Sundance is underway for its final time in Park City right now and so far nothing has really caught alight at the indie film festival judging by the reviews thus far.
The most high-profile fizzer appears to be the Charli XCX vanity project “The Moment” which is currently at just 53/100 on Metacritic from 13 reviews. The Daily Beast writes “May have things to say, but doesn’t have a clue how to say them” while The Guardian dubs it a defanged satire.
Also running soft is Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex” starring Cooper Hoffman as a young man who becomes the muse for an older female provocateur artist (Olivia Wilde). Coming in at 63/100, this one definitely has some fans and praise for the performances, but the overall story has complaints of being too thin. Variety says “it’s better to think of this either as pure, irreverent escapism or a guiltless pleasure”. Faring better is Rachel Lambert’s “Carousel” at 67/100. The Chris Pine-led romantic drama about a small town doctor and single dad who reunites with his high school ex. Also faring quite well is “I Swear” about Tourette’s Syndrome campaigner John Davidson, with actor Robert Aramayo (“LOTR: The Rings of Power”) scoring raves for his performance. That’s at 71/100. There’s also been some strong entries. The best reviewed so far at 86/100 is “Josephine,” a raw drama following an eight-year-old girl (Mason Reeves) who witnesses a rape in a public park and how she processes what she saw while everyone around her tries to contain her trauma – including her well meaning parents (Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan). Also scoring strong reviews is John Wilson’s documentary “The History of Concrete” at 82/100, with raves about how he took one of the most dull subject matters, concrete, and made it into a funny and emotional feature akin to a feature film version of his HBO series “How To with John Wilson”. There’s also the Olivia Wilde-directed adult comedy “The Invite” in which Wilde, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz play two couples whose dinner party sees them getting into deeply repressed emotions and unexplored sexuality. That film is clocking in at 74/100 so far. The Sundance Film Festival continues on through to February 1st.
