Programming Manager, Lead Programmer, Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas
As a huge movie buff I typically try and watch a movie a day. In my trip to Sundance Film Festival 2023, I definitely got in well over a month’s worth in just about ten days!
Here Are My Top Films from Sundance
- Flora & Son – Okay, I may be a little biased as I love the work of John Carney. The director of Once and Sing Street does it again with another inspiring music drama! Easily the biggest crowd pleaser of the festival. It’s sure to be a film that will have audiences cheering and clapping along continuously throughout! I had a smile on my face from start to finish and didn’t want it to end. Eve Hewson (Bono of U2’s daughter) gives a star-making performance as Flora, who mends the fences of her troubled relationship with her teenage son, through their shared interest in music. As soon as it ended, I wanted to call my mother and tell her how amazing she is! See it in a theater with an audience, you won’t regret it 馃檪
- Cassandro – I love it when a biopic avoids all of the typical clich茅s! Cassandro has a singular, unique voice that I found myself fully engaged in from start to finish. And it also features possibly a career best performance from Gael Garc铆a Bernal.
- Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) – A deep dive into how some of the most iconic album art of 1970s rock came to be, from the art design studio that made them. It’s a love letter to a time long gone. A time where lots of attention was put on what was on the front covers, and the (sometimes) extreme lengths people would go to to achieve the desired vision. A truly fascinating and entertaining watch that I could see over and over again.
- Scrapper – A heartfelt yet surprisingly charming tale of fathers and daughters, love and loss, acceptance, and forgiveness. Harris Dickenson and Lola Campbell play off each other very well as father and daughter. This is Campbell’s first film and she commands the screen with the confidence of an actor who has been in the industry for decades.
- Magazine Dreams – 2023 is the year Jonathan Majors becomes a star. Sure he’s about to be the next big bad Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but with Magazine Dreams, he may very like have an Academy Award on his mantle next year for this performance, which is a powerful, distributing portrayal about obsession and what one will do to be the best of the best.
