Charli XCX, Jenna Ortega, and Natalie Portman star in “The Gallerist,” a comic murder caper

Photo: JennaNatalieCharli

PARK CITY, Utah — At the sold-out premiere for The Gallerist, director Cathy Yan was accompanied by three powerful female actresses, Natalie Portman, Jenna Ortega, and Charli XCX. Catherine Zeta-Jones cancelled her appearance due to the winter storms along the East Coast.

This movie couches a satire of the contemporary art world in the macabre, yet very funny story of gallerist Polina Polinski (Natalie Portman) trying to save her gallery after influencer Dalton Hardberry (Zach Galifianakis) accidentally dies in the gallery right before the grand opening of the newest exhibit by artist Stella Burgess (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

Standouts in this film are the five main female characters played by Natalie Portman, Jenna Ortega, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Charli XCX. They embody the moral, societal, and financial contradictions in the contemporary art scene.

Editor Brian Kates said these actors are all such good actors that it was easy for him to edit. “They all realized what kind of movie they were in.” This was about his 16^th movie at the Sundance Film Festival, including short films. “I can’t imagine my career without Sundance,” he says. “A lot of that is also about the Sundance lab, where I’ve been an advisor three times, which is very generous of them to have me. It’s really an education for the advisors, as well as for the directors and editors… it really teaches you when it’s the right time to talk about something and when it’s not… The lab is an incredible resource.”

Natalie Portman is also a producer for this film and said it was an incredible experience to produce and act in it: “Cathy is such an incredible director.” She also truly enjoyed working with the other actresses. Jenna Ortega’s “comedic timing is amazing, her dramatic chops are extraordinary. She’s just so special.” Portman concluded with “everyone just created indelible characters. It’s so exciting.”

The film has an energetic, sometimes subtle score that really shines at the end, as its melodies let you reflect on the film as the credits roll. When I interviewed the composers a few days earlier, they thought this was exactly the kind of movie people needed to provide a brief period of levity.

They couldn’t have known that Saturday morning, Jan.24, the day of their film’s premiere, there would be another ICE shooting in Minneapolis. Natalie Portman came to the premiere wearing an ICE OUT button and was asked to comment. “It’s a really devastating moment for our country, and it feels like the American citizens are being the best human beings in the world right now, showing up for each other, for their neighbors, their community, and for their freedom, and the federal government and ICE, in particular, are being so abusive and totalitarian. And it is absolutely outrageous and needs to end.”