The Film Comment Podcast

• True Crime at Sundance 2025, with Charlie Shackleton, David Osit, and Geeta Gandhbir

  Real-life stories of grisly crimes have always had a primal pull on our collective imagination. It’s now axiomatic that if there’s anything that sells better than sex, it’s true crime. In the last decade, the genre has blown up into a media behemoth, with more and more cliffhanger podcasts, television shows, and documentaries released each year, spinning murders and mysteries into engrossing narratives. Yet these stories also raise uncomfortable questions—about the role of the media in criminal justice, the objectivity of nonfiction filmmaking, and our voyeuristic fascination that fuels this phenomenon. At this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish moderated a conversation with three nonfiction filmmakers from the festival's lineup whose works question and subvert the expectations of the true-crime mode: Charlie Shackleton (Zodiac Killer Project), David Osit (Predators), and Geeta Gandhbir (The Perfect Neighbor). The panelists explored the origins and popularity of the true-crime trend, and its implications for both audiences and media-makers. Catch up with all of our Sundance 2025 coverage at filmcomment.com

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• Sundance 2025 #4: Isabelle Huppert on LUZ

  The great French actress Isabelle Huppert is a mainstay at many international festivals, but seeing her grace the screens at Sundance in Park City, Utah was a uniquely pleasant surprise. Huppert stars in LUZ, the second feature from Hong Kong director Flora Lau, which premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at this year’s edition. The film follows two characters who turn to virtual reality to attempt to reconnect with estranged loved ones. One of them is a reformed gangster in Chongqing trying to find his daughter who was taken away from him years ago; the other is a Hong Kong gallery owner who goes to Paris to visit her stepmother (played by Huppert) who is facing a terminal diagnosis. Huppert carries the role with her typical combination of flair and subtlety, portraying a woman who faces mortality with quiet, even irreverent self-assuredness.  Last week, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish chatted with Huppert about how she came to be a part of LUZ, what it’s like to communicate across language barriers on and off-screen, and how Apichatpong Weerasethakul introduced her to virtual reality. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2025 coverage at filmcomment.com

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• Sundance 2025 #3, with Lovia Gyarkye, Alana Pockros, and Lisa Wong Macabasco

  It’s late January, which means that the intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of this year's Sundance Film Festival. For the next week, we’ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day’s premieres on the Podcast. On today's episode, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Lovia Gyarkye (The Hollywood Reporter), Alana Pockros (The Nation), and Lisa Wong Macabasco (Vogue) to discuss two of the best films to premiere at the festival so far—Kahlil Joseph's BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (2:45) and Mary Bronstein's If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (14:07). The group also debates Katarina Zhu's Bunnylovr (23:18), Hailey Gates's Atropia (35:40), and Charlie Shackleton's Zodiac Killer Project (46:42). Catch up on all of our Sundance 2025 coverage at filmcomment.com

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• Sundance 2025 #5, with Vadim Rizov and Ruun Nuur

  It’s late January, which means that the intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of this year's Sundance Film Festival. For the next week, we’ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day’s premieres on the Podcast. On today's episode, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker Magazine) and Ruun Nuur (co-founder of Evil Eye Cinema; features programmer at Cleveland International Film Festival) to discuss festival selections Predators (2:30), The Stringer (20:10), Khartoum (29:25), Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, dile que no soy malo) (34:58), and Peter Hujar's Day (45:30). Catch up on all of our Sundance 2025 coverage at filmcomment.com

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• Sundance 2025 #2, with Robert Daniels and Tim Grierson

  It’s late January, which means that the intrepid Film Comment crew is once again on the snowy slopes of Park City, Utah, bringing you dispatches, interviews, and podcasts covering all the highlights of this year's Sundance Film Festival. For the next week and a half, we’ll be gathering the best critics on the scene to talk about each day’s premieres on the Podcast. Today, Film Comment Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Robert Daniels (rogerebert.com) and Tim Grierson (Screen International, Los Angeles Times, and more) to discuss early festival selections Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore (2:35), Rabbit Trap (11:40), Twinless (25:40), and By Design (36:26). Catch up on all of our Sundance 2025 coverage at filmcomment.com

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