I have reviewed movies at the Sundance Film Festival for 15 years (10 of which have been for PaperCity). While many of the films that premiere in the mountain town of Park City Utah each January become box office hits, (think A Real Pain, CODA and Manchester by the Sea), others are either not acquired until late in the year or go straight to video with little fanfare.
A slow cold January is the perfect time to discover movies you might have missed that are streaming. From the 25 films I saw at Sundance last year, two dramas and three documentaries stood out as my favorites. With this year’s Sundance Film Festival (it’s January 23 through February 2nd) and the Oscars (March 2nd) both beckoning, let’s look back at some don’t-miss movies worth streaming at home.
Hit Man
In Richard Linklater’s Hit Man, which became a major hit on Netflix after a brief run in theaters, Glen Powell stars as Gary Johnson, a mild-mannered teacher who moonlights as a fake hitman for the police. Things go awry as Johnson falls in love with a woman planning a hit on her husband. Loosely drawn from a Texas Monthly article and directed and written by the Houston proud Linklater, this movie is pure escapism with lots of laughs, romance and a sprinkling of suspense. Powell, who co-wrote Hit Man, received his first Golden Glove nomination for the movie in a year in which he became a mega star.
If you haven’t seen it yet, Hit Man is still streaming on Netflix.
Thelma
Thelma tells the story of a 93-year-old grandmother who loses $10,000 to a con artist. With help from a friend, she is determined to track down and reclaim what was stolen from her. Starring veteran actor June Squibb in the first leading film role of her 70-year career and actor Richard Roundtree in his final role, this pair zig zag through Los Angles in a lighthearted comedy that also explores aging stereotypes, autonomy and vulnerability with humor and tenderness.
This outstanding movies makes for a fun family viewing too.
Thelma is streaming on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV
While the independent film sector and the Sundance Film Festival have not fully recovered since COVID, documentaries remain one of Sundance’s biggest draws. Documentaries, excepting music documentaries from the likes of Taylor Swift and Beyonce, have rarely scored at the box office and most never make it to movie theaters. As a result, a positive reaction at Sundance is as good a barometer as any of an Oscar worthy documentary.
Although movies focussed on one individual have not been popular with voting academy there are always those that pull on the heartstrings or show you a different side of someone. Past documentaries of this ilk includes ones on Mitt Romney, Carole King and Taylor Swift.
Super/Man
This year one of the most lauded celebrity documentaries was Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. While this sticks to the format of the celebrity documentary format, boy does it pack an emotional punch bolstered by powerful interviews with Reeves’ kids, friends and his close friend Robin Williams. Christopher Reeve was an unknown actor straight out of drama school until he was cast as Superman.
He quickly catapulted to fame, but was paralyzed in a horseback riding accident at the age of 42. This doc is much more than the story of Christopher Reeve, the actor. It is the story of how a man responds to an unimaginable tragedy and as a crusader for the handicapped, becomes the real hero behind the cape.
Super/Man is streaming on Max, Apple TV and YouTube TV.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is a film that might go unnoticed but for its reception at Sundance where it nabbed the coveted audience award for international documentary. Ibelin is a Norweigan young man with a progressive muscular degeneration disease which left him homebound and ultimately took his life at the age of 25.
As his parents mourned him and the isolated sad life he led, they received messages from online friends around the world, opening their eyes to the vibrant friendships he had established through the gaming community. His online community was unaware of his disease. The inspirational documentary tells the story of Ibelin’s online gaming community life and the impact he had. It also examines the deeper issues of intimacy and friendship without physical contact.
Ibelin is a deeply impactful and moving film that you will thank me for recommending. I expect it to be on a short list of Oscar nominees.
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin is streaming on Netflix.
Daughters
Daughters follows four girls, ages five to 15, who prepare for a Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers as part of an innovative fatherhood and rehabilitation program at a Washington DC jail. I must admit that reading the synopsis of the film made me worry that it would be a hopeless tale of the many problems inherent in the prison system.
Instead, preparation for the dance brought healing and forgiveness for the girls and showed what it meant to be loved and missed for the fathers. Daughters is such a powerful and ultimately positive documentary — a tearjerker in the best possible way. As a footnote, every father who has participated in this program has not returned to prison. And that is the point of the film which won the coveted Festival Favorite Award, the Audience Award for US documentary and is on most critics’ short list for an Oscar nomination.
Daughters is streaming on Netflix.
Author’s note: Jane Howze is managing director of The Alexander Group, a national executive search firm headquartered in Houston. She has reported on the Sundance Film Festival for 15 years.
This post was originally published on here
