Top 5 – Best Movies of Sundance 2016

The 2016 Sundance Film Festival is officially over.  I saw 22 movies at this year’s festival and I’d say overall, it was a very good festival in terms of movies.  I probably could have snuck in a couple more, but I’m only human.  Here are the best movies of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

5 – MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (Kenneth Lonergan)

With so many good movies, it was tough to narrow it down to five.  I could have gone with the heart warming Life, Animated, the drug fueled love story White Girl, or the insane superhero origin story Sleight.  Instead, I went with the last movie I saw at the festival, Manchester by the Sea.  Manchester by the Sea is a movie that has stuck with me since seeing it.  It is a slow burning character study that will shatter your heart.  Casey Affleck gives the best performance of the festival as a Boston janitor suffering a great loss who has to take care of his nephew when the boy’s father dies.  It is a great performance that doesn’t require a lot of dialog, but is still powerful.  There are scenes that are very funny and scenes that are very sad and tragic.  Manchester by the Sea is a showcase for Casey Affleck and an emotional cinematic experience.

4- YOGA HOSERS (Kevin Smith)

Far and away the best Midnight movie of the festival, Kevin Smith’s second entry in his insane True North Trilogy is Smith at his best.  This movie is bonkers.  It includes teenagers, Nazi’s, bratwurst, murder, and yoga, all set in Canada.  Only Smith can take those things and make them a cohesive story.  What made Yoga Hosers even better was that it is the funniest Smith film since Clerks 2 (2006).  And in the midst of all the craziness, Yoga Hosers also has a lot of social commentary on the technology obsessed youth and how Smith feels about his critics.  I cannot wait for Smith’s third and final installment of the trilogy, Moose Jaws, it’s sure to be wild.

3- GOAT (Andrew Neel)

Want to see the worst college nightmare since Spring Breakers (2013)?  Then check out Andrew Neel’s Goat.  This is a horror film set in a college frat house, as a 19 year old boy (a terrific Ben Schnetzer) enrolls into college with his brother (a surprisingly deep Nick Jonas) and pledges into a fraternity, where he goes through rigorous and torturous rituals that push what brotherhood really means.  This is a tough movie to watch, but one that will have you captivated and your heart racing the whole film.  The entire ensemble is on point.  Goat is an intense, chilling, visceral movie.

2- MICHAEL JACKSON’S JOURNEY FROM MOTOWN TO OFF THE WALL (Spike Lee)

Spike Lee hasn’t made a good narrative film in almost a decade.  However, his documentaries, like When the Levees Broke (2006) and Bad 25 (2012) are some of the director’s best work.  His most recent documentary, chronicling the great Michael Jackson and his journey from Motown Records to releasing his first solo album, Off the Wall, is a new high for the director.  Lee doesn’t focus on the controversy of Jackson’s personal life.  He focuses on the artist and the brilliance that was Jackson, as we see him sing and dance like nobody has before or after him.  It is a testament to the greatness of Jackson and shows that Lee still has some great filmmaking left in him.

1- THE BIRTH OF A NATION (Nate Parker)

The Birth of a Nation was my most anticipated movie of the festival and it did not disappoint.  In fact, it happily surpassed my expectations far more than I could have asked for.  Nate Parker, who I’ve loved as an actor since seeing him in 2012’s Arbitrage has made one of the most impressive debut feature films I have ever seen.  Telling the story of Nat Turner, a slave who orchestrated the biggest slave revolt in history, Parker has made a powerful, gripping, exhilarating film.  The Birth of a Nation is one of the most epic and bold independent films I’ve ever seen and will finally bring Nate Parker to the main stage.

You can see all my coverage of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, as well as my other reviews and Top 5’s here, on Twitter @kevflix or on Facebook at Kevflix.