#2022 Sundance Coverage

[greensparty]

Stuff I'm Looking Forward To in September

Summer's over and now it's Back to School month! In addition to Labor Day (Sept. 4), 9/11 (Sept. 11), Rosh Hashanah (sundown on Sept. 15 to nightfall on Sept. 17), First Day of Fall (Sept. 23) and Yom Kippur (Sept. 25) here is what's on my radar this month:

Movies:

Stop Making Sense

I guess you could say I've written a great deal about Jonathan Demme's brilliant Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (for proof, read here). Demme, in his prime, captured the Talking Heads in their prime as they performed over the course of 4 nights in Hollywood. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of those concerts (the film was released in 1984), A24 is re-releasing this legendary film in IMAX on 9/11 before a wider 4K remastered release in Sept. (my review and coverage coming soon!).

Dumb Money

Director Craig Gillespie has done some interesting work based on true stories (i.e. I, Tonya and last year's limited series Pam and Tommy) and now he's doing the movie version of the Gamestop becoming the hottest stock on Wall Street. Opens 9/22.

Drive-Away Dolls

I was a huge fan of the Coen brothers, but after The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, they began working solo. After Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, I'm excited to see Ethan Coen's solo feature, an action comedy about inept criminals, which is his wheelhouse! Opens 9/22. [ NOTE: This has since been moved to 2024, awaiting exact release date ]

Flora and Son

John Carney has very quietly become one of the best directors of the now. His last feature film Sing Street was my #1 Movie of 2016. Now he's back with this Sundance hit, which once again is about musicians. Can't wait! Opening in select theaters on 9/22 and then streaming on Apple TV+ on 9/29.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

It is very rare that a short film makes my Stuff I'm Looking Forward To list, but when it's director Wes Anderson adapting Roald Dahl, like he did with the adaptation of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, it makes my list! This short premieres on 9/27 on Netflix.

The Kill Room

It's a Pulp Fiction reunion with Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson starring in this thriller, which also stars Thurman's daughter Maya Hawke. Opens 9/29.

Music:

Speedy Ortiz Rabbit Rabbit

It's been five years since the last Speedy Ortiz album, which makes this new one super exciting. Album drops 9/1. (Review to come).

Courtney Barnett End of the Day (music from the film Anonymous Club)

Last year I caught the documentary Anonymous Club about one of my favorite musicians to emerge out of the 2010s Courtney Barnett. Now the instrumental music score that she composed for the doc is getting a release. Album drops on 9/8. (Review to come).

Will Butler + Sister Squares Will Butler + Sister Squares

Will Butler was a vital part of Arcade Fire and before he left the band in 2022, he had already done some great solo albums. He released his first solo album Policy in 2015 and it was just as good as some of Arcade Fire’s albums. I named Policy my #2 Album of 2015 and I was lucky enough to see him live in 2015 just before the album’s release (read my review here). His 2020 album Generations was the next best thing to an Arcade Fire album during that time. Now he has a new album with his new group Sister Squares dropping on 9/22 (Review to come).

The Breeders Last Splash 30th Anniversary Edition

Last month marked the 30th anniversary of one of my all time favorite albums ever, Last Splash by The Breeders (read my remembrance here). To celebrate the band is doing a tour and also releasing a 30th anniversary edition dropping 9/22!

The Replacements Tim Let It Bleed Edition Box Set

I out and out love The Replacements and their 1985 album Tim is considered by many to be their best. Now the album is getting the box set treatment with an Ed Stasium mix of the album, outtakes and concert recordings. Album drops 9/22 (Review to come).

Wilco Cousin

A Wilco release is always a high priority for me. I’ve been lucky enough to get to review the band’s Ode to Joy and Cruel Country albums as well as this year's Record Store Day release Crosseyed Strangers and they certainly are one of the greatest American rock bands of the last 25 years. Hands down! This new album is said to be a return to their early 00s rock sound. Woo hoo! Album drops 9/29.

Conventions:

Collectibles Extravaganza

The team that run the Northeast Comic Con, which I've covered a lot in the past, have a collectibles show at the Boxborough Regency in Boxborough, MA from Sept. 30-Oct. 1. Always a fun time!

[rickyvalero]

'Am I Ok?' Sundance Review

‘Am I Ok?’ Sundance Review

-Allison McCulloch Married couple Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne directed Am I OK?, a film that screenwriter Lauren Pomerantz based on the relationship between her and her best friend. Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) personify the best friends very well. Lucy explores her feelings toward a very charming masseuse (Kiersey Clemons) and Jane faces challenges at work and with her…

[cinemastnet]

Sundance 2022 | The Lowdown on Everything Jeff Watched

Like most years, Sundance was a mixed bag, but this year I found myself consistently impressed. A lot of quiet, methodical filmmaking. A lot of PG rated fare, which ended up some of the best stuff. You never know? Anyway, here are a few words about everything I watched last week, in order of viewing. Watcher Courtesy of Sundance Institute Watcher is unfortunately bland start to finish. A film…

[tinseltine]

Got to see RESURRECTION starring Rebecca Hall during #Sundance2022.  Now in theaters as of (7/29) Tinsel & Tine #MiniMovieReview - RESURRECTION -This is a disturbingly engrossing movie. Rebecca Hall delivers a gripping performance of a woman completely unraveling, with emotional impact.  And a completely chilling performance by Tim Roth. Margaret (Hall) is a single mother of a daughter, Abbie (Grace Kaufman) who’s about to graduate High School. They live a comfortable life in a nice high-rise complex, as Margaret works as a corporate boss of some kind. She’s secretly sleeping with a subordinate (not young), they only see each other outside of the office. Basically, she seems to have her life all nicely compartmentalized. 

Until one day at a business conference she catches a glimpse of the back of someone’s head and freaks out! Has to immediately leave the conference.  Then she sees him, well, the audience isn’t sure if she’s really seeing him or imagining him, again and again.  Once I decided, okay he’s really there, a man from her past; obviously this is Abbie’s father back and wanting to rekindle a relationship with his daughter. We get that Margaret is very protective and close to Abbie, but still, the girl is practically grown, let her make up her own mind about seeing him, so I thought.

Why is she so scared? Once we know the reasons, the movie becomes a full on psychological thriller, terrifying and hideous. It delves deeply into grooming, gaslighting and control…

"I started writing RESURRECTION about 7 or 8 years ago while I was working on other scripts, so it was a long gestation period. I imagined a character of a single mother acting alone to protect her child from some sort of dangerous threat or predator, but I didn’t quite know who she was or why she must act alone. Around this time, a friend of mine became involved in a relationship with a very toxic guy, and I witnessed their relationship firsthand … I became interested in and terrified by the tactics employed by manipulative, controlling people to form and maintain intense emotional bonds with their victims." – writer/director Andrew Semans

My favorite Rebecca Hall movie remains "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women", I wish more people knew how good it is.  It’s one of those movies I always recommend.  Now with this film,  "The Night House" and adapting and directing "Passing", Rebecca Hall has elevated to a new level of Hollywood A List.

https://tinseltine.com/sundance-film-festival-coverage-2022/IFC Films 

[carolinesiede]

My 2022 Roundup

Phew! What a year.

2022 started with news of some disappointing corporate shake-ups at The A.V. Club — my main freelance home for the past nine years. After leaving the site in solidarity with my wonderful departing editors, I went all-in on a full-time contract gig with FOX Digital only for that to rather unexpectedly end in mid-November. Add in the tumult that has taken over Twitter in the last third of the year, and I’m ending this year without any of the pillars of stability that have propped me up for my entire career, not to mention nearly my entire adult life.

And, yet, remarkably, I also feel more rejuvenated and excited than I have since the start of the pandemic. After a challenging 2021 took a fairly drastic toll on my mental health, 2022 was filled with adventures that pushed me out of my comfort zone and reminded me that I’m capable of more than I think I am.

I started the year covering virtual Sundance, which was my first experience with a major film festival like that. Then in March I hopped on a plane for the first time since 2015 (!!!) to attend SXSW, where I saw a Dolly Parton concert, watched Nic Cage watch Nic Cage play Nic Cage, and just generally had 10 of the most surreal, exhausting, exhilarating days of my life.

May brought my first-ever on camera interview, with Cha Cha Real Smooth writer/director/star Cooper Raiff, who was in town for the Chicago Critics Film Festival. Then June took me to L.A., where I watched a dear college friend get married and took my first-ever trip to Disneyland! (I also dealt with my first major cancelled flight snafu and managed to have only a minor emotional breakdown in LAX.)

The adventures didn’t stop there, as I took a relaxing trip home to St. Louis in August, dashed around like a madwoman covering the Chicago International Film Festival in October, and took a semi-spontaneous trip to New York City in November, where I squeezed in five Broadway shows amongst catching up with friends old and new.

The year wasn’t all easy, of course, especially when it came to the major mental adjustment of switching from a freelance lifestyle to the structure and demands of a full-time job creating a brand new section with a two-person team.

And it was incredibly bittersweet to say goodbye to some of the long-time anchors of my career: My episodic recaps of This Is Us (my favorite show I’ve ever gotten to write about in such an in-depth way) and especially my long-time A.V. Club column When Romance Met Comedy, which came to a close after 101 columns totaling 187,227 words.

I’m especially proud that my final four WRMC entries (Roman Holiday, Win A Date with Tad Hamilton!, 2005′s Pride & Prejudice, and How To Be Single) really sum up the scope of what I was trying to do with this four-year project. And though it was kind of nice to take a break from writing about rom-coms for most of 2022, I feel like the genre is calling me back again in 2023. 

Other highlights of the year included celebrating Nathan Chen’s gold medal win at the Beijing Olympics (I’ve been following his skating career since 2016!), spotting Nate from The Bachelorette at my screening of Black Adam, re-hauling my wardrobe, getting my bivalent booster (a major turning point in pandemic safety — get yours today!) and reconnecting with friends I hadn’t seen in person in years.

I also created a public Instagram account, recapped “The Slap” Oscars, delved deep into the nerd-spheres of the MCU, Stranger Things, and House of the Dragon, and kept things going strong with my podcast Role Calling, where we covered the careers of Meg Ryan, Antonio Banderas, and Zac Efron, and released a series of Lord of the Rings specials that I’m especially proud of.

Oh and I picked my 10 favorite films of 2022, even though this is the first time in years that I didn’t actually publish any official year-end coverage:

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Living

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Elvis

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.

The Woman King

Aftersun

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Saint Omer

Turning Red

As we head into 2023, I’ll leave you with wishes for a Happy New Year and a roundup of all the major writing and podcasts I did in 2022. If you enjoyed my work, you can support me on Kofi or PayPal. Or you can just share some of your favorite pieces with your friends! That really means a lot. 

When Romance Met Comedy

Nearly 70 years on, Roman Holiday remains one of romantic comedy’s most delectable treats

Win A Date With Tad Hamilton! now has retro charms twice over

Joe Wright made Pride & Prejudice feel fresh all over again

Can romantic comedies teach us How To Be Single?

My last A.V. Club TV recaps

This Is Us season 6

The Doctor Who 2022 New Year’s Day Special

Op-eds and Features

At the SXSW Film Festival, Nicolas Cage watches Nicolas Cage play Nicolas Cage

Revisit the lighthearted nun comedy that won Sidney Poitier the Oscar

Awards show recap: The chaos Oscars

‘Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion’ is still timeless at 25

75 years of the Roswell incident — pop culture’s favorite alien conspiracy theory

Watch rare color footage of Queen Elizabeth II’s 1947 royal wedding

Interviews

Cooper Raiff on his new Apple TV+ indie rom-com ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’

Film Reviews

Say "maybe" to Jennifer Lopez’s Marry Me (my last A.V. Club film review!)

‘The Worst Person in the World’ might be the best movie of the year

Unfortunately, ‘Uncharted’ isn’t quite a national treasure

‘The Batman’ review: Why so serious?

'After Yang' review: Colin Farrell grapples with the loss of his android son

‘Turning Red’ is Pixar at its weird, wonderful best

‘The Lost City’ almost strikes gold at SXSW

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once' is transcendent and a bit exhausting

‘Morbius’ is a boring, bloodless bat man

In ‘Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood,’ nostalgia becomes rocket fuel

‘Dual’ review: Two Karen Gillans, one deadpan dark comedy

‘The Bad Guys’ review: Animated baddies make for a good time at the movies

‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ review: Marvel makes a messy horror movie

‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ review: Mamma Mia, here we go again

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ review: ‘Top Gun 2’ is a gloriously corny nostalgia fest

HBO’s ‘The Janes’ tells the story of radically empathetic abortion activists

‘Jurassic World Dominion’ review: Just going through the dino motions

‘Cha Cha Real Smooth’ is a stellar new riff on a classic indie dramedy formula

‘Elvis’ somehow has both the best and worst performances of the year

‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ review: A surprisingly bittersweet romp

‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ lacks grit

‘Marcel the Shell with Shoes On’ is pure magic

‘My Old School’ is a wild, weirdly charming documentary

‘DC League of Super-Pets’ has delightful Saturday morning cartoon vibes

‘Bullet Train’ review: Brad Pitt’s thrill ride just barely stays on track

‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ review: A wickedly fun Gen Z slasher from A24

‘Not Okay’ and ‘Vengeance,’ two provocative comedies about narcissism

‘13: The Musical’ review: Broadway magic gets lost in Netflix translation

John Boyega gets a dramatic showcase in ‘Breaking’

‘Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.’ review: A megachurch mockumentary masterclass

‘The Woman King’ review: Viola Davis’ crowning achievement

‘Don’t Worry Darling’ should’ve worried more

‘Bros’ review: Billy Eichner is a glorious rom-com lead

‘Black Adam’ review: The Rock goes bad — mostly for good

‘Ticket to Paradise’ review: George Clooney and Julia Roberts grin and bear it

'Call Jane' review: An abortion drama with optimism

‘My Policeman’ and ‘Causeway’: Harry Styles and Jennifer Lawrence lead quiet new dramas

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ review: A superhero elegy

TV Reviews/Recaps

‘Welcome to Flatch’ S1 (premiere + final recap)

‘Monarch’ S1 (premiere + final recap)

Streaming pick of the week: Hulu’s ‘Pam & Tommy’

‘The Dropout’ review: Amanda Seyfried leads TV’s latest scammer drama

Marvel’s ‘Moon Knight’ is promising but weirdly paced

‘Doctor Who’ review: A pirate-themed Easter special is a throwaway romp

Get ready to fall in love with ‘Ms. Marvel’

‘She-Hulk’ review: Marvel’s bold comedic experiment’

‘House of the Dragon’ review: ‘Game of Thrones’ is back and better than ever

‘Andor’ review: ‘Star Wars’ grows up, with a rebel yell

Explainers & Rankings

Oscars 2022: Where to watch the Best Picture nominees (and other movies like them)

Marvel second installments ranked — including ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’

‘Top Gun 2’: Film critic eats his shoe (literally) over ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

'Stranger Things' recap: Here's a refresher ahead of the season 4 premiere

‘Stranger Things’ season 4 storylines, ranked

Here's everything Marvel announced at Comic-Con

'She-Hulk': Three Marvel movies (and one TV show) to revisit before starting the series

The 11 best movies of the year so far: ‘Top Gun 2,’ ‘Turning Red’ and more

10 of the best streaming shows of the year (so far)

22 things we loved in 2022

‘House of the Dragon’ 101

‘Game of Thrones’ returns: Everything you need to know about HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’

‘House of the Dragon’ 101: Who's who in this new game of thrones

‘House of the Dragon’ 101: What are the Stepstones and where’s Old Valyria?

‘House of the Dragon’ 101: What’s up with Targaryen incest?

‘House of the Dragon’ 101: That time jump (and those kids), explained

Festival Coverage

Sundance coverage part one, two, three, four, and five

The coolest, weirdest, best things at this year’s SXSW festival: Vol. 1

The coolest, weirdest, best things at this year’s SXSW festival: Vol. 2

The splashiest movies out of this year’s SXSW festival, Vol. 1

The splashiest movies out of this year’s SXSW festival, Vol. 2

Chicago International Film Festival preview, part one and two

Movie Previews

February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October

Role Calling Podcast

Meg Ryan: When Harry Met Sally, Joe Versus the Volcano, Sleepless In Seattle, Anastasia, You’ve Got Mail

Antonio Banderas: The Mask of Zorro, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, Desperado, Evita, Pain and Glory

Zac Efron: High School Musical, Hairspray, Neighbors, The Greatest Showman, The Greatest Beer Run Ever

Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King

Specials: One Year Anniversary Special, Thor: Love and Thunder, Halloween Ends, The Best and Worst Films of 2022: Letterboxd Special

Other Podcast Appearances

The Filmcast: The Tragedy of Macbeth

Culturally Relevant: Breaking Down the Films of Sundance 2022 

Travolta/Cage: Old Dogs/National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

The Filmcast: The Lost City

The Filmcast: Morbius

Happy Harvest Horror Show: Hocus Pocus 2

And here are similar year-end wrap-ups I did in 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

[viralnews-1]

Elizabeth Banks Stars in Feel-Good Abortion Drama

Elizabeth Banks Stars in Feel-Good Abortion Drama

This review was originally published as part of our Sundance 2022 coverage. Call Jane casually opens in a posh Chicago hotel as Joy (Elizabeth Banks) meanders through the lobby, past the live music of the dining room that intentionally clashes with the score. She emerges from the hotel, wide-eyed and naive as she steps into a police line that has formed to intimidate protesters across the…

[laresearchette]

Thursday, September 01, 2022 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: PANTHEON (AMC +) THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS (Sundance Now)

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT RACE FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP (Premiering on September 05 on CNBC at 1:00pm) THE MIGHTY ONES (TBD - YTV) BLOODS (TBD)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER (Premiere and Episode 2)

CBC GEM DAS BOOT (Season 3) FAKES (Season 1) ISLANDS MALORY TOWERS (Season 2)

CRAVE TV 1 QUEEN 5 QUEERS (Season 2 Premiere) 2022 MTV VIDEO MUSIC AWARDS THE BIG BANG THEORY (Season 11)

DISNEY + STAR MIKE (two-episode premiere)

NETFLIX CANADA BARBIE MERMAID POWER ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ FENCED IN   THE GIRL NEXT DOOR HACHI: A DOG’S TALE THE INTERPRETER THE JACKAL     JOJO’S BIZARRE ADVENTURE STONE OCEAN (Episodes 13-24) LISS PEREIRA: ADULTING LOL HOUSE OF SURPRISES (Season 1) LOVE IN THE VILLA NACHO LIBRE OFF THE HOOK PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES PRIMAL FEAR S.W.A.T: SEASON 5 SAMURAI RABBIT: THE USAGI CHRONICLES (Season 2) TYLER PERRY’S MADEA’S WITNESS PROTECTION WATERWORLD WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS YOUNG SHELDON (Season 5)

IIHF WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (TSN4/TSN3) 6:00am: Quarterfinal (TSN4/TSN3) 10:00am: Quarterfinal (TSN4/TSN3) 2:00pm: Quarterfinal

U.S. OPEN TENNIS (TSN/TSN3/TSN5) 11:00am: Early Round Coverage - Day 4 (TSN/TSN3/TSN4) 7:00pm: Early Round Coverage - Day 4 Primetime

MLB BASEBALL (SN) 1:00pm: Mariners vs. Tigers (SN Now) 4:00pm: Dodgers vs. Mets (SN1) 6:00pm: Orioles vs. Guardians (SN) 7:00pm: Rangers vs. Red Sox (SN1) 9:30pm: Brewers vs. Diamondbacks

KINGS OF THE WOOD (CTV Life) 8:00pm: Ella and Charis team up to build a sculptured sign language table; Alex creates a vintage-style bookcase; Saf works on a pair of stools.

THE INCREDIBLE DR. POL (Nat Geo Canada) 8:00pm/9:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE): Mischievous, fun and friendly, it's no wonder dogs are Pol Vet's best friends.

THE PRINCES AND THE PRESS (CBC) 9:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Amol explores the years following the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the positive media reaction to the emergence of a new generation of royals.

THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (Showcase) 9:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): A quiet town is hit by a supernatural event, leaving everyone unconscious and changing the area's fate forever.

NO DEMO RENO (HGTV Canada) 9:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE): The Widtfeldts want to renovate their forever home; the Hensleys need Jenn's advice on how to turn their office-bedroom into an oasis from their busy life with six kids.

STONE HOUSE REVIVAL (Magnolia Canada) 9:00pm/9:30pm (SEASON PREMIERE): Jeff and his team take on the Yardley Tavern; while renovating the mudroom, the team makes a historic find that gives clues to the structure's past. In Episode Two, Jeff and his team return to an 18th-century farmhouse where they had previously remodeled the kitchen; this time around, the team transforms a barely-used pass-through room into a functional and historically-correct dining room.

CANADA'S DRAG RACE (Crave) 9:00pm

CHEAT DAY USA (Food Network Canada) 10:00pm/10:30pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Robert Irvine starts his cheat day quest in New Orleans with a gravy-smothered roast beef and fried shrimp po' boy; in Los Angeles, the classic American grilled cheese gets a Mexican twist, and a barbecue sandwich is taken to new heights.  In Episode Two, in Torrance, Calif., Robert Irvine tries a Korean-inspired burger made with beef bulgogi and crunchy kimchi and served with truffle fries; there's a blue milkshake in Boston and a sweet, salty ice cream burger with housemade tots in San Antonio.

THE ART OF VINTAGE (Magnolia Canada) 10:00pm/10:30pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Katie Saro tackles her first big project in her new home, transforming the attic into a bedroom for her daughters; meanwhile, her neighbors ask for help bringing color and light into the dark, wood entryway of their over 100-year-old house.  In Episode Two, Katie gives an antique desk new life by transforming it into an island for her kitchen, and tackles the design for a client's basement.

CESAR MILLAN: BETTER HUMAN BETTER DOG (Nat Geo Canada) 10:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE):  Cesar rehabs an aggressive Rhodesian ridgeback and an anxious mini schnauzer.

72 HOURS: TRUE CRIME (OWN Canada) 10:00pm/10:30pm (SERIES PREMIERE): A killer who believed he had gotten away with murder is caught with the use of DNA.  In Episode Two, the killer of a homeless man is caught due to the determination of police and scientists.

1 QUEEN 5 QUEERS (Crave) 10:30pm/11:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE):  Host Brooke Lynn Hytes and five panelists representing Canada's queer community break down and examine a variety of topics.

CANADIAN REFLECTIONS (CBC) 11:30pm: Fresh Meat; The Walk

[ecsundance]

The sun sets on Sundance 2022

Looking at my experience with Virtual Sundance 2022 this year, it is safe to say that if I were currently in Utah right now things would be just a little different. My day to day festival attendance has consisted of comfy sweats, my dorm room, my bed, and my laptop that slowly overheats as the screening progresses. Interacting with the Sundance community has been done through social media platforms such as Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram, and through running around the virtual Gallery space where I occasionally find someone to try and have a conversation with. Reading Chuck Tryon’s On-Demand Culture: “Reinventing Festivals”, it is very easy to see how the Sundance film festival has changed over the years, and more drastically over the last two years.

Changes in promotion and distribution as well as the addition of app use and social media coverage has led to a shift in film festival culture. Tryon explains this by writing, “Like Twitter and other social media tools, the apps enabled a more interactive and participatory festival experience, appealing to a festivalgoer’s desire to be part of the happenings by looking at and posting photographs, presumably of actors and directors attending films and walking the red carpet, thereby aligning the events with the cultures of celebrity and gossip. In this sense, the apps appealed to discourses of personal mobility, providing festival goers with the ability to find out not only what’s happening but also where.” (Tryon 161). For Sundance this year, patrons are guided by online schedules and the Sundance website. Everyone sticks to and plans around the curated schedule for film screening and talks, and for more up to date and real-time information I have found Twitter to be the most useful.

On the night before the festival began, there was a test screening sent out for festival goers to check their technology setups before the festivities began. The film The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love was set to screen Tuesday January 18 at 7:00 pm MT. I was amongst the other festival goers that settled in to watch my first Sundance film, ready to embark on this new and exciting experience. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties the film was not able to be screened that evening. While the confusion was going on as the screening was malfunctioning for everyone, I turned to twitter and the chat function of the film to see that I was not alone in my struggles. The Sundance team was quick to respond on social media platforms and through emails delivering immense apologies, but overwhelmingly the community that was so excited and itching to get started with the festival was sending words of encouragement and thanks for the individuals making the festival possible.

Another aspect of indie cinema that has changed in the age of digital delivery is the access that these once exclusive experiences have opened up. Tryon explains saying “By allowing a global audience to “attend” the film’s premiere, the festival opened up what is traditionally considered an exclusive event, a move that potentially redefines the role of the festival in mediating our relationship to a wider film culture.” (Tryon 157). Through my own experience, I participated in film screenings that had attendees from all over the US, Wisconsin, New York, Oregon, to name a couple that I wrote down. After the screening I was able to engage in discussions with these individuals as well. The opening for conversation within the film party setting or in the spaceship normally consisted of one person asking who you are, where you are screening from, and what the buzz is in your world at the moment. This structure repeated throughout almost all of my conversations at Sundance this year.

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My experience with Sundance this year is one I will never forget. I plan on participating in many more festivals to come, and I hope to one day visit in person. To close out my blog presence for this year's festival, I am going to list everything I have watched as of 1:28 pm on January 28th with my personal review and rating for each.

Shorts:

Bug Crush [2/5] Too much build up for not enough climax. Interesting plot idea, but the pace did not work for me.

Zoon [3/5] Cute little short, but nothing beyond that. The axolotls were adorable, but I got bored halfway through.

Deer Flower [3/5] Really interesting animation style. Engaging and dark concept.

575 Castro Street [4/5] Very well done. Simple, clean, and intimate style. Focuses on the words and the importance of their context without taking away from them through character or setting use.

Champ [1/5] Really intense and sensitive topic that has a lot of potential, but with this short of a piece it did not work for me. It was too fast paced and I feel like it would have been more impactful with more elaboration and a slower pace.

Do no harm [3/5] Awesome adrenaline rush! Good film for your action scene fix. Beyond that, nothing super substantial in my opinion.

Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Mama [5/5] Square frame use creates a very personal home-movie feel with a super engaging interview style. This has been my absolute favorite short so far.

Charlie and the Rabbit [3/5] Really cute story with some priceless mirrored shots. Good feel-good story that creates a feeling of nostalgia.

Sweet Nothing [4/5] Really cool animation style that compliments the comedic plot perfectly.

Greetings from Africa [4/5] Recreation of 90’s film style and look. Very entertaining comedic look at the lesbian dating scene. This short is also one of my favorites.

La Corona [5/5] Covers the beauty pageant scene behind bars. Really interesting short documentary that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Features:

After Yang [5/5] Kogonada is a genius and everyone should watch this film. Beautifully crafted with warm contemplative shots. Explores the experience of grief from four very different perspectives in a new and interesting way. My favorite feature film from this year!

Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul [5/5] Hilarious meta-documentary style that comes to life with Regina Hall’s and Sterling K. Brown’s performances. Film embodiment of the phrase “Well bless their hearts”. Highly recommend!

The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love [4/5] Beautiful parallels and explores the wide spectrum of sexualities in correlation to social status, race, and economic class.

A House Made of Splinters [5/5] Incredibly moving documentary that makes you want to call your siblings. Emotionally heavy but worth it. Again, highly recommend!

Hatching [3/5] Really well done, just not my cup of tea. Encapsulated the audience with the dark side of perfect social presences. The film would not have worked as well if it were not for the amazing performance from the two main actresses Siiri Solalinna and Sophia Heikkilä. Don’t watch this film before bed.

My Old School [4/5] Amazing performance by Alan Cumming. Really interesting documentary that takes you through mental gymnastics to keep up, but conveys the emotions of the story perfectly. Highly recommend?

(As you can see, I screened some really great feature films this year!!!)

New Frontier:

On the Morning you Wake - Made me feel a little queasy at some points, but a really interesting way to explore the incidents on January 13th, 2018 at 8:08 am in Hawaii.

The State of Global Peace - Really creative and of-the-times piece that was easy to relate to from my perspective (as a 19 year old college student at a liberal arts college who is concerned with my future).

Talk/Panel/Event:

For each of these I am going to leave my favorite quote from each and the link for you to check them out as well!

After Yang Q+A - “Kogonada created a space for not only the audience to be vulnerable and expressive, but his actors as well. I left this experience with an emotionally rewarding and freeing feeling.”- Haley Lu Richardson

Who tells our stories? LGBTQ Storytellers Reclaim the Frame - “No stories about us, without us. We are tired of being asked to portray the universal gay experience, there is no universal gay experience! We are done with the overly flamboyant portrayal of queer identities.” - Bilal Baig

More than a Feeling: Climate Emotions in Film & TV - “We have gotten caught up in this continuum that I think is leading us in the wrong direction - This idea of hope verses non-hope. The issue is rather action versus inaction, hope is not a strategy. As a storyteller I am trying to escape what studios are wanting to produce ‘hopeful stories’.” - Scott Burns

The Big Conversation: Four Histories of Rebel Art - I could not pull just one quote from this conversation because each speaker was so different and engaging in their own way. It was really interesting to hear the different stories compare and contrast between Christine Choy, Cheryl Dunye, Sterling Harjo, and Eugene Hernandez.

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Last but not least…my favorite feature film was After Yang and my least favorite was Hatching…my favorite short film was Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Mama and my least favorite was Champ.

- Aidan McKinnon

[reportwire]

'Watcher' Chases Maika Monroe With Uncertainty and Dread

‘Watcher’ Chases Maika Monroe With Uncertainty and Dread

It seems Maika Monroe is being followed once again. Or is she? Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ By Rob Hunter · Published on January 25th, 2022 This review of Chloe Okuno’s Watcher is part of our 2022 Sundance Film Festival coverage. For more reviews and essays, visit our Sundance tab. New places can be intimidating — a new workplace, a new school, etc — and that feeling only intensifies with…

[kisafilms]

Sundance 2022: When You Finish Saving the World

Sundance 2022: When You Finish Saving the World

Over at That Shelf, as part of their Sundance coverage, I reviewed When You Finish Saving the World. Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut follows a mother and son who, due to their own sense of self-importance, struggle to connect with each other. You can read my full thoughts on the film via the link below: Sundance […]Sundance 2022: When You Finish Saving the World

[greensparty]

Preview: 2024 IFFBoston

Forget about Xmas, this is the most wonderful time of the year!  It is now my favorite time of year in Boston! My favorite film festival in Boston, in Massachusetts and possibly the world is Independent Film Festival Boston (read my coverage here).  I have a special place for this festival: in 2014 my documentary Life on the V: The Story of V66 had its World Premiere at the festival, and in 2015 I was on the Documentary Jury. The 2024 festival is at Somerville Theatre (Somerville), Brattle Theatre (Cambridge), and Coolidge Corner Theatre (Brookline) from Wed. May 1 to Wed. May 8, 2024!

2024 IFFBoston logo

Here are just some of the Official Selections that are on my radar:

Wed. 5/1/24:

The Opening Night Film is the recent Sundance hit Ghostlight, about a construction worker who joins a theater group!

Thurs. 5/2/24:

One of the most highly-anticipated movies of this year is I Saw the TV Glow about two teens who bond over their fandom of a mysterious TV show. I caught director Jane Schoenbrun's last film We're All Going to the World's Fair when it was was at the 2021 IFFBoston and while I had a mixed response to the film, I'm excited to see their follow up.

In a festival first, they are going to be doing their first episodic screening with the first episode of a 3-part documentary series Ren Faire airing on HBO later this year. While IFFBoston is very much a film festival and not a TV festival, I think it's kind of cool they are expanding their reach to include this doc about a Texas renaissance faire.

Fri. 5/3/24:

In the recent Sundance hit My Old Ass, an 18-year-old's mushroom trip brings her face-to-face with her 39-year-old self played by Aubrey Plaza (who makes everything she's in better).

Sat. 5/4/24:

In addition to all of the shorts package programs, it's always exciting to see IFFBoston do a Students Short Showcase made up of student films.

After my friend Michael Gill passed away in 2022, my hope was that his long in the works documentary about Billy Ruane, owner of legendary Boston rock club The Middle East (actually Cambridge, but a big part of the Boston music scene), would somehow get completed and released. I met up with Gill a few times before he moved around 2017 as I had heard about his doc and there was a lot of overlap with his doc and my doc Life on the V: The Story of V66 in terms of interviewees and subject matter. I am thrilled to see that co-director Scott Evans completed The Road to Ruane and it is finally premiering. The fact that the doc features loads of Middle East archival footage and interviews with members of Dinosaur Jr., The Lemonheads, Buffalo Tom, Letters To Cleo, Morphine has my attention too!

Sun. 5/5/24:

In the comedy Tallywacker, a two-member rock band's friendship is tested when one of them gets a gig touring with a major rock star.

My friends director Dan Habib and editor James Rutenbeck were at the 2018 IFFBoston with the great doc Intelligent Lives. Now they are back with a new doc The Ride Ahead co-directed by Dan's son Samuel about his own personal journey to becoming an adult. “But no one tells you how to be an adult,” Samuel says, “let alone an adult with a disability.” I've been hearing a lot of great things about this doc!

The always good Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a comic genius, but she's flexed her dramatic muscles in films like You Hurt My Feelings. In Tuesday she plays a mother who must confront death with her teenage daughter in the form of a talking bird.

Mon. 5/6/24:

My friend Mark Phinney's film Fat was at 2014 IFFBoston when I was there with Life on the V: The Story of V66. We've remained good friends since then and I'm super excited to see his new feature Fear of Flying about a man struggling with his anxieties while trying to maintain his relationships.

Earlier this year I got to cover the Oscar-nominated Short Films and one of the nominees for Best Documentary was Nai Nai & Wai Po from director Sean Wang. Without missing a beat, Wang is back his with his Sundance award-winner Didi.

Tues. 5/7/24:

In My Own Normal, director Alexandre Freeman turns the camera on himself: living with cerebral palsy since age two he is now an adult about to become a new father and how his parents react to this. This is produced by Friends producer Kevin S. Bright, Oscar-winner Chris Cooper and my friend Ariana Garfinkel (she's an IFFBoston alum having produced Best and Most Beautiful Things, You Don't Nomi, and On These Grounds).

Sing Sing stars recent Oscar nominee Colman Domingo as a man imprisoned at Sing Sing who is involved with a theater troupe for incarcerated men. This movie actually walks the walk and features the majority of its cast made up of formerly incarcerated members of the real life theater troupe the film is based on.

Wed. 5/8/24:

The Closing Night Film is the comedy Thelma starring Oscar-nominee June Squibb as an elderly woman who is scammed by a caller claiming to be her grandson and goes on a city-wide quest to get back what's hers. I've been hearing a lot of good things about this one!

For tickets and info to IFFBoston

[rickyvalero]

'Masters' Review - Sundance 2022

‘Masters’ Review – Sundance 2022

Alex Kelly You don’t need the supernatural to have an effective scary movie.  The directorial debut from Mariama Diallo, Masters follows three Black women at the beginning of the new semester at Ancaster University, a small college set on a haunted hill in the middle of the nondescript Northeast.  Led by Regina Hall as Professor Gail Bishop, the movie sets out to include a horror aspect that…

[cinemastnet]

7 MOVIES TO LOOK FORWARD TO AT THE 2022 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL!

7 MOVIES TO LOOK FORWARD TO AT THE 2022 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL!

7 MOVIES TO LOOK FORWARD TO AT THE 2022 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL Article by Adam Mast For the second year in a row the epic movie showcase that is the Sundance Film Festival will take place exclusively online and while it’s a bit of a bummer that movie fans won’t be able to share tales of cinema with one another in person you can still count on this venerable fest to bring the goods. I’ve been…

[tinseltine]

Captured a lot of great stuff at Sundance 2022! - https://tinseltine.com/sundance-film-festival-coverage-2022/

[topmixtrends]

Welcome to LARB Ball, our new sports and culture column! From race and gender to fandom and sociability, athletics and education, fashion and advertising, the pleasures of play, the concussions, the anthem, the protests, the gambling, the violence, the money — this is the world of sports we seek to address. We’re looking for a diverse group of critics, scholars, and fans to go beyond the highlights and the play-by-play to the bigger questions that make sports both exciting and essential, for those who don’t watch and those who can’t stop. If you’re interested in writing, get in touch at larbball@gmail.com!

As the 2018 World Cup comes to a close, many fans—not least US supporters—will already be hoping for better prospects in four years. Some self-interested North Americans may even have set their sights on 2026. But the competition will first pass through Qatar, the next stop on the international football corruption circuit detailed last year in David Conn’s The Fall of the House of FIFA.

Qatar was hardly an obvious choice. With its soaring summer temperatures and lack of the basic infrastructure to host a tournament of this scale, it seemed like the last place to pick. Since its controversial selection in 2010, the emirate has raced to build eight new stadiums. This despite the ongoing blockade, led by Saudi Arabia since June 2017, that has slowed the supply of building materials, turning the construction sprint into something more like marathon walking. Work on the largest of these projects, Norman Foster’s expectantly named “Iconic Stadium” in Lusail, has been slow to launch. In the meantime, the smaller Al Wakrah Stadium, designed by Pritzker Prize winner Zaha Hadid before her death in 2016, has grabbed the headlines, both for its evocative, unmistakably vaginal, shape and for shining a light on the dark shadows cast by the Gulf’s gleaming new skylines.

Landmark buildings, especially those with starchitect imprimatur and spiraling budgets, tend to become sounding boards for social and political malaise, and indeed the new Qatari stadiums have amplified accusations of worker abuse. Even before construction commenced, Al Wakrah sparked an architecture-world scandal when Hadid sued Martin Filler and the New York Review of Books for defamation. Filler had accused the architect of being indifferent to the deaths of thousands of workers involved in Qatar’s World Cup projects. As reported by The Guardian in early 2014, more than 500 Indian and 382 Nepalese migrant workers had died in the two years since building began, a problem, Hadid insisted, that governments, not architects, should solve.

Hadid had a point: contractors had yet to break ground on Al Wakrah, so no one could have died on her watch. But while her lawsuit earned an apology from Filler, workers in Qatar were still dying. Maybe not on Hadid’s project, but still. Meanwhile, as a 2016 Amnesty International investigation revealed, many more faced dire working and living conditions that artist-critic skirmishes seem unlikely to improve. Even if Hadid was right that the stadiums’ architects had no “duty” to maintain worker safety—surely a dubious claim—what government did she have in mind? Could anyone count on the one in Qatar?

On the face of it, the Qatari government had a lot to lose. Its World Cup bid had been a masterful set piece, played with all the finesse of soft geopolitical power (even if, as many allege, it had to be hammered home with the brute force of money). But simply acquiring the bid wouldn’t be enough. As the bid’s PR director put it to David Conn, Qatar 2022 was meant to promote an image of “warmth, hospitality, economic development beyond oil and gas, openness to the world and being a positive interface between the Arab world and the rest of the world.” Yes, money would flow in too, but Qatar has plenty of money. What it needs more is a positive image projected on a global stage.

At the World Cup, stadiums like Lusail Iconic and Al Wakrah are the stage, however much they may disappear into the visual sameness of televised sports once the matches begin. In Qatar, more than ever, they’re supposed to represent wealth and the power it permits (the power, even, to control the desert environment with open-air climate control). If the stadiums come to signify human rights abuses and the depths of corruption rather than the heights of power and prestige, so much for that World Cup sheen.

What then to do about the workers?

Earlier this month, PBS took up the question with a broadcast of The Workers Cup, a documentary (premiered at Sundance) about some of the 1.6 million migrant laborers currently working on projects like Al Wakrah stadium. Produced by a Qatari-based team in 2017 and directed by Adam Sobel, an American who was living in Doha during the lead-up to the FIFA 2022 selection, it will hardly inspire confidence in Qatar’s response. Though the film has little to say about worker fatalities like those reported by The Guardian, it narrates the slower death—of freedom, of possibility, of hope—that these migrants struggle against every day.

The Workers Cup takes its title from an annual event first launched in 2013 by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), the organization overseeing Qatar 2022, and sponsored by the Qatari professional football league. Modelled on FIFA’s crown jewel, the competition features 32 teams (upped from 24 in 2017) comprised of workers representing the contractors involved in World Cup preparations. It looks something like a corporate softball league, just with more fans—many more fans—and poorer players. The workers take it seriously, though, and it’s all good fun, for a while at least. The players win a week off work to train between group stage matches, while the non-playing workers don appropriately comical outfits and invest more emotion than you’re likely to find from the average American soccer fan.

Sobel and crew follow the action in fairly conventional documentary style. The film flows from match to match, interspersed with player/worker interviews and data, mostly in the form of intertitles, about Qatar and its labor politics. We learn, for instance, that workers comprise 60% of the population, that they live, by law, segregated from everyone else, that many work twelve-hour shifts, seven days per week (despite a six-day legal limit), and that some are forced (again illegally) to hand over their passports to their employers.

The film focuses on a small group of players for the Gulf Contracting Company (GCC). Hailing from countries including Ghana, Kenya, Nepal, and India, they offer a range of migrant tales. The film opens with the most apropos: the story of team captain Kenneth, an ambitious would-be footballer who was lured from Ghana by a recruiting agent who promised a spot on a professional club team. The reality ends up being far different, and Kenneth becomes a typical case: $1,600 poorer, 4,000 miles from home, and crammed into a labor camp. Others have similarly tragic stories. Kenyan co-captain Paul, for instance, made his way to Qatar only after losing his bartending job at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi after the 2013 terrorist attack that left at least 67 dead.

Their teammates’ stories are no less dreadful for being more banal. Lacking opportunities back home, many have been working in Qatar for years (some by way of Dubai first) in a futile attempt to amass enough wealth either to bring their families or simply to return home better off. Faced with poverty, violence, or geopolitical instability, stable work of any kind looks like opportunity. Day-to-day life in the Gulf, however, challenges even this limited hope. The men, packed cheek-by-jowl into ordered housing blocks, lead lonely lives. Far from their families, forbidden even from entering the very places they’ve built, and unable to make lasting connections beyond the camps, they live in a kind of purgatory.

Football is their escape. These workers may never become goal-scoring stars, but for a few weeks, or even just a few hours, they could achieve the higher goal, as one player puts it, “not to be considered as workers, but as footballers.” It’s great while it lasts, but the weight of normalcy hits hard when it ends. Without giving too much away, the film’s emotional arc predictably peaks towards the tournament’s conclusion with a penalty shootout. In Qatar, these men might be footballers for a short time, but they’ll always be workers.

¤

What good is football, anyway? What value does it have for these migrant workers—or for that matter, for us, the fans and critics? The Workers Cup doesn’t always tackle these questions head-on, but there’s a cynical allegory struggling to get out. Over the course of the film, Kenneth and his teammates come to realize that the tournament is just a cover for something else. One player, initially excited about coverage the team has been getting back in his native Nepal, laments that their fame will just become another selling point for corrupt recruiters—his escape turned into a snare for someone else like him. One can imagine an agent back in Ghana selling the team’s story to another hopeful Kenneth. In a particularly charged post-tournament scene, another worker voices the painful truth that “it was never about football.” Their Workers Cup was just management’s publicity stunt: a spectacle of corporate welfare to distract the world from labor abuse.

The film never asks how far this realization extends. There’s a powerful story here about workers in Qatar, but does it have anything to say about the tournament they’re building—or about the professional sport beyond it? As the story of FIFA corruption illuminates, the World Cup too is a cover for many things that are never about football—not least geopolitical power. For the past few weeks, football has normalized Putin’s politics, and in 2022, it will do the same for the Qatari labor practices that made it possible. Even the Trump administration has tried to boost itself on a 2026 tournament that it had little to do with and won’t be around to witness.

It would be easy to dismiss football as the cover known as false consciousness. It’s a familiar charge. To watch pro sports is to watch the zeros pile up, on bank notes as on scoreboards. Those zeros buy political power and reinforce global inequality. They keep us in sports arenas rather than political ones. At best, they buy escapism—an opportunity to bask in athletic excellence, elite competition, and the simple pleasures of play. It’s fun, but is it worth it?

For Team GCC, it both is and isn’t. These workers need escape as much as anyone, but some also see an opportunity to build on their success. Kenneth tries to start a football club, but management isn’t interested—the company is there to build stadiums, not communities. Others find something more abstract in the game: a kind of freedom, or what one player, invoking Bob Marley, describes as emancipation from mental slavery. For these players, the beauty of the “beautiful game” is its imagination and creativity—the freedom to learn and test the limits of a world.

German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin once similarly described play as a repetitive form of trial, error, and self-discovery. Struggling over an “object of love” like a football, he argued, was one of life’s most essential gestures. Through it, we learn “the rhythms in which we first gain possession of ourselves.” The essence of this learning through play, for Benjamin, was repetition. To grow up is to learn habits, and to find pleasure in their replication. Play is the therapy that makes growing up possible. Part of the pleasure of sport is to evoke the childlike world of possibility that comes with every struggle to improve.

To play or watch sports is to imagine and create, to learn to be better. This is escapism, yes, but not an escape to nowhere. In the age of Trump we need this kind of escape—this opportunity to think and dream otherwise—as much as ever. Who can be saddled with these politics all the time? This isn’t to say, as Trump would, that sports should be without politics. Sports is always about politics. So too, politics is a kind of sport; a struggle over an object of love—the world we share. Benjamin reminds us that it’s all about how you play. Some of us use games to learn how to grow up and be better, all while retaining play’s childlike pleasures and its power of creativity. Others just remain childish.

The post Workers of the World Cup: On Qatar 2022 and the Future of FIFA appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

from Los Angeles Review of Books https://ift.tt/2uBd1Gq