Most Recent. In Sundance.

Sundance

Sundance 2014: Obvious Child review

★★★★☆ Recent lo-fi Brooklynite comedies such as Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha (2013) and Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture (2010) feel positively old-hat compared with Gillian Robespierre’s bracing Obvious Child (2014), which is funnier and more urgent than both. Robespierre and her...

Sundance 2014: Memphis review

★★★☆☆ To describe Tim Sutton’s Memphis (2013) – screening this week at the Sundance London film and music festival – as ‘meditative’ would be something of an understatement. With his 2012 debut, Pavilion, the director was likened to a cross...

Sundance 2014: Little Accidents review

★★★☆☆ Moral crises abound in Sara Colangelo’s brooding debut feature, Little Accidents (2014). A small mining community in the Appalachian Mountains is devastated by the deaths of ten of its workers when a mine collapses. After a few months, the...

Sundance 2014: Kumiko review

★★★★☆ Following on from 2012’s Kid-Thing, a feverish tale about a destructive young girl operating freely beyond all tangible moral boundaries, the Zellner brothers returns with Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014). Perfectly pitched between lighthearted whimsy and all-out absurdity, the...

Sundance 2014: Drunktown’s Finest review

★★☆☆☆ In 1990, Sydney Freeland’s home of Gallup, New Mexico was dubbed Drunktown, USA by a report on ABC’s 20/20 news programme. Decades later, Freeland has reclaimed the undesirable moniker for the name of her feature debut set in her...

Sundance 2014: Programme preview

Following on from the overwhelming success of last year’s sophomore outing, American actor and director Robert Redford’s Sundance London film and music festival returns to the nation’s capital this month for its third incarnation, which takes place at the O2...

Sundance 2014: Wetlands review

★★★☆☆ David Wnendt’s Wetlands (2013) stars Carla Juri as Helen, an adventurous teen experimenting with sex, drugs and haemorrhoids.The daughter of divorced parents – and with countless issues feeding her angst – Helen spends her days indulging in casual encounters...

Sundance 2013: Mud review

★★★★☆ Premièring towards the end of last year’s Cannes Film Festival when the majority of critics had long left the sun and splendour of the Croisette, indie filmmaker Jeff Nichols’ highly anticipated Mud (2012), his follow-up to 2011’s Take Shelter,...

Sundance 2013: Blackfish review

★★★★☆ Newly positioned as one of this year’s most anticipated American documentaries following rave reviews at Sundance, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s Blackfish (2013) makes its way to the festival’s London incarnation this week ahead of a late July theatrical release. Cowperthwaite’s slight...

Sundance 2013: From the Sea to the Land Beyond review

★★★★☆ Featuring prime cuts from the BFI’s extensive National Archive and a typically soul-stirring soundtrack from acclaimed Brighton collective British Sea Power, director Penny Woolcock’s lyrical visual collage From the Sea to the Land Beyond (2012) gets a live screening...

Sundance 2013: Programme preview

Following the success of last year’s inaugural outing, actor-director Robert Redford’s Sundance London film and music festival returns to the nation’s capital this month for its second incarnation, which takes place at the O2 Arena from 25-28 April. As with...

Sundance 2012: Safety Not Guaranteed review

★★★★☆ American director Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) is just the type of sweet-natured, low budget indie comedy (with an all-important intelligent heart) that has slowly become synonymous with the world-renowned Sundance Film Festival. Starring rising star Aubrey Plaza,...