Sundance 2022: Best Boy's Flick Picks
by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy & Staff Writer
Another year of Sundance is upon us and I’m pretty excited to see what’s in store. As the first year of at-home viewing, Sundance 2021 went off pretty well. I’d imagine 2022 will be smooth as silk. While Sundance often showcases work from up and coming filmmakers, I was surprised to realize that ALL of my picks for this year are directorial debuts.
This is based on a true story about an underground collective of women in the Chicago area in 1968 fighting to help others get safer (but illegal) abortions. I’m interested in this for many reasons. First, it’s the feature directorial debut from Phyllis Nagy (screenwriter for Todd Haynes’s Carol). In addition to that, the synopsis and stills from the film make it seem like it’s a combination of espionage, historical drama and rallying cry. There’s a documentary based on the story also premiering at Sundance this year. So it’ll be interesting to compare and contrast the two.
Premiering Friday January 21st at 7:45PM EST with a second screening on Sunday January 23rd 10:00AM EST, tickets available here.
This is the feature debut by writer/director Mariama Diallo. I’d just recently seen her short Hair Wolf and it was quite entertaining. Here, she is telling the story of three Black women at a predominately white school in New England trying to find how they fit in while simultaneously battling something supernatural. The synopsis makes me think that there may be ghosts and demons along with witches (and of course, institutional racism) serving up the frights in this one. With a cast led by Regina Hall, I’m hoping for a creepy, good time.
Premiering Friday January 21st at 8:30PM EST with a second screening on Sunday January 23rd 10:00AM EST, tickets available here.
Honestly, I saw Noomi Rapace was in this and I was already all in. It’s not that I love all of her films but she’s always interesting, and that makes it worth my time. On top of that, this is continuing with the witchy theme, but this time in 19th century Macedonia. This is the feature debut from writer/director Goran Stolevski and the synopsis seems to imply that the tale is told much more from the witch-spirit’s perspective as it travels from host to host, promising that this is unlike any witch film you’ve seen before.
Premiering Saturday January 22nd at 10:45PM with a second screening on Monday January 24th 10:00AM EST, tickets available here.
With a story that kinda reads like “What if The Village were on a plantation?” this felt like it was swinging big and hoping to connect. And then I read that it’s a fictional tale based on actual events and, shit, I have to watch this. The feature debut from writer/director Krystin Ver Linden is described as an equal parts earthy Southern Gothic and soulful Blaxploitation about Alice, an enslaved woman, that escapes the plantation after a violent clash with the owner only to show up on the side of the highway in 1973. Again, this is reportedly based on true accounts of Black Americans who were kept in peonage for more than 100 years after the end of slavery. I’m not going to relish watching this, but I certainly will learn something. Along with all of that, there’s a great cast including Keke Palmer, Jonny Lee Miller, and Common.
Premiering Sunday January 23rd at 8:00PM with a second screening on Tuesday January 25th 10:00AM EST, tickets available here.
Just need to say this at the top. I was a fat kid. I slimmed down for a couple years from 16-18 and then I was fat again until I was 30. Then I got ridiculously thin for a minute. Since then (I think) I have developed a more healthy relationship with my body and respect (and sometimes enjoy) its weird bumps and lumps. When I see that there’s a movie about a (what I was called) husky kid that can’t decide whether or not to save their fat-shamers from a kidnapping, I AM 100% IN. Just because you’ve been shit on your entire life by these fuckwads doesn't give you license to be a bad person…but maybe you could watch someone else be bad? This is the feature debut from writer/director Carlota Pereda based on her short of the same name (aka Cerdita). I’m hoping for a little healthy catharsis with this one. (I’ll probably cry.)
Premiering Monday January 24th at 11:00PM with a second screening on Wednesday January 26th 10:00AM EST, tickets available here.
I hope something here sparked your interest too. Rosalie Kicks and Gary Kramer will also be posting their picks from the upcoming festival. So stay tuned!