Day 1 at Sundance 2021
CODA
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
For the quick-witted and precocious Ruby, teenage life is the exact opposite of most of her high school classmates. Instead of daydreaming and planning for college, she works hard on the family fishing boat to make ends meet and being the only hearing member of a deaf family only makes things more complicated. The pressure of survival intensifies when she signs up for a choir group at school that makes her think twice about the family business and doing what’s right for the future. Newcomer Emilia Jones shines as the conflicted Ruby, commanding the screen with charm and elevating the material into a crowd-pleasing story of following your dreams.
Rating: B
CENSOR
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Watching blood-soaked horror movies all day long may not be for everyone but for Enid (Niamh Algar), the job as a film censor has indirectly brought her a twisted sense of peace. Not only is she fine with the routine but she genuinely enjoys pouring over hours of gory footage to make sure the final product is suitable for the general public. But when her latest assignment bears an eerie resemblance to a mysterious trauma from her past, the lines between fiction and reality start to blend together in hallucinatory ways. Director Prano Bailey-Bond sets a deliberate pace with “Censor” that never fully engages despite its eye-popping retro visuals and bloody finale.
Rating: C
