The 30 Most Exciting Films In The Sundance 2017 Lineup

“Dayveon”
Synopsis: In no-hope small-town Arkansas, following the violent death of his big brother, 13-year-old Dayveon has to choose between the reluctant care of his sister’s boyfriend and the attractions of gang life.
What You Need To Know: The debut feature from Pakistani-American filmmaker and musician Amman Abbasi, starring a cast composed entirely of first-timers (Devin Blackmon, Kordell “KD” Johnson, Dontrell Bright, Chasity Moore, Lachion Buckingham, Marquell Manning), the highest-profile names attached to “Dayveon” come as executive producers. James Schamus, David Gordon Green, Jody Hill and Danny McBride are all listed, which boosts our anticipation for the project up a few notches, too. With a bit of luck, this type of small-scale, inherently intimate filmmaking, from a non-white filmmaker with little previous track record, should get a boost from the overwhelming critical success of “Moonlight,” even if the project itself sounds very different in tenor.

“The Discovery”
Synopsis: A love story set a year after the existence of the afterlife has been scientifically proven.
What You Need To Know: Charlie McDowell’s first feature “The One I Love” was a fascinating, beautifully executed little sci-fi indie with some great performances, so there’s no wonder that his follow-up “The Discovery” has attracted some serious talent: Rooney Mara stars (she’s admittedly McDowell’s partner, but still…) with Jason Segel, Robert Redford, Riley Keough and Jesse Plemons, “Victoria” DP Sturla Brandth Grøvlen shot it, and Netflix snapped the rights up last year. As with “The One I Love,” the metaphysical premise is fascinating, and if McDowell doesn’t fall to second-film syndrome, this could be a huge Park City talking point.

“A Ghost Story”
Synopsis: A man dead before his time returns to his home as a specter, observing the grief of his lover, fated to remain there forever, as he becomes gradually less human and more ghost.
What You Need To Know: Described in the catalogue as an “uncategorizable” and an “enriching experiment in micro-cinema” David Lowery‘s “A Ghost Story” sounds like exactly the kind of no-budget palette cleanser the indie filmmaker might have needed in between “Pete’s Dragon” and upcoming Robert Redford-starrer “The Old Man And The Gun.” His clout, though, is already such that even for a relative doodle, he can secure the services of his “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints” stars Rooney Mara and very probable 2017 Oscar nominee Casey Affleck. Sparse and impressionistic, and told mostly through visuals rather than dialogue, it could be an indulgence, but it also could be Lowery, one of the most interesting filmmakers to emerge in recent years, on introspective and intimate passion-project form.

“Golden Exits”
Synopsis: A young woman newly arrived from Australia disrupts the fragile Brooklyn ecosystem built up around Nick, an archivist working for his father-in-law, and draws music producer Buddy and his family into an uncomfortable orbit, too.
What You Need To Know: “Listen Up Philip” and “Queen Of Earth” director Alex Ross Perry gets the band back together (in the shape of regular collaborators Sean Price Williams on camera, Keegan DeWitt on music duties and Robert Greene as editor) and also assembles a great cast (Emily Browning, Adam Horovitz, Mary-Louise Parker, Lily Rabe, Jason Schwartzman, Chloë Sevigny) for what we sincerely hope will be another one of his scabrous, deadpan ensemble dramedies featuring awful Brooklyn people being awful to one another. Whatever the case, it’s bound to look and sound great and, with that indie cast-to-die-for, could well replicate the niche success of ‘Philip’ which went on, after its Sundance debut, to win the Jury Prize in Locarno.

“I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore”
Synopsis: A depressed woman enlists her neighbor to help her find the people that broke into her house, leading them to stumble upon a dark criminal underworld.
What You Need To Know: As the lead of Jeremy Saulnier’s “Blue Ruin” (and a valuable supporting player in the director’s follow-up “Green Room”), Macon Blair gave one of the most impressive performances in recent years. Now he’s moving behind the camera for a film with a title and theme that many of us can identify with these days. Like Saulnier’s films, this seems to be a sort of elevated genre piece with a blackly comic vibe, and Blair’s enlisted some talented friends to headline, with the always-welcome Melanie Lynskey starring and Elijah Wood and Jane Levy in support. Netflix have already picked up the rights, so expectations are high.

“Ingrid Goes West”
Synopsis: The unbalanced Ingrid becomes obsessed with LA-based Instagram lifestyle guru Taylor and tries to remake herself in order to get closer to her, but Taylor’s obnoxious brother threatens her plans.
What You Need To Know: Ok, so the title is just the tiniest bit punchable, but there’s no complaint about the cast here — Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen, both old hands at the Sundance game, star alongside “Straight Outta Compton“‘s O’Shea Jackson Jr. and one of our 2016 Breakout picks, Wyatt Russell (son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn). Filmmaker Matt Spicer makes his feature directorial debut here, but as the writing partner of Max “Ceremony“ Winkler has also worked on the scripts for Winkler’s upcoming “Flower” and for Blacklist-approved Fox Searchlight project “The Ornate Anatomy Of Living Things,” so 2017 could be quite a year for him.

“KUSO”
Synopsis: In the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in LA, we track the lives of the survivors through a broadcast via a network of discarded televisions.
What You Need To Know: Better known as Flying Lotus, purveyor of the soundtrack to your more extreme psychedelic freakouts (that’s a compliment, and a heavy-duty one), experimental musician and now experimental filmmaker Steven Ellison brings his first feature to Sundance. Co-written with David Firth and Zach Fox, “KUSO” is reportedly influenced by everything from “Ren & Stimpy” to David Cronenberg, combines various types of animation and special effects with live action, and features performances from comedians Hannibal Buress and Tim Heidecker. It all sounds completely random and probably very chaotic, but in a sea of twee coming-of-agers and dysfunctional family dramas, perhaps a good dose of non-traditional narrative and mindbending visuals will be what we need.

“Landline”
Synopsis: In the Manhattan of 1995, three women in one family have to negotiate their relationships with each other, and with the outside world.
What You Need To Know: Four years ago, Gillian Robespierre’s “Obvious Child” proved to be one of the freshest and most enjoyable romantic comedies we’ve seen in a long while, as well as proving a vital corrective to the if-you-are-pregnant-that-you-must-have-the-baby narratives of “Knocked Up” and “Juno.” Things have been quiet since, but she’s back at Sundance this year, reuniting with “Obvious Child” star Jenny Slate for a film that seems likely to build on the strengths of its predecessor. Slate, newcomer Abby Quinn and Edie Falco have the leads in this family drama, and while the logline suggests that it could lean too heavily on the like-how-did-people-even-function-without-cellphones nostalgia, we have faith that Robespierre could bring us something special.

“Lemon”
Synopsis: A failing actor dumped by his blind girlfriend attempts to find his place in the world and find new romance.
What You Need To Know: It might have one of the more generic premises at a festival that’s sometimes full of generic, hipster-ish-sounding comedy premises, but we’re still expecting big things from “Lemon.” The first feature from excellently named director Janicza Bravo, who won the Short Film Jury Award at the 2014 festival, is a vehicle for the very funny “Fleabag” star Brett Gelman, who co-wrote the script (with festival faves like Judy Greer, Michael Cera, Nia Long, Shiri Appleby and Fred Melamed in support), and is exec-produced by indie legend Christine Vachon, and by all accounts, it’s a rather unconventional look at this sort of story. That it’ll open the Rotterdam Film Festival, which is not usually given to programming this sort of thing, suggests it’ll be very interesting indeed.

“The Little Hours”
Synopsis: In medieval Italy, three nuns fall for the new laborer at their convent, who they’ve been told, incorrectly, is a deaf-mute.
What You Need To Know: Perhaps best known as the co-writer of “I Heart Huckabees,” Jeff Baena’s two films to date — zombie-comedy “Life After Beth” and mumblecore-ish “Joshy” — have had things to like in them without being particularly satisfying as a whole. But we’re willing his third feature to work, if only because of how big of a swing it’s taking. It has a similar kind of cutting-comedy-edge cast, with Alison Brie, her beau Dave Franco, Aubrey Plaza, Kate Micucci and John C. Reilly starring (Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Fred Armisen, Jemima Kirke, Adam Pally and Paul Reiser will also turn up), but with a medieval setting and a “Black Narcissus”-ish premise that make it sound enjoyably bonkers, and certainly unlike anything we’ve seen recently. It could be a mess, but it could also turn out to be genius.