SUNDANCE: Randall Park made a deal with himself years ago that he would only attend the Sundance Film Festival if he had a project to work on. But the “Fresh Off the Boat” star had no idea his first role would be as a director rather than an actor.
One of the first films in competition at the festival, which starts Thursday night in Park City, Utah, is his version of Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel “Shortcomings.” It’s about three young Asian Americans who end up in the Bay Area.
“Sundance is the pinnacle for me,” Park said recently. “I can’t believe we’re leaving.”
Park is one of the hundreds of filmmakers putting the finishing touches on passion projects and traveling to Park City this week, hoping to make a splash at the storied independent film festival’s first in-person edition in two years.
High Stakes Films At Sundance
Stars such as Jonathan Majors as an amateur bodybuilder in “Magazine Dreams,” Emilia Clarke in “Pod Generation,” Daisy Ridley as a cubical worker in “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” and Anne Hathaway as a glamorous counselor working at a youth prison in the 1960s Massachusetts in “Eileen” will surprise festivalgoers.
Phoebe Dynevor, who starred in “Bridgerton,” also breaks out of her corset in the contemporary adult thriller “Fair Play” as a woman working at a high-stakes hedge fund with a boyfriend played by Alden Ehrenreich. Sundance will be her first film festival, and she’s particularly excited because it features one of the best scripts she’s ever read.
“It’s quite a polarizing one,” Dynevor said. “I’m excited to see how everyone reacts to it.”
Screening Over 100 Films
The over 100 films premiering around the clock (from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m.) over 10 days are as diverse as ever. There are three films about Iranian women (“The Persian Version,” “Joonam,” and “Shahada”), as well as stories about transgender sex workers (“The Stroll,” “KOKOMO CITY”), Twice Colonized, Bad Press, The Disappearance of Shere Hite, and the Ukrainian war (“20 Days in Mariupol,” a joint project.
As is customary, there are also intimate portraits of famous faces such as Michael J. Fox, Little Richard, Stephen Curry, Judy Blume, the Indigo Girls, and Brooke Shields.
Big Stars To Attend
Lana Wilson (” Miss Americana “) directed Shields’ much-anticipated documentary “Pretty Baby,” in which Shields reflects on her experiences as a child model, teen superstar, and beyond, including her complicated relationship with her mother, Andre Agassi, and the time Tom Cruise publicly criticized her for taking antidepressants.
“I kept coming back to this idea of agency and her gradually gaining agency over her mind, then over her career, and finally over her identity,” Wilson explained.
SOURCE – (AP)
