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

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).