Don’t sleep on these 3 movies from Sundance 2021
Now that the curtain has closed on Sundance the deals are starting to roll in. As of Tuesday, 13 deals have closed with CODA is taking home most of the cake after shaking hands with Apple to the tune of $25M.
Because of Sundance’s virtual nature this year, there was a renewed focus on the art with networking and parties mostly off the table. However, while the accessibility and focus on film was a highlight of this unique virtual festival, the online screenings may be a double edged sword as some problems come to light.
For example, how can we ensure that important stories from this year don’t get lost in the shuffle of an endless outpour of streaming content? And how can filmmakers generate buzz for a film that would otherwise rely on word of mouth to generate buying power?
Maybe the answer is to create the ourselves buzz online. I have no experience critiquing movies, but I do want to highlight three films that haven’t gotten the love they deserve (yet) from the Sundance juries or potential distributors.
My advice? Watch these as soon as they come out and support the filmmakers. I walked into these films with no expectation and left deeply impacted, one way or another.
#1 Wild Indian
A deeply unsettling performance from Michael Greyeyes coupled with the deliberate guiding of indigenous voices led to a movie that knocked me off my feet. Literally, I was not expecting this from a screening I stumbled upon knowing nothing but the title. The film tells the story of Makwa and Ted-o, two boys who commit a terrible crime and grow up dealing with the consequences. Makwa, played by Michael Greyeyes, grows up to be a terrifying figure devoid of empathy while Ted-o reels from the event and spends the next 20 years in and out of prison.
Wild Indian plays as a heartbreaking story chronicling how one traumatic event can shape our lives, and how shame and a lack of love can create a waterfall of horror. While the film transcends the achievement of indigenous representation, this depiction of Native American culture is what makes this a film to remember for me. For a long time Hollywood has portrayed tribes in gross ways. As a kid, I was first exposed to this culture through the racist depiction of The Indian Chief in Peter Pan. Even in US History class, we brushed over The Trail of Tears in one quick reading without emphasis on understanding the culture of such a proud yet historically oppressed people.
Wild Indian challenges our understanding by showing how the pain of generations caused by racism and manifest destiny works its way through the human body. Starting in the first scene, a Native American man suffering from smallpox leaves his tribe to die. Centuries later when Makwa lands on screen, we see vicious bruises he tries to hide. The pain is rarely verbally addressed, but later in the film Makwa, trying to justify his actions, says “We are the descendants of cowards… Everyone worthwhile died fighting”. Now, of course this isn’t true. But it left me wondering how often this line of thinking is imbedded in these tribes because of how they’ve been treated in popular culture.
Overall, this body of work was a huge challenge well executed. Excited to see what Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr has next up his sleeve — What a way to walk on stage as a first time director!
#2 How It Ends
There have been several recent films that have taken on the pandemic theme head on, often failing. Quite frankly, I don’t think most of us are ready to watch an apocalyptic movie while we’re living in lockdown — It’s exhausting. But that’s where How it Ends from Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones is able to differentiate and excel.
While the subject matter is the end of the world, there’s a levity and refreshment to the performance and cinematography. This is not a movie like I Am Legend or 28 Days Later where the empty streets are foreboding. The empty streets on the last day of the end of this world feel peaceful and bright, with characters accepting their fate with good humor and an earnest effort to find closure and connection in their last moments.
Because of this, the movie serves as a perfect time capsule to our pandemic. Filmed in Los Angeles during the onset of COVID-19 with most of the cast just getting back to work, the empty streets are a perfect backdrop full of palm trees and fun cameos from the likes of Charlie Day and Olivia Wilde.
What a great reminder of why I love Los Angeles! I’m excited to watch this movie again when COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror.
#3 Strawberry Mansion
Strawberry Mansion is about a future world where dreams are audited and taxed by the IRS. Preble, played by Kentucker Audley, who also writes/directs the film with Albert Birney, soon falls in love with the dream version of the woman he’s tasked with auditing and a whimsical adventure ensues.
Albert and Kentucker succeed in transporting us to a whimsical place where anything is possible with a similar look and feel to an old record store or The NEverending Story.
The creative eccentricity of the filmmakers is on full display and I loved it. Strawberry Mansion is on my short list because this celebration of nostalgia is so rarely celebrated in today’s world, and I appreciated every second of it. I personally can’t wait to wander around a record store or sit in a bustling park in the post-pandemic world just to get back to this head space. And finally, where else can you see a film where the main character turns into a meteor and lands in a scoop of ice cream? Wild and well done.
So that’s my list. Hope you get a chance to see one of these films. Sundance, show them the money!
