‘Freaky Tales’ Review: Magnetic Performances Temper Uneven Oakland Anthology – Sundance Film Festival

Daughters is Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s odyssey documenting Patton’s program that empowers girls of incarcerated Men yields insight through the subjects themselves – carefree tweens enjoying their chance to just be kids.

In Black Box Diaries, director Shiori Ito confronts abuse but also a deeply flawed legal system. Her quest for justice begins in spring 2015. Then a young intern at Thomson Reuters, Ito found herself in a nightmarish situation with Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a prominent media figure with political connections in Japan. At the time, he worked at the Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, and was the personal biographer for Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister of Japan. 

Filmmakers Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie deliver a multilayered film that invites audiences to confront questions about morality and justice, and to bear witness to the lasting intergenerational trauma of the Williams Lake First Nations (Secwepemc or Shuswap Nation) people from the residential school system which included forced family separation, physical and sexual abuse, and the destruction of First Nation culture and language. Drawing on their backgrounds in activism and journalism — as well as NoiseCat’s own personal connection to the story and community — the filmmakers deftly weave together multiple strands to form this compelling, heartbreaking narrative. 

Kieran Culkin is opening up about what was happening with Jesse Eisenberg at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival!

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival is almost at an end, but there are still films to screen in the online portion of the festival and, almost as importantly, awards to hand out to happy independent filmmakers. The big winners at this year’s awards ceremony were Alessandra Lacorazza’s “In the Summers” which won the Grand Jury Prize U.S.

The 2024 Sundance Film Festival is almost at an end, but there are still films to screen in the online portion of the festival and, almost as importantly, awards to hand out to happy independent filmmakers. The big winners at this year’s awards ceremony were Alessandra Lacorazza’s “In the Summers” which won the Grand Jury Prize U.S.

Being (The Digital Griot) audience members were encouraged to discuss various issues with an AI bot, including patriarchy and racism. One audience member reportedly shouted, “Fuck this AI.”The film’s creator, Rashaad Newsome responded: “I’m not here to be cursed out and I’m not going to have my AI child be cursed out either.”Newsome also reportedly refused to take part in the post-screening Q&A session until action was taken against the audience member.The incident led staff to remove the audience member from the auditorium.

At the height of their failure, every day was Altamont for the Brian Jonestown Massacre, the San Francisco outfit founded in 1990 by Anton Newcombe, the Klaus Kinski of psychedelic rock. Just in time for this 20th anniversary overhaul of Ondi Timoner’s breakthrough documentary, the BJM were back in the news as recently as November 2023, when the first night of an Australian tour ended in a riot. That the riot was confined to the stage, and played out in front of a dumbfounded audience, is DIG! XX in a nutshell, a welcome return for a film that no less an authority than Dave Grohl calls, in a specially filmed new intro, “the greatest rock’n’roll documentary of all time”.

Pending Woody Allen’s final and absolute cancellation, few directors have emerged to take his place as an erudite and literary artist whose work combines snappy wordplay, base sex jokes and a philosophical willingness to stare into the abyss. Jesse Eisenberg staked a tentative claim to that throne with his 2022 debut When You Finish Saving the World, an amiable but scrappy political satire about a left-wing mother and son, but his follow-up makes a stronger case, being much more adult, less broadly scripted, and as depressing as Woody Allen circa Stardust Memories (which his sophomore film as director obliquely resembles, with its talk of chance, fate and irony).

A Different Man tackles weighty themes of disability, identity, and transformation. Directed and written by Aaron Schimberg and starring Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson, what emerges is a complex portrayal of the clashes between outer perceptions and inner truths and makes valiant efforts towards inclusion to express a vital message about appearance and identity, but the execution can often feel tonally inconsistent, and overlong.Edward (Stan) is an aspiring actor with facial deformities (neurofibromatosis, to be exact), that subjects him to ridicule and isolation. Though self-conscious and lonely, Edward finds hope when he befriends Ingrid (Reinsve), his empathetic, playwright, next door neighbor. When presented with the possibility of normalcy through a risky reconstructive procedure, Edward pursues the chance to lead a life free from judgment and staring eyes. 

Laura Chinn’s feature film writing and directing debut hits close to the heart – her heart especially – in a semi-autobiographical story set in 2005 and inspired by her own growing pains at a dark time in her family’s life as her brother is dying of cancer and moved unknowingly into what turned out to be the same nursing facility, Suncoast, where Terri Schiavo was also a patient.

Reality Winner is probably better known in Europe than the U.S., thanks in part to Tina Satter’s extraordinary arthouse film Reality (2023), which dramatized the 25-year-old Texan translator’s arrest in 2017 using the verbatim transcripts of her interactions with the FBI. Winner, a funny and surprisingly powerful biopic directed and co-written by Susanna Fogel, will go quite a long way towards raising her profile back home.

Love Lies Bleeding is an intense, queer, unconventional love story between two unstable people. Directed and written by English filmmaker Rose Glass, and starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Ed Harris, Dave Franco, Jena Malone, and Anna Baryshinkov, the film explores the destructive nature of relationships marked by strong performances and a visually arresting narrative.

Exhibiting Forgiveness, directed and written by Titus Kaphar, is a thought-provoking film starring Andre Holland, John Earl Jelks, Andra Day, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and Ian Foreman. Set against a backdrop of familial struggle and personal demons, Kaphar’s film navigates the complexities of forgiveness, accountability, and the resilience of the human spirit. Tarrell Rodin (Holland), a loving father and husband who resides in the suburbs with his wife Aisha (Day), a singer-songwriter, and their son Jermaine. Renowned in the American art scene for his haunting, personal work, Tarrell dedicates his days to his art studio, using painting to turn his nightmares into art. His devotion to art, coupled with the support of his family and his diligent work ethic, has helped him keep his ugly past at a distance. He aims to take care of his mother Joyce (Ellis-Taylor) and wants to get her out of the neighborhood she lives in, but she’s apprehensive as she wants to stay close to her church. Its only a temporary move nit deep down he hopes Joyce in hopes she can provide support as he struggles with old memories. 

In the realm of zombie-themed films, a genre often filled with clichés and predictable plot lines, Handling the Undead aims to stand out as something different.

Sundance has a long history of screening films that tackle issues of race in the U.S. from every possible angle. Some are angry (Birth of a Nation, 2016), some satirical (Dear White People, 2014), and some quite gonzo (Sorry to Bother You, 2018).

Directed by Steven Soderbergh and penned by David Koepp, the haunting psychological thriller Presence follows a fractured family as a mysterious supernatural force infiltrates their new home that has taken interest in their daughter Chloe. The film is written by David Koepp and stars Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, and Julia Fox.An unsettling presence permeates the home of Chris (Sullivan) and Ruth (Liu)  before they even move in. This supernatural entity is a witness to the family’s most vulnerable moments. It has a particular focus on the couple’s young daughter Chloe (Liang), who is always at odds with her mother and Brother Tyler (Maday). However, the young girl is in mourning because of her two girls, one of them her best friend Nadia, died recently.  

For some reason the films in the Midnight strand at this year’s Sundance Film Festival haven’t actually been screening at midnight. This is probably good news for Greg Jardin’s ingenious horror-thriller, which, while perfect for a late-night-crowd, has perhaps too much meat on it to digest past the witching hour. But its complexity is also its allure, and there’s so much going on beneath its many surfaces that it could conceivably become a bona fide cult hit. A Sundance launch is a mixed blessing when it comes to this, so it’s hard to say right now whether It’s What’s Inside has the crossover immediacy of a Blair Witch Project or the long-haul slow-burn of a Donnie Darko. Whichever way it turns out, this is first-class genre filmmaking and an impressive calling card for everyone involved.

Anyone with more than a passing interest in the weird and wonderful will have seen, if not heard of, the Patterson-Gimlin footage, the cryptoozological equivalent of the Zapruder film. Shot in 1967 in the forests of Northern Carolina, it purports to show a large, ape-like creature with an elongated forehead striding purposefully into the trees. Unlike an ape, the creature walks upright, and, unlike the furtive behavior of any other forest creature, it has the casual air of the average human being popping over to the 7-11 to pick up a gallon of milk. Most people who see the footage wonder what the hell this damn thing is, but the sibling directors of Sasquatch Sunset have a couple more questions that they’d like answered. Like, where is it going? And what does it do all day?

Between the Temples, directed by Nate Silver and written by Silver and C. Mason, is an exploration of grief, faith and self-discovery. Starring Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman, it’s not just a story about overcoming grief but a testament to the power of self-belief, the importance of accepting support and the transformative potential of unexpected relationships.