Category: Now Playing

What to Watch in May

May is a big month for catching the 2019 Festival films you may have missed, with two of the Festival’s top prize winners and a wealth of other films and series making their post-Festival premieres. Coming to Netflix today is 2019 Festival Favorite Award winner Knock Down the House. The documentary, directed by Rachel Lears, tracks the primary campaigns of four hopeful progressive Democratic women—Cori Bush (Missouri), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Paula Jean Swearengin (West Virginia), and Amy Vilela (Nevada)—vying to displace moderate incumbent Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections.

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​What to Watch in April

In the opening minutes of Native Son, Big, a young man played by Ashton Sanders, rests a gun on his worn copy of Invisible Man. This image sets the tone for the catastrophic direction of the modern adaptation of Richard Wright’s seminal work—directed by Rashid Johnson and written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks—that shocked audiences throughout the 2019 Festival. The film premieres on HBO early this month.

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What to Watch in March

March loads up with a twofer of 100% Certified Fresh films out of the 2019 Festival.Not since Senna have we seen such a dexterous handling of exclusively archive material as we do in Apollo 11, director Todd Miller’s immersive journey through the first moon landing. NASA opened its vaults to reveal never-before-seen 70 mm footage of the spacecraft’s launch, landing, and return home, making for an indelible new portrait of a pivotal moment in American history.

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What to Watch in September

In a month when more Sundance-supported films make their releases than any other in recent memory, a slew of badass women are dominating the screen. To canvass the indie film slate in September is to find yourself among intimate portraits of women brimming with conviction. In Kusama – Infinity, it’s Yayoi Kusama’s against-the-odds journey from the rigid conformity of her home life in Japan to becoming the top-selling female artist in the world; in Colette, Wash Westmoreland revisits the eponymous vanguard French writer whose own husband stripped her of authorial credit; and in Bad Reputation and Matangi/Maya/M.

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What to Watch in August

Four films from the 2018 Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT section – the place for films operating on the fringes of genre and shaping the next wave of cinema – make their premieres this August, two of which (We the Animals and Night Comes On) shared honors for the inaugural NEXT Innovator Award. Another theme emerging among this month’s docket: Crystal Moselle (Skate Kitchen) and Jeremiah Zagar (We the Animals) both make their dramatic feature debuts after opening their careers on the nonfiction side. Check out all of the Sundance-supported releases coming to theaters and digital platforms this month.

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What to Watch this Holiday Season

During a month when new film releases prove unusually elusive (rest easy, we’ve got 110 new ones coming your way in January), we’re setting the stage for the winter season with some of our favorite holiday-themed Sundance films. This is where the debate concerning Die Hard’s standing as a “Christmas movie” promptly ends, and reignites with a push for a streetwise tale of pimps and prostitutes (that’d be Tangerine) as the new December classic.
Happy ChristmasWatch it now.

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What to Watch in February

It’s one of the quickest turnarounds in recent memory for a Grand Jury Prize Winner, but Macon Blair’s aptly titled I Don’t Feel at Home in this World Anymore comes to Netflix in February. Led by a brilliantly bizarre turn from Melanie Lynskey, Blair’s idiosyncratic tale of a woman’s search for a sense of purpose after her home is burglarized is full of baffling reroutes – as well as being a true sign of the times, as is its immediate post-Festival digital release.Also opening this month, Jena Malone and Riley Keough navigate a muddled and fluctuating intimacy in Lovesong, director So Yong Kim’s wistful portrait of relationships, neglect, and the fluidity of love.

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‘Possibilia’: The Daniels’ Interactive “Non-Breakup Breakup Story”

The self-proclaimed “non-breakup breakup story” Possibilia is an interactive experience that’s “set in the multiverse … whatever that means.” In a choose-your-own-adventure–like encounter, the viewer takes an active role in the story of a young couple as they contemplate breaking up.
Alex Karpovsky and Zoe Jarman star as Rick and Pollie, who, depending on the scenes you choose, are found either fighting on the front lawn to stay together or resignedly discussing the inevitable at the kitchen table.

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Q&A: Elliot Page Is Out Here Stealing Babies in Netflix’s ‘Tallulah’

This article was originally published following the premiere of “Tallulah” at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.
The complexities of motherhood and its responsibilities are keenly examined in Tallulah, the debut feature from writer-director Sian Heder that offers a dazzling showcase for actors Elliot Page, Allison Janney, and Tammy Blanchard.
Page and Janney are reunited nine years after starring in Jason Reitman’s Juno, but the similarities to that hit comedy end there.

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The Filmmakers Behind ‘Swiss Army Man’ on Making Tarantino Cry and Finding Magic in the Macabre

Pale, flaccid, and remarkably lifelike, a dummy resembling a
famed actor lounged on a colorful chair on a Hollywood hotel’s rooftop during a
hot summer afternoon. This replica of a dead Daniel Radcliffe, or more
specifically Manny, the character he plays, has been on the road with directors
Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert as they promote their debut feature Swiss Army Man, which is almost
unequivocally the most original film to be released on U.S.

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