Sundance Film Festival 2025: All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews
While the Sundance Film Festival mulls a big move for 2027, the 2025 program, its 41st edition, kicked off January 23 in Utah, and you can look below for all of Deadline’s reviews from the fest.
Sundance founder Robert Redford promised that audiences “can expect a 2025 program that showcases varied and vibrant filmmaking globally.” Running through February 2, the lineup includes more than 85 features and six episodic projects set to screen in Park City, Salt Lake City and online.
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Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest. Click on the movie’s title to read our full take.
Atropia
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter: Hailey Gates
Cast: Alia Shawkat, Callum Turner, Chlo? Sevigny, Tim Heidecker, Jane Levy
Deadline’s takeaway: Ripe with aughts nostalgia around the OG iPod, frosted lip gloss and Guy Fieri’s favorite flame-printed shirts, Atropia is ultimately a clever meditation on the atmosphere of war and division that has become increasingly commonplace in the U.S. since 9/11.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Section: Premieres
Director: James Griffiths
Cast: Tom Basden, Tim Key, Sian Clifford, Akemnji Ndifornyen, Carey Mulligan
Deadline’s takeaway: The snap, crackle and pop of vinyl marks the start of The Ballad of Wallis Island, a music-themed rom-com that’s half-whimsical com and half-unrequited rom. In the absence of a new film by John Carney, who has the template nailed down by now, audiences at Sundance lapped it up.
Bubble & Squeak
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter: Evan Twohy
Cast: Himesh Patel, Sarah Goldberg, Steven Yeun, Dave Franco, Matt Berry
Deadline’s takeaway: It’s a very Sundance kind of funny that goes all in on a very bizarre premise. If you go with it, it will take you all the way, but for those with a low tolerance for cheerfully madcap bonkersness, its lean 97 minutes may well seem like an eternity.
Bunnylovr
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter: Katarina Zhu
Cast: Katarina Zhu, Rachel Sennott, Austin Amelio, Perry Yung, Jack Kilmer
Deadline’s takeaway: Inspired by Zhu’s own relationship with her absent father and the other men in her life, Bunnylovr takes audiences on a cathartic journey through the ephemeral experience of floating about online while seeking intimacy in the digital age
By Design
Section: Next
Director-screenwriter: Amanda Kramer
Cast: Juliette Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Melanie Griffith, Samantha Mathis, Robin Tunney, Udo Kier
Deadline’s takeaway: The plot never entirely goes out of the window, but it certainly is not uppermost in the director’s mind. It’s not commercial fare, but festival audiences surely will respond to By Deisgn’s open-ended ideas about consumerism, status and the baggage we accumulate both emotional and physical.
Jimpa
Section: Premieres
Director: Sophie Hyde
Screenwriters: Sophie Hyde, Matthew Cormack
Cast: Olivia Colman, John Lithgow, Aud Mason-Hyde, Daniel Henshall, Kate Box, Eamon Farren, Zoe Love Smith, Romana Vrede, Hans Kesting
Deadline’s takeaway: Above all else, Jimpa first and foremost is about family. The film belongs to Lithgow, who gets one of his best outings in recent years as a self-centered man determined to do things his way, no matter the cost, but still with a loving heart.
Kiss of the Spider Woman
Section: Premieres
Director-screenwriter: Bill Condon
Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, Tonatiuh, Bruno Bichir, Josefina Scaglione, Aline Mayagoitia
Deadline’s takeaway: After a year filled with intriguing musicals from Wicked to Emilia Pérez, Condon carries on the tradition of a genre he has mastered before on a larger scale, now demonstrating it is still fresh and alive and relevant even on the budget of independent filmmaking.
Last Days
Section: Premieres
Director: Justin Lin
Screenplay: Ben Ripley
Cast: Sky Yang, Radhika Apte, Ken Leung, Toby Wallace, Marny Kennedy, Clair Price, Ciara Bravo, Naveen Andrew
Deadline’s takeaway: For Lin, the film about ill-fated missionary John Chau is an interesting hybrid of everything his career at different points has been to this moment, a chance to pull off a true-life character study and blend it with elements of the kind of big-screen adventure.
The Legend of Ochi
Section: Family Matinees
Director-screenwriter: Isaiah Saxon
Cast: Helena Zengel, Willem Dafoe, Emily Watson, Finn Wolfhard
Deadline’s takeaway: The Legend of Ochi is a throwback, one of those films clearly inspired by more adventurous PG entertainments of the past and never talking down to its intended audience. As a result, it is breath of fresh air and a stunning visual treat that will appeal well beyond the youngest members in the household.
Love, Brooklyn
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director: Rachael Holder
Screenwriter: Paul Zimmerman
Cast: André Holland, Nicole Beharie, DeWanda Wise, Roy Wood Jr., Cassandra Freeman, Cadence Reese
Deadline’s takeaway: The lead character in this tender love letter to the borough about letting go is faced with multiple paths at a trying time in his life. Zimmerman’s script unpacks contemporary dynamics of sex, relationships and family.
OBEX
Section: Next
Director: Albert Birney
Cast: Albert Birney, Callie Hernandez, Frank Mosley
Deadline’s takeaway: OBEX plays out like a whimsical Videodrome, with major nods to the mysterious, industrial shadows of David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, though Birney doesn’t really go all-out into horror, sci-fi or even fantasy, for that matter. Like a lot of the genre films debuting at Sundance this year, its is a peculiar mash-up of influences.
Oh, Hi!
Section: Premieres
Director: Sophie Brooks
Cast: Molly Gordon, Logan Lerman, Geraldine Viswanathan, John Reynolds
Deadline’s takeaway: Although Brooks’ follow-up to the charming 2017 feature The Boy Downstairs has the recipe for an enjoyable romantic comedy, Oh, Hi! ultimately struggles to find its footing.
Omaha
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director: Cole Webley
Screenwriter: Robert Machoian
Cast: John Magaro, Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis, Talia Balsam
Deadline’s takeaway: In this family road-trip pic set during the 2008 financial crisis, one disturbing sequence after another is played out on the morose face of John Magaro, who is clearly keeping the truth from them — and us — of what this journey is actually all about.
Opus
Section: Midnight
Director-screenwriter: Mark Anthony Green
Cast: Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, Amber Midthunder
Deadline’s takeaway: Opus is a poignant, self-aware critique of how new generations consume media and worship at the toxic stan culture when “anyone could be a god at any moment.” It’s ultimately hard not to find the film relatable after a week of placating to some of our time’s most talented actors and filmmakers at Sundance.
Plainclothes
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter: Carmen Emmi
Cast: Tom Blyth, Russell Tovey, Maria Dizzia, Christian Cooke, Gabe Fazio, Amy Forsyth
Deadline’s takeaway: The smoldering chemistry between the younger and older man is especially good as a young man wrestling with his identity. But this is not strictly a coming-out movie, it’s a relatable story about infatuation and heartbreak, most of it communicated with painfully raw emotion by these star-crossed lovers’ eyes.
Rabbit Trap
Section: Midnight
Director-screenwriter: Bryn Chaney
Cast: Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen, Jade Croot
Deadline’s takeaway: Bryn Chaney uses Celtic folklore and the intimacy of sound to unpack a darkness that some might struggle to put in words.
Rebuilding
Section: Premieres
Director-screenwriter: Max Walker-Silverman
Cast: Josh O’Connor, Meghann Fahy, Lily La Torre, Kali Reis, Amy Madigan, Jefferson Mays
Deadline’s takeaway: In the end, Rebuilding gives us faith and hope for the human race and its ability to overcome in the face of the worst life can throw at us. It’s inspiring stuff.
Ricky
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter: Rashad Frett
Cast: Stephan James, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Titus Welliver, Maliq Johnson, Imani Lewis, Simbi Kali
Deadline’s takeaway: Stephan James is the centerpiece of this more-than-promising debut, giving a generous, humble performance that ensures the real message of the movie gets through. As one streetwise character says, “When we get locked up, our families get locked up too.”
Sly Lives! (AKA The Burden of Black Genius)
Section: Premieres
Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
Deadline’s takeaway: Sly Lives! has two things going on, the first being a celebration of a genius singer-songwriter-producer who never really made it into the pantheon of greats. The second part of Questlove’s thesis: fame did not sit easily on Sly Stone’s shoulders.
Sorry, Baby
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter: Eva Victor
Cast: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie, Louis Cancelmi, Kelly McCormack, Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch, ER Fightmaster, Marc Carver, Liz Bishop, Natalie Rotter-Laitman, Alison Wachtler, David T. Curtis, Jordan Mendoza, Conor Sweeney
Deadline’s takeaway: If Sorry, Baby doesn’t find a major distributor who nurtures it with the care it deserves, I am going to quit because this movie has to be out there in the world for many reasons. Certainly chief among those is the emergence of a filmmaker to savor.
The Thing With Feathers
Section: Premieres
Director-screenwriter: Dylan Southern
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Richard Boxall, Henry Boxall, Eric Lampaert, Vinette Robinson, Sam Spruell
Deadline’s takeaway: As a work of art, The Thing with Feathers is something special, a fantastic calling card for an auteur in waiting. As a movie, however, it won’t (and maybe can’t) be for everyone; an essay on mortality that beguiles with its beauty and stings with the truth.
Together
Section: Midnight
Director-screenwriter: Michael Shanks
Cast: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman
Deadline’s takeaway: A worthy follow-up to Franco’s 2020 feature directorial debut The Rental, which stars Brie in a chilling horror about a vacation gone wrong, the pair is at their best when drawing from their own chemistry and history to bring Shanks’ dark romance to life.
Twinless
Section: U.S. Dramatic Competition
Director-screenwriter: James Sweeney
Cast: Dylan O’Brien, James Sweeney, Lauren Graham, Aisling Franciosi, Tasha Smith, Chris Perfetti
Deadline’s takeaway: In James Sweeney‘s sophomore feature, he navigates loneliness, anxiety, depression and other common millennial pastimes through an equally comedic and heartfelt arc … complete with a few “WTF” moments.
The Wedding Banquet
Section: Premieres
Director: Andrew Ahn
Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan, Joan Chen, Youn Yuh-jung
Deadline’s takeaway: The Wedding Banquet‘s unapologetic approach to all the which-ways of human attraction might be a bit full-on for mainstream audiences, but don’t be surprised to see Ahn’s film pop up in the awards conversation this time next year.
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