Hot Girls Are Heading To Sundance (Virtually)

I might not be in Park City (yet) but you better believe I'm covering Sundance

It’s that time of year - my college courses are back in full swing, my skin has never been worse, so of course it’s the perfect time to settle in for a two week mad dash of independent film consumption.

This will be my third (unless I’m misremembering?) straight year covering Sundance remotely, and though I certainly won’t be able to write full-length reviews for every film I watch, I’m aiming to write at least a few reviews (and if the journalism gods smile upon me) an interview.

But before the festival starts and I’m inevitably swept under the tide of all things Sundance, I wanted to share my festival watchlist with you all - what I’ve got tickets for, what I’m most excited about, and what I think could end up being a festival hidden gem. If you’re interested in checking out my entire lineup, I’ve got a list of all the films I bought tickets for on Letterboxd for your reading pleasure.

The current top ten films on my Sundance 2023 watchlist

As it stands, I’ve got tickets for a whopping 22 films - which to some readers may seem like an insane amount to try and cover in two weeks, and to others may seem like a relatively tame, do-able stack of Sundance titles. Realistically, I know I probably won’t be able to make it through the entire list I’ve set for myself (on average, I tend to catch around a dozen films at a festival, if I’m consistent) so at the very least, I want to highlight five of the films I’m most looking forward to.

Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls

Based on the viral internet character of the same name, Onyx the Fortuitous is a horror-comedy which follows an amateur occultist who finds himself battling for his soul after receiving a mysterious invite to visit the mansion of his idol. Though horror-comedies will always be up my alley, the thing that shot Onyx to the top of my Sundance watchlist is, of course, the presence of horror legend Jeffrey Combs (who will be joined, as it was recently announced, by frequent collaborator/fellow horror icon Barbara Crampton!) in the film’s cast.

Cat Person

If the title Cat Person sounds familiar, that’s because the movie isn’t the first work to bear the name - the film is the (long awaited) adaptation of a viral New Yorker article that took the internet by storm back in 2017, and still holds the record for the site’s most-read piece of fiction. I’ve always got time for a movie that tackles the ever-complex world of a college student trying to navigate romance, but toss Nicholas Braun and Emilia Jones into the mix as stars, and you’ve got me hook line and sinker.

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields

I’ve got a handful of documentaries on my watchlist (including ones about Judy Blume an Little Richard) but the doc I’m most keen to catch at Sundance this year is Pretty Baby, which (as the title implies) examines the life and career of 80s icon and child model Brooke Shields. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m most familiar with her via her stint on Jane the Virgin, but the mythos surrounding her early career - especially the controversial nature of her early roles and the way they weaponized her youthfulness and sexuality - has me eager to see what this two-part doc will reveal.

Magazine Dreams

I’m gonna be honest with you guys - that publicity still alone was enough to convince me to snag a ticket for Magazine Dreams, starring Jonathan Majors. The film stars Majors as an aspiring bodybuilder obsessed with perfecting his physique and struggling to keep a hold on his emotional and physical well-being along the way. Masculinity, conventional male beauty, and the subject of male body image is one that will always fascinate me, so I’m excited to see how Majors and Magazine Dreams tackle such an ambitious and under discussed subject matter.

Infinity Pool

If you’re on film Twitter or run in film circles, this last title will come as no surprise to you - rounding out my top five is Infinity Pool, another entry in Sundance’s Midnight horror competition. Any Cronenberg film at a festival will always be required viewing in my book, but toss in Pearl’s Mia Goth and True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgård, and was there ever really any question as to whether or not this would make it on my most-anticipated list?

Like I said, these five are barely even scratching the surface of Sundance titles that have caught my eye, but they are films I’m certain I’ll be making an effort to catch over the course of the next few weeks. If you’re interested in keeping up with my Sundance viewing (or whining, ranting, etc) day-to-day, I’ll be documenting my virtual festival experience on my Twitter - so until then, I’ll see you at Sundance!