Every January, a handful of films (three or four) premiere in Park City and are instantly dubbed a “Sundance Sensation.” Some of these turn out to be the real deal; other times they don’t—the hype deflates by the time the film moves out of the Utah mountains and into theaters.
Tonight, at Sundance’s famed Eccles Theatre—boy, am I going to miss that place—our first “sensation” screened: Beth de Araújo’s “Josephine.” This is Araújo’s sophomore effort—she directed 2022’s “Soft & Quiet,” which had its world premiere at South by Southwest and was later released, to modest reviews, by Blumhouse.
Now, there was already buzz surrounding this film, given that it’s also been selected to compete for the Golden Bear in March at the Berlin Film Festival. In past years, films such as “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” “A Different Man,” and “Past Lives” made the jump from Sundance to Berlin.
I can’t weigh in on whether the raves coming out of Sundance are justified—I’m only seeing it next week—but “Josephine” is clearly the talk of the festival right now.
For now, we have raves coming in from THR, Screen, The Playlist (A), and IndieWire (A-). More reviews to come, including my own, plus there’s a handful of raves coming in from social media—below. Many describe the film as veering towards “horror” due to how trauma-fillef the story is.
So, what is “Josephine” about? It’s yet another Sundance title about sexual assault and trauma—it seems like we get a handful of these out of this fest every year. Briefly, the film follows 8-year-old Josephine, who accidentally witnesses a rape in Golden Gate Park, and later acts out in search of a way to regain control of her sense of safety while her parents are helpless to console her.
The film stars Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan as the parents. Little Josephine is played by newcomer Mason Reeves. The story is actually based on events that de Araújo went through when she was the same age as the girl portrayed in the film.
“Josephine” is currently seeking a distributor, which I’m sure it’ll find—maybe A24 can snatch this one up. The subject matter isn’t an easy sell, and it’ll no doubt take a studio that knows full well the commercial limitations that come with distributing such a film. It’ll be interesting to see who ultimately takes the leap.
