As some of you may know, I’m going to be attending Sundance 2019 as press. This is my first time covering the festival. Hell, this is the first festival I’m covering for the site. With Sundance 2019 being a few days away, I have a ton of films on my radar and a lot of press to do as well. I’ve already seen a film prior to flying to Utah that blew me away and that review will be released in the coming weeks. But for now, here are 10 movies premiering in Sundance 2019 that I’m excited to see (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER).

1) The Farewell

In 2018, Awkwafina leapt onto the big screen, starring in two of the summer’s most successful hits (Ocean’s 8, Crazy Rich Asians) featured with incredible ensembles. The only thing is that she always played supporting roles as the comic relief. Though she did steal the show in Crazy Rich Asians, every second she was on-screen, especially when she dropped her PG-13 f-bomb which had me in uproarious laughter, I was curious about how it would look if Awkwafina led her own feature. Well, thanks to writer/director Lulu Wang, that chance has come to life in a very promising narrative centering on the theme of family values, tradition, and love.

2) Imaginary Order

Wendi McLendon-Covey in a dramatic role. That is all I need to say. That is all I need to hear to get me in my seat. While, yeah, the synopsis on the site describes it as a “deliciously witty and disarmingly funny film,” the photos that they provide shows a taste of the range we’ll see with Covey in ways we’ve never seen before. This feels like a total antithesis to “The Goldbergs” where, instead of a light family comedy, you get something a bit darker. Watch writer/director Debra Eisenstadt’s profile video as she describes the film. If this doesn’t hook you in, I don’t know what will.

3) Ask Dr. Ruth

In my youth, I watched a ton of PBS Kids. One of my favorite shows on the afternoon program block was Between the Lions. If you’re around my age and used to watch this show, you possibly know what I’m alluding to with this. So, every once in a while on the show, which focused on basic English lessons such as prefixes and conjunctions presented through various sketches similar to the format of Sesame Street, they’d have a sketch called “The Word Doctor: with Dr. Ruth.” Here’s a clip to show you what I’m talking about.

Watching this now, I realize this clip is one long innuendo, but I was five years old. I didn’t get it. When I saw the trailer for Hulu’s Ask Dr. Ruth on my Twitter feed, a rush of nostalgia hit and I didn’t realize this until I saw the trailer but DR. RUTH SPECIALIZED IN SEX!

So yeah, I’m excited for this because I had absolutely no idea who she was outside of Between the Lions and I can’t wait to learn of the impact she had on society in her career.

4) Velvet Buzzsaw

Truly, I wasn’t aware that Dan Gilroy was making another movie until I was scrolling through stuff at the festival board and screamed “DAN GILROY HAS A NEW MOVIE?!” Back in 2014, I saw Nightcrawler and, long story short, it blew my mind and caused me to feel nothing but fascination for Jake Gyllenhaal. He was already a great actor beforehand, but this was a defining moment that made me enamored with him. Personally, it was my favorite movie of that year, primarily because of his chilling performance combined with Gilroy’s writing and direction. Then, anguish came along, for it kept getting snubbed at every award show! Now we’ve got Gilroy’s third feature and it’s for Netflix. His sophomore feature “Roman Israel Esq.” starring Denzel Washington was very underwhelming (if not disappointing) mostly because it was very by-the-numbers in its synopsis. Here, it looks like he’s back to the skin-crawling, uneasy eeriness that we loved in his directorial debut. Plus, Rene Russo, who was also in Nightcrawler, stars in Velvet Buzzsaw too? You then have Daveed Diggs, Toni Collette, John “I’m contracted to only Netflix movies” Malkovich, and Natalia Dyer.

And hey, it comes out on Netflix the same week as its premiere so you can watch when it debuts on Feb 1st.

5) Apollo 11

Last year NEON dropped this teaser with minimum information bedsides beautiful archival footage.

My curiosity piqued and I need closure to “First Man,” which I wasn’t a fan of. I’ll leave you with that, heheheh.

6) Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Serial killer Zac Efron? Marking him as the second Disney Channel star to portray a serial killer (Ross Lynch beat him to it by portraying Jeffrey Dahmer in My Friend Dahmer), just hearing that Zac Efron is taking on the role of Ted Bundy is hella intriguing. The description note even dubs his performance as one “that could redefine his career.” There aren’t many details regarding the film but Zac Efron as Ted Bundy should be all that you need.

7) Big Time Adolescence

One of the primary film genres I attach myself to is ‘coming of age’. Several years back, actor Griffin Gluck starred in what I considered to be a good coming of age family comedy called Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life. By the title, you can easily figure out the grade year he was trying to overcome. Now, he’s in high school and Big Time Adolescence focuses on that. From the looks of it, I’m guessing it might be a buddy comedy because the synopsis states he forms a friendship with a college dropout who used to date his older sister. That college dropout is played by Pete Davidson who is a truly funny guy. It could be a comedy with a lot of heart and I’m eager to see it.

8) Hala

As aforementioned, coming of age stories are my favorite genre. The narratives that I personally resonate with in the genre are the ones where the conflicts lie in a lead character having to decide whether to follow their cultural path or chase their personal desires. That is what you get with Hala, written and directed by Minhal Baig who is a story editor on Bojack Horseman, which is my personal favorite series to date. Just reading what it’s about immediately gave me the sense of how personal this story is to the director even before watching her profile video. A story focused on a girl discovering her sexuality while trying to hide it from her traditional Muslim family? Sounds incredible. Mandy Hoffman, who brilliantly composed the underrated 2017 A24 film The Lovers, provides the score. The actress portraying the titular character is Geraldine Viswanathan who you might recognize from Blockers. And if you read my review on Blockers, I go on a tangent on how much she made me laugh my ass off with all of the one liners she provides. She’s now starring in a TBS comedy alongside Steve Buscemi and Daniel Radcliffe and:

If you know me, you know I stan anyone in my generation thriving in their careers and making a name for themselves, like Timothee Chalamet.

9) Late Night

MINDY KALING WROTE A MOVIE!! You heard right! Mindy Kaling wrote a movie. What else needs to be said? Kaling has proven for over a decade how talented she is, not only as an actress, but as a writer as well. She’s written episodes for The Office, The Mindy Project, etc. Late Night will be her debut as a feature film screenwriter. The film centers on Emma Thompson as a late night host who hires a female writer (Kaling) to join her all-male writers room. Directed by Nisha Ganatra in her first feature film since 2005, this is one I am seriously anticipating.

10) The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

For many years, actor Chiwetel Ejiofor has blown us away with his performances. He has now written/directed a movie and I’m so excited. Ejiofor is quadruple-threatening this time around as a producer, writer, director, and actor. Based on the autobiography by innovator and engineer William Kamkwamba, Ejiofor pioneers the story of how one man saved his entire village from famine.

These are just a few entries of the many movies I’ll be seeing in the coming weeks so please subscribe to the newsletter form below for coverage updates, subscribe to my patreon for exclusives, and thank you for reading.

Now I leave you with a personal music playlist for anyone else flying out for the festival and need some great tunes to lift your spirits!