Review

Sundance 2025: SALLY is splendid portrait about the public, private sides of the life of first American woman to go into space

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A splendid portrait of the first American woman and the youngest American astronaut to travel into space, SALLY, which premiered at Sundance, excels at weaving the public and private dimensions of Sally Ride’s life together into an engrossing narrative. Directed by Cristina Costantini and representing her third documentary to receive its premiere at Sundance in … Read more

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

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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

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

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This year’s Sundance slate included short film programs, including focused tracks in animation, documentary and midnight-appropriate stories. The slate is filled with outstanding examples of the short film category, from around the world. The 57 shorts were selected from 11,153 submissions this year.  The Utah Review presents 12 that were standouts in a superlative lineup. … Read more

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

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One of the Sundance Film Festival’s greatest impacts has been as a prominent venue in the Western world to shine the light of humanity on documentaries and narrative features from places where erasure, suppression and oppression are pernicious.  Palestinians have recently suffered the worst imaginable human injustices, who have been pushed to the brink of … Read more

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

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Shortly after they were inaugurated as Colorado’s poet laureate in 2023. Andrea Gibson explained in their Substack Things that Don’t Suck their response to their own question: “How can I accept a two year position when I cannot promise I will live two years?” Gibson wrote, “But no one can promise that, friends. I’ve been … Read more

Sundance 2025: Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore is masterfully crafted documentary

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An outstanding comprehensive documentary portrait which has premiered at Sundance, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, directed by Shoshannah Stern, offers a magnificent volume of details about the personal and family life, milestones and activism of the first deaf actor to win an Academy Award (in 1987) and who became the center of national attention at … Read more

Sundance 2025: FOLKTALES’ poetic and musical cinematic portrait of Nordic folk school in the Arctic has charmed audiences

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Scandinavian Arctic culture receives some of the most memorable poetic and musical cinematic treatment to be found in this year’s Sundance slate, with the premiere of FOLKTALES, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. It is not surprising that this documentary has become quite the darling at Sundance. The film knits together stunning imagery of … Read more

Sundance 2025: Entertaining, stylish, snappy The Dating Game documentary offers engrossing glimpse into Chinese society

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There are far too numerous erroneous and misrepresentative reports in the Western media about China, its people and contemporary cultural underpinnings. But, this week’s Sundance premiere of The Dating Game by Violet Du Feng is refreshing and razor-sharp for how it informs a realistic perspective about today’s Chinese society, from the vantage of courtship in … Read more

Sundance 2025: Outstanding acting, finely understated screenplay, sensitive directing make Omaha, filmed in Utah, a beautiful screening experience

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The character of the father in Omaha, a drama set during the Great Recession of 2008, is much like many during that time who struggled against numerous obstacles, swallowed their pride, and made great sacrifices for their children. For those grieving after a family tragedy, when the recession’s devastating economic storm hit with little or … Read more

Sundance 2025: Midnight program’s Touch Me is a gratifying romp of campy, dark comedy, fantasy-horror with plenty of psychological and sexual vibes

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From Sundance’s Midnight program this year, Touch Me, written and directed by Addison Heimann, is more than a gratifying romp of a campy dark comedy, fantasy-horror story featuring a quartet of overtly sexualized characters. Leveraging the creative reserves of the genre, Heimann wisely employs cinematic liberties to create characters, each toting their own luggage filled … Read more