Sundance Day 1 - Park City Snapshots

I am legit this year! Also, Matt finds a poster for a doc he is very excited to see.

Now I see I have tickets to the opening night party though I am not sure I will attend.

Killing time (time! Extra time! At Sundance!) waiting for Eef to arrive. Sitting on main street without my jacket on. Might get a tan, it's so nice here.

Drowning in Brita water bottles and missing my pal Shiri.

Team Sundance - Day 1...

About to head up to Park City and we are giddy about how much extra time we have before movies start.

Most Anticipated Sundance Films

Certainly no stranger to procrastination, I find myself on the flight to Salt Lake finally banging out a list of movies I'm most looking forward to. (God bless in flight wifi.)

Will these end up being my favorites? Unlikely. Keep in mind I purposely try to avoid reading too much about any title in advance because I like to be as surprised as I can going into the film. That's part of what I love about Sundance - lack of influence in advance. Few set expectations. 

In no particular order, the titles that I am looking forward to:

Nobody Walks -  He probably only has a small part, but I would watch Justin Kirk in a dramatic reading of the fine print on the bottle of my prescription generic adderall.  Hottest. Minnesotan. Ever. (And yes, I am including Josh Hartnett.)

Smashed - In the middle of probably the only ten days all year I won't be boozing it up, I'm excited to watch a relationship drama where alcoholism takes center stage.  Add to this cocktail the fact that Mary Kay Place co-stars? I'll drink to that.



Detropia - By the directors of Jesus Camp. Even though their sophomore effort (12th & Delaware) was only "very good" as opposed to the masterpiece of their first, I have incredibly high hopes.

The House I Live In - directed by Eugene Jarecki, one of the most articulate directors I've ever watched at a Q&A (when I saw his doc Why We Fight).  This is about the war on drugs.  Sundance isn't all parties and red carpets, y'all. I'm gonna learn shit.

The Ambassador - I have no idea what this documentary is about.  As I was choosing my films, I stopped reading the description and starred the hell out of it in my film guide after I read it was by the director of The Red Chapel.

Searching for Sugarman -  Not much to say other than the description in the film guide made it sound like a fascinating and satisfying story. 

Shorts Program III -  Just kidding. Not really. Judge me all you like -  I have no damned time to see shorts. Just wanted to check if you were paying attention. (That said, I do usually try and squeeze in the doc shorts and animation spotlight.)

Liberal Arts - Josh Radnor's newest. Screw you, haters -  I loved Happythankyoumoreplease.; This one looks great, too. <makes a face>

About Face - I was really hoping last year's Misrepresentation documentary would be the complex but overdue look how media/advertising shortchange woman and girls that it completely failed to be.   Even though  the structure and purpose of this film seems to be only vaguely related, I am looking to this film to introduce a level of artistry, subtlety and thoughtfulness to the topic of women in fashion.

Shut Up and Play the Hits - there's just nothing quite like the feeling of learning all about an awesome band through a music documentary released after they broke up.  (I'm talking to you, Who Took the Bomp)

HOLY SHIT I'm Going To Die (AKA here is my Sundance schedule)

For the four people on earth who care about where I am going to be and when, after the jump you can peruse my schedule in details.

Commentary:

*The blue means I NEED A TICKET so...  Yeah.

* Who can think of any blaring omissions?  Or things on here I should avoid? Holla.

*  This is 54 movies, not including the last day.  What's more, I have scheduled myself for seven total days where I see six movies per day.  I am really hoping those super powers I ordered online arrive before I leave. Should have paid for expedited shipping.

Some Golden Globes observations

I'm enjoying a low key Sunday night in Washington Heights watching the Golden Globes with my pals John and Mark.

Here are some of my observations:

No shock, but I haven't seen *any* of the TV nominees. Homeland is probably highest on my list of ones to seek out.

I absolutely could not be more delighted by A Separation winning the award for the best foreign film. In case you didn't know, it's currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

I'm not sorry to report that as awards season goes on, my "eh it was fine, I liked it" response to The Artist is quickly morphing into a bitter "c'mon - enough already."

How great was it that Meryl Streep gave a shout out to the star of Pariah? What a class act.  What. A. Class. Act.

Carnage

Finally caught Carnage, at the Angelika on Saturday afternoon..  After seeing the trailer no fewer than 35,205 times, and after meaning to catch the Broadway show (but failing to actually do so), I'm glad to have caught this one at least in one form.

How was it? I liked it. I laughed - more than once. Considering I saw the movie by myself, that's kind of a feat.  I would say it's a smaller picture. Nothing you have to really go out of your way to catch on the big screen, for sure, but a nice little vehicle for all these big name players to show off a bit.

The part of me that cannot watch Seinfeld or The Office because of the sheer level of "AHHH, AWKWARD" that's involved in some of these conversations did need to look away for a bit. 

Ultimately I would recommend it for anyone who wants to enjoy something a little bit less mainstream (in that nothing blows up) that might make you think a *little* but not too terribly much.   But it's a solid rental, too.

Sundance 2012 - Most Anticipated (NON-MOVIE VERSION)

As a way of procrastinating putting together a list of the movies most want to see, allow me to list everything else I am most looking forward to about Sundance.

We Need To Talk About Kevin

Just finally saw one of my most anticipated films of the past year or so, We Need To Talk About Kevin.

I was wild about the structure and the way the story was able to still shock me despite how much I had heard and read about it. Tilda's performance was as good as I was expecting - which says quite a lot.

I wasn't sure what they were trying to say by making the kid so one-dimensionally evil - almost in a stereotypical or horror-movie way. I wanted to feel more conflicted about her parenting. Maybe it reflects poorly on me that I didn't not find much complexity in the mother/son relationship.

Any hesitations like that are so far outweighed by how gripped I was by the journey of the main character, especially because of the way the story is told. Also I can't not mention how much I loved the music which added a curious extra layer.

It wasn't as disturbing as I was expecting. Am I truly fucked up, or just becoming more desensitized?

Did anyone read the book? How do you find it compares?

Sundance 2011 Review

Since there's not too much to see here, feel free to take a peek at my dorky 2011 Sundance blog.

GETTING EXCITED - Less than a week til this year's fest begins! Yessssss.

2012 Movie Goals

I'm not too big on new year's resolutions.  Quit smoking? Immediately, if I'd ever started.  Drink less? Um no - have we met? Go to the gym? Yeah, yeah, eventually.  But setting up a few movie-related goals... now this, I can get behind.

FIRST GOAL:

See 150 films at festivals.  Loosely:

• 50 Sundance <--saw 55
• 35 sxsw <--saw 35
• 15 Full Frame <-- SHIT - I only saw 14. Well... close enough.
• 45 TIFF  <--saw 48
• 5 Miscellaneous (AFI? Tribeca? NYFF) 17 at Tribeca,  11 at SIFF, yeah. Done.

SECOND GOAL:

See 50 films in theaters outside of festivals <--saw 70 films in theaters outside of festivals!

This might not sound like a lot, but for me, it kind of is.

THIRD GOAL:

Visit the NYC movie houses I haven't been to yet.  I am embarrassed to list how many legendary locales I've not yet visited within my seven years in the big apple.

• Maysles Cinema
• reRun Gastropub <-- did this for Extraterrestrial, just in time.
  
• Museum of Modern Art <-- did this on 3/24 for New Directors New Films
• Museum of the Moving Image <-- did this on 6/16