EDITOR’S NOTE: Part I is an overview of the Utah film industry in the current moment. Part II (tomorrow) will offer a summary preview of the Sundance 2024 films, which The Utah Review will cover. There is a fortuitous historical confluence to celebrate this year, as the Sundance Film Festival is set to open tomorrow … Read more
NOTE: This feature about 100 years of film and television in Utah is linked to the Part I curtain raiser for the Sundance Film Festival. When James D’Arc came to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah as a student, he already knew some of Hollywood’s most famous names such as John Ford and John Wayne … Read more
In the opening moments of What Comes Around, a 2022 film directed by Amy Redford, Beth (Summer Phoenix) and her daughter Anna (Grace Van Dien) appear to have the same sort of relationship that the characters Lorelai and Rory, respectively, enjoyed in the popular television series Gilmore Girls. Beth and Anna appear to be ideal … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Thomas Dugrosprez wrote the reviews and Les Roka added interview and background notes to the feature. This year’s trio of Sundance Kids selections have something for virtually every young cinematic fan. In addition to the superb animation film The Amazing Maurice, which was reviewed earlier this week, there is the Utah filmed narrative … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Part I is an overview of the Utah film industry in the current moment. Part II (tomorrow) will offer a summary preview of the Sundance 2023 feature-length and short films, which The Utah Review will cover. Like nearly 2,400 of their peers who are listed in a directory of Utah film industry professionals, … Read more
This year’s selection in The Utah Review of the top ten moments of the Utah Enlightenment in 2022 was easily the quickest to lock in, considering the possibilities. There were no close calls. The ten selections were a slam dunk. This year, however, presented the opportunity for a twist. While nine of the ten selections … Read more
Two independent short films – one by a Utah filmmaker who received a Next Level Grant from the Utah Film Commission and the other by a southern California filmmaker whose project premiered at this year’s Fear No Film program at the Utan Arts Festival – are featured. Arthur Veenema: The Atomic Spawn Utah filmmaker Arthur … Read more
The hard realities of the family drama circling the inheritance of a loved one’s estate rarely require a boost from a fictional license. It is more common than many families might care to admit just how sharp the drama and confrontation are when the time arrives for the executor of a parent’s last will and … Read more
The Sundance Kids offering of Summering, directed by James Ponsoldt which he wrote with Benjamin Percy, is a smart mix of tropes from fantasy, horror and the fully liberated imaginations of smart children, as specifically embodied in a quartet of girls who worry that their tight circle of friendship is about to be broken as … Read more
EDITOR’S NOTE: Part II summarizes the films and programs from Sundance 2022 that are part of The Utah Review coverage. For Part I which is an overview of the state of the film industry in Utah, see here. Among the films The Utah Review is covering this year are films about expectant Black mothers who deaths from … Read more