The 2019 Sundance Film Festival announced the short films, indie episodics, and special events programming as we close in on the winter film festival. There’s a few that have me super excited to see during my Sundance coverage. These include Bootstrapped, Old Haunt, and Work In Progress. Kim Yutani, the Festival’s Director of Programming, said “Our newly-expanded programming team took in a full spectrum of human experience across genres and formats in creating this year’s…
"Sundance 2019: Shorts, Indie Episodics, Special Events"Tag: Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival has announced the lineup of feature films for the 2019 installment to take place January 24 – February 3, 2019 in Park City. There were 112 feature films announced today to screen during the festival. Of these 102 of them (91%) will be world premieres. There were 24 films supported by the Sundance Institute by way of granting or a lab. According to the festival, these films represent 33 countries and 45…
"Sundance 2019: Feature Lineup Announced"
Led by Jason Mantzoukas and Tony Revolori, The Long Dumb Road is able to bring back the road trip comedy with a fun and unique vision. Incoming college freshman Nat (Tony Revolori) and 30-something mechanic Richard (Jason Mantzoukas) are at two very different points in their life. Both of them are at different points in their life when they first meet. Together, the two of them go on quite the journey–no pun intended. The summer before heading to…
"The Long Dumb Road"
The Happy Prince offers some interesting insight into the life of Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde towards the later days of life. Oscar Wilde was an interesting character. He was also a victim of an unjust law in the United Kingdom. Wilde would formally be pardoned for his actions by England in 2017 but that didn’t change the past. Could his life have ended differently if the LGBTQ community were accepted for who they…
"The Happy Prince: The Life of Oscar Wilde"
Featuring the likes of Aubrey Plaza and Craig Robinson, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn is the rare miss for some of our favorite comedy stars. Who is Beverly Luff Linn (Craig Robinson)? This is one of the questions that drives the story of the film with posters plastered everywhere. What is it that drives Lulu Danger (Aubrey Plaza) to attend his show? While these questions are good in and of themselves, the film itself simply…
"An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn: A Rare Miss"
Sara Colangelo’s sophomore feature, The Kindergarten Teacher, takes audiences on a wild ride over the course of an hour and a half. Lisa Spinelli (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is a kindergarten teacher and she seems to be at a rather boring place in her career, going as far as telling her assistant (Anna Barynishikov) “to hell with the core curriculum.” As she teaches poetry classes at night, she soon learns that one of her students, Jimmy Roy…
"The Kindergarten Teacher Takes Us On A Ride"
If The Sentence doesn’t have you in tears at some point, please check your tear ducts. Rudy Valdez developed a love for film because of his sister, Cindy Shank. His older sister had wanted to be a filmmaker at one point in her life and she passed along this love to her brother. Six years after the death of Cindy’s ex-boyfriend, Alex, she is sent to jail because of “the girlfriend problem.” It has something…
"The Sentence: A Riveting Documentary"
Netflix brought Private Life to the Sundance Film Festival for its world premiere and while it is a very personal film that gets into what people go through for the IVF process, it isn’t one that will appeal to everyone. Kathryn Hahn has been a versatile comedic performer for years but writer-director Tamara Jenkins has written a role for the actress that gives us an emotional but strong performance as Rachel Biegler. Rachel has been…
"Private Life: A Very Personal Film"
A well-made feature film debut led by great performances, Monsters and Men splits the narrative into three while telling an all-too familiar story. Writer-director Reinaldo Marcus Green takes us to Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood just north of Crown Heights. When a father plays witness to–what else–the shooting of an unarmed black man, all hell starts to break loose in their community. This is how Green chooses to start the film and with this, we’re off and running. The…
"Monsters and Men: A Well-Made Debut"
Two siblings uncover quite a bit in their excavation of their late grandmother’s house following her death in 306 Hollywood. Before I dive into this film, I have to admit that yes, I am a hoarder. It’s quite rare that I throw things out, including my several years worth of Entertainment Weekly magazines. I can admit to knowing that this is an unhealthy habit. The size of my apartment certainly does me no favors with…
"306 Hollywood"