Tom Beasley on the top films from Sundance London 2022…
Another edition of the Sundance London Film Festival is in the books, with more than a dozen films from the Utah-based fest’s catalogue screened to press and the public in the British capital. We spent several days cramming in as many of the festival’s offerings as possible, and here’s the five best movies we got along to see…
Best of the Rest
There was a lot to love about Chloe Okuno’s feature debut Watcher – a Rear Window-esque psychological horror starring Maika Monroe as an American who moves to Romania with her husband, only to be increasingly unsettled by the man she believes is watching her from a neighbouring tower block. Monroe is as dependable a horror lead as she has been in films like It Follows and The Guest, while Burn Gorman is effectively creepy, but the movie is very much a paint-by-numbers genre effort.
There are also some impressive twists and turns to the Rebecca Hall-starring thriller Resurrection, in which she shines alongside a deeply sinister Tim Roth in a story about past trauma returning to the surface. Writer-director Andrew Semans has some interesting ideas about power dynamics in relationships and cruel and unusual psychological torment, but the execution wobbles and doesn’t quite stay the course.
On the documentary front, Free Chol Soo Lee tells an important story about a shocking miscarriage of justice, though it’s the sort of film we’ve all seen over and over again in recent years.
5. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
Truly sex-positive movies are a bit of a rare occurrence, but Animals director Sophie Hyde bucks the trend with this delightfully tender romantic comedy. Emma Thompson portrays a widowed teacher who books the titular sex worker (Peaky Blinders actor Daryl McCormack) in an attempt to broaden her horizons after decades in a very vanilla marriage. The chemistry between the pair is a tonne of fun, assisted by a very sharp and well-observed script by comedian Katy Brand.
It’s a little bit of a rose-tinted portrayal of its world, with Thompson’s character the perfect client and McCormack’s the perfect sex worker. However, given the habit of cinema to depict the sex industry as nothing more than an exploitative hellscape, it’s very welcome to see it used as the backdrop for a genuinely sweet comedy. Thompson’s performance is a very brave one, while McCormack oozes charm and charisma in what should be a breakout performance for him.
SEE ALSO: Check out our interview with Good Luck to You, Leo Grande star Daryl McCormack
4. Hatching
Finnish filmmaker Hanna Bergholm delivers a slice of exquisitely weird body horror with this unusual effort, focused around an influencer family. Teenage gymnast Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) is pressurised by her mother’s (Sophia Heikkilä) desperate desire to portray an image of the perfect family unit on social media. When she decides to look after a crow’s egg, it rapidly grows and hatches a grotesque bird creature which, over time, develops into a violent and aggressive doppelganger.
This is a film packed with ideas and entirely committed to its bizarre, heightened world. The effects used to bring the bird-like double to life are convincingly nasty, while Heikkilä is nothing short of terrifying as an avatar of how the pursuit of perfection can contort somebody into a monster. It’s an accomplished directorial debut for Bergholm, who is definitely a genre voice to watch.
SEE ALSO: Check out our interview with Hatching director Hanna Bergholm
3. Fire of Love
One of the most ballyhooed titles coming out of the American iteration of Sundance earlier this year, Fire of Love is a sweeping, romantic take on the ultimately tragic lives of volcanologist couple Katia and Maurice Krafft. Award-winning doc filmmaker Sara Dosa assembles a collage of the Kraffts’ enormous archive of material to deliver an engrossing and ultimately emotionally overwhelming portrait of these two remarkable people.
Both visually and thematically, Dosa’s film highlights the ways in which humanity is utterly subordinate to nature and foregrounds the ways in which the Kraffts were driven by their twin loves: for each other and for the spell-binding power of the natural world.
2. We Met in Virtual Reality
However impressive Fire of Love is, the most surprising and enthralling documentary of Sundance London this year was Joe Hunting’s fascinating We Met in Virtual Reality. Filmed entirely within the near-limitless virtual reality world of VRChat, it serves as an utterly moving ode to the very real relationships that can be built across geographical and cultural borders within a bizarre, surreal fantasy environment – especially amid the solitude of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Hunting’s doc is a genuinely lovely and affectionate look at people who can often be stigmatised as nerds and weirdos, giving them the room to explain and explore why they gravitate towards VRChat. By the time the film’s brisk 90 minutes are over, you’ll find it impossible to question the validity of these online bonds.
1. A Love Song
Max Walker-Silverman’s directorial debut is a meditative, elegiac depiction of love in later life, told with affection and complexity. We meet Faye (Dale Dickey) as she waits in her mobile home at an agreed location, waiting for the arrival of childhood friend Lito (Wes Studi). Initially, it seems like she’ll be left to wait forever, but eventually her Godot shows up and they spend a beautiful couple of days in each other’s company.
It’s a simply delightful tale, powered by its nuanced and affectionate perspective on love. These are two people looking for companionship and seeking solace in a long-forgotten intimacy from earlier in life. Dickey is outstanding as a woman who carries the weight of an entire life lived, while Studi twinkles and charms. When the two wield guitars and jam their way through a duet, it’s more pregnant with tension and affection than just about any movie sex scene.
Walker-Silverman deliberately eschews big dramatic beats and revelations, understanding that these actors and these characters are the real draw. The best movie of Sundance London 2022 might well be its quietest.
Tom Beasley is a freelance film journalist and wrestling fan. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns.
