The first few days of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival felt a little quiet to many attendees in Park City, Utah. The event’s movie count and its footprint in local cinemas looked leaner compared with previous editions; some even mused that Sundance might someday pick up sticks and relocate. But the crowds at premieres were as enthusiastic as ever, happy to brave ski traffic and occasional flurries to pack the Eccles Center and other beloved venues.
Then came the big film sales that tend to serve as economic indicators at a festival fuelled by blue-sky dreams: $17mn for the midnight thriller It’s What’s Inside, bought by Netflix and reviewed on these pages last week; A Real Pain went to Searchlight for $10mn; the Irish rap-group biopic Kneecap was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics (price unknown). Then, on Tuesday, two Academy Award nominations for Past Lives, a highlight here last year, reminded every wishful filmmaker of where it could all lead.
The lasting standouts could be a little harder to discern at this edition, though not for lack of flashy efforts. Love Lies Bleeding, the relentless second feature by Britain’s Rose Glass, maker of the 2019 psychological horror Saint Maud, supercharges a murderous romance between a gym attendant (Kristen Stewart) and a bodybuilding drifter (Katy O’Brian) with visual pyrotechnics, amped-up sound and surreal touches. Sasquatch Sunset meanwhile commits to the very scatological tale of a yeti family and stars Riley Keough and an unrecognisable Jesse Eisenberg. As strange as it sounds, the film becomes a gonzo meditation on extinction.
Eisenberg also stars in and directs the more conventional A Real Pain, which is buoyed by nimble comedic work from Succession stalwart Kieran Culkin. The premise might sound eye-rollingly sentimental in the Sundance context: American cousins Benji (Culkin) and David (Eisenberg) embark on a Holocaust history tour in Poland after their grandmother’s death. But the story resolves into a well-observed character sketch — loose, charming, prickly Benji opposite uptight, conciliatory David — that reflects on generational trauma and coping methods. It’s arguably a little slick, though that can be another word for smoothly executed. ★★★★☆
That’s not always a guarantee at a festival where bright story ideas can sometimes fizzle in the telling. That’s why Presence, from Sundance veteran Steven Soderbergh, was such a welcome energising start to the opening weekend. Shot entirely from the first-person perspective of a haunting spirit, the slow-burn thriller might have collapsed in less experienced hands, but Soderbergh expertly puts a terrific ensemble through their paces.
The “presence” differs from the supernatural forces in many horror movies because it’s chiefly a concerned observer, and the chills don’t come from jump scares. Tensions bubble up instead from the family drama: pleasant parents who are drifting apart, a headstrong teenage son and a daughter mourning the loss of a friend and — much to the dismay of the ghost — pursuing an iffy boy from school. It all unfolds deftly, not without a sense of humour, until a horrific clash with the great beyond becomes unavoidable. (News came midweek that Neon, US distributor of Parasite and Anatomy of a Fall, had acquired Presence.) ★★★★★
The world documentary section had its own dramatic first-person story in the form of Black Box Diaries, the debut feature from Shiori Itō. The Japanese journalist’s 2017 book Black Box, about her experience of sexual assault by an older colleague, became a symbol of the #MeToo movement in Japan. Her film chronicles the time leading up to going public with the story and beyond, essentially investigating her own case after the police fall short, and securing allies in her pursuit of justice, despite the accused’s friends in high places.
This is an arduous journey, to say the least, as Itō fights to keep her spirits up in the face of post-traumatic stress, as well as suspicions of surveillance and obstruction. She employs a mix of vérité filmmaking and audio-only interviews, where video would have been impossible, all of which makes for a visceral account of the ups and downs of her journey. The obstacles and sexism she faces can seem monolithic, but she is able to cultivate a source in the local police department who will talk, and then a valuable witness from the night of her assault. It’s a genuinely empowering film but also absolutely clear-eyed about the challenges that remain for women in Japan. ★★★★☆
The Premieres section featured a cheeky and charming what-if comedy directed by Megan Park. My Old Ass stars effervescent newcomer Maisy Stella as Elliott, a high school grad who meets her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) after taking psychoactive mushrooms on her birthday. The two continue to chat, making young Elliott privy to wisdom and spoilers about her future just as she’s preparing to leave her family’s Canadian cranberry farm.
The plot device is irresistible but also effective, giving Elliott a sounding board at a bewildering moment in her life. Her later self adds to the confusion by stringently warning her away from a seemingly innocuous teenager named Chad (Percy Hynes White); young Elliott’s curiosity about Chad also makes her wonder about her sexuality, having previously been attracted to women. It’s a breezy, joyfully slangy confection that leaves audiences pondering what to ask if given similar time-bending access to hindsight. ★★★☆☆
The strong tradition of New York indies at Sundance continues with A Different Man, directed by Aaron Schimberg and starring heart-throb Sebastian Stan. Here too, a touch of sci-fi sets up a kind of psychological experiment, when jobbing actor Edward (Stan) undergoes a procedure to have reconstructive facial surgery. He enjoys a certain degree of newfound ease in the world, but things grow complicated when his neighbour (Renate Reinsve) casts him in her play.
Stan gives an unnerving performance as a man uncomfortable in his own skin, and writer-director Schimberg extends the story’s ironies with the introduction of a winning and witty British interloper, Oswald. He is played by Adam Pearson, an actor who has a facial deformity and almost runs away with the film. It’s a curious story that doubles as a parable on identity and a bizarre tale to be recounted at an East Village bar. ★★★☆☆
There was plenty else to paste into the Sundance 2024 yearbook: trippy teen transformation drama I Saw the TV Glow; May-December attraction between Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in Between the Temples; a suite of documentaries boasting ready name recognition: DEVO, Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and Will & Harper with a road-tripping Will Ferrell.
In the end, it didn’t quite feel like an earth-shattering selection, but the noticeable comedic streak that tempered so many fiction offerings suggested an attempt to lighten our collective load.
To January 28, festival.sundance.org
