What to watch: Two Sundance Fest favorites land in theaters

Two Sundance Film Festival crowd pleasers from this year’s lineup land in theaters this week, and both are worth seeing.

Here are our reviews.

“The Incomer”: Saddled with one more unenviable assignment — booting two siblings who are roosting on a remote Scottish isle where they worship birds — loner city employee Daniel (Domhnall Gleeson of “Harry Potter” fame) embarks on a madcap journey that leads to unforeseen friendships that could fill a void in his lonely, very interior existence. But his first introduction to the two wary-of-outsiders curiosities — the controlling and unpredictable Isla (Gayle Rankin) and her more innocent and child-like brother Sandy (Grant O’Rourke, who will melt your heart at times) — doesn’t go well, and it’s clear they don’t intend to leave. It’s easy to understand why since the duo have been shut off from modern society and know little about so-called conveniences — a cellphone, well, just seems weird to them. Daniel finds both of them, well, just weird, but he reluctantly carries on with his tasks and uses his wits (he refashions “The Lord of the Rings” to tempt them off that island) only to later discover that there’s a touching and sorrowful backstory for Isla and Sandy are so beholden to the land while fearing the sea. Set primarily on that solitary but striking island, director/screenwriter Louis Paxton’s Sundance favorite — his feature-length debut — scooped up the NEXT award given to innovative filmmaking. Paxton dabbles in animation and shakes in some folklore for an endearing and funny dramedy that warms the heart without getting overly manipulative. The three actors are utterly delightful too. I’ve seen it twice and could imagine it becoming an annual watch tradition. It’s just that beguiling. Details: 3½ stars out of 4 in theaters Friday.

“Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!”: If someone comes up and offers you a guidebook that tells you the “foolproof way” to grieve, don’t take it. Everyone follows their own distinct path to mourn when someone they cherish passes away. For ballroom dancer Haru (Rinko Kikuchi, in a wise, committed performance), just getting through the day in the wake of the death of her passionate and beloved dancer partner, her husband Luis (Alejandro Edda), is a chore and leaves her depleted. She shuts down and shuts off from everyone, even skips the 46th birthday party that her two sisters (You and Yoh Yoshida) have planned for her. After a few months, she and her sisters venture back to the dance studio where they fall under the spell of hot new instructor Fedir (Alberto Guerra, bringing both smolder and acting chops). The married Fedir and Haru do more than just tango in this sexy, humorous and poignant exploration of how grief makes us do the craziest, often out-of-character things. Josef Kubota Wladyka’s film is also an entrancing homage to dance movies — a “Dirty Dancing” segment is one of the film’s best highlights. In all, it’s a captivating character study that celebrates how dance can seduce, attract and even make us more joyful and resilient. It’s a liberating message that coalesces around Kikuchi’s astonishing performance. Some narrative moves seem out of step at times, most notably a screwball comedy situation near the end that just clashes with the film’s own dramatic tempo and feels wildly out of place. But there’s much to enjoy about this sexy, compassionate valentine to movies, dancing and women who have weathered hard times but find a special, fantastical place they can call their own out on that dance floor — with or without a partner. Details: 3 stars; opens Friday at numerous Bay Area AMC theaters.

Contact Randy Myers at [email protected].