- Sundance 2020
- Jan 23 - Feb 2
Yours truly is super excited to be covering this year’s Sundance Film Festival, the first big festival of 2020. Expect both plenty of big premieres (The Last Thing He Wanted, Downhill, Promising Young Woman) of films big and small along with lesser known films hoping to get big as they gain steam over festival season, hoping to make their way to awards season. Welcome to our Sundance 2020 movie preview, where we let you know about the noteworthy selections for this years festival and follow them up with 5 top picks. Stay tuned for our coverage, and we hope to see you there!
Noteworthy Titles (Listed Alphabetically)
Los Angeles, 1989. Anna Bludso (Elle Lorraine) is a scarred survivor of a scalp burn from a mild relaxer perm. She also has the smarts and ambition to be the next on-air star at Culture, a music video TV show. After years of struggling to be seen for her ideas and hard work, Anna fears the worst when her dreadlocked boss is replaced by Zora (Vanessa Williams), an ex-supermodel with a silver tongue. Zora warns Anna that her nappy look has got to go, so Anna bites the bullet and gets a weave. Turns out, her flowing new hair is the key to success–but it arrived with a mind of its own, and it bites back!
Written and directed by Justin Simien.
Starring Elle Lorraine, Vanessa Williams, Jay Pharoah, Lena Waithe, Blair Underwood, and Laverne Cox.
At a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple entertains an out-of-town guest looking for inspiration in her filmmaking. The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously convoluted their lives will soon become in the filmmaker’s pursuit of a work of art, which blurs the boundaries between autobiography and invention.
Written and directed by Lawrence Michael Levine.
Starring Aubrey Plaza, Christopher Abbott, and Sarah Gadon.
Fourteen-year-old Mouse (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) desperately wants to join the Midnight Clique, an infamous group of Baltimore dirt-bike riders who rule the summertime streets. His older brother, Stro, was their top rider before his tragic death–a loss that consumes Mouse as much as his passion for bikes. Mouse’s mom (Teyonah Parris) and his police mentor, Detective Rivers (William Catlett), work overtime to help the charismatic teen reach his full potential, but when the Midnight Clique’s leader, Blax (Meek Mill), takes the boy under his wing, the lure of revving his own dirt bike skids Mouse toward a road way past the straight and narrow.
Written by Sherman Payne. Directed by Angel Manuel Soto.
Starring Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Meek Mill, Will Catlett, Teyonah Parris, Donielle Tremaine Hansley, and Kezii Curtis.
Billie (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Pete (Will Ferrell), and their sons are on a balcony during an idyllic family ski vacation in the Alps when an avalanche suddenly strikes. While they all emerge physically unharmed, Pete’s actions during the avalanche reveal a side of him that leaves his family in a state of shock. The aftermath of this moment permeates the remainder of the trip, and the harder Pete tries to avoid the truth and gloss things over, the more Billie and her sons are forced to re-evaluate their lives and, more specifically, how they feel about Pete–as a husband, father, and man.
Written by Jesse Armstrong, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash. Directed by Faxon and Rash.
Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Will Ferrell, Zach Woods, Zoë Chao, and Miranda Otto.
In a sleepy working-class community, Jan Vokes (Toni Collette) struggles to find meaning in her life while waiting tables at the local pub. One night, a chance encounter with an arrogant customer, Howard Davies (Damian Lewis), a former racehorse syndicate leader, inspires her to take on a new challenge. Despite her parents’ skepticism, Jan recruits neighbors and barflies alike into a crazy scheme to contribute to a community fund and breed a racehorse. After a rocky start, Dream Alliance–the horse and the syndicate–is born. After the horse wins one race after another, the syndicate’s success enriches the lives of all its members, giving them a sense of purpose they had never imagined before.
Written by Neil McKay. Directed by Euros Lyn.
Starring Toni Collette and Damian Lewis.
John (Viggo Mortensen) lives with his partner, Eric (Terry Chen), and their daughter, Monica (Gabby Velis), in California, far from the traditional rural life he left behind years ago. His father, Willis (Lance Henriksen), a headstrong man from a bygone era, lives alone on the isolated farm where John grew up. Willis’s mind is declining, so John brings him west, hoping he and his sister, Sarah (Laura Linney), can help their father find a home closer to them. Their best intentions ultimately run up against Willis’s angry refusal to change his way of life in any way.
Written and directed by Viggo Mortensen.
Starring Lance Henriksen, Viggo Mortensen, Terry Chen, Sverrir Gudnason, Hannah Gross, and Laura Linney.
When Deb (Glenn Close) gets a surprise visit from her daughter Molly (Mila Kunis), she is less than thrilled. She is, in fact, terrified. At first, it may seem like Deb is being cruel, initially refusing to let Molly into her house. But Molly is a drug addict with a decade-long history of failed detox programs, who repeatedly swore she wanted to get better but then lied to and stole from the family. Deb’s refusal to give Molly yet another chance gradually fades when she sees glimpses of the child she knew in this deeply broken young woman. Something about this time feels different–or does she just want it to feel different?
Written Rodrigo Garcia and Eli Saslow. Directed by Garcia.
Starring Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Stephen Root, and Joshua Leonard.
Many refugee stories end in the same place: a safe (if slightly bewildering) new home. And that’s where His House begins, with a Sudanese couple arriving in a quiet English town for their “happily ever after.” But as their acclimation process falters, we realize that there’s more to blame than cross-cultural misunderstanding. Things begin to go disastrously wrong. “Screaming nightmares”wrong. “Blood magic”wrong. And then, it gets much, much worse.
Written and directed by Remi Weekes.
Starring Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, and Matt Smith.
Businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) and prim but warm housewife Sheila (Jessie Buckley) lead a properly quiet English life. When rumblings of a mole in the Soviet Union government reach British intelligence agent Dickie Franks (Angus Wright) and CIA official Emily Donovan (Rachel Brosnahan), Greville is called upon by his country precisely for his ordinariness. He is thrown into the political conflict, and as his efforts to end the Cuban Missile Crisis deepen, he forges an unbreakable bond with his informant, Oleg (Merab Ninidze), that will be put to the ultimate test. Pressured by Sheila’s suspicion of his secrecy and as the Soviets close in on the plot, Greville proves himself not to be ordinary at all.
Written by Tom O’Connor. Directed by Dominic Cooke.
Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Merab Ninidze, Rachel Brosnahan, and Jessie Buckley.
Based on Robert Kolker’s 2013 true-crime novel of the same title, Lost Girls is a searing look at a mother’s relentless fight for justice against the system that failed her. After her eldest daughter, Shannan, goes missing in an affluent Long Island neighborhood, Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan) demands answers. She discovers Shannan was part of an online world of sex workers, composed mostly of young women from rough, working-class backgrounds. As Mari puts pressure on an indifferent and sometimes hostile police force that would rather blame Shannan and “girls like her”than find them, she decides to take matters into her own hands, revealing more cases like Shannan’s.
Written by Michael Werwie. Directed by Liz Garbus.
Starring Amy Ryan, Thomasin McKenzie, Lola Kirke, Oona Laurence, Gabriel Byrne, and Miriam Shor.
It’s the 1980s, and David, a seven-year-old Korean American boy, is faced with new surroundings and a different way of life when his father, Jacob, moves their family from the West Coast to rural Arkansas. His mother, Monica, is aghast that they live in a mobile home in the middle of nowhere, and naughty little David and his sister are bored and aimless. When his equally mischievous grandmother arrives from Korea to live with them, her unfamiliar ways arouse David’s curiosity. Meanwhile, Jacob, hell-bent on creating a farm on untapped soil, throws their finances, his marriage, and the stability of the family into jeopardy.
Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung.
Starring Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Youn Yuh Jung, Will Patton, Alan Kim, and Noel Kate Cho.
Taylor Swift is a global icon who repeatedly tops the charts, fills stadium tours with rapturous fans, and continues to challenge herself both professionally and personally while remaining steadfast in her vision as an artist. Few have achieved as much as Swift, or have had their personal lives open to such public scrutiny, but in Miss Americana, she finds herself at a watershed moment in her career, using her platform not only as a singer-songwriter, but as a woman fearlessly harnessing the full power of her voice.
Directed by Lana Wilson.
Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia
Big-time real estate developer Jim Cummings is seeking investments in his new Miami condo skyscraper designed to fulfill people’s hopes and desires. He explains that Miami was once total swampland at the edge of the country before it was willed into a metropolis of endless summer: the perfect setting for a wild adventure.
Written by Daniels, Hannah Fidell, Alexa Lim Haas, Lucas Leyva, Olivia Lloyd, Jillian Mayer, The Meza Brothers, Terence Nance, Brett Potter, Dylan Redford, Xander Robin, Julian Yuri Rodriguez, Celia Rowlson-Hall, and Phil Lord.
Directed by Daniels, Hannah Fidell, Alexa Lim Haas, Lucas Leyva, Olivia Lloyd, Jillian Mayer, The Meza Brothers, Terence Nance, Brett Potter, Dylan Redford, Xander Robin, Julian Yuri Rodriguez, and Celia Rowlson-Hall.
Starring Mel Rodriguez, Finn Wolfhard, Casey Wilson, Adam Devine, Jessica Williams, and Robert Redford.
Stuck in Palm Springs for her younger sister Tala’s destination wedding, family black sheep and reluctant maid of honor Sarah meets carefree Nyles, the date of a vapid bridesmaid. After Nyles bails Sarah out of giving a wedding toast, she quickly realizes that he is actually not a sentimental fool at all and feels drawn to his offbeat nihilism. After their impromptu tryst is thwarted by a surreal, unexpected interruption, Sarah joins Nyles in embracing the idea that nothing really matters, and they begin wreaking spirited havoc on the wedding celebration.
Written by Andy Siara. Directed by Max Barbakow.
Starring Andy Samberg, Cristin Milioti, J.K. Simmons, Meredith Hagner, Camila Mendes, and Peter Gallagher.
Suspiciously unambitious Cassie (Carey Mulligan) leads a quiet existence as a barista who lives in her parents’ house since dropping out of medical school. She and her friendly boss, Gail (Laverne Cox), gab away days at the cafe. The way she spends her evenings, however, reveals a boiling vendetta. Men who cross her path are in serious danger, as beautiful and brutal Cassie seeks to heal from past trauma by doling out scathing lessons. When Ryan (Bo Burnham), a former classmate, re-enters her life, so does the possibility of healing–until new details about the death of her best friend infuriate Cassie and inspire her most potent confrontation yet.
Written and directed by Emerald Fennell.
Starring Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, and Connie Britton.
Meet Kurt, from @KurtsWorld96. He dreams of one day sitting atop a social media empire, but he’s not there yet. He currently drives for the rideshare company Spree, which is cool for him because he gets to hang with so many dope people all day long. Fortunately, Kurt has come up with the perfect way to go viral: #TheLesson. He’s decked out his car with cameras for a nonstop livestream full of killer entertainment. In the middle of all this madness, a stand-up comedian with her own viral agenda, Jessie Adams, crosses Kurt’s path and becomes our only hope to put a stop to his misguided carnage.
Written by Gene McHugh and Eugene Kotlyarenko. Directed by Kotlyarenko.
Starring Joe Keery, Sasheer Zamata, David Arquette, Kyle Mooney, Mischa Barton, and Josh Ovalle.
Jane (Julia Garner) is a junior assistant to a prominent entertainment executive, a man whose face we never get to see, though whose character is clearly inspired by the #MeToo testimonies surrounding Harvey Weinstein. There is nothing glamorous or rewarding about her job, yet she’s often reminded that any young aspiring film producer would kill to take her place. Over the course of 24 hours we witness as Garner’s superbly understated Jane faces a multitude of degradations and hostilities (from both men and women), which she continues to bear stoically. She quietly goes about her mundane tasks with an attitude of someone who is used to this type of treatment. Just when we think that nothing can be done about her growing discomfort in this land of self-importance, Jane takes action–and what follows is a fascinating depiction of the mechanics that lead to abuse of power.
Written and directed by Kitty Green.
Starring Julia Garner, Matthew Macfadyen, Makenzie Leigh, Kristine Froseth, Jon Orsini, and Noah Robbins.
Journalist, fighter, and feminist Gloria Steinem is an indelible icon known for her world-shaping activism, her guidance of the revolutionary women’s movement, and her writing that has impacted generations. In this nontraditional biopic, against the backdrop of a lonely bus on an open highway, five Glorias trace Steinem’s influential journey to prominence–from her time in India as a young woman, to the founding of Ms. magazine in New York, to her role in the rise of the women’s rights movement in the 1960s and beyond.
Written by Julie Taymor and Sarah Ruhl. Directed by Taymor.
Starring Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Bette Midler, Janelle Monáe, Timothy Hutton, and Lorraine Toussaint.
Stanley (Richard Jenkins), an aging fast-food worker, plans to call it quits after 38 years on the graveyard shift at Oscar’s Chicken and Fish. His last weekend takes a turn while training his replacement, Jevon (Shane Paul McGhie), a talented but stalled young writer whose provocative politics keep landing him in trouble. The men are worlds apart. A high school dropout who has watched life pass by his drive-through window, Stanley proudly details the nuances of the job. Jevon, a columnist who’s too smart to be flipping patties, contends their labor is being exploited. But a flicker of trust sparks during the long overnight hours in a quiet kitchen.
Written and directed by Andrew Cohn.
Starring Richard Jenkins, Shane Paul McGhie, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Birgundi Baker, Allison Tolman, and Ed O’Neill.
Rory (Jude Law), an ambitious entrepreneur and former commodities broker, persuades his American wife, Allison (Carrie Coon), and their children to leave the comforts of suburban America and return to his native England during the 1980s. Sensing opportunity, Rory rejoins his former firm and leases a centuries-old country manor, with grounds for Allison’s horses and plans to build a stable. But the family buckles beneath an unaffordable lifestyle and increasing isolation as they head toward a seemingly inevitable breakdown.
Written and directed by Sean Durkin.
Starring Jude Law, Carrie Coon, Charlie Shotwell, and Oona Roche.
Technology wizards have masterminded a new form of capitalism, and humanity is now the raw resource feeding the machine. Powerful, hidden artificial intelligence tasked with hijacking our attention is tearing apart social norms, jeopardizing truth and democracy, and putting civilization on a programmed path toward self-destruction.
Written by Vickie Curtis, Davis Coombe, and Jeff Orlowski. Directed by Orlowski.
Starring Vincent Kartheiser, Skyler Gisondo, and Kara Hayward.
In 1973, teenage Beth (Sophia Lillis) leaves her rural hometown to study at New York University where her estranged uncle Frank (Paul Bettany) is a revered literature professor. She soon discovers that Frank is gay and living with his longtime partner, Wally (Peter Macdissi)–an arrangement he has kept secret for years. After the sudden death of surly patriarch Mac (Stephen Root), Frank reluctantly returns home for the funeral with Beth and Wally in tow. Along the way, he’s forced to reckon with the ghosts of the past and finally face his family.
Written and directed by Alan Ball.
Starring Paul Bettany, Sophia Lillis, Peter Macdissi, Steve Zahn, Judy Greer, and Margo Martindale.
Zola meets Stefani at a restaurant where Zola waitresses, and the two immediately click over pole dancing. Only a day after they exchange numbers, Stefani invites Zola on a cross-country road trip, where the goal is to make as much money as possible dancing in Florida strip clubs. Zola agrees, and suddenly she is trapped in the craziest, most unexpected trip of her life.
Written by Janicza Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris. Directed by Bravo.
Starring Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun, and Colman Domingo.
KLM’s Top Five Picks
Con artists Theresa and Robert have spent 26 years training their only daughter, Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), to swindle, scam, and steal at every opportunity. During a desperate, hastily conceived heist, they charm a kind stranger, Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), into joining their next scheme, completely shaking up Old Dolio’s routine. Her unlikely connection with Melanie begins to challenge Old Dolio’s odd and stoic reality–and she finds herself suddenly caught between the only family she has ever known and the prospect of total freedom.
Written and directed by Miranda July.
Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Gina Rodriguez, Richard Jenkins, and Debra Winger.
Why You Should Be Excited: The latest feature of the award-winning writer and director of Me and You and Everyone We Know, Kajillionaire is a crime drama that features an all-star cast and a compelling family story that promises plenty of drama.
4. McMillions
In the 1990s, the McDonald’s Monopoly game was ubiquitous, with widespread marketing drawing millions into the restaurants, everyone hoping to win prizes that ranged from sandwiches to vacations to cash prizes. Less well known is the network of players who were arrested on charges of defrauding McDonald’s out of more than $24 million by manipulating the Monopoly game. An investigation set in motion by an anonymous tip reveals memorable FBI agents, strange and hilarious prizewinners, and a remarkably complex scheme that mirrored the game itself.
Directed by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte.
Why You Should Be Excited: HBO puts out some great documentaries and McMillions looks no different. Being a 90s kid, this unbelievable true crime story of one of the biggest fraud cases that not many people know about is right in my wheelhouse. If anything, this is an intriguing story of the little guy against a big corporation that promises plenty of twists and turns.
3. Wendy
Wendy and her brothers come from a warm working family. Raised amongst dinner plates and diner patrons, the children have an itch for the adventurous and slightly mischievous. After long nights watching trains rattle by their bedroom window, the kids are whisked away by a mysterious boy named Peter. A long journey taken on faith lands them on Peter’s island. There they discover a wild new world, one without grown-ups and suspended in time. Reveling in their youthfulness and sprawling freedom satisfies the kids at first, but nostalgia for their lives left behind seeps in. When threats to their eternal childhood develop, Wendy is tasked with saving herself, her brothers, and the other island children with the most powerful tool she has: love for her family.
Written by Benh Zeitlin and Eliza Zeitlin. Directed by Benh Zeitlin.
Starring Devin France, Yashua Mack, Gage Naquin, Gavin Naquin, Ahmad Cage, and Krzysztof Meyn.
Why You Should Be Excited: From the Academy-Award winning writer and director of Beasts of The Southern Wild, this different take on the classic story of Peter Pan looks beautiful while bringing plenty of emotion to the table. Get ready to laugh and cry with these kids in what appears to be an experience like not many others.
Journalist and single mother Elena McMahon (Anne Hathaway) has rigorously investigated Contra activity in Central America for years. Frustrated when her coverage is censored, relief comes in an unexpected package: her acerbic father (Willem Dafoe) falls ill and leaves her a series of unfinished and unsavory arms deals in that very region. Now a pawn in a risky and unfamiliar game, surrounded by live ammunition in more ways than one, and alongside a U.S. state official (Ben Affleck) with whom she has a checkered past, Elena needs to parse her own story to survive. With her disenchanting life awaiting her back home, she is forced to consider what she really wants.
Written by Marco Villalobos and Dee Rees. Directed by Rees.
Starring Anne Hathaway, Ben Affleck, Willem Dafoe, and Rosie Perez.
Why You Should Be Excited: This eagerly-anticipated follow-up from the writer and director of 2017’s Mudbound, The Last Thing He Wanted has been surrounded with plenty of hype while many expected it to be ready for this awards season but it is now upon us. Let’s see if it is worth the wait.
1. The Father
Almost 80, mischievous, caustic, and defiantly living alone, Anthony (Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins) rejects each and every hired caretaker that his daughter, Anne (Academy Award winner Olivia Colman), lovingly introduces. Anne is desperate for help. She can’t make daily visits anymore, and Anthony’s grip on reality is unraveling. Given the ebb and flow of his memory, how much of his own identity and past can he cling to? Anne grieves the loss of her father as he lives and breathes before her–but doesn’t she have the right to live her own life?
Written by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller. Directed by Zeller.
Starring Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams.
Why You Should Be Excited: Ever since her Oscar win for The Favorite, Olivia Colman’s career has been on the upswing ever since and with The Father she looks to get back there with Anthony Hopkins possibly following her as they play father and daughter. This film certainly has all the makings to be one of those award-baity movies but seeing Colman and Hopkins together is worth it.
*logo and synopses courtesy of Sundance
Stay tuned to keithlovesmovies.com for our coverage of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
- bad hair
- black bear
- charm city kings
- downhill
- dream horse
- falling
- four good days
- his house
- ironbark
- kajillionaire
- lost girls
- mcmillions
- minari
- miss americana
- omniboat: a fast boat fantasia
- palm springs
- promising young woman
- spree
- sundance
- the assistant
- the father
- the glorias
- the last shift. the nest
- the last thing he wanted
- the social dilemma
- uncle frank
- wendy
- zola
