I didn't participate in the Sundance Film Festival last year because it was completely virtual and I prefer seeing films on the big screen and I really enjoy interacting with film aficionados from all over the world. When I heard that the festival would be in-person this year, I immediately bought a Salt Lake City package which entitled me to ten tickets rather than access to every film screened in SLC as in year's past. It seemed like a lot of money for only ten tickets but I eagerly selected my films and began anticipating an experience that I really love. Then came the disappointing news that, due to the surge in Covid cases from the Omicron variant, the festival was canceling all in-person screenings in order to be completely virtual once again. I assumed, incorrectly, that refunds would be issued to those who didn't want to watch films on their computers but festival organizers insisted that all packages were non-refundable and refused. I was really angry about this but, since my only other option was to donate the cost of the tickets to the festival, I decided to make the best of it and I eventually picked 21 films. My first film was The Princess and I was really excited about this documentary because I have been fascinated by Diana ever since I got up early to watch her wedding. This is a story that has been told many times but the use of archival footage without any narration or contemporary interviews provides an intriguing new take on the Princess of Wales and I really enjoyed it. There was even footage that I, a self-avowed expert on the Royal Family, had never seen before! My second film was The Worst Person in the World and this was, without a doubt, my most anticipated film of the festival (it will have a wide release in theaters in a few weeks and I will definitely be seeing it again). Renate Reinsve is incredibly appealing as an aimless young woman who drifts from relationship to relationship, first with Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) and then Eivind (Herbert Nordrum), in order to discover that you don't need to have life figured out yet. As someone who does not even remotely have life figured out yet, I loved this film! My third film was Good Luck to You, Leo Grande and, even though it was not at all what I was expecting (I thought it would be a lot funnier), I loved Emma Thompson's brilliant, and incredibly brave, performance as a widow who has a sexual awakening after hiring a male prostitute. I also loved her chemistry with Daryl McCormack. My fourth film was Summering, a coming of age story about four girls who have an unexpected adventure the weekend before they start middle school. It reminded me of Stand By Me but it wasn't nearly as endearing. I enjoyed the magical realism but the story doesn't really go anywhere with too many unresolved plot points. My fifth film was A Love Song. This is a subdued (maybe too subdued?) but moving portrait of grief and loneliness with fantastic performances from Dale Dickey and Wes Studi as former high school sweethearts who meet each other once again. My sixth film was Emergency and it is another festival favorite for me. Two Black college students, along with their Latino roommate, are forced to take racism into account when deciding how they will respond to an emergency. It brilliantly combines comedy, suspense, and biting social commentary to create a thought-provoking and entertaining film that I absolutely loved! My seventh film was FRESH and it gives new meaning to the term "meat market." Daisy Edgar-Jones plays a woman fed up with dating apps and Sebastian Stan is the charming but psychotic man she falls for after meeting him in the produce section. It is a gruesome dark comedy but I loved the killer soundtrack. My eighth film, 892, was another one of my most anticipated. It is a tense and heartbreaking true story about a former marine who holds up a bank for the $892 disability check that is owed him but is caught up in the bureaucracy of the VA. It features a riveting and powerful performance by John Boyega. My ninth film was Living and I selected it because it stars Bill Nighy and I will see anything he is in! He plays a paper-pushing bureaucrat in post-war London who decides to live a more meaningful life after receiving a terminal diagnosis. It is very slow but charming and features a lovely performance by Nighy, especially in a scene where he sings on a playground swing that he helped build. My tenth film was Call Jane, the first of two films I saw about a real-life underground collective that helped women have access to abortions in the late 1960s. This is a fictionalized account about a suburban housewife (Elizabeth Banks) who finds the group when she needs a life-saving abortion and the hospital refuses to perform it. The lighthearted tone didn't quite work for such an important and timely subject, although I really enjoyed Sigourney Weaver's irreverent performance. I got a last minute ticket to my eleventh film, After Yang, because it received such glowing praise and it definitely didn't disappoint. When an android companion malfunctions, his owner accesses his memories and they cause him to reevaluate the nature of humanity. This is beautiful, contemplative, and moving with lovely performances from the whole cast. I loved it! My twelfth film was Master which follows the recent trend of using the horror genre to explore the theme of racism. A young Black student at an elite New England college is haunted by an incident from the past and plagued by an ongoing problem in the present. In my opinion the social commentary works better than the supernatural elements do but they both contribute to a very palpable sense of dread. My thirteenth film was Dual and I chose it because I absolutely loved The Art of Self-Defense and was eager to see another film by Riley Stearns. I am a huge fan of dark absurdist comedies and this is a fantastic satirical exploration of identity in which a woman is forced to fight her clone in a duel to the death. Karen Gillan's deadpan delivery as both characters really worked for me because it emphasizes the dehumanization they both experience. My fourteenth film was Resurrection and I don't know what this says about me because it is absolutely bonkers but I loved it. Rebecca Hall is brilliant as a woman who comes undone when an emotionally manipulative former lover suddenly reappears in her life and it is her committed performance that makes the bizarre twist in the third act seem completely plausible. My fifteenth film was Lucy and Desi, a touching portrait of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz that emphasizes their enduring legacy. It is a very straightforward documentary but it is at its best when it utilizes their own voices culled from hours of audio tapes provided by their daughter Lucie Arnaz. My sixteenth film, Cha Cha Real Smooth, was one of the biggest crowd-pleasers of the festival and I was lucky enough to snag a ticket when more were released. This is a heartfelt and charming coming of age story about a recent college graduate trying to navigate life and love and features incredibly appealing performances from Cooper Raiff and Dakota Johnson. Even though I am a bit older (ahem) than the target audience I really related to the main character because I also felt completely lost during this period in my life. I loved everything about this film! My seventeenth film was Brian and Charles and this put a huge smile on my face. It is a hilarious mockumentary about an eccentric inventor in Wales who builds a robot to be his friend and it reminded me of the British comedies I loved as a teenager. My eighteenth film, Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul, was another mockumentary this time about a pastor of a megachurch and his wife as they attempt to rehabilitate their tarnished image after a scandal. It is laugh out loud funny but it is also a scathing indictment of the hypocrisy so often found in the megachurch culture. Regina Hall is fantastic, especially when the cameras stop rolling and the mask drops. My nineteenth film was LAST FLIGHT HOME and it was incredibly difficult for me to watch having recently lost my own father. This documentary is a beautiful and moving tribute from a daughter to her extraordinary father as he ends his life on his own terms. I cried through most of it. My twentieth film was The Janes and I was really eager to see this having watched Call Jane. This documentary explores the same underground collective that helped women gain access to abortions in Chicago during the late 1960s but it is much more compelling because it puts the real names and faces to the characters in the fictionalized story. My final film was the funny and delightful Am I OK? I loved this story about friendship and self-discovery with yet another fantastic performance from Dakota Johnson. It was nice to end on such a lighthearted note after so much heavy content.
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