The Sundance Film Festival happened this past week and it happened without The Movie Gourmet traveling to Park City, Utah. Nevertheless, I followed Sundance on a daily basis and here’s why – the buzz from Sundance adds a bunch of movies to my “Must Find and See” list for the coming year.
Last year’s Sundance Film Festival produced six films for my Best Movies of 2015: #2 Wild Tales, #5 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, #4 Brooklyn, and honorable mentions I’ll See You in My Dreams, The End of the Tour and ’71. In addition, Sundance featured several of the year’s most notable films: The Tribe, It Follows, Tangerine, Diary of a Teenage Girl, I Smile Back and 99 Homes.
The films on the top of my 2016 Sundance Must See list are Manchester By the Sea and The Birth of a Nation. Manchester By the Sea is from Kenneth Lonergan, who also wrote and directed the brilliant You Can Count on Me and Margaret. Manchester By the Sea features a reputedly searing performance by Casey Affleck; Kyle Chandler also stars.
The Birth of a Nation, which won the top prize at the fest, is the story of the slave rebellion chronicled in The Confessions of Nat Turner, written and directed by and starring the actor Nate Parker. Believe it or not, both movies are ALREADY generating 2016 Oscar buzz.
This year, Amazon and Netflix, to the consternation of the movie studios, aggressively shopped for Sundance indies. Amazon bought Manchester By the Sea and, although The Birth of a Nation was bought by Fox Searchlight, Netflix drove up the price.
Sundance is also usually especially rich with documentaries. Last year’s haul included Listen to Me Marlon, What Happened Miss Simone?, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, Welcome to Leith, The Hunting Ground, Prophet’s Prey, Going Clear: The Prison of Belief, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Finders Keepers, Hot Girls Wanted and Cartel Land. In other words, Amy, The Look of Silence and Hitchcock/Truffaut were the only major 2015 documentaries that did NOT play Sundance.
This year’s top doc at Sundance was Weiner, an inside look at the Anthony Weiner mayoral campaign that collapsed on his bafflingly gross tweets and sexts. Mrs. Weiner is Huma Abedin, a longtime top aide to another Famously Wronged Woman, Hillary Clinton. Prepare to cringe.
