With the 2019 Sundance Film Festival now behind us, it’s time to take a look at the best movies we saw at this year’s festival. Of course, with a festival as large as Sundance and with only three critics (and Perri Nemiroff’s time divided into also doing a bunch of interviews), you can’t get to everything, and there were some acclaimed films we missed like Clemency, Honeyland, and Cold Case Hammarskjöld. But between Matt Goldberg, Adam Chitwood, and Perri Nemiroff, we saw quite a few movies, and what’s more, most of those movies were good! This was a successful Sundance with a strong lineup of films, and so it was a bit of a challenge narrowing down our list to just the ten best.

Below you can see our ten favorite films of this year’s Sundance Film Festival and excerpts from our reviews.

10) Little Monsters

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Image via Sundance

From Perri Nemiroff's review:

Little Monsters is festival midnight line-up gold. It’s gory, irreverent, hilarious, and downright electric. It’ll also likely play well as it continues its distribution journey, hopefully screening for packed theaters, but also as a highly re-watchable riot on Hulu. The premise is catchy and Nyong’o is truly phenomenal, but there’s only so far Little Monsters can coast on those two draws alone, and that’s where director Abe Forsythe deserves a major round of applause. He takes those two high-appeal assets and rather than lean on them, he brings so much more out of them by infusing Little Monsters with style, spot-on humor, and a surprisingly successful dose of heart, too.

9) Honey Boy

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Image via Amazon Studios

From Adam Chitwood's review:

Jupe is a revelation as the young Otis here, displaying a wisdom and emotional maturity beyond his years. That’s part and parcel with how child actors are forced to grow up too soon, but Jupe’s performance is positively heartbreaking. There’s a subtlety to Otis’ emotions that shines through thanks to Jupe, and he and LaBeouf work incredibly well together as they conjure the film’s central relationship.

8) David Crosby: Remember My Name

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Image via Sundance Institute

From Adam Chitwood's review:

The wildly compelling and surprisingly emotional documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name finds Crosby looking back on his life as his impending mortality encroaches, getting brutally honest with interviewer/producer Cameron Crowe about the many mistakes he’s made in the past, and why he can’t stop making music. It’s as candid a documentary about a “celebrity” personality as I’ve ever seen, and Crowe’s probing questions lead to genuine insights about the brevity of human life.

7) The Farewell

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Image via Sundance

From Matt Goldberg's review:

The Farewell is the kind of smart, sweet, heartwarming movie that I hope people will seek out.  It has great performances and a charming tone, but it also feels like it’s letting us take a view at an East/West divide at how families relate to each other. Wang isn’t trying to say that one is better than the other, but that there’s value in the difference, and that while behaviors may differ, the love is unmistakable.

6) Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary

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Image via Sundance

From Matt Goldberg's review:

Untitled Amazing Johnathan Documentary ends up being one of the more instructive examples of the documentary form, and I’m eager to hear what documentarians think about it. While the film starts out as sympathetic to Johnathan, eventually its sympathies have to lie with Berman, who is struggling to overcome multiple roadblocks just to have his movie exist. It’s clear that Berman always wants to be as honest as possible with his audience, but that honesty can only extend as far as those who are being honest with him. Eventually, he has to ask tough questions not just of Johnathan but also of himself and explain why he wanted to make this documentary in the first place. It also raises the question if making a documentary about a dying man, whose death would provide an “ending”, is exploitative and necessary.

5) Velvet Buzzsaw

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Image via Netflix

From Matt Goldberg's review:

The performances are deliciously vile with most of the characters being out for only their own ends. It’s a credit to the cast that they all lean into the venality of their characters, inviting us to despise them. As always, Gyllenhaal is magnificent, and he perfectly walks the line between Morf’s desperation and desolation. He’s a pathetic creature, but never comes off like a parody of a critic or like someone who lacks an understanding of what criticism entails. If the movie only revolved around Morf, it would be a success, but thankfully Gilroy makes use of his deep bench with Russo, Ashton, and the rest of the cast turning in compelling performances in service of the filmmaker’s vision.

4) Late Night

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Image via Amazon

From Matt Goldberg's review:

It’s easy to get on board with Newbury and Molly because not only is the writing so strong, but also because Thompson and Kaling are fantastic. While the Academy doesn’t often notice comic-leaning performances, I truly believe Thompson is Oscar-worthy as Newbury. The way she balances little moments and looks with impeccable comic timing on her one-liners is astounding. It’s no secret that Thompson is an incredible actress, but her turn as Newbury is one of her finest performances that’s perfectly counterbalanced by Kaling as Molly. Kaling could have given herself a lovable ingénue who wakes up the writing staff with her brilliance, but Molly is defined by work ethic and determination rather than just her jokes. Her enthusiasm makes her a foil for Newbury’s dry wit, and the actresses compliment each other beautifully.

3) Brittany Runs a Marathon

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Image via Amazon Studios

From Matt Goldberg's review:

Bell carries the movie beautifully. The actress has always been a scene-stealer (I start to crack up every time I think of her fight scene with Jonah Hill in 22 Jump Street), but she really gets to shine in a lead role that not only uses her incredible comic talents, but also shows she can easily tackle the dramatic side of Brittany’s story. We can see how Brittany retreats from close relationships as well as her growth to accepting her new life as a runner. Bell has to sell a performance not just of physical transformation, but also emotional transformation, and she does it perfectly.

2) The Report

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Image via Sundance

From Matt Goldberg's review:

I never felt like I was lost during The Report because I was always on the edge of my seat, eager to learn the next revelation and to see Jones fight back against anyone who would like to see the truth covered up. The film takes no prisoners, and while the CIA is cast as the villain, no one really gets away clean here. The Obama Administration serves as the antagonists at various points as we learn why they were reluctant to spend their political capital investigating the previous administration despite their obvious guilt. Burns doesn’t include these notes as a “gotcha” moment or as some ploy for bipartisanship. The purpose of The Report is accountability and why it matters.

1) Blinded by the Light

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Image via Sundance Institute

From Adam Chitwood's review:

So yes, this is a coming of age story and a film about forging one’s own path in life, but not quite like any you’ve seen before. Technically Blinded by the Light is a musical. A number of Springsteen’s songs play throughout the film, usually in diegetic form as Javed is glued to his Walkman. The “Born to Run” sequence in particular is pure, unfiltered joy on screen. Director Gurinder Chadha, who marks her first English-language film since Bend It Like Beckham, brings this unique story to life in brilliantly elegant fashion. The musical sequences aren’t fantastical or otherworldly precisely because Springsteen’s songs aren’t about escaping reality, but about coping and making it through hard times. There’s a grounded nature to the songs performed in the film, not dissimilar to the way the songs were presented in another incredible music-centric Sundance indie called Sing Street. Though don’t get me wrong, Javed doesn’t “perform” these songs in a traditional musical sense. Think of it as the greatest karaoke or bar sing-a-long movie ever made.