Mark Olsen writes about all kinds of movies for the Los Angeles Times as both a feature writer and reviewer.
Alex Gibney on ICE crackdown in Minnesota: 'You have evidence of the truth. state-sponsored terrorism' Charli xcx star of “The Moment,” and director and co-writer Aidan Zamiri stopped by the Los Angeles Times 2026 Sundance Film Festival studio presented by Chase Sapphire in Park City.
Alex Gibney on ICE crackdown in Minnesota: 'You have evidence of the truth... state-sponsored terrorism' Charli xcx star of “The Moment,” and director and co-writer Aidan Zamiri stopped by the Los Angeles Times 2026 Sundance Film Festival studio presented by Chase Sapphire in Park City.Riz Ahmed, one of the stars of the TV Show “Bait,” stopped by at the Los Angeles Times 2026 Sundance Film Festival studio presented by Chase Sapphire in Park City,.Guz Khan, one of the stars of the TV Show “Bait,” stopped by the Los Angeles Times 2026 Sundance Film Festival studio presented by Chase Sapphire in Park City.Mark Olsen There are many different approaches to making a tour film that captures the life of musicians on the road. Perhaps you focus on the highs of performance or the boredom of traveling, the anonymous backstage rooms and endless planes, buses and hotel rooms. But what if you made all of that seem really fun? Directed by Tamra Davis, “The Best Summer,” which debuted at Sundance Saturday night in the Midnight section, is rooted in a box of videotapes that the filmmaker found early last year while evacuating from the fires near her longtime family home in Malibu. Though they are now separated, Davis still shares the compound with Michael Diamond, better known as Mike D of the group. On those tapes was footage Davis shot in late 1995 and early 1996 as the band toured through Australia and Asia, sharing bills with the likes of Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Beck, Rancid, the Amps and Bikini Kill. They’ve faced a softer market at festivals like Sundance, where all-night bidding wars or at least the hope of a distribution deal after a premiere have become few and far between. That, in turn, has made it tough to get financing to make more films, as private equity has shied away. As the industry shifts, that has left a gap for alternative sources of funding, including crowdfunding. I spoke with Taylor K. Shaw-Omachonu, film lead at Kickstarter, to learn more about why some filmmakers are turning to crowdfunding and the company’s expansion into distribution. Though crowdfunding campaigns are typically ways for filmmakers to raise money for their projects, it can also allow them to build an audience and prove there’s a market for their work — a key aspect, particularly for indie films. “It’s an opportunity to say, ‘I know who my audience is, and I have a direct relationship with them,’” Shaw-Omachonu said. “And that is the future.” Kickstarter itself has also branched out beyond funding. The company now has a partnership with streaming service Tubi, where users can watch dozens of films that got funding through Kickstarter. There’s no guarantee that all Kickstarter-backed films will get a distribution deal with Tubi, but it’s a potential option, Shaw-Omachonu said. Crowdfunding isn’t the silver bullet to the financing woes of the film business. But it can make sense for some films, like 2024’s “The Apprentice,” which struggled to find a distributor after legal threats from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. Producers turned to Kickstarter to raise money for the film’s marketing and release. “What I always say to filmmakers is work the traditional system, if you can get millions of dollars that way, amazing,” Shaw-Omachonu said. “Also leveraging, connecting with your audience, running a Kickstarter campaign — it is a tool that you can put in your toolbox of how you get your slate made.”take viewers through the Wu-Tang Clan’s humble Staten Island origins in “The Disciple,” the documentary partially about the creation of the group’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” the Friday afternoon I was in a swanky house a couple of miles away from downtown Park City listening to a portion of the only copy in the world aswrote in a notebook a few feet away. All attendees obviously had phones locked away, while others sampled an incredibly fancy charcuterie spread. Billed as an album listening party, we got to hear the 13-minute sampler that was originally played for potential buyers and two other tracks, including the title cut of the 31-song album, totaling about 20 minutes. It matched what was described in Joanna Natasegara’s documentary: a return to the early Wu-Tang Clan sound. The rhymes were layered with strings, sirens, gunshots and a horn part reminiscent of Jr. Walker & the All Stars’ “Shotgun,” the latter of which got some of the biggest reaction from the pretty stoic crowd, except for the people who kept talking over the rare listen. —Charli xcx’s “The Moment” was easily the buzziest film going into Sundance 2026 — at least to those of us still reliving the highs of “brat” summer. That 2024 album unleashed a pure, unadulterated strain of Charli’s particular brand of celebrity into the world and became a ubiquitous pop culture sensation. When the movie “inspired by an original idea by Charli xcx” was announced, many were curious what her first major foray into film would look like. Well, the moment has come. An hour before the premiere, moviegoers crowded in front of the Eccles, many of them in “brat green” beanies, some homemade and some that looked like official swag, waited for a chance to see Charli. A group of fans were seen walking down the line of attendees trying to buy tickets, with someone offering me $150 for mine. Inside, some of Charli’s tracks played before the film. During their intro, director Aidan Zamiri said, “This movie is about the end of an era,” setting the tone for the film. What followed was part fever trip through the machine of the music industry and part satirical mockumentary that felt both real and exaggerated.Charli has three films playing at this year’s fest. That feels like both an exclamation point on her pop-music conquest and a signal of the next evolution of her career, which includes the soundtrack for the upcoming “Wuthering Heights” adaptation. One audience member wanted to know, how does she find the time? Charli couldn’t have responded more perfectly, quoting her own lyrics: “365. Don’t eat, don’t sleep, just put it on repeat.” —Good morning! It’s another crisp, beautiful day in Park City: Saturday, Jan. 24. It will be mostly cloudy today with a high of 28 degrees., now unspooling its final edition in a distinctly unsnowy Park City before it relocates to Boulder, Colo. in 2027. What hasn’t changed? Our capacity to get excited for some of the year’s strongest independent cinema: documentaries, dramas, midnight films, even a Charli XCX sighting or two.of screening notes, interviews and events. Also, we’ll be updating this gallery through Monday with all the best portraits from the L.A. Times Studio @ Sundance Film Festival presented by Chase Sapphire Reserve. Plus, check out all of our video interviews and live panels onChris Pine, Topher Grace, Jenny Slate and Keegan-Michael Key were among some of the stars who swung by our studio at Sundance today.Jenny Slate, one of the stars of the movie “Carousel,” stopped by the Los Angeles Times 2026 Sundance Film Festival studio presented by Chase Sapphire in Park City.Arguably the most hotly anticipated film of the entire festival is this unusual pop star document from chart-topper Charli XCX, hot off the heels of her zeitgeist-shaping album The feature debut for director Aidan Zamiri — he also made Charli’s satirical “360” video — follows the pop star as she prepares for a world tour, pushed and pulled by competing forces all around her as she attempts to stay focused on what matters., Kate Berlant, Hailey Benton Gates and Jamie Demetriou along with Rosanna Arquette and Alexander Skarsgård. Charli’s own cinephilia is well documented, making this excursion into moviemaking even more exciting. Following its Sundance premiere, the movie will be in theaters at the end of the month.Gayle Rankin, Domhnall Gleeson, Grant O’Rourke and director Louis Paxton from the movie “The Incomer” at the Los Angeles Times 2026 Sundance Film Festival studio presented by Chase Sapphire in Park City.I did not expect to laugh as much or as hard as I did during last night’s world premiere of Joanna Natasegara’s documentary aboutAt the Q&A after the screening, Natasegara shared that she met Azzougarh on holiday in Morocco and he told her his incredible story, which planted the seed for the doc. As the film reveals, his first connection with the hip-hop group came after he called Wu-Tang affiliate Shabazz the Disciple after finding his number on a record in an effort to meet RZA. After an audience member asked Shabazz if fans still call him, he said they do and he’s not afraid of talking to them. “People call me and I sell them some merchandise and give them some spiritual advice,” Shabazz said. Among the other highlights in the film were Wu-Tang Cappadonna taking the camera crew on a hometown tour of Staten Island, where he bought some underwear and visited with old friends, and Shi Yan Ming, a 34th-generation Shaolin monk who befriendedBut recently, industry insiders are particularly interested in the debut of Warner Bros.’ new contemporary specialty film label, led by former Neon Chief Marketing Officer Christian Parkes. He’s joined by two other former Neon executives — Jason Wald, who is the new label’s head of acquisitions and production and Spencer Collantes, who will run marketing and creative. The three started in their roles this month, ahead of Sundance, according to a statement in December from Warner Bros. announcing the label. The goal is to focus on “smartly budgeted global theatrical releases with innovative marketing campaigns that enhance Warner Bros.’ long history of socially relevant, provocative and impactful cinema,” the studio said at the time. What the team is interested in and whether they make any acquisitions is something many are keeping an eye on. Another area of interest are the options for financing indie films. As traditional sources of funding have dried up, some filmmakers have turned to alternative avenues. This year, for example, four films crowdfunded via Kickstarter will be making their debut at Sundance. Producers have dabbled in crowdfunding strategies over the years, particularly as they look for creative ways to engage a core audience and raise cash. Will this become increasingly common? Only time will tell. We’ll be watching in the days ahead.Director Rachel Lambert returns to Sundance with a domestic romance centered on two 40-something adults reconnecting after life took them down separate paths. The film gently lilts you into the lives of its characters and its suburban Ohio setting, revealing regular-people problems — divorce, moving, aging parents, money — with which Chris Pine and Jenny Slate’s characters deal. Pine plays a divorced doctor with a family practice and the ultimate dadcore collection of high-waisted pants. In the wake of her parents’ separation, Lambert sketches the effects of divorce on children through the character of Pine’s daughter, delicately portrayed by Abby Ryder Fortson. She finds a sense of direction through her high school debate team, taught by Slate’s former Capitol Hill staffer returning home to be a caretaker for her parents. In both “Carousel” and her 2023 Sundance filmLambert teaches viewers about who her characters are through gestures, looks, apologies and confessions — and in the process asserts herself as a leading purveyor of emotional vulnerability.Good morning! It’s Friday, Jan. 23 and today’s forecast is for cloudy skies — and possibly a few flurries but nothing substantial — with a high of 36 degrees.We caught up with Chris Pine and Jenny Slate ahead of the “Carousel” premiere on Thursday and asked the stars of the romance movie for dating recs and advice.Luis Valdez appears in “American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez” by David Alvarado, an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.A “brujo,” a “magician,” “a social arsonist” and the “father of Chicano Theater” — these are just a few of the monikers that have been bestowed upon Luis Valdez over the course of his decades-long career. The 85-year-old filmmaker and playwright is responsible for “La Bamba” and “Zoot Suit,” films that raised a generation of Latinos and are now upheld as classics — both were inducted to the National Film Registry of the U.S. Library of Congress.By exploring L.A.’s racial injustice, Luis Valdez’s ‘Zoot Suit’ gave birth to Chicano theater ‘Zoot Suit’ is by far the most influential play by a Chicano writer, and the only one to reach Broadway. It changed Los Angeles’ historical memory and the American theater foreverCan it really be the festival’s final year in Park City, Utah? Braced as we are for nostalgia at every world premiere in the Eccles or every late night spent at the Library with a cup of chili, Sundance should supply plenty of newness. Below, find our picks for 10 movies to prioritize. We’ve either seen these already or have it on good authority that your time won’t be wasted. AndYou know the Instagram meme where people say they don’t want a new year; they’ll take a gently used 1995 instead, accompanied by a photo of them in high school, stovepipe jeans and all? That hit of nostalgia is what I hope “The Best Summer” from director Tamra Davis will deliver. The documentary promises never-before-seen concert footage, backstage banter and interviews on tour from the Summersault festival in Australia in 1995. At the time, Davis was recently wed to Mike D of the Beastie Boys, among the artists on the bill. It also features some of the biggest alternative rock artists of the era, including Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Rancid, Beck, the Amps and Bikini Kill. Even more poignant, the footage was discovered as Davis evacuated her Malibu home in the Palisades fire last January. —
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