This year’s Sundance Film Festival isn’t the hype machine that the event has long worked – the publisher’s eight-digit bidding war has played with the most acclaimed premiere, at least one or two futures The competitors start running. Perhaps this is because of the many destructions that have been suffered recently that have shocked the film industry. Studios have moved from low-cost fares after the pandemic, with months-long Screen Actors Association and the American Writers Association on strike in 2023 and stagnating production in 2023. Or because Sundance itself is in Park City, Utah, where Sundance itself operates in some places has been ready for moving since 1981: Independent agencies crazily take over a tiny ski town each year in late January.

Where Sundance finally arrives – the three finalists expected to relocate in 2027 are Salt Lake City, Boulder and Cincinnati – the festival may have to compete with the ongoing turmoil in Independent Cinema World. Small budget movies seem to be harder and harder to find big-screen audiences, but last year's event did produce some art tops, such as Oscar nominations Real pain and A different manFavorite with fans Thema. A few other gems have been screened in the 2025 crop; here are 10 movies that resonate with us in particular.

If I have legs, I'll kick you (A24, release date TBD)

This story about parenting is told with the intensity of depression Uncut gemstones (Heck, the Safdie brothers are one of the producers). It’s also the first album by writer director Mary Bronstein in 17 years, and it’s also an unsettling miracle powered by a engaging leading performance and a horrifying atmosphere of fear. Rose Byrne plays Linda, whose husband spends several months on a work trip. Her daughter has never seen her, and she is troubled by an unspecified health condition that requires her to use a feeding tube. The film is largely close-up, causing disaster through a series of small crises, as Linda’s responsibility for maternity and her feeling that she has no effort to do it at all Struggle on. Byrne is incredible, but the real revelation is Conan O'Brien, her tweed, ruthless therapist. This is a forged coup that really emphasizes Brownstein's creativity. - David Sims

Wedding banquet (Bleecker Street, released in theaters on April 18)

This romantic drama is a remake of Ang Lee's fascinating 1993 film that seems likely to become totally ridiculous. Here is the story of Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) who spent unwise time funding her and her partner (Lily Gladstone) IVF program: She married a wealthy gay roommate (Han Gi-chan) and also bought him a green card. It's a complex non-solution that gradually gets silly, but director Andrew Ahn (Fire Island) and his award-winning actors - including Bowen Yang, Joan Chen and AchecS Yuh-Jung-nou-Keep the roots of the spiral; the fragility of life in this film evokes the serious warmth of the original. -Shirley Li

Sorry, baby (A24, release date TBD)

Comedian and actress Eva Victor won the festival screenwriter award and sparked one of several acquisition fights this year, eventually ending up with an independent Powerhouse A24. It's easy to see why the film's thrilling studio is excited - Victor has a firm grasp of sparse, ironic dialogue that makes her film lighter and obscures its dark theme. She plays Agnes, a young scholar who is smart if he is a bit drifting. However, her life was turned upside down when she was sexually assaulted by her older mentor. Sorry, baby It's about the trauma of driving boredom, and that's where Victor's Blasé influence really works. The pain of the work she experienced was obvious, and the lingering feeling of the indifference and powerlessness of the institution was clear. As a dark and interesting mood, this movie works well. - DS

Train Dream (Stream on Netflix, release date TBD)

Director Clint Bentley's new film was a big surprise for me. His first characteristic, jockey,,,,, The impression of critics only leaves a certain impression and adapting to novelist Denis Johnson's work has long been a tricky film task. (Acclaimed filmmaker Claire Denis) The stars at noon is an example of recent flaws. )but Train Dream It is a victory of a small key, a lyrical and quiet life legend, filmed with the great American Epic. Joel Edgerton did the best job of his career in the early 20th century, Robert Grainer, a worker working on railways across the country. He experienced love, joy and tragedy, while witnessing all kinds of political unrest. Bente uses grace to deal with the weight of this narrative. I hope Netflix, who purchased this movie, will allow such amazing works to go to the big screen. - DS

Folk stories

Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s documentary doctors specialize in community stories that exist in marginal or extreme situations. Baraka boy Looking at boarding schools in rural Kenya; One of us Researched Hasidic community in Brooklyn; and Oscar nominations Camp Jesus Eventually led to the closure of the charm camp it mined. Folk stories Choose a more whimsical educational program to check out: a nine-month "gap year" in northern Norway, during which children learn outdoor survival skills, how to blend with a bunch of husky dogs, and live in the frozen wilderness Other aspects of The teenagers attracted from the global applicant pool are a charming, awkward bondage, the scenery they are thrown into is gorgeous and dramatic. But Ewing and Grady’s obsession is largely in the way young people develop socially and emotionally, even in unusual circumstances. - DS

Two persons

Two men meet in an emotional support group, causing their respective siblings to lose and deal with their suffering, creating a worrying interdependence. Although the premise is heavy, Two persons It's actually a comedy - a creepy, stylish comedy that keeps walking a tone between painful melodrama and pure farce. At first, Roma (Dylan O'Brien) and Manny Dennis (James Sweeney) (also the film's writer and director) were at first opposites. But as Dennis' attraction to Rome and their friendship blossomed and complicated, the story also changed one twist after another, each more enjoyable than before. O'Brien is excellent, and while Sweeney never reaches the height of his co-star performance, both have an extremely attractive chemistry. They are just lonely men trying to fill the gaps they don’t understand. - SL

plainclothes

This neurotic psychological thriller about the closed secret police can be hard to watch. The first work of film producer Carmen Emmi, plainclothes Follow Lucas (a fine-tuned Tom Blyth), his point is usually achieved through harsh, lo-fi vhs shots. It seems like the character is passing through surveillance The camera sees everything. However, the director's choice effectively portrays his protagonist's paranoia: For Lucas, Lucas's mission is to lure gay people to expose themselves, and encounter them the same every time he encounters a goal. To the thrill and horror; his shame quickly made him unpopular. His past and present collided in his mind--and when he fell, Andrew (Russell Tovey), the experiment of this film became More aggressive, capturing Lucas' efforts to capture who he is in secret effort. plainclothes There is a nervous pulse, but it is also an exciting and sharp portrait that tries to separate the view from the truth. - SL

Predator

Capture the predatorThe derivative works of NBC News Program is very successful Data lineproduced for addictive TV in the 2000s. Each episode records a high-risk sting: A watchdog group will induce alleged pedophiles to meet someone they believe to be minors, just for the show's host Chris Hanson Hansen) face to face with them. The conversation usually ends with an arrest. But despite the good intentions of the series, does it help listeners better understand the offender’s motivations, or is it humiliating them primarily for entertainment? This is documentary David Osit himself a child abuse survivor, trying to answer in a seductive assessment of the show’s legacy. Predator Acknowledge the show’s advantages, but inquires about the advantages of a plan that blurs the lines between law enforcement and vigilance of justice – as well as public services and “reality” television. - SL

bride

The best friendship for adolescents can be crucial. The bond between Doe and Muna (played by Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar, respectively) is forged in part because they were abandoned, the only Muslim student at its East London school. It has also become a life raft, inspiring them to take extreme measures that they have never been alone: ​​to escape their homes and head to Syria, where they intend to join the Islamic state. The film is based on the real-life case of three British girls who secretly cross the border to become children’s brides, but it is more interested in the relationship of its protagonist than the shocking nature they pursue. Director Nadia Fall confidently studies how quiet Doe and Brassy Muna are just teenagers: childish and rebellious, headstrong and confused. bride Probably one of the darkest adult movies I've ever seen, but it resonates as a study of life-changing friendships. - SL

Come and see me

At one point in this pleasing documentary, the spoken poet Andrea Gibson joked that all of their writing rescheduled the same simple words over and over again. "Why write a poem with someone else's head?" Gibson believes. “It’s not just someone’s heart?” Come and see meFocusing on performers’ cancer battles, the work is similar: director Ryan White does not deploy innovative storytelling skills, nor does it have any new roles in life and death. Instead, he focused on the chemistry between Gibson and their partner Megan Farley through doctor dates, dinners with friends, classes editing each other’s work at noon, and late-night conversations about their feelings and fears. White scattered in the archive footage explores the couple's trajectory and Gibson's career, but the original, often humorous testimony of his subjects - mortality, gender and gender identity, is the most inspiring. - SL