Recap: Sundance Film Festival 2020

BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN; FEATURING GREG CARLSON

For the 2020 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, NDFS member and Concordia College professor Greg Carlson attended with a group of students. For the past few years, Carlson has made his way to Park City, UT, each January to see a slew of the latest independent films. Sundance has been a standard since it was first held in the late 70s. Studios flock to the slopes to pick up the latest buzzworthy titles (Palm Springs, starring Andy Samberg, set a new purchasing record this year when Neon and Hulu acquired its distribution rights). Stars flock to the slopes to support their pictures or support other upcoming ventures. And, cinephiles from around the world flock to the slopes for bragging rights. A number of Oscar favorites had their first screenings at Sundance. 2020 could be a year that continues that tradition.

Once he returned to Fargo, Carlson shared his thoughts of many of the films he was able to see. Thanks to streaming services like Netflix and the always-changing distribution models of major studios, many of this year’s films are already set to be released throughout the next few months. Which titles are you looking forward to seeing? Share in the comments section!

BLACK BEAR
Carlson’s comments: “Aubrey Plaza and Christopher Abbott star in Lawrence Michael Levine’s Black Bear, an official selection of the NEXT program at SD2020. Levine is the writer of Fargo Film Festival favorite Always Shine and is married to director Sophia Takal. The parallels between the two movies are unmistakable. I like Always Shine a little better than Black Bear, but Plaza is top notch.”

CHARTER
Carlson’s comments: “I am a fan of Amanda Kernell’s Sami Blood, so I was excited to see what she would do next. Charter did not disappoint and I look forward to seeing it again.”

FEELS GOOD MAN
Carlson’s comments: “I thoroughly enjoyed Arthur Jones’ feature documentary debut Feels Good Man. A key film and case study for students of internet and meme culture, Feels Good Man also shares a deeply sympathetic portrait of artist, painter, father, and friend Matt Furie. Furie, calm at the center of a dark and damaging storm, transforms in unexpected ways. I really dug the way that Jones puts this story together (accompanied by some awesome animation of the Boy’s Club). Jones received a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Emerging Filmmaker.

THE GO-GO’S
Carlson’s comments: “Even though Alison Ellwood’s The Go-Go’s stuck with a conventional, Behind the Music-style approach to one of the greatest pop acts to emerge from the Los Angeles punk scene of the late 1970s, I was ecstatic to see it. Felt like hanging out with good friends.”

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY: THE REN & STIMPY STORY
Carlson’s comments: “The troubling documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy: The Ren & Stimpy Story, by Ron Cicero and Kimo Easterwood, was an official selection of the Documentary Premieres program at the SD2020. I had a conversation with Robin Byrd, who was sitting nearby during the screening. She spoke from her seat during the Q and A. That she did not join the filmmakers down front was, for me, telling.”

JUMBO
Carlson’s comments: “Zoe Wittock’s Jumbo, a fantastic fairytale about a young woman who falls hard for an amusement park ride, was one of my favorite films of SD2020. Portrait of a Lady on Fire fans seeking a Noemie Merlant fix got it. And then some.”

KAJILLIONAIRE
Carlson’s comments: “We arrived in Park City on Tuesday, January 28th, and made it to a screening of Miranda July’s excellent Kajillionaire. My first Sundance film of 2020 ended up being one of my favorites. I fully expected to love Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger, but Gina Rodriguez is sublime and Evan Rachel Wood’s unforgettable Old Dolio is her career-best performance.”

LEAP OF FAITH
Carlson’s comments: “Cinephiles were in heaven by way of hell at the U.S. premiere of Alexandre O. Philippe’s Leap of Faith. Philippe continues to be a thoughtful chronicler of motion picture history, and his intimate conversation with William Friedkin on The Exorcist is one of his best. The legendary filmmaker originally planned to join Philippe at the screening, but poor health prevented him from visiting Park City. Before the show, Philippe turned a camera on the audience and we recorded a greeting for Friedkin.

NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
Carlson’s comments: “Sidney Flanigan is fierce and heartbreaking in Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always, an official selection of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the SD2020.”

OMNIBOAT: A FAST BOAT FANTASIA
Carlson’s comments: “Without question, the most talked-about movie at SD2020 within our group was Omniboat: A Fast Boat Fantasia. Wild, weird, uneven, hilarious, punishing, and more, I am still not entirely sure how this thing got made with such a handsome budget. One thing is certain. I will be seeing it again.

POSSESSOR
Carlson’s comments: “Brandon Cronenberg’s violent Possessor was an official selection of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. A significant amount of audience member squirming and gasping accompanied Cronenberg’s raw depictions of mayhem. I wasn’t expecting a Christopher Abbott double feature, but I would watch Andrea Riseborough and Jennifer Jason Leigh in anything, anytime, anywhere.

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN
Carlson’s comments: “The crowd at Eccles loved every minute of Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman. Carey Mulligan is a force as Cassandra Thomas, and the ensemble includes Bo Burnham, Laverne Cox, Clancy Brown, Jennifer Coolidge, and Alison Brie. Promising Young Woman is pitch-black, hilarious, and harrowing, and I expect strong word-of-mouth.

SHIRLEY
Carlson’s comments: “Josephine Decker, who ended up receiving a U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking, is such a vital storyteller. Shirley may have been my most anticipated movie at SD2020. Elisabeth Moss is scary brilliant in the title role, and she has a series of blistering scenes with Odessa Young and Michael Stuhlbarg. The movie was a little more conventional than one has come to expect from Decker (based on her recent work), but there is much to love. As an almost wholly fictionalized set of circumstances in the life of Shirley Jackson, the movie is based on the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell. Shirley is deeply indebted to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

WANDER DARKLY
Carlson’s comments: “Tara Miele’s Wander Darkly was my fifth movie on a five-movie day. Even so, I stayed awake for the ghostly romance. Sienna Miller and Diego Luna appear and disappear in the film, which was entered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. At the screening, Miele noted that her student film played at Slamdance twenty years ago, and with Wander Darkly, she ‘finally made it down the mountain.’”

WENDY
Carlson’s comments: “My seventeenth and final feature of SD2020 was Wendy, Benh Zeitlin’s return to cinema after eight years. Fans of Beasts of the Southern Wild, myself included, had high hopes for this re-imagined variation on Peter Pan mythology, but critical reaction has been decidedly mixed, and it looks increasingly unlikely that Wendy will match even a fraction of the acclaim and excitement that surrounded Beasts. Wendy will be released by Searchlight on February 28th.”