The 2019 Sundance Film Festival — a more-than-welcome breath of fresh air as awards season winds down — came to a close this weekend. As usual, Sundance was simultaneously a success and a disappointment.

To be clear, this is no different than years past. Expectations for Sundance are typically high, but the event never seems to live up to them. But by the end of the year, there are always a few retrospective favorites hailing from Sundance.

Despite last year’s Sundance being widely considered a disappointment, it gave us “Sorry to Bother You,” “Leave No Trace” and “The Miseducation of Cameron Post,” among others. While this year’s Sundance appears, based on its reportage, to have been another letdown, there will inevitably be a few Sundance movies making critics’ top films of 2019 lists and getting award season buzz.

So why is each year of Sundance a disappointment?

The main thing is the mythic level of hype surrounding the festival. Sundance is among the most well-respected and highly anticipated film festivals around. People build up its glory in their minds and form unreasonable expectations, only to be met with films of a reasonable quality. This doesn’t make the films bad, but it certainly makes them disappointing.

There are always particular films that get a large amount of anticipation, which is aided by often astronomical purchases made by distribution companies. Amazon spent about $41 million at this year’s festival. This would lead the average moviegoer to conclude that all of these movies must be incredible if they are worth spending that much money on — but that is a dangerous conclusion to draw. Companies often gamble and buy films that appeal to certain demographics, but that might not speak to the larger quality of the film.

Star-studded movies create these crazy expectations as well, but don’t always deliver.

Netflix made a hefty purchase on director Dan Gilroy’s supernatural horror film, “Velvet Buzzsaw,” starring industry and audience favorites like Jake Gyllenhaal and Toni Collette alongside “Stranger Things” breakout star, Natalia Dyer. Yet, despite Netflix’s spending and its appealing cast, the movie, upon its Netflix release on Friday and its Sundance debut on Jan. 27, was both an audience and a critical flop.

Perhaps audiences and critics rely too heavily on distributor spending and star presence. Disappointment is often the result. Sundance is known for its indie representation, and its best years have been defined by unexpected breakout films that spent their time prior to the festival under the radar.

This was the case for Jordan Peele’s, “Get Out,” in 2017, a horror-themed directorial debut by a comedian, starring Daniel Kaluuya in his breakout role. The rest, of course, is history.

This year’s film, “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” seems to be heading on a similar path. Also a directorial debut starring lesser-known actors, the film was picked up by the distribution company A24, and is one of the highlights of the festival.

The lesson here that seems to be taught with every Sundance is that audiences and critics can’t get too excited about the festival’s more anticipated films.

Instead, they should go in with open minds and hearts, to check out the lesser-known films with little-to-no buzz surrounding them — the ones no one would never imagine to become a success. As Sundance has proven time and again, these are the gems worth looking for.

Published on February 4, 2019 at 9:32 pm