Film Review: Bedford Park: A Touching Film About Finding Genuine Human Connection [Sundance 2026]

Bedford Park Review

Bedford Park (2026) Film Review from the 49th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Stephanie Ahn and starring Moon Choi, Son Sukku, Kim Eung-soo, Jefferson White, Simon Kim, Eden Lee, Mia Love Kwon, Toni D’Antonio, Cindy Hogan, Becki Hayes, Paco Lozano, Will Cobbs and Joohong Jung.

Filmmaker Stephanie Ahn creates two three-dimensional leading characters in her deeply probing character study, Bedford Park. This is, first and foremost, a movie about the human experience through all its ups and downs and the search for satisfying connections with others. Moon Choi and Son Sukku star in Ahn’s personal tale of hope and salvation and each performer impresses with the acting that is displayed on-screen here. Admittedly, Choi does a lot of the heavy lifting in the picture and seems to have more screen time than Sukku, but Sukku still manages to create a multi-layered character on the brink of disappointment with his life.

Bedford Park opens with the story of the Asian-American character, Audrey (Choi). Audrey is seeing a doctor who tells her it’s dangerous to keep getting pregnant with her given physical limitations. Audrey’s mom has gotten into a car accident with a man named Eli (Sukku) and Audrey arrives at Eli’s door to make sure he pays the bills associated with the damages. Eli reacts viciously to Audrey and her mother’s presence outside his home. Audrey soon has a miscarriage and uses Eli’s bathroom to attend to her situation. As Eli, a student and a security guard, and Audrey get to know each other, she offers to take him around in her car when he’s reduced to taking the bus to get to work. Eli is a former wrestler who attends college and has an affair with a female student who doesn’t seem interested in anything other than his age.

Audrey, a woman in her mid-30’s, is the most well-crafted character in Bedford Park. She’s believable and flawed and has to come to temporarily live with her parents as circumstances unfold. Audrey’s dad (Kim Eung-soo) talks about how he came from Korea to America and took a step down in terms of his career prospects as a result. Audrey’s mother (Won Mi Kyung) loves her and questions her choice to speak English in a powerful argument the two of them have together later in the film.

Eli is also well-realized. Sukku plays him as a rebellious and hurt young man who has suffered immensely by giving up his passions in life to try to conform to the standards of society today. Set in New Jersey, there’s a lot of subtext Sukku brings to his role as one powerful scene has his adopted mother meet him in a diner, only to cut off Eli once she has obtained the money she needs from him. Eli is affected emotionally in this scene. He eventually grows to admire Audrey through a series of events that test their patience and their appreciation of one another’s struggles.

This film doesn’t have an easy cookie-cutter answer to the problems the movie addresses. A lot of the resolve in the film is open-ended which is both a plus and a minus for the picture. Audrey is well-rounded as played by Choi and although the character often gets mistaken for a doctor, she isn’t one in reality (she’s a physical therapist). Audrey is given a three-week break from her job when she challenges her boss at work. Audrey and Eli seem to have a lot more in common than they initially think they do and when these characters are shown with other people, they simply don’t connect with them effectively. Eli and Audrey form a one-of-a-kind connection that is very well-layered in this thoughtful and observant movie.

There are a couple of flaws here. Some of Eli’s decisions don’t make sense such as when he lets a woman he was with sexually get out of the store he works in after she has shoplifted and set off the alarm. Also, Audrey’s parents, though extremely well-conceived, seem to get lost in the shuffle a bit towards the end as the movie focuses more on Audrey and Eli than the secondary characters in the film who are nevertheless equally intriguing.

Bedford Park has a lot of depth to its premise. Rarely these days do we get characters as emotionally complex as the two leads are here. Although the movie doesn’t offer easy solutions to the situations it proposes, the direction is always on-point and the movie makes more impact on the viewer the more it goes on. In support, there are good turns by the cast members who have smaller parts in the film, namely the performers who play Audrey’s parents.

However, this is clearly Moon Choi’s movie from beginning to end. She’s alive and passionate in her scenes here and the viewer will feel her struggles and her inner pain very deeply thanks to the depth Choi brings to the part. Although it is not a perfect movie, Bedford Park gives viewers a glimpse inside the lives of everyday people struggling to make meaningful connections while surviving in a country that gets more challenging to live in every day. It’s a moving portrait of the quest for happiness and the surprises life can offer through the people we meet while living our lives.

Rating: 8/10

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