- Wear your snow boots on the plane. You're going to be wearing them the whole time anyway, so there's no point in packing them in your suitcase.
- Don't take a connecting flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City. Just take a direct flight. You don't want to deal with possible issues in San Jose or Las Vegas or Phoenix on the way there.
- Yes, you'll want to bring long johns.
- The turkey chili at the Library is good. So are the spicy chicken sandwiches at Fresh Market. (You're always desperate to find reliable, quick food at Sundance when you're dashing from venue to venue.)
- Drink a lot of water. Take a lot of Advil. Elevation headaches are real.
- Walk slower than you're used to, even if you're in a hurry. You have no idea when you might step on some black ice and take a nasty tumble. (Thankfully, it never happened to me. But I've had colleagues break collarbones at Sundance.)
- If your boots suddenly start falling apart, buy Gorilla Tape at Fresh Market. It works wonders.
These sorts of lessons you acquire from years attending any festival. What will be strange is that, starting next year, this knowledge will largely be irrelevant. In 2027, Sundance moves to Boulder. I've never been, but even for those who have, it will be a unique festival experience. Normally, when you go to a new festival, there's someone older who's been there a bunch and can show you the ropes and fill you in on all the little pro-tips you need. In a sense, all of us will be going through our first Sundance next year. That will be incredibly disorienting, and I'm curious how we collectively process this new place that the festival will call home.
I knew the final Park City Sundance would be bittersweet. My friends and colleagues took tons of pictures. There were final stops at Grub Steak -- I always got the meatloaf and the wild rice and mushroom soup -- and one last movie at the Eccles. But I found the overall mood more resigned and pragmatic than emotional. Two different people said to me, "Park City doesn't want us here anymore. It feels like the city has already moved on." Adding to that feeling was that, as soon as the festival ended this year, the local Holiday Village theater, which was used for press & industry screenings, was scheduled to be bulldozed. (The theater had actually been closed for a while.)
Journalists and film critics may have a lot of memories of coming to Sundance, but Park City as a whole seemed ready to be rid of us. And maybe the feeling was mutual: A fellow critic told me, in no uncertain terms, "I love Sundance, but I hate Park City," an acknowledgment, among other things, of the city and the state's conservative politics. Ironically, it turned out to be one of the warmest Sundances in memory: It was as if the city couldn't even be bothered to give visitors the obligatory snow and freezing temperatures. And then there were the horrors going on in America while we were at the festival. It was hard not to feel a little down in the mouth, despite the pleasure of being around so many people I enjoy so much.
As I've mentioned before, Sundance was my first film festival, so I have a fondness for the place. But Sundance's move creates an interesting question: Is a festival a location or something else? (I realize that Sundance actually started in Salt Lake City in the late 1970s, but I think it's fair to say most attendees associate Park City with Sundance.) A festival's ethos is woven into its location. True/False is Columbia, Missouri. Cannes is a tourist town in the south of France. If those festivals up and left, how would a new setting affect the movies I saw? It's something I've never thought about. Next year, I will a lot in Boulder.
* * * * *
But how were the actual movies at the final Sundance in Park City? Pretty darn good. Below is a ranking of everything I saw before, after or during the festival. (Sundance's decision to continue to offer a streaming portal during the festival's final weekend is a great way to play catch-up.) Links lead to individual reviews.
28. The Gallerist
27. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
26. See You When I See You
25. Run Amok
24. I Want Your Sex
23. Zi
22. Chasing Summer
21. Union County
20. The Invite
19. Time and Water
18. Sentient
17. Buddy
16. Broken English
15. The Shitheads
14. The Oldest Person in the World
13. Leviticus
12. Filipinana
11. One in a Million
10. The History of Concrete
9. Nuisance Bear
8. The Weight
7. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
6. Closure
5. Carousel
4. If I Go Will They Miss Me
3. Josephine
2. The Friend’s House Is Here
1. Once Upon a Time in Harlem
I am not the first person to note that the best film at this year's Sundance was made in 1972. David Greaves' Once Upon a Time in Harlem, built from footage shot by his father William 54 years ago, immediately joins the ranks of other recent documentaries like Summer of Soul and Amazing Grace that were believed to be lost to time. It's a revelation, narrowly edging out Maryam Ataei and Hossein Keshavarz's graceful, slyly subversive Tehran-set drama The Friend's House Is Here. I'm pretty high on my Top Five in particular, and look forward to seeing how they're received in the wider world. (Even in Park City, writer-director Rachel Lambert's prickly romantic drama Carousel was divisive. I expect a similar response going forward, although I contend it's a gem.)
Thanks for reading. If you'd like to hear me talking about the festival, I appeared on the Film Comment podcast not once but twice. I returned to Nicolas Rapold's The Last Thing I Saw. And before the festival started, I was invited to join Screen Rant senior film critic Gregory Nussen to discuss what Sundance film is the greatest ever. (I'm very happy with my choice.) On to the next one.
