For the second year in a row, Sundance will be virtual, meaning that a whole lot of emerging filmmakers won’t get the chance to present their movies in front of a packed Park City audience. But the premieres, competition titles and documentaries playing the fest for 2022 represent a much larger slate of films than were available last year, especially on the marketplace. Already movies like “Fresh” and “Calendar Girls” have found homes, while audiences are eagerly awaiting their first looks at projects that already have distribution such as “Lucy and Desi,” “When You Finish Saving the World” and “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy.”
“2nd Chance”
Ramin Bahrani’s documentary feature “2nd Chance” looks at the curious life and career of Richard Davis, the inventor of the bulletproof vest. Davis shot himself 192 times in demonstrations to police officers around the country to prove that his invention worked and could save lives. But the documentary grapples with how Davis’ invention also led to the proliferation of firearms in the U.S. and around the world.
“892”
John Boyega’s post-“Star Wars” career has been marked with outspoken activism, and that translates into his latest role as a U.S. Marine veteran separated from his family and barely scraping by. Ignored by the country he served and at the end of his rope with financial troubles and severe PTSD, the soft-spoken soldier grabs the world’s attention by holding a bank hostage with a bomb. The film is also the final movie of the late Michael Kenneth Williams.
“Aftershock”
Playing in the U.S. documentary competition, “Aftershock” grapples with an epidemic of America’s maternal health crisis by following two fathers who have become widowers after their partners died of preventable childbirth complications. Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee (Spike Lee’s wife) direct the film that is not just timely but is a subject that’s of dire importance to Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Am I OK?”
Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne make their directorial debut in this LGBT tale of two very close friends (Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno) whose relationship is tested when one gets a major job opportunity in London while the other reveals that she is lesbian.
“Call Jane”
“Carol” screenwriter Phyllis Nagy makes her directorial debut with “Call Jane,” a period drama set in ‘60s Chicago about a woman unable to get a legal abortion who turns to an organization of women called the “Janes” who can help her. Elizabeth Banks, Kate Mara and Sigourney Weaver star.
“Cha Cha Real Smooth”
Cooper Raiff, who directed the SXSW winner “S—house” and is now making his sophomore feature, stars and directs this quarter-life crisis tale of a recent college graduate who, after spending his time in higher education drinking and partying, decides to get a job working at bar mitzvahs that will allow him to do the same. That changes when an encounter with a single mother (Dakota Johnson) gives him a vision of a future he never realized he wanted.
“Dual”
Riley Stearns, known for his SXSW film “The Art of Self Defense,” brings together Karen Gillan and Aaron Paul for a futuristic comedy about a woman who explores cloning herself after she’s diagnosed with a rare, incurable disease. Gillan lives up to the film’s title “Dual” by giving a dual performance as both the woman and her strange clone.
“Emily the Criminal”
In this thriller from director and writer John Patton Ford, Aubrey Plaza branches out as a woman sucked into the world of black market capitalism to escape her student debt and inability to find a job.
“God’s Country”
“Westworld” star Thandiwe Newton plays a widowed college professor in the rural American West who is confronted with a world that cares not for her sense of right and wrong when a pair of hunters trespass on her property. The film has earned early attention for Newton’s performance and its sweeping cinematography.
“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”
Emma Thompson stars in this comedy about a woman determined to have good sex for the first time in her life by recruiting an escort who goes by the name Leo Grande (Daryl McCormack). Sophie Hyde directs the film about how these two unlikely partners begin to form more than an intimate connection.
“Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul”
God is big business in this satire starring Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown as a woman in charge of a Southern Baptist megachurch who plans a big comeback after her husband, the church’s pastor, is caught in a scandal. Directed, written and produced by twin sisters Adamma and Adanne Ebo, the film uses a faux-documentary style to show how religious corruption isn’t just committed by men but by the wives that protect and profit from them.
“Jihad Rehab”
Director Meg Smaker finds a new look at the legacy of 9/11 and Guantanamo Bay by going inside a rehab center for former jihadists, extremists and detainees and following four men who try to examine their own personal journeys before they can be released back into a new, unfamiliar world.
“Living“
In 1952, Akira Kurosawa created a searing critique of Japanese bureaucracy with “Ikiru,” a story of a government worker in postwar Tokyo who scrambles to make something lasting for others when he discovers he has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. With “Living,” director Oliver Hermanus and actor Bill Nighy transfer that story to postwar London as a veteran bureaucrat races against his own mortality to free a modest building project from red tape.
“Meet Me in the Bathroom”
Lizzy Goodman’s book “Meet Me in the Bathroom” is an oral history of New York City rock bands like The Strokes, Interpol, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem and The White Stripes in the early 2000s that has become gospel for music lovers and one of the definitive documents of the pre-9/11, post-Napster era in rock. The documentary based on the book and playing in the Midnight section is directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace and should be catnip for any fan of the book or the bands.
“Resurrection”
Though Rebecca Hall made waves with “Passing” at last year’s festival behind the camera, “Resurrection” places her in a thriller alongside Tim Roth as a woman forced to confront a man from her past seemingly following her everywhere. Andrew Semans’ film promises a blend of horror and drama.
“Sharp Stick”
With “Girls” finished, Lena Dunham returns to filmmaking with a drama starring Kristine Froseth, Jon Bernthal and Jennifer Jason Leigh about a woman in her mid-20s living in an apartment with her influencer sister and cynical mother. Desperate for intimacy, she begins a wild affair with the father of a learning disabled boy she takes care of, beginning a journey into sexuality and power.
“Watcher”
First-time director Chloe Okuno has earned buzz for her Hitchcockian thriller about a married woman who moves to Bucharest with her husband, who leaves her alone often for his new job. But as news reports reveal that there’s a serial killer on the loose, she begins to get the feeling she’s being watched…
“We Met in Virtual Reality”
Director Joe Hunting spent his time during the pandemic filming a vérité documentary about romance, sexuality and their intersection with technology, but he did so by filming entirely within a VR universe. “We Met in Virtual Reality” is playing in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and aims to elevate the form of the documentary with its colorful and experimental visuals.
