Sundance Film Festival 2019: 15 must-see movies and TV premieres
Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival returns for its to Park City, Utah, next week, with a host of exciting new movies; a dark satire of the art world, a spy thriller starring Keira Knightley and a religious drama that sees Olivia Colman grappling with snakes.
An equally impressive line-up of TV premieres includes a new Nick Hornby sitcom and a controversial documentary about Michael Jackson. Here's our pick of what to look out for at this year's festival.
The 2019 Sundance Film Festival runs from January 24 – February 3
1. The Souvenir
Joanna Hogg's first film since the widely acclaimed Exhibition (2013) draws on the British director's own life, telling the story of an intense affair between a film-school student and a mysterious man she meets at a party in the Eighties. A first-rate cast includes Richard Ayoade, Strike's Tom Burke, and Tilda Swinton (whose daughter Honor Swinton Byrne also stars).
2. Them That Follow
Fresh from her award-winning turn in The Favourite, Olivia Colman stars in a drama about a closed-off community of religious snake-handlers in rural Appalachia, led by a charismatic pastor (Walton Goggins). This debut feature from writing-directing duo Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage certainly sounds intriguing.
3. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
Zac Efron's mission to shed his wholesome High School Musical image continues with this biopic of the serial killer Ted Bundy. Efron stars as the murderous psychopath, alongside Lily Collins as the single mother who unwittingly falls for his charms. Director Joe Berlinger certainly knows his material: he has also made a forthcoming Netflix documentary about Bundy.
4. Official Secrets
In 2003, Katherine Gun – a 29-year-old translator at GCHQ – made headlines around the world after becoming a whistleblower against the secretive intelligence agency, revealing a conspiracy to bug United Nations delegates. This very 21st-century spy thriller stars Keira Knightly as Gun, while the formidable supporting cast includes Matt Smith, Matthew Goode, Rhys Ifans, and Ralph Fiennes.
5. The Report
Produced by Steven Soderbergh, this political thriller stars Adam Driver as Daniel J Jones, the real-life US researcher tasked with investigating the CIA's post-9/11 “enhanced interrogation techniques”, who uncovered the extent of their use of physical and psychological torture. Annette Bening, Jon Hamm and Michael C. Hall co-star, while The Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter Scott Z Burns directs.
6. Fighting with my Family
Written and directed by Stephen Merchant (The Office), this wrestling comedy looks set to be the English answer to GLOW. Teenage brother and sister (Florence Pugh) and Zak (Jack Lowden) dream of a career in the ring, a dream encouraged by their wrestling-mad parents (Lena Headey and Nick Frost). A chance meeting with a WWE coach (Vince Vaughan) might offer them the break they're hoping for. It's produced by Dwayne Johnson (who also makes an appearance) and his WWE past should give the wrestling scenes an extra frisson of authenticity.
7. Velvet Buzzsaw
After his wickedly dark satire on TV news, Nightcrawler, director Dan Gilroy reunites with that film's star Jake Gyllenhaal to take on the pretentious world of luxury art. Gyllenhaal plays a critic whose agent girlfriend (Zawe Ashton) discovers hundreds of brilliant - and dangerous - paintings in her neighbour's apartment after his death. The supporting cast includes Toni Collette, Tom Sturridge, John Malkovich, and Broadway star Daveed Diggs.
8. The Nightingale
After making her debut The Babadook, one of the finest horror films of recent years, Australian director Jennifer Kent returns with a revenge thriller set in 1820s Tasmania. Aisling Franciosi (Game of Thrones' Lyanna Stark) stars as a young Irish convict seeking to avenge her family after a brutal attack.
9. Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love
Nick Broomfield, the documentarian who has previously probed the lives of Whitney Houston, Kurt Cobain and Biggie Smalls, among others, might never have become a filmmaker if it weren't for a chance encounter with Leonard Cohen's muse. Broomfield first met Marianne Ihlen (of "So Long Marianne" fame) while she was living with Cohen on the Greek island of Hydra in 1968, and she encouraged the 20-year-old to make his first film. Here, he tells the story of her enduring relationship with the Canadian singer.
10. Blinded by the Light
Bend it like Bruce Springsteen? A 16-year-old British Pakistani boy living in Eighties Luton finds the confidence to stand up for himself after being given a cassette of the Boss's greatest hits, in the latest East-meets-West feelgood drama from Gurinder Chadha (Viceroy’s House, Bride and Prejudice, Bend it like Beckham). Newcomer Viveik Kalra stars, with support from Rob Brydon and Hayley Atwell.
11. Late-Night
Emma Thompson plays a successful US talk show host – who is accused of being a "woman who hates women" after it emerges that she she has an all-male writers' room penning her jokes. She swiftly hires a single female writer (Mindy Kaling), leading to a clash of personalities. This comedy is the feature debut from director Nisha Ganatra, who has previously worked with Kaling on her sitcom The Mindy Project.
12. Honey Boy
After a series of bizarre stunts in the name of "art", the much-maligned Shia LaBeouf has now written his first feature film. Will this be the moment the Transformers star definitively proves his detractors wrong? LaBeouf plays an retired rodeo clown, the abusive father of a 12-year-old Hollywood child star called Otis. Lucas Hedges stars as the put-upon young boy, alongside Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place) and pop star FKA Twigs.
14. State of the Union
Rosamund Pike and Chris O'Dowd star as a couple going through marriage counselling, in this bite-size sitcom for the festival's own Sundance TV station. Each of the 10 episodes is just 10 minutes long, and set in the pub where the couple go for a bit of dutch courage before their counselling sessions. Stephen Frears (The Queen) directs the screenplay by Nick Hornby.
15. Lorena
When Lorena Bobbitt chopped off her abusive husband's penis in 1993, she found herself dehumanised in countless tabloid news stories (there's even a monstrous sea-worm named after her). This TV documentary for Amazon Prime, in four one-hour episodes, looks beyond the headlines to explore the events leading up to that violent encounter, using Bobbitt's story as a stepping-off point for a wider discussion of domestic abuse.
15. Leaving Neverland
This TV documentary about Michael Jackson – set to air on Channel 4 in the UK, and HBO in the US – is already the year's most talked about Sundance premiere. Investigating allegations of child abuse levelled at the late singer, the miniseries has prompted a backlash from Jackson's estate – who have denied all allegations of abuse and branded the documentary "outrageous and pathetic" – as well as from his fans, who have reportedly been putting pressure on the festival's sponsors.
This week, the festival sent out a message to its corporate partners about the controversy: “It has come to our attention that some of you may have received messages or social media posts from Michael Jackson fans who would like us to pull the screening of Leaving Neverland... We don’t currently plan to comment publicly or engage in the discourse around Leaving Neverland, and would recommend that you do the same. We plan to proceed with the screening as announced."
Directed by Bafta-winner Dan Reed, the in-depth documentary is in two parts, both two hours long, built around a pair of interviews with two unnamed men who claim to have been abused by Jackson in their childhood.
