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By Sean Boelman
When cinephiles think of January film festivals, the first one that comes to mind is obviously Sundance, but it’s important to also remember its more indie, also Park City-based cousin Slamdance which runs concurrently and focuses exclusively on films without distribution. Slamdance is always an exciting showcase for new, independent talent, with a majority of the films playing there being directorial debuts.
We at disappointment media will be covering the 2022 virtual edition of the Slamdance Film Festival, and we will be bringing you our reactions to some of the films we see throughout the festival. Be sure to check out this article to read our thoughts, as we will be updating it throughout the week as we watch more films! Retrograde
Adrian Murray’s Retrograde is the type of movie that one wonders why they are watching it, and they are profoundly uncomfortable doing so, but it’s a satisfying experience nonetheless. Following a woman who receives a (purportedly) senseless traffic ticket and decides to fight it out of principle, there are some interesting things going on in the film thematically, but it’s so ambiguous in its approach that it doesn’t always pay off. Still, despite the somewhat mundane nature of the story and the annoying central character, it manages to be a surprisingly compelling watch.
Ultrainocencia
The international films that play in the Slamdance lineup are always a trip, and Ultrainocencia definitely lives up to the wild factor of things. Following a quirky duo who sets out on a series of experiments to prove the existence of God, this is a fascinating premise, but the film doesn’t make much more of it than a series of wacky and vaguely philosophical scenes. There are definitely some very memorable bits that will stick with viewers (espipi-espipi-espipi-piritual!) but it far from lives up to the tremendous amount of potential it had.
Therapy Dogs
The youngest film in the Narrative Feature lineup, Therapy Dogs follows two high school friends as they set out to make the ultimate senior video before they graduate. As an ode to youthfulness and doing stupid shit with your friends, it’s charming. There’s not much of a clear narrative here, and it’s definitely rough around the edges, but the imperfections are a lot of what make the film feel so authentic and lovable. Yet despite the issues with the film, it’s nice to see something as unfiltered and raw as this getting made by voices as real as Ethan Eng and Justin Morrice.
Actual People
Kit Zauhar writes, directs, and stars in Actual People, a charming little dramedy that sets out to reinvent mumblecore for a younger, more diverse generation. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but Zauhar’s script is genuinely insightful at times, and legitimately funny at others, making it a mostly enjoyable watch. It almost falls apart with a climax that is contrived and over-the-top to the point of feeling melodramatic, and probably would have been better off with someone other than Zauhar in the leading role, the film works well as a whole.
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By Dan Skip Allen
I would be lying to you if I said I wasn't a big fan of westerns. Unforgiven, High Noon, and Once Upon a Time in the West are among my favorite films of all time. Tombstone is another terrific western, but it was based on My Darling Clementine from 1946, another great film about famous Sheriff Wyatt Earp.
Wyatt Earp (Henry Fonda) is trying to move a herd of cattle through Arizona when he and his brother stopover for a night in Tombstone. When Wyatt wakes up the next morning, he notices that their herd of cattle is gone and one of his brothers is dead. He suspects the Clanton clan, led by Old Man Clanton (Walter Brennan) who live out by the O.K. Corral. Trying to figure out a way to get revenge for his brother, Wyatt becomes the Sheriff of Tombstone. He also befriends an alcoholic gambler known as Doc Holiday (Victor Mature) and the title character of the film, Clementine Carter (Kathy Downs). Fonda's Earp struggles the entire film to try to get his cattle back and apprehend the culprit. The film is based on Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal by Stuart N. Lake. It's directed by legendary western director John Ford who worked with John Wayne quite a bit in his career. This film takes a lot from classic western tales, but Wyatt Earp is considered one of the most famous lawmen in history. Henry Fonda plays a great Wyatt Earp and lawman. Later on in his life, he played a very evil villain in the Sergio Leone spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West. So he played both sides of the coin in his acting career. He's great as both men, though. It just shows what a great actor Henry Fonda is. His Earp is a very friendly guy. People are generally connected to him because of his friendly demeanor. He doesn't want people to think they can walk all over him, though. That's where his toughness comes in. 
Walter Brennan was another very famous actor of the time. He was in quite a few westerns in his career including Rio Bravo, but his most important role was as the Pastor in Sgt. York starring Gary Cooper. Even though he won the Oscars for Supporting Actor in his lifetime. He plays a great villain in My Darling Clementine as Old Man Clanton. A true western villain that resembles others and Stephen Lang channels in Tombstone in 1993.
My Darling Clementine also has great performances from the women, including the title character, in the film from Kathy Downs and Linda Darnell as Chihuahua. They hold their own against great actors like Fonda and Brennan. Their characters are tough and stick up for their own lives in the film as well. A lot of actresses of the time are powerful and can handle themselves in these films with the best actors of the time. These two are very good at that. The film is in black and white, but it looks great and has beautiful cinematography. The music in the film is pretty good as well. The title of the film is sung throughout the film. And it's a very catchy song, but the score is very good as well. The craft departments are all superb in the film. And it's nice to see a film that everything in it is so authentic and makes the film much more watchable than I could have thought. It's a great addition to the Criterion Collection.
By Sean Boelman
The 2021 Sundance Film Festival had the premiere of plenty of great films which remained in the conversation throughout the year, and 2022’s lineup looks to be much of the same. With a slate that includes plenty of high-profile premieres with big directors and stars, as well as plenty of exciting indie films from across the world waiting to be discovered, this year looks to be a strong one.
We at disappointment media are excited to be covering the 2022 virtual edition of the Sundance Film Festival. Here are some of our thoughts on some of the films we have been able to screen! Be sure to check back on this article regularly, as we will be adding more capsule reviews throughout the festival. TikTok, Boom.
Spencer X appears in TikTok, Boom. by Shalini Kantayya, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
Shalini Kantayya’s last documentary received quite a bit of acclaim after its Sundance debut, and so her newest work about the social media app TikTok was one of the more intriguing documentaries in the festival this year, but it also had the potential to be a massive dud. And while it isn’t a total failure, there are a lot of things here that will rub viewers the wrong way. For every portion of the film that offers an interesting commentary on the terrifying TikTok algorithm, or the discussions of censorship that have troubled the app’s history, there are two that are just a fluff piece on influencers. It’s a mixed bag of a film.
Aftershock
Omari Maynard and Bruce McIntyre appear in Aftershock by Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. | Photo by Kerwin Devonish.
Aftershock is the type of documentary where it is hard not to admire it at least for the fact that it does exist, even if its execution is a less than satisfying exploration of these ideas. Following a group of activists who are providing a voice for the Black women who have died as a result of unequal access to good maternal healthcare. When the film is exploring the injustices of the medical system in the United States, it’s an impressively timely watch, but when it comes to the case studies, they are presented in such a tear-jerking way that they don’t have the expected impact.
Dos Estaciones
Teresa Sánchez and Tatín Vera appear in Dos Estaciones by Juan Pablo González, an official selection of the World Cinema: Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. | Photo by Gerardo Guerra.
The Mexican film Dos Estaciones won a Special Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance for the lead performance of Teresa Sánchez, and it is absolutely understandable why. Sánchez does a tremendous job of the woman at the head of a community which is collapsing, and while the film itself is a bit of a slow burn, it works extremely well. As a commentary on how foreigners exert their influence to the detriment of local populations, the film is very profound and quietly angry, which when coupled with Sánchez’s performance, allows it to get its message across.
All That Breathes
Salik Rehman appears in All That Breathes by Shaunak Sen, an official selection of the World Cinema: Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. | Photo by Kiterabbit Films.
Shaunak Sen’s documentary All That Breathes may be about a pair of brothers who run a bird conservatory, but this story is indicative of some of the greater troubles that are going on in the community in which it is set. Exploring both the ecological issues and political turmoil that are happening in the city of Delhi, there is a lot going on here, but it explores them in a way that is thoughtful and poetic. And as one of the more visually-oriented documentaries of the festival, the film will leave viewers in awe of how these brothers find the beauty in the darkness.
The Cathedral
Henry Glendon Walter V appears in The Cathedral by Ricky D'Ambrose, an official selection of the NEXT section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Ricky D’Ambrose’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film The Cathedral is the obligatory film in the NEXT category that received its selection due to its unique style more so than unique content. And while the film definitely isn’t bad — there are some really powerful moments throughout, especially if you can get on the film’s wavelength early on — one can’t help but feel like it’s a gimmicky approach to something that has been done many times before. It is still going to be exciting to see what D’Ambrose does next, because his debut shows a lot of potential, even if it isn’t a satisfying film in its own right.
Free Chol Soo Lee
A still from Free Chol Soo Lee by Julie Ha and Eugene Yi, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. | Photo by Grant Din.
There have been many documentaries about wrongfully convicted prisoners, but few as effective as Free Chol Soo Lee. Telling the story of a Korean immigrant who was falsely imprisoned after being accused of committing a gang murder, this is definitely one of the most tragic films to play at this year’s Sundance. Some really great use of archive footage transports the viewer back into the era in which these events took place and stresses the importance of us remembering this case today even though it happened so many years ago.
Instant Life
A still from Instant Life by Mark Becker and Aaron Schock, an official selection of the Indie Episodic section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
A lot of documentaries come out with stories that are so weird they must be true, and that is the place where Instant Life is coming from. However, this three-hour docuseries stretches what should have been an interesting story into something that is rather dull by going on too many tangents. Following the inventor of the novelty sea monkeys, there are some portions of the series that are interesting, like one about the legal issues that their creator’s wife is having in the modern day, but for the most part, it feels like a lot of rambling, which is frustrating.
The Territory
A still from The Territory by Alex Pritz, an official selection of the World Cinema: Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
The second of two films to be picked up by National Geographic out of Sundance, Alex Pritz’s The Territory follows the residents of an Indigenous community in the Amazon as their land is taken over by outside forces. Although the film does not have as much urgency as one would hope it would, it’s still an interesting exploration of a very important issue. And perhaps the most welcome thing about the film is that it takes a very human approach to the subject matter, rather than the environmental angle that films usually take.
Descendant
Emmett Lewis appears in Descendant by Margaret Brown, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. | Photo by Participant. ©2022. All rights reserved.
One of the most widely acclaimed documentaries to come out of this year’s festival, Margaret Brown’s Descendant tells the story of the descendants of the last slave ship to travel to America from Africa. Yet despite this story being interesting on paper and having some intense ties to modern-day racism, the film’s dry presentation makes it about as interesting as a history lecture. Brown wisely avoids most of the archeological aspects of the story, instead opting for the human elements that are easier to connect with, but this is the type of film that makes its point early and overstays its welcome.
Phoenix Rising
Evan Rachel Wood appears in Phoenix Rising by Amy Berg, an official selection of the Special Screenings section at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute. | Photo by Olivia Fougeirol.
There have been plenty of documentaries to come out since the height of the MeToo movement that explore the cases of celebrities coming forward against their abusers. HBO’s Phoenix Rising is one of the more intimate ones, offering an impressive level of access to its subject Evan Rachel Wood. And while this is a no-holds-barred look at Wood’s abusive relationship with musician Marilyn Manson, and it obviously goes down some dark paths as a result, a feeling of hope is dominant, just as the title would imply. Although only the first half of the two-part documentary was shown, it is still thoroughly affecting.
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