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Courtesy of A24.
The Moment
A.k.a. Charli xcx’s hyperpop mockumentary, helmed by the most in-demand creative director in music right now: Aidan Zamiri, channeling Charli’s humor for a satirical take on the music industry. Set to be released by A24 at the end of the month, the film includes appearances by everyone from Rachel Sennott to Kylie Jenner to Alexander Skarsgård. The trailer is funny, there’s no bigger star than Charli in pop music right now, and she’s also a noted film buff—so expectations are high for this film. Let’s hope it delivers during its premiere Friday night.
The Musical
A recently dumped middle school theater teacher puts together an avant-garde original musical in secret as a way to exact revenge on the school’s principal, who is dating his ex-girlfriend. This dark comedy from first-time feature director Giselle Bonilla, with a script by Alexander Heller—in the vein of Summer Heights High, but not filmed as a mockumentary—has a wild reveal at the end, when the audience gets to see the musical performed onstage, embracing the role of spite in the creation of art.
See You When I See You
One of the kings of Sundance, Jay Duplass, returns to Park City with a new film that follows a writer coping with PTSD after the death of his sister. Based on Adam Cayton-Holland’s memoir, Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-comic Memoir, the film also stars two more Sundance darlings, Cooper Raiff and Kaitlyn Dever. Duplass has done a lot of acting work in recent years, and he’s always showing up as a producer on independent films—but this movie marks his return to the festival as a director.
The Shitheads
Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. star in Macon Blair’s Sundance follow-up to I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. Blair won the festival’s US Dramatic grand jury prize for that film in 2017. Here, Franco and Jackson Jr. play drivers trying to transport a rich teenager, played by Mason Thames, to rehab. This job proves harder than expected, and things get out of hand quickly as the trio goes on an adventure that includes run-ins with supporting cast members Kiernan Shipka and Nicholas Braun.
Undertone
Is it even Sundance without an A24 horror film premiere? In writer-director Ian Tuason’s debut feature, the host of a podcast focused on paranormal activity begins to receive recordings of a haunted nature. This one has all the signature A24 horror tropes—an unsettling tone, a female protagonist struggling with depression and loneliness, and a Sundance midnight premiere.
Worried
This television series, with a pilot directed by Nicole Holofcener and written by Lesley Arfin and Alexandra Tanner, is entering the festival without a network or streamer to call home. Centered around two young women, played by Gideon Adlon (yes, she’s Odessa A’zion’s sister) and Rachel Kaly, the show is giving Girls vibes. Holofcener rarely misses; it’s also interesting to see a television series take an independent-film model and look for distribution at a film festival.
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John Ross
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