Culture / Entertainment

Sundance Movies That Make For Easy Holiday Streaming — Now’s the Time to Catch Up On Some Potential Oscar Winners

Movies That Leave an Impression

BY // 12.22.21

The week between Christmas and New Year’s is typically the highest grossing week of the year for movie theaters. With time off from school and work, it has become a holiday ritual for many to catch a flick on Christmas Day or during the holiday weeks.

You won’t find me at the theaters, though. Even in non-COVID times, I spend the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve at home, catching up on some of the films that I missed at the Sundance Film Festival that takes place in January. Most of these movies make for easy streaming during the holidays.

This year’s Sundance was unusual but in sync with the times. Most of the films were streamed virtually, with only a curated program shown at art houses throughout the country to much smaller and socially distanced audiences. The movie festival’s vibe, even online, was intense, dark and sobering. Perhaps more so than usual.  But with 84 films, there was ample opportunity to discover gems that bring joy in these challenging times.

Although Sundance didn’t produce any box office breakouts like in prior years — think Whiplash or Get Out — here are three inspiring and uplifting documentaries and a drama, including two potential Oscar nominees, that shouldn’t be missed. Streaming these movies will tide any avid film fanatic over until the 2022 Sundance Film Festival next month.

Try Harder

Try Harder is a documentary that follows five students at Lowell, a top ranked San Francisco public high school, for one year as they try to gain admission to highly selective colleges. Each of the five students feels tremendous pressure as they try to make their grades, fill out applications, work at part time jobs, compete in athletics. In short, all the things one must do to get in a highly ranked school.

This movie will certainly resonate with parents who have teenagers going through the process. One student has a helicopter mom, one is homeless and all have set almost impossible expectations for themselves. This is a charming and empathetic coming of age story told with humor, compassion and a hint of suspense as the audience waits with baited breath as the students log into college admission portals to see whether they made the cut.

Set your Easter Table with Bering's

Swipe
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024
  • Bering's Gift's Easter 2024

The film will be available on iTunes this Friday, December 24.

Rita Moreno Power

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It is an affectionate look at this 90-year-old actress who has earned an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony in her 70-year career. Most will remember her as Anita in the 1961 version of West Side Story, and she has a role in Steven Spielberg’s new version released this month.

Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno appears in “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl who Decided to Go For It” (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute)

Moreno grew up in poverty on a farm in Puerto Rico and built a career that forged a path for Latino artists. This is a story of resilience in the face of adversity and her story can give hope to anyone struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds. Moreno looks terrific — saucy and sexy — as she recounts the twists and turns of her career, including a volatile relationship with Marlon Brando, a botched suicide attempt, misogyny and abuse.

Accolades from Lin Manuel Miranda, Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg and Eva Longoria make this documentary a warm, fuzzy hit.

Streaming on PBS+ and Netflix

Summer of Soul

Summer of Soul (or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is the historical and musical documentary on the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival which took place about the same time and 100 miles away from the famed Woodstock. The Harlem Cultural Festival (aka the Black Woodstock) was organized as a way to celebrate Black music, politics, culture and unity.

This festival was all but forgotten until The Roots drummer Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson learned that never before seen film footage of the concert was filed and forgotten in a network’s library and created a powerful documentary that mixes spine tingling musical performances with a history of the 1960s Black movement. Music buffs will delight in hearing a young Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, the Fifth Dimension and a young Mavis Staples performing with Mahalia Jackson.

Summer of Soul Oak Cliff Film Festival
Sundance award-winner, “Summer of Soul” was directed by Questlove.

Summer of Soul is more than a concert film. In retrospect it marks the beginning of recognition of Black power and influence. This inspirational and emotional film received rave reviews at Sundance, capturing both the Audience award and the Grand Jury Prize for the US Documentary competition. It also swept six awards at the recently televised Critics Choice Documentary Awards. I expect it to be a lock to be nominated and perhaps the winner for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards

Streaming on Hulu

The Power of CODA

Although Sundance aficionados like to point to Sundance dramas that get plenty of Oscar attention, the truth is that a Sundance drama has never nabbed the highly coveted Best Picture Oscar. It came close with Boyhood and Manchester by the Sea, but an Oscar remains elusive. That may be because it is hard to maintain momentum between a January debut at the Sundance Film Festival and the Academy Awards more than a year later.

But more tellingly, it may be because Sundance movies are designed to be a little offbeat and even quirky. They are not designed to appeal to the mass movie audience.

That may be about to change with this quirky, off beat drama CODA (Child of Deaf Adult), which premiered the opening day of Sundance and was quickly acquired by Apple for a record setting $25 million. CODA is a coming-of-age drama that follows 17-year-old Ruby (Emilia Jones), the sole hearing member of a deaf family. Ruby serves as an interpreter for her family and works after school in the family’s struggling fishing business. After Ruby discovers a talent for singing and is encouraged to apply to a prestigious music school, she is torn between family obligations and pursuing her dream.

CODA Sundance
Emilia Jones stars in CODA, which has garnered the most awards of any recent film at Sundance Film Festival (Photo courtesy of Sundance Institute)

As I wrote after reviewing the film in January, “the premise sounds predictable and almost formulaic, but against the backdrop of navigating the challenges of deafness it provides ample opportunities for humor, grace, tears and joy.” I loved this touching film and so did Sundance audiences, who bestowed upon it more awards than any recent film at Sundance. CODA was named one of the Top 10 Films Of 2021 by the American Film Institute and is nominated for Best Motion Picture at the Golden Globes.

Streaming on Apple TV

Jane Howze is managing director of The Alexander Group, a national executive search firm. She has been covering the Sundance Film Festival since 2010 and will report on the 2022 festival for PaperCity.

Visit Dallas' premier open-air shopping and dining destination.

Highland Park Village Shop Now

Curated Collection

Swipe
X
X