‘Presence’ Review: Steven Soderbergh’s Unsettling Ghost Story Menace Is Memorable & Magical [Sundance]

“Skywalkers: A Love Story” joins “Free Solo” in a film subgenre that can only be described as “F*ck That.” It’s an ultra-specific genre of documentary that showcases feats that are so incredibly dangerous that you not only shake your head in disbelief but actually get your heart beating harder as you hold your breath, imagining that if you don’t make a noise, then maybe these people won’t die right before your eyes.

Despite the increased awareness of gender identities, there is one classification that has been around for over 100 years or 30 years (it’s debatable) that rarely enjoys the spotlight, intersex. An intersex person can be a broad definition for someone who is born without a number of different sexual characteristics.

The phrase in the clutch represents an ability to pull off something crucial during an important moment, widely used in the world of sports. These words can be applied to any Hail Mary football pass, any home run while the bases are loaded, or a three-point buzzer beater; it’s the latter with which athletes like Sue Bird are acutely familiar and can be seen several times over the course of “Sue Bird: In The Clutch, “ an aptly named documentary telling the story of one of the finest players the WNBA has ever seen.

Now that Steven Soderbergh’s three-year overall deal with HBO is over, he’s free to work with any studio he chooses. And the filmmaker is doing just that, in his usual workaholic way, as Deadline reports that Focus Features outbid everyone for “Black Dog,” Soderbergh’s upcoming spy thriller with Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender.

EXCLUSIVE: Focus Features has won a bidding battle for Black Bag, a package for a spy thriller film that Steven Soderbergh will direct this summer in Europe from a David Koepp script, with Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender attached to star. Casey Silver and Greg Jacobs are producing.

Everyone loves a what if, us especially. We all like to dream about the greatest projects never made, right? Well, here’s one more to add to that pile.

Filmmaker Asmae El Moudir, making her feature directorial drama, starts her non-fiction film “The Mother Of All Lies” as a modest family chronicle—an elevated home video of sorts. It is soon clear, though, that she has much more on her mind because the actual subject of her inquiry is the collective amnesia around a seminal event that changed Morocco forever, the 1981 Casablanca bread riots.

PARK CITY – Movies that stick with you long after you watch them are nothing new. There are literally thousands of examples in the history of cinema.

The “Erin Brockovich” director moves his camera around so much, you want to yell at the screen, “Settle down, please! I have a headache!” There is a rationale for his nearly-nonstop motion shtick: the audience is experiencing the haunted house from the perspective of a ghost. And this particular ghost apparently needs to get its steps in.However, aside from a couple creepy voyeuristic scenes that the technique complements, its more obvious purpose is for Soderbergh to show off elaborate tracking shots.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Presence,” a twisty new thriller that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, has sold to Neon. The movie, which is directed by Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh, puts an inventive spin on the haunted house genre. It unfolds from the perspective of the spectral entity and is primarily interested in dramatizing the issues of the people living in the home, who seem to be grappling with a lot of interpersonal problems.

EXCLUSIVE: The Steven Soderbergh-directed and David Koepp-scripted ghost story Presence is being acquired at Sundance by Neon.

The first of many misdirects of perspective occurs in the opening shot of “In a Violent Nature.” The film opens with off-screen voices in discussion as the camera fixes its glance on what appears like a slipshod frame of a tree branch in the forest. It’s an image that feels haphazardly put together, and combined with the disembodied dialogue, filmmaker Chris Nash primes the audience to perceive the scene as something akin to a DIY YouTube video.

You’ll remember during the pandemic, Steven Soderbergh revealed he wrote three scripts in a three-month blaze at the beginning of lockdown. One of them was a sequel to “Sex, Lies, and Videotape.” READ MORE: Steven Soderbergh Has Written A ‘Sex, Lies & Videotape’ Sequel; Says George Clooney & More Set For ‘Kill Switch’ Well, it’s not happening, and in a recent Variety article, Soderbergh said while he got actors like Andie MacDowell and Laura San Giacomo to agree to return, he feels like the idea has missed its moment and he’ll likely turn it into a novel instead (which would be his first).

PARK CITY – The grass isn’t always greener is an axiom that has driven horror movies or “almost” horror movies since the silent film era. It’s no surprise then, that Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man” is clearly inspired by the noir thrillers of a time gone by.

Coachella, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Summerfest, Pitchfork Music, etc. They all owe an enormous debt to Lollapalooza, the groundbreaking music festival that helped change the touring and music industry just as alternative music peaked in the early 90s.

PARK CITY – There are multiple meanings to the title of Jesse Eisenberg’s latest directorial effort, “A Real Pain.” There is the pain that cousins Benji Kaplan (Eisenberg) and David Kaplan (Keiran Culkin) are experiencing over the passing of their beloved grandmother and there is the pain Benji is feeling over a horrifying incident in his cousin’s life. The most pressing example, however, is in David’s soul.

Kobi Libii’s work on the sadly short-lived Comedy Central show “The Opposition with Jordan Klepper” always tended toward the confrontational. By donning the guise of right-wing media provocateurs, he highlighted the absurd internal contradictions of ideological hardliners.

Stephen Rodrick The not-so-secret fact about premieres is that the actors rarely watch, usually ducking out when the lights go down. They spend the film’s duration smoking cigarettes and reciting the cinema’s version of the serenity prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, i.e. the director’s predilection to use my worst take.” That was not the case at Sundance’s world premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” a ghostly thriller about the Payne family, a bougie clan with a significant number of problems including a spectral, uh, presence that could be friend or foe.

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.  

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic “Presence,” a ghost story directed by Steven Soderbergh, is set entirely inside a lovely, renovated, 100-year-old suburban home, and before the characters even have a chance to move in, the place is already occupied. The camera literally seems to be peering at things, staring out the second-floor windows, then coming down the stairs to witness the arrival of a harried real-estate agent, then the family of four she’s about to sell the house to. Darting from room to room in an unbroken wide-angle-lens shot, the camera gives us an impromptu tour of the house, letting us drink in the crisp mint-green walls, the vintage wood that lines everything (windows, doors, stairway, fireplace), the ancient smoke-glass mirror and polished oak-board floors and elegant sprawling kitchen.