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Sundance Film Festival · 2019

Sundance Film Festival 2019

Spotlight

Programme

6 films · 6 reviews

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Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

Review preview for Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

Having delivered shock and awe in the first half on the film, Baichwal turns in the second half to projects that are small but growing fast, new approaches to old ways of doing things.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
The filmmakers have traversed the globe to document the evidence and experience of human planetary domination.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2018; Director: Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, Nicholas de Pencier, Nicholas de Pencier; Writer: Jennifer Baichwal; Stars: Alicia Vikander, Alicia Vikander)

Full review

The Biggest Little Farm

Review preview for The Biggest Little Farm

The real joy in the film lies in watching what started out as barren land gradually bloom over the years.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Filmmaker chronicles his own efforts and that of his wife, to trade in their city life for a small farm dream.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: John Chester; Writer: John Chester, Mark Monroe; Stars: John Chester, Molly Chester, John Chester, Molly Chester)

Full review

Birds Of Passage (Pajaros De Verano)

Review preview for Birds Of Passage

The rituals set in motion at the start, also tune us into the wavelength of portent, so that a heron's feet on a rug or the sound of locusts carry at least as much threat as the site of a loaded gun.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Story of a family who become involved with the drugs trade.

(Country: Colombia, Denmark; Year: 2018; Director: Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra; Writer: Maria Camila Arias, Jacques Toulemonde Vidal; Stars: Carmiña Martínez, José Acosta, Natalia Reyes, Jhon Narváez, Greider Meza, José Vicente, Juan Bautista Martínez, Miguel Viera, Sergio Coen, Aslenis Márquez, José Naider, Yanker Díaz, Víctor Montero, Joaquín Ramón, Jorge Lascarro)

Full review

Maiden

Review preview for Maiden

Alex Holmes' documentary is brilliant.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
The incredible, against-all-odds story of sailor Tracy Edwards, who skippered the first all-female international crew in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race.

(Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Alex Holmes; Stars: Tracy Edwards)

Full review

The Mountain

Review preview for The Mountain

Kier, Goldblum, and Lavant are never less than fantastic in their portrayal of modes of crazed, unreliably self-assured masculinity.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4.5 out of 5
A young man who was raised by his emotional stunted father goes to work with his mentor, a doctor who performs lobotomies and shock therapy.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Rick Alverson; Writer: Rick Alverson, Dustin Guy Defa, Colm O'Leary; Stars: Tye Sheridan, Jeff Goldblum, Hannah Gross, Denis Lavant, Udo Kier, Annemarie Lawless, Eleonore Hendricks, Margot Klein, Amy Stiller, Adam Daveline, James A. Besha, Paul Eenhoorn, Larry Fessenden, Daniela Malave, Lollie Jensen)

Full review See: Rick Alverson in conversation on Denis Lavant's threshold move, Disney, interrupting the trigger, and music in The Mountain , Venice 2018: The Sisters Brothers, Sunset, Non-Fiction, The Mountain, Dragged Across Concrete, Charlie Say and Vox Lux

The Nightingale

Review preview for The Nightingale

A film that looks back, that gazes also into you.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
A young convict in a penal colony seeks revenge.

(Country: Australia; Year: 2018; Director: Jennifer Kent; Writer: Jennifer Kent; Stars: Sam Claflin, Damon Herriman, Aisling Franciosi, Ewen Leslie, Charlie Shotwell, Matthew Sunderland, Harry Greenwood, Sam Smith, Michael Sheasby, Ben McIvor, Baykali Ganambarr, Luke Carroll, Claire Jones, Magnolia Maymuru, Dallas Mugarra)

Full review