{"id":429733,"date":"2026-01-24T07:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429733\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T07:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T07:03:11","slug":"all-of-deadlines-reviews-from-the-festival-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429733\/","title":{"rendered":"All Of Deadline’s Reviews From The Festival So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s the last dance for Sundance<\/a> in Park City as the indie-focused festival prepares to relocate to Boulder, Colorado<\/a>, next year. It\u2019s also the first fest to go on without its legendary Oscar-winning founder Robert Redford, who died in September<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe event\u2019s 42nd edition kicked off January 22 and runs through Sunday, February 1, with a lineup that features 105 projects<\/a> \u2014 including 90 features and seven TV episodes \u2014 screening in Park City, nearby Salt Lake City and online. <\/p>\n

\n\tBelow is a compilation of our reviews from the fest. Click on the movie\u2019s title to read our full take.<\/p>\n

\n\tRELATED: The 2026 Oscars: Everything We Know About The Ceremony, Host, Date & More So Far<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'Buddy'\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Buddy\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Worry Well Productions.<\/p>\n

\n\tSection: Midnight
Director:\u00a0Casper Kelly
Screenwriters:\u00a0Casper Kelly, Jamie King
Cast: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Shannon, Patton Oswalt
Deadline\u2019s takeaway: Casper Kelly plays with form in ways that some might find exasperating, but there is always a method to his madness. An ingenious slasher movie with crowd-pleasing moments of gross-out comedy, it\u2019s about what TV means to us \u2014 how much we invest in what\u2019s clearly fake and not what it actually is. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Carousel\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSundance Film Festival<\/p>\n

\n\tSection: Premieres
Director-screenwriter:\u00a0Rachel Lambert
Cast: Chris Pine, Jenny Slate, Abby Ryder Fortson, Sam Waterston, Katey Sagal, Jessica Harper, Jeffrey DeMunn, Helene York
Deadline\u2019s takeaway: It\u2019s a story about love lost, love found again and the cost of both with the baggage from the past, the tentativeness of the present and the questions of a future. \u00a0Chris Pine is a fine actor not often given the chance to play this kind of reflective adult role, and it is perfect for him. \u2014 PH<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Ha-chan: Shake Your Booty!\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSundance Film Festival<\/p>\n

\n\tSection: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director:\u00a0Josef Kubota Wladyka
Cast: Rinko Kikuchi, Alberto Guerra, Alejandro Edda, YOU, Yoh Yoshida, Dami\u00e1n Alc\u00e1zar
Deadline\u2019s takeaway: Wladyka paints a beautiful picture of life and love, grief and closure, using dance as a universal language to express all of the above, with help from a talented ensemble of Japanese and Latin actors led by Rinko Kikuchi. \u2014 GG<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018The Incomer\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Dickenson<\/p>\n

\n\tSection: World Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter:\u00a0Louis Paxton
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin, Grant O\u2019Rourke, Michelle Gomez, John Hannah
Deadline\u2019s takeaway: Against the odds, and largely thanks to the core trio,\u00a0The Incomer\u00a0pulls together, finally addressing the story\u2019s dark well of sadness and ending on an upbeat yet surprisingly mature and even emotional note that absolves the film for most \u2014 if not all \u2014 of its frequent forays into silliness. \u2014 DW<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'Josephine'<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Josephine<\/a>\u2018 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGreta Zozula\/Sundance Institute<\/p>\n

\n\tSection: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter:\u00a0Beth de Araujo
Cast: Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Philip Ettinger, Syra McCarthy, Eleanore Pienta
Deadline\u2019s takeaway: Josephine is a tough watch right from the beginning, when a rape is graphically presented onscreen and is witnessed by an 8-year-old girl. But it effectively offers a different POV on the human cost of rape and the frustration in the legal system and might help others who\u2019ve endured childhood trauma. \u2014 PH<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Midori<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMidori Francis in \u2018Saccharine\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShudder\/Sundance Institute<\/p>\n

\n\tSection: Midnight
Director-screenwriter:\u00a0Natalie Erika James
Cast: Midori Francis, Danielle Macdonald, Madeleine Madden
Deadline\u2019s takeaway: It feels like an appropriate metaphor when the main character in this graphic, overlong body horror pic for the Ozempic era performs surgery on herself in a giant dumpster. The filmmaker appears to be unpacking so much of her own emotional experience, she\u2019s not seeing the garbage for the dumpster. \u2014 GG\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the last dance for Sundance in Park City as the indie-focused festival prepares to relocate to Boulder,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,178903,337,79523,79083,179104,179105,133295,179106],"class_list":["post-429733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-josephine","tag-movies","tag-sundance","tag-sundance-film-festival","tag-the-gallerist","tag-the-invite","tag-the-moment","tag-the-weight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}