Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #34. Justin Chon’s Ms. Purple

Published on January 25, 2019

Ms. Purple

A surprise entry for the Sundance Film Festival because his shooting dates appear to have been late 2018, we get the feeling that Justin Chon worked within the same low budget parameters as his break-thru film and this delights us. The accolades and critical acclaimed Gook put the actor turned filmmaker on the Park City map in 2017. The NEXT section Audience Award winner (Chon also landed Kiehl’s Someone to Watch Award at the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards) would land support from Charles D King’s MACRO label, and the filmmaker turned to Kickstarter to unite the troops — we look forward to more L.A. Asian American experience centric storylines.

Gist: A young woman who works as a karaoke hostess in Koreatown reconnects with her estranged brother in the final days of their father’s life.

Release Date/Prediction: Landing a Sundance Film Fest U.S. Dramatic Competition slot, this actually receives its world premiere in a couple of hours from now.

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).