The animated graphics that run before every film at this year’s Sundance Film Festival are unusually bright, vibrant and cheerful — a barrage of geometric shapes in vivid colors created by Studio Lowrie. And watching them on a computer screen or TV monitor, it’s hard not to imagine how celebratory they would seem if they were playing to an in-person audience in a crowded Eccles or Egyptian theater in Park City, Utah.
That’s how the 2022 Sundance was supposed to take place, and it’s probably the mood those graphics were designed to create – because after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2021 festival to go virtual, this year was going to mark the triumphant return to an in-person Sundance. However, the festival was forced to cancel its Park City segment on Jan. 5. This means that the cheerful graphics are a reminder how much fun we may have had.
Last year’s Sundance had seemed all but inevitably virtual for months, so the lack of Park City events wasn’t a surprise. Even with a smaller lineup, the festival was able to produce some impressive deals and a large number of films that were highly acclaimed. Films included “CODA,” “Minari,” “Judas and the Black Messiah,” “Mass”There are five documentaries that are currently in the Oscars doc category on the shortlist. “Summer of Soul,” “Flee,” “In the Same Breath,” “Faya Dayi” “Writing With Fire.”
The virtual Sundance’s second year seems less vibrant and sadder than the first. This is probably because the festival organizers offered the possibility of an in-person festival, but it was rescinded by the pandemic. Although there are many strong films in the nonfiction category, the lineup is not getting the attention it deserves. “CODA” “Summer of Soul”Last year, the festival managed to generate a lot of interest. Deals aside, the festival has yet not to produce any acquisitions even close to the record $25million Apple paid. “CODA,”The $15 million Netflix spent “Passing”Searchlight/Hulu payed $15 million, a documentary-record amount “Summer of Soul.”
There’s still plenty of time for dealmaking, but not much time for new films to grab the spotlight: All of the festival’s movies were programmed to launch in the first five days, with Monday’s lineup – which included “Emily the Criminal,” “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” “Dos Estaciones,” “The Janes” “Am I OK?” – scheduled as the last of this year’s premieres. Sundance added one last film to its lineup on Monday afternoon: the documentary “Navalny” – but apart from its Tuesday debut, the final six days of the 11-day festival will consist of repeat screenings of films that have already bowed.
This will allow viewers to view more films that were praised over the first five day period, which includes understated drama. “A Love Song,”Dale Dickey, the timely thrillers “Emergency” “892”; Sophie Hyde’s “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” with Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack as the festival’s most deliciously unlikely couple; Juan Pablo Gonzalez’ melancholy “Dos Estaciones” “S—house” director Cooper Raiff’s follow-up to that Sundance award winner, “Cha Cha Real Smooth.”
As usual for Sundance, the documentary lineup is particularly strong, with many highlights from female directors, among them Margaret Brown’s haunted and haunting “Descendant,” about the discovery of the wreck of the final slave ship to come to America (but also about a lot more than that); Amy Berg’s “Phoenix Rising,”Evan Rachel Wood discusses her abusive relationship to Marilyn Manson. “Lucy and Desi,” Amy Poehler’s affectionate study of Lucille Ball; “Jihad Rehab,” Meg Smaker’s startling look inside a Saudi facility created to rehabilitate terrorists; Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt’s “Aftershock,” about the failures of the maternal health care system; and Rory Kennedy’s “Downfall: The Case Against Boeing,”This is a shocking portrait of corporate negligence, and government inaction.
And as usual for Sundance, the films serve as a portrait of our society even when they’re dealing with the past. Sharon Waxman wrote about the Sundance films in this article (“Call Jane,” “The Janes” “Happening”These films explore abortion rights at a time when Roe v. Wade appears to be in danger of being overturned. Sundance also has films that address race in very different ways. “Alice”To “Emergency”To “Master.” And while you can take Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut, “When You Finish Saving the World,” as a family drama between a mother and son, it’s also an examination of the social-media age that doesn’t let anybody off the hook.
Even Ramin Bahrani’s documentary “2nd Chance,”This portrait shows a former pizza shop owner who became bankrupt after inventing the bulletproof vest. “As I was making it,” Bahrani said in ’s Sundance studio, “I started to realize how much it dealt with the way lies are presented as truth to us these days.”
So Sundance is a state-of-the-union address for 2022 – and yes, there are lots of COVID echoes in these films, most of which were produced during the pandemic. It’s just too bad that the circumstances have made it a muted festival. Sundance has created many virtual events and you can even create an avatar before the screenings. However, it is clear that these movies should have been viewed in different settings.
Case in point: Kogonada’s “After Yang,”This gentle and humanistic sci-fi story, which premiered at Cannes and won raves at Sundance was well-deserved. “Meet Me in the Bathroom” needs a room full of music fans who can stomp along with the Strokes, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and LCD Soundsystem; Andrew Seaman’s “Resurrection”You need a crowd who can listen together to every nuance of sophisticated and creepy sound design.
Filmmakers have done their best and the festival has done its best. It’s not their fault that this year’s Sundance feels muted and sad, but not even those vibrant opening titles can make up for another difficult year.