Category: sundance 2019

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / sundance / sundance 2019 / Theatrical Review

January 26, 2019

Sundance 2019: To the Stars, by David Bax

Not unlike her last film, co-directorial effort Land Ho!, Martha Stephens’ To the Stars is possessed of an earnestness that borders on being corny. That’s in no way a complaint. Sincerity is a trait too hard to come by these days. And...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / sundance / sundance 2019 / Theatrical Review

January 26, 2019

Sundance 2019: The Nightingale, by David Bax

It’s clear very early on in Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale that things aren’t likely to go well for Clare (Aisling Franciosi), our protagonist. In a small military outpost in 1825 Van Diemen’s Land (now known as Tasmania), she’s an ex-convict and...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / sundance / sundance 2019 / Theatrical Review

January 26, 2019

Sundance 2019: Honey Boy, by David Bax

Most of the attention paid to Alma Har’el’s Honey Boy will likely focus on its content, specifically the fact that it’s an autobiographical film by its writer, movie star Shia Labeouf, about his early days as a child actor in which...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / sundance / sundance 2019 / Theatrical Review

January 26, 2019

Sundance 2019: The Mountain, by David Bax

Rick Alverson made his name with his third feature, The Comedy, a transcendently uncomfortable film that imagines the thoroughly depressing emotional life of the type of disaffected smartass that, say, Bill Murray spent the 1980s playing. He followed that up with...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / sundance / sundance 2019 / Theatrical Review

January 26, 2019

Sundance 2019: We Are Little Zombies, by David Bax

Honestly, the fact that there’s so much going on beneath the surface of Makoto Nagahisa’s We Are Little Zombies is just gravy, given that its aesthetic delights are more than enough to justify the two hours spent watching it. From restless, frenetic editing...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / sundance / sundance 2019 / Theatrical Review

January 26, 2019

Sundance 2019: The Hole in the Ground, by David Bax

It’s become increasingly apparent that not only is Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook one of the best horror movies of the decade, it’s also one of the most influential. Schlock like Stacy Title’s The Bye Bye Man was an early example, having...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / sundance / sundance 2019 / Theatrical Review

January 25, 2019

Sundance 2019: Native Son, by David Bax

It’s not that we don’t need another movie that highlights the daily barrage of microaggressions a person of color faces in America. On the contrary, some of the best parts of Rashid Johnson’s Native Son (based on Richard Wright’s novel) involve...

2019 / david bax / movies / reviews / sundance / sundance 2019 / Theatrical Review

January 25, 2019

Sundance 2019: The Edge of Democracy, by David Bax

Petra Costa’s criminally underseen 2012 documentary Elena is a deeply personal work about family, dreams and loss. So her new film, The Edge of Democracy, about the short lived rule of Brazil’s progressive Workers’ Party and its shameful dismantling by right wing powers...