of the legendary children’s show, we get the full story of how an idea to improve the learning experience of inner city children turned into a phenomenon that continues to this day.  The interviews provide wonderful insight into how the series was created, using discussions recorded specifically for the film as well as previously recorded interviews with critical members of the creative team that have passed away.  But the real highlight here is the behind the scenes footage, particularly of Jim Henson and Frank Oz creating and performing with our favorites – Kermit, Cookie Monster, Bert & Ernie, the list goes on and on.  Any film that’s got Put Down the Duckie and Muppet bloopers is a winner in my book.  HBO has the rights to Street Gang, so look for it on HBO Max sometime this year.

A Stark Reminder Of The Year That Was – In The Same Breath

I’ve often written that watching a documentary about a challenging topic can be difficult to get through, and we’ve certainly had enough COVID in our lives the last year.  That being said, I decided to watch the newest project from filmmaker Nanfu Wang, who directed the wonderful 2019 documentary One Child Nation.  Wang takes a look at how the pandemic unfolded on the ground in her home country, as well as the reaction to the COVID pandemic by both the Chinese and United States governments, which demonstrates how similarly both countries reacted (pretty scary actually).  There were two other documentaries I saw about COVID in recent months.  76 Days was an inside look at Wuhan, focusing on the health system as it was overrun.  The title refers to the number of days Wuhan was locked down.  The second film, Totally Under Control, focused entirely on the disastrous (non)response by the United States Federal government to the pandemic.  What I particularly liked about In the Same Breath was that it had a balanced look at both the impact on the health system, as well as the political reaction.  You may not be ready for a film about COVID, but this was a well-made document of a very difficult year.

An Interesting Character Study – Passing

Actress Rebecca Hall, who has had minor parts in a number of films over the last decade, makes her directorial debut with an adaptation of a 1929 novel about “passing,” the practice of African-Americans pretending to be white.  The story is told through the lens of two women who were once friends in school and are reunited several years later.  One has continued to live the life of a Black woman, while the other has adopted the persona of a White woman, and has married a prejudiced man.  Tessa Thompson (who was wonderful in Creed and Westworld) and Ruth Negga (who I hadn’t seen before, but was Oscar-nominated in 2016) play the two characters with nuance and grace as they navigate complicated feelings about each other’s decisions.  Hall chose to film Passing in black and white, which gives it a beautiful texture, further highlighting the issue that is central to the film.  This is a quiet movie, coming across almost like a stage play, with a beautiful soundtrack.  I thought it was well done and will be interested to see the reaction once it is released.  It must have impressed the team at Netflix, because they acquired Passing for $15 million, so look for this one on Netflix later this year.  

The Period Piece Love Story – The World to Come

As part of my year-end series on the best films of 2020, I noted how Ammonite, the period piece love story with Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, was one of my biggest disappointments, given the lack of chemistry between the two actors.  That’s not the problem at all with The World to Come, the story of two women who live on neighboring farms in the mid-1800s, and develop a friendship that grows deeper over time.  The two leads are played by Vanessa Kirby, who was also excellent in last year’s Pieces of a Woman, and Katherine Waterston, who I hadn’t seen before, but was also very impressive.  The hardships of living on a farm in the mid-19^th century and the cruel treatment of women by their husbands are brought to life in a very effective manner by director Mona Fastvold.  The film does a nice job of telling the evolution of the relationship in a natural way, as both women lean on each other for comfort from their unhappy lives with deplorable husbands.  Out of pain and misery can come “astonishment and joy”, as Waterston’s character notes in her journal.  The World to Come opens in select theaters today, and will be available for digital rental in March. 

An Unconventional Rom Com – Together Together

If you are looking for something a little lighter, you can’t go wrong with Together Together, a funny story about the friendship that develops between the surrogate mother (played by Patti Harrison, in a breakout performance) for a man clearly going through a midlife crisis (played by Ed Helms).  Normally, I am not a fan of Helms’s work – I found him terribly annoying on The Office, but he was very good in this film.  The clear star of the movie, though, is Harrison.  Her character enters into the surrogate agreement thinking it will be merely transactional, but soon learns that the baby’s father wants to be very involved in everything leading up to the birth.  Our two main characters (I won’t call them a couple) spend more and more time together, developing a close platonic friendship with all of the ups and downs that couples in a traditional relationship endure.  I found this movie very charming and funny, but I liked it most of all because Nikole Beckwith (who wrote and directed the film) didn’t take the typical way out with the plot.  I won’t spoil anything about the movie, but I was pleasantly surprised with how the story unfolded.  Expect to see Together Together in theaters later this year.

Navigating Unthinkable Grief – Mass

The plot sounds simple, but the execution of Mass, the directorial debut from actor Kevin Franz is outstanding, featuring strong performances from the actors featured in the film.  Four parents meet at a church, six years after the child of one family killed the child of another family in a school shooting.  Throughout the story, we see the parents struggle with how to interact with each other, ranging from politeness to absolute rage and anger.  Jason Isaacs and Martha Plympton play the parents of the victim, desperately searching for some semblance of an answer as to why their son was killed.  On the other side of the table are Ann Dowd and Reed Birney doing their best to explain how they didn’t see their son’s actions coming, and reliving the nightmare of their son taking his life after the shooting ended.  While the topic is emotional, there is no violence.  We don’t flashback to the event.  The entire film takes place in the church, and comes across more as a stage play, but that’s not to diminish the work of Franz’s direction.  He brings out the best in each actor, who each have their moments to shine in the film, and Franz does an excellent job of focusing on the right character at the right time throughout the conversations.  This is one of the best films I saw during Sundance.  I haven’t seen any news of an acquisition for Mass yet, but I expect it will show up in theaters later this year.

An Actor Showcase – Jockey

This film wasn’t on my radar before the festival, but we decided at the last minute to check it out, and I’m certainly glad we found it.  Clifton Collins Jr., who won the Best Actor award at Sundance for his performance, plays an aging jockey facing the end of his career after years of punishment on his body.  When he discovers the potential of his trainer’s new horse, he sees one more shot at glory on the racetrack.  His life becomes more complicated when a young jockey arrives on the scene, claiming to be his long-lost son.  Collins is a revelation in this role, bringing a heartfelt portrayal of a profession we never see on screen.  The horse racing scenes are a little underwhelming, demonstrating the limited budget of the film.  But this isn’t meant to be an action film in the tradition of Seabiscuit.  It’s more of a study of one man’s struggle with facing the end of the road, trying to hang on to glory, and coming to the realization of what’s important in life.  Sony Pictures acquired the rights to Jockey, so I expect this to be released in theaters later this year.  

This Is Why I Love Movies – CODA

What an absolute triumph of a movie.  This is the definition of a “crowd-pleaser” and the film that won four awards at the festival – the Grand Jury and Audience awards (Best Picture equivalents), Best Director for Sian Heder, and Best Ensemble Cast.  After an overwhelming response during its premiere that opened Sundance, a bidding war for the film developed, with Apple beating out Amazon for the rights for $25 million, shattering the record Palm Springs set last year.  It remains to be seen when Apple will release the film.  Given the strong reaction and likely awards potential, they could hold CODA for release until the Fall, but we’ll see what strategy they take.  Clearly, this is another example of Apple pushing hard to acquire content, since they do not have a strong production operation in place yet.

CODA (which stands for Child of Deaf Adult) is the story of Ruby Rossi, played by Emilia Jones in a star-making performance, the only member of her family who can hear.  Ruby carries the burden of being the translator for her parents and brother, as they interact with members of their fishing community in Gloucester, Massachusetts.  When her parents (played by Marlee Matlin and Troy Kotsur) decide to start their own fishing business, the burden on Ruby becomes even greater, especially as it conflicts with her desire to pursue her dream of winning a singing scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. 

Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for a well-written story that pulls at the heartstrings, has a perfect combination of comedy and family drama, and includes a few classic songs to set the mood, but this movie hit all the right notes for me (excuse the pun.)  The filmmakers did a superb job spotlighting the deaf community, in what feels like a genuine depiction of their lives.  A few of the plot points are a little predictable, but I didn’t care.  The execution and performances by all of the lead actors, and especially Eugenio Derbez as Ruby’s music teacher, made this a wonderful movie experience and a reminder that movies can still be great.  Every once in a while, you read about a movie that hits on so many spots that you’ll read “if this film doesn’t move you, check to see if your heart is still beating.”  That’s CODA and I can’t wait for you to see it.

That’s it for this week.  I hope you enjoyed my look at the Sundance Film Festival and find some good movies to check out soon or add to your list.  I’ll be back next week for some of my favorite Peak TV shows from recent years – a good suggestion from my friend and former colleague John.  If you’d like to be notified of future posts, you can subscribe here.