Sundance 2025: With magnificent visuals and music score, Justin Lin’s Last Days is interesting narrative take on tragic death of evangelical missionary

Sundance 2025: With magnificent visuals and music score, Justin Lin’s Last Days is interesting narrative take on tragic death of evangelical missionary

ByLes RokaFeb 3, 2025

The 2023 National Geographic documentary The Mission, directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, captured the story of John Chau, 26, an Oral Roberts University graduate and evangelical missionary who was killed in 2018 by arrows when he attempted to make contact with one of the most isolated Indigenous peoples, on remote North Sentinel Island … Read more

New sets, costumes for Ballet West’s third staging of historical masterpiece, Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, set for Feb. 7-16

New sets, costumes for Ballet West’s third staging of historical masterpiece, Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, set for Feb. 7-16

ByLes RokaFeb 3, 20256 min read

Few stories have been so versatile for adaptation than Cinderella. There have been versions for children’s theater, pantomime,…

Sundance 2025: Twelve short films that stood out for The Utah Review this year: comedy, horror, documentary, drama, animation

Sundance 2025: Twelve short films that stood out for The Utah Review this year: comedy, horror, documentary, drama, animation

ByLes RokaFeb 2, 202517 min read

This year’s Sundance slate included short film programs, including focused tracks in animation, documentary and midnight-appropriate stories. The…

Sundance 2025: All That’s Left of You is profound, deeply emotional Palestinian version of a multigenerational family saga

Sundance 2025: All That’s Left of You is profound, deeply emotional Palestinian version of a multigenerational family saga

ByLes RokaJan 31, 202510 min read

One of the Sundance Film Festival’s greatest impacts has been as a prominent venue in the Western world…

Sundance 2025: Come See Me in the Good Light is generously intimate portrait of Andrea Gibson and the art of performance poetry

Sundance 2025: Come See Me in the Good Light is generously intimate portrait of Andrea Gibson and the art of performance poetry

ByLes RokaJan 31, 20254 min read

Shortly after they were inaugurated as Colorado’s poet laureate in 2023. Andrea Gibson explained in their Substack Things…