The title of the grand jury prize winner for U.S. drama perfectly summed up the emotions at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Awards: “I don’t feel at home in this world anymore.”
Christopher Lawrence
Christopher Lawrence is the movie critic for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
clawrence@reviewjournal.com … @life_onthecouch on Twitter. 702-380-4567
After midnight, the film festival lets it all hang down.
In 1994, “Reality Bites” caused a stir at Sundance. In 2017, it’s virtual reality.
The pursuit of gold is fraught with peril, whether you’re talking about the actual mineral or the statues that are being handed out by the truckload this time of year.
You would think one film festival would be enough during a week that draws 50,000 movie lovers to a town of 7,500 people. You would be mistaken.
Sundance is one of the best places on the planet to talk about films with complete strangers — assuming those strangers have actually seen a film since they’ve been here.
The character I’ve identified with most so far at Sundance is Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), the young FBI agent in the exceptional “Wind River.”
We Shall Overcomb! A crippling snowstorm that turned Interstate 80, the main route from Salt Lake City, into a parking lot couldn’t stop several thousand protesters from chanting and carrying signs like the one quoted above during the March on Main.
Everything I knew about attending the Park City, Utah-based film festival, I learned from watching “Entourage.”
It’s nearly impossible to avoid thinking about the environment here in Park City, especially considering that, at the time of this writing, it’s 27 degrees with snow seemingly blowing from every direction at once.
There’s something so exhilarating about hearing characters deliver the perfect words at the exact right moment — regardless of whether any human being would actually respond in such a way — that I couldn’t help but fall in love with “20th Century Women.”
To preview the Park City, Utah-based film festival — which runs Thursday through Jan. 29 — we spoke with Trevor Groth and Mike Plante, former programmers at the late, great CineVegas who are now, respectively, Sundance’s director of programming and senior programmer in charge of short films.
More than 40 million people visit Las Vegas every year. I’m guessing “Sleepless” screenwriter Andrea Berloff isn’t one of them.
By turning Mark Wahlberg into SuperCop, the Boston Marathon bombing movie sacrifices a large chunk of its credibility.
Joshua Abbey has chosen a lineup that may be among the festival’s most accessible and inclusive yet. “If you like basketball, if you like Kirk Douglas, if you like Marvin Hamlisch, you can’t go wrong.”