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Fifteen years have passed since the charming and carefree romantic comedy Adventureland premiered at the Sundance film festival. While this may seem like a short amount of time to the devoted fans of the millennial generation who deeply connected with the film, its two lead actors recently returned to the snowy mountains of Utah to remind everyone of its longevity. With a total of four films being showcased, Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg were each the center of attention at this year’s festival. Eisenberg, now 33, presented Stewart with the prestigious Visionary award for her career achievements at the opening ceremony.
While it may seem early to award Stewart with a gold watch, she earned it by leading the most astonishing film at Sundance. Love Lies Bleeding, the highly anticipated second film from British filmmaker Rose Glass, is a bold and intense cinematic experience, immersed in the flashy 80s culture of mullets and muscle trucks.
Katy O’Brian, a former bodybuilder, and Kristen Stewart star as outcast individuals in a small town who unexpectedly fall in love at a gym filled with muscular men in the barren New Mexico landscape. They plot a violent escape from their oppressors, including a repulsive Ed Harris with a bizarre hairstyle and a taste for beetles. This film, which combines elements of Titane and Thelma & Louise, is just as wild and thrilling as Glass’s previous work, Saint Maud, was tightly controlled. It also gives Stewart the opportunity to fully embrace her proudly queer identity and fearless attitude.
It made Stewart’s other film of the festival look rather wan by comparison: the fussily conceived AI romance Love Me pairs her with Steven Yeun as two android life forms who meet and bond several billion years into the post-human future, only to find avatars for their relationship in the excavated videos of a picture-perfect Instagram influencer couple. It’s all an unnecessarily cosmic setup for a tired critique of social media superficiality; its stars deserve better, and in Glass’s film, Stewart at least got it.
Eisenberg made another appearance at the festival in a particularly strange and unrecognizable role. In Sasquatch Sunset, a film by Nathan and David Zellner, he and Riley Keough are unrecognizable due to their full-body prosthetics portraying a Bigfoot family living in the scenic California wilderness. The film focuses more on visuals than plot and does not include any dialogue, showcasing the everyday life of Sasquatches with serene Malickian moments and detailed bodily functions.
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The outcome is surprisingly emotional for something that heavily relies on jokes about primate flatulence. However, Eisenberg did a better job in his own film as director, the bittersweet and comical road trip movie A Real Pain. In it, he and Kieran Culkin from Succession play estranged Jewish cousins who go on a tour of Poland to discover their family history during the Holocaust. It’s a loose concept that delves into the themes of faith, family, and the uniquely American idea of sacred European heritage. This film, as an exploration of the crisis of Jewish identity, was a great pairing with director Nathan Silver’s charming comedy Between the Temples. The film stars the fantastic Jason Schwartzman as a struggling cantor at a synagogue who helps an elderly music teacher (Carol Kane, in her most eccentric but also tender role) prepare for her belated bat mitzvah.
During the festival, a film called “A Real Pain” was sold to Searchlight Pictures, a division of Disney, for $10 million. This was considered a major success at Sundance, where the usual deal-making was not as active. The biggest purchase of the festival was made by Netflix, who paid $17 million for “It’s What’s Inside” – a horror movie with a clever concept from first-time director Greg Jardin. The film received little hype beforehand and critics were warned by publicists to keep the premise a secret. However, the sale also came with the announcement that the film would bypass theaters and be released directly on the platform. While the festival emphasized the importance of communal cinema experiences, there were concerns about the future of theatrical releases.
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My favourite film of Sundance this year was certainly enhanced by the collective gasps of a captive, unprepared audience. Aaron Schimberg’s ingenious satire A Different Man, which will also play in competition at Berlin next month, stars a never-better Sebastian Stan as a shy, isolated New Yorker living with facial neurofibromatosis – until experimental treatment offers him a miracle cure. Yet with his new, conventionally handsome mug, he finds that he’s still the same unwanted outsider as before – a cruelty underlined when a charming Brit with his former condition (hilariously played by Adam Pearson, the facially different actor first seen in Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin) enters his life and proceeds to steal it bit by bit. It’s a wickedly caustic, increasingly surreal reflection on that current hot potato of onscreen representation and ableism, without a hint of sanctimony or self-importance.
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The most impressive presentation at the festival was surprisingly more traditional. The Outrun, produced by BBC Films and directed by Nora Fingscheidt, may appear to be a familiar story about addiction and recovery. However, the unique and stunning backdrop of Orkney and the powerful performance of Saoirse Ronan, who has successfully transitioned into adult roles, elevate it to greater heights. Her portrayal of an alcoholic isolating and attempting to heal herself with unpredictable outcomes adds a raw and authentic quality to the film. In a Sundance lineup filled with daring and controversial works, The Outrun serves as a reminder of the satisfying potential of classic independent cinema.
Source: theguardian.com
