‘Dark Night’, ‘Nation’ powerful tales – Some of best films of Sundance 2016

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LOS ANGELES, Feb 2, (RTRS): Variety film critics Justin Chang, Peter Debruge, Guy Lodge, Geoff Berkshire and Dennis Harvey weighed in with their choices for the 21 best films that world-premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The full list follows (in alphabetical order):

■ “Agnus Dei”. Set in a Polish convent ravaged by Russian soldiers at the end of WWII, Anne Fontaine’s finest film in years explores every aspect of an unthinkable situation with tact, intelligence and fine-grained character detail. Beautifully acted by a strong female ensemble, especially the great Agata Kulesza (“Ida”), the film achieves a grace that transcends even its cloistered surroundings. (Justin Chang)

■ “Audrie & Daisy”. Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s documentary was among the festival’s most potent social-issue indictments, delving into two recent high-profile cases underline the high risk of sexual assault among American teens, as well as the “slut-shaming” culture that often exacerbates the trauma such crimes create. (Dennis Harvey)

■ “The Birth of a Nation”. If D.W. Griffith’s racist epic of the same name was indeed like “writing history with lightning,” as Woodrow Wilson reportedly felt, then this century-later telling of Nat Turner’s slave rebellion is the thunderclap that was inevitably bound to follow. Though made outside the studio system, Nate Parker’s powerful tale of those who stood up to oppression packs incredible mainstream appeal, while disproving the axiom that only history’s victors get to tell their stories. (Peter Debruge)

■ “Certain Women”. After throwing her admirers a curveball with the cool genre stylings of “Night Moves,” Kelly Reichardt returns to her forte of tender, finely etched humanism with this adaptation of three short stories — each revolving around women in an emotional quandary — by Montana-based writer Maile Meloy. Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart and Michelle Williams each bring characteristic intelligence and integrity to the project, while Native American actress Lily Gladstone is a heart-rending revelation. (Guy Lodge)

■ “Christine”. For all those who believe there’s something broken in the way America reports the news, Antonio Campos’ unsettling period piece captures the moment when things took a turn for the worse, by focusing on the small-town Florida TV reporter (hauntingly portrayed by Rebecca Hall) who snapped under the pressure to deliver more sensational content. Campos attempts to treat what happened to Christine Chubbuck as she would have herself, focusing on the human side of her story. (P.D.)

■ “Dark Night”. The most oblique of the festival’s many reflections on gun violence in America, Tim Sutton’s genuinely unsettling experiment — beautifully lensed by d.p. Helene Louvart — transforms the emptiness and alienation of suburban youth culture into a sort of collective dream-space, where the mundane takes on an ever-present undercurrent of dread. (J.C.)

■ “The Eyes of My Mother”. Borderline Films, also the outfit behind aforementioned fest standout “Christine,” continues to be a source of the most unnerving, formally refined visions in American independent cinema. Exquisitely composed in stark black-and-white, Nicolas Pesce’s genuinely skin-prickling quasi-horror film reps a new perspective entirely on making a murderer — but the less you know about it going in, the better. (G.L.)

■ “Gleason”. Documentaries rarely get more raw and real than Clay Tweel’s chronicle of charismatic former NFL star Steve Gleason’s battle with ALS. More than a typical disease doc, the film utilizes four years of intimate footage, much of it filmed by Gleason himself, to craft a fascinating portrait of a family and a moving story of fathers and sons. (Geoff Berkshire)

■ “The Intervention”. Actress Clea DuVall’s debut feature as writer-director is a modest but deftly handled ensemble comedy about three couples who gather to meddle in the problems of a fourth — but find their own hidden issues exposed instead. (D.H.)

■ “Kate Plays Christine”. A rich companion piece to the excellent “Christine,” as well as his earlier documentary “Actress,” Robert Greene’s latest docu-fiction hybrid refracts the sad story of Christine Chubbuck — and Kate Lyn Sheil’s meticulous preparations for the role — into an elegant and endlessly fascinating hall of representational mirrors. (J.C.)

■ “Little Men”. The latest from Sundance veteran Ira Sachs inverts his most recent gem, “Love Is Strange,” to focus on the youngest characters rather than the oldest, and proves every bit as rich and tenderly observed. With fresh-faced newcomers Theo Taplitz and Michael Barbieri, Sachs captures the time of life when a young person’s perspective on everything — parents, friends, dreams of the future — changes. (G.B.)

■ “Love & Friendship”. Predictably or not, Whit Stillman and Jane Austen turn out to be a match made in costume-drama heaven in this sparkling adaptation of the great author’s “Little Susan,” fronted by a wickedly poised Kate Beckinsale and stolen completely by the brilliant newcomer Tom Bennett.

■ “Manchester by the Sea”. After launching his filmmaking career at Sundance with “You Can Count on Me” back in 2000, Kenneth Lonergan returns with another slow-blooming character study, this one a nuanced portrait of a seemingly normal guy’s personal struggle to overcome his failings as a husband and father. By withholding the tragic backstory of Casey Affleck’s character (which everyone in town already knows) until relatively late, audiences see him differently than his peers do — and therein lies the film’s quiet beauty. (P.D.)

■ “Morris From America”. An enthusiastically received winner of two jury prizes in Park City — one for Craig Robinson’s warm, crinkled performance as a father gradually losing his hold on his son, and one for writer-director Chad Hartigan’s wry-but-never-cute screenplay — this sweetly ambling tale of a hip-hop-loving African-American teen finding his social footing in the improbable surrounds of Heidelberg, Germany, was one of the few uncompromised charmers in the dramatic competition. (G.L.)

■ “Operation Avalanche”. After winning Slamdance in 2013, “The Dirties” director Matt Johnson makes the giant leap to Sundance’s misfit Next category with this wild stunt, which not only resurrects the conspiracy theory that Apollo 11 never actually landed on the moon, but also submits itself as evidence that the live-broadcast event was all a CIA-orchestrated hoax.

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