One of the biggest Covid losses for Sundance and for those who both premiere and acquire films there, has been the lack of in-person audience reaction over the last two years, something that has traditionally been a major barometer here more than at arguably any other festival. Crowds descend upon Park City to be pleased, to applaud, cheer, weep and perhaps feel a little smug that they were the first people to see The Little Film That Could.
Films like Four Weddings and a Funeral, Little Miss Sunshine and The Kids are All Right successfully carried this word of mouth all the way to both the box office and the Oscars and helped create a blueprint for the kind of Sundance movie everyone was looking to make, see and buy, for better or more frequently worse. Coda did somehow manage to sneak through in a pandemic year, the result of a nifty long-game campaign by Apple, but this year arguably the biggest question on the ground is which film can return to type and turn audience ebullience into real world success. Having managed this before with Once and Sing Street, the Irish writer-director John Carney is more equipped than most in knowing exactly which buttons to push and exactly how hard to push them. Announced as a buzz-free late addition to the lineup, his modestly made comedy drama Flora and Son seemed like a likely candidate but no one could have anticipated just how much audience enthusiasm it would inspire at its low-key yet high-passion Sunday afternoon premiere.
