Ed Gibbs

From the Man of Steel to the Voice of Soul to the sound of Big Foot, this year’s Sundance – the iconic festival’s 40th iteration – serves up a bumper bounty of wonder. Pedro Pascal, Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg are just a few of the indie stars on the ground this time out. Sundance is back in full swing this week, with a super-sharp programme that again showcases the brightest new talent alongside returning indie favourites and a pile of off-the-wall delights stretching late into the night. Among this year’s buzzy titles in the snow are the lesbian love romp Love Lies Bleeding from English director Rose Glass and a much-anticipated big-picture doc about the guy who played Superman. Red-hot genre mash-up Freaky Tales is an exciting indie homecoming from Captain Marvel duo Anna Boden and Ryan Flack. As before, this year’s Sundance has a hybrid component for North American audiences, although the focus is back on the IRL, with the online viewing kicking off after the opening weekend. Here are the films to look out for at this year’s festival.  🔥 The best movies of 2023.

More than a million people live in south-east London but, incredibly, many were starved of movies for years. Until recently, Crystal Palace and West Norwood had no cinema of any kind. Ditto Brockley, Dulwich and Blackheath. The south-east of the capital was like a black hole when it came to film-going. Unless you were willing to travel to Greenwich (for the likes of the Picturehouse) or Peckham (for the cheap and cheerful Peckhamplex), the telly was all you had. But in the last few years, an entrepreneurial spirit has been awakened to end the drought. Since 2014, a slew of pop-up, do-it-yourself cinemas have sprung up. Most have used multi-purpose public spaces not usually associated with the movies. Some are young, not-for-profit community interest companies. Others are family-run. And three of the majors – Everyman, Picturehouse and Curzon – have followed suit. With more new cinemas planned in the Lewisham area (a Catford site was approved last year), this homegrown breed of indie ‘craft’ cinemas shows no sign of abating, with their owners all insisting that they offer something different and unique. Jayne Williams, 30, who runs the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park, remembers seeing George Michael shoot a video in her grandparents’ historic venue. But it wasn’t until she returned to the family nest five years ago, after studying graphic design at Central Saint Martins, that she decided to right a wrong and put on a movie night. ‘There’s something about the ballroom, it’s lik

Sundance has long-held a reputation for being an Oscars bellwether. Whether with music (Summer of Soul), sport (Icarus) or politics (Navalny), the snow-capped festival has served as a vital launch pad for the best in documentary. Super/Man, then, is in very fine company. Crucially, this film pulls no punches with its subject, in spite of – or rather, because of – the Reeve family’s involvement. Aside from the man’s sudden rise to fame at 25, and the horrific horse-riding accident that left him paralysed some 20 years later, there is much here that feels candid and revealing. His now-adult children share insights only they could know. Christopher Reeve was the world’s first blockbuster superhero, widely viewed as a good guy – who, conversely, gained a reputation as a serial dater, a player shy of commitment. Driven to succeed (to try and win over a cold and indifferent father) and passionate about his craft (transforming the role of Superman into a work of art), Reeve was a bundle of complexities: a man longing for stability, having grown up with none, only to abandon his own family as his stardom grew. Hearing his eldest kids talk of growing up with an absent father is heart-breaking. As is Reeve’s initial indifference to the spinal injury community, which he later transformed. It’s a rich and intensely moving experience These are very human qualities, of course, which make the man feel relatable, likeable even. In spite of such flaws, he was able to finally embrace fatherho

Midnight movies at Sundance never fail to generate some shock and awe. Whether it’s gore, torture porn or graphic sex, the horror that unfolds knocks audiences for six and reverberates almost instantly around the world. Here, then, is the latest outing from Canadian auteur Brandon Cronenberg, his third after 2020’s Possessor and 2012’s Antiviral, ready to be unleashed.   We begin with James (Alexander Skarsgård) and his wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) touching down for some R&R at a luxury resort in a dystopian Eastern Europe. He’s struggling to write (it’s been six long years since his debut). She’s bankrolling their life (daddy owns the publishing house). When another guest, the sultry Gabi (Mia Goth) and her architect husband, Alban (Jalil Lespert), invite the pair out for an illicit trip to the beach, James finds his life spiraling out of control as he tosses any shred of self-discipline out the door.  Fans of The White Lotus (and Triangle of Sadness) will devour this sci-fi-comedy-horror with glee, as Cronenberg unashamedly cranks up the ante on tourists behaving badly. James is guilty of a late-night hit and run. The only way out: to pay to be cloned by the police, so the victim’s family can have him executed without diplomatic relations souring with the US. For Gabi and Alban, and their coterie of friends, it’s a price worth paying. After all, their vacation’s one, long, mind-bending party – complete with hallucinogens and orgies, and a few local casualties along the way. 

You’d be forgiven for not spotting where Charlotte Regan’s new film was shot. Rather than the dour tower blocks that are a staple of British indies, the north Londoner opted to try something completely different: a warm, welcoming space, splashed with colour for the occasion. The characters on this estate in Limes Farm, Chigwell, have challenges to face, of course – but they also have fun and get to enjoy life. And a lot of it has to do with their environment: an inclusive, community space that’s fast disappearing to gentrification. Here, then, is the freshest, sharpest and quirkiest social drama to come out of the UK for years. In ‘Scrapper’, we meet Georgie (played by newcomer Lola Campbell), a mischievous but likeable young teenager, stealing bikes to pay for food, while her best friend, Ali (played by another newcomer, Alun Uzun) pretends to be her uncle when social services call. Her mum is not around. Neither is her dad, Jason (Harris Dickinson). Until one day, he suddenly turns up out of the blue. A commitment-phobic man-boy, he tries in vain to assume father duties before becoming an unlikely ally. Or so it seems.   Photograph: Picturehouse EntertainmentJason (Harris Dickinson) and Georgie (Lola Campbell) in ‘Scrapper’ Regan, a first-time director, grew up on an estate herself – in Islington – and wanted to bring the joys of the everyday life she experienced to the screen. An unlikely, upbeat pitch for a debut feature – but it worked. A dry, witty journey of discove

Few sporting icons have risen to the giddy heights of fame as tennis superstar Boris Becker. A boy wonder at 17, he was the youngest player to ever win Wimbledon in 1985. Five more Grand Slams and plenty of other trophies followed. By the time he was 21, he was a household name and a multimillionaire. But by 2022, he was penniless – and in jail. Premiering at the Berlinale, Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker is a modern Greek tragedy directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room). It’s built around two interviews with Becker himself – one just three days before he’s put behind bars in London. It also boasts enough incisive contributions from rivals (including John McEnroe), family (ex-wife Barbara) and handlebar-moustache ex-coaches (Ion Tiriac), and archive footage from his ’80s heyday to make it a hell of a ride. Here are seven things we learned from watching it. He was Wimbledon champion but wasn’t allowed to carry money Boris Becker’s mum and dad allowed Boris’s billionaire coach and mentor Ion Tiriac to take complete control of the young tennis prodigy’s life. That meant pulling him out of school early, barring both parents from practice, and refusing the then 17-year-old Wimbledon winner access to carry a credit card or cash. Boris’s mum later admitted that she deeply regretted the decision. Groupies were a major problem At the height of ‘Boom! Boom!’ Boris mania, Becker was endorsing everything from Coca-Cola to Mercedes-Benz

This Friday, Selfridges adds a cinema to its formidable array of departments, concessions and that terrifying skate bowl in menswear. Located in the bit of the basement that once housed HMV, it comes complete with three state-of-the-art screens, a cocktail lounge and a private members bit. To kick off, ‘Frozen II’ and ‘Le Mans ’66’ will be screening. Olympic Studios founder Stephen Burdge, the man behind the project, has plenty of previous in cinematic transformations. He turned Barnes’s Olympic Studios – once frequented by Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones – into a community cinema, and fitted Archlight’s three snug screens into the railway arches at Battersea Power Station. ‘We like interesting spaces and iconic buildings,’ he says. ‘Our USP is sound and we’ve come to Selfridges with the same recording-studio-quality speakers.’ Prepare for Elsa’s icy powers to translate into a serious sonic boom. Photograph: Matt Writtle As Burdge explains, no stone has been left unturned in ensuring the best cinemagoing experience. ‘Like at our other sites, we’re using the comfiest Norwegian reclining seats.’ Even your bag of popcorn will have been mulled over at length. ‘We’ve spent a lot of time finding bags that don’t rustle and food that doesn’t smell.’  Photograph: Matt Writtle The Cinema at Selfridges – first trialled in store as a pop-up five years ago – will boast a 70-seat main screen, with a second 59-seater and a third 28-seater as well. Rows of chairs will be curved in l