Sundance Film Festival: London 2016
Sundance Film Festival: London
Picturehouse Central, London
June 2nd-5th, 2016
by Joanna Orland
After 2015’s hiatus, Sundance London returned to the capital city with a new venue and a handful of new films on display for the public. The new location of Picturehouse Central has made a huge improvement on both location and space, located in the heart of London in the new venue which is barely a year old. While the setup has vastly improved, the events have dipped in quality and variety at this year’s festival. Hardly any panels, masterclasses or workshops were included in this year’s programme, while previous years’ these events were in abundance and the highlight of the festival. The ones that were in this year’s schedule were not appealing in content or tone, leaving the films themselves to carry the burden of making this a great festival.
Luckily there were a handful of interesting films on display with directors in attendance to host Q&As post each screening. Filmmaking talent discussing their work is a sheer highlight of any festival, especially at Sundance where the indie spirit and passion of filmmaking is at the forefront. We didn’t manage to see many, but films we have seen are reviewed below.
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Goat
Directed by Andrew Neel
Starring Ben Schnetzer, Nick Jonas, Danny Flaherty, Gus Halper and James Franco
Ben Schnetzer is an actor that comes around only once in a generation. A chameleon in every one of his film roles and an actor that can extract empathy from his audience with seemingly little effort. He is the greatest actor you’ve never heard of, with the potential to become either an iconic character actor or a huge star. His performance in Goat suggests he’s striving for the latter… read more
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Press Conference: View our video & photo coverage of the Goat press conference from the 2016 Berlinale… read more
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Indignation
Directed by James Schamus
Starring Logan Lerman and Sarah Gadon
Longtime film producer James Schamus has turned his hand to directing with his first feature film Indignation. Based on Philip Roth’s book of the same name, Schamus’ version is a stunted drama of very little substance… read more
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The Intervention
Directed by Clea DuVall
Starring Melanie Lynskey, Cobie Smulders, Clea DuVall, Natasha Lyonne, Ben Schwartz, Vincent Piazza, Jason Ritter and Alia Shawkat
The Intervention will understandbly find itself in endless comparisons with 1980’s film The Big Chill as the film focuses on a group of thirty-something couples who embark on a weekend getaway to intervene on the marriage of their unwitting friends. This emotional weekend leads to each couple examining their own issues in this smart, well developed relationship drama… read more
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Interview: Clea DuVall spoke to us about the inspiration behind relationship drama The Intervention and what it’s like directing herself and her close friends… read more
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Photo Gallery:
