2024 Sundance First Weekend
My First Weekend this year was Just Outstanding!
(Notes on my rating system at the bottom.)
Here is what I saw:
----------------FRIDAY------------------------
GhostLight
Super emotional drama about a broken family, and their redemption via Shakespeare. So good!
Overall - 5 Stars out of 5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 5/5
Brain Food - 4/5
Themes: Family dynamics, Grief, Shakespeare
ENO
Not a bio pic - Eno is very uninterested in that. It is about Eno and his fascinating creative process. Which includes this film. A cerebral film. Good for a select audience, which includes me.
Overall - 3 stars out of 5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 1/5
Brain Food - 3/5
Themes: Creative processes, algorythmic music, avant garde music.
-----------------------SATURDAY----------------------
FRIDA
A biopic- a sensational biopic of a sensational life. Uses a vast archive of film plus Frida's extensive diaries, and extensive artwork. "In her own words". Extremely well done.
Overall - 5/5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 5/5
Brain Food - 5/5
Themes: Art, Artists, Feminism, Pain.
SKYWALKERS: A LOVE STORY
Documentary of Russian rooftop artists. A love story, ie, lots of personal drama. Kinda Crazy.
Overall - 4.5/5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 4/5
Brain Food - 3/5
Themes: Romantic Relationship, Artistry, Risk, Internet-focused Life.
THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP
The Story of the USA for Africa "We Are The World" legendary global pop song, told as a heist movie. Oh man, so much archival material available, and incredible story telling. My expectations were low for this one, and boy was I wrong.
Overall - 5/5
Engagement - 6/5
Emotions - 5/5
Brain Food - 5/5
Themes: 60 superstars trapped in a room! Not so much about the actual music; this is about a LOAD of amazing musicians setting aside their competition, to do something great. So great.
THELMA
Old lady gets scammed. Doesn't Take It! Comedy, family drama.
Overall - 4/5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 4/5
Brain Food - 3/5
Themes: Internet fraud, old people, friendship.
-------------------SUNDAY-------------------
LOVE ME
Long after humanity’s extinction, a buoy and a satellite meet online and fall in love.
(My expectations were not high for this one. Again, I was wrong.)
Overall - 4/5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 4/5
Brain Food - 4/5
Themes: AI Love, Human Love Relationships, Internet-focused Life. Betelgeuse.
GAUCHO GAUCHO
A Gaucho Gaucho is a Cowboy's Cowboy. In far-north Argentina, where Cowboying is still a thing. An amazing portrait of the (probable) last generation of Gauchos.
Overall - 4/5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 3/5
Brain Food - 5/5
Themes: Old people, Argentina, Families, Horses.
BRIEF HISTORY OF A FAMILY
A film from modern China. A family drama. Conflict between two sons. Became a horror film in the last 5 minutes in a very clumsy way. I am still perplexed.
Overall - 3/5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 3/5
Brain Food - 4/5
Themes: family drama, wealth inequality.
I enjoyed a peek into Urban life in 2023 China.
PRESENCE
A family drama in a haunted house. Pretty good family drama. Weak as a horror film.
Overall - 3/5
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 3/5
Brain Food - 3/5
Themes: family drama. A very nice old house. Teenagers. Rape using drugs. Murder.
The supernatural part was not developed very well.
-----------------My Rating System---------------------
I am a terrible movie critic, because I really have very little to say about movies after seeing them. And I don't care. What I care about is how engaging a movie is - ie, did it catch my attention and hold it?; Emotions = how powerfully did the movie effect me?; Brain Food = how important are the themes in this movie - how much does this contribute to my understanding of the world and humans. I like foreign movies as they teach me about life in other countries, and for other people. I am a bleeding heart liberal, so I like movies about social (in)justice, minorities winning. I like biopics about great people that I really don't know much about from Miss Americana to Judy Blum. And unfortunately violence seems to be one of my themes.
(BAD) Example: 10 Days in Mariupol (Sundance 2023)
From inside Mariupol, the first 10 days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The toughest film I have ever watched, as Russian bombardment destroyed a city that used to have 400,000 citizens of which about 5% (20,000) people died in those 10 Days.
Overall - 11/5 --- Everyone who votes should see this film. Doubts about supporting Ukraine - FU!
Engagement - 5/5
Emotions - 22/5
Depth - 22/5
Themes: Death.
Yeah, that wasn't helpful because that film was over the top. I was nauseaous from minute 5. It was horrible. And real, which is the point.