Advantageous
The Sundance Film Festival is back in Hong Kong for the second year! All events are located at the Metroplex at the Kowloon International Trade and Exhibition Centre (KITEC) in Kowloon Bay – which is a total ball-ache to get to but it’s going to be well worth it if you pick your films carefully.
The full programme is available on the website, but here are our picks in case you have no idea what you’re dealing with.
The Wolfpack
This year’s Sundance in Hong Kong opens with an American documentary on the Angulo family, who raised and homeschooled their seven children in near total confinement of their Lower East Side apartment in New York City. And you thought the education system in Hong Kong was messed up.
On a rather meta note, the Angulo children share how they watched movies as a form of escapism from their captive reality. Nearly everything they knew about the outside world came from DVDs until one of the boys decided to take a walk around the block, against his father’s wishes.
The Wolfpack won the Grand Jury Prize in the documentary category, so if you just watch one film this year, it should probably be this one.
When: 7:30pm Friday, Sept. 18; 1:30pm Saturday, Sept. 26
Director: Crystal Moselle
Duration: 84 min
Language: English with Chinese subtitles
Price: HKD90
Tickets: The Metroplex
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Ok, so maybe you’re not into low-key, invasive documentaries on people with abnormal upbringings. So maybe you should go see this film, which is based on Jesse Andrew’s novel in which he probably named a character just to make a rhyming title. But actually, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl took the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize in the drama category, so there you go.
Produced by the same studio that brought you Juno and 500 Days of Summer, this film is the indie, but less successful version of The Fault in Our Stars. Boy befriends girl with cancer in a coming of age film that strikes a balance between drama and comedy – what’s not to love about this dramedy?
So if an off-brand John Green script featuring an off-brand Shailene Woodley and an off-brand Ansel Elgort is what you’re looking for, this is it. This film received a standing ovation in Park City, so at least we know that the snooty film snobs who turned their noses up at The Fault in Our Stars do have hearts… maybe.
Parks and Recreation fans will be delighted to hear that Nick Offerman appears as the protagonist’s father.
When: 9:30pm Friday, Sept. 18; 3:30pm Saturday, Sept. 26
Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Cast: Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, Olivia Cooke
Duration: 104 mins
Language: English with Chinese subtitles
Price: HKD90
Tickets: The Metroplex
The Stanford Prison Experiment
For those looking to relive their Intro to Psychology class at uni, director Kyle Patrick Alvarez is bringing a more accurate cinematic dramatisation of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, also known as probably the most not-okay psychology experiment of the not-okay experiments conducted in the 60s and 70s.
Those who took real classes at college or are otherwise unfamiliar with the premise should know that the film is based on a true story of a psychology experiment conducted by Phillip Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971.
Twenty-four male students were recruited, lured by the same motivators that drive sleep-deprived students to psych departments now: money. Participants were randomly assigned to be either a prisoner or a guard. All parties involved adapted to the roles to a disturbing degree, as is characterised in the below trailer.
This adaptation features many familiar faces, including Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Big Fish), Ezra Miller (We Need to Talk About Kevin, Perks of Being a Wallflower), Olivia Thirlby (Juno, The Darkest Hour) and Ki Hong Lee (Maze Runner, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). It was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize in the drama category and won both the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award in Park City.
When: 5pm Sunday, Sept. 20; 9:30pm Saturday, Sept. 26
Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Cast: Billy Crudup, Ezra Miller, Olivia Thirlby, Jack Kilmer
Duration: 120 mins
Language: English with Chinese subtitles
Price: HKD90
Tickets: The Metroplex
Advantageous
In a particularly socially aware choice for the Hong Kong lineup, Jennifer Phang’s Advantageous tells the story of a single mother who will do anything to keep her daughter in private school in an image-conscious, cosmopolitan society. Sound familiar?
This futuristic science-fiction family drama explores the intersections of modern perspectives on femininity and motherhood with beauty ideals and living in a surveillance state. This film won the US Dramatic Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision in Park City.
When: 1:30pm Saturday, Sept. 19; 4pm Sunday, Sept. 27
Director: Jennifer Phang Cast: Jacqueline Kim, Freya Adams, Ken Jeong
Duration: 97mins
Language: English & French with Chinese subtitles
Price: HKD90
Tickets: The Metroplex
Filmmaker’s Discussion Panel
Of the films to be screened, eight will be represented by their respective filmmakers. Moselle, Phang, Heineman, Famuyiwa, Mond, Strouse, Alvarez and Eggers are expected to attend the panel and share stories from behind the scenes. The panel will be moderated by Trevor Groth, Director of Programming of the Sundance Festival. A must-attend for aspiring indie filmmakers.
When: 4pm Saturday, Sept. 19
Price: HKD30, includes complimentary popcorn
Tickets: The Metroplex
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