‘Speak No Evil’ Review: Christian Tafdrup’s Deranged Horror Film is a Masterful Exercise in Tension [Sundance]

What do you have to say to the Russian people in the event of your death? Filmmaker Daniel Roher (“Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band,”) asks his subject, political Russian dissident, Alexei Navalny, at the beginning of his engrossing new doc “Navalny.” “C’mon,” Navalny scoffs, dismissively, as if highly attuned to Roher’s “gotcha” question he could frame posthumously in the case of the political agitator’s untimely death.

Directed by Paula Eislet and Tonya Lewis Lee (Spike Lee’s producer and partner), the documentary “Aftershock” chronicles the dismal maternal mortality rate that women of color face in the United States medical system. The statistics are shameful, pointing to a systemic racist indifference, and the documentary chronicles the staggering number of times that expectant mothers entering into hospitals simply do not come out alive due to a lack of care and sensitivity.

TikTok is an undeniable force in our society. It has the power to launch music careers, house the homeless, and unite people worldwide.

In 1973, at the age of 23, Korean immigrant Chol Soo Lee was arrested. An outsider within San Francisco’s Chinatown, Lee was charged with first-degree murder after being accused of shooting a Chinese gang member in the back at point-blank range.

A dreamlike exploration of toxic masculinity, new motherhood, and sexual awakening, Quebecois actor-director Monia Chokri debuted her second feature, “Babysitter,” at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. While it’s unclear what “Babysitter” is actually trying to say — or even what its characters learn over the course of its plot — the film is so thoroughly sardonic that it gleefully resists any deeper meaning.

“My Old School,” a documentary by Jono McLeod, opens with an enticing montage. Interviewees speak ominously about a mysterious character who’s done something strange — a man who may even be unhinged enough to have changed his identity through facial reconstruction.

Alice begins with a blood-curdling scream. As the film comes into focus, the audience meets Alice (Keke Palmer), an enslaved woman on the run. Before her destination is revealed, the film pulls us back in time to a plantation in rural Georgia.

college before being thrust into the “real world.” The uncertainty ahead leads many of us to cling to those last joyous weeks with friends in a setting that has turned into something of a home. In Carey Williams’ outstanding Emergency, adapted from his short film of the same name, best friends and roommates Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and Sean (RJ Cyler) are about to embark on an epic night touring the school’s frat parties with hopes of making it into the Black Student Union’s Hall of Fame. However, what appears to be a comedy about Black men in their final weeks at their predominantly white college becomes a gripping commentary on racism and humanity.  Kunle and Sean could not be more different.

They Didn’t Have to Kill Him.” That’s the name of Aaron Gell’s 2018 article on which Abi Damaris Corbin’s debut feature film 892 is based. The hauntingly dark film centers on the real-life story of Lance Corporal Brian Brown Easley, who on a July day in 2017 walked into a Wells Fargo bank based in the suburbs of Atlanta and held it up, taking several hostages. In a stunning performance actor John Boyega, steps into the shoes of the desperate former Marine who, having exhausted all of his resources, made a desperate choice to get the money owed to him.

If you’ve never been to Sundance before, you can expect a lot of fresh features from oft-marginalized directors and — at least these days — films shot with square aspect ratios. “Girl Picture,” a delightful, Finnish coming-of-age tale by the director Alli Haapasalo, fulfills both criteria.

God’s Country opens, a woman walks into a dimly lit crematorium. This initial scene snaps the eerie tone of Julian Higgins’s film into place. As the world of the film opens up, the viewers learn that the lone woman at the crematorium is Sandra (Thandiwe Newton).

COVID-19) pandemic, modern-day motherhood and the unequal burden of parenting that often sits with women has never been more apparent. However, many women, particularly women of color who come to this country, continue to raise the children of affluent white people. In Nikyatu Jusu’s feature film debut, Nanny, one caregiver grapples with the challenges of her position while striving for her version of the American dream. Aisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese immigrant finding her footing in New York City.

who died in September at age 54, is the best part of the new movie “892” — the “Wire” actor’s final film role.The edgy Williams is perfection as a crisis negotiator during a dangerous standoff. As his character Eli attempts to diffuse a hostage situation, he is measured, conversational and, most vitally, believable.

Annika Pham Scandinavia’s leading sales outfit TrustNordisk has beefed up its Nordic film slate with the culinary doc “Nordic By Nature,” about the world’s most remote food destination – the two-star Michelin restaurant Koks in the Faroe Islands.The Danish film “Nordic By Nature” has already opened up festivals and audiences’ appetites, world premiering at San Sebastian and segueing to the Newport Beach Film Fest where the pic won an Audience Award for best culinary film.In his second doc in a Michelin Star series after “Michelin Stars – Tales from the Kitchen,” director Rasmus Dinesen captures the poetic mind of the young Faroese chef Poul Andrias Ziska, and his connection to the rugged local natural habitat and ancient traditions. “’We are excited to represent this fascinating film which gives us a unique and tasteful insight into the exquisite world of fine dining, and we look forward to bringing it to the global audience,” said TrustNordisk managing director Susan Wendt.TrustNordisk has a full slate of Nordic delights at the hybrid Göteborg Film Festival and parallel Nordic Film Market.On the heels of its Sundance world premiere, Christian Tafdrup’s psycho horror “Speak No Evil” will receive a market screening.

It took Evan Rachel Wood years to muster the courage to name her abuser. A lot of people knew who he was, divorced from her, because of his job, his public persona, his notorious reputation — controversial, provocative, fundamentally harmful.

Directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead go way down the rabbit hole in their new film, “Something In The Dirt,” one of the big standout films from the Sundance Film Festival. A pandemic brainchild of necessity—what can we shoot during the pandemic which is relatively inexpensive but still doable, so we don’t lose our marbles and can stay artistic—“Something In The Dirt” is a trippy, DIY, sci-fi-ish film about a pair of loser (played by the two filmmakers themselves) dudes in dystopic Los Angeles who stumble upon the unexplainable.

At first glance, actor-writer-director Cooper Raiff’s “Cha Cha Real Smooth” might look like your typical cutesy and whimsical Sundance dramedy, about a twenty-something college graduate learning a valuable life lesson and experiencing a bit of a delayed coming of age. While that’s not an inaccurate description of Raiff’s disarmingly lovely film (programmed in this year’s US Dramatic Competition), what feels miraculous about “Cha Cha” is: it doesn’t come with even an ounce of that cringe-inducing Sundance fancifulness, a brand that many love to hate.

If two people who lack a common language want to communicate, they’ll find a way to communicate. The characters in “blood,” the first new film from Bradley Rust Gray in a decade, don’t exactly lack a common language, but coltish English and crummy Japanese necessitate auxiliary tools for communication, such as food, dance, music, flowers, and art.

“Have you ever felt vertigo looking into the sky?” Nadeem Shahzad asks over voiceover roughly fifteen minutes into “All That Breathes.” The accompanying shot looks straight up into a sunny yet smog-streaked sky as a swirl of black kites swoops and careens overhead. The birds are numerous, too many to count, but their movements are mesmerizing.

Hiding underwater to escape her vicious aggressors, a rush of terror washes over Sara (Laura Galán), a large-bodied teenager target of incessant insults, and worse, about her weight. The callousness of the bullying perpetrated against her one summery afternoon won’t go unpunished but will place the victim in a conundrum fluctuating between guilt and a warranted desire for retribution.

Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul opens with Black Jesus. Christianity stands at the foundation of the lives of many Black people across the globe.