Sundance has long been the top fest for US independent films looking for a little love from big money distributors. It's expected that the annual lineup includes movies on the spectrum all the way from tiny esoteric documentaries to broadly appealing narratives filled with movie stars taking breaks from their latest superhero blockbuster. So as the snowy Park City streets continue to be filled with filmmakers with dollar signs in their eyes, it's quite notable that the 2018 edition has featured some of the highest quality films on the commercial end of that spectrum in recent Sundance memory.
Premiering at this festival some 6 years ago, director Bart Layton's excellent first film The Imposter fell a bit more on the esoteric docu side of the spectrum. His follow-up, American Animals, looks destined to be a commercial success. It stars Evan Peters (recent X-Men flicks) and Barry Keoghan (Dunkirk) as misfit college students who decide to pull off a massive art heist. Like his last film, Layton employs documentary techniques to great success in this story that's as much about the idea of crime as it is about the particular crime. But it's the excellent performances and thrilling plot that point to this one doing big things with general audiences.
Belonging to a genre that's perhaps less common at Sundance, The Catcher Was a Spy is a World War II period thriller. Directed by Ben Lewin (The Sessions), this Paul Rudd-starrer is about as far into the commercial end of the spectrum as you can get at Sundance. It's also excellent and at a svelte 93 minutes, this one is a definite audience pleaser.
Sundance 2018 Dispatch: Indie Fare Scores with Commercial Appeal