As many ventured to Park City to brave the cold and take in the best of independent moviemaking in 2025 at the Sundance Film Festival, For the Win will be enjoying some of this year’s slate from the couch.
As the virtual window opened Wednesday for far-flung critics covering Sundance from the comfort of their homes, we’ll be giving you daily recaps on the films we’re watching and how they stack up with one another. We’ve had the chance to see some Sundance titles already, and we’ll recap those now.
From a fantastic deep dive into the life of Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reubens to a thrillingly bleak study of celebrity obsession in the TikTok age, all five of these 2025 Sundance films are worthy of your time once you can see them. Let’s dive in.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Dennis Keeley/HBO
There is nothing you can say about Pee-wee as Himself that the two-part documentary doesn’t already say in ways you just can’t. Shortly before his untimely death, actor Paul Reubens opened up to filmmaker Matt Wolf about his life story. Yes, we learn plenty about the career we saw play on our televisions and in theaters as Reuben’s inimitable Pee-wee Herman delighted us for decades. We learn about the deeply unfair controversies that sent Reubens’ career into a maelstrom. We also hear the stories Reubens held closely to his vest, the ones about his identity and how that identity started to disappear into Pee-wee’s spiffy bow-tie and slicked-back hair.
Wolf’s two-parter is a rigorous study of a 20th century icon, made possible by the startling openness Reubens brings to his interviews. Wolf wasn’t able to finish his time with Reubens before the latter’s death from cancer, but we get more than enough perspective from the venerated performer. Reubens lets us into the totality of his upbringing, his slow-building rise to fame behind an alter ego, how he carried the weight of said fame, perfection and personal reservation and how his world came crashing down more than once in tragic fashion. As much as this is the definitive Pee-wee Herman documentary project, it’s also one of the great celebrity documentaries we’ve gotten. Reuben’s participation in the project breaks it wide open, as his willingness to share his full life collides with genuine unease with Wolf’s artistic license on how his story is being told.
Reubens deserves the right to reveal to you the parts of his life he kept quiet, as it’s best you hear about his secrets from him. However, you leave this overwhelming assembly of frank reflection and comprehensive footage with deep appreciation and a profound sense of sadness for the complexities that haunted such a gregarious man and talent. This is absolutely a must-see.
Pee-wee as Himself will broadcast on HBO later this year.
Courtesy of Sundance Institute
The scathing Lurker hovers above the celebrity circle, that gaggle of recognizable companions who stick to our superstars and never seem to do anything but that. Films have studied the obsessed fan and their tormented objects of affection for decades, with All About Eve, The King of Comedy, Misery and Play Misty For Me eventually paving the groundwork for more modern spins like Swimfan, Big Fan, Ingrid Goes West and the excellent limited series Swarm. Lurker is the best film we’ve gotten so far that indicts the growing entitlement young fans feel toward their favorite artists.
Alex Russell’s hyper-confident debut is a squirmy descent into those blurred lines, one where a loner retail employee (Théodore Pellerin’s Matthew, evoking an icier read on Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler) somehow weasels his way into the inner social sanctum of his favorite pop star, Oliver (Archie Madekwe). Pellerin’s super-fan weaponizes his gawkish uncool and plays down having any knowledge of Oliver’s music, even though he gets the musician’s attention by popping on a song from one of his influences at a trendy clothing store. Oliver is charmed and invites Matthew to one of his concerts.
What follows is a suffocating struggle for power between the admirer who feels destined to influence his favorite star and the vulnerable artist who slowly realizes the danger in the company he keeps and the doors he leaves open. Matthew is cold and calculated, and Oliver is just brash and young enough to make the mistakes Matthew can capitalize on. The dynamic between the two grows deeply unsettling, heightened by Madekwe’s breathtaking down