Sundance Finally!
If you didn't get a chance to read the first festival update, you can here.
January 20th- 11:04am
Yesterday was a fun day. There was general training early, followed by an hour break and then location training at the theatre. During the break we got to go to the Volunteer Villa, which is a place where they have food, drinks, games, computers, couches, and stuff for volunteers to use pretty much whenever they want. It was a neat place. We headed over to our theatre for training, which was shorter than they said it’d be, which was good. It was so boring.
We headed to the Volunteer Villa again, then to the Library theatre where we saw our first two films.
“Factotum” - Matt Dillon stars as Henry Chinaski, who’s a character from one of Charles Bukowski’s books, based on himself. Factotum is a man with many jobs, and that’s exactly who Henry Chinaski is. He starts off making ice, then eventually works in a pickle factory, and a bike shop among many other things. He starts an on and off relationship with Jan, played by Lili Taylor, who is just as much an alcoholic as he is. They’re perfect for each other, really. And that’s basically the film. Marisa Tomei pops up for a few minutes as a girlfriend while on a break-up with Jan, and she was pretty good. But Lili Taylor and Matt Damon were amazing in this film. Of course, having not been at all familiar with Bukowski, that may have a lot to do with it, but I’m not sure.
Technical details of the film were also a strong point. Director Bent Hamer has a style of long motionless shots, sometimes with nothing even going on. Some awkward pauses, and usually things going on in many different planes on the shot. It’s was an awesome looking film that matched the awesomeness of the film itself and of Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei. Grade 9/10
“Adam’s Apples” - Ulrich Thomsen, who many of us know from Festen, is a neo-nazi sentenced to parole with a priest in “Adam’s Apples”. The priest is an odd man, always turning everything into positive. Nothing can make him feel bad, but Adam sees right through him, and before he leaves his parole, will get to the priest and make him a normal person, with the ability to feel both sorrow and happiness. “Adams Apples” was a little tough to get used to. It has an off style, and Thomsen’s Ulrich is insanely unlikable. And while I was still never able to like him all that much, I did start getting more into the film. It’s a really over-the-top comedy that you just have watch and not think too much about it. Grade 7/10
Well, the festival is over, and once it started, I didn’t have a single minute to write about it. It was pretty much sleep, work, movies, sleep, work, movies, over and over, many times only getting about three hours of sleep. It was hard to keep going, to keep working and to keep seeing movies on no sleep, but somehow I made it all the way though, saw a lot of great films, and met a ton of awesome people. It was just an amazing experience, and I had a blast the whole time and I will definitely try my hardest to come back to the festival as a volunteer next year.
So Sundance, Day Two: This was the first day of festival screenings. The previous day was the opening night film and party, and today was when films screened all over town. It was also my first day of volunteering. I pretty much emerged as the ballot boy for the day, handing out ballots before the film screenings and collecting them after. Throughout the ten days of the festival, I’d also stamp hands for re-entry, collect tickets, count people and clean theatres. Those were the basic duties of my team. The celebrity sightings for the first day was just Lili Taylor, who went to see the film “Crossing Arizona” while I was on shift.
The first official festival screening I saw was “Songbirds” which I wanted to see because of its premise: a musical documentary in jail. Interesting, huh? Pretty much, the film is about five or so different women, who tell their stories through interviews as well as song. The song part wasn’t a documentary though. It was written by a lyricist based on the women’s individual lives, and they sung it later on. And it was staged. The songs were weird. Some of them I liked, but overall they weren’t too great, and they made them each sort of music video, filled with dumb effects. I was able to look past a lot of the bad parts of film, and see the stories, and the women outside of the songs and effects. It was really interesting, and they all had fascinating stories. “Songbirds” is such an original film that I’d like to recommend it, despite many flaws. Grade: 7/10
The last screening of the night was for an ultra low budget horror film “Subject Two” which is another film on the topic of reanimation. Adam Schmidt decides to answer a call of a Doctor Franklin Vic after not doing as well as should be in school. Once meeting the doctor, and agreeing to help him with his experiments, Doctor Vic kills him! But that was part of the experiment. The good doctor needed a human subject to try and bring back to life. And it worked. Adam is amazed, and they keep experimenting. The doctor kills Adam and brings him back over and over, with Adam’s consent. That’s pretty much the film. It’s fairly funny, and while it is a horror film, it wasn’t scary at all. But I enjoyed myself. And the doctor in the film has an uncanny resemblance to a younger Jack Nicholson, in looks, voice, talent, and, everything really. Grade: 7/10
I got to sleep in pretty good, and went to work at 1:00pm. It was a fairly easy day. No “red flag” films, which are films that are expected to be extremely busy. But I was told that Robert Redford would be attending, which I thought was really awesome. So the day goes by, and I’m standing inside the theatre for “Eve and the Fire Horse” and just as the show is about to start, Redford and his posse come in the back way and enter the theatre. It was awesome to see him, and it was awesome give him a ballot to vote for the film. I even got a “thanks” out of him. Anyway, I heard a lot of great things about that film. I was doing the clicker, which is keeping track of how many people are entering the theatre, for “The World According to Sesame Street” and saw Dave Matthews a bunch of times. He kept leaving and coming back, and what not. There was a press screening for this film the day before at my theatre, and a lot of people were walking out. Buzz wasn’t too great. That’s also one of the things I like about volunteering. You get to talk to a lot of people coming out of the theatres, or just walking about the theatre, and you get to hear what’s good, and what’s not so good. Even though it mostly had no effect on what I saw or passed on, it is really good knowing about things like that. There are a few films I changed course though, because of hearing things like this.
I saw two films again, starting off with “TV Junkie” a documentary about Rick Kirkham, who was a correspondent of “Inside Edition” for a few years. Rick had cameras and recorded everything of his since he first got his camera at the age of fourteen. The documentary mostly deals with the times once he started working for “Inside Edition” and about the problems he has with his family, and with is addiction to crack. All the footage is from one of Rick’s cameras, whether it’s his own footage, or footage from a camera he gave to his wife. “TV Junkie,” because there are no interviews made after film, and are just real recordings from Rick’s life, has such a real tone to that makes it hard to watch. He makes you so uncomfortable, filming every aspect of his life. We even see him and his wife yelling and physically fighting in front of the their kids. So “TV Junkie” is hard film to sit through because of how real it seems, but it’s completely fascinating. Grade: 9/10
The night was finished with a volunteer only screening of “Come Early Morning,” the directorial debut of Joey Lauren Adams, starring Ashley Judd as a small town girl who has a hard time with commitment. This is probably Ashley Judd’s best role yet. She’s really amazing, but the movie itself isn’t as great. It’s fairly slow, and it’s been done to death. But Joey Lauren Adams keeps “Come Early Morning” watchable with some really beautiful cinematography by Tim Orr (“All the Real Girls,” “Raising Victor Vargas”) and a lively performance by Ashley Judd, and the supporting cast including Laura Prepon, Jeffrey Donovan, Tim Black Nelson, and Scott Wilson. Grade: 6/10
Day 4
This was the first early shift I had. And it was tough. I had to be at the theatre at 7:00am, and having to commute, it was tough. But good, because I got off of work at 1:30 and, if I wanted to, could see four films. I’d be dead, so I stuck with three. The only celeb sighting at the theatres while working was NY Times writer A.O. Scott. Exciting, I know! After work I had “The Proposition” planned, an Aussie western with Guy Pearce, John Hurt, and Emily Watson, but I’m a moron and got my theatres mixed up. So I missed it, so I went to the walked around Main Street and screwed around for a while until “The Illusionist” later that night.
I got to the theatre pretty early and barely got into “The Illusionist,” but I did. The film stars Edward Norton a magician who, after not seeing the love of his life for many years, is reacquainted, and it’s about their secret love. Jessica Beil is the love interest, Rufus Sewell is her soon to be husband, and Paul Giamatti is sort of like the sheriff for Sewell’s character. Visually, it’s a really beautiful, but that’s really all that it had going. It was a fairly predictable film, and kind of slow, but it was okay. I read it got picked up by someone, and with the cast, it’s definitely a sellable item, but it’s just not that great of a film. Grade: 6/10
Up next was one of the best films of the festival, Michel Gondry’s “The Science of Sleep,” which is one of the most original films I’ve ever seen. I don’t really know how to explain the story of the film all that well, but I’ll say Gael Garcia Bernal stars as Stephan, who moves next door to Charlotte Gainsbourg and the two have on odd relationship, but it’s fun. The film has so much style, that there are so many great aspects going on at one time. There’s great acting by all the leads, amazing cinematography, cool animation, great dialog, and even though I saw the last screening of the night off of three hours of sleep, I was not tired in the slightest bit. It’s a really amazing film that rivals “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” but I’d have to see another viewing before I can say which is better. Grade: 10/10
Oh yeah, and celebrity sightings at “The Illusionist” were Paul Giamatti, Jessica Beil, and Dennis Quaid, and at “The Science of Sleep” Gael Garica Bernal, Dennis Hopper (who gave each other a hug) and Marlee Matlin.
I had another early day, at 7:00am, so another long day after three hours of sleep. During the first screening of the day, "Who Needs Sleep?" Roger Ebert comes in. Then in the second set, for "Allegro" I get to stamp Gwenyth Paltrow's hand for re-entry. She seemed very nice. I asked "may I stamp your hand for re-entry?" and she politely said "yes, let me pull up my sleeve." :) Hah, anyway. After the screening I saw supermodel Helana Christensen who also stars in the film. I had a nice break before going over to the first film of the evening.
Terry Zwigoff's new film, "Art School Confidential" was one of the films I was most excited about. I love "Crumb," "Ghost World" and "Bad Santa," so I had way too high of hopes for "Art School Confidential." But I think everyone did, because I haven't talked to a single person who thought it was all that great. It stars Max Minghella, son of director Anthony, as a student going to college, majoring in art. He has his sights set on a woman who ends up going for another kid in his class, whose art he despises as well. Anyway, John Malkovich was the professor, and the film was on the whole, not very exciting, not funny, not original, and not entertaining. Here and there was a decent laugh, but I'd skip this Zwigoff if I were you, and keep his name in good standing in your head. Grade: 6/10
Up next was my favorite film of the festival, Fabián Bielinsky’s follow-up to festival favorite, and a personal favorite, “Nine Queens.” “El Aura” starts off very similar to his previous film, the planning of a robbery, but quickly becomes the opposite of “Nine Queens,” a slow burning, claustrophobic thriller. Ricardo Darín, also the star of “Queens” is a man who suffers from epilepsy, and, at the most inopportune times, goes into a fit and wakes up after sleeping for a good amount of time. After a hunting trip with a colleague, he ends up being in the middle of the perfect crime, sometime he’s always wanted to do. “The Aura” is amazing in all aspects of filmmaking. I mean all. There is not one bad thing about this film, and it will most likely be my favorite film of the year. Grade 11/10
Celebrities in attendence during “Art School Confidential” were Max Minghella, John Malkovich, Terry Zwigoff, Ethan Suplee, and Crispin Glover. Fabián Bielinsky’s was there for a Q&A after “El Aura” and gave some good insight into the film.
I didn’t have work until 1:00pm, but me and Bobby got up a little early and went inter-tubing down a hill a couple blocks from the place we were staying. It was a lot of fun, but on my third time down I did a complete flip, and ate shit. I was in a fair amount of pain, but it was fun. The snow was melting, and there wasn’t much snow left on the hill, so that’s why. I tried to brace myself for when the snow was getting thin, but I guess it didn’t work. But it was fun! At the theatre, I saw Alexander Payne for the screening of “American Blackout” and that about it for the excitingness.
The first film for the night was supposed to be “Wild Tigers I Have Known” and I got in, but was kicked out because they had too many people to seat, and I was a volunteer. So that sucked. Instead I got drunk at the bar near the theatre, waiting for the other film of the night.
So after a good amount of drinks, I head off to see “Puccini for Beginners” at the library. Shortly after getting there, Brooke comes and we sit in line, with my friend Bobby, and wait for the film to start. It was good to finally see a movie with her, as plans kept getting broken, and the only other time I saw her up there was for like five minutes when I had to wait a half hour for her to come out of some dumb party. But anyway, yeah, so that was cool. The movie itself was pretty funny. It’s about a lesbian who ends up dating a straight couple, each individually, but not knowing the two people are a couple. The couple is played by Justin Kirk, from “Angels in America” and Gretchen Mol. The set up was funny, and the acting was all good, which made for an enjoyable film. Justin Kirk was there before the screening, but for the Q&A it was just the director, who had one of the funniest Q&As I’ve been to. Grade: 8/10
Work was pretty uneventful. Afterwards was Shorts Program I in the press theatre. This program consisted of six shorts, which overall weren’t too great.
“Bug Crush“ - which went on to win the best short award at the festival, was easily the best short I saw at the festival. It was pretty much about this high school kid who got sort of obsessed with a new kid in town, and was introduced to this bug, that when you let it bite you, you get these incredible feelings sort of like ecstasy from what I could tell. The film looked amazing, and was really interesting, although a little long at thirty minutes.
“A Conversation with Basquiat“ - Directed by Crossroad’s Tamara Davis. Basquiat seemed like a really interesting guy, and a cool artist, but the interview was conducted a while ago and looked like a pile of crap. Which made it kind of hard to watch.
“Fourteen“ - Was actually pretty funny, although I’m not sure if it was intentional. And not much was explained, but I think it was about an Amish (maybe?) girl, aged fourteen, getting married to a middle aged guy, which I still think is funny. All of this was apparently set up by the parents. That’s all I could tell really, but there was no dialogue or subtitles, all visuals, which is cool too.
“Monsieur Etienne“ - I have to admit I slept though this one. It was about twenty minutes, about Etienne’s friends funeral, then he died at the end to join his friend or something. That’s what Bobby said since I slept though it. Boring.
“The Pity Card“ - This short was directed by Bob Odenkirk, and was pretty bad. It was about this really stupid girl who didn’t know what really happened at the Holocaust, and the guy she was dating made her feel pity to get in her pants. The girl was played by the cute little red head on Growing Pains and the guy was comedian Zach Galifinakis, I think. Overall it wasn’t that funny.
“True Story“ - An old lady recalls a memory as a kid in which she cut off her cats tale. It was oddly funny, and only three minutes.
Overall, it was a lame bunch or shorts I have to say. After we rushed over to the Library to see one of my most anticipated films of the festival.
“Wristcutters: A Love Story” stars Patrick Fugit as Zia, a recently deceased by suicide guy who wakes up as a pizza boy in a land filled with others who killed themselves. He moves into some guys apartment, and soon after finding out his girlfriend from his past, living life, committed suicide herself, he goes on a hunt with his best friend Eugene, Shea Whigham, to find her. Along their way, they pick up Mikal, played by Shannyn Sossamon, who’s trying to hitchhike to find The People in Charge, as she was sent to this wonderful land of the dead on accident. Along the way they meet Tom Waits, who runs Kneller’s Happy Campers where people get free food and a place to stay.
I’m not going to keep going on, as I’m sure you can tell this film is probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and that’s the thing I liked most about it. How much of that is due to the book it’s based on, I don’t know, but regardless, the film took me places I’d never seen before, or even thought of. On the other hand, I had a hard time believing some of the things. Anyway, the acting is all fine, especially Tom Waits who’s much more awesome than the rest. It’s a really interesting film that I personally didn’t like as much as most people seemed to, but it’s still worth a look when it gets released, which I’m sure it will. It has cult status written all over it. In attendance at the screening were Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, and Shea Whigham. Grade: 7/10
Had the early shift at work, followed by four scheduled films, which I thought I might be able to do. But it didn’t really happen.
After work, “Stay“ was the first film of the day, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, about a woman on the verge of her wedding, who reveals to her fiancé a secret she’s been hiding from him, about an obscure sexual act she performed while in college. The news comes as a shock to him, and their relationship was never the same. To know the secret, you’ll have to see the film. Bobcat’s first directorial effort isn’t that bad, but it definitely had a lot more potential. It was overall mildly amusing with some good laughs thrown in, but it could have been really great. After a while the premise got old, but still fairly enjoyable. The best part of the screening though, was during the Q&A, when in the row behind me, Terrence Howard stood up and told Melinda Page Howard, who played the woman who committed the unspeakable act, how brilliant she was. It was pretty sweet. Bobcat was pretty amusing himself as well. Grade: 7/10
The next film was supposed to be the Paul Giamatti starrer “The Hawk is Dying“, but I’d heard really average to bad things about it, and that it was painfully slow, so we decided to skip it, and just have a break before the next film. We didn’t get into “Black Gold“, a political documentary about coffee, so we went into “Viva Zapatero! “ A documentary about Italian censorship. I had no idea that television and films were censored so heavily, and it was pretty shocking to me. Sabina Guzzanti, the director and star of the film, is in a fight trying to get her right to do and say what she wants. She’s a brilliant satirist, but her show, which pokes a little fun at the issue of censorship, is cancelled after once episode despite huge viewership and rave reviews on the public access channel. It was a really intriguing subject, having known nothing about it beforehand, and I enjoyed the film quite a bit, although I did doze off a bit in the middle. “Viva Zapatero! “ has had commercial and critical success all over Europe, but nothing has changed in Italy. Grade: 8/10
The final film for the evening was the film I was most looking forward to seeing at the festival, Kirby Dick’s “This Film is Not Yet Rated“. I was blown away by Twist of Faith, Dick’s previous documentary at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, which got me really interested in see this one. Then I heard about the subject, and knew I had to see the film. “This Film is Not Yet Rated“ looks at the super secret MPAA and tackles the issues of how they vote on the ratings of films, who votes, and different criteria for the votes. It’s really hilarious and honestly pretty shocking at some of the things the MPAA does. Oh, and did I mention that Kirby Dick hires a private eye to help him, a kind of butch lesbian with kids, who at first doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing, but rather tricked me! She was working it, man. Anyway, I loved “This Film is Not Yet Rated. “ I just wish that I had been able to go to a regular screening instead of the volunteer screening I went to so I would have been able to hear a Q&A with Kirby Dick. Grade: 9/10
Had another early day at the theatre, and it went by pretty fast. The TBAs had been announced yesterday, and we were given another opportunity to see “Little Miss Sunshine” which we’d missed at an earlier screening because Bobby set the alarm wrong. But I’m really glad we were able to catch the last screening of it, because it’s one of the best comedies I’ve ever seen, and totally worthy of the buzz it built at Sundance and 10 million price tag it was purchased for.
“Little Miss Sunshine” is family road trip comedy. Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear are Sheryl and Richard, parents to Olive, played by Abigal Breslin, from “Signs.” Along with them are Olive’s grandpa and uncle Frank, played by Alan Arkin and Steve Carrell respectively, as well as her brother, Josh, played by Paul Dano, from “L.I.E.” and “The Girl Next Door.” The family take a road trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Long Beach, California for the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Pageant that Olive got into after the winner of the local contest got disqualified. Olive isn’t your typical beauty pageant enterer, she’s over-weight and pretty dorky, which makes everything more fun.
During the trip to Long Beach, everything goes wrong for the family, including they’re car not being able to accelerate until it’s about 20 MPH. So everytime they stop, each member of the family has to push the car and hop in one by one to get it going. It’s hilarious, and the whole movie is filled with quirky bits just like that. Total hilarity ensues throughout, and everyone in the audience was laughing like crazy. It’s a wonderful film, and more than just a comedy, it’s about people, and learning to love and be who you are I guess. I really loved “Little Miss Sunshine” and I can’t wait for it to come out theatrically so I can see it again. Grade: 10/10
We’d found out later that Bobby had lost his cell phone when we went intertubing, so we had to go back down to Salt Lake and pick it up, since we had a gap between films. It was way out in the boonies. The guy that found it took it to his work so we could pick it up, and he work at the Boys Colony, which is an interesting name, but when we finally found it, we realized it was an academy of some sort. But it was way out in the middle of nowhere, and the guy have us shit directions. It was pretty lame, but we finally found it and headed to downtown Salt Lake to see the eagerly anticipated “The Darwin Awards.”
I have to say that even though buzz for the film hadn’t been great so far, I was really excited. It turned out to be a pretty interesting film, though the buzz was right. “The Darwin Awards” follows Michael and Siri, played by Joseph Fiennes and Winona Ryder, as they go across the country trying to find links between unusual deaths. The Darwin Awards themselves are awards for really stupid things people have done, and they’re winning awards because they’re no longer in the population, improving the human gene pool. The two look into these deaths, trying to find a correlation between them all in an attempt to save the insurance company they work for millions of dollars they’re currently paying to the people. There are lots of funny parts to the film, but it also drags a lot as well. Overall, it definitely was not as bad film, but it wasn’t as good as I think it could have been. With the cast of cameos it had, and the talent involved, I think it could have been way better. They just needed to write, well, a funnier script I guess. Grade: 6.5/10
Got to sleep in a little bit, which was amazing, really. It’s tough seeing movies all day, and getting three or four hours of sleep a night for a couple days in a row. So yeah, the sleep was much needed. Before work we headed over to TromaDance, where we caught a couple short films. The few that I can remember were “The Underminer” about a guy who always makes the other guy feel bad, “Pretty Kitty” about a man who goes crazy because his cat won’t listen, “40 Dollars” about some junkies in NYC, and “Bad Apples” about well, some funky apples. Overall I really liked what I saw at TromaDance and hope one day I can spend more than just forty-five minutes there. I did get to see Lloyd Kaufman, president and Founder of Troma there during my short time attending.
At work, Kirby Dick was seeing the Al Gore documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and Michael Rappaport was seeing the Beastie Boys documentary “Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That,” and that’s about it. Oh yeah, we did take a group photo. This is Team B, from the Holiday Theatre. This is the team I worked with for the entire festival. Can you tell where I am?
After work was the awards party which as a volunteer we were allowed to attend. It wasn’t really all that exciting, although I did get to see Joey Lauren Adams outside smoking a cigarette. Anyway, after we got in, we just walked around for a while, ate free food, drank the few free drinks they gave us, and talked with some friends from the theatre we saw there. We left after about an hour and a half to go see what was really far up in my anticipated films list.
“Destricted” immediately intrigued me when I read the idea behind the film, and when I saw the directors, which include Gaspar Noe, Larry Clark and Matthew Barney, I knew I had to see it. So I was so excited waiting in the theatre, ready for it to start. “Destricted” opened up with Barney’s short, “Hoist”, about a man making love to a machine, with a flower in his mouth a vase sticking out of his butt. I guess it’s sort of man, machine, and nature become one, which is interesting yeah, but do I really want to see a guy having sex with a rotating drive-shaft of a truck? Not really, but I have to say, it was interesting. Next up was “House Call” which pretty much was just a 70s style porn. It looked like an old VHS tape. The only good part about it was when the lady in the porn got sick and called the doctor, he took her temperature out of her ass. Larry Clark’s “Imapled” was next. It was one of the better shorts, but it was way too long. It was pretty much over a third of the entire running length of the film. It was a documentary about Clark interviewing men to be in a porn. He went through auditions and what not, and when he picked the guy, they went through auditions for the leading lady, and then they acted it out, and that was it. It was really funny, and would have been much better if Clark cut the length in half, but it was pretty good, giving some insight into how and what young men think porn really is.
The best short in the film was next, called “Sync” which ran a short three minutes, but, as described in the Sundance booklet, is a film about kaleidoscopic pounding! I think that description is completely accurate and amazing. During its short running time, the film, in fluid motion, just goes through porn after porn after porn, each flash on screen in maybe 1/3 a second intervals. Does that make sense? It was completely amazing. Next up was “Death Valley” in which a man masturbates in front of beautiful scenery for ten minutes, but unable to climax. The point? I don’t know. The “Balkan Erotic Epic” was next, which was hilarious. It was basically a series of vignettes of Balkan folklore, where people use their sexuality to change the forces of nature, including men having sex with the ground to make it fertile for crops, and women dancing around on a hill topless so it will rain, and many more. It was hilarious and bizarrely beautiful. The last short was Gaspar Noe’s “We Fuck Alone” about two people who simultaneously, fuck alone, or masturbate. Okay, cool. But, like what Noe did in parts of “Irreverible” he did to the entire film, and I’m talking about strobing. The entire film strobed, and it was so fucking annoying! Seriously. Noe needs new ideas, because from what I could tell, there was absolutely no reason to use the strobing effect through the entire short except for making people angry. And he accomplished that.
Overall, I was glad I saw the film, and it was beyond bizarre and original, but I’m not entire sure if I recommend it. I guess it’s a film I’d like to talk with other people about, but it’s not a completely satisfying film. Oh, and when I say a guy was making love to a machine, or masturbating in Death Valley, or there were a bunch of women running around topless in the Balkan Hills, I mean it. I have never seen so much nudity and sex in a film before, and extremely graphic too. I mean I was expecting it, and it’s not a bad thing at all, but I just wanted to mention it incase someone didn’t how graphic it really was. Grade: 6/10 (Two for “Hoist”, negative two for “House Call,” plus two for “Impaled,” plus three for “Sync,” none for “Death Valley,” plus three for “ Balkan Erotic Epic,” and negative two for “We Fuck Alone.”)
The final day of the festival I didn’t have work until 3:00, and films ended earlier in the day, which meant my last film would be at noon. Bobby and I decided to check out the Documentary winner “God Grew Tired of Us” which was an excellent choice for the last film of the festival.
“God Grew Tired of Us” is the story of three Sudanese refugees who get a new life in the United States thanks to the good ol’ U.S. governement. They get hooked up with an apartment, food, some cash allowances for a certain allotment of time. The guys need to get jobs on their own, but they’ll have rides, again, for a few months.
This film is great because it reveals so many things, not only about the Sudanese refugees, but also how we see things. Everything seems so new to these guys. And it shows what we take advantage of. It’s a huge journey for the gentleman, and they pursue it with an amazing sense of enthusiasm and excitement.
“God Grew Tired of Us” is funny in the way the guys look at all the new things they’re seeing for the first time. It’s touching in us wanting these men to succeed in everything they do, ultimately not knowing if they’re go be able to. It’s amazing to look at their dreams and aspirations for being in the U.S. and hoping they’re able to accomplish them. Lastly, it’s great what the filmmakers did, and the subjects they choose, not really making us feel pity at all for them, just shaping them so we like them and want them to continue
It wasn’t at the screening I went to, but the coolest thing ever is in one of the first screenings for this film, after it was over, a lady came up to the filmmakers and handed them a check for $25,000 to help the program out. The three main guys the film documents were there as well, and in the end of the film, we see what they’re up to. None of them have taken advantage of what they’ve been giving. They’ve all saved up to get their families over to America, and one of the guys is a fundraiser, and is working to build a hospital in his Sudanese village. “God Grew Tired of Us” is completely amazing and I hope everyone can see it when it comes out. Grade: 9/10
Being a volunteer at the festival was such an amazing, and completely different experience than attending the festival on my own. I met so many cool people, volunteers, staff, filmmakers and patrons. It was great to hear buzz from people coming out of the theatres, and being able to make friends with the volunteers I regularly worked with.
Seeing the films for free was definitely a plus, but having to drive from Salt Lake into Park City every day got really tedious, especially when I had work at 7:00am. But it was still fun.
I got to see Salt Lake City for the first time, and it’s a really awesome place. Driving instead of flying was also really great surprisingly. The landscapes going though California, Neveada, and Utah were so gorgeous. Stopping at pet stores and getting to see and play with ferrets was awesome. I wish I could have brought another back. Stopping in Vegas and winning money (and losing some of what I won) was awesome, as was stopping at a fireworks store and spending an hour there shooint fireworks off.
Walking down Park Ave at 2:00am in very near negative degrees is something I’ve never felt before, and hope to never feel again, and something I’ll never forget. I’ve never been so cold. I’ve never seen it snow so much. I’ve played in the snow as much as I had. I’d never had Sonic burger, and I did three times while I was there, and it was the most amazing fast food restaurant I’ve ever been to.
Anyway, all in all, there wasn’t a dull moment. I’m thankful for meeting all the people I did, and I hope they’re going to be back there next year. And hopefully I can go next year. I’d volunteer again in a heartbeat. I’m thankful for Sonic Burger, and I hope they open one up in Los Angeles very soon, because they’re obviously missing a massive customer base by not expanding here. I’m thankful for all the great films I got to see, and all the amazing experiences I’m going to scrapbook and remember for the rest of my life. And finally, I’m thankful for having great parents who support me and withouth them I would never have been able to go to the festival.
Hah, that sounds like some kind of awards speech, and I’m not entirely sure why I wrote that, but anyway, I’m thankful!
January 20th- 11:04am
Yesterday was a fun day. There was general training early, followed by an hour break and then location training at the theatre. During the break we got to go to the Volunteer Villa, which is a place where they have food, drinks, games, computers, couches, and stuff for volunteers to use pretty much whenever they want. It was a neat place. We headed over to our theatre for training, which was shorter than they said it’d be, which was good. It was so boring.
We headed to the Volunteer Villa again, then to the Library theatre where we saw our first two films.
“Factotum” - Matt Dillon stars as Henry Chinaski, who’s a character from one of Charles Bukowski’s books, based on himself. Factotum is a man with many jobs, and that’s exactly who Henry Chinaski is. He starts off making ice, then eventually works in a pickle factory, and a bike shop among many other things. He starts an on and off relationship with Jan, played by Lili Taylor, who is just as much an alcoholic as he is. They’re perfect for each other, really. And that’s basically the film. Marisa Tomei pops up for a few minutes as a girlfriend while on a break-up with Jan, and she was pretty good. But Lili Taylor and Matt Damon were amazing in this film. Of course, having not been at all familiar with Bukowski, that may have a lot to do with it, but I’m not sure.
Technical details of the film were also a strong point. Director Bent Hamer has a style of long motionless shots, sometimes with nothing even going on. Some awkward pauses, and usually things going on in many different planes on the shot. It’s was an awesome looking film that matched the awesomeness of the film itself and of Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor and Marisa Tomei. Grade 9/10
“Adam’s Apples” - Ulrich Thomsen, who many of us know from Festen, is a neo-nazi sentenced to parole with a priest in “Adam’s Apples”. The priest is an odd man, always turning everything into positive. Nothing can make him feel bad, but Adam sees right through him, and before he leaves his parole, will get to the priest and make him a normal person, with the ability to feel both sorrow and happiness. “Adams Apples” was a little tough to get used to. It has an off style, and Thomsen’s Ulrich is insanely unlikable. And while I was still never able to like him all that much, I did start getting more into the film. It’s a really over-the-top comedy that you just have watch and not think too much about it. Grade 7/10
Well, the festival is over, and once it started, I didn’t have a single minute to write about it. It was pretty much sleep, work, movies, sleep, work, movies, over and over, many times only getting about three hours of sleep. It was hard to keep going, to keep working and to keep seeing movies on no sleep, but somehow I made it all the way though, saw a lot of great films, and met a ton of awesome people. It was just an amazing experience, and I had a blast the whole time and I will definitely try my hardest to come back to the festival as a volunteer next year.
So Sundance, Day Two: This was the first day of festival screenings. The previous day was the opening night film and party, and today was when films screened all over town. It was also my first day of volunteering. I pretty much emerged as the ballot boy for the day, handing out ballots before the film screenings and collecting them after. Throughout the ten days of the festival, I’d also stamp hands for re-entry, collect tickets, count people and clean theatres. Those were the basic duties of my team. The celebrity sightings for the first day was just Lili Taylor, who went to see the film “Crossing Arizona” while I was on shift.
The first official festival screening I saw was “Songbirds” which I wanted to see because of its premise: a musical documentary in jail. Interesting, huh? Pretty much, the film is about five or so different women, who tell their stories through interviews as well as song. The song part wasn’t a documentary though. It was written by a lyricist based on the women’s individual lives, and they sung it later on. And it was staged. The songs were weird. Some of them I liked, but overall they weren’t too great, and they made them each sort of music video, filled with dumb effects. I was able to look past a lot of the bad parts of film, and see the stories, and the women outside of the songs and effects. It was really interesting, and they all had fascinating stories. “Songbirds” is such an original film that I’d like to recommend it, despite many flaws. Grade: 7/10
The last screening of the night was for an ultra low budget horror film “Subject Two” which is another film on the topic of reanimation. Adam Schmidt decides to answer a call of a Doctor Franklin Vic after not doing as well as should be in school. Once meeting the doctor, and agreeing to help him with his experiments, Doctor Vic kills him! But that was part of the experiment. The good doctor needed a human subject to try and bring back to life. And it worked. Adam is amazed, and they keep experimenting. The doctor kills Adam and brings him back over and over, with Adam’s consent. That’s pretty much the film. It’s fairly funny, and while it is a horror film, it wasn’t scary at all. But I enjoyed myself. And the doctor in the film has an uncanny resemblance to a younger Jack Nicholson, in looks, voice, talent, and, everything really. Grade: 7/10
I got to sleep in pretty good, and went to work at 1:00pm. It was a fairly easy day. No “red flag” films, which are films that are expected to be extremely busy. But I was told that Robert Redford would be attending, which I thought was really awesome. So the day goes by, and I’m standing inside the theatre for “Eve and the Fire Horse” and just as the show is about to start, Redford and his posse come in the back way and enter the theatre. It was awesome to see him, and it was awesome give him a ballot to vote for the film. I even got a “thanks” out of him. Anyway, I heard a lot of great things about that film. I was doing the clicker, which is keeping track of how many people are entering the theatre, for “The World According to Sesame Street” and saw Dave Matthews a bunch of times. He kept leaving and coming back, and what not. There was a press screening for this film the day before at my theatre, and a lot of people were walking out. Buzz wasn’t too great. That’s also one of the things I like about volunteering. You get to talk to a lot of people coming out of the theatres, or just walking about the theatre, and you get to hear what’s good, and what’s not so good. Even though it mostly had no effect on what I saw or passed on, it is really good knowing about things like that. There are a few films I changed course though, because of hearing things like this.
I saw two films again, starting off with “TV Junkie” a documentary about Rick Kirkham, who was a correspondent of “Inside Edition” for a few years. Rick had cameras and recorded everything of his since he first got his camera at the age of fourteen. The documentary mostly deals with the times once he started working for “Inside Edition” and about the problems he has with his family, and with is addiction to crack. All the footage is from one of Rick’s cameras, whether it’s his own footage, or footage from a camera he gave to his wife. “TV Junkie,” because there are no interviews made after film, and are just real recordings from Rick’s life, has such a real tone to that makes it hard to watch. He makes you so uncomfortable, filming every aspect of his life. We even see him and his wife yelling and physically fighting in front of the their kids. So “TV Junkie” is hard film to sit through because of how real it seems, but it’s completely fascinating. Grade: 9/10
The night was finished with a volunteer only screening of “Come Early Morning,” the directorial debut of Joey Lauren Adams, starring Ashley Judd as a small town girl who has a hard time with commitment. This is probably Ashley Judd’s best role yet. She’s really amazing, but the movie itself isn’t as great. It’s fairly slow, and it’s been done to death. But Joey Lauren Adams keeps “Come Early Morning” watchable with some really beautiful cinematography by Tim Orr (“All the Real Girls,” “Raising Victor Vargas”) and a lively performance by Ashley Judd, and the supporting cast including Laura Prepon, Jeffrey Donovan, Tim Black Nelson, and Scott Wilson. Grade: 6/10
Day 4
This was the first early shift I had. And it was tough. I had to be at the theatre at 7:00am, and having to commute, it was tough. But good, because I got off of work at 1:30 and, if I wanted to, could see four films. I’d be dead, so I stuck with three. The only celeb sighting at the theatres while working was NY Times writer A.O. Scott. Exciting, I know! After work I had “The Proposition” planned, an Aussie western with Guy Pearce, John Hurt, and Emily Watson, but I’m a moron and got my theatres mixed up. So I missed it, so I went to the walked around Main Street and screwed around for a while until “The Illusionist” later that night.
I got to the theatre pretty early and barely got into “The Illusionist,” but I did. The film stars Edward Norton a magician who, after not seeing the love of his life for many years, is reacquainted, and it’s about their secret love. Jessica Beil is the love interest, Rufus Sewell is her soon to be husband, and Paul Giamatti is sort of like the sheriff for Sewell’s character. Visually, it’s a really beautiful, but that’s really all that it had going. It was a fairly predictable film, and kind of slow, but it was okay. I read it got picked up by someone, and with the cast, it’s definitely a sellable item, but it’s just not that great of a film. Grade: 6/10
Up next was one of the best films of the festival, Michel Gondry’s “The Science of Sleep,” which is one of the most original films I’ve ever seen. I don’t really know how to explain the story of the film all that well, but I’ll say Gael Garcia Bernal stars as Stephan, who moves next door to Charlotte Gainsbourg and the two have on odd relationship, but it’s fun. The film has so much style, that there are so many great aspects going on at one time. There’s great acting by all the leads, amazing cinematography, cool animation, great dialog, and even though I saw the last screening of the night off of three hours of sleep, I was not tired in the slightest bit. It’s a really amazing film that rivals “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” but I’d have to see another viewing before I can say which is better. Grade: 10/10
Oh yeah, and celebrity sightings at “The Illusionist” were Paul Giamatti, Jessica Beil, and Dennis Quaid, and at “The Science of Sleep” Gael Garica Bernal, Dennis Hopper (who gave each other a hug) and Marlee Matlin.
I had another early day, at 7:00am, so another long day after three hours of sleep. During the first screening of the day, "Who Needs Sleep?" Roger Ebert comes in. Then in the second set, for "Allegro" I get to stamp Gwenyth Paltrow's hand for re-entry. She seemed very nice. I asked "may I stamp your hand for re-entry?" and she politely said "yes, let me pull up my sleeve." :) Hah, anyway. After the screening I saw supermodel Helana Christensen who also stars in the film. I had a nice break before going over to the first film of the evening.
Terry Zwigoff's new film, "Art School Confidential" was one of the films I was most excited about. I love "Crumb," "Ghost World" and "Bad Santa," so I had way too high of hopes for "Art School Confidential." But I think everyone did, because I haven't talked to a single person who thought it was all that great. It stars Max Minghella, son of director Anthony, as a student going to college, majoring in art. He has his sights set on a woman who ends up going for another kid in his class, whose art he despises as well. Anyway, John Malkovich was the professor, and the film was on the whole, not very exciting, not funny, not original, and not entertaining. Here and there was a decent laugh, but I'd skip this Zwigoff if I were you, and keep his name in good standing in your head. Grade: 6/10
Up next was my favorite film of the festival, Fabián Bielinsky’s follow-up to festival favorite, and a personal favorite, “Nine Queens.” “El Aura” starts off very similar to his previous film, the planning of a robbery, but quickly becomes the opposite of “Nine Queens,” a slow burning, claustrophobic thriller. Ricardo Darín, also the star of “Queens” is a man who suffers from epilepsy, and, at the most inopportune times, goes into a fit and wakes up after sleeping for a good amount of time. After a hunting trip with a colleague, he ends up being in the middle of the perfect crime, sometime he’s always wanted to do. “The Aura” is amazing in all aspects of filmmaking. I mean all. There is not one bad thing about this film, and it will most likely be my favorite film of the year. Grade 11/10
Celebrities in attendence during “Art School Confidential” were Max Minghella, John Malkovich, Terry Zwigoff, Ethan Suplee, and Crispin Glover. Fabián Bielinsky’s was there for a Q&A after “El Aura” and gave some good insight into the film.
I didn’t have work until 1:00pm, but me and Bobby got up a little early and went inter-tubing down a hill a couple blocks from the place we were staying. It was a lot of fun, but on my third time down I did a complete flip, and ate shit. I was in a fair amount of pain, but it was fun. The snow was melting, and there wasn’t much snow left on the hill, so that’s why. I tried to brace myself for when the snow was getting thin, but I guess it didn’t work. But it was fun! At the theatre, I saw Alexander Payne for the screening of “American Blackout” and that about it for the excitingness.
The first film for the night was supposed to be “Wild Tigers I Have Known” and I got in, but was kicked out because they had too many people to seat, and I was a volunteer. So that sucked. Instead I got drunk at the bar near the theatre, waiting for the other film of the night.
So after a good amount of drinks, I head off to see “Puccini for Beginners” at the library. Shortly after getting there, Brooke comes and we sit in line, with my friend Bobby, and wait for the film to start. It was good to finally see a movie with her, as plans kept getting broken, and the only other time I saw her up there was for like five minutes when I had to wait a half hour for her to come out of some dumb party. But anyway, yeah, so that was cool. The movie itself was pretty funny. It’s about a lesbian who ends up dating a straight couple, each individually, but not knowing the two people are a couple. The couple is played by Justin Kirk, from “Angels in America” and Gretchen Mol. The set up was funny, and the acting was all good, which made for an enjoyable film. Justin Kirk was there before the screening, but for the Q&A it was just the director, who had one of the funniest Q&As I’ve been to. Grade: 8/10
Work was pretty uneventful. Afterwards was Shorts Program I in the press theatre. This program consisted of six shorts, which overall weren’t too great.
“Bug Crush“ - which went on to win the best short award at the festival, was easily the best short I saw at the festival. It was pretty much about this high school kid who got sort of obsessed with a new kid in town, and was introduced to this bug, that when you let it bite you, you get these incredible feelings sort of like ecstasy from what I could tell. The film looked amazing, and was really interesting, although a little long at thirty minutes.
“A Conversation with Basquiat“ - Directed by Crossroad’s Tamara Davis. Basquiat seemed like a really interesting guy, and a cool artist, but the interview was conducted a while ago and looked like a pile of crap. Which made it kind of hard to watch.
“Fourteen“ - Was actually pretty funny, although I’m not sure if it was intentional. And not much was explained, but I think it was about an Amish (maybe?) girl, aged fourteen, getting married to a middle aged guy, which I still think is funny. All of this was apparently set up by the parents. That’s all I could tell really, but there was no dialogue or subtitles, all visuals, which is cool too.
“Monsieur Etienne“ - I have to admit I slept though this one. It was about twenty minutes, about Etienne’s friends funeral, then he died at the end to join his friend or something. That’s what Bobby said since I slept though it. Boring.
“The Pity Card“ - This short was directed by Bob Odenkirk, and was pretty bad. It was about this really stupid girl who didn’t know what really happened at the Holocaust, and the guy she was dating made her feel pity to get in her pants. The girl was played by the cute little red head on Growing Pains and the guy was comedian Zach Galifinakis, I think. Overall it wasn’t that funny.
“True Story“ - An old lady recalls a memory as a kid in which she cut off her cats tale. It was oddly funny, and only three minutes.
Overall, it was a lame bunch or shorts I have to say. After we rushed over to the Library to see one of my most anticipated films of the festival.
“Wristcutters: A Love Story” stars Patrick Fugit as Zia, a recently deceased by suicide guy who wakes up as a pizza boy in a land filled with others who killed themselves. He moves into some guys apartment, and soon after finding out his girlfriend from his past, living life, committed suicide herself, he goes on a hunt with his best friend Eugene, Shea Whigham, to find her. Along their way, they pick up Mikal, played by Shannyn Sossamon, who’s trying to hitchhike to find The People in Charge, as she was sent to this wonderful land of the dead on accident. Along the way they meet Tom Waits, who runs Kneller’s Happy Campers where people get free food and a place to stay.
I’m not going to keep going on, as I’m sure you can tell this film is probably unlike anything you’ve ever seen, and that’s the thing I liked most about it. How much of that is due to the book it’s based on, I don’t know, but regardless, the film took me places I’d never seen before, or even thought of. On the other hand, I had a hard time believing some of the things. Anyway, the acting is all fine, especially Tom Waits who’s much more awesome than the rest. It’s a really interesting film that I personally didn’t like as much as most people seemed to, but it’s still worth a look when it gets released, which I’m sure it will. It has cult status written all over it. In attendance at the screening were Patrick Fugit, Shannyn Sossamon, and Shea Whigham. Grade: 7/10
Had the early shift at work, followed by four scheduled films, which I thought I might be able to do. But it didn’t really happen.
After work, “Stay“ was the first film of the day, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait, about a woman on the verge of her wedding, who reveals to her fiancé a secret she’s been hiding from him, about an obscure sexual act she performed while in college. The news comes as a shock to him, and their relationship was never the same. To know the secret, you’ll have to see the film. Bobcat’s first directorial effort isn’t that bad, but it definitely had a lot more potential. It was overall mildly amusing with some good laughs thrown in, but it could have been really great. After a while the premise got old, but still fairly enjoyable. The best part of the screening though, was during the Q&A, when in the row behind me, Terrence Howard stood up and told Melinda Page Howard, who played the woman who committed the unspeakable act, how brilliant she was. It was pretty sweet. Bobcat was pretty amusing himself as well. Grade: 7/10
The next film was supposed to be the Paul Giamatti starrer “The Hawk is Dying“, but I’d heard really average to bad things about it, and that it was painfully slow, so we decided to skip it, and just have a break before the next film. We didn’t get into “Black Gold“, a political documentary about coffee, so we went into “Viva Zapatero! “ A documentary about Italian censorship. I had no idea that television and films were censored so heavily, and it was pretty shocking to me. Sabina Guzzanti, the director and star of the film, is in a fight trying to get her right to do and say what she wants. She’s a brilliant satirist, but her show, which pokes a little fun at the issue of censorship, is cancelled after once episode despite huge viewership and rave reviews on the public access channel. It was a really intriguing subject, having known nothing about it beforehand, and I enjoyed the film quite a bit, although I did doze off a bit in the middle. “Viva Zapatero! “ has had commercial and critical success all over Europe, but nothing has changed in Italy. Grade: 8/10
The final film for the evening was the film I was most looking forward to seeing at the festival, Kirby Dick’s “This Film is Not Yet Rated“. I was blown away by Twist of Faith, Dick’s previous documentary at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, which got me really interested in see this one. Then I heard about the subject, and knew I had to see the film. “This Film is Not Yet Rated“ looks at the super secret MPAA and tackles the issues of how they vote on the ratings of films, who votes, and different criteria for the votes. It’s really hilarious and honestly pretty shocking at some of the things the MPAA does. Oh, and did I mention that Kirby Dick hires a private eye to help him, a kind of butch lesbian with kids, who at first doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing, but rather tricked me! She was working it, man. Anyway, I loved “This Film is Not Yet Rated. “ I just wish that I had been able to go to a regular screening instead of the volunteer screening I went to so I would have been able to hear a Q&A with Kirby Dick. Grade: 9/10
Had another early day at the theatre, and it went by pretty fast. The TBAs had been announced yesterday, and we were given another opportunity to see “Little Miss Sunshine” which we’d missed at an earlier screening because Bobby set the alarm wrong. But I’m really glad we were able to catch the last screening of it, because it’s one of the best comedies I’ve ever seen, and totally worthy of the buzz it built at Sundance and 10 million price tag it was purchased for.
“Little Miss Sunshine” is family road trip comedy. Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear are Sheryl and Richard, parents to Olive, played by Abigal Breslin, from “Signs.” Along with them are Olive’s grandpa and uncle Frank, played by Alan Arkin and Steve Carrell respectively, as well as her brother, Josh, played by Paul Dano, from “L.I.E.” and “The Girl Next Door.” The family take a road trip from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Long Beach, California for the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Pageant that Olive got into after the winner of the local contest got disqualified. Olive isn’t your typical beauty pageant enterer, she’s over-weight and pretty dorky, which makes everything more fun.
During the trip to Long Beach, everything goes wrong for the family, including they’re car not being able to accelerate until it’s about 20 MPH. So everytime they stop, each member of the family has to push the car and hop in one by one to get it going. It’s hilarious, and the whole movie is filled with quirky bits just like that. Total hilarity ensues throughout, and everyone in the audience was laughing like crazy. It’s a wonderful film, and more than just a comedy, it’s about people, and learning to love and be who you are I guess. I really loved “Little Miss Sunshine” and I can’t wait for it to come out theatrically so I can see it again. Grade: 10/10
We’d found out later that Bobby had lost his cell phone when we went intertubing, so we had to go back down to Salt Lake and pick it up, since we had a gap between films. It was way out in the boonies. The guy that found it took it to his work so we could pick it up, and he work at the Boys Colony, which is an interesting name, but when we finally found it, we realized it was an academy of some sort. But it was way out in the middle of nowhere, and the guy have us shit directions. It was pretty lame, but we finally found it and headed to downtown Salt Lake to see the eagerly anticipated “The Darwin Awards.”
I have to say that even though buzz for the film hadn’t been great so far, I was really excited. It turned out to be a pretty interesting film, though the buzz was right. “The Darwin Awards” follows Michael and Siri, played by Joseph Fiennes and Winona Ryder, as they go across the country trying to find links between unusual deaths. The Darwin Awards themselves are awards for really stupid things people have done, and they’re winning awards because they’re no longer in the population, improving the human gene pool. The two look into these deaths, trying to find a correlation between them all in an attempt to save the insurance company they work for millions of dollars they’re currently paying to the people. There are lots of funny parts to the film, but it also drags a lot as well. Overall, it definitely was not as bad film, but it wasn’t as good as I think it could have been. With the cast of cameos it had, and the talent involved, I think it could have been way better. They just needed to write, well, a funnier script I guess. Grade: 6.5/10
Got to sleep in a little bit, which was amazing, really. It’s tough seeing movies all day, and getting three or four hours of sleep a night for a couple days in a row. So yeah, the sleep was much needed. Before work we headed over to TromaDance, where we caught a couple short films. The few that I can remember were “The Underminer” about a guy who always makes the other guy feel bad, “Pretty Kitty” about a man who goes crazy because his cat won’t listen, “40 Dollars” about some junkies in NYC, and “Bad Apples” about well, some funky apples. Overall I really liked what I saw at TromaDance and hope one day I can spend more than just forty-five minutes there. I did get to see Lloyd Kaufman, president and Founder of Troma there during my short time attending.
At work, Kirby Dick was seeing the Al Gore documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and Michael Rappaport was seeing the Beastie Boys documentary “Awesome: I Fuckin’ Shot That,” and that’s about it. Oh yeah, we did take a group photo. This is Team B, from the Holiday Theatre. This is the team I worked with for the entire festival. Can you tell where I am?
After work was the awards party which as a volunteer we were allowed to attend. It wasn’t really all that exciting, although I did get to see Joey Lauren Adams outside smoking a cigarette. Anyway, after we got in, we just walked around for a while, ate free food, drank the few free drinks they gave us, and talked with some friends from the theatre we saw there. We left after about an hour and a half to go see what was really far up in my anticipated films list.
“Destricted” immediately intrigued me when I read the idea behind the film, and when I saw the directors, which include Gaspar Noe, Larry Clark and Matthew Barney, I knew I had to see it. So I was so excited waiting in the theatre, ready for it to start. “Destricted” opened up with Barney’s short, “Hoist”, about a man making love to a machine, with a flower in his mouth a vase sticking out of his butt. I guess it’s sort of man, machine, and nature become one, which is interesting yeah, but do I really want to see a guy having sex with a rotating drive-shaft of a truck? Not really, but I have to say, it was interesting. Next up was “House Call” which pretty much was just a 70s style porn. It looked like an old VHS tape. The only good part about it was when the lady in the porn got sick and called the doctor, he took her temperature out of her ass. Larry Clark’s “Imapled” was next. It was one of the better shorts, but it was way too long. It was pretty much over a third of the entire running length of the film. It was a documentary about Clark interviewing men to be in a porn. He went through auditions and what not, and when he picked the guy, they went through auditions for the leading lady, and then they acted it out, and that was it. It was really funny, and would have been much better if Clark cut the length in half, but it was pretty good, giving some insight into how and what young men think porn really is.
The best short in the film was next, called “Sync” which ran a short three minutes, but, as described in the Sundance booklet, is a film about kaleidoscopic pounding! I think that description is completely accurate and amazing. During its short running time, the film, in fluid motion, just goes through porn after porn after porn, each flash on screen in maybe 1/3 a second intervals. Does that make sense? It was completely amazing. Next up was “Death Valley” in which a man masturbates in front of beautiful scenery for ten minutes, but unable to climax. The point? I don’t know. The “Balkan Erotic Epic” was next, which was hilarious. It was basically a series of vignettes of Balkan folklore, where people use their sexuality to change the forces of nature, including men having sex with the ground to make it fertile for crops, and women dancing around on a hill topless so it will rain, and many more. It was hilarious and bizarrely beautiful. The last short was Gaspar Noe’s “We Fuck Alone” about two people who simultaneously, fuck alone, or masturbate. Okay, cool. But, like what Noe did in parts of “Irreverible” he did to the entire film, and I’m talking about strobing. The entire film strobed, and it was so fucking annoying! Seriously. Noe needs new ideas, because from what I could tell, there was absolutely no reason to use the strobing effect through the entire short except for making people angry. And he accomplished that.
Overall, I was glad I saw the film, and it was beyond bizarre and original, but I’m not entire sure if I recommend it. I guess it’s a film I’d like to talk with other people about, but it’s not a completely satisfying film. Oh, and when I say a guy was making love to a machine, or masturbating in Death Valley, or there were a bunch of women running around topless in the Balkan Hills, I mean it. I have never seen so much nudity and sex in a film before, and extremely graphic too. I mean I was expecting it, and it’s not a bad thing at all, but I just wanted to mention it incase someone didn’t how graphic it really was. Grade: 6/10 (Two for “Hoist”, negative two for “House Call,” plus two for “Impaled,” plus three for “Sync,” none for “Death Valley,” plus three for “ Balkan Erotic Epic,” and negative two for “We Fuck Alone.”)
The final day of the festival I didn’t have work until 3:00, and films ended earlier in the day, which meant my last film would be at noon. Bobby and I decided to check out the Documentary winner “God Grew Tired of Us” which was an excellent choice for the last film of the festival.
“God Grew Tired of Us” is the story of three Sudanese refugees who get a new life in the United States thanks to the good ol’ U.S. governement. They get hooked up with an apartment, food, some cash allowances for a certain allotment of time. The guys need to get jobs on their own, but they’ll have rides, again, for a few months.
This film is great because it reveals so many things, not only about the Sudanese refugees, but also how we see things. Everything seems so new to these guys. And it shows what we take advantage of. It’s a huge journey for the gentleman, and they pursue it with an amazing sense of enthusiasm and excitement.
“God Grew Tired of Us” is funny in the way the guys look at all the new things they’re seeing for the first time. It’s touching in us wanting these men to succeed in everything they do, ultimately not knowing if they’re go be able to. It’s amazing to look at their dreams and aspirations for being in the U.S. and hoping they’re able to accomplish them. Lastly, it’s great what the filmmakers did, and the subjects they choose, not really making us feel pity at all for them, just shaping them so we like them and want them to continue
It wasn’t at the screening I went to, but the coolest thing ever is in one of the first screenings for this film, after it was over, a lady came up to the filmmakers and handed them a check for $25,000 to help the program out. The three main guys the film documents were there as well, and in the end of the film, we see what they’re up to. None of them have taken advantage of what they’ve been giving. They’ve all saved up to get their families over to America, and one of the guys is a fundraiser, and is working to build a hospital in his Sudanese village. “God Grew Tired of Us” is completely amazing and I hope everyone can see it when it comes out. Grade: 9/10
Being a volunteer at the festival was such an amazing, and completely different experience than attending the festival on my own. I met so many cool people, volunteers, staff, filmmakers and patrons. It was great to hear buzz from people coming out of the theatres, and being able to make friends with the volunteers I regularly worked with.
Seeing the films for free was definitely a plus, but having to drive from Salt Lake into Park City every day got really tedious, especially when I had work at 7:00am. But it was still fun.
I got to see Salt Lake City for the first time, and it’s a really awesome place. Driving instead of flying was also really great surprisingly. The landscapes going though California, Neveada, and Utah were so gorgeous. Stopping at pet stores and getting to see and play with ferrets was awesome. I wish I could have brought another back. Stopping in Vegas and winning money (and losing some of what I won) was awesome, as was stopping at a fireworks store and spending an hour there shooint fireworks off.
Walking down Park Ave at 2:00am in very near negative degrees is something I’ve never felt before, and hope to never feel again, and something I’ll never forget. I’ve never been so cold. I’ve never seen it snow so much. I’ve played in the snow as much as I had. I’d never had Sonic burger, and I did three times while I was there, and it was the most amazing fast food restaurant I’ve ever been to.
Anyway, all in all, there wasn’t a dull moment. I’m thankful for meeting all the people I did, and I hope they’re going to be back there next year. And hopefully I can go next year. I’d volunteer again in a heartbeat. I’m thankful for Sonic Burger, and I hope they open one up in Los Angeles very soon, because they’re obviously missing a massive customer base by not expanding here. I’m thankful for all the great films I got to see, and all the amazing experiences I’m going to scrapbook and remember for the rest of my life. And finally, I’m thankful for having great parents who support me and withouth them I would never have been able to go to the festival.
Hah, that sounds like some kind of awards speech, and I’m not entirely sure why I wrote that, but anyway, I’m thankful!