This edition of Sundance 2020 released all the movies you will want to watch in the following months. And to prove that, here's a small selection with the most interesting titles in its program.
Everyone agrees of one thing: film festivals are events designed by and for the cinephiles who are locked in their ivory towers, from where they shape the panorama of one kind of auteur cinema that, ultimately, interests them alone. Truth to be told, the vast majority of festivals are like this... But then comes the Sundance.
A festival established in 1978 that, a priori, couldn't operate more differently than what’s considered to be standard: it takes place at the end of January in Utah (USA). And, above all, its program has less to do with this type of contests and more to do with the kind of audiovisual content that the urban generation hopes to consume, and that streaming video services have allowed us to enjoy from our sofa.
With Robert Redford as the official face of the festival since its first editions, Sundance has been the place where some of the most recent urban film genres have grown, from the 90's street vibe to the early XXI century mumblecore. And that's why, if you can't find a film festival that represents you, you should at least give Sundance a chance. To give you an idea, find below the six most outstanding titles of the latest edition, held between Jan 23 and Feb 2.
BOYS STATE. Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine take their camera to the Boy State, a yearly convention in which, for a few weeks, a group of young Americans organize a functional mock-government. This documentary exposes the intricacies of American politics, from the eyes of the fanatic madness of the most radically politicized youth.
MINARI. This film by Lee Isaac Chung rubs salt in the wound of the current immigration situation in the United States. The main focus on the immigration of a Korean family trying to carve a future for their children in a place as inhospitable as Kansas. What's interesting is that this fiction is based on the director's own (and presumably hilarious) childhood.
INTO THE DEEP. Emma Sullivan was filming a documentary about the Danish inventor Peter Madsen, who had made the news by building his own submarine and intending to fly into space with his own rocket. And then Madsen murdered Swedish journalist Kim Wall aboard the aforementioned submarine... And the documentary became something completely different.
POSSESSOR. Brandon Cronenberg is David Cronenberg's son, obviously. But what validates him in the cinematographic world, it's his role as the director of Antiviral, a film about a near future in which people pay to inoculate themselves with their idols' diseases. Now, Possesor focuses on a biohacker killer who struggles to gain control of his own body. Impressive.
SHIRLEY. Anything Elisabeth Moss does turns directly into gold today. She owned it in The Handmaid's Tale. Nonetheless, Shirley has become one of Sundance's highlights despite the actress. Josephine Decker's film has been continuously pointed out as a shocking psychodrama around one of the most disturbing writers of American literature: Shirley Jackson.
KAJILLIONAIRE. Miranda July is one of those authors who spark interest for being unclassifiable. Kajillionaire is the typical story of a girl who is suddenly dragged into adult life... The funny thing here is that the girl in question isn't really a kid, but rather an adult with overprotective parents. Something like a quirkier version of Lady Bird?
