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Miss Americana, Crip Camp, Summertime, The Perfect Candidate and more
Miss Americana *** [Documentary Premieres]
The literal first image in Lana Wilson's documentary about Taylor Swift is of Swift playing piano while a kitten scampers playfully across the keys. It's a somewhat ominous portent—hinting at carefully curated marketing tool for the singer/songwriter's “good girl” image—but Wilson ultimately takes viewers on a more complicated journey.
Sundance Film Festival-adjacent Events
Lil Jon, Wiz Khalifa, The Chainsmokers, Tiesto @ Park City Live
Park City—and Park City Live—really come alive in winter, and that’s particularly the case during the Sundance Film Festival. PCL offers one more star-studded spectacle to witness during the 11 days of mayhem on the mountain.
The best, the worst, the most political, the biggest crowd-pleasers and more.
Another Sundance Film Festival is in the books, with all the attendant buzz, Park City gridlock, celebrity sightings and good old-fashioned movie love. Our critics covered 75 features over the 11 days of the festival; here’s a roundup of that coverage.
By Scott Renshaw, Victor Morton and Steven D. Greydanus
Feb 4, 2019 2:14 pm
Paradise Hills, The Death of Dick Long, Queen of Hearts, Imaginary Order and more
Paradise Hills (NEXT) **
Allegorical science-fiction is hard enough to pull off without profound confusion as to what you’re being allegorical about. Emma Roberts plays Uma, a young woman involuntarily committed by her mother to an idyllic “center for emotional healing” where she and other young women are trained to be what other people want them to be.
By Scott Renshaw and Victor Morton
Feb 2, 2019 1:26 pm
Honey Boy, Sweetheart, The Brink, One Child Nation and more.
Honey Boy (U.S. Dramatic) *
No point in mincing words: I found this enterprise distasteful—essentially a Daddie Dearest for the therapeutic society. Scripted by Shia LeBeouf, it tells two parallel stories involving Otis, a child-adult star very like LeBeouf.
By Scott Renshaw, Victor Morton and Steven D. Greydanus
Feb 1, 2019 8:35 am
The Report, Cold Case Hammerskjold, Official Secrets, Light from Light and more
The Report (Premieres) ***
An elegantly-made information dump is still an information dump, and that is indeed what writer/director/longtime Steven Soderbergh collaborator Scott Z. Burns offers in his paper-chase political thriller surrounding the investigation into the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” techniques. Adam Driver plays Dan Jones, a staffer for the Senate Intelligence Committee who heads up a task force trying to get to the bottom of why the CIA tortured prisoners, and what if anything was gained.
By Scott Renshaw, Victor Morton and Steven D. Greydanus
Jan 31, 2019 8:52 am
Big Time Adolescence, Brittany Runs a Marathon, Before You Know It and more
Big Time Adolescence (U.S. Dramatic) ***
Hypotheticallly speaking, if this movie consisted solely of 90 minutes of Pete Davidson smiling goofily at the world and describing everything as “sick,” it might still be hella-fun to watch. It turns out to be more than that, following the friendship between 16-year-old high-school student Mo (Griffin Glick) and his unlikely best friend: 23-year-old Zeke, the pot-smoking, layabout ex-boyfriend of Mo's sister.
By Scott Renshaw, Victor Morton and Steven D. Greydanus
Jan 30, 2019 9:18 am
Goat, First Girl I Loved, Michael Jackson's Journey, Cameraperson, Miles Ahead, The Intervention
Goat [U.S. Dramatic] ★ ★
In an early scene in Goat, an assault victim reports a campus crime to the police, a bit belatedly, which causes the investigating cop to doubt the details, question the victim's pre-assault actions as complicity, and suggest it was just another activity gone wrong. It's a teenage boy (Ben Schnetzer) beaten up for his ATM card by two hoods he had given a ride to, just to be a good guy, a cool bro.
The Lobster, The Fits, Lovesong, We Are X, Eat That Question, White Girl, Jacqueline (Argentine)
The Lobster [Spotlight] ★ ★ ★
If you’re going to make a movie about a society in which the only options are romantic couplehood or losing your humanity, the deadpan absurdist sensibility of Yorgos Lanthimos seems just right for the task. This story focuses on a man named David (Colin Farrell) who is left by his wife, forcing him per the laws of The City to go to The Hotel, where he has 45 days to find a new romantic partner or face the rest of his life transformed into the animal of his choosing.
