Fire of Love 2022
The opening-night documentary; more on it below.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview · Roundtable · Top Five
The Best Movie of 2022 So Far and 10 Sundance Films You Need to Know
January 31, 2022/ 98 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amy Nicholson
Amy Nicholson subs in to cover a fully virtual Sundance: the acquisitions, the noisy premieres that didn't land, a horror trend, then twin top-five lists. It closes with Sean's conversation with Joachim Trier about The Worst Person in the World.
27 films across 7 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
Virtual Sundance, take twothe format, the buyers, the acquisitions
Cha Cha Real Smooth 2022
Cooper Raiff's second film. Sold to Apple TV+ for a reported $15 million.
Speak No Evil 2022
Sold to Shudder; more on it below.
Fresh 2022
Sold to Searchlight as part of a Hulu deal; more on it below.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande 2022
Also sold to Searchlight; more on it below.
Living 2022
Bill Nighy, a remake of Ikiru. Sold to Sony Pictures Classics.
The noisy ones that didn't land
When You Finish Saving the World 2022
Jesse Eisenberg's opening-night premiere. Julianne Moore as a shelter-running do-gooder, Finn Wolfhard as the son who won't perform activism the way she wants him to. Called uneven but well-acted, with Billy Bryk singled out.
Sharp Stick 2022
Lena Dunham's first film since Tiny Furniture, her first since Girls. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Taylor Page, and Kristine Froseth as a young woman exploring her sexuality. Both hosts liked pieces of it and neither fully bought the whole.
Horror, but make it about somethingthe year's social-horror slate
Watcher 2022
Maika Monroe alone in a Bucharest apartment, convinced she's being watched. Called slow going despite a sharp premise.
You Won't Be Alone 2022
The Macedonian witch film. Amy fast-forwarded through it; Sean was warned off entirely.
In conversation
Joachim Trier on
The Worst Person in the World 2021
Co-written with Eskil Vogt; Renate Reinsve's first lead role. They discuss the chapter structure, working from personal material without making it one-to-one, and the film's Bergman-inflected third act.
Joachim Trier's last great thing the show's closing question
Picked by Joachim Trier
C'mon C'mon 2021
Picked by Joachim Trier
The Souvenir Part II 2021
Picked by Joachim Trier
The Green Knight 2021
Picked by Joachim Trier
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun 2021
Referred to as "the most recent Wes Anderson film."
Amy Nicholson's Sundance fivebest to worst
No. 1
Fresh 2022
No. 1 - Mimi Cave's cannibal-dating horror. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan, compared to a dating-app Get Out.
No. 2
Master 2022
Mariama Diallo's debut. Regina Hall as a New England college's first Black "master," Zoe Renee as the freshman assigned the campus's cursed room.
No. 3
Alice 2022
Keke Palmer as a woman who escapes an isolated plantation to find it's actually 1973. Common co-stars.
No. 4
Leonor Will Never Die 2022
Martika Ramirez Escobar's film. A retired Filipino action-movie director falls into her own unfinished script.
No. 5
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande 2022
Last - Emma Thompson as a widow who hires a sex worker, played by Daryl McCormack, in a hotel room.
Sean Fennessey's Sundance fivebest to worst
No. 1
Fire of Love 2022
No. 1 - Sara Dosa's documentary on volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, narrated by Miranda July.
No. 2
Navalny 2022
Daniel Roher's documentary on Alexei Navalny, including his call to one of his own poisoners.
No. 3
After Yang 2022
Kogonada's film. Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith's household robot companion breaks down.
No. 4
Speak No Evil 2022
Christian Tafdrup's film. A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on holiday, and it goes very wrong.
No. 5
Something in the Dirt 2022
Last - Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead star as two neighbors who witness something supernatural in their LA apartment building.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Acquisitions & callbacks Palm SpringsA HeroResurrectionNannyEmergencyBlindThe Innocents
Comparisons raised in discussion HoneylandAntebellumThe VillageSynecdoche, New YorkColumbusHerBlade Runner 2049SpringFoxy BrownScenes from a MarriageJinn
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Stranger ThingsBlack MondayMoon KnightArchive 81
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