{"id":2250160,"date":"2026-01-25T22:39:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T22:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2250160"},"modified":"2026-01-25T22:39:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T22:39:25","slug":"sundance-2026-still-no-major-deals-but-plenty-of-real-world-tension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/sundance-2026-still-no-major-deals-but-plenty-of-real-world-tension\/","title":{"rendered":"Sundance 2026: Still no major deals but plenty of real-world tension"},"content":{"rendered":"

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PARK CITY, Utah\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span>Welcome to a special Sundance Daily edition of the Wide Shot, a newsletter about the business of entertainment. <\/i>Sign up here<\/i><\/a> to get it in your inbox.<\/i><\/p>\n

Good afternoon \u2014 Sundance\u2019s third day is behind us and it\u2019s turning out to be a gray Sunday, cooler, with a high of 24 degrees.<\/p>\n

As it always has been, year after year, Sundance is proving to be a combustible place where bracing new work collides with real-world anxieties. The violence in Minneapolis isn\u2019t far from mind for most attendees and we\u2019re taking the opportunity to gather as many reactions as we can<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are not normal times,\u201d actor Edward Norton told us in an interview Sunday morning. \u201cIt\u2019s like we have extrajudicial assaults on Americans and humans going on on a daily basis now. And it\u2019s not OK. Even though all people kind of have to put one foot in front of the other and deal with the demands of the day, we cannot act like this is not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Amy Nicholson is live with her first critical dispatch<\/a>, one that takes in movies as disparate as the killer-unicorn dark comedy \u201cBuddy,\u201d Charli XCX\u2019s \u201cThe Moment,\u201d Gregg Araki\u2019s \u201cI Want Your Sex\u201d and her own sense of nostalgia, saying goodbye to Park City like Charli saying goodbye to her brat summer: \u201cI\u2019m not ready to end my own Park City winter era just yet,\u201d Amy writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Recapturing a lost summer from the Malibu fires<\/h2>\n
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Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, Tamra Davis and Alfredo Ortiz in the documentary \u201cThe Best Summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Mike Diamond \/ Sundance Institute)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Director Tamra Davis debuted her new documentary \u201cThe Best Summer,\u201d a charming excavation of raw video interviews she did while on a mid-\u201990s tour with her then-recently married husband Mike D of Beastie Boys. Mark Olsen spoke to Davis<\/a> at her house in Malibu, which thankfully survived last year\u2019s fires, though in her rush to flee the scene, she found this box of old videos. It\u2019s a great example of something good coming out of something bad.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, our Vanessa Franko attended last night\u2019s premiere and has this report:<\/p>\n

Time-traveling and rocking out at a midnight debut<\/b><\/p>\n

I expected the live performances of artists like the Beastie Boys, Bikini Kill and Pavement to transport me back to the mid-\u201890s in Tamra Davis\u2019 \u201cThe Best Summer,\u201d but perhaps the biggest nostalgia hit was watching the audience on the screen react to the performers in those halcyon days of concert going before smartphones.<\/p>\n

In the film, we see a young Dave Grohl<\/a> tell Bikini Kill\u2019s Kathleen Hanna<\/a> about his fear of speaking to the crowd from the stage; the Beastie Boys mimicking a water aerobics class happening at a tropical resort pool on a day off; and Beck<\/a> reveal that he bought his underwear at Sears \u2014 all on a whirlwind tour of Australia and Southeast Asia in the final days of 1995 and into 1996.<\/p>\n

The tidbits of regular life for these artists are just as engaging as the performances, which Davis captured on a Sony camcorder that had amazingly great sound. (She said she had to buy a camera just to be able to watch the tapes after moving them while evacuating the fires.)<\/p>\n

The reveals continued after the screening: At the Q&A, Hanna said the bands would use hotel stationery to communicate who was throwing the party that night. And while watching the film, she realized Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear<\/a> stole her skirt.<\/p>\n

On a sweeter note, in the film you see Hanna and Beastie Boys<\/a>\u2019 Adam Horovitz, who recently celebrated their 30th anniversary, flirting with each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny to remember that feeling of falling in love,\u201d Hanna said.<\/p>\n

At the moderator\u2019s prompting, Sonic Youth bassist Kim Gordon<\/a> imparted a final thought to the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry you weren\u2019t able to enjoy the \u201890s,\u201d she said as the crowd laughed. \u2014 Vanessa Franko<\/i><\/p>\n

What are we watching today?<\/h2>\n

\u201cAll About the Money\u201d<\/b> (Library Center Theatre, 3 p.m.)<\/p>\n

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Fergie Chambers in the documentary \u201cAll About the Money.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Sundance Institute)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

If Communist revolutionary Fergie Chambers had a dollar for every time he said something outrageous, he\u2019d have roughly $250 million dollars \u2014 which he does. The heavily-tattooed scion of one of America\u2019s old money families can trace his lineage to a presidential candidate, an ambassador and a NASA scientist.<\/p>\n

His current path, however, changes several times over the course of Sin\u00e9ad O\u2019Shea\u2019s documentary, which unspools like you\u2019re being taken down a maze covered in Lenin stickers. \u201cAll About the Money\u201d starts idyllically with Chambers funding an activist commune in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

But when the group vigorously protests the war in Gaza, only the poor residents get charged with criminal mischief. The rich rabble-rouser simply shifts to his next crusade. Isn\u2019t he in moral debt to his disciples?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea listens more than she prods. Yet, as you might expect from a guy who once tweeted \u201cHamas >>>> Gandhi,\u201d Chambers doesn\u2019t mince words. He can afford to be disliked. \u2014 Amy Nicholson<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cUnion County\u201d<\/b> (Eccles Theatre, 3 p.m.)<\/p>\n

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Will Poulter, left, and Noah Centineo in the movie \u201cUnion County.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Stefan Weinberger \/ Sundance Institute)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n

Premiering as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition is the feature debut from writer-director Adam Meeks. Set in rural Ohio, the film explores the human-scale cost of the opioid crisis by combining elements of fiction and documentary for a film that feels lived-in and authentic.<\/p>\n

Working with an actual court-mandated rehab program that seems startlingly empathetic toward those who join it, people attempting to rebuild their lives with a sense of soul-deep struggle, the film\u2019s cast is made up largely of nonprofessional actors.<\/p>\n

Add to that Will Poulter and Noah Centino as foster brothers who both find themselves before the court and trying to rebuild their lives. As Poulter\u2019s Cody makes a more genuine effort to get straight, Centino\u2019s Jack struggles to give up his old ways, building to shattering revelations. \u2014 Mark Olsen<\/i><\/p>\n