The Filmic 5: So Long, Sundance Edition
Your Weekly Film Superlatives By Critic and Film Scholar Jack Hanley
Back from a whirlwind of late-summer festivals and too many film panels and midnight screenings to count, HanleyOnFilm is BACK in its natural habitat. The suitcase is still half-unpacked, the festival lanyards are already relics, and the brain is buzzing with premieres and Fall Festival aspirations. In short: we’re back, caffeinated, and ready to talk film- I've missed you all!
I. Film I Enjoyed Deep Diving Into This Week
I recently had the great pleasure of being invited by Lionsgate Films to participate in an early screening and panel discussion of the latest filmic adaptation by Stephen King- THE LONG WALK- and am FINALLY allowed to discuss it as the film is now in wide release.
Watchable, likable, and stubbornly shy of greatness, THE LONG WALK does at least manage to march its way into the top-tier of the "King to Screen" adaptations (sparse company, indeed).
Come for adolescent King's stripped-down narrative minimalism, late 60's draft obsessions and the Vietnam-shaped nihilism that undergirds the whole conceit...but STAY for the ensemble acting (and bravo given the often half-formed character building) particularly of our two main leads.
While I longed for a more expansive and nuanced take on the current American geopolitic and/or our contemporary hunger for reality-TV martyrdom (particularly through the lens of violent desecration of the male body in a state-sanctioned spectacle) it does deliver on cinema as slow, nihilistic suffocation- and stays grimly faithful to teenage King’s cruel thought experiment.
The high point? Hoffman and Johnson have EXQUISITE chemistry...and despite being the most traumatic and depressing meet-cute of recent cinematic history, make no doubt: THE LONG WALK just might be the most tender and beautiful love story of 2025.
II. Trailer I Am LOVING This Week
It's no secret I ADORE the horror genre- I've just returned from putting on a short form horror festival that I founded (alongside co-directors Shay Wescott & Bryan Bonner) called the REEL HORRORS SHORT FILM FESTIVAL. (Submissions for 2026 opening soon!)
One of our late-night programs is "The Trailer Park", in which we gather around a projector at midnight with adult beverages and screen a block of upcoming horror trailers (Mystery Science Theater style, of course). The standout this year was for the film GOOD BOY- an American debut directed by Ben Leonberg shot ENTIRELY from the viewpoint of the family dog...and let me assure you, he IS a good boy. Dropping this October from IFC Films.
III. Films Out Of TIFF I Am Excited About This Week
Word is already out of this year's TIFF and via several of my favorite sources and co-conspirators, I'm terribly excited about several films out of the Official Selection. Here are my top 7 that I am excited to see- and talk about with you.
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook's satirical black comedy thriller follows a man who, after years of unemployment, devises a unique plan to secure a new job: eliminate his competition.); Hamnet (Directed by Chloé Zhao, this historical drama tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare's timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.) My Father's Shadow
(Set against the backdrop of Nigeria's 1993 election crisis, this drama follows two young brothers who reunite with their estranged father for one day in Lagos, witnessing both the city's magnitude and their father's daily struggles.); The Testament of Ann Lee (An epic fable inspired by the life of Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers, a radical religious movement that began in the late 1700s.) The Voice of Hind Rajab (A six-year-old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her.) Train Dreams (Based on Denis Johnson's novella, this film is a moving portrait of Robert Grainier, whose life unfolds during an era of unprecedented change in early 20th-century America.) Frankenstein (Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic tale follows a brilliant but egotistical scientist who brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation.)
IV. Streaming Film I Recommend This Week
The cinema of Nazi propagandist and auteur Leni Riefenstahl is a powerful blend of art and propaganda...her cinema remains a haunting testament to the seductive power of the cinematic image—elegant, meticulous, and potentially morally corrosive.
RIEFENSTAHL, the new documentary by German director Andres Veiel doesn’t merely revisit her canon; it confronts the enduring question of culpability: what becomes of a visionary artist who lends their genius to a regime of horrors? Essential viewing, not merely for historians of cinema, but for anyone willing to sit with the discomfort of beauty complicit in evil. Streaming now on Apple +
V. Film Icon I Am Remembering This Week
As perhaps the only middle-schooler in America OBSESSED by the 1973 film THE STING, this week's news of the passing of film legend Robert Redford really hurt. (Very few parents approve of their child declaring they want to be a con-artist when they grow up...thanks, Bob)
While MY personal favorite performances were always paired with the incomparable Paul Newman (BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID, THE STING), it was lovely to listen this week to a marvelous retrospective by the gang at Slate's Culture Gabfest Podcast that concludes their episode. Give it a listen.
As a Boulder-based cinephile it especially hurts that Bob will not get to see the beloved Festival he founded make the move here next year, to the city that meant so much to him. It will be bittersweet to be a part of it without him. Goodnight, Sundance.
Jack Hanley is a film scholar, podcaster, and critic based in Boulder, CO. He is a programmer with the Chicago Underground Film Festival, Slamdance's Indies Awards, and the Boulder International Film Festival. He is one-half of Blindspotting: A Film Discovery Podcast and the founder of the Reel Horrors Short Film Festival. Find him at Kinophilia on Medium and at HanleyOnFilm.com