James R | On 03, Jun 2016

After last night’s opening film, Tallulah, Sundance London is in full swing at the snazzy Picturehouse Central near Piccadilly Circus. Running until Sunday 5th June 2016, it’s a great chance to catch up on some of the best indie films that screened at Sundance in the US earlier this year – exactly the movies that Netflix and Amazon Studios are looking to buy.

Indeed, both VOD giants pounced on several films at the festival, with Amazon snapping up the US theatrical and streaming rights to Author: JR LeRoy and Wiener-Dog and Netflix nabbing the global streaming rights to Tallulah, starring Elliot Page. Tallulah will arrive on Netflix on 29th July, which means this weekend is your chance to catch it before it’s released – or, in the case of Author and Wiener-Dog, which are heading to UK cinemas on 29th July and 12th August respectively, get an insight into the kind of projects Amazon is keen to call its own.

Can’t make it down this weekend? Not sure which films to see? Here’s our initial verdict (and release info) on some of this year’s Sundance London flicks – stay tuned in the coming weeks and months for full reviews and interviews.

This page will be updated throughout the festival.

Weiner

Co-directed by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, this gripping fly-on-the-wall documentary follows scandal-plagued former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner as he embarks on a 2013 bid to become Mayor of New York. At first, Weiner has genuine momentum and the voters seem genuinely willing to give him a second chance, even booing his opponents who try to bring up his sexting scandal in opposition debates, but then fresh revelations emerge, derailing Weiner’s campaign and forcing his frustrated team into damage control mode. The filmmakers were granted extraordinary access during shooting and the results are riveting – Weiner emerges as a complex and fascinating figure, at once a genuinely gifted politician (you’ll want to cheer at his pre-scandal triumphs in Congress), yet ultimately undone by his own seemingly compulsive indiscretions. At the same time, the film paints a largely depressing portrait of gossip-driven political journalism in the States. A compelling, all-too-human story.

Showing: 4th June / 5th June

Released in UK cinemas on 8th July by Dogwoof

Words: Matthew Turner

Tallulah

Elliot Page is incredible in Netflix’s drama about a homeless young woman, Tallulah, who finds herself kidnapping a toddler from a wealthy mother who’s failing to look after her daughter. The decision connects her to Margot (Allison Janney), the mum of Tallulah’s boyfriend. Is she right to take the child? Writer / director Sian Heder expertly pushes and pulls our sympathies – it’s no coincidence that she’s a writer on Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black. Should you like any of these people? That’s hard to say – but you’ll care about them every second. (Full review coming in July.)

Showing: 5th June

Released globally on Netflix on 29th July

Words: Ivan Radford

The Intervention

Three couples get together to tell a fourth couple that they should get a divorce in this very familiar indie dramedy. The ensuing middle-class mid-life crisis, as each relationship finds itself under fresh scrutiny, is far from revelatory, but Clea DuVall’s writing/directing debut is performed by such a good cast that it’s hard not to caught up in the mild scandals and milder affairs.

Melanie Lynskey is squeakily amusing as the intrusive Annie, who has the self-entitlement to match her family’s large country estate, while Cobie Smulders is quietly intense as her sister, Ruby, unhappily married to her husband, Peter (Vincent Piazza). The forced smiles and awkward truths inevitably worm their way out, but it’s the less inhibited performances by Alia Shawkat (as the flighty girlfriend of one of Annie’s friends) and Natasha Lyonne (the partner of Clea DuVall’s sister, Jessie) that make the jumble of feelings engaging. A scene halfway through sees the group pass the time playing charades – an indicator of how old-fashioned the story feels, at a time when shows such as Transparent are working through similar family issues with more nuance and originality. But there are laughs to be had here, with DuVall proving herself a sharp writer of spiky dialogue and a director able to draw sensitive turns from her ensemble.

Showing: 3rd June / 4th June

Words: Ivan Radford

Author: The JT LeRoy Story

In the 1990s, an author named JT LeRoy became an overnight sensation. He was young, talented, a prostitute turned artist turned celebrity. He also didn’t exist: he was the creation of Laura Albert, a mother from Brooklyn.

What started out as her pen name soon took on a life of his own, as JT was hailed by stars such as Winona Ryder and Bono – despite the fact that his initials stood for “Jeremiah Terminator”. Roping in her sister, Savannah, to play LeRoy in public – and even Savannah’s musician boyfriend to support the act, Laura’s little white lie spirals into a web of lies and celebrated song lyrics.

Director Jeff Feuerzeig picks apart the myth with gripping precision, walking us step by step to the moment of discovery. What emerges is a sensitive study of stories and storytellers – a look at someone who claims that all she wanted was to be a normal human being. Feuerzeig’s film resists the urge to psychoanalyse its subject, instead letting her speak for herself. Whether you believe what she says is another matter entirely, but you’ll be hooked on every word.

Showing: 4th June / 5th June

Released in UK cinemas on 29th July 2016 by Dogwoof

Words: Ivan Radford

 

Life, Animated

Directed by Roger Ross Williams (God Loves Uganda), this uplifting documentary tells the story of Owen Suskind, an autistic boy whose obsession with Disney movies resulted in a remarkable breakthrough in his cognitive and emotional development, providing a sort of road map for understanding the world around him. Thoughtfully illustrated with generously provided Disney clips (as well as some original animation), the film splits between Owen’s loving parents (Cornelia and Ron Suskind, whose best-selling book inspired the documentary) and amusing older brother Walter (the name is a nice coincidence), narrating his childhood story to camera, and present-day fly-on-the-wall sequences that follow a 23-year-old Owen, as he confronts various challenges, including moving into his own assisted-living apartment, getting a job at the cinema, suffering the heart-breaking agony of a break-up with his autistic girlfriend, and travelling to France to give a speech about his experiences. An emotionally captivating, inspirational story.

Released in UK cinemas in December 2016 by Dogwoof

Words: Matthew Turner

 
Photos: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

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