The 5 best films of the Sundance Film Festival 2023

PARK CITY, Utah — Every January, just when we’re all sick of babbling about the same 10 Oscar movies, the Sundance Film Festival hits like a bucket of ice water on our heads.

The bustling indie festival, in the cute but incredibly expensive ski town of Park City, Utah, wakes us up and sets the tone for the film year, providing a glimpse of what’s on the minds of innovative filmmakers.

Returning in person for the first time since 2020, the 45-year-old festival was met with scandal (Sundance was rocked by late demands that all films have subtitles), shockers (Alexander Skarsgård he fought naked with his clone) and celebrities wearing parkas even though they are warmly ushered from the St. Regis straight to the red carpet.

But what struck me most was that, after a series of unbearably bleak lineups, the radiant optimism that saw “CODA” win the Best Picture Oscar in 2022 was abounding in this list of 99 feature films. A feel-good festival for sure.

Here are the five best movies from Sundance 2023.

Past Lives

The best movie at Sundance this year, and one that has a strong chance of becoming one of those Oscar nominees we’re still talking about in 12 months, is writer-director Celine Song’s sublime “Past Lives.” Set in 24 years, the red-hot A24 studio film is about two childhood sweethearts in Seoul, South Korea, who are separated when little Nora’s family moves to Toronto. Fast forward 12 years later and Nora (Greta Lee) is a writer in New York, who reconnects with her old flame Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) on Skype. I know the setup of “Past Lives” sounds simple, but Song’s writing and Lee and Yoo’s realistic performances will blow your mind.

eileen

Sultry and mysterious Anne Hathaway in a Boston prison in the 1960s? Of course! “Eileen” is a thriller about a shy 24-year-old secretary, played by Thomasin McKenzie, whose miserable existence is upended when a life trustee (Hathaway) comes to work at the penitentiary where she works. It’s far from a joyride, but the movie sizzles with uncertainty. We’re downright nervous trying to figure out exactly where William Oldroyd’s film, based on the novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, is headed. By the time the tense story comes together, you’ll gasp so hard your upstairs neighbor will hit the ground.

Go Varsity in Mariachi

My favorite documentaries teach me something I didn’t know before, and they’re alive with the same fire and memorable characters as any great drama or comedy. The excellent “Boys State” at Sundance in 2020 It was one of those movies. My “the more you know” in this moving document is that Texas has a 100-team strong high school mariachi competition circuit, who would have thought? — and our adorable cast is made up of Edinburg North High School’s Mariachi Oro, led by the brilliant teacher Abel Acuña.

Radical

Eugenio Derbez, the actor who played the music teacher in “CODA”, deliver inspiring lessons once again In “Radicals” Here, he arrives at a struggling school in Mexico and confounds colleagues and kids alike with his untraditional methods: no lesson plans, no tests, lots of listening. Yes, it sounds a lot like “Dead Poets Society” or “For the Lord, With Love,” but being based on a true story and set south of the border raises the stakes and brings tears.

you hurt my feelings

In a rehash of the post-“Seinfeld” era, Julia Louis-Dreyfus has struggled to find the right movie role since HBO’s “Veep” ended. “Downhill” went downhill, and his MCU share is a paycheck. But she’s the perfect comedic self of herself in “You Hurt My Feelings” as a mid-tier author who learns that her husband secretly hates her latest book. The keenly observed comedy from writer-director Nicole Holofcener is about the lies, big and small, we tell our loved ones to get us through another day.

And the worst: Cat Person

Me the claws were out for this harrowing adaptation of Kristen Roupenian’s viral 2017 New Yorker short story, starring Emilia Jones (“CODA”) and Nicholas Braun (“Succession”). What in the magazine was a scathing talker about the horrors of modern dating has become a cheesy, true-to-life horror movie with an amazing new ending. Title recognition means you’ll probably watch it, but I wish the terrible reviews would nip it in the bud.