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Sundance Film Festival · 2017

Sundance Film Festival 2017

US Dramatic Competition

Programme

16 films · 4 reviews

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Band Aid

A couple who can't stop fighting embark on a last-ditch effort to save their marriage: turning their fights into songs and starting a band.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Zoe Lister-Jones; Writer: Zoe Lister-Jones; Stars: Colin Hanks, Brooklyn Decker, Hannah Simone, Zoe Lister-Jones, Jesse Williams, Angelique Cabral, Adam Pally, Nelson Franklin, Majandra Delfino, Fred Armisen, Chris D'Elia, Chrissie Fit, Susie Essman, Ravi Patel, Jenna Lyng)

World premiere

Beach Rats

Review preview for Beach Rats

British actor Dickinson – surely on the first step to a lot more film roles – slides seamlessly into Frankie’s groove, the accent and the body language spot on.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A Brooklyn teen struggles with his sexuality.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Eliza Hittman; Writer: Eliza Hittman; Stars: Harris Dickinson, Madeline Weinstein, Kate Hodge, Neal Huff)

Full review

World premiere

Brigsby Bear

Review preview for Brigsby Bear

Saturday Night Live regular Mooney, who has a twinkly mischievousness and comic timing reminiscent of a young Gene Wilder, plays James as naive, but never stupid.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Brigsby Bear Adventures is a children's TV show produced for an audience of one: James. When the show abruptly ends, James's life changes forever, and he sets out to finish the story himself.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Dave McCary; Writer: Kevin Costello, Kevin Costello, Kyle Mooney, Kyle Mooney; Stars: Kyle Mooney, Claire Danes, Mark Hamill, Greg Kinnear, Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins)

Full review

World premiere

Burning Sands

Deep into a fraternity's Hell Week, a favored pledge is torn between honouring a code of silence or standing up against the intensifying violence of underground hazing.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Gerard McMurray; Writer: Christine Berg, Gerard McMurray; Stars: Alfre Woodard, Trevante Rhodes, Serayah, Imani Hakim, Steve Harris, Trevor Jackson, Nafessa Williams, Rotimi, Mitchell Edwards, Octavius J. Johnson, Chiké Okonkwo, Malik Bazille, DeRon Horton, Cuyle Carvin, Deji LaRay)

World premiere

Crown Heights

When Colin Warner is wrongfully convicted of murder, his best friend, Carl King, devotes his life to proving Colin's innocence. Adapted from This American Life, this is the incredible true story of their harrowing quest for justice.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Matt Ruskin; Writer: Matt Ruskin; Stars: Lakeith Stanfield, Nestor Carbonell, Yul Vazquez, Bill Camp, Brian Tyree Henry, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Zach Grenier, Josh Pais, Ron Canada, Nnamdi Asomugha, Natalie Paul, Adriane Lenox, Skylan Brooks, Sarah Goldberg, Marsha Stephanie Blake)

World premiere

Golden Exits

The arrival of a young foreign girl disrupts the lives and emotional balances of two Brooklyn families.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Alex Ross Perry; Writer: Alex Ross Perry; Stars: Emily Browning, Analeigh Tipton, Chloë Sevigny, Mary-Louise Parker, Lily Rabe, Jason Schwartzman, Adam Horovitz, Craig Butta)

World premiere

The Hero

Lee, a former Western film icon, is living a comfortable existence lending his golden voice to advertisements and smoking weed. After receiving a lifetime achievement award and unexpected news, Lee re-examines his past, while a chance meeting with a sardonic comic has him looking to the future.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Brett Haley; Writer: Marc Basch, Brett Haley; Stars: Krysten Ritter, Laura Prepon, Sam Elliott, Nick Offerman, Katharine Ross, Mei Melançon, Todd Giebenhain, Candice Coke, Barbara Scolaro, Jackie Joyner, Christopher May)

World premiere

Ingrid Goes West

A young woman becomes obsessed with an Instagram lifestyle blogger and moves to Los Angeles to try to befriend her in real life.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Matt Spicer; Writer: David Branson Smith, Matt Spicer; Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, Wyatt Russell, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Pom Klementieff, Billy Magnussen, Charlie Wright, Megan Griffey, Hannah Pearl Utt, Angelica Amor, Malika Williams, Tina Lorraine, Jana Ritter)

World premiere

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore

When a depressed woman is burgled, she finds a new sense of purpose by tracking down the thieves, alongside her obnoxious neighbour. But they soon find themselves dangerously out of their depth against a pack of degenerate criminals.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Macon Blair; Writer: Macon Blair, Macon Blair; Stars: Melanie Lynskey, Elijah Wood, David Yow, Jane Levy, Devon Graye, Christine Woods, Robert Longstreet, Gary Anthony Williams, Derek Mears, Macon Blair, Taylor Tunes, Jason Manuel Olazabal, Dana Millican, Jana Lee Hamblin, Myron Natwick)

World premiere

Landline

Two sisters come of age in ’90s New York when they discover their dad’s affair — and it turns out he’s not the only cheater in the family. Everyone still smokes inside, no one has a cell phone and the Jacobs finally connect through lying, cheating and hibachi.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Gillian Robespierre; Writer: Elisabeth Holm, Gillian Robespierre, Elisabeth Holm, Gillian Robespierre, Tom Bean; Stars: Jenny Slate, Finn Wittrock, John Turturro, Edie Falco, Amy Carlson, Jay Duplass, Jordan Carlos, Inna Muratova, Mike Massimino, Ali Ahn, Charlotte Ubben, Abby Quinn, Katrina E. Perkins, Eric Tabach, Samuel Stricklen)

World premiere

Novitiate

In the early 1960s, during the Vatican II era, a young woman training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, sexuality and the changing church.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Margaret Betts; Writer: Margaret Betts; Stars: Dianna Agron, Margaret Qualley, Morgan Saylor, Julianne Nicholson, Liana Liberato, Melissa Leo, Denis O'Hare, Maddie Hasson, Ashley Bell, Chris Zylka, Eline Powell, Rebecca Dayan, Kamryn Boyd, Marco St. John, Chelsea Lopez)

World premiere

Patti Cake$

Review preview for Patti Cake$

This film has plenty of hustle even though it sometimes lacks flow.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A New Jersey kid dreams of making it as a rapper.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Geremy Jasper; Writer: Geremy Jasper; Stars: Danielle Macdonald, Bridget Everett, Siddharth Dhananjay, Mamoudou Athie, Cathy Moriarty, McCaul Lombardi, Wass Stevens)

Full review

World premiere

Roxanne Roxanne

The most feared battle emcee in early-'80s NYC was a fierce teenager from the Queensbridge projects with the weight of the world on her shoulders. At age 14, hustling the streets to provide for her family, Roxanne Shanté was well on her way to becoming a hip-hop legend.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Michael Larnell; Writer: Michael Larnell; Stars: Mahershala Ali, Nia Long, Elvis Nolasco, Mitchell Edwards, Sean Ringgold, Curtiss Cook, Tonye Patano, Jermel Howard, Cheryse Dyllan, Kevin Phillips, Eden Duncan-Smith, Charlie Hudson III, Shenell Edmonds, Heather Simms, Taliyah Whitaker)

World premiere

To the Bone

In a last-ditch effort to battle her severe anorexia, 20-year-old Ellen enters a group recovery home. With the help of an unconventional doctor, Ellen and the other residents go on a sometimes-funny, sometimes-harrowing journey that leads to the ultimate question — is life worth living?

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Marti Noxon; Writer: Marti Noxon; Stars: Lily Collins, Keanu Reeves, Liana Liberato, Alanna Ubach, Lili Taylor, Carrie Preston, Brooke Smith, Kathryn Prescott, Ciara Bravo, Hana Hayes, Michael B. Silver, Alex Sharp, Rebekah Kennedy, Maya Eshet, Leann Lei)

World premiere

Walking Out

Review preview for Walking Out

Walking Out treads a familiar path but harks back to ideas that have been forgotten in many modern hunting myths.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
A teenager must summon all his strength so that he and his father can survive after an accident in the wilderness.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith; Writer: David Quammen, Alex Smith, Andrew J Smith; Stars: Matt Bomer, Bill Pullman, Josh Wiggins, Alex Neustaedter, Lily Gladstone, Chaske Spencer, Ken White, Erik P Resel)

Full review

World premiere

The Yellow Birds

Two young men enlist in the army and are deployed to fight in the Gulf War. After an unthinkable tragedy, the surviving soldier struggles to balance his promise of silence with the truth and a mourning mother’s search for peace.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Alexandre Moors; Writer: David Lowery, RFI Porto, Kevin Powers; Stars: Alden Ehrenreich, Jennifer Aniston, Toni Collette, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston, Jason Patric, Lee Tergesen, Aylin Tezel, Olivia Crocicchia, Rhoda Griffis, Carrie Wampler, Nikolai Kinski, Robert Pralgo, Wilbur Fitzgerald, Renée Willett)

World premiere