8 Movies From Sundance 2023 to Put on Your Radar

The 2023 edition of the Sundance Film Festival returned to Park City with dozens of unforgettable films across all genres. Here are a few that stood out.

Sundance Film Festival still for Kokomo City
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Image via Sundance

What’s your favorite movie?

Not the one you keep tucked in your back pocket to whip out in ill-advised battles of impressiveness, or increasingly antiquated posturing, but your favorite movie. The ones that crawl into our veins and burrow themselves deep into our bones the first time we see them. And the more we watch, it becomes strikingly clear through line-by-line, shot-by-shot memorization that these pieces of art have somehow managed to grow alongside us. Because a film is as alive as you or me.

This year’s Sundance Film Festival offered a litany of options for discovering future favorites, marking a central assumption about the Park City experience I was movingly proven (very) right about after accepting an invitation to be a guest of Chase Sapphire.

Being on the ground also provides a face-to-face look at (and not infrequently, one-on-one conversations with) the oft-unsung creative voices who help guide a film down the long and arduous path from idea to realization. Because even the most singular of visions require the varying expertise of others to successfully relocate from inside one’s mind to inside the minds of the general public.

All that to say, film is family, and there’s nothing quite like being thrust into this world and getting a chance to see firsthand how diligently artists from every fathomable genre work to support their fellow filmmakers. In that spirit, I’ve chosen to highlight a selection of particularly memorable Sundance 2023 entries below, albeit without ranking them or having a conversation about descriptors like “best,” et al.

Several of these films, expectedly, are among those now recognized as 2023 Sundance Film Festival award winners. See here for the full rundown of this year’s honorees.

‘A Thousand and One’

Director: A.V. Rockwell

Starring: Teyana Taylor, Will Catlett, Josiah Cross

Teyana Taylor hits new artistic heights in A.V. Rockwell’s feature directorial and writing debut, which follows the heart-wrenching journey of a family in New York as a long-held secret starts to come to the surface. There really is no underselling the power of Taylor’s performance here, as it begs to be seen (and down the line, hopefully awarded).

‘Magazine Dreams’

Director: Elijah Bynum

Starring: Jonathan Majors, Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige

Jonathan Majors, though reliably great in every role he’s brought to the screen, taps into something here that eludes many of his peers. The brutality of this story, which at times feels as though it’s daring the audience to look away, is anchored by a full-body immersion from the actor that ranks highly among the most memorable film performances in recent memory. Despite the difficulty of what you're seeing on the screen, you can’t help but watch Majors’ every move.

‘Infinity Pool’

Director: Brandon Cronenberg

Starring: Mia Goth, Alexander Skarsgård, Cleopatra Coleman

Mia Goth continues her streak of well-earned critical acclaim, Oscars snub be goddamned, in this unforgettably disturbing cliff-dive of a film that’s impossible to shake once you’ve seen it (and even more impossible to emulate). While Cronenberg’s previous film Possessor also garnered praise, this is the one that solidifies him as a cinematic voice not to be fucked with.

Mercifully, following its midnight Sundance premiere last weekend, Infinity Pool is now in theaters.

‘Shortcomings’

Director: Randall Park

Starring: Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki

This charming film’s modest running time feels even shorter than it is thanks to a carefully considered cast with a penchant for impeccable line reads, not to mention some key editing decisions that contribute to the feeling that you, as the audience, are more or less actually hanging out with these characters.

Leading the ensemble is Justin H. Min (Umbrella Academy), who thrives in this Randall Park-directed adaptation of the much-discussed Adrian Tomine graphic novel of the same name.

‘Theater Camp’

Director: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman

Starring: Molly Gordon, Ben Platt, Noah Galvin

As arguably the most rewatchable entry on this list, the heart-on-its-sleeve approach this film takes with its core message is hard to resist. Remarkably, it’s not just the recognizable faces (Ben Platt, etc.) that’ll have you laughing and cheering in equal measure here. The children in the cast more than meet the moment here, upping the charm quotient considerably.

‘Kokomo City’

Director: D. Smith

Starring: Danielle Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell

D.Smith matches and in some cases bests more experienced filmmakers in her feature debut. The decision to keep this deeply personal, consistently engaging doc in a crisp black-and-white format is one of a litany of signs of an auteur in the making. You can also feel the personal importance of the work in every frame, with Smith herself saying during a panel at the festival that this film helped pull her “out of the darkness.

‘Shayda’

Director: Noora Niasari

Starring: Zar Amir Ebrahimi​​​​​​​, Osamah Sami, Leah Purcell ​

With a powerful but subtly acted performance at its center, Shayda stands out among this year’s Sundance lineup as a model example of how to deftly explore dramatic territory of this variety. The quiet bravery of Zar Amir Ebrahimi’s character, a mother fighting for a new life for her and her daughter, is brought into stark focus by this expertly crafted story of perseverance.

‘Fairyland’

Director: Andrew Durham

Starring: Emilia Jones, Scoot McNairy, Geena Davis

The longer I sit with Fairyland, the more I’m convinced this was my favorite film from Sundance’s 2023 slate. It’s hard to put into words how it felt to fall into a full-body cry in a sold-out Eccles Theatre after the film’s premiere, but it would be even harder to not recommend exactly that type of cry for all who allow themselves to be swept up by this film in the future.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, this time with the added emphasis of a hyperlink: See this movie.

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