Hopefully, you’ve read and enjoyed the first part of my Sundance wrap-up which included reviews of some of the best things I’ve seen over the past few days of virtual viewing, but not everything at Sundance Film Festival can be wine and roses, and now, here are four reviews of some of the weaker offerings.
BRIDES
Directed by Nadia Fall
What starts out as another fairly typical Sundance movie with a generic title – this one from the World Cinema Dramatic Competition – follows the journey of two British friends, Doe and Muna (Abada Hassan, Safiyya Ingar), who decide to run off to Syria under the false promise of a better life.
Muna (Safiyya Ingar) is British of Pakestani descent and far more outgoing than the Somalian Dosa or “Doe” (Ebada Hassan). They may not know what they’re in for as they leave home at the urging of a mysterious stranger, but much of the film’s first half hour feels like a travelogue as we follow them to Turkey where circumstance leaves them stranded and having to figure out how to get to their planned destination.
There are aspect to the storytelling that feels quite obvious and predicable with large portions of it feeling like a fairly mundane adventure of two girls’ travel adventures. It takes quite some time to care much for the two main actresses, as they try to get themselves out of the tough situation they find themselves in.
The film get better as it goes along, especially as we learn more about their backgrounds dealing with racism, abuse and violent, toxic men, making it more obvious why they may have decided to run away. The flashbacks to their past also start to give us a much better idea of their very distinct personalities, ultimately making Brides a stronger-than-expected debut from Ms. Fall, one that grows on you as it becomes clearer what the filmmaker was trying to achieve with a shocking and powerful climax. It might take a little time to get there, but once it does, it feels like more of a worthwhile endeavor.
Rating: B-
BUNNYLOVR
Directed by Katarina Zhu
Katarina Zhu wrote, directed and stars as Rebecca, a Chinese-American cam girl dealing with a number of conflicts affecting her life. She has just reconnected with her elderly father William (Perry Yung), who has a terminal illness, and her cam work has led to a creepy admirer (Austin Amelio) who sends her a beautiful white rabbit as a gift… but for rather nefarious reasons. Rachel Sennott (one of the producers on the film) plays Rebecca’s artist best friend Bella, who only offers a friendly ear when it suits her own needs.
Bunnylovr is a pretty straightforward character drama that has been written mainly to give Zhu a showcase of her own acting and filmmaking skills, much like James Sweeney’s Twinless (this year’s Audience Award winner) and Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby, which has been receiving rave reviews and was just picked up by A24.
The world of cam girls is something that I find quite creepy, particularly the men and their voyeuristic obsession with these sex workers that sometimes goes far beyond anything even remotely safe. It’s an odd topic for a film and allows us into a world we don’t see often, even though films like Paris, Texas and Klute are great examples of how sex workers have been used effectively in cinema, and even more recently, in Sean Baker’s Oscar-nominated Anora. Unfortunately, Rebecca’s encounter with her client never really goes anywhere in the long run once they finally meet. Something happens, she gets scared off, and then the movie’s over.
Zhu isn’t a bad filmmaker or actor, offering a character with a distinctive enough look and lifestyle, but otherwise, there isn’t much story to speak of. Once we’re introduced to her creepy admirer and learn his true intentions for gifting her a rabbit, I have a feeling I won’t be the only viewer who tunes out. Her relationship, who is a bit of a street hustler, is slightly better, but it also doesn’t have very far that can go.
I enjoyed the scenes between Zhu and Sennott particularly, as well as seeing my own Chinatown neighborhood featured prominently, but Rebecca’s relationship with this toxic admirer of hers takes you out of the movie, since
bunnylovr very much feels like Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture or Ry Russo-Young’s You Won’t Miss Me, early indies by prominent young female filmmakers who feel like they have something to say, but maybe not something that can necessarily relate to anyone over a certain age. Zhu’s directorial debut veers from feeling bland to just being icky overall. It offers originality but lacks the quality of storytelling that could have made it work better. Essentially, bunnylover feels like another movie made by a young person wanting to make a lot of drama out of nothing, and few will see much point to Zhu’s film.
Rating: C
LOVE, BROOKLYN
Directed by Rachael Holder
In this rather obvious film from Sundance’s US Narrative Competition, André Holland (also the film’s producer) plays Roger, a Brooklyn writer who spends most of his time with two women: Nicole Beharie’s Casey and DeWanda Wise’s Nicole, a single mother with a young daughter named Ally (Cadence Reese).
When I read the film’s tagline – “Three longtime Brooklynites navigate careers, love, loss, and friendship against the rapidly changing landscape of their beloved city” I just knew that there was no way this movie could possibly be any good, and apparently, I was right.
It’s written by Paul Zimmerman, presumably a white guy, but Holder took it and “made it her own” but you can tell that she basically just kept his script and cast black actors in all the roles, which leads to the film feeling so tone deaf not just about its own characters but about anything resembling reality.
Holland is a solid actor, having recently starred in Exhibiting Forgiveness, one of the better movies out of Sundance last year, but his character is a writer who spends much of the movie biking around Brooklyn and having conversations with the film’s other characters with no actual time sitting at his computer writing until the very end. Small details like that really matter, since the film paints Brooklyn like it’s some wonderful place with beautiful black people constantly talking about art and culture, which made me wonder whether Holder had ever even BEEN to Brooklyn?
The script is pretty bad, like bad Woody Allen, and Holder fills it with so many actors/characters with absolutely zero charisma, even if they’ve all been in far better movies. The whole thing comes off as boring, pretentious and by-the-books with so many characters talking about nothing interesting, and not even in a funny “Seinfeld” kind of way either. It’s more like something we might see in the most boring of French films, just transposed to Brooklyn.
The young girl Ally seems to thrown into the mix for no particular reason, and I audibly groaned every time she showed up, because she is written worse than all the other characters put together, which is saying a lot. On top of that, why would you cast Roy Wood Jr. in your movie but not allow him to be even remotely funny?
Love, Brooklyn is well–made and certainly a pretty film that really doesn’t have much to say about anything, including Brooklyn. Do you know who is really going to HATE this movie more than anyone else? Black people from Brooklyn.
Rating: C-
BUBBLE & SQUEAK
Directed by Evan Twohy
Over the past few years, there have been a lot of strange movies premiering at Sundance, some that have found their fans and others? Maybe not so much.
At the start of this absurdist comedy from first-time director Evan Twohy – which oddly was in the US Narrative Competition rather than the NEXT category – we meet Declan and Dolores (Himesh Patel and Sarah Goldberg), a couple on their honeymoon in an unnamed country while they’re being interrogated by a customs inspector named Bkofl, played by Steven Yeun (who is a producer on the film). His main concern is whether they might be smuggling cabbages in their pants, because cabbage has been outlawed due to the populace having to survive by eating cabbage during “the war.” Anyone caught with cabbages in their pants will be tortured and killed by someone named Shazbor.
It sounds ludicrous, and it is, but if you want to spend the next 95 minutes of your lives hearing the word “cabbages,” then Bubble and Squeak is indeed the movie for you!
Yes, it’s a very odd way to start a movie that lands one of its funniest moments as it cuts to Dolores, who actually DOES have cabbages shoved down her pants, as she and Declan try to escape from their predicament. Dave Franco eventually shows up in a bear costume and becomes friends with the couple, but he actually was a transgressor of the country’s “no smuggling of cabbages in your pants” law (of course). Like Yeun, you might be left wondering why he agreed to be involved with this movie. We eventually meet Shazbor, played by Matt Berry, who spends the movie trying to find the transgressors, but the whole gag grows tiring so quickly.
Patel and Goldberg may not be the worst actors – they somehow manage to keep a straight face during the more ridiculous sequences – but they don’t bring very much to their characters either. That’s not to mention Goldberg having to spend almost the entirety of the movie with large objects resembling cabbages down her pants, so at least she’s a good sport?
Twohy’s film does have some interesting images like a church made entirely out of hay, and some funny bits that prevent the couple from escaping this unnamed country, but that doesn’t do much to make up for the overuse of the word “cabbages,” which it always falls back on, trying hard to get laughs.
Bubble & Squeak isn’t particularly funny or very good. It just feels overly silly and nonsensical and too much like a fan film by someone trying to emulate Wes Anderson or Yorgos Lanthimos, but not having a strong enough premise or the writing skills to make this movie work in the same way. Honestly, if this movie ever premieres in New York, I will have to do my best not to attend; I might be inclined to pelt the screen with cabbages.
Rating: D+
That’s it for my Sundance coverage for the year here at Cinema Daily US – thanks for reading! – but look out for all the great coverage still to come from Cinema Daily US’s other writers which you can find right here.