Jeremy Pugh

The red, err, blue carpet for Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile a dramatisation of the life of serial killer Ted Bundy was held before the premiere on Sunday, Jan. 28. The story starts in the year 1969. Ted (Zac Efron) is handsome, smart, charismatic, affectionate. And cautious single mother Liz Kloepfer (Lily Collins) ultimately cannot resist his charms. For her, Ted is a match made in heaven, and she soon falls head over heels in love with the dashing young man. A picture of domestic bliss, the happy couple seems to have it all figured out … until, out of nowhere, their perfect life is shattered. Ted is arrested and charged with a series of increasingly grisly murders. Concern soon turns to paranoia—and, as evidence piles up, Liz is forced to consider that the man with whom she shares her life could actually be a psychopath.

This is the story of Ted Bundy, one of the most notorious serial killers of all time. Collins shines as Liz, while Zac Efron gives a performance that could redefine his career. Renowned filmmaker Joe Berlinger, best known for his true-crime documentaries brings this Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile story to the screen.

See all our Sundance coverage here.

Photos by Natalie Simpson / Beehive Photography 

It’s July 1977, and New York City is awash with escalating violence. A citywide blackout is triggering fires, looting, and countless arrests, and the Son of Sam murders are riddling the city with panic. June, once a celebrated counterculture figure, attempts to retreat from the chaos by shutting herself inside the yellowed walls of her grandmother’s South Bronx apartment. But her doorbell is ringing incessantly, the heat is unbearable, and creeping paranoia and fear are taking hold. Visitors, some invited, some unsolicited, arrive one by one, and June must determine whom she can trust and whether she can find a path back to her former self.

With Hitchcockian tautness, writer-director Alistair Banks Griffin flawlessly captures the style and texture of the 1970s and the interior unraveling of a woman who, like her city, is teetering on a knife-edge. Naomi Watts’s astonishing performance is that of an antihero racked with paralyzing anxiety. In this eerily resonant allegory for our times, she is, like all of us, weighing her actions in a world on the brink of collapse.

Photos by Natalie Simpson / Beehive Photography

Senate staffer Daniel Jones is assigned the daunting task of leading an investigation into the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program. After analyzing extensive evidence, he learns about the “enhanced interrogation techniques”—proven to be brutal, immoral, and ineffective—that the CIA adopted after 9/11. When Jones and the Senate Intelligence Committee attempt to release the results from his investigation, however, the CIA and White House go to great lengths to prevent the truth from getting out.

Highly acclaimed producer and screenwriter Scott Z. Burns returns to the director’s chair to helm this absorbing political thriller. Weaving together more than a decade’s worth of real-life political intrigue, Burns’s script offers a clear-eyed account of Jones’s tireless fight to research and publish his damning 525-page public report. The Report also features a dream cast, including Adam Driver (as the driven Daniel Jones) and the always-great Annette Bening (as Senator Dianne Feinstein), that memorably brings this riveting story to life.

Photos by Natalie Simpson / Beehive Photography

On Sunday of opening weekend of Sundance 2019, The producers behind A Tuba to Cuba, a documentary film on the history of New Orleans jazz, set up a Second Line brass band parade down Main Street during the Sundance Film Festival. The parade was be lead by Win and Regine of Arcade Fire accompanied by the famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band  from New Orleans. Although Second Lines are generally present trailing a funeral procession and it’s not really clear who died, it was pretty fun. And weird, cuz snow.

See all of our Sundance coverage here.

Photos by Natalie Simpson / Beehive Photography.

And the sunshine did fall brightly upon the multitudes gathered in Park City for the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. And Lo! The elders at the Utah Office of Tourism and the Sundance Institute saw that it was good. And faithful and stalwart Stuart Graves did benefit much from the clear skies and warmer weather that brought the stars down from the firmament and out of their Accuras and AirBnBs amongst the people. Many #stuartselfies were taken and it was good.

What? We’re doing Bible talk? No idea. Anyway, Stuart. As if you didn’t know. He’s an official FOM (Friend of the Magazine). He loves finding famous faces on Main Street during the Sundance Film Festival. He’s had a lot of luck so far. Here’s the evidence. You can follow Stuart on (Instagram, Twitter, Facebook) for his star-studded #stuartselfie(s).

Video of Stuart on the Street below our photo gallery. Video by David Shuff.

Sundance 2019 – Street Seen With Stuart Graves -Salt Lake Magazine from Salt Lake Magazine on Vimeo.

We went to the Blue Carpet, they’re all blue this year for Late Night, late last night. katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) is a pioneer and legendary host on the late-night talk-show circuit. When she’s accused of being a “woman who hates women,” she puts affirmative action on the to-do list, and—presto!—Molly (Mindy Kaling) is hired as the one woman in Katherine’s all-male writers’ room. But Molly might be too little too late, as the formidable Katherine also faces the reality of low ratings and a network that wants to replace her. Molly, wanting to prove she’s not simply a diversity hire who’s disrupting the comfort of the brotherhood, is determined to help Katherine by revitalizing her show and career—and possibly effect even bigger change at the same time.

Thompson brings pathos and amusingly severe charm to the pantsuit-clad Katherine. Smartly written by Kaling and snappily directed by Nisha Ganatra, Late Night takes on white privilege, entitlement, and a culture veering toward crassness and conservatism. Questioning how women in power are “supposed” to act, it delivers a winsome, sophisticated comedy about the times in which we live. See all our Sundance coverage here.

Photos by Natalie Simpson / Beehive Photography 

The cast of After The Wedding was on the Red, err, Blue Carpet last night (Jan. 25). The film is the story of Isabel (Michelle Williams) who has dedicated her life to working with the children in an orphanage in Calcutta. Theresa (Julianne Moore) is the multimillionaire head of a media company who lives with her handsome artist husband (Billy Crudup) and their two adorable twin boys in New York. When word comes to Isabel of a mysterious and generous grant for the financially struggling orphanage, she must travel to New York to meet the benefactor—Theresa—in person. And when Isabel is spontaneously invited to Theresa’s daughter’s wedding, Isabel discovers a connection to Theresa that takes her on an unexpected journey into her own past.

Adapting Susanne Bier’s Academy Award–nominated Danish film of the same title, writer/director Bart Freundlich has crafted an absorbing cinematic tale of secrets and intersecting lives. Both Williams and Moore give incredible performances and command the screen, adding nuance and depth to every scene they’re in. By cleverly changing the gender of Bier’s characters, Freundlich offers an elevated take on the film’s melodrama—and tells a rich, emotional story about strong women, motherhood, and fate.

Below: The cast of “After the Wedding” at the film’s Sundance 2019 premiere. Click to enlarge. Photos by Natalie Simpson – Beehive Photography

See all our Sundance Coverage here.