Sundance 2020: 10 Films Everyone Is Buzzing About

3. The Killing Of Two Lovers

The Killing Of Two Lovers
Back40 Pictures

Having recently experienced the frustrations and anger of a marital separation in Noah Baumbach's excellent Marriage Story, it's apparently a great time for movies centred around divorce, because Sundance favourite The Killing Of Two Lovers is being hailed as one of the very best movies at the festival.

Unlike Marriage Story, however, this particular tale seems focused on the pain of the situation, rather than the love. Fresh off his stint on the Lethal Weapon TV series, Clayne Crawford stars as David, a man recently separated from his wife who struggles to accept her new relationship, while also harbouring a desire to get back together.

So... is that title a spoiler, with David's grief causing him to murder his distant wife and her new partner? Well, not exactly. While the movie does build to a dramatic explosion, it's also been noted that the story feels fresh and surprising, leading to a conclusion that audiences might not anticipate.

The movie also uses a bunch of long takes that give this messy situation a more intimate and grounded feel, and with a sensitive leading performance and its stark, small-town rural setting, The Killing Of Two Lovers doesn't look to be adhering to any of the conventions or stereotypes that we associate with most marital dramas.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!