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The Last Thing I Wanted Was The Last Thing He Wanted To Be So Bad

One of the films that had a substantial amount of buzz heading into the festival was Netflix’s release of Dee Rees’ film, The Last Thing He Wanted. The film had been scheduled for release in 2019, but had been held by Netflix and subsequently added to the 2020 Sundance Film Festival lineup. Expectations for the film were high following Dee Rees’ incredible success with her last Sundance foray, Mudbound. The film sold to Netflix for 12.5 million dollars and went on to earn 4 Academy Award nominations in 2017. Needless to say, Rees’ follow-up film was expected to do big things, especially considering The Last Thing He Wanted boasted a stellar cast that included Anne Hathaway, Willem Dafoe, and Rosie Perez. However, upon premiering at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, The Last Thing He Wanted was met with vicious reviews from critics and mediocre notices from its confused and disappointed Sundance audience. The film currently sits at 9% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Netflix + Sundance = A No From the Audience

One thing I noticed while talking with people throughout the festival was the lack of interest in films that were brought to the festival from streaming platforms, especially Netflix. Films like Miss Americana and Horse Girlwere all seemingly looked down upon by the festival goers I talked with because everyone knew these films would be available to the public in just a few days or weeks. Although it was unsaid, there seemed to be a distaste for films that everyone would be able to experience soon. It was almost as if most festival goers only cared about the films that felt special because only those attending Sundance would be able to see them for awhile.

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Nepotism & Sundance

Sundance has a very particular brand when it comes to the films it selects for its main lineup. While there, I noticed that there were two very particular types of films that played at the festival. Firstly, there were a lot of films that were follow-up films from artists who Sundance helped launch. The curation of such films as The Last Thing He Wanted from Dee Rees (her follow up to Mudbound and Pariah, both of which previously played at Sundance) and The Nest from Sean Durkin (his follow-up to Martha Marcy May Marlenea film that launched Durkin at Sundance almost ten-years ago), all speak to the insulated and nepotistic attitude Sundance has towards filmmakers they feel as though they discovered and launched.

Secondly, and similar to the first note, the rest of the films in the lineup seemed to be selected as a way to find “the next big thing”. Much of this year’s lineup felt like a big net cast out into the sea of emerging talent, hoping to find the next artist that Sundance could claim as an auteur they helped the world discover. Films like Zola, Nine Days, and Minari all seem to fit this brand and Sundance’s model of self-curated sustainability.

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The “Karen” culture of Sundance

My experience with Sundance culture took a hard left turn on Wednesday night. Upon arriving at the festival, I felt as though the people I encountered were very gracious and welcoming. Each person I spoke with or saw was very polite and gracious; everyone seemed to exhibit an attitude that said “We’re all in this together”, even when lines were backed up or waitlists were cut short. However, on Wednesday night, I stood in line with several other people to see a late screening of Sylvie’s Love.Most of the people who were in line with me were elderly white couples who had taken the time to jaunt out to the Redstone Theatre to see the film. Watching the people around me interact with the Sundance volunteers was a distasteful experience to say the least. An air of entitlement and self-importance pervaded the waitlist line and the ticket line. Individuals who showed up late for the waitlist line and were told they could not enter began to cuss out volunteers and “demand to see the manager”. It was all very eye-opening to the sort of festival goer that feels as though the festival is there for them and them alone. Since that encounter on Wednesday, I picked up on a similar attitude among many other festival goers throughout the week. It seems as though the culture of Sundance curated by festival goers can, at times, be one of privilege and self importance.

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Underdog: Minari

While at the festival, one of the films that I noticed had very little hype or word-of-mouth- surrounding it was Minari. The Lee Isaac Chung film about a young South Korean family who move from California to Arkansas played very well to its audience during the Tuesday afternoon screening I went to. However, as I talked with people throughout the course of the festival, it seemed that most people had not seen, or even heard of the film. In hindsight of the festival, I find the lack of buzz very interesting considering Minari won both the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Sundance Audience Award.

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The Glorias Sells to Roadside and LD Entertainment

According to Deadline Hollywood, the Gloria Steinem biopic, The Glorias, has sold to Roadside Attractions and LD Entertainment for an undisclosed sum. It seems as though the studios will be positioning the film for a late Fall 2020 release. My guess is that they are trying to replicate their recent Awards Season success with a similar release strategy to that of their 2019 release, Judy. The Glorias, which stars Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander as differing ages of Gloria Steinem, is directed by Julie Taymor, a female director who’s films, fun fact, have all been nominated in the Academy Award category for Best Achievement in Costume Design. 

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Category 2: The Culture of Sundance

What’s the feeling about technology at Sundance?- I think the feeling about technology at the Sundance Film Festival is very up-to-date.  They use the traditional projectors to show the films but they are very high quality and the picture is phenomenal.  I think the app was the most useful thing to me throughout the whole festival.  It was so easy to find the schedule, get on the waitlist...etc.  The waitlist was super convenient too so that you did not have to physically go wait in line to see if you could get in hours before the showing, which was very nice.  Maybe next year you will be able to vote on the film from a cellular device.  

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Category 2: The Culture of Sundance

What's the hierarchy of sundance?- I think our first night in Park City we noticed people wearing their Sundance lanyards and they were different colors.  Mainly any other color than ours we thought was important and I think most people around them felt the same.  Filmmakers are very exciting to see as well as celebrities.  We met some “small’ celebrities on the buses that were in episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Shameless.  I didn’t feel excluded really from the people with different color badges, but they definitely looked like they knew what they were doing and I absolutely did not.