I realize we’re almost to the new weekend, but I felt the need to highlight some other new films I managed to squeeze in between all of my Sundance selections!
The Night – This honestly scared the bejesus out of me. The film follows an Iranian couple who, exhausted one night on the way home from a friend’s house, decide to stay at the Normandy Hotel. It seems eerily vacant, although the night clerk says otherwise. He’s also a straight-up creeper. While the couple take turns sleeping while also tending to their new baby, Babak is the first to start hallucinating strange and disturbing scenarios along with a wide-eyed ghost! His wife, Neda, soon follows him in seeing things that aren’t really there, and then they finally start getting along better to get the hell out of there! Although, just like The Shining, it seems like the hotel has no intention of them leaving, especially not before they air some dirty secrets to each other. This movie highly surprised me by giving me the shivers when I saw that ghost! That coupled with the fact that it was shot so realistically really got to me!
First Cow – I finally understand the hype surrounding this indie darling! Look, calling a movie First Cow and seeing posters with, you guessed it, a cow, is not something that really appealed to me. That is until I heard and read nothing but praising reviews of this film. So I finally decided to give it a go! Back in the 1800s we meet Cookie who is just trying to make his way in the world when he stumbles upon King. The two slowly build a strong friendship and discover the Chief Factor has the very first cow where they live. Cookie reveals he studied to be a baker, so the two decide to sneak every night to milk the cow to make buttermilk biscuits. With the biscuit business a success, things soon get murky when the Chief Factor invites Cookie to bake for a gathering at his house. It was quite an adventure Cookie and King went on, but their relationship was the driving force that kept me wanting to keep watching.
The Little Things – I mean look, you put Jared Leto and Rami Malek in a movie together, I am going to watch it no questions. Then you add in Denzel Washington and a mystery thriller – I’m hooked! And while I’d have liked this movie to just generally be a little bit more, it still delivered some good cinema. Women keep getting taken and killed, so the heat is on new lead detective, Jim Baxter. He manages to lure former LA Sherriff detective, Joe Deacon to help with the case. Certain sad truths are revealed about the real reason Deacon left, and it’s clear that Baxter may be heading down the same path. Especially when both men are certain and fixated on a suspect, played with incredible creepiness by Jared Leto (fake nose and all!), Albert Sparma. To be fair, Sparma’s intimate knowledge with all things crime and the fact that he looks like he hasn’t ever showered in his adult life makes him an easy target for these crimes. A gripping scene in the middle of the desert really got to me…and maybe to Baxter. A lot of time was wasted in this two hour movie just staking out Sparma’s whereabouts, but the last half hour really packs a punch. Not great, not awful, so watch it if you want to.
Supernova – Beautiful, devastating. Those are two perfect words that came to mind while I watched this alone in a theater last weekend. Sam and Tusker are a couple who’ve recently decided to put their RV to use again by taking a road trip. Now, that sounds like a fun thing couples can do, but their journey serves a bigger purpose. Tusker has started suffering from early onset dementia, so he’s planned this trip as their one last hurrah before he stops recognizing the man he loves. The fun couple quips they have in between episodes of confusion are enough to make you cry, but once they get to the house where Sam will play one last concert, all the rails fall off. You know what’s really hard to do? Sob inside of a mask. I know. It happened to me. Again, this story was incredibly beautiful and funny at times, but the tender connection that Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth manage to pull off is something to be seen. Tears or not!