a/perture at sundance 2025!

It was a true joy to go to my first Sundance Film Festival this year, as I could unapologetically watch anywhere from 3-4 movies a day, as opposed to my usual average of 2. There wasn’t much glamour to be found in the press and industry screenings, but there was a lot of fantastic cinema that I hope to share with the a/perture audience throughout the year. My favorite, Eva Victor’s staggering debut Sorry, Baby, was recently acquired by A24, and maybe no more fun will be found in the theater this year than with Michael Shank’s debut, starring real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie, Together. Thankfully picked up by NEON, keep an eye out for both of these, and some more stand-outs below.

 

/Sorry, Baby 

Far and away, and most surprisingly, the best film I’ve seen at Sundance this year is Eva Victor’s debut Sorry, Baby – which also stars Naomi Ackie from last year’s Blink Twice, and local legend Lucas Hedges in his best role since Manchester by the Sea. I was not familiar with Victor’s online success, she’s made viral videos on Twitter for years before embarking on this film, which was produced by Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski of Moonlight fame. In my mind, Jenkins can direct as many Disney Live-Action films as he wants if it means producing more works like this. Most promising debuts land somewhere in between a reaction of ‘watchable’ and ‘good’, but the tonal tightrope walk that Victor pulls off here as actor, writer, and director, is truly stunning. The longline is bare, and I think it helped my experience so I won’t get into too many details here, but most scenes weave between hilarious jokes and interplay between Victor and Ackie, as well as standout supporting turns by John Carroll Lynch and the aforenoted Hedges. Jumping around in time in a purely narrative way, we see a few years of Victor’s character’s life as she graduates from grad school, only to stay in stasis as she’s hired as the university’s youngest full-time professor in 20-odd years, much to the chagrin of Kelly McCormack’s (Problemista) colleage and fellow alum. You can only hype up movies like this so much, so I just have to insist everyone gives it a chance when it’s inevitably distributed this year to further critical acclaim. A small miracle, and the only film from the past week I wanted to turn around and see again immediately, just to see how she pulled it off. 

/Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears) 

The World Cinema competition contained a few stand-outs this year, primarily this study of a queer Indian man who returns to his home village from Mumbai after the death of his accepting father. He starts a relationship with an old friend, as they face the ticking clock of the 10-day funeral ceremony and Anand’s return to his more modern life in Mumbai. Slow cinema, for sure, but so delicately directed, performed and structured, you feel like you’re in the hands of a seasoned filmmaker despite it being the debut of Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, also notably the first Marathi film to be screened at Sundance.  

/The Alabama Solution 

An act of startling and righteous fury, this film depicts the subhuman conditions of Alabama state prisons and the politicians who keep them that way, insisting these prisoners are unfit for society while allowing them to work at their mansions and gardens, as well as for major corporations like McDonald’s, for little to usually no pay. If we’re calling it what it is, this film depicts the modern-day slavery that is occurring in prisons all around our country. The filmmakers started out generally exploring the Alabama prisons through a revival barbecue, only to be pulled aside by incarcerated men insisting there is more to their story that is being covered up. Told primarily through cell-phone footage from men on the inside, smuggled in by the understaffed and overpowered guards who sell the devices, this is more than a film, an experience that should be required viewing and should force a change in a just world. It’s not an easy watch by any means, but if you find yourself thinking everyone who’s in jail deserves to be there, and is therefore less than human, take two hours out of your life when this is released through HBO later this year.  

/Together 

Rightfully the first big sale of this year’s festival, this film will undeniably be a huge hit when released by NEON later in the year. Coming off of last year’s  The Substance, this film mixes body horror with the funniest and most twisted rom-com in years. Real-life couple Dave Franco and Alison Brie power this experience that deserves to be seen with a packed theater. Don’t look up any spoilers, and think twice before making it your date night pick if your friends consider you and your partner a little too co-dependent. 

/If I Had Legs I’d Kick You 

Already often compared to Uncut Gems, due to Josh Safdie being a producer and having A24 on board, not to mention this being the sophomore feature of Mary Bronstein, partner to Ronald Bronstein, the co-writer and editor of the aforementioned as well as Good Time, this is an unrelenting stress-nightmare, but it often works at a different register than the ballad of Howie Ratner. Rose Byrne gives the performance of her career as a mother who is sinking under the weight of the mysterious illness ailing her daughter, her work as a therapist with a more stressed-out client played by Danielle MacDonald, the increasingly tense relationship with her co-worker played in a fantastically low-key performance by Conan O’Brien, and the ginormous whole that opens in her apartment, causing her to move into a motel staffed by the one person who shows her kindness, played by none other than A$AP Rocky (who is fantastic, and provides more excitement to his upcoming lead role in Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest). If all of that sounds like a lot, you’re absolutely correct. It’s perhaps best described by director Bronstein, who compared it to the headspace of when everything becomes so stressful, and you’re no longer able to separate the level of stress each incident represents.  

/OBEX 

Albert Birney makes his solo directorial debut with another hand-crafted dream of a film following his Kentucker Audley collaborations Sylvio and Strawberry Mansions. The rare true ‘independent’ film existing in the current Sundance landscape, it follows the story of an agoraphobic man (Birney), slowly being driven crazy by the cicadas outside his Baltimore home (the year is 1987). An early adopter to computers, he is intrigued by the ad for a new game that promises to scan you into the action, called OBEX. The game is clearly a dud, but maybe allowed something into his home that takes his beloved dog, and forces him onto a fantastical journey through the woods behind his house. Hilarious and truly moving, especially if you’re a dog person, keep an eye out for this one.  

/BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions 

This film presents a potential path forward for cinema, mixing in several formal elements from documentary, to narrative, all the way to popular social media clips and memes. Khahil Joseph’s film is one-of-a-kind, with some of the best uses of editing and archival footage I’ve seen, perhaps the entire film is best summed up by a clip of Agnes Varda stating, “What is bad for cinema is categories”.  After a lot of drama due to legal matters that caused this film to be pulled the day before the festival, only for a brave buyer to come in and secure the rights, allowing it to screen after all, this is an of-the-moment personal and historical vision that needs to be seen to be believed. 

/Peter Hujar’s Day 

Your mileage will certainly vary, as this is best described as a cinematic experience. Based on a transcript of a conversation between photograhper Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) and writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall), the entire film takes place in (and just around) Rosenkrantz’s New York apartment circa December 1974. Hujar is recounting his previous day from memory for a potential book project by Rosenkrantz, and we are treated to two of the best actors working today exploring two lesser known figures of the New York cultural 70’s, all the while name-dropping and mentioning people they interacted with like Allen Ginsberg and Susan Sontag. It’s brief, but a more fascinating biopic project than many that are produced today, looking at how a day can represent one’s personality and way of life.  

/The Perfect Neighbor 

As someone who has always questioned the purpose of talking heads in documentaries, anytime one can successfully break the form, especially in what can be considered a ‘true-crime’ story, it’s worth noting. This film is told almost entirely through police body cameras as we bear witness to the ongoing saga of Susan Lorincz and her repeated calls to the police to complain about the neighborhood children who play outside of her house. It builds over the course of a couple years, before exploding in a heartbreaking study of Stand Your Ground laws, and how this, like so many other laws, disproportionately affects people of color. It’s devastating but necessary viewing.