Nestled in Utah’s picturesque Wasatch Range lies the small resort town of Park City. For most of the year it serves as a premier destination for the ski set, but in the last days of January its sunny streets are given over to the hubbub of the legendary Sundance Film Festival. Each year, a few students from the OSU Film and Video society take a trip into the snow to go see some of the newest independent films to hit theatres within the next year. While the city’s gorgeous natural surroundings can be inviting, for dedicated buffs such as myself the focus was squarely on the silver screen. On this trip, I had the pleasure of seeing 7 films a year ahead of the general public. I’d like to share with you some of the most impressive.
The first and only showing of the first day of the trip was the premiere of Eva Victor’s directorial debut: Sorry, Baby. This showing took place in the Eccles theatre, which for most of the year moonlights as Park City High School’s auditorium. It goes to show that you can really turn any place into an incredible theatre. It had a strong turnout, with almost every seat in the room filled. Victor herself came out to talk about how personal the film was to her, and how she wrote this to connect with at least one other person out there.
Given the standing ovation after the film, she succeeded. It felt heartfelt and real. At times it even verged on the terrifying. It felt as though she took the most vulnerable moment of her life and put it all out there for the camera. The movie tells the story of a woman and the years of her life after a traumatic event, and shows the ups and downs of healing and how it’s not always a linear process. The whole film takes place in a small house, with the diegetic lighting reinforcing the incredible authenticity of the film. The film refuses to glamorize the event and simply plays it as it lands. Sorry Baby’s sheer straightforward vulnerability left me in tears. The newest addition to A24’s catalog, it should have a release coming soon.
Next came a comedy that garnered a lot of chatter. After a couple people came back talking about how funny it was, I bought some last-minute tickets to Serious People the next day. This is the first feature length film director duo Ben Mullinkosson, a seasoned short film director, and Pasqual Gutierrez, a noted music video director. The film follows Pasqual as the main character playing himself as he and his partner prepare for their new baby – right as he gets the offer to make a music video for Drake. He hires a doppelganger to take his space on set, and chaos ensues.
Mullinkosson and Gutierrez spoke after the movie about how much of this film came from their actual lives. When filming started, they intended to make a serious documentary about Gutierrez’s journey into fatherhood – but then decided to sprinkle in some fiction and comedy. The hilariously absurd and eccentric character of the doppelganger truly puts his career in danger in the most entertaining way possible. The film, shot within Gutierrez’s actual home, features his partner also playing herself. Their friends, family and dog make cameos. When speaking to the directors after the showing, I thanked them for making a captivating film without all the typical Hollywood glitz and glamour. Serious People shows all film makers that you don’t need the largest budget to make a good movie.
For the first horror film of the trip, a group of us went to go see Dave Franco and Alison Brie grow attached to each other with an odd body horror twist. Without giving away too much, the film focuses about a couple who move out to the countryside and learn how to cope with their own co-dependence. Together, wild and disgusting, sparked more than a few unexpected laughs. It takes Brie and Franco’s real-world relationship and uses their chemistry to make a terrifying Substance-like body horror picture. It had me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. I laughed, gasped, cringed, and empathized with the characters throughout. If you’ve got a tough stomach and lack of nightmare fuel, you can catch this film now distributed by NEON August 1st, 2025.
The second night ended with a showing of a Benedict Cumberbatch adaptation of the well-known novel The Thing with Feathers. This film, objectively one of the best I’ve seen to date, stunned the audience. Cumberbatch plays a widower taking care of his two children, with his grief represented by a giant sentient crow. The brutal and tearful drama still finds ways to throw in some humor. The color scheme of the film mainly stuck to dull greys and browns, but sometimes shifted into a warmer palette, reflecting the rollercoasters of emotions the three of them are facing. It was at times disturbing, yet made for an oddly comforting watch. It shows the clichés of losing a loved one, such as hearing “I’m so sorry for your loss” ad infinitum from strangers. This one absolutely blew me away, and I cannot wait to curl up on a rainy day and have a good cry along with it.
The last day of the fest kicked off with my favorite week: By Design. This film features the one and only Juliette Lewis, known for her work in films such as Whip It and Natural Born Killer. Lewis plays a woman who feels dissatisfied with her life until she swaps bodies with a chair. Yes, you read that right – Juliette Lewis turns into a chair and, in fact, likes it better than being human. The film avoids portraying itself as a typical comedy, but it had me absolutely dying. The narrator speaks as if she hails straight from a children’s book, with a calm, feminine, ethereal voice undergirding the movie’s plot. There are dramatic choreographed scenes invoking such emotion and really bringing you in only to realize the absurdity of this plot. It’s weird, fun, and all over the place; everything I love in a film. This is one that is not for everyone, but I have hope that it will find the perfect audience.
My last time in the iconic viewing space of the Egyptian Theatre (the one that you see pictured in every single Sundance post, article, etc.) was to see the heartwarming family film Jimpa. Jimpa tells the story of a woman whose father came out as gay in her teen years, with she herself later having a non-binary child The family takes a trip to Amsterdam to visit the father who they lovingly call Jimpa. The film reflects the true-ish story of director Sophie Hyde’s family dynamic and features her real-life child, giving it a personal touch. It shows the importance of having a community to identify with when growing up in a minority. It also shows the varying beliefs between older and younger generations who all identify as part of the same community. It features a lot of music from queer artists such as King Princess and Boygenius. The film did nothing groundbreaking for me in terms of story, but I definitely found it a fun watch. I’d catch it again.
As you can probably tell, I very much enjoyed most of the movies I saw at Sundance. But I did find one film a thorough disappointment. At the tail end of the trip, a bunch of us decided to catch the midnight showing of a film called Touch Me, a movie labeled a “hentai-infused sexual abandon.” So… yeah. The director got on the mic before the film started and made a fart noise before asking for good Letterboxd ratings. As you can probably tell, I hated it. There was nothing about this that would make me pay to watch this again. Was it the worst movie in the world? No. Was it worth the $35 ticket? Also no. It was 100% a future Tubi original. Touch Me is a bad sci-fi horror comedy with cringe-inducing dialogue and YouTube sketch acting alongside just elementary school humor. Half of our group walked out. It was painful.
And those were my seven movies. Looking back at my week in Park City, I find that I loved my experience at Sundance, something I never thought I would say about the state of Utah. Look out for these films, and so many more that I did not have the opportunity to catch in my short time there.
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