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Sundance Film Festival · 2024

Sundance Film Festival 2024

US Dramatic Competition

Programme

10 films · 5 reviews

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Between The Temples

Review preview for Between The Temples

Filled with awkwardness and tension, the film acts as a spotlight for all the actors.

Jeremy Mathews · 3.5 out of 5
A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as his new adult bat mitzvah student.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Nathan Silver; Writer: Nathan Silver, C Mason Wells; Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Carol Kane, Caroline Aaron, Robert Smigel, Dolly De Leon, Madeline Weinstein, Matthew Shear, Jaden Waldman, Jacob Morrell, Laurent Rejto)

Full review

World premiere

Dìdi

Review preview for Dìdi

Impressively, the movie digs into enough warmth and humanity that it pulls the audience through moments of severe cringe with laughs and empathy.

Jeremy Mathews · 3.5 out of 5
In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Sean Wang; Writer: Sean Wang; Stars: Joan Chen, Izaac Wang, Shirley Chen, Joziah Lagonoy)

Full review

World premiere

Exhibiting Forgiveness

Utilising his paintings to find freedom from his past, a Black artist on the path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a recovering addict desperate to reconcile. Together, they learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Titus Kaphar; Writer: Titus Kaphar; Stars: André Holland, Andra Day, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Jaime Ray Newman, Matthew Elam, G.L. McQueary, John Earl Jelks, Tia Dionne Hodge, Chip Carriere, Ian Foreman, Martha Morgan, Daniel Michael Barriere, Justin Hofstad)

World premiere

Good One

On a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam contends with the competing egos of her father and his oldest friend.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: India Donaldson; Writer: India Donaldson; Stars: James Le Gros, Danny McCarthy, Sumaya Bouhbal, Lily Collias)

World premiere

In The Summers

Review preview for In The Summers

The characters speak naturally about the things in their life, and the film trusts us to piece together the essential information.

Jeremy Mathews · 4.5 out of 5
On a journey that spans across the formative years of their lives, two sisters navigate their loving but volatile father during their yearly summer visits to his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio; Writer: Alessandra Lacorazza Samudio; Stars: Residente, Sasha Calle, Lio Mehiel, Leslie Grace, Emma Ramos, Sharlene Cruz, Luciana Elisa Quinonez, Dreya Castillo, Allison Salinas, Kimaya Thais, Gabriella Surodjawan, Indigo Montez, Shawn Cody Calvert, Natay Carroll, Julian Cavett)

Full review

World premiere

Love Me

Long after humanity's extinction, a buoy and a satellite meet online and fall in love.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Sam Zuchero, Andy Zuchero; Writer: Sam Zuchero, Andy Zuchero; Stars: Kristen Stewart, Steven Yeun)

World premiere

Ponyboi

Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Esteban Arango; Writer: River Gallo; Stars: Dylan O'Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Indya Moore, Murray Bartlett, River Gallo, Keith William Richards, Bryant Carroll, Juan Carlos Hernández, Jari Jones, Moisés Acevedo, NaTonia Monét, Annie Henk, Stephen Moscatello, Miles Coreas, Kevin Matthew Mcdonald)

World premiere

A Real Pain

Review preview for A Real Pain

Eisenberg takes us through the entire journey in a brisk 90 minutes, but the film never feels rushed.

Jeremy Mathews · 4 out of 5
Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honour their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Jesse Eisenberg; Writer: Jesse Eisenberg; Stars: Kieran Culkin, Jennifer Grey, Jesse Eisenberg, Will Sharpe, Ellora Torchia, Liza Sadovy, Kurt Egyiawan)

Full review

World premiere

Stress Positions

Review preview for Stress Positions

A hilariously biting film that allows its characters to be their bitter, failed selves rather than part of a political message.

Jeremy Mathews · 5 out of 5
Terry Goon is keeping strict quarantine in his ex-husband’s Brooklyn brownstone while caring for his nephew - a 19-year-old model from Morocco named Bahlul - bedridden in a full leg cast after an electric scooter accident. Unfortunately for Terry, everyone in his life wants to meet the model.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Theda Hammel; Writer: Faheem Ali, Theda Hammel; Stars: John Roberts, John Early, Theda Hammel, Amy Zimmer, Faheem Ali, Qaher Harhash)

Full review

World premiere

Suncoast

A teenager who, while caring for her brother along with her audacious mother, strikes up an unlikely friendship with an eccentric activist who is protesting one of the most landmark medical cases of all time. Inspired by a semi-autobiographical story.

(Country: US; Year: 2024; Director: Laura Chinn; Writer: Laura Chinn; Stars: Nico Parker, Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson, Cree Kawa, Daniella Taylor, Ella Anderson, Amarr, Ariel Martin, Keyla Monterroso Mejia, Pam Dougherty, Andrea Powell, Parker Sack, Andrew Dicostanzo, Elliott Sancrant, Matt Walsh)

World premiere