So many exciting movies at this year’s Park City–set independent film festival, which kicks off Thursday. Here they are, grouped by recurring themes.
High-risk, high-reward historical features
From top: The Birth of the Nation, Southside With You.
Courtesy Sundance Institute
1. The Birth of a Nation (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Starring: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Gabrielle Union, and Mark Boone Junior
Directed by: Nate Parker
The directorial debut of actor Nate Parker (he romanced Gugu Mbatha-Raw in Beyond the Lights) tells the true story of Nathaniel "Nat" Turner (also played by Parker), who led an infamous slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831. That uprising is considered the most successful in U.S. history, but — spoiler alert for a major historical event you can look up on the internet — it still ended quite badly for Turner and his compatriots. Navigating the fraught emotional arc of that story is enough of a challenge for a first-time director, but by appropriating the title from the most infamously and virulently racist feature film of all time, Parker (who also wrote the screenplay) has all but proclaimed his ambition to make a Film for the Ages.
2. Southside With You (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Starring: Tika Sumpter, Parker Sawyers, and Vanessa Bell Calloway
Directed by: Richard Tanne
Speaking of things that are For the Ages, Barack and Michelle Obama have to be in the running for one of the most celebrated marriages in American history, right? And yet this dramatization of their first date — starring lesser-known actor Parker Sawyers as Barack, and Ride Along and The Game's Tika Sumpter as Michelle (née Robinson) — is one of the most curious feature film projects ever made about a sitting president and first lady. Director Richard Tanne, a micro-indie actor-producer, makes his feature debut from his own script, which we've heard has a laidback, Before Sunrise-y vibe. —Adam B. Vary
Showcase films for actor favorites
From left: Top: Captain Fantastic, The Free World; middle: Equity, Antibirth, Tallulah; bottom: The Hollars, The Intervention.
Courtesy Sundance Institute
3. Captain Fantastic (Premieres)
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Frank Langella, George MacKay, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Zahn, and Ann Dowd
Directed by: Matt Ross
Captain Fantastic is the second feature directed (and written) by Matt Ross, the prolific character actor whom you may know as Alby from Big Love, Gavin from Silicon Valley, or any of his other million roles. (He first helmed 28 Hotel Rooms in 2012, and it also premiered at Sundance.) Here, Viggo Mortensen plays a Pacific Northwestern, home-schooling isolationist with six kids who is forced to move from their forest home, allowing the children to be exposed to the outside world for the first time.
4. Swiss Army Man (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Starring: Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Directed by: Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan
Paul Dano stars as Hank, a man stranded on an island by himself until a corpse washes up on the beach. After that, he is still by himself, presumably! But has some hope. Daniel Radcliffe plays the dead guy. Swiss Army Man is the first feature by the directing duo the Daniels, who won an MTV VMA in 2014 for the video for DJ Snake and Lil Jon's "Turn Down for What."
5. Tallulah (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Starring: Ellen Page, Allison Janney, Tammy Blanchard, Evan Jonigkeit, and Uzo Aduba
Directed by: Sian Heder
Ellen Page and Allison Janney, who played stepdaughter and stepmother to great effect in Juno, are once again paired in Tallulah. Page plays Lu, a young woman living in a van; Janney is Margo, the wealthy mother of Lu's ex-boyfriend. When Lu kidnaps a baby she thinks she is rescuing from neglect, she goes to Margo — who assumes the baby is her grandchild — for help. Sian Heder, an Orange Is the New Black writer, wrote and directed Tallulah, her first feature. Netflix has already bought this movie, so you will definitely see it.
6. Equity (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Starring: Anna Gunn, James Purefoy, Sarah Megan Thomas, and Alysia Reiner
Directed by: Meera Menon
Equity is movie about the high tensions and drama of Wall Street — starring two female leads (Anna Gunn as an investment banker, and Alysia Reiner as a prosecutor), by a female screenwriter (Amy Fox), with a woman director (Meera Menon). We're told the screenplay was informed by interviews with dozens of women on Wall Street, so it already feels different.
7. The Fundamentals of Caring (Premieres)
Starring: Paul Rudd, Craig Roberts, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Ehle, Megan Ferguson, and Frederick Weller
Directed by: Rob Burnett
Television veteran Rob Burnett -- David Letterman's long-standing producing partner -- is the writer/director of The Fundamentals of Caring, in which Paul Rudd plays Ben, a paid caregiver to Trevor, an 18-year-old with muscular dystrophy (Craig Roberts of Submarine). The two go on a road trip, during which they grow as people and as friends — and encounter a bunch of strangers along the way. (Netflix has bought this one, too.)
8. The Free World (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Starring: Boyd Holbrook, Elisabeth Moss, Octavia Spencer, Sung Kang, and Waleed Zuaiter
Directed by: Jason Lew
After spending a long time in prison for a crime he didn't commit, Mo (Boyd Holbrook, who played the grifter in Gone Girl) tries to assimilate back into life after release. He works with abused animals, meets Doris (Elisabeth Moss), and ends up in a dilemma that might cost him his liberty. The Free World is writer-director Jason Lew's feature debut and was shot in New Orleans.
9. The Hollars (Premieres)
Starring: Charlie Day, Sharlto Copley, Richard Jenkins, Margo Martindale, Anna Kendrick, and John Krasinski
Directed by: John Krasinski
Is there a name for the Going Home to Your Hometown and Re-Evaluating Your Life genre? Or, even more specifically: Going Home to Take Care of Your Sick Mom? There are two from the latter category at this year's Sundance (Other People is the other). In The Hollars, John Krasinski directs himself as John Hollar, who goes home when his mother (Margo Martindale) has to have surgery for a brain tumor. Anna Kendrick plays Rebecca, John's pregnant girlfriend.
10. Antibirth (Midnight)
Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Chloë Sevigny, Mark Webber, Meg Tilly, and Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
Directed by: Danny Perez
Natasha Lyonne and Chloë Sevigny (good friends in real life!) play hard-partying trailer denizens Lou and Sadie. After one typical night, Lou wakes up to find herself ill and haunted; even her usual recreational drugs can't save her. Can anyone, or anything? Danny Perez's ODDSAC, which played at Sundance in 2010, was a "visual album" for the band Animal Collective with some horror elements mixed in, so expect intense visuals in Antibirth as well. Perez also wrote this movie, and Lyonne is a producer as well as its star.
11. Mr. Pig (Premieres)
Starring: Danny Glover, Maya Rudolph, José María Yazpik, Joel Murray, Angélica Aragón, and Gabriela Araujo
Directed by: Diego Luna
Cesar Chavez, from 2014, was Diego Luna's first English-language film as a director; Mr. Pig is in both English and Spanish, following Eubanks (Danny Glover) on a road trip to Mexico. Eubanks, a pig farmer, is trying to find a new home for his hog Howard. Along the way, he is met by Eunice, his daughter (played by Maya Rudolph).
12. Mammal (World Cinema Dramatic Competition)
Starring: Rachel Griffiths, Barry Keoghan, and Michael McElhatton
Directed by: Rebecca Daly
Margaret (Rachel Griffiths) learns that the child she gave up 18 years ago has died, and she reacts by allowing a homeless teenage boy, Joe (Barry Keoghan), to move in. Their relationship, apparently, becomes parental — and then more!
13. The Intervention (U.S. Dramatic Competition)
Starring: Melanie Lynskey, Cobie Smulders, Alia Shawkat, Clea DuVall, Natasha Lyonne, and Ben Schwartz
Directed by: Clea DuVall
Clea DuVall has been acting for years and is often the best thing in whatever she's in. The Intervention, which she wrote, is also her first feature as a director, and was shot in 18 days. The plot revolves around a group of friends staging an intervention for Ruby (Cobie Smulders), for her terrible relationship with her husband. But along the way, everyone else's problems are revealed, as they tend to do! Sara Quin from Tegan and Sara composed The Intervention's score. —Kate Aurthur
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