Festiville

Festival coverage, lists and news from the Letterboxd crew.
Still from Emma Seligman’s Bottoms, premiering at the 2023 SXSW Film Festival (March 10—19)

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Best of Sundance 2023

From leaping luchadors to chaotic bisexuals, past lives to eternal memories, our Sundance team selects the highlights of this year’s fest.

Liked reviews

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★★★½

Surprised at how much I enjoyed this. It’s so nice to see pros like Matt, Ben, and Viola at work. And Chris Messina is disgustingly sexy as a corporate douche.

It’s basically Moneyball meets Argo, with lots of great paper-flipping, pen-clicking, telephone picking up and hanging up sound effects, plus Matt Damon is finally fat (Fat Damon).  Those are all selling points right there.  On the other hand, athlete hero worship is something I don’t relate to at all, so when the movie treats Michael Jordan like Martin Luther King, Jr. it feels like a bit much.  Growing up in Utah, I was rooting against him, and even got a stern talking-to…

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★★★½

Old school heart-on-its-sleeves crowd-pleaser that hits all the familiar beats but does so with an electric ensemble and snappy dialogue. It’s essentially meetings and nerdy basketball talk for two hours yet is so propulsive and consistently engaging—even when the filmmaking is rather elementary and its messaging largely undercooked. Everyone is just having the time of their lives here and it’s all a joy to watch. Affleck has a winner on his hands.

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★★★½

Was nothing to change the world, but a fun film to watch. Could easily see this becoming one of my comfort films, and had some great laughs in there!

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★★★½

Super good performances, standout from Viola Davis.

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★★★★

Sharp writing, breezy pacing, and every actor looking like they’re having the time of their life. Could have watched another two hours of this.

SXSW Film #10

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★★★★

when Ben Affleck introduced the film he seemed the happiest i’ve seen him in years, and now having seen it…it makes sense!!

Like getting on the biggest coaster in the park and realizing it’s maybe more intense than you’d expect. Unrelenting horror madness with a couple particularly thrilling sequences (peephole one stood out to me). Not my kind of movie, but full of the stuff horror sickos will scream for.