Sundance 2022, January 20th through January 30th

This year, Sundance 2022 is entirely online due to the COVID pandemic. We are back covering the virtual festival seeing premieres of features, both studio and independent films, and documentaries, with Q & A panels and talks. Here are the films we scheduled and our takes on those that will be coming your way this year, including background on the filmmakers and which films not to miss! All photos appearing on this page are Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Navalny – Festival Favorite Award and Audience Award: U.S. Documentary – Director Daniel Roher’s chilling thriller follows fearless Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny after he was poisoned in August 2020, to prove that Vladimir Putin and his oppressive government were behind it. Roher uses dramatic footage interviewing Navalny, his family, staff, and supporters.  He also shows Navalny working with the representative of data investigative journalism organization, Bellincat, and one of Navalny’s staff members to ingeniously track down the assassins who planted Novichok nerve agent in Navalny’s underwear. The poison has been termed Putin’s calling card. Roher shoots Navalny making spine-tingling phone calls to the would be assassinators, unknowingly spilling their plan.  You will gasp right along with those recording as the details unfold. Navalny refused to back down and returned to Russia, knowing he’d be imprisoned, where he is now.  This documentary is a must-see piece of filmmaking.

Cha Cha Real Smooth – Winner of the Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic. One of our festival favorites. Writer/Director/Producer Cooper Raiff demonstrates he’s a force to be reckoned with. Starring  Dakota Johnson, Leslie Mann and newcomers Vanessa Burghardt and Evan Assante this is an engaging rom com. It’s the sweet and sensitive story of love from multiple ages and angles. This film is filled with heart about longing for love and romance. He plays a recent college graduate still trying to find his way in the world, but sensitive to the needs of others, as well as himself. Dakota Johnson shows depth in her sensitive performance. And Burghardt is captivating as her autistic daughter so candid and smart. This film follows Raiff’s 2020 SXSW Grand Jury Prize for debut feature, Shithouse. Can’t wait to see what he does next. A definite crowd pleaser.

892 – U.S. Special Jury Award: Ensemble cast.Tense drama based on a true story, John Boyega stars as a former Marine with PTSD.  Director Abi Damaris Corbin assembled an ensemble of first-rate actors in this film showing a vet threatening to bomb a bank to get the money he feels the the VA owes him. Desperate, living in a motel, separated from wife and child, he takes the savvy bank manager and a terrified teller hostage (Nicole Beharie and Selena Leyva), while talking to a TV news producer (Connie Britton) to get live coverage.  See Michael K. Williams, in his final film performance, as the calm and able negotiator trying to de-escalate the situation. A powerful film about being human, respecting each other under dire circumstances in a world that is just not fair.

Dual – Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul star in a sci-fi thriller written and directed by Riley Stearns (The Art of Self Defense) about a woman diagnosed with a terminal illness who gets cloned to save her family from the pain of losing her. When she goes into remission, there cannot legally be two of the same person, so they have to face off in a televised duel to the death. Riley Stearns writing and directorial style is on full display in this darkly satirical comedy beautifully shot during COVID in Finland. Gillan is remarkable doing double duty playing two characters, which she’s done twice before. See our interview with Director Stearns to find out how the scenes showing two of Karen Gillan was shot, how she trained to use weapons and taught Aaron Paul to dance hip hop in the film. A sight to behold. Watch our interview with Writer/Director Riley Stearns to your left. 

Resurrection –  Rebecca Hall in a totally committed performance in Writer-director Andrew Semans’ disturbing film that blends mental anguish from the past into horror. She plays a woman who leads a successful and seeming orderly life balancing the demands of her busy career while a devoted, but over-protective parent to her teenage daughter. It keeps becoming a more difficult watch when damaging secrets emerge after she sees an elusive, but creepy man (Tim Roth) from her past. Hall dives into the psychological anxiety she displays delivering a 7 minute mesmerizing monologue in closeup. Director Semans relayed in Q & A that she did performed it in one take and, for safety, did it again, in one take. Hall gives a commanding performance in this taut psychological thriller.  

When You Finish Saving the World –  In his directorial debut, Jesse Eisenberg, adapts his own audio project of the same name in this film starring Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, who also performed the original project. It’s the story of a mother and son whose relationship is failing because they are not  connecting. Wolfhard plays the teen looking for validation from social media for his lame music. Moore plays the self-righteous, old hippy mother who constantly denigrates her son, until he is awakened by his interest in a girl who’s into political activism. Eisenberg provides humor with a message in a film that makes the audience feel as uneasy as his characters, but definitely worth seeing.

Good Luck to You, Leo Grande – A true original. Director Sophie Hyde literally strips emotional and physical intimacy to the core in a revealing film about a middle age woman finally searching  for sexual satisfaction. Emma Thompson is the widow who hires a sex worker to help her achieve her very first orgasm, but it starts with frank discussions about more than her sexual needs. Irish actor Dylan McCormack (Dixie) is a striking sexy hunk whose performance is thoroughly engaging. Emma Thompson exposes herself completely in a gutsy performance that is extraordinary. The interplay between Thompson and McCormack, including timing and delivery, are effective and thought-provoking. You may never look at yourself naked in the mirror the same way again.

Call Jane – Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver star in a film directed by Phyllis Nagy,(screenwriter for Carol), about a suburban housewife in 1968 looking to terminate a pregnancy that may be life-threatening. The film is based on true events surrounding the Jane Collective; a group of women who helped provide thousands of abortions over 4 years in Chicago arranging safe procedures through secretive efforts in the late 1960’s. Elizabeth Banks in an unusual dramatic and human role with comedic overtones that helps shape her character. Sigourney Weaver is unexpectedly sharp, crusty and compassionate as he field general. Wunmi Mosaku fills out the ensemble with her honesty and pointed criticism of the racial divide. This film is a well-crafted call to action and activism at a time when we may soon be facing the changing political and social challenges for women needing and seeking abortions. See The Janes documentary also being shown at the festival.

The Janes – The film chronicles how female college students created a collective of women who risked jail to secretly arrange and provide thousands of illegal, but safe abortions, protecting women’s health over 4 years in Chicago between 1968 and 1972. Directors Emma Pildes and Tia Lessin have done meticulous research presenting step-by-step how they built their organization along with archive footage of the demonstrations and activism for civil rights and women’s rights at that time. Interviews with several of the real Janes is unbelievably inspiring, telling their personal stories along with their foibles going undercover as inexperienced activists trying to duck the police and the infamous Chicago Red Squad.  See Call Jane, the feature film starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver, and Wunmi Mosaku, based on the real women who took incredible risks to help protect their sisters desperate for safe abortions for a variety of reasons. Both films show the depth and compassion making them remarkably compelling.

Happening – This film is explicit, but also a very informative, graphically showing what young women had to go through to get an abortion in 1963. Writer/Director Audrey Diwan adapts Annie Ernaux’s memoir of  young school girl, Anne, (Anamaria Vartolomei) who gets pregnant, and wants an abortion. Her performance is courageously uninhibited, shot as if you are the one going through the entire process. She nervously tries to find a doctor who will do the procedure, becoming more desperate as months pass, taking pills and even trying to end the pregnancy herself. Her self-inflicted pain is shown in horrific detail, but you can’t turn away. In Q & A, Director Diwan relayed that some men actually fainted seeing those scenes. It is a wake up call showing what could happen again if abortion becomes illegal once more. See Call Jane, the feature film starring Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver, and Wunmi Mosaku, based on the real women who took incredible risks to help protect women desperate for safe abortions for a variety of reasons. Also The Janes documentary where you get to see the real Jane activists in the 1960’s and now, reflecting on what they accomplished before Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973.

Maika – Written and directed by Ham Tran, this comedic sci-fi children’s adventure fantasy is the first Viet Names produced film to be shown at Sundance. It was inspired by a Czechoslovakian story that became a hugely popular 1978 TV show in Viet Nam. When 8-year-old Hung’s mother dies, he and his father have to adjust their relationship. When his father can’t fix the drone plane Hung’s mother gave him after an air battle with the local rich kid, he looks up and sees a falling star. It’s a little girl alien named Maika. She is magical and adorable, as are all of the kids in this film. They have adventures until an evil capitalist tries to kidnap Maika for her cosmic powers. It’s silly comedy, gross out kid humor, and chases lined with slapstick for a change of pace from more serious films at the festival. Tran is a Sundance alum for his 2006 Journey From the Fall, about post war Viet Nam. Watch our interview with Writer/Director Ham Tran to your left. 

God’s Country – Sundance Institute | Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction. This is a slow and very silent film about a quiet, calm woman, Sandra, (Thandiwe Newton), still grieving her mother’s passing while dealing with school politics while she teaches.  Julian Higgins’ directorial feature debut is co-written by Higgins and Shaye Ogbonna, It shows Sandra’s disturbing encounters dealing with trespassers on her land. When she asks them to leave, they don’t, and keep challenging her authority. As they defy her, she takes steps to fight back, bringing in the local authorities to help and then, taking matters into her own hands. The scenery is breathtaking, but the behavior is ugly as the situation continues to escalate. Newton is intense and powerful as the woman strategizing how to take control of her life.  Frustrating to watch at times, Newton’s restraint in this role, and the pace of the film building to the end,  is effective.

La Guerra Civil – Eva Longoria Bastón in her directorial debut. In 1996, Oscar De La Hoya, the charismatic golden boy from East LA, challenged Mexican boxing legend Julio César Chávez in what was billed as the “ultimate glory” fight showing the cultural significance of one of the biggest sports moments of the 1990s. Bastón delves deep into the personal and political ramificati0ns of their paths to find who deserved best to be real boxing hero to all Mexicans. The way the film is organized, it sometimes gets confusing as to who is being followed  as they work toward their ultimate confrontation. Bastón’s interviews with both De La Hoya and Julio César Chávez clearly show not all the wounds have healed.

Lucy and Desi– Director Amy Poehler shows these television pioneers, not only as stars, but as innovative power players who wanted to work together while starting a family. With Poehler’s knowledge and her own history in comedy and entertainment, this film not only delves into the personal, but the professional lives, including the struggles in their relationships as they created the most popular show in early television history. Lucy and Desi’s daughter, Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill adds family history and amazing archival footage. The structure of the film seems somewhat disjointed and sometimes hard to follow. Because of the treasure trove of material, Poehler may have seemed tentative about leaving anything on the cutting room floor. The result makes the film feel a little sluggish.

Alice -This startling mind-bender starring Keke Palmer, Common and Johnny Lee Miller about forced servitude in the 20th century keeps you guessing. Writer/Director Krystin Ver Linden’s modern liberation fable is inspired by true accounts of Black Americans who were captives on plantations, brutally treated more than 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Keke Palmer plays one of those people who finds a way out and wait till you see her get current, transforming into a Blaxploitation icon with help from a fan of the genre played by Common. Both deliver fascinating performances in this film that mixes grim historical fact with fiction about race straddling two time periods, in the same year. It’s not time travel, but a very clever way to expose racism  you thought was long gone.

TikTok, Boom –  This film examines the algorithmic, sociopolitical, economic, and cultural influences and impact of the history-making app which is eclipsing other social media platforms. Director Shalini Kantayya, a Sundance Institute Documentary Film fellow, returns after the world premiere of Coded Bias at Sundance 2020. A smart cast of Gen Z subjects, led by influencer Feroza Aziz, exposes security and socio- political issues, racial biases, marketing tactics and more. The film shows the wide reach TikTok has that can generate millions of views. Kantayya picked savvy entrepreneurs to show how this app can be a positive blessing as well as a critical and personal curse.

Master – Regina Hall, Renée Zoe, and Amber Gray star in Writer-director Mariama Diallo’s psychological thriller about racism and white supremacy at an elite New England University. Hall is the school’s new Master having to contend with a history of racially motivated  murders committed near the site of the historic Salem Witch Trials. The film incorporates racism among students and faculty. Master is billed as a horror story,  but there aren’t enough jump moments. The script telegraphs what’s coming before the events occur.

Am I OK? – A somewhat disappointing film starring Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno who star in  Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne’s directorial feature debut.When besties are about to be separated by one getting a job across the pond, it becomes a reevaluation of the power dynamic within their friendship. It gets further complicated when Johnson’s character finally tests her possible sexual preferences. Personal relationships are complicated and messy, like this film. But you know from the beginning, how it’s going to end.

Living – Bill Nighy in a beautifully restrained performance in Director Oliver Hermanus’ (Beauty) poignant reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s masterpiece, Ikiru (To Live). Nobel and Booker Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro’s adaptation takes place in post-war London where Williams (Nighy) finds out he has a terminal illness. He carefully chooses who to tell and how to spend his last days when he strikes up a meaningful friendship with a young, former employee who helps him reevaluate his priorities and helps him find the will to change and create a positive legacy.

My Old School – Jono McLeod with a very creative and unusual approach to filmmaking presenting the strange, but true, documentary that uses an audio interview  lip synched on camera by Alan Cumming. Using the old photos, videos and interviews with now grown fellow classmates of his Scotland High School, Brandon Lee is shown in the classrooms he attended hiding a shocking secret. With added animation, McLeod spins this curious tale including Lee’s relationships with his Principal, teachers and his very entertaining classmates. Alan Cumming  is amazing the way he brings Brandon to life just by mouthing and acting out all of his words without actually speaking. Sometimes the narrative is hard to follow, and a little slow moving, but intriguing in its own way.

An American Dream and Other Fairy Tales – Abigail Disney, the granddaughter of Roy and grandniece of Walt Disney made this film because she’s angry that The Walt Disney Company is no longer the “happiest place Earth” for the people who really make it magic. She is on a mission to expose how the extreme wealth of the company has not been spread evenly, especially to loyal workers at the lower end of the pay scale. Meeting with workers, she shows that many are living in their cars, on food stamps and relying on food banks to feed their families. Abigail is the engaging on-camera face of the film, presenting the details for her case. She is driven to expose the injustice, trying to push the business her family started to once again, put people before profit.