All the best movies we saw at Sundance Film Festival, ranked (including 'Girls State')
It's that time of the year when we break out the snow shovels, overthink Oscar nominations and go Sundancing.
The 40th edition of Sundance Film Festival runs through Jan. 28 as a hybrid in-person/online event, a holdover from the pandemic that makes it accessible to everyone. (For those wanting Sundance from their sofas, tickets are on sale for screenings beginning Jan. 25.) The fest features a number of noteworthy new movies, from the Kristen Stewart/Steven Yeun team-up "Love Me" to Jesse Eisenberg's second directing effort "A Real Pain" (co-starring Emmy winner Kieran Culkin), as well as a slew of documentaries tackling Lollapalooza, "We Are the World" and more.
But now, it's time to watch some flicks. Here are the best movies we've seen so far at Sundance, ranked:
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5. 'Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza'
When it comes to music documentaries, this year's Sundance embraces a definite nostalgia factor, and "Lolla" goes all in on the good, the bad and the naked dudes that mark the early 1990s history of the alt-rock festival. Perry Farrell, one of the founders who originally envisioned the event as a farewell tour for his band Jane's Addiction, is the main voice of the three-episode doc, which streams later this year on Paramount+. The film details how Lollapalooza helped break bands like Nine Inch Nails (Trent Reznor shares a great story about their first set), Pearl Jam and Green Day but also became a symbol for selling out.
4. 'Thelma'
June Squibb, action hero? Yep, the 94-year-old Oscar nominee is a lovable force for righteous vengeance in this breezy comedy. Her title character is a sewing, "Mission: Impossible"-loving elderly woman who gets scammed out of $10,000 by someone on the phone pretending to be her grandson (Fred Hechinger) and goes on an epic adventure – via electric scooter, no less – to get her money back. Squibb is a hoot, as is Richard Roundtree, the late "Shaft" star whose final film role is playing Thelma's reluctant partner Danny, while Parker Posey plays Thelma's overprotective daughter.
3. 'Girls State'
“Femininity is powerful,” says one of the participants from the Missouri Girls State program, the subject of Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss' compelling follow-up to 2020's "Boys State." That film followed Texas teen boys in competing political parties who create three branches of a mock state government, and "Girls State" (streaming on Apple TV+ April 5) centers on Missouri girls doing the same in 2022, amid a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. Abortion becomes one of the hot-button issues discussed in the film, which follows a hotly contested gubernatorial race and one teen's investigation into Girls State itself.
2. 'Kneecap'
The Irish-speaking political hip-hop group Kneecap star as themselves in the anarchic but thoughtful quasi-comedy biopic. Naoise Ó Cairealláin and Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh are two childhood friends in Belfast who meet and start making sick beats with music teacher JJ Ó Dochartaigh. Their wild journey features drugs, anti-British rap tunes and feuding with extremist groups and the cops, though the trio's use of the country's mother tongue fuels a youth movement against the establishment trying to tamp down this indigenous language. It's a different sort of civil-rights tale with stirring songs and an appearance by Michael Fassbender as a complicated father figure.
1. 'Ghostlight'
This year's "CODA" is a tear-jerking dramedy starring Keith Kupferer as Dan, an unhappy middle-aged construction worker still grieving the recent death of his teen son when he's recruited by an acting troupe putting on Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." He keeps this new hobby a secret from loved ones but discovers a hidden talent as well as a way to work through tragedy. Kupferer, a veteran of many supporting TV roles, is a revelation, as are Tara Mallen and the excellent Katherine Mallen Kupferer – his real-life family who play his onscreen wife and daughter – while "Triangle of Sadness" breakout Dolly De Leon plays Dan's feisty stage partner.
