Sundance Film Festival 2020, Monday 1/27

Director of Time Garrett Bradley & the Richardson family

Time (Bradley, 2019) was once again the first Sundance film of the week that just wrecked me, but in a good way. The story portrays the resilience and odyssey of Sibil Fox Richardson as she advocates and waits for her husband Robert to be released from our dehumanizing prison system in the United States. By focusing on perseverance at incredible duration, it is impossible to not feel moved to make a difference.

Director Robert Machoian and cast of The Killing of Two Lovers

The Killing of Two Lovers (Machoian, 2019) is the version of Marriage Story (Baumbach, 2019) that I can get behind (in alignment with Chuck Klosterman's point of view on MS as stated on Bill Simmons's podcast). Killing begins with a longtake of the protagonist running along a rural street, the image split in half--dark road below, bleak white sky and snow-capped mountains above. Our runner, in drab dark clothing, matches the lower half of the screen but contrasts with the white. He may or may not have just committed a murder, and the stunning soundscape during the sequence is of little help--gunshots reverberate throughout the film but if they're interior or exterior sounds remains to be seen. The whole film is fantastic and I'm at a loss for words besides describing the opening...still recovering and still grateful to have seen it.