Annual Top Films Lists

Top 50 Most Anticipated American Independent Films of 2019: #38. Justin Simien’s Bad Hair

Published on January 24, 2019

Bad Hair

After the balayage that was Dear White People (the award-winning Sundance film that spawned a Netflix series), Justin Simien buzzed cut his way into his sophomore gig around summer’s end in Los Angeles. Bad Hair was mentioned back in 2017 with a producing team of Julia Lebedev, Eddie Vaisman, and Oren Moverman supporting the project. The U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent winner landed Laverne Cox, Vanessa Williams and Michelle Hurd for what is being coined a horror satire and wrapped up production in October before the trades mentioned his name in the studio film ring. Further commitments are perhaps the reason why we didn’t see it programmed in Park City this time out. Dear White People (trailer) was sharp-witted and shrewd, this might be closer to Get Out in its DNA.

Gist: Paralleling the rise of New Jack Swing in 1989, this follows an ambitious young woman from Compton who gets a weave in order to survive the image obsessed world of music television. Her professional success comes at a higher cost than anticipated, however, when she discovers her new hair may have a mind of its own.

Release Date/Prediction: Producers will be looking to showcase the film as an acquisitions friendly setting. Perhaps a SXSW or Tribeca Film Fest showing is in the cards.

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).