The 2024 Sundance Film Festival is going strong, as the virtual portion opens up far-flung correspondents from all over the globe to engage in the annual festival’s newest and most promising titles.
We’re in the midst of looking at Sundance from the comfort of our couch, and already there have been a number of films that have surprised, challenged and entertained us aplenty.
This is the first of For the Win‘s Sundance 2024 dispatches, as we take a look at a star vehicle for screen veteran June Squibb, a riveting documentary about music legend Luther Vandross and more. Let’s dive in on our first five.
Thelma
One of the most purely enjoyable films of the decade, Thelma proves once and for all that age is just a number when it comes to leading action films.
While Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones return pits a man in his 80s against the thrills of a big-budget blockbuster, Thelma puts 94-year-old June Squibb in one of the most clever revenge comedies you could imagine for someone her age.
Openly riffing on what would happen if a senior citizen replaced Ethan Hunt in a Mission: Impossible mission for grandmothers, Squibb takes it upon herself to seek justice for a phone scam that robs her of $10,000 in cash. Whoever had the idea of putting Squibb and the late, great Richard Roundtree on a high-powered scooter on the streets of Los Angeles, replete with perils that Life Alert can’t save you from, deserves some sort of award.
Rather than taking the cheap laughs out of elderly danger, Thelma uses its genre engine to explore the frailties of getting old and having to accept help when your age just won’t allow you to do things solo. Squibb’s work with Alexander Payne already proved what a gifted actor she is with balancing side-splitting quips and devastating laments, but it’s with Thelma that a multi-decade career finally gets its crowning achievement.
Thelma is so good that you almost have to dare yourself not to like it. If you don’t get a fierce rush of joyous dopamine by the time this film is over, not even Thelma herself could help you.
Good One
Comparisons to Kelly Reichardt and Debra Granik will be very understandable for India Donaldson’s debut feature Good One. Like Reichardt and Granik before her, Donaldson already shows an impressive knack for studying human nature in actual nature, using our routines in the great outdoors as open canvas for reflection and revelation.
Donaldson’s film takes its time to build the journey for the camping trio of teenage Sam (an exceptional Lily Collias), her caring-if-clueless father Chris (James Le Gros, living into the complexities of the parent who just doesn’t understand) and Chris’ laid-back actor friend Matt (Danny McCarthy, finding just the right mix of obnoxious and amiable).
Part of coming of age means coming to terms with the flaws of your parents and the world their generation helped build, and Donaldson gives Collias a very open script to explore Sam’s emotions as she learns hard lessons from her father and his friend about the kind of world she’s about take a bigger role in once she leaves for college. The young actor is more than up to the task.
You might wonder where Good One is going until it’s impossible to question the film’s stark intent, but the way Donaldson frames the camping trip in question and the dynamics at play between its three participants helps hammer in the eventual shock of its third act. We can all seek refuge from our struggles, whether it be with a hike in nature or a quick glance at our phone once we get service, but sometimes, we’re all we’ve got when those we expect to hold us up reveal their flaws.
Good One is a striking debut that understands the difficult passage from youth to adulthood, fraught with malevolence and disappointment. For the way Donaldson frames Sam, at the very least the kids will be alright.
Luther: Never Too Much
Luther Vandross was a titan of his field, one of R&B’s most gifted voices who prided himself in lavish presentation and sonic progression.
Not all musicians as talented as Vandross always get the documentaries that match their contributions, but Luther: Never Too Much meets the legend right where he stood to deliver something as thrilling and lasting as one of Vandross’ best songs.
Dawn Porter’s homage to Vandross’ career has definite hagiographical intent, but it backs that focus with rapturous footage of the musician’s process and performance and a keen understanding of just how much of a forerunner he was in modern R&B.
If you’re not familiar with just how Vandross came to be, learning how he played such a vital role in so many musical moments of multiple decades is made all the more interesting with the way Porter cuts together the talking heads and the archival footage. The editing is perhaps the film’s unsung hero, as it glides effortlessly between the there and now.
The film also touches on the tragic coverage of Vandross’ struggles with his weight, giving the late musician the grace to tell his side of the story through past interviews while contextualizing and admonishing the harm that media did to cover his image throughout his career. While the documenatary wisely resists speculation about his sexualiy to respect the privacy of his life he established while he was alive, you still feel like you get the full portrait of the man and his music. Most similar documentaries don’t reach these heights, but Porter’s dutiful care and effort to honor Vandross with a film fitting his stature makes the difference.
Seeking Mavis Beacon
Mavis Beacon lingers in many millennial and Gen Z memories as the kindly woman who taught us how to type on the computer. For filmmaker Jazmin Renée Jones, it was her gateway into representative possibility, a chance to see someone she admired that looked like her and gave her vital wisdom.
However, the tough realization for many is that Beacon does not exist, merely an avatar for a computer program. Rather than just sit with that knowledge, Jones makes it her mission to find the Black woman behind the image that inspired her as a child with the fascinating Seeking Mavis Beacon.
Told with savvy computer screen graphics akin to the technology from the Searching movies and the progress of youthful perspective, Jones’ debut feature takes her and fellow computer culture enthusiast Olivia McKayla Ross on a journey to discover more about the woman whose likeness was first used as Beacon in the computer game and its marketing.
It’s an intriguing mystery, one with plenty of surprises in the search and astute observations about growing up online when you’re not a dominant member of the patriarchal system that sets the guidelines for the experience.
Jones’ career will be one to follow, as it’s easy to see her taking on more projects like this, ones that help us understand our pasts better with the kind of fresh perspectives that set us up better for the future.
Eternal You
The further you get from Eternal You, the more respect you have for the passive approach documentarians Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck take to covering such an off-putting subject as reanimating the dead with artificial intelligence as a means for capital.
Indeed, the age of A.I. is fully upon us, and this chilling documentary captures techie brains trying to play God by bringing people’s loved ones back from the grave with use of A.I. imaging and processing.
The ethical ramifications of this are staggering, as A.I. now gives us the ability to mimic the thoughts, sounds and even appearances of the deceased (for a price, of course). The software is flawed, and its harmful edge cuts deep when you see a woman trying to communicate with a computer that imitates someone she lost and getting disturbing messages back. It’s not the person she knew talking to her, but it’s hard to shake the sensation of simulacra. Even more bothersome can be the apathy of the developer to shrug off the human damage of what’s being brought into the world.
While you may find the tech at the heart of Eternal You detestable, don’t shoot the messengers. Block and Riesewieck stay out of sight with their work, but it’s a strength that we only hear from those creating and those being impacted by the creation. A.I. continues to overshadow our futures with uncertain results, but showing the developments, ugly and all, help us determine how to tweak what’s coming with the best discernment we can. There’s more to say on the subject that one film can’t capture, but for what it can do, Eternal You is a worthy, unsettling study of what’s already here.
