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\u201cThis film was written in 2017 and shot in 2019.\u201d So reads the disclaimer at the start of The Pink Cloud<\/em>, a clever and surprising Brazilian movie that was among the best offerings at this year\u2019s Sundance Film Festival. Far from a mundane declaration, the note from the writer-director Iuli Gerbase underlines the accidental resonance of her film. The story is about a deadly cloud that swamps a city and forces everyone to stay inside their homes, where they\u2019re glued to their screens and can only interact with roommates. Every Sundance overflows with topical indie movies, but watching The Pink Cloud <\/em>alone on my couch almost one year into a pandemic was particularly discombobulating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My visceral reaction to Gerbase\u2019s film was a testament to cinema\u2019s ongoing currency, after one of the toughest and strangest years in the medium\u2019s history. Last year\u2019s Sundance was among the movie industry\u2019s last significant events before the pandemic closed theaters worldwide, postponed the release of dozens of major titles, and left people wondering if the big-screen experience could survive COVID-19. This year\u2019s festival took place not in Park City, Utah, but online; it also ran shorter than usual and featured a more limited selection of films. Yet even with those restrictions, the best entries still reflected the exciting possibilities of moviemaking in a chaotic time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pink Cloud <\/em><\/strong>felt extraordinary not just because it eerily echoed real life, but also because it brought stylishness and grace to its setting of drab apartment interiors. The ostensibly sci-fi film is Gerbase\u2019s feature debut, but it\u2019s made with the confidence of a veteran director, fluidly switching among genres (romance, comedy, horror) as the quarantine stretches from days into years. Though I\u2019m not really ready for movies about the actual COVID-19 pandemic (Doug Liman\u2019s Locked Down<\/em><\/a> left me cold), The Pink Cloud<\/em> succeeds by being only inadvertently relevant, focusing mostly on the psychological toll taken on its main character, Giovana (Renata de L\u00e9lis), who\u2019s holed up with the one-night stand she brought home the evening before the crisis began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The online approach to this year\u2019s Sundance was safer and allowed expanded access around the country. Rather than having to fly to a Utah ski town to see exciting new movies, you could buy tickets online and watch them live, even attending virtual parties<\/a> with other cinemagoers. But the lack of a collective viewing experience was notable for some of the year\u2019s biggest hits, especially Sian Heder\u2019s fantastic CODA<\/em><\/strong>,<\/em> a witty, sweetly told drama about a hearing 17-year-old girl in a deaf Massachusetts fishing family. Heder (whose previous film, Tallulah<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>was an underrated melodrama) zooms in on small details and humorous moments as Ruby (Emilia Jones) and her family navigate life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dilemma in CODA <\/em>is that Ruby loves to sing\u2014a passion that\u2019s mostly inaccessible to her parents, Jackie (Marlee Matlin) and Frank (Troy Kotsur). With the encouragement of a high-school teacher (a wonderful Eugenio Derbez), she begins to pursue music seriously. But the film isn\u2019t structured around overdramatic conflicts or exaggerated plot twists. Its key emotional moments are rooted in the family\u2019s love for each other, even as Ruby\u2019s parents and brother might struggle to understand her passions. The movie\u2019s climactic scene is one I would have loved to experience with a hushed, tearful audience, the kind of moment I fondly remember from recent Sundance hits such as The Farewell<\/em><\/a>. <\/em>Still, CODA <\/em>managed to build buzz virtually. It was reportedly acquired by Apple for $25 million<\/a>, a record-breaking number for the festival, while winning both the Audience Award and the U.S. dramatic Jury Prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.pranafilmes.com.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Atlantique-2.jpg\")