Our Favorite Films That Debuted At Sundance
The 40th annual Sundance Film Festival is underway in Park City, Utah
The 40th edition of the Sundance Film Festival kicked off yesterday in Park City, Utah. To celebrate the festival’s anniversary, the Sundance community voted on the top 10 films presented there over its four decades. Here’s what they selected (along with links to our newsletter if we’ve recommended them in the past):
10. Blood Simple (1985), Joel and Ethan Coen
9. Y tu mamá también (2002), Alfonso Cuarón
8. Boyhood (2014), Richard Linklater
7. Before Sunrise (1995), Richard Linklater
6. sex, lies and videotape (1989), Steven Soderbergh
5. Memento (2001), Christopher Nolan
4. Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
3. Get Out (2017), Jordan Peele
2. Reservoir Dogs (1992), Quentin Tarantino
1. Whiplash (2014), Damien Chazelle
While Do You Like Apples has never had the pleasure to attend Sundance (call us, festival organizers!), we have enjoyed participating in the virtual portion the last few years. For the newsletter today, we’re recommending a couple of our favorite films that have premiered at Sundance.
Billy recommends…
Whiplash
I’m not sure if I’m pumped to see Whiplash in that number one spot or feel called out for my lack of unique taste. We can deal with that insecurity later and mask it by talking about a movie that possesses one of the most insecure protagonists in movie history. I can’t be worse than that guy… right? Whiplash is directed by the 21st century Hollywood staple, Damien Chazelle. Miles Teller as the aforementioned insecure protagonist. And J.K. Simmons in an iconic performance as the hilarious and harrowing Terrence Fletcher.
There is so much to unpack with this movie, but I want to specifically talk about Chazelle and the power of Sundance. Sundance is a festival that feels, at times, a little bit lesser than the likes of Cannes or Telluride. Heavy hitters don’t often return with their own films (by design). Bigger named actors aren’t often in the major roles that premiere at the festival. And most of the other films are movies bought by streamers and thrown into their endless library. Sundance is brilliant because it is the premiere festival when it comes to snatching up the next big director. The list above has consistent and iconic directors that have staged prestige cinema into what it is today. Chazelle is the 2010’s representative of the success that can develop if a film at Sundance hits just right.
As of 2015 Whiplash was the 7th lowest-grossing Best Picture nominee in history. The likes of 2020’s Nomadland have proven to breakthrough with even less box office, but it definitely doesn’t have the same staying power. Chazelle was 29 years old when he made Whiplash and it was the ultimate word-of-mouth movie. What this movie missed in box office returns, it gained in a sterling reputation. It has the perfect mix of prestige cinema and neurotic intensity that sucks in a wide array of audiences. Just three weeks ago, I had a random coworker text the group thread saying, “If you’re looking for a good movie, I recommend Whiplash.”
What stands out with this announcement (I say announcement and not debut because this wasn’t technically Chazelle’s first feature) for Chazelle is his anti-lane approach to his directing while still creating a clear identity with his filmmaking. All of his films before and since Whiplash hit different genres, tones, and perspective. But the identity remained. An identity that is akin to rolling a snowball down a hill that is rapidly increasing in size and the only release is when it breaks apart from a destructive impact. Chazelle’s follow-ups have been increasingly more polarizing, and from a commercial perspective, less successful. Creating a mirror effect from the tone of his movies into his own life that “shattered the glass” with Babylon.
And I think Chazelle loves that he is throwing chaos into the mix. What was a premiere calculation during the quick rise in his career now feels like self-sabotage. A ripple in his career that only a movie like Babylon could bring. Despite the different receptions of Whiplash and Babylon, I think the beginning and current states of his career have more in common than we realized. Chazelle is a forceful presence that has shown the ability to shake up his own image while not diminishing his place as “one of the guys” of Hollywood. And here at Do You Like Apples, we will be making sure this chaotic, out-of-control career doesn’t stop anytime soon.
Streaming on Netflix
Drew recommends…
Columbus
I had no inkling that Columbus would become a personal favorite of mine when I first watched it a few years ago. It was just one of those low-budget indies out of Sundance that I’d seen a couple of people recommend. Instead of a potentially forgettable small movie, I found Columbus to be gorgeous, subtle, and poignant, a little-seen film that I fell for hard.
The titular Columbus is the city in Indiana, known as a modernist architecture haven of the Midwest. This features prominently in the story, as Jin Lee (played by John Cho) travels to Columbus from South Korea because his architecture professor father has fallen into a coma after giving a lecture there. Jin meets Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young Columbus resident who works at the local library and takes care of her drug-addicted mother.
But I’ll stop there, because Columbus isn’t really about the plot. It’s about the (excuse the metaphor) architecture of our inner lives. The presence and absence of the relationships we have with the people we care about most. Columbus quietly and delicately explores why we make the complex choices we make and how that affects our loved ones.
Before he ventured out to write and direct Columbus, his debut feature, in 2017, filmmaker Kogonada was a film video essayist for Sight & Sound and the Criterion Collection, crafting poetic and thoughtful video essays on auteurs like Kubrick, Hitchcock, and Wes Anderson. This work clearly inspired his eye for how to frame and capture the perfect shot, as well as his intuitive understanding of editing and cinematography. In both Columbus and his outstanding 2022 follow-up After Yang, Kogonada has more than proven he’s a special talent.
However, his movies aren’t simply cold, formalist marvels; Kogonada is equally concerned with the emotionality of his characters as he is with his beautifully framed shots. As wonderfully performed by John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson, Jin and Casey are two lost souls that connect for a time. Cho expands your idea of what he is capable of as an actor beyond Harold & Kumar and a side character in the Star Trek movies. And Richardson moves you to tears with her unshowy and empathetic performance here.
Kogonada seemingly had many influences for Columbus – the intimacy of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy, the melancholy tint of Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, and the use of negative space in Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu’s work — but the highest compliment you can pay a small Sundance film is that it transcends its influences to become its own thing. Columbus does this with ease. It’s a true balm of a movie, one I return to when I need to slow down and appreciate art, nature, and life.
Streaming on Showtime
Links
The BAFTA Awards dropped their nominations yesterday. Oppenheimer leads the pack with 13 noms, followed by Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Holdovers. Only a few days until Oscar nominations are announced!
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese got together (over Zoom, but still) to chat about the movies that influenced their six collaborations.