[imagesource: Sundance Institute]

If you’re already over all the Oscar talk, then be glad that the Sundance Film Festival has arrived to shake things up.

Every January, the buzzy indie fest sets the tone for the year’s moviegoing, providing an inkling of what’s on every hipster filmmaker’s mind.

Since the debut of Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 1989, Sundance has established itself as the festival for bold films and unique voices and this year is no different.

The fest is upholding its reputation with an orgie-filled film showing Alexander Skarsgård wrestling nude with his clone, among other fascinating stories and castings.

We’re taking a gander at some of the more anticipated movies of Sundance 2023.

The New York Post reckons Cat Person (see a still shot above) is the worst of the Sundance films, so we’ll get that out the way quickly:

My claws were out for this heinous 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 pointed talker about the horrors of modern dating has been turned into an actual, campy horror movie with a new ending that begs belief. Title recognition means you’ll probably see it, but I wish the terrible reviews would catnip it in the bud.

Alrighty, moving on to this year’s depraved talker, Infinity Pool by director Brandon Cronenberg. Over to GQ:

Continuing Possessor’s fixation on the slipperiness of indignity, Infinity Pool  stars Alexander Skarsgård as a frustrated writer who accidentally strikes and kills a farmer in the Eastern European country where he’s vacationing. Fortunately, a local custom provides a loophole for the charges, though it comes with a horrible price.

Mia Goth co-stars as a fellow vacationer who might be drawing him deeper into trouble and the film’s nightmarishness intensifies with each new development. It’s not for the faint of heart, but curious filmgoers with a strong stomach are likely to love it.

That description hardly speaks of the shock and horror that some scenes carry. Like how Skarsgård’s character ejaculates, with his member in full view of the camera, in one part.

There are also a number of bloody executions and “demented, hallucinogenic, graphic orgies”. Collider reviewed it as “‘The White Lotus,’ but for sickos”.

The trailer, then:

The finest film at this year’s Sundance with a strong chance of becoming an Oscar nominee next year is writer-director Celine Song’s Past Lives:

Set over 24 years, red-hot studio A24’s 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 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 knock you over.

There’s no trailer out yet it seems, but Rolling Stone called it “a Sundance Marvel” as well as “the first great film of 2023”.

Watch a discussion about the film with the cast if that doesn’t satiate you:

There’s also Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzie dancing it out in Eileen:

“Eileen” is a thriller about a shy 24-year-old secretary, played by McKenzie, whose miserable existence is shaken up when a life-of-the-party administrator (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 Ottessa Moshfegh’s novel, is headed. The moment the tense story comes together, you’ll gasp so loud your upstairs neighbor will bang on the floor.

Otherwise, there’s writer Chloe Domont’s feature debut Fair Play, which plunges into the deep end of power dynamics and male privilege.

Or how about Julia Louis-Dreyfus in You Hurt My Feelings starring as her “comedically perfect self” as a mid-level author who learns that her husband secretly hates her latest book?

Eugenio Derbez, the actor who played the music teacher in CODA, is also back this year, doling out inspiring lessons once again in Radical.

Tons to check out. A couchy weekend is welcome.

[sources:gq&nypost]