TAGGED AS: festivals, Film Festival, movies, Sundance
The Sundance 2022 Scorecard
Sundance was back fully online, running from January 20 to 30, 2022. Discover which movies and series that played and all their Tomatometer scores! —Alex Vo
#1
Adjusted Score: 105595%
Critics Consensus: Whether as a story of one couple's quixotic quest or simply a stunning collection of nature footage, Fire of Love burns bright.
Synopsis: Fire of Love tells the story of two French lovers, Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died in a volcanic explosion...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 102176%
Critics Consensus: A moving look at Sinéad O'Connor's remarkable life and career, Nothing Compares is enriching viewing whether or not you're a fan of her work.
Synopsis: NOTHING COMPARES is the story of Sinéad O'Connor's phenomenal rise to worldwide fame and how her iconoclastic personality resulted in...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 106251%
Critics Consensus: A tough but rewarding watch, Happening puts a personal face on an impossibly difficult choice and its heart-rending aftermath.
Synopsis: France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant,...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 101534%
Critics Consensus: Sensitively written and beautifully acted, Girl Picture captures the whirlwind of teenage emotions without sacrificing narrative maturity and depth.
Synopsis: Best friends Mimmi and Rönkkö work after school at a food court smoothie kiosk, frankly swapping stories of their frustrations...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 99179%
Critics Consensus: Bursting with ideas and ambition, Neptune Frost is difficult to describe -- and just as hard to resist.
Synopsis: In an otherworldly e-waste camp made of recycled computer parts, a subversive hacking collective attempts a takeover of the authoritarian...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 97859%
Critics Consensus: Equal parts entertaining and informative, Lucy and Desi takes a palpably affectionate look at the lives and legacies of its groundbreaking subjects.
Synopsis: From director Amy Poehler, Lucy and Desi explores the unlikely partnership and enduring legacy of one of the most prolific...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 102393%
Critics Consensus: Descendant serves as a fantastically compelling example of how history can be reclaimed -- and a stirring tribute to a resilient community.
Synopsis: Documentary filmmaker Margaret Brown ("The Order of Myths", "The Great Invisible") returns to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama to document...
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#8
Adjusted Score: -1%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: This feature-length documentary follows the epic rivalry between iconic boxers Oscar De La Hoya and Julio César Chávez in the...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 95810%
Critics Consensus: My Old School's unique approach to an outlandish true story makes for entertaining -- and ultimately rather thought-provoking -- viewing.
Synopsis: In 1993, 16-year-old Brandon Lee enrolled at Bearsden Academy, a secondary school in a well-to-do suburb of Glasgow, Scotland. What...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 101554%
Critics Consensus: Three Minutes - A Lengthening movingly captures a moment in time while honoring lives soon to be cut short by unimaginable horror.
Synopsis: Three Minutes - A Lengthening presents a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938 in a Jewish town in...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 102239%
Critics Consensus: Frighteningly timely and powerfully persuasive, The Janes offers a unique opportunity to look back at a pivotal chapter in American history through the eyes of those who helped define it.
Synopsis: In the spring of 1972, police raided an apartment on the South Side of Chicago. Seven women were arrested and...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 98200%
Critics Consensus: An earthbound story with its eyes on the stars, Mars One finds universally resonant themes within one Brazilian family's specific struggles.
Synopsis: The Martins family are optimistic dreamers, quietly leading their lives in the margins of a major Brazilian city following the...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 93475%
Critics Consensus: Tantura dives into a man's struggle to reckon with events that some may call means to freedom and others a massacre -- the birth story of many, if not all, civilizations.
Synopsis: The tape-recorded words "erase it" take on new weight in the context of history and war. When the State of...
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#14
Adjusted Score: -1%
Critics Consensus: Klondike offers a bleak portrait of a war-torn Ukrainian village with the mordant wit of someone who understands that for civilians, the mundanities of life must go on.
#15
Adjusted Score: 83437%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Filmed over four years of hope and crisis, TO THE END captures the emergence of a new generation of leaders...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 100374%
Critics Consensus: Aftershock points a sobering spotlight on a public health crisis, maintaining a heartbreaking focus on its tragic human cost.
Synopsis: Following the deaths of their partners due to preventable childbirth complications and medical negligence, two bereaved fathers galvanize activists, birth-workers...
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#18
Adjusted Score: 98390%
Critics Consensus: Taking a brilliantly unobtrusive approach, A House Made of Splinters uncovers heartbreak and hope while observing the generational effects of war.
Synopsis: As the war in Eastern Ukraine takes a heavy toll on poor families living near the frontline, a small group...
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#19
Adjusted Score: 106934%
Critics Consensus: The Worst Person in the World concludes Joachim Trier's Oslo Trilogy with a romantic comedy that delightfully subverts the genre's well-worn tropes.
Synopsis: The Worst Person in the World is a modern dramedy about the quest for love and meaning in contemporary Oslo....
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Synopsis: Comic-director W. Kamau Bell explores Bill Cosby's life and work, weighing his actions against his indisputable influence through interviews with...
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#21
Adjusted Score: 105559%
Critics Consensus: Living sets a high bar for itself in setting out to remake a Kurosawa classic -- and director Oliver Hermanus and star Bill Nighy clear it in triumphant fashion.
Synopsis: LIVING is the story of an ordinary man, reduced by years of oppressive office routine to a shadow existence, who...
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#22
Adjusted Score: 97434%
Critics Consensus: A message movie in a hard horror shell, Hatching perches between beauty and revulsion -- and establishes director Hanna Bergholm as a bright new talent.
Synopsis: In HATCHING, 12-year-old gymnast, Tinja (Siiri Solalinna), is desperate to please her image-obsessed mother, whose popular blog 'Lovely Everyday Life'...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 98612%
Critics Consensus: Taking the form of a classic college comedy while adding some socially relevant function, Emergency is as smart and disturbing as it is hilarious.
Synopsis: Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and his best friend, Sean (RJ Cyler), are both seniors in college about to embark on...
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#24
Adjusted Score: 103050%
Critics Consensus: Sexual awakening stories aren't in short supply, but Good Luck to You, Leo Grande proves you can still tell one with a refreshing -- and very funny -- spin.
Synopsis: In GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE, two-time Academy Award winner Emma Thompson (Love, Actually) embodies the candor and apprehension...
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#25
Adjusted Score: 90978%
Critics Consensus: Led by an outstanding Thandiwe Newton, God's Country rewards patient viewers with a slow-burning but ultimately explosive story of inexorable conflict.
Synopsis: When a college professor in the remote mountains of the American West confronts two hunters she catches trespassing on her...
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#26
Adjusted Score: 99009%
Critics Consensus: Providing a brilliant (and too-rare) showcase for veteran actors Dale Dickey and Wes Studi, A Love Song tells a small, stirring tale with quiet grace.
Synopsis: Faye (Dale Dickey) is a lone traveler biding her time fishing, birding and stargazing at a rural Colorado campground as...
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#28
Adjusted Score: 94717%
Critics Consensus: We Met in Virtual Reality takes a visually striking approach to its investigation of human interactions on the VR plane, with surprisingly poignant results.
Synopsis: Filmed entirely inside the world of virtual reality (VR), this immersive and revealing documentary roots itself in several unique communities...
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#29
Adjusted Score: 93898%
Critics Consensus: Impressively researched and persuasively argued, Riotsville, USA tears at the roots of modern American law enforcement.
Synopsis: Welcome to RIOTSVILLE, USA, a turning point in American history where the protest movements of the late 1960s came into...
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#30
Adjusted Score: 92211%
Critics Consensus: Entertaining and informative, 2nd Chance uses its subject's incredible story to offer a dark reflection of the American dream.
Synopsis: In 1969 a bankrupt pizzeria owner, Richard Davis, invented the modern-day bullet proof vest. To prove that it worked, he...
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#31
Adjusted Score: 103822%
Critics Consensus: A taut thriller that contains a wealth of social commentary, Emily the Criminal is stolen by Aubrey Plaza's terrific work in the title role.
Synopsis: Emily (Aubrey Plaza) is saddled with student debt and locked out of the job market due to a minor criminal...
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#32
Adjusted Score: 93681%
Critics Consensus: Something in the Dirt reaffirms Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as sci-fi storytellers with a distinctive -- and darkly alluring -- vision.
Synopsis: When neighbors John and Levi witness supernatural events in their Los Angeles apartment building, they realize documenting the paranormal could...
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#33
Adjusted Score: 95763%
Critics Consensus: Brought hauntingly to life by Laura Galán's committed performance, Piggy deftly deploys genre thrills in service of sharp social commentary.
Synopsis: With the summer sun beating down on her rural Spanish town, Sara hides away in her parent's butcher shop. A...
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#34
Adjusted Score: -1%
Critics Consensus: As carefully and impressively constructed as its title would suggest, The Cathedral offers an absorbing, impressionistic child's-eye look at family life.
Synopsis: An only child’s meditative, impressionistic account of an American family’s rise and fall over twenty years.
...
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#35
Adjusted Score: 94756%
Critics Consensus: A touching dramedy that wears its heart proudly on its sleeve, Cha Cha Real Smooth further affirms writer-director-star Cooper Raiff as a talent to watch.
Synopsis: Fresh out of college and without a clear life path going forward, 22-year-old Andrew is stuck back at home with...
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#36
Adjusted Score: 78496%
Critics Consensus: Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. has some broad targets but refuses to take cheap shots at them, instead offering a pointed, well-acted satire of organized religion.
Synopsis: Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. is a satirical comedy starring Regina Hall as Trinitie Childs -- the proud first...
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Synopsis: An intimate portrait of rapper Kanye West, charting his life and career filmed over two decades; it showcases both his...
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#38
Adjusted Score: 97468%
Critics Consensus: A striking lesson in empathy, I Didn't See You There offers crucial perspective on the need for inclusive spaces and attitudes.
Synopsis: Spurred by the spectacle of a circus tent that goes up outside his apartment, a disabled filmmaker examines the history...
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#39
Adjusted Score: 86075%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Documentarian Christine Choy tracks down three exiled dissidents from the Tiananmen Square massacre to find closure on an abandoned film...
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#40
Adjusted Score: 98679%
Critics Consensus: Although it may strike some as too artsy for its own good, You Won't Be Alone puts a thoughtfully fresh spin on familiar horror tropes.
Synopsis: Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, YOU WON'T BE ALONE follows a young girl who is...
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#41
Adjusted Score: 91670%
Critics Consensus: With impressive clarity, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing reveals corporate corruption that's enraging in its callousness and frightening in its scope.
Synopsis: An investigation into the two Boeing 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people, exploring both the root causes and the...
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#42
Adjusted Score: 89282%
Critics Consensus: Uneven yet steadily absorbing, Resurrection benefits greatly from Rebecca Hall's outstanding work in the leading role.
Synopsis: Margaret’s life is in order. She is capable, disciplined, and successful. Soon, her teenage daughter, who Margaret raised by herself,...
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#43
Adjusted Score: 95925%
Critics Consensus: Led by Anna Diop's strong central performance, the smartly disquieting Nanny is a promising debut for writer-director Nikyatu Jusu.
Synopsis: In this psychological horror fable of displacement, Aisha (Anna Diop), a woman who recently emigrated from Senegal, is hired to...
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#44
Adjusted Score: 88960%
Critics Consensus: Brian and Charles may test the patience of quirk-resistant viewers, but the innate charm of this odd couple comedy is easy to compute.
Synopsis: BRIAN AND CHARLES follows Brian, a lonely inventor in rural Wales, who spends his days building quirky, unconventional contraptions that...
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#45
Adjusted Score: 90970%
Critics Consensus: As gripping as it is upsetting, Fresh makes a provocative meal out of the horror of modern dating.
Synopsis: FRESH follows Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), who meets the alluring Steve (Sebastian Stan) at a grocery store and -- given her...
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#46
Adjusted Score: 100345%
Critics Consensus: Although its reach occasionally exceeds its grasp, After Yang yields rich rewards for those willing to settle into its low-key wavelength.
Synopsis: When his young daughter's beloved companion -- an android named Yang -- malfunctions, Jake (Colin Farrell) searches for a way...
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#47
Adjusted Score: 94170%
Critics Consensus: Although its story may lack surprises, Watcher benefits from director Chloe Okuno's chilling grip on the material -- and Maika Monroe's terrific work in the leading role.
Synopsis: As a serial killer stalks the city, Julia -- a young actress who just moved to town with her boyfriend...
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#48
Adjusted Score: 79947%
Critics Consensus: Anchored in an authentically relatable approach to its story of self-discovery, Am I OK? is further elevated by strong work from Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno.
Synopsis: Lucy and Jane have been best friends for most of their lives and think they know everything there is to...
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#49
Adjusted Score: 80661%
Critics Consensus: It can be didactic rather than truly suspenseful, but Master is an impressively well-crafted horror outing with a lot on its mind.
Synopsis: At an elite New England university built on the site of a Salem-era gallows hill, three women strive to find...
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#50
Adjusted Score: 87385%
Critics Consensus: Although its focus is somewhat narrow, Call Jane is an entertaining and dramatically effective dramatization of a pivotal chapter in American history.
Synopsis: Chicago, 1968. As the city and the nation are poised on the brink of political upheaval, suburban housewife Joy (Elizabeth...
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#52
Adjusted Score: 77465%
Critics Consensus: Dual brings writer-director Riley Stearns' signature deadpan style to bear on a smart sci-fi comedy that's well-led by Karen Gillan in double roles.
Synopsis: Upon receiving a terminal diagnosis, Sarah opts for a cloning procedure to ease her loss on her friends and family....
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#53
Adjusted Score: 88663%
Critics Consensus: A social satire with razor-sharp teeth, Speak No Evil offers a darkly delicious treat for fans of misanthropic thrillers.
Synopsis: On a vacation in Tuscany, two families -- one Danish, one Dutch -- meet and become fast friends. Months later,...
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#54
Adjusted Score: 74552%
Critics Consensus: Although its subject calls for a more incisive treatment, Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power is a worthy primer on the male gaze in cinema.
Synopsis: Brainwashed is based on director Nina Menkes's cinematic presentation, Sex and Power, the Visual Language of Cinema, that uses film...
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#55
Adjusted Score: -1%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Starring:
#56
Adjusted Score: 87514%
Critics Consensus: Breaking struggles to effectively convey its messages, but its noble intentions are well served by John Boyega's electrifying performance.
Synopsis: When Marine Veteran Brian Brown-Easley is denied support from Veterans Affairs, financially desperate and running out of options, he takes...
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#57
Adjusted Score: 71261%
Critics Consensus: Its characters may be hard to take, but When You Finish Saving the World makes some cogent sociopolitical points.
Synopsis: Evelyn (Julianne Moore) has devoted herself to helping people in hard times, but she struggles to connect with her son...
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#58
Adjusted Score: 80965%
Critics Consensus: Framing Agnes may be frustratingly uneven as a work of cinematic storytelling, but that's often outweighed by its thoughtful expansion of established historical narrative.
Synopsis: The pseudonymous Agnes was a pioneering transgender woman who participated in an infamous gender health study conducted at UCLA in...
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#59
Adjusted Score: 74405%
Critics Consensus: Meet Me in the Bathroom never digs too deep beneath the surface of the musical scene it commemorates, but it's a reasonably effective time capsule regardless.
Synopsis: Inspired by Lizzy Goodman’s bestselling book, MEET ME IN THE BATHROOM is an immersive archival journey through the explosive New...
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#61
Adjusted Score: 71170%
Critics Consensus: Although it isn't as effortlessly engaging as the best content on the platform it's investigating, TikTok, Boom. offers a thoughtful look at modern social media.
Synopsis: Dissecting one of the most influential platforms of the contemporary social media landscape, TIKTOK, BOOM. examines the security issues, global...
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#62
Adjusted Score: -1%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Cédric (42) loses his job after a sexist joke that goes viral. Encouraged by his brother -- a well-meaning nerd...
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#63
Adjusted Score: -1%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: After the death of her husband, a young woman travels to Japan to find solace in an old friend. But...
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#64
Adjusted Score: 52958%
Critics Consensus: A series of promising ideas lost in scattershot execution, Sharp Stick stands as a disappointing setback for writer-director Lena Dunham.
Synopsis: Sarah Jo (Kristine Froseth) is a sensitive and naïve 26-year-old living on the fringes of Hollywood with her disillusioned mother...
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#65
Adjusted Score: 31436%
Critics Consensus: Alice's well-intentioned attempt to reckon with racism sadly misses the mark on multiple levels, although Keke Palmer's performance remains a consistent bright spot.
Synopsis: Alice (Keke Palmer) yearns for freedom as an enslaved person on a rural Georgia plantation under its brutal and disturbed...
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