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Sundance Film Festival · 2018

Sundance Film Festival 2018

Midnight

Programme

8 films · 6 reviews

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Assassination Nation

Review preview for Assassination Nation

Older viewers may find it too much but it's spot on for what it's trying to achieve.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
This is a 1000 percent a true story about how the quiet, all-American town of Salem, absolutely lost its mind.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Sam Levinson; Writer: Sam Levinson; Stars: Bella Thorne, Bill Skarsgård, Suki Waterhouse, Susan Misner, Maude Apatow, Joel McHale, Cody Christian, Anika Noni Rose, Joe Chrest, Noah Galvin, Colman Domingo, Odessa Young, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Danny Ramirez, Lucy Faust)

Full review

World premiere

Arizona

Set in the midst of the 2009 housing crisis, this darkly comedic story follows Cassie Fowler, a single mom and struggling realtor whose life goes off the rails when she witnesses a murder.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Jonathan Watson; Writer: Luke Del Tredici; Stars: Elizabeth Gillies, Kaitlin Olson, Danny McBride, Rosemarie DeWitt, Luke Wilson, Travis Hammer, David Alan Grier, Cullen Moss, Jade Kammerman, Lolli Sorenson, Julian Wondolowski)

World premiere

Hereditary

Review preview for Hereditary

I personally found Aster’s film incredibly unsettling, one of the closest approximations to the kind of nightmares that really shake me that I have seen on film recently.

Owen Van Spall · 4 out of 5
After their reclusive grandmother passes away, the Graham family tries to escape the dark fate they've inherited.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Ari Aster; Writer: Ari Aster; Stars: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Ann Dowd, Mallory Bechtel, Zachary Arthur, Mark Blockovich, Jake Brown, Gabriel Monroe Eckert, John Forker, Gerry Garcia, Austin R. Grant, Rachelle Hardy, Brock McKinney)

Full review

World premiere

Mandy

Review preview for Mandy

The film only lives up to about 80% of the promise whereas I wanted 150%.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
Pacific Northwest. 1983. Outsiders Red Miller and Mandy Bloom lead a loving and peaceful existence. When their haven is savagely destroyed by a cult, Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance.

(Country: Belgium, US; Year: 2018; Director: Panos Cosmatos; Writer: Panos Cosmatos, Aaron Stewart-Ahn; Stars: Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough, Linus Roache, Bill Duke, Richard Brake, Ned Dennehy, Olwen Fouere, Hayley Saywell)

Full review

World premiere

Never Goin' Back

Review preview for Never Goin' Back

It is a film that is sustained by the irresistible, irrepressible duo at its heart, and by the appeal of seeing the typical stoner bro movie repurposed for the female perspective.

Owen Van Spall · 3 out of 5
Jessie and Angela, high school dropout BFFs, are taking a week off to chill at the beach. Too bad their house got robbed, rent’s due, they’re about to get fired and they’re broke.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Augustine Frizzell; Writer: Augustine Frizzell; Stars: Maia Mitchell, Camila Morrone, Aristotle Abraham II, Joel Allen, Chris Challiot, Craig Cole, Liz Cardenas Franke, Atheena Frizzell, Max Hartman, Julian Hilliard, Matthew Holcomb, Luke Jacobs, Julian Sol Jordan, Marcus M. Mauldin, Kyle Mooney)

Full review

World premiere

Piercing

Review preview for Piercing

Without a doubt, Pesce is one of the most exciting young directors to emerge in recent years.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A man seeks out an unsuspecting stranger to help him purge the dark torments of his past. His plan goes awry when he encounters a woman with plans of her own. A playful psycho-thriller game of cat-and-mouse.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Nicolas Pesce; Writer: Nicolas Pesce, based on the novel by Ryû Murakami; Stars: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa, Wendell Pierce, Marin Ireland, Maria Dizzia, Dakota Lustick, Olivia Bond)

Full review See: Interview with Nicolas Pesce about Piercing, Mia Wasikowska, Christopher Abbott, Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch

World premiere

Revenge

Review preview for Revenge

Fargeat uses a lot of old tricks to give her desert a haunting, mystical quality, but she uses them well in a film that oozes style.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Three wealthy married men get together for their annual hunting game in a desert canyon. This time, one of them has brought along his young mistress, who quickly arouses the interest of the other two. Things get dramatically out of hand as a hunting game turns into a ruthless manhunt.

(Country: France; Year: 2017; Director: Coralie Fargeat; Writer: Coralie Fargeat; Stars: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Guillaume Bouchède, Vincent Colombe, Avant Strangel)

Full review

Utah premiere

Summer of '84

Summer, 1984: a perfect time to be a carefree 15-year-old. But when neighbourhood conspiracy theorist Davey Armstrong begins to suspect his police officer neighbour might be the serial killer all over the local news, he and his three best friends begin an investigation that soon turns dangerous.

(Country: US, Canada; Year: 2018; Director: François Simard, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell; Writer: Matt Leslie, Stephen J Smith; Stars: Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emery, Cory Gruter-Andrew, Tiera Skovbye, Rich Sommer, Shauna Johannesen, Jason Gray-Stanford, Mark Brandon, Aren Buchholz, Susie Castillo, J. Alex Brinson, Harrison Houde, William MacDonald, Patrick Lubczyk)

World premiere