When the dust had cleared and the multiple standing ovations were over, Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation sold to Fox Searchlight for a record-setting $17.5 million, officially becoming the biggest film at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and an instant Oscar candidate.
But is it good?
Short answer: yes, it's good. And while the film -- about the real-life story of Nat Turner, who led a grisly slave rebellion back in the 1830s -- does feel like the product of a first-time filmmaker versus a seasoned veteran, The Birth of a Nation is just as powerful and necessary as 12 Years a Slave. Nate Parker also achieved something we've never seen in all our years attending Sundance: a standing ovation BEFORE the film even started. (See an image below.)
Obviously the crowd was super charged for this movie, especially at a time when controversy is brewing over this year's Oscars favoring white nominees in its major categories. But the movie is worth the hype, and Parker -- who quit acting for two years in order to raise the funds to make Birth of a Nation -- clearly pours everything into a film that's most compelling when Nat Turner shows the double-edged sword hidden within scripture in the Bible. How it hurt, how it helped, and how it may have been one of the most powerful weapons during a time of inexplicable horrors in our country.
Here's my 15-second review.
Four more Sundance movies people are buzzing about:
1. Captain Fantastic
Viggo Mortensen plays a father whose off-the-grid lifestyle is put in jeopardy when he and his six children leave the woods to attend their mother's funeral. With a, well, fantastic script, direction and performances, Captain Fantastic is a terrific family drama that's got just as much smarts as it does heart (and weirdness).
2. Equity
Breaking Bad's Anna Gunn drops some vicious f-bombs in this tense, cat-and-mouse Wall Street thriller that freshens up its setting by featuring sharp-tongued, fiercely independent female characters jockeying for power positions in a world typically dominated by men.
3. Tickled
This documentary, about a New Zealand journalist who trips down a creepy rabbit hole when he investigates an underground tickling competition, sounds hilarious and ridiculous on paper, but is actually more about intimidation tactics and deep corporate pockets than it is about tickling. Still, Tickled brings you into a funky world that's both real and terrifying and definitely worth learning more about.
4. Yoga Hosers
Kevin Smith (Clerks, Red State) opened up the Sundance premiere of his latest film,Yoga Hosers, with a passionate 15-minute speech that proved the writer-director is still one of the most entertaining public speakers out there. Watch our interview with Smith and his Yoga Hosers cast below.
Meanwhile, the film itself is hit and miss, with a story that could be stronger and jokes that do last a little too long, but the chemistry between its stars -- Smith's daughter Harley Quinn and Johnny Depp's daughter Lily-Rose -- is dynamite, and proves these two real-life besties need to be in more movies together.
For more on Yoga Hosers, watch my 15-second review below
