The 2 greatest movies I noticed at Sundance, and what will probably be two of one of the best movies of 2025, couldn’t be extra totally different, an invigorating reminder of the breadth of cinema at one of the vital movie festivals on the planet.
The picture of the prepare in Clint Bentley’s magical “Prepare Goals” is weighted with that means. It retains returning to our protagonist in his desires, normally as a foreboding signal of distress to come back or a way of tension that’s tied to the demise he’s seen within the development of tracks throughout the nation. It additionally has weighted symbolism, a picture of each growth and destruction on the similar time. A prepare observe is progress that not solely typically got here with violent human demise in its development however required the chopping down of bushes that stood on this earth for hundreds of years. Because the attractive narration by Will Patton additionally makes clear, a prepare observe guarantees one thing totally different round each nook, typically ties to historical past that way back handed. All of that is the inspiration for Bentley’s lyrical and luminous adaptation of the novella of the identical identify by Denis Johnson, a movie that reached into my coronary heart and soul. Early within the movie, I might bodily really feel myself taking a deep breath, virtually like centering in a meditation class. It’s a movie you don’t simply watch; you breathe it in.
Joel Edgerton does his greatest movie work since “Loving” (and arguably ever) as Robert Grainier, a median man in the US after the flip of the final century. He has a beautiful spouse named Gladys (Felicity Jones) and an lovely daughter named Katie, however discovering work typically takes him removed from dwelling for months at a time. Bentley’s movie (co-written by Greg Kwedar of “Sing Sing” fame) may be very purposefully episodic, virtually like somebody remembering among the main and minor moments of their life because it nears its finish. The primary act alternates between encounters of Robert’s on a job and his too-brief occasions at dwelling. On the rails, he meets memorable personalities like a demolition knowledgeable performed by William H. Macy, a veteran performed by John Diehl, a talker performed by Paul Schneider, and extra.
These scenes are each grounded and beautiful on the similar time, feeling tactile of their presentation however shot via with magic hour lighting and gorgeous framing courtesy of Bentley and D.P. Adolpho Veloso, who additionally shot the director’s “Jockey.” To say that “Prepare Goals” is gorgeous can be an understatement. The movie has earned some comparisons to Malick, and it’s largely in that visible poetry that individuals affiliate with him. I’m undecided the movie is really Malickian in construction, but it surely does have a visible language of man’s relationship to the pure world that recollects work like “The New World” and “The Tree of Life.” In discussing its continuous magnificence, I stated to a good friend, “Lubezki can be proud.” And it helps to have all this pure marvel offered below an attractive rating by Bryce Dessner of The Nationwide.
“Prepare Goals” is the story of an extraordinary life, a person who would in any other case by no means be the topic of nice fiction or artwork. Robert was a logger who suffered nice love and loss in his life. He was luckier than some who died younger; he was unluckier than some who died previous. Edgerton is exceptional, utilizing his subtly expressive face as one other visible component in a movie that performs like portray as a lot as prose.
Everybody concerned is well-directed by Bentley to grasp the project. Jones provides the movie a much-needed heat; Macy is engagingly humorous; Kerry Condon seems late so as to add thematic depth to the ultimate act. She says one thing like, “The lifeless tree has as a lot to provide because the dwelling one.” It’s a commentary on among the last photos of the movie and the cycle of life from demise into rebirth—a theme at a Sundance that was very a lot about loss and grief—but in addition in regards to the very acts of logging that allowed prepare journey throughout this nation. Males like Robert Grainier did that. And he’s extra such as you than you would possibly count on.
A really totally different movie but in addition one which works as an empathy machine unfolds in Eva Victor’s phenomenal “Sorry, Child,” simply one of the best movie I’ve seen from this yr’s Sundance Dramatic Competitors—final yr too, and perhaps the yr earlier than. This dramedy is a panoramic tonal tightrope, a film that blends hysterical comedy with deep trauma to current one thing that feels most of all true. It’s an announcement of a serious expertise in Victor, who wrote, directed, and stars in a movie that had folks gasping for air after its good conclusion. I don’t normally touch upon viewers response at Sundance as a result of it may be slightly exaggerated however the group behind me actually simply stored saying variations on “That was SO good” via the complete credit, as in the event that they have been too speechless to say the rest. They weren’t mistaken.
Victor performs Agnes, who we see at chronologically jumbled factors in her life over the previous few years. Because the movie opens in chapter titled “The 12 months with the Child,” we meet her greatest good friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie), who’s coming to go to, and reveal that she is pregnant. Even opening with this chapter feels important to what Victor is making an attempt to say with this glorious movie: Centering friendship as an alternative of the trauma that we are going to study formed an excessive amount of of Agnes’ life. The second chapter, which, once more, takes place earlier than the primary is titled “The 12 months with the Dangerous Factor,” and it’s BAD, however Victor frames it so well, not solely refusing to current it on movie however refusing to permit it to outline Agnes or the film about her. Different chapters like “The 12 months with the Good Sandwich” fill in among the formative occasions of Agnes’ twenties, introducing us to memorable characters performed by Lucas Hedges and John Carroll Lynch alongside the best way, each incredible. Hedges, specifically, hasn’t been this good since he labored with Lonergan.
As somebody who has been going to Sundance for 13 years now, I’ve seen a LOT of dramedies about folks attempting to outline themselves after trauma, however “Sorry, Child” stands aside by being true. It’s constantly character-driven, refusing to succumb to clichés by being actual to Agnes and people round her. One other factor in regards to the typical “Sundance Film” is that they typically falter within the last act, the hardest factor for a younger author. Victor doesn’t simply convey this one in for a strong touchdown, she’s crafted a last act that I maintain expensive to my coronary heart. There are three scenes as “Sorry Child” is wrapping up—one with Lynch’s half, one in a bath, and the ultimate one within the movie—that simply construct on one another in a fashion that completely floored me. Nothing about “Sorry, Child” feels pressured or manufactured, to the diploma that the performers drift away and you’re feeling such as you’re watching folks you already know and love. And a little bit of your self too.
