Sundance Film Festival 2021 Reviews

2021 Sundance Film Festival Review

By: Monte Yazzie

 

The largest independent film festival in the United States, the Sundance Film Festival, wrapped its new and innovative virtual program this week. The event, which typically takes place in Park City, Utah, transitioned its program to a virtual platform, offering festival-goers the opportunity to enjoy some of the best independent cinema from America and around the world from the comfort of their living room. 

 

This year's festival's big winner was Siân Heder's CODA, taking home the coveted Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award, U.S. Dramatic Audience Award, and a Special Jury Prize for Best Ensemble. The film is a dramatic comedy about a 17-year-old girl named Ruby, played by Emilia Jones, the only hearing child in a deaf family. Emilia, the communication translator for her family, is torn between pursuing her dream of making music and staying to help her family.

 

Similarly, in the World Cinematic Dramatic category, Blerta Basholli's Hive swept in numerous types winning the Grand Jury Prize, the Directing Award, and the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic category. The film follows a single mother in the aftermath of the war in Kosovo, trying to survive in a patriarchal society that doesn't support her efforts.

 

Perhaps the best part of this year's festival was the convenience of watching these movies, most of which were World Premier viewings, from the comfort of your home. I wouldn't want this format to be the new way to film festival. Part of the joy of going to a festival is discovering new movies and the camaraderie of watching these indies with cinephiles of every variety. Still, this year and for the sake of safety, this was a great way to experience one of the most iconic film festivals in the world.  

 

Here are five films I watched at Sundance 2021.

 

Censor

Dir: Prano Bailey-Bond

 

A "video nasty" was a term used in the U.K. in the early 1980s that described films, mostly low-budget horror slashers, that had excessive amounts of violence and gore. These films received criticism by family and religious groups and prosecution for distributors who would sell and trade these films. Censor, directed by Prano Bailey-Bond, focuses the story on a film censor named Enid, a committed performance from Niamh Algar, who is trying to solve the mystery of her sister's disappearance. Enid slowly loses grasp of the line between reality and fiction. Censor is a confident debut for director Prano Bailey-Bond, a heartfelt homage to the horror films of the 1980s.

 

Wild Indian

Dir: Lyle Mitchell Corbin Jr.

 

The lives of two Native American boys have been torn apart after the murder of a schoolmate. As adults, they must confront the past trauma and deal with a secret they thought was buried. Writer/director Lyle Mitchell Corbin Jr. composes a fascinating character study that brings about themes of historical trauma, reservation life, and the lingering effects of violence. Wild Indian does a great job of playing against type, specifically for Native American characters who are often one-dimensional compositions in crime dramas. Actor Michael Greyeyes gives a threatening and conflicted performance that provides the film with a beautiful foundation to build emotions. Wild Indian is a refreshing and intriguing film featuring Native American artists in front and behind the camera. You don't hear too often, but this film demonstrates that perspective and culture are essential storytelling pieces. 

 

 

Coming Home in the Dark

Dir: James Ashcroft

 

Coming Home in the Dark doesn't waste time letting you know the kind of journey you are taking. In the film's beginning moments, a shocking event occurs, placing a family on vacation in the middle of a bleak and nightmarish scenario. Director James Ashcroft confidently builds tension and atmosphere throughout, constructing a frightening landscape on lonely backroads and within the haze of the night. Daniel Gillies, an actor most known for playing the same role on The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, provides a startling and menacing presence as tormentor of the family. Coming Home in the Dark is a horror of the purest kind, one that is unrelenting, inescapable, and bleak.

 

In the Earth

Dir: Ben Wheatley

 

Myth and science mix with creative storytelling in writer/director Ben Wheatley's film In the Earth. Wheatley, known for his immersive and assaulting engagement of the senses, builds a claustrophobic yet open-air world set in the middle of a pandemic stricken society. The story centers on a research hub deep in the forest that a doctor and park scout are trying to reach. After a nighttime attack, they find assistance with a man living off the grid, but intentions are not what they seem. Wheatley's film impressively suffocates the atmosphere of the vast forest, making it seem inescapable. Add the human element of those guided by science and those persuaded by myth and In the Earth embodies the many conflicted emotions people have experienced while watching the entire world make sense of a pandemic. 

 

Prisoners of the Ghostland

Dir: Sion Sono

 

Director Sion Sono's films have been called genius, crazy, extravagant, exploitive, and audacious. And these descriptions were explained before the great Nicolas Cage came to bless his presence on Sono's new film Prisoners of the Ghostland. The premise concerns a notorious criminal tasked with saving a girl missing in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Oh, and he has to do this before the leather suit he is wearing explodes. Offering a few Nicolas Cage outbursts that will have you smiling with pure glee, Sono's film is a mess of wild images and bonkers storytelling. It might be everything you are looking to watch.

King of Herrings Review

King of Herrings

Dir: Eddie Jemison and Sean Richardson

Starring: Eddie Jemison, Joe Chrest, Laura Lamson, Andrea Frankle, David Jenson, Wayne Pére, John Mese, and Carl Palmer

“King of Herrings” starts in a bar with a group of friends who have known each other for too long. The typical banter and storytelling of these round table revelries ensues, escalating in emotion and culminating in a shouting match that introduces the beginning of the end for the ever-so-thin bonds holding a long friendship together. The situation sounds like the beginning verse of the blues song, the music that identifies the New Orleans streets this ragtag group of men traverse. Written and directed by Eddie Jemison and Sean Richardson, “King of Herrings” is darkly humorous and at times a richly poignant portrayal of friendship and masculinity.

Ditch (Eddie Jemison) is a one of those friends everyone knows; he is loud, egotistical, and brash, that friend that rubs everyone the wrong way. Though Ditch has found his merry men, a group of guys that seem to accept him and all his faults, his attitude has finally exhausted his friends. During a night of poker dissension is created within the group, leading to a split of allegiances between Ditch and The Professor (Joe Chrest), a seemingly self-given moniker by another friend in the group. The situation intensifies with more words cutting deeper rifts into the disagreement leading to destructive threats and unforgivable revenge ploys.

Character plays an integral and important aspect in this film and from the opening moments, the film builds an interesting quality of identifiable people. The leader with a Napoleon complex, the supportive to a fault friend, the peacemaker who keeps everyone calm, the friend who is waiting to take over, the lonely woman on the verge of self-discovery; these characters are all well rendered here. It’s a compliment to the narrative structure, which moves somewhat aimlessly, that these difficult characters remain believable amidst all the underhandedness that transpires. Though it’s easier to accomplish this when you have such a talented cast. Eddie Jemison is in the spotlight and accomplishes the task of becoming a loathsome character in the first few minutes of screen time. This continues throughout as Ditch vehemently muses on aspects of love, sex, marriage, and friendship. It’s comic yet wholly serious, a thin line that displays Jemison’s skill. Joe Chrest does a great job as The Professor, moving from an insufferable smart aleck, to a revenge-seeking degenerate, to a confused suitor; you never know what aspect of the character is genuine if any at all. The best character in the mix comes along unexpectedly in the form of Laura Lamson who plays Ditch’s wife Mary. Her character is mistreated and degraded by Ditch throughout, relinquished to an almost captive state as a lonely woman desperate for escape and the self-esteem to stand up to her husband. Lamson starts off subdued but slowly emerges as the strongest character amidst a group of men whose misguided masculinity in a way becomes their vulnerable limitation.

While the film may linger in spots, taking too much time reiterating a theme already told, it’s never boring, but in fact remains consistently stimulating. The characters are well executed and the black and white aesthetic works charmingly within the New Orleans streets. Whether about the trappings and misunderstandings found in masculinity, the emergence of feminine strength, or the complexities of different relationships, “King of Herrings” explores challenging subject matter and difficult characters with a keen eye and a healthy dose of dark comedy.

Monte’s Rating

4.00 out of 5.00

Nothing Bad Can Happen Review

Nothing Bad Can Happen

Dir: Katrin Gebbe

Starring: Julius Feldmeier, Sascha Alexander Gersak, Annika Kuhl, Swantje Kohlhof

A pulsating score threateningly introduces a young man led towards a lake. The music grows more ominous as the camera moves in and out of focus finally finding the young man forcefully submerged beneath the water. This aggressive action isn’t meant for dangerous intentions but instead portrays the Christian ceremony of baptism. This introduction is just a piece of the relationship director Katrin Gebbe is trying to convey between unwavering religious faith and volatile nihilism. It’s a subject matter that is initially handled with keen subtlety but progresses into distracted blatancy. Gebbe, sure footed along the way, attempts to explore an interesting aspect of religion in “Nothing Bad Can Happen”.

Tore (Julius Feldmeier) is in a church where members are known as the “Jesus Freaks”, a youthful group who dress in punk apparel and conduct contemporary worship services in industrial settings. This is his family; not much is known about his past besides the presence of medical seizures that render him helpless. Tore, who isn’t shy about sharing his faith, invites a skeptical man named Benno to his church. While at the service Tore is overwhelmed by a seizure and Benno rescues him. Tore is given recovery in Benno’s home with his wife and two children. Tore is treated as part of the family at first but things turn depraved as Benno unleashes his own “tests” of faith.

Gebbe is tackling difficult subject matter with equally difficult imagery. This leaves opportunity for criticism, both justified and unjustified, but also confusion concerning the qualities demonstrated by the faith based community. Tore’s journey is one that transitions from diligence to carelessness. His staunch belief in the involvement of God in his everyday life, depicted in an early scene where the power of prayer fixes a broken down vehicle, is a guiding principle that grows with each test of will. Gebbe utilizes faith to forward the progression of Tore’s battle with Benno who is initially accommodating towards his devout beliefs. However, it’s an artificial reaction for Benno who instead implements trials that torment the steadfast diligence of the young man. It begins as intuitive questioning but progresses to physical violence, one altercation leading to another, before Gebbe moves into more torturous and vicious territory. It’s a transition that abandons the restrained nuances involving the proposed inquiry of what it means to be faithful. How much will Tore endure to show his allegiance to God? Through the continuing and escalating gruesome presentation, Tore’s faith is rendered a naïve attribute.

In Pascal Laugier’s equally challenging film “Martyrs” the suffering for insight is forcefully implied on the subject. However in Gebbe’s film Tore willingly commits to the torment, led towards reasoning by his own interpretations of the situation. Whether misguided or divinely directed the film never straightforwardly takes a position, though the debate will be made that it leans one way depending on your stance on the subject matter.     

“Nothing Bad Can Happen” is a difficult film to watch. Initially director Katrin Gebbe guides the film with subtle observations on the polarizing aspects of religious belief. Unfortunately, the though provoking subject matter is skewed by an overindulgence of shocking elements.

Monte’s Rating

2.50 out of 5.00

Short Term 12 Review

Short Term 12

Dir: Destin Cretton

Starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., and Kaitlyn Dever

There are moments in “Short Term 12”, a film set in an adolescent group home, that feel sincere and authentic in a way that is both accidental and deliberate at the same time. This aspect is in part due to director Destin Cretton’s own life experience, but also his skillful rendering of the characters and atmosphere in the film. Both the staff and the young people being cared for are wounded, in both figurative and literal ways, by lives marred by mistreatment. “Short Term 12” develops into an emotionally compelling film that dodges the over sensationalized aspects of similar dramas for a focused and genuine perspective.

Grace (Brie Larson) is a complicated young woman who is a staff supervisor for an adolescent foster care group home. She works at the facility with her boyfriend Mason (John Gallagher Jr.), though the kids and staff are unaware of this. Their relationship is idyllic, if somewhat emotionally restrained, because of Grace’s scarred past that included parental abuse. Grace becomes attached to a newly admitted teen named Kayden (Kaitlyn Dever) who bears some of the same wounds as her, both physically and emotionally.

Cretton establishes an early perspective of simple observation, as the group is introduced and slowly allowed to open up through their actions and amusing stories. The photography is intimate, if a little over manipulated with a hand-held technique, yet the perspective allows for an effective invitation into the lives of the kids. The group home location is particularly convincing with walls that look recently patched over and shadows of confining bars that shine through the windows. These young people, most of whom feel abandoned, are waiting for the impending birthday that signifies their release from the protective care of the facility. This area of casting is where “Short Term 12” shines; giving a realistic identity to these children that is at times passive but also occasionally violent. In one scene Marcus (Keith Stanfield), the oldest of the group, composes an aggressively charged rap verse that is especially moving when detailing the pain of his childhood and the fear of his freedom.

The focus soon narrows onto Grace who is especially guarded and slow to reveal anything about her life, even to her to concerned boyfriend. The delicate handling of her personality in the narrative is assisted by the exceptional performance from Brie Larson, who displays a mix of imposed composure and mounting frustration. Grace is protective, mostly for the kids that live in Short Term 12 but also for her own feelings and concerns about the past she ultimately must face. It’s an interesting character that Cretton crafts with deliberate and keen insights from his experience in the professional field. While Grace’s motivations become somewhat familiar and her actions over embellished to the extent of falling into melodramatic trappings, Cretton’s established narrative elements sustain the focus enough to keep the film from wavering to far off course.

“Short Term 12” is a film that looks at the lives of children harmed by mistreatment with unflinching attention. It has the unique quality of being uplifting even when it’s upsetting. Though some elements become forced and familiar, Cretton’s well-crafted script and interesting characters create a delicate film that is impressively genuine.

Monte’s Rating

4.25 out of 5.00