The 2021 Sundance Film Festival wrapped up just a few days ago. Like so much of our lives over the past year, it went largely virtual this year. Without the snow and freezing Utah cold weather, the hustle and bustle of Main Street, and the waiting in long lines, Sundance this year was… in some ways less fun without the in-person atmosphere, but it was also much cheaper and more convenient. This year’s selection of films was more limited than in the past, but there were still some gems. Here’s a list of the Sundance films I saw, ranked.
7. The World to Come
Directed by Mona Fastvold; starring Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby
The World to Come feels like it should be a lot better than it is: a lesbian period piece drama about two farmer’s wives in the American northeast who befriend and fall in love with each other. The performances by Waterston and Kirby are as strong as expected. There’s a rich, grainy texture to the cinematography that makes the world feel lived in and authentic, with a sense of warmth but also a foreboding menace. Yet the technical excellence of the film gets lost in its loose direction, often leaving the story feeling disjointed (despite the almost excessive voiceovers) and the viewer’s attention to wander. The film is well-made but ultimately a little boring, and I found myself not really caring what happened by the end.
6. On the Count of Three
Directed by Jerrod Carmichael; starring Carmichael and Christopher Abbott
What would you do if you only had one more day to live? You may have asked yourself that question before, but Carmichael made an entire film about this notion. Two best friends have decided to commit suicide together, and this story chronicles their last day. On the Count of Three is a black comedy that is very funny and also extremely dark – you will find yourself laughing but then immediately feeling bad that you are laughing. Though enjoyale, it sometimes feels a bit like a film school project, with clunkly dialogue and exposition, that has trouble consistently sticking the landing with tricky tonal shifts. For the most part, however, the two lead performances carry the film, ably supported by a bevy of recognizable faces in Tiffany Haddish, Henry Winkler, and Lavell Crawford. This is a solid, if slightly uneven, film that speeds towards a tense, dramatic, and unpredictable climax.
5. Misha and the Wolves
Directed by Sam Hobkinson
This is a documentary about a fascinating, real-life fairy tale: a holocaust survivor’s story of a little girl who ran away from her cruel foster family to live in the forest, escaping the concentration camps to be raised by wolves. Misha and the Wolves quickly shifts into the “story behind the story.” Tensions mount as the accusations fly and the movie turns into a thrilling mystery and painstaking forensic investigation of Misha’s past. Without spoiling more, this is an undercover look at truth and deception. A well-made, entertaining documentary, Misha and the Wolves was quickly picked up by Netflix and should be widely available soon.
4. Prisoners of the Ghostland
Directed by Sion Sono; starring Nicholas Cage and Sofia Boutella
There is almost no point in trying to describe this film in words, but here goes. Visually arresting from the first shot, Prisoners of the Ghostland feels like a violent, stylized, dystopian cartoon come to life, with bright colors, popping music, blood-spattered font, and a literal Greek chorus. It is an east-west fusion, with samurai and cowboy western sensibilities, but features SWAT teams, robbers, ghosts, zombies, geishas. It traipses delightfully across the screen, unconcerned with such trivial matters as consistency. Sono maintains a strange, eerie sensation, with your senses always fully engaged, even when it’s hard to tell what exactly is going on. Cage and Sono together turn the weirdness factor up to eleven in this bizarre film, but you can’t take your eyes off the screen. As Jason Mraz says, “what a beautiful mess this is.”
3. Land
Directed by Robin Wright; starring Wright and Demián Bichir
Wright’s directorial debut is not a cheery film – delving into the harrowing experience, the physical torment and the emotional despair of a woman consumed by grief who goes off on her own to live in the wilderness, attempting to escape humanity and all reminders of her past. In a post-pandemic world, living in voluntary isolationism strikes a particular chord, to be alone with your thoughts and emotions in the elements. It also has the best bear scene since The Revenant. But Land is also ultimately about hope and even resurrection of sorts. There is a discernible light on the horizon, even if most of the film takes place in the figurative dark tunnel. As seasons pass and she comes to be comfortable with the land around her, Wright balances isolation and connection, death and life, healing and redemption, never forgetting the process of it all that culminates with graceful acceptance. This slow, lyrical piece is largely wordless, but it’s something that you are meant to feel.
2. Mass
Directed by Fran Kranz; starring Jason Isaacs, Martha Plimpton, Ann Dowd and Reed Birney
Mass feels like a stage play in the best possible way – it is a talky movie (largely centered around dialogue), as well as a bottle movie (entirely set in a single location). Almost the entire runtime of the film is taken up by four people sitting across a table from each other, having a conversation. For maximum effectiveness, it is strongly recommended to go in completely blind, even without looking up the basic premise or plot description. This unflinching film deliberately keeps you guessing. As each layer of the onion gets peeled back, the picture ever so slowly comes into focus as the details get sharper and sharper. Kranz, a longtime actor but first time filmmaker, not only provides the chewy roles for his four stars here but draws magnificent performances from them as he turns the knob from simmering to a searing boil. You are constantly trying to read between the lines, interpret body language and facial expressions. At the same time, the characters themselves are searching for answers. Raw and emotionally exhausting, Mass is a reminder of the transformative powers of meeting face-to-face.
1. CODA
Directed by Sian Heder; starring Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, and Troy Kotsur
There are few films that can make you both laugh and cry. These often indicate an interest in exploring the range of emotions and depth of empathy that can be captured on film. That is certainly true of CODA, a record-smashing film about music, chasing your dreams, deafness, and most of all, about family. The title itself stands for “children of deaf adults”, and in this case, Ruby Rossi (Jones) is a teenaged girl who is the lone hearing member in her family working on a fishing boat in Massachusetts. Jones is magnificent – she learned sign language, an American accent, and to sing for this film – bringing humor and warmth as well as the doubts and frustrations of a teenager who has lived out an outsized responsibility her whole life. The supporting cast is fantastic too – Matlin is reliably excellent and Kotsur steals almost every scene he appears in. There are some glossy, Glee-like bits with Eugenio Derbez, and the subplot with Ruby’s love interest tends to drag, but overall, CODA is a sweet, heartwarming and uplifting film that feels like a cinematic group hug.
