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Sundance Film Festival · 2021

Sundance Film Festival 2021

US Dramatic Competition

Programme

10 films · 8 reviews

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CODA

Review preview for CODA

While Heder’s screenplay relies on familiar beats, her writing and direction reveal a compassion and desire to understand each character’s feelings and emotions.

Jeremy Mathews · 3.5 out of 5
As a CODA – Child of Deaf Adults – Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Sian Heder; Writer: Sian Heder; Stars: Emilia Jones, Marlee Matlin, Eugenio Derbez, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Amy Forsyth, Kevin Chapman, Troy Kotsur, John Fiore, Erica McDermott, Lonnie Farmer, Owen Burke, Jose Guns Alves, Daniel Durant, Kiara Pichardo, Armen Garo)

Full review

World premiere. Day One Film

I Was A Simple Man

As a family in Hawai'i faces the imminent death of their eldest, the ghosts of the past haunt the countryside.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Christopher Makoto Yogi; Writer: Christopher Makoto Yogi; Stars: Steve Iwamoto, Constance Wu, Kanoa Goo, Chanel Akiko Hirai, Tim Chiou, Boonyanudh Jiyarom)

World premiere

Jockey

Review preview for Jockey

Makes you realise that its not just the horses that have been ridden hard for years but their jockeys, too.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
An ageing jockey is determined to win one last championship, but his dream is complicated when a young rookie shows up claiming to be his son.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Clint Bentley; Writer: Clint Bentley, Greg Kwedar; Stars: Clifton Collins Jr, Molly Parker, Moises Arias)

Full review

World premiere

John And The Hole

Review preview for John And The Hole

Perhaps everything doesn't quite stack up into a neat narrative but as a film that explores the frosty hinterland between sociopathy and more simple teenage boredom it follows through.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
When a teenager finds a hole in the ground, he hatches a chilling plot.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Pascual Sisto; Writer: Nicolás Giacobone; Stars: Charlie Shotwell, Michael C Hall, Jennifer Ehle, Taissa Farmiga)

Full review

World premiere

Mayday

Ana is transported to a dreamlike and dangerous land where she joins a team of female soldiers engaged in a never-ending war along a rugged coast. Though she finds strength in this exhilarating world, she comes to realise that she's not the killer they want her to be.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Karen Cinorre; Writer: Karen Cinorre; Stars: Grace Van Patten, Mia Goth, Havana Rose Liu, Soko, Théodore Pellerin, Frano Maskovic, Juliette Lewis, Hyoie O'Grady, Zlatko Buric, Nathaniel Allen, Adrian Pezdirc, Francesco Piacentini-Smith, Blake DeLong, Redd Ochoa, Noel Dusman)

World premiere

On The Count Of Three

Review preview for On The Count Of Three

On the whole, it's episodic and uneven although both men have serious acting chops and there's a studied bleakness to the mood, as though the grey weather has seeped into its soul.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Two guns. Two best friends. And a pact to end their lives when the day is done.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Jerrod Carmichael; Writer: Ari Katcher, Ryan Welch; Stars: Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Tiffany Haddish, JB Smoove, Lavell Crawford, Henry Winkler)

Full review

World premiere

Passing

Review preview for Passing

The role is a gift for Negga, who has always evinced considerable talent but has not previously had the chance to demonstrate her abilities to this extent.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
Two African-American women who can "pass" as white choose to live on opposite sides of the colour line in 1929 New York in an exploration of racial and gender identity, performance, obsession and repression.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Rebecca Hall; Writer: Rebecca Hall, Nella Larsen; Stars: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, André Holland, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Camp)

Full review

World premiere

Superior

Review preview for Superior

We’re all so used to seeing onscreen twins played by the same actor that there’s something disconcerting about seeing them played by two, especially in a film so concerned with the blurring of identities.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
On the run, Marian returns to her hometown in upstate New York to hide out with her estranged identical twin sister, Vivian. Struggling to put the past behind her, Marian lies about the reason for her return, leaving her sister in the dark until their two worlds begin to collide.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Erin Vassilopoulos; Writer: Erin Vassilopoulos, Alessandra Mesa; Stars: Alessandra Mesa, Ani Mesa, Pico Alexander, Jake Hoffman, Stanley Simons)

Full review

World premiere

Together Together

Review preview for Together Together

If the phrase "it's nice to be nice" took on film form, it would probably look a lot like Together Together.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
When young loner Anna is hired as the surrogate for Matt, a single man in his 40s, the two strangers come to realise this unexpected relationship will quickly challenge their perceptions of connection, boundaries and the particulars of love.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Nikole Beckwith; Writer: Nikole Beckwith; Stars: Ed Helms, Patti Harrison, Tig Notaro, Julio Torres, Anna Konkle)

Full review

World premiere

Wild Indian

Review preview for Wild Indian

Corbine gets caught up trying to cover the narrative ground, to set up both characters in twin time periods and explore their motivations and relationship.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Two men are inextricably bound together after covering up the savage murder of a schoolmate. After years of separation following wildly divergent paths, they must finally confront how their traumatic secret has irrevocably shaped their lives.

(Country: US; Year: 2021; Director: Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr; Writer: Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr; Stars: Michael Greyeyes, Chaske Spencer, Jesse Eisenberg, Kate Bosworth, Phoenix Wilson, Julian Gopal)

Full review

World premiere