Sundance 2022 – Day 6 Reviews: Hatching, You Won’t Be Alone, and Resurrection

The 2022 Sundance Film Festival completed its sixth day of virtual programming yesterday on January 25, 2022. That’s right, folks. We’re still going strong at the home stretch of the fest. At this point in the programming, I’m catching up on films I didn’t have the opportunity to see early on. But it looks like I saved some great ones to help with my festival fatigue. Here are my Day 6 Reviews of my Sundance 2022 Watchlist.

1) Hatching | Director: Hanna Bergholm

Hatching
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by IFC Midnight

Sundance Synopsis: Tinja’s mother showcases their family’s existence on her popular blog “Lovely Everyday Life” as a brightly hued domestic idyll set amid manicured suburban perfection. Beneath the impeccable veneer, though, friendless tween gymnast Tinja is struggling, spending most of her time striving to please her image-obsessed mom and appease her shrilly obnoxious little brother. After finding a wounded bird in the woods, she brings its strange egg home, nestles it in her bed, and nurtures it until it hatches. The creature that emerges, christened Alli, becomes Tinja’s closest friend, surrogate child, and living nightmare in this tremendously twisted coming-of-age body horror film.

Review: Hanna Bergholm’s audacious body-horror epic was just the boost I needed to revitalize my enthusiasm for the rest of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Equally chaotic as it is grotesque, Hatching hit all the right spots when it came to quenching my thirst for fear! Weird, I know… But movies like this are the kind of experience that makes long festival days worth it. Siiri Solalinna – brava!

Rating: 4 out of 5.

2) You Won’t Be Alone | Director: Goran Stolevski

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Branko Starcevic

Sundance Synopsis: In an isolated mountain village in 19th-century Macedonia, a young girl is taken from her mother and transformed into a witch by an ancient, shape-shifting spirit. Left to wander feral, the young witch beholds the natural world with curiosity and wonder. After inadvertently killing a villager and assuming her body, she continues to inhabit different people, living among the villagers for years, observing and mimicking their behavior until the ancient spirit returns, bringing them full circle.

Review: Director Goran Stolevski has a great eye for capturing meditative and philosophical storytelling with perfect subtlety. In his feature You Won’t Be Alone, he explores the concepts of humanity through a witch in this coming-of-age tale that explores life through a quiet lense. It’s a bit repetitive and overcrowded with the witch folklore, but the quiet moments make for a really nice feature to reflect on what it means to live.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

3) Resurrection | Director: Andrew Semans

Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Wyatt Garfield

Sundance Synopsis: Margaret (Rebecca Hall) leads a successful and orderly life, perfectly balancing the demands of her busy career and single parenthood to her fiercely independent daughter Abbie. But that careful balance is upended when she glimpses a man she instantly recognizes, an unwelcome shadow from her past. A short time later, she encounters him again. Before long, Margaret starts seeing David (Tim Roth) everywhere — and their meetings appear to be far from an unlucky coincidence. Battling her rising fear, Margaret must confront the monster she’s evaded for two decades who has come to conclude their unfinished business.

Review: If anxiety was the premise of a movie, it would be called Resurrection. Andrew Semans has an eye for psychological upheaval in a way that made me question my own sanity. Paired with Rebecca Hall’s intensely unkept unraveling, this feature kept me up for all the right reasons. At times, the script gets away from itself with an ending that’s as ambiguous as they come. But admittedly, I was glued and as focused on the outcome as Margaret’s desperate attempt to reclaim what was rightfully hers. Was it her sanity? Was it her son? Who knows, but this rocked.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

That’s it for my coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival – Day 6. While some films gave me the chaotic mayhem I so desperately craved at this point in the festival, others fell a little short in delivering the perfect entertainment. Cheers to day 7 — I’m optimistic! What are some of your favorite films from the 2022 Sundance Film Festival so far? Thanks for reading!

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