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The Sundance Film Festival may have already come and gone, but I’m still ruminating on the queer films I caught at this year’s event.
From queer documentaries and dramas to chilling tales ripped from history and our own internal demons, once again Park City, Utah showed up and showed out on the silver screen.Rock Springs
Rock Springs
Sundance
Out actress Kelly Marie Tran has quickly become one of those stars whose name in the credits earns a film must-watch status, and her latest, Rock Springs, continues to solidify that. The folk-horror-meets-body-horror film follows Emily (Tran), who moves her family to Rock Springs, Wyoming, following the death of her husband. She is unaware of the town’s dark and bloody history, which writer-director Vera Miao took inspiration from a true story of the The Rock Springs Massacre of 1885. The film is melancholy and bizarre, infuriating and hopeful, and haunting in the best way.
Rock Springs is currently seeking distribution.
Saccharine
Saccharine
Shudder
Writer and director Natalie Erika James made her return to Sundance, having previously wowed—and emotionally devastated—audiences with her film Relic in 2020. Once again, the writer-director delivers a chilling film that knows exactly how to poke and prod at our most sensitive parts. This time, she delves into the dark heart of weight loss, identity, and queer desire through the lens of body and spectral horror in the era of GLP-1s. The commentary is biting and the scares, grotesque. It’s a meaty topic, and thankfully—perhaps even miraculously—it proves not to be more than this filmmaker can chew.
Saccharine has been acquired by Shudder and IFC and will be released in theaters later this year.
Jaripeo
Jaripeo
Sundance
The best documentaries are those that offer audiences a window into a story, a person, or a moment they might otherwise never know or understand. While Jaripeo proves to be more of a glimpse than a deep dive into the hypermasculine, rural rodeo culture of Mexico from which it takes its name, the execution makes it well worth a watch. Co-directors Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig bring us into the secret queer world of these rodeos, where communities gather to revel in the festivities while gay men quietly sneak away for clandestine sexual rendezvous. It’s dreamy, atmospheric, and experimental.
Jaripeo is currently seeking distribution.
The Undertone
The Undertone
A24
While this film may not be queer, I absolutely loved it, so it’s sneaking onto this list. The film follows Evy, a young woman who spends her days caring for her dying mother and her nights recording her podcast. Along with her co-host, she begins listening to a series of mysterious audio files that start blurring the line between reality and fiction, with terrifying results. The standout element of the film is its stellar soundscape, which is chilling in a way I have rarely experienced. This marks Ian Tuason’s directorial debut—and what a way to make a mark.
The Undertone has been acquired by A24 and will debut in theaters on March 13.
