I’ll have a Sundance dispatch published later today, but just to quickly tackle Celine Song’s “Past Lives” which was greeted with raves yesterday afternoon in Park City.
There were unanimously positive reviews from Vanity Fair, IndieWire, Variety, Deadline, Screen and The Guardian. It’s by far the most critically-acclaimed movie of Sundance 2023 so far.
Song’s film will have its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, where it will compete for the Golden Bear in official competition. The A24 film is being described as a multi-decade romance in Korean language.
“Past Lives” is an A24 production, so that will only add to the buzz for this film. A friend who saw it in advance last summer has been bugging me for weeks about how great the film is and I’ve kinda been brushing his reaction off. Maybe he was right.
Official “Past Lives” Synopsis:
“Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora's family emigrates from South Korea. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.”
I haven’t seen the film yet, but I have caught up with other “buzzed” titles like “Magazine Dreams,” “Fair Play,” “Fairyland,” “Cassandro” and “Polite Society.” Again, “buzzed” at Sundance doesn’t necessarily mean good. Dispatch incoming …