Review: 'Sundance Short Film Tour 2023' serves up seven small gems about love, family, grief, and the economic wisdom of majoring in Viking history

One constant in the history of the Sundance Film Festival has been the dedication to screening short films — some of which are boldly experimental, or showcase an up-and-coming talent. (Wes Anderson’s “Bottle Rocket” and Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash” were shorts at Sundance before they were features.)

The Sundance Short Film Tour 2023 features seven strong short films, all between 8 and 14 minutes long, that screened at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Two of them were award winners. All of them are intriguing, if not sometimes heartbreaking.

“Help Me Understand” • The first short in the program is the most conventional, a straight-forward comedy — with bits of pathos — in which six women in a focus group (Kate Flannery from “The Office” is the most recognizable) are asked by an unctuous marketing executive (Ken Marino) which of two flasks of detergent smells better. The deliberations break down into animosity, and eventually understanding, in writer-director Aemilia Scott’s sure-handed takedown of modern advertising.

“Parker” • In this documentary by directors Sharon Liese and Catherine Hoffman, three generations of a Black family in Kansas City, Mo., discuss the decision to change their names to match the family name of the eldest, Adolphus Parker. Within this simple, direct film springs a wealth of issues about Black identity, complicated family dynamics, enduring love, and the long shadow of American slavery.

“Take Me Home” • Korean American writer-director Liz Sargent delivers the most heart-tugging film in the batch, casting her sister, Anna Sargent, as a young woman with cognitive disabilities — who must team with her estranged sister (Jeena Yi) to deal with the aftermath when their mother (played in flashbacks by Joan Sargent, Liz and Anna’s mom) dies unexpectedly. The Sargent sisters, in front of and behind the camera, get to the raw emotions of siblings coming together in the worst of times.

“Les Liaisons Foireuses (Inglorious Liaisons)” • The uncertainties of young love play out in this animated Belgian coming-of-age comedy, my favorite of this collection. It’s set at a high school party where alcohol, hormones and a game of spin-the-bottle reveal some tender truths. Directors Chloé Alliez and Violette DeIvoye employ an engaging stop-motion animating style, with each character depicted with light switches for faces and electrical plugs for legs — a visual metaphor for the live-wire intensity of teen emotions.

“Rest Stop” • Writer-director Crystal Kayiza received the Jury Award for U.S. Fiction for this immigrant tale, of a woman and her kids arriving in New York from Uganda and taking a long bus ride to the woman’s husband in Oklahoma. Seen mostly from the P.O.V. of the older daughter, the story unfolds naturally and gracefully, showing the hardships this family endures to secure an uncertain future.

“Piscine Pro” • A broad and profane comedy from Quebec, centering on a recent college graduate (Louis Carrière) who finds his degree in Viking history is of little use in his dead-end job at a pool store. 

“When You Left Me on That Boulevard” • This year’s Grand Jury Prize winner for short films at Sundance, this slice-of-life story captures the generation gap between a Filipino woman (Melissa Arcaya), trying to look right for their family Thanksgiving gathering in San Diego circa 2006, and her daughter Ly (Kailyn Dulay), who bristles at her mom’s rigidity and would rather get stoned with her cousins. Funny, aggravating and warm-hearted — just like any encounter with your family would be.

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‘Sundance Short Film Tour 2023’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, September 15, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but some shorts probably R for language and some mature content. Running time: 91 minutes; two shorts are in French, another is in English and Swahili, all with subtitles.