PARK CITY, Utah — Every January, just once we’re all sick of yakking in regards to the same 10 Oscar movies, the Sundance Film Festival arrives like a bucket of ice water over the top.
The buzzy indie fest, in the lovable but eye-gougingly expensive ski town of Park City, Utah, wakes us up and sets the tone for the moviegoing 12 months, providing an inkling of what’s on modern filmmakers’ minds.
Back in-person for the primary time since 2020, the 45-year-old festival had scandal (Sundance was rocked by late demands that each one movies be closed captioned), shockers (Alexander Skarsgård wrestled nude together with his clone) and celebs donning parkas though they’re warmly chauffeured from the St. Regis straight to the red carpet.
But what struck me most was that, after a run of unbearably bleak lineups, the radiating optimism that made “CODA” a Best Picture Oscar winner in 2022 abounded on this 99-feature-film roster. A feel-good fest, of course.
Listed here are the five best movies of Sundance 2023.
Past Lives
The best film at this 12 months’s Sundance, and one which has a powerful likelihood of becoming one among those Oscar nominees we’re still talking about in 12 months, is writer-director Celine Song’s sublime “Past Lives.” Set over 24 years, red-hot studio A24’s film is about two childhood sweethearts in Seoul, South Korea, who’re separated when little Nora’s family moves to Toronto. Fast forward 12 years later and Nora (Greta Lee) is a author in Latest York, who reconnects with past love Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) on Skype. I do know the setup of “Past Lives” sounds easy, but Song’s writing and Lee and Yoo’s realistic performances will knock you over.
Eileen
Anne Hathaway being sultry and mysterious in a Nineteen Sixties Boston prison? Sure! “Eileen” is a thriller a few shy 24-year-old secretary, played by Thomasin McKenzie, whose miserable existence is shaken up when a life-of-the-party administrator (Hathaway) involves work on the penitentiary where she works. It’s removed from a joyride, however the movie sizzles with uncertainty. We’re downright nervous attempting to determine exactly where William Oldroyd’s film, based on Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel, is headed. The moment the tense story comes together, you’ll gasp so loud your upstairs neighbor will bang on the ground.
Going Varsity in Mariachi
My favorite documentaries teach me something I didn’t know before, and are alive with the identical fire and memorable characters as any great drama or comedy. The superb “Boys State” at Sundance in 2020 was one such film. My “the more you recognize” on this heartwarming doc is that Texas has a 100-team-strong highschool mariachi competition circuit — who knew? — and our lovable forged comprises Mariachi Oro from Edinburg North HS, led by the sensible teacher Abel Acuña.
Radical
Eugenio Derbez, the actor who played the music teacher in “CODA,” doles out inspiring lessons once more in “Radical.” Here, he arrives at a struggling school in Mexico and confuses colleagues and children alike together with his nontraditional methods: no lesson plans, no tests, a number of listening. Yes, it sounds quite a bit like “Dead Poets Society” or “To Sir, With Love,” but being based on a real story and being set south of the border raises the stakes and brings on the tears.
You Hurt My Feelings
In a repeat of the post-“Seinfeld” era, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has struggled to seek out the precise film role since HBO’s “Veep” ended. “Downhill” went downhill, and her MCU part is a paycheck. But she’s her comedically perfect self in “You Hurt My Feelings” as a mid-level writer who learns that her husband secretly hates her latest book. Author-director Nicole Holofcener’s sharply observed comedy is in regards to the lies, big and small, we tell our family members to get through one other day.
And the worst: Cat Person
My claws were out for this heinous adaptation of Kristen Roupenian’s viral 2017 Latest Yorker short story, starring Emilia Jones (“CODA”) and Nicholas Braun (“Succession”). What within the magazine was a pointed talker in regards to the horrors of recent dating has been become an actual, campy horror movie with a latest ending that begs belief. Title recognition means you’ll probably see it, but I wish the terrible reviews would catnip it within the bud.
