While titled “The Musical,” screenwriter Alexander Heller’s film isn’t actually a musical but instead a humorous glimpse into the revenge-motivated efforts of a theater teacher getting back at his nemesis through his art — by writing a musical.
It’s uniquely Heller’s sense of humor, developed over childhood exposure to Sundance Film Festival comedies like “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Election,” so premiering this film at the 2026 festival in the U.S. Dramatic Competition is especially surreal, the writer said.
It’s extra special, too, because it’s an experience he’s sharing with Giselle Bonilla, whom he brought on to direct.
“We really want to make a comedy that was inspired by a lot of the movies that we loved, that blends these elements,” Heller said. “And I think Giselle is the master at this, of people who take things really seriously and how that can be really funny.”
For Bonilla, it wasn’t hard to get into the mindset of the story.
“It’s about a breakup, and I was going through a breakup at that time,” she admitted with a laugh. “That feeling of oscillating between the mania of wanting to get back with your ex and back at your ex was very resonant with me.”
“The Musical” is Bonilla’s feature debut, and since she’s spent much of her career with Sundance, having the film in the festival is like coming home. She said her time as a Sundance Ignite fellow taught her strategies that ultimately influenced the result of this film.
“It was just such a validating experience to be in a cohort in the Sundance Institute, with people that were like, ‘You should absolutely be yourself, and your voice is the most valuable thing you can offer,’” she said. “And so leaning into what we find funny and hoping somebody else relates to it, too, I think, is better than trying to appeal to everyone superficially.”
Her favorite Sundance movies of all time are “Napoleon Dynamite” and “Little Miss Sunshine,” and she’s inspired not only by those stories but by how those films were created.
“The fact that we’re preparing our first feature at Sundance is pretty unbelievable, and I still haven’t processed it because we just finished the film, like, last week,” Bonilla said.
Will Brill plays the main character, Doug Leibowitz, whose perspective is the tale’s through line. Leibowitz’s fire for revenge is fanned as he’s taunted by the relationship between a couple, played by veteran actors Rob Lowe and Gillian Jacobs.
While Jacobs and Lowe bring their own star power to the film, Heller and Bonilla said Brill’s performance is particularly memorable.
“I’ve never met anyone like him. He’s the funniest actor I’ve ever worked with, and he’s a very dramatic actor, but he’s so committed to the truth that it is hysterical,” Bonilla said. “It was so fun to be able to bring somebody who’s well established in the theater and works consistently in film and TV, but to give him this lead role and the opportunity to carry this one, because the film is entirely in his POV.”
Part of bringing Brill’s character and perspective to life for audiences is in the score, written by composer Mateo Nossa, in a practically two-week timeframe.
The two went to graduate school at NYU together and have worked on plenty of projects in the past, Nossa said. As collaborators, their almost-telepathic quality was essential to the success of the film.
“We had this unspoken language where, if I didn’t have that, I don’t know that we would have made any of these deadlines,” Bonilla admitted. “I could speak about music emotionally, and he will translate that to whatever genius he works with. And it was really, really fun and exciting to see his interpretation of the film.”
Nossa said, “She has a particular voice, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy working with her so much. We’ve worked so much together that, from the moment she pitches the movie to me, we already are making the same movie.”
They’ve done plenty of short films together, but to take on a feature-length film, Nossa said they delved even deeper into the psyche of Brill’s character, following the camera’s own path.
“This is a person who is highly educated but is an avant-garde playwright. So we needed to think about what kind of music he would be thinking about and what would his internal soundtrack be,” Nossa said.
So they landed on the work and style of composers like Alfred Hitchcock and his longtime collaborator Bernard Herrmann, and Jerry Goldsmith, whose work includes the “Star Trek” franchise and “The Mummy.”
It’s not noir, but there are dark themes, so Nossa said he tries to find the line between those. Then, to show more of the emotional arc, the use of electronic elements is woven through the score “to meld and distort that beautiful, old Hollywood sound,” he said.
Despite the crazy deadlines — made even shorter by people’s holiday schedules — Nossa said working on “The Musical” reminded him of why he became a composer in the first place. Especially in independent film, where the use of music, including silence, draws on his own particular style.
“I wanted something to say with my music, besides just concepts. I wanted to tell stories,” he said. And for a project with Bonilla, “I have to go and research a bunch of other music, try to … soak myself in different music with every project that I have with her, which is absolutely wonderful. So I become a better composer after every project.”
Like the director and writer, Nossa said bringing “The Musical” to Sundance is an exciting opportunity.
“I have been involved in film for a while, but due to being an artist, due to my status as an immigrant … a lot of the time I cannot get out of the country because the immigration processes are happening. So sometimes I’ve felt restricted,” he said. “I don’t know how to express how humble I feel about it. I feel really honored, especially this last year of Sundance in Park City. It feels like I’m going to be part of history, and at the same time, part of what’s coming next.”
All three said they look forward to audience reactions to the twist.
“The big reveal at the end is something that we’re really excited to see people react to, and hopefully everyone’s laughing,” Heller said. “(We’re) trying to make something that we thought was really funny, because we thought that if we both really thought it was funny, then everyone would hopefully think it’s funny, too.”
‘The Musical’ in-person screenings
- 6 p.m., Jan. 29, Rose Wagner Center, Salt Lake City
- 9:30 p.m., Jan. 30, Megaplex Redstone 4
- 9 p.m., Jan. 31, The Ray Theatre
Online
8 a.m., Jan. 29-11:55 p.m., Feb. 1