Sundance’s Most Intriguing Movies — Preachers Gone Bad, a Creepy Watcher and Abortion in the 1960s

The Sundance Film Festival is speeding to its weekend finale when its award winners will be revealed and celebrated. Virtually. It has been an unusual and somewhat muted festival. One pivoted to an all-virtual event on short notice. Interestingly, there has been no true breakout hit as in prior years.

No CODA which, even in the movie festival’s 2021 virtual format, commanded a $25 million plus purchase price from Apple and is certain to be nominated for an Oscar next week. Which doesn’t mean money wasn’t spent this year. The light unremarkable comedy Cha Cha Real Smooth, starring Dakota Johnson, was sold to Apple today for $15 million .

Even in the best of years, Sundance dramas are like the proverbial box of chocolates. You never know what you will get by reading a film’s pre-showing hype. There are no trailers after all. The best news about a virtual format is that if a movie is a loser, you can check email, multi-task or turn it off. Very few people walk out of a Sundance film that is being screened in a festival theater venue.

After screening 10 dramas, a few stand out. Consider them the best bets to be Sundance’s 2022 standouts. These movies touch on the recurring themes of this year’s festival — comedy, horror and abortion.

Honk for Jesus

In Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs and “First Lady” Trinitie Childs are the leaders of Wander to Greater Paths Baptist Church. They have a passion for Prada. Pastor Childs has fallen from grace, and the couple have invited a film crew to document their post-scandal comeback which will occur on — when else? — Easter Sunday. Unfortunately for them, all but five of the 25,000 congregants of their Atlanta megachurch have defected to a new church rival dubbed Heaven’s House.

Sterling K. Brown plays the disgraced leader, the stereotypical showman pastor, who preaches against homosexuality yet settles lawsuits brought by young boys. Regina Hall masterfully plays the faithful, tough as nails wife. There are plenty of laughs early on as the movie lays out Pastor Childs’ mercenary and sexual proclivities and First Lady Trinitie’s stand-by-your man perseverance.

It’s easy pickings for writer and producer twin sibling filmmakers Adamma and Adanne Ego, products of Southern Black Baptist Churches. The second half of the film delves into darker territory as Trinitie must face the conflict of faith versus her marriage. Her anger barely simmers under the surface and explodes in what many have characterized as one of the best performances of this year’s Sundance.

Some reviewers have found Honk for Jesus a bit uneven. Does it want to be a satire or a drama? This experienced move watcher had no such complaints. Hall and Brown are captivating to watch. They give the most entertaining, and pitch perfect performances of this 2022 Sundance.

While not perfect, this clever and witty movie will make you laugh and squirm.

Getting Into The Watcher

Social media can be a great source of tips for not-to-be-missed movies So can old school real life connections. After my first Sundance report for PaperCity, a contact emailed to say that the niece of a friend was showing her first film at Sundance. It turned out to be quite the find.

Watcher, directed and written by the talented Chloe Okuno, is an Alfred Hitchcock type thriller that follows Julia who moves with her husband Francis to Bucharest, Romania for his new job. Julia’s husband is absent much of the time, and in the dark, bleak, empty streets of Bucharest, Julia notices someone following her. At the same time, the city is being besieged by a serial killer who targets young women.

The suspense builds as Julia opens the curtains in her apartment only to see a shadow of a man viewing her from a second story window across the street. Is it her imagination or is the man in the window a threat? The movie puts the viewer in Julia’s shoes, seeing what she sees and hearing what she hears as the tension ever so slowly builds.

Part of Julia’s fear is based on her isolation and loneliness. But is there more? Is it warranted? Without giving anything away, I can say that the movie is mostly violence free, but the suspense is unrelenting and leads to a surprising and satisfying ending.

Maika Monroe is superb as Julia, expressing anxiety and paranoia, coupled with a desire to take control of her life. Karl Glusman gives a strong performance as her unsympathetic and chauvinistic husband Francis. The real star is The Watcher, played so convincingly to maximum creepy effect by Burn Gorman that I was frightened watching him walk down the street. In the post movie Q&A, he came across as such a gentle soul that it reaffirmed my view of his immense talent.

Watcher, Okuno’s first feature film, predicts a bright future for her. Independents and worldwide buyers are negotiating for this fresh take on the Hitchcockian thriller

Spotlighting Abortion

This year’s Sundance Film Festival has three films — two documentaries and one drama — that deal with abortion in the 1960s before it was legal. The Janes is a documentary about the Chicago underground network that provided illegal but safe abortions to thousands of women. The Happening, winner of the Golden Lion award at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, follows a French student seeking an abortion in 1963.

Sundance officials were asked whether they sought out these types of films given the timeliness of the subject. The official reply? “We follow the filmmakers.”

The abortion drama Call Jane is based on the true story of Joy, an affluent Chicago housewife, who in 1968 (five years before Roe v. Wade) develops a life-threatening condition and seeks to end her pregnancy. The medical establishment is unwilling to help so she reaches out to The Janes, a clandestine organization of women who provide Joy with both an abortion and a purpose in life.

Elizabeth Banks is excellent as Joy – so typical of a woman of the sixties seeking to discover herself. Sigourney Weaver, who never disappoints, is wonderful as The Janes collective leader Virginia. The cast is rounded out by Chris Messina, Kate Mara and Cory Michael Smith among others.

Given the sensitive topic of the movie, it is important to say what it is and what it isn’t. Call Jane is not a deep nuanced discussion of the right to choose. But I found it a particularly accurate portrayal of what it was like to be a female in the 1960s. Women didn’t universally have their own checking accounts. Most women were expected to cook dinner for their husbands. It was a very different time.

The description of the abortion experience is well researched and accurately portrayed.

But the movie takes an upbeat, high-level crowd pleasing and perhaps simplistic view of a complex subject. It seems like an odd juxtaposition. It is hard to imagine anyone who opposes abortion wanting to see Call Jane, although perhaps if they did, it might engender a different perspective.

The movie has not been acquired yet but having received such positive reviews expect to see it on a streaming service by year’s end.

Jane Howze is managing director of The Alexander Group, a national executive search firm. This is her 13th year covering the Sundance Film Festival.