Sundance 2016: Wrap It Up

What was your favorite film of the festival?

Ryland Aldrich: Plenty of great films on display at Sundance 2016 but the movie I'm going home raving the most about is Operation Avalanche. With just an incredible execution of vision, Matt Johnson has really knocked me out.

Zach Gayne:As tempting as it is to give this honor to Swiss Army Man, a film that taught me the perils of repressing my feelings and flatulence (much to the disgust of my fellow Sundancers), I am still blown away by Matt Johnson’s NASA-abusing mockumentary, Operation Avalanche. I know I’m not the only filmgoer growing increasingly sick of the found footage genre, but nobody is using the platform with as much originality and meta-intelligent justification as Johnson. He has managed to find a golden line between uproarious lampooning and rich substance resulting in a piece of historical fiction that evokes the era’s best aspects of cinematic satire and paranoia.

Jason Gorber: I spent almost two weeks evangelizing about the dead-body-that-farts movie. I turned dozens of people around to see Swiss Army Man after its debut, making it a kind of mission to rescue the work from the doldrums of doubt. I claim a small, humble victory in reading the reviews of some I practically begged to give the work a fair shot.

Ben Umstead: Without a doubt, the best film of the festival and the first great film of 2016 was Tim Sutton's third feature Dark Night. It is a beautiful and somber look at the way we live now in America, how we cope with the shadow of gun violence in this country, how youth grow up in an excessive culture of dissonance and isolation. I’ll also mention the beguiling Christine, from Antonio Campos, and a shout out to Matt Johnson and his Toronto crew for returning to Park City with the supreme love letter to cinema that is Operation Avalanche. And one cannot leave Sundance without showing some love for Swiss Army Man. It is an astoundingly absurd and wholly heartfelt look self-worth and self-love.

Jeremy O. Harris: For me it’s a tie between Manchester by the Sea and Southside With You. Both films are deeply honest with some of the most impressive acting and writing of the festival. Tika Sumpter and Parker Sawyers are astounding as Barack and Michelle Obama, while Casey Affleck proves his star quality and Michelle Williams hits it out of the park with a small but visceral performance as his ex-wife.

What title disappointed you the most?

Jason Gorber: Can I be disappointed in White Girl when I don't go into these things with any expectations? Suffice it to say it sucked, and badly, and worse yet the discourse around it forgives its flaws in a truly annoying way.

Ben Umstead: I saw a lot of mediocre films. That happens a fair amount at Sundance. Sometimes the festival does ride on a status quo of indie I can’t tolerate. One film that was surprising in a lot of good ways was the Polish mermaid musical The Lure. Carried by a fierce and playful sense of style, the movie lost me when it totally dropped the ball on the substance side. With one more draft it could have been a great allegory for female independence, further inverting all the fairy tale tropes it plays with.

Jeremy O. Harris: Birth of A Nation was the title I was most excited by and have just resigned myself that it will be a favorite film of both my parents and yours. Which is fine, just not my taste. Also Goat, which if I found to be a pathetic excuse for an examination of maleness and frat culture that could have been much better given the personnel on the piece.

Zach Gayne:Like last year, I’d say the biggest disappointment was myself. How did I miss Manchester By The Sea? And how the hell did I have a ticket to four separate screenings of Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship and still manage to miss one of my most anticipated films of the fest?! And did I really miss Frank Zappa: Eat The Question?!?! And hot-damn, does Under The Shadows sound good… uch. Get it together, man.

Who gave the best performance?

Zach Gayne:The best performance easily goes to Rebecca Hall, who is the movie Christine. The film has great direction and a better script, but still, the whole thing falls in her lap. Hall elevates the film from excellent to breathtaking. It’s a shockingly sad story told truly, thanks to the emotional reality she brings to the news desk.

Ben Umstead: There were a few. Rebecca Hall’s career-best, absolute deconstructionist, very self-aware performance on performance as Christine Chubbuck in Christine. Also, Daniel Radcliffe in Swiss Army Man; if there is one performance that he’s done that is going to define his career for some years, I really think it’s this one. Then there's Joe Seo in Spa Night. His performance was really nuanced and wonderfully natural. It’s not a big or noisy performance, it’s merely showing us the first moments into adulthood.

Jeremy O. Harris: Michelle Williams. Hands down. Michelle, fucking, Williams.

Ryland Aldrich: Nate Parker in The Birth of a Nation is the obvious choice, especially given that he directed the impressive film as well. An honorable mention also goes to Viggo Mortenson in the very enjoyable Captain Fantastic.

Jason Gorber: Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, hands (and pants) down.

What was your favorite documentary?

Jeremy O. Harris: Weiner; which becomes a great and immediately classic tragicomedy over the course of two hilarious and tragic hours.

Ryland Aldrich: Just barely not getting my favorite of movie of the fest was Clay Tweel's extremely impactful Father-Son docu Gleason. I was a blubbering mess throughout (in a cathartic way).

Ben Umstead: I only saw a handful of documentaries, but the one that struck me was All These Sleepless Nights by Michal Marczak. This film works between documentary and fiction. Marczak has taken that kind of Terrence Malick, swirling, wonderfully lyrical camera and turned it on Warsaw, on the youth culture and night life scene. While the young people dancing into the night was nothing like my youth, there is something very joyous about it. It is vain, but unpretentious, and I guess that is youth summed up in a nutshell.

Jason Gorber: Cameraperson shouldn't work, and that's what makes it kind of amazing. A series of shots from disparate works, sewn together they provide one of the most salient, moving insights into documentary process while being entertaining, provocative and eminently cinematic. I adored the film, and feels like something vital and timeless.

Zach Gayne:It’s a toss-up between Holy Hell and Tickled. One is an unbelievable look into a cult that began in a place of bliss (in Park City, Utah no less!), but quickly descended into something far more nefarious. The other is a documentary about a tickling tournament. Or is it? You may be wondering how it’s possible that such a ludicrous ‘sport’ could exist. You’ll be flabbergasted to discover… it doesn’t.

What was your top discovery of the fest?

Ryland Aldrich: I was blown away by Author: The JT LeRoy Story both because of the completely incredible story (of which I was clueless) and the mature filmmaking prowess of director Jeff Feuerzeig. I need to go back and watch his other films including The Devil and Daniel Johnston immediately.

Ben Umstead: It was the first year I tried out virtual reality at New Frontiers, and it was glorious. I’m mostly blind in one eye, so I was concerned if the stereoscopic landscape would work for me, and it absolutely did. I was able to play a full room VR experience called Irrational Exuberance and that had controllers where you were going through cosmic environments, bashing crystals and geodes. I instantly wanted to do more than the game could offer, like jump onto a passing asteroid, but this was a highlight for me outside of the films I saw.

Jeremy O. Harris: My top discovery of the fest was again a tie, this time 3-way. The manic midnight frenzy of The Greasy Strangler was unparalleled. It’s such a singular vision that you can’t help but sit rapt and applaud at every great callback and catchphrase. The Fits was by far the most impressive debut of the festival and discovering both Anna Rose Holmes and Royalty Hightower was wonderful. Southside With You was the film I was least excited about in the lineup but which proved to have the at ease charm and panache of the Obamas. The only thing that could make this film better is if they continue to make them a la the Before Sunrise series every 10 years.

Zach Gayne:That would have to be Jim Hosking, whose feature debut, The Greasy Strangler, simultaneously repulsed me and had me on the floor in fits of laughter. I actually had the pleasure of interviewing both Hosking and the film’s producers, but due to the aftermath of a nasty car accident on the way home, these pieces will have to wait for another day. However, they are definitely something to look forward to. In the meantime, just know that The Greasy Strangler is coming and it’s the greasiest thing you’ll ever see. Watch out!

Jason Gorber: That Temple Theatre was a Synagogue? In Mormon country it's easy to guess it'd be another building.

Finally, what was your favorite Sundance moment?

Ben Umstead: This is always a tricky question to answer. A lot of the time I mention hanging out with other ScreenAnarchy writers, or filmmakers, or friends from Slamdance, and this year was no exception. Though my favorite moment was getting a chance to talk to Tim Sutton, director of Dark Night. He was a delightful and soulful person to speak with. There is nothing greater than when one of your favorite working filmmakers gives you a hug and tells you that he loves your work and that you’re a great writer. That kind of praise doesn’t come too often, so I was really grateful to hear that from someone that I really admire.

Jason Gorber: Hanging out with the Twitchfolk (prior to their vehicular entanglement) is always quite a thrill, but I did very much enjoy cajoling Werner Herzog into admitting an interest in both starring-in and directing a Star Wars film.

Jeremy O. Harris: The filmmaker Chris Smith has created an app called REX (available here) with the help of Ashley Lent Levinson. At Sundance the last two years they have hosted a dinner with some of the earliest REXers and investors. This year the night was incredibly casual and very unSundance. There was a real joy in this room of filmmakers and money types.

Ryland Aldrich: While the Dazed & Confused Live Commentary with Zach and Jason was some of the most fun I've had in Park City, I want to give a special mention here to the amazing job the New Frontier staff did with the VR. This is the future of storytelling and Sundance is absolutely leading the way. I think my favorite moment was just the excitement of being in the midst of this new wave of narrative potential. See my link above in features for much more on that.

Zach Gayne:One thing I find so endearing about Sundance is that everyone present, be it talent, press, or patron, all have to ride the shuttle, making for a pretty mixed room. Since Sundance is also a vacation spot for filmmakers who aren’t even screening in the festival, you just never know who you may bump into. This year, fresh off my obsession with Netflix’s Making a Murderer, I ran into its directors, Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. I don’t usually strike up a conversation with people I admire in this way, but I had to offer my respect for their work and indignation over the events in their documentary. They were so kind to discuss Steven Avery with me and the positive influence their series has had on his public perception. As far as I’m concerned, they’re his guardian angels - if such a thing is possible for a man who has been abused to no end by the American ‘justice’ system.

If I can also offer my real favorite moment of Sundance, it is easily the night Ryland, Gorber, and I sat front row at the live commentary of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused - an event that offered the perfect union of friends and Sundance magic. The commentary/under-your-breath quote-along was an absolute treat and the energy it lent the three of us, was an elating feeling we took with us to a blogger (nerd) party afterwards. It was definitely one of the best of many incredible nights of a particularly fun Sundance. These memories - along with hanging with my other ScreenAnarchy compadres as well as my Operation Avalanche homies up the hill - were the kind I cherished the day after.

Love, Friendship, and Gratitude - A special note from Zach Gayne

I’d like to take a quick moment to express my immense gratitude for the support the ScreenAnarchy community has shown Ben, Jeremy, and myself over the past few days, since all three of us miraculously survived a vicious car crash on the blizzardous drive home from Sundance. Had a few minute details been different, the high-speed collision could’ve easily killed any one of us. But it didn’t. Instead, it sent us to a hospital in rural Utah, where the doctors had their work cut out for them. Thanks to you, those of us closest to tragedy (measured by inches), will not also have to deal with future-crippling debt.

I get choked up every time I think of the outpour of goodwill and charity offered by many of you, purely out of the goodness of your hearts. To those of you who I haven't already expressed my appreciation, thank you for caring about strangers. It just goes to show what a positive, uniting force the passion for cinema can be. I consider you all - contributors and readers alike - to be dear friends.

Editor's note: Special thanks to Shelagh Rowan-Legg for helping to transcribe some of the thoughts of the contributors who aren't quite up to typing form yet.