The 2017 edition of the Sundance Film Festival will kick off tomorrow, and like every year some of the most highly anticipated films of the year will be shown. The 49th year of the festival runs from January 19th – 29th in Park City Utah, and with so many different films playing over that span selecting the ones you may want to see can be difficult. Here are our favourites.
Manifesto – If you like Cate Blanchett, you won’t want to miss this film that is sure to display her biggest acting range in her entire career. She plays 13 different characters in this film that was originally a multi-screen art exhibition in 2015, giving form to some of the most influential and emotional artist manifestos in history. In the film Blanchett plays a housewife, a factory worker, a TV anchor, a homeless person and more, but in each role we’re asking ourselves if what the artists wrote in the past still hold true and inspire us today.
A Ghost Story – One of this year’s Oscar favourites, Casey Affleck, stars in this film with Rooney Mara. It’s the story of the spirit of a dead man who makes his way back home after dying at a young age. He watches his lover as she is forced to deal with the pain of a life without him. Unable to communicate with her, the man silently watches her for years as his own humanity slowly fades away.
The Discovery – You won’t have to wait long to see this film starring Jason Segel, Rooney Mara, Robert Redford, Jesse Plemons, and Riley Keough. Netflix bought the rights before the film about a love story set after the existence of the afterlife is scientifically verified even before it hit the screen. It’s set to be released later this year on the streaming service, as well as a run in theaters.
Marjorie Prime – What would you do if you could use a computer to bring back your deceased loved one, even for a short while. That’s the plot of this film that follows 86 year old Marjorie, who spends her final days with a computerized version of her dead husband, recounting their life together. As she grows more attached to the program, the rest of the family find themselves interacting with him as well to reconstruct their past.Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, Tim Robbins and Lois Smith star.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power – It wouldn’t be right to talk about Sundance without bringing up at least one Documentary. Al Gore’s climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth premiered at Sundance in 2006, so it’s only fitting that the surprise sequel to it would premiere there as well. This follow up shows the world how close we are to having an energy revolution. Once again Al Gore travels the world fighting for a change to climate policies, while seeking to inspire us into seeing how we can overcome the perils of climate change.
