Festival Predictions

2019 Sundance Film Festival Predictions: #55. Rick Alverson – The Mountain

Published on November 22, 2018

There are a slew of festival preemed goodies in Her Smell, Birds of Passage, Donnybrook, High Life, Gloria Bell, Fistful of Dirt and even Errol Morris’ American Dharma that could break in Sundance’s Spotlight section, but we’re most convinced about Rick Alverson receiving a homecoming at a fest that has supported his latest work and would be the US premiere for the uphill psychological climb that is The Mountain. Featured in competition at the Venice Film Festival (here is our sit down with the filmmaker) and next to no international screenings since, Alverson has shown both 2012’s The Comedy and 2015’s Entertainment in Park City. This fifth film features Tye Sheridan, Jeff Goldblum, Denis Lavant, Hannah Gross, Udo Kier, Annemarie Lawless, Eleonore Hendricks and Margot Klein. Cinematography duties went to Lorenzo Hagerman.

Gist: Written by Alverson, Dustin Guy Defa and Colm O’Leary, in 1950s America, an introverted young man (Sheridan) joins a renowned lobotomist (Goldblum) as he promotes his recently debunked procedure. As their tour of asylums progresses, the young man begins to identify with the patients, among them the daughter of a charismatic leader in the burgeoning New Age movement of the West.

Production Co./Producers: Sara Murphy, Ryan Zacarias, Allison Rose Carter, Eddy Moretti.

Prediction: Spotlight section followed by SXSW premiere.

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. TBD (domestic). The Match Factory (international).

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).