Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Winging Back To Sundance Film Festival USA

Literally winging back. Writing this on an airplane.

Cedar Rapids Dir Miguel Arteta
 I can't decide if this is cool or sick. Wait sick is good. Therefore, it is good. I love wifi, I love the Internet and I love having something to do on an airplane so that I don't obsess about the crying baby two rows back. What a fabulous Sundance! We had so much fun, great parties (esp the Sundance Channel), the blizzards were beautiful, the movies were surprisingly more accessible than I'd feared - and now I'm headed back in time for year two of the wonderful Sundance Film Festival USA. We're so pleased that the Sundance fest folk chose both of our theatres for the 9 city tour of theatres across the nation. At the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, we're hosting Tiffany Shlain and her film 'CONNECTED' and at our Sundance Cinemas in Madison, Drake Doremus' 'LIKE CRAZY' will play. This morning the Academy Award nominations were announced, and Jennifer Lawrence (from LIKE CRAZY), star of WINTERS BONE was nominated. Wish me luck.
Oh, movies.
Yesterday was a mixed bag of films. One I loved, CEDAR RAPIDS, some were 'eh' and some I hated (politics prevent me from expressing my true feelings of hatred for a movie about four over indulgent gents who fulfill a pact 25 years later. Another film with big names is now famous in the press for the number of folks who walked out. Not a peep. As my pal Clare and I were exiting the unnamed drug-filled film, the volunteers were softly saying 'wanna see Lou Reed's documentary? He's here for a Q+A'. Ummm, yeah. We were one of the last let in so we were in the front row. Better to get the pix, I say. So, wow, Lou Reed.

Lou Reed Wondering Where He Is

I mean I was super excited to be in the same room with a guy who is so much a part of my musical upbringing. He was presenting a doc he'd made about his cousin who is 100+ and lived a storied life. It was fine. The Q+A after was odd. I think the moderator was star-struck, and Lou was not in a great mood. Kinda crotchety. Clare said we couldn't leave before the Q+A was over (even tho we were hungry) because she was worried he'd yell at us. What a trip, and how Sundance.
This morning we got to our morning screening of THE DETAILS and just loved it. Here's Tobey and the director. A really great, black humour movie that I can't wait to see it picked up so we can play it. My last film of the day was BECOMING CHAZ, an interesting documentary produced by Chaz Bono about his gender transformation. A great way to end it. I'll report on the SFFUSA and my overall impressions next. Celebs: 2 (the dad from babe and prince phillip from the queen) + Tobey Caramel Apples: 0. Ughh.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Could This Truly Be The Year of the Hot Lesbian Movie?


Circumstance 2011
I knew I could catch your attention with that. This is not my idea - this is my friend Tristen's observation. She's a Sundance veteran, and she told me that in 2 days she'd seen four movies with hot lesbians. That got me thinking...I'd only seen two (MY IDIOT BROTHER and CIRCUMSTANCE) but that was in one day. I think it's worth thinking about. Ok, I have to interrupt this intellectual discourse with some plain old self-promotion. This is a photo that appeared on a website called SF360, published by the San Francisco Film Society. This is myself and my boss Paul Richardson outside the Egyptian on opening day:

Photo: Hilary Hart SFFS
Perhaps its time to discuss the films I've been seeing, but to do that I need to start with yesterday, since I didn't post last night.We've been hitting the 9 am Eccles screenings to catch the premieres the day after. The Eccles is huge - and this year we industry folk are allowed to enter in a side door versus mingling with the great unwashed as in previous years. Yesterday we saw one of the most commercially viable films, WIN WIN with Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan (Gabriel Byrnes shrink on this season of IN TREATMENT). It was good, and I'm sure we'll be playing it. The director Tom Mc Carthy (THE VISITOR, THE STATION AGENT) came for the Q+A after. Alas, no stars, but they'd all been at the party we were at the night before so...ho hum.
We hurried back over to the Holiday for one of the most enjoyable docs I've ever seen, CORMAN'S WORLD, about Roger Corman. Goodness this man made an indelible impression on the film industry, and started the careers of luminaries such as Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Peter Bogdonovich, FF Coppola and Jack Nicholson. Here's a photo of his crowning achievement film, Little Shop of Horrors:
I took the afternoon off to wait for the handyman to fit the 324 things that are not working at the condo. After he left after fixing nothing, we slogged back to the Holiday to watch Morgan Spurlock's new doc, THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD. The premise of the film is to reveal the world of product placement in movies, but Morgan decides to fund the movie entirely with product placement. I shall leave my opinion to myself at this point. Today we hit Eccles in the wee morn again with MY IDIOT BROTHER (oh ye of hot lesbians - Rashida Jones and Zooey Deschanel) with Paul Rudd as a happy go lucky f-up.

Director J. Peretz, Zooey, Emily, Elizabeth and Paul

Saw HERE, then my other Lesbian extravaganza, CIRCUMSTANCE, where the action is in Tehran. Really. My last movie of the day was Vera Farmiga's directorial debut HIGHER GROUND about a hard core Christian enclave. Interesting choice for a first film. Before I forget, went to the Skywalker Sound party tonight and saw a buch of the wonderful Bay Area film crowd. Had a wonderful time! Carmel Apples = 0 (tomorrow!tomorrow!) Celebs = 5

Friday, January 21, 2011

Day of the Dead - Grateful, That Is

For a person who has always had disdain for the Grateful Dead...
There were two movies that featured music from the Dead today. Wait - can I interrupt? I promised to tell everyone how dinner went at Zoom last night. As always, we had a super nice time. The only celeb last night was a grade C guy who you could tell had been a total nerd in high school, yet because he has a small role on a hit TV show, he can date a plastic blond. Oh, how mean. Anyway back to today's movies. First movie was THE MUSIC NEVER STOPPED, about a guy who'd had a brain tumour and the lovely Julia Ormond plays a music therapist who brought him closer to an even keel after surgery. Based on an Oliver Sachs book with one of the most amazing (expensive) sound tracks including The Beatles, The Stones, Dylan, Clapton and a big concert with a Grateful Dead apparition. We're wondering how they are going to pay for all that music. The Festival folks are still working out some of the line organization kinks, so we didn't get into the second film, but the third was waaaaaay cool: MAGIC TRIP, a documentary about Ken Kesey and his merry band of pranksters. The filmmakers (TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE'S Alex Gibney) took footage from the original Electric Koolaid Acid Test road movie made 40+ years ago, and did a fantastic job of showing the bisection of the Beat and Hippie generation, with LSD as the common denominator. I'm not doing this justice - I had a smile on my face the whole time. Next, SUBMARINE, from the UK about a kid a little too inside his head going through teen issues, and my last film was my favorite MEEK'S CUTOFF. I missed it at Toronto and since I'm a sucker for a prairie story - had to see it. Its an incredible realistic story about three families crossing the plains under difficult circumstances. Michelle Williams is the main character - tough as nails pioneer. Hope it gets picked up.
Let's talk celebs. We were invited to the Fox Searchlight party tonight and they do put on a very nice event. They also enabled a much higher celeb quotient: I rubbed somethings with Paul Giamatti, Amy Ryan, Anne Heche, Rashida Jones, Elizabeth Banks, Bobby Canavalle and a few others I'd rather not say in order to not provide them with unwarranted publicity. Good day all around. Caramel apples = 0 Celebs = a crapload.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

And so it begins...

The 2011 Festival Kicks Off With A Press Conference
It's day one - and while there are no films, we've been busy getting settled, picking up our credentials, walking on Main Street and attending the press conference. We've never attended the press conference before and it was great. Robert Redford spoke at length about the origins of Sundance, the natural progression over the years as its grown from a festival where Redford had to stand outside to encourage people to come into the Egyptian to the current breadth of programming and international reach. And he mentioned our Sundance Cinemas twice during the conference as an entity that is fulfilling some of the core philosophies of Sundance by bringing good film to communities outside of Park City. I don't mind saying - I was proud to hear him say it. We stopped off to check out the New Frontiers exhibition at the old Miners Hospital. New Frontiers is a place where highly experimental installation artwork is displayed. Some new friends who are working on a film called Pandemic 1.0 were there. Still don't exactly understand what it's about or how it works...but it looked cool. Tonight is our annual dinner at Zoom. Will report tomorrow on that sure to be amazing meal.
Celebrity sightings = 0 (I don't count Redford). Caramel apples = 1 (glorious).

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Let's Get A Few Things Straight

While I am hitting the road, I'm not driving to Park City.
 I'm flying on Wednesday and before I leave I'm going to have to finish 326 things for work, pack, psychologically prepare myself to freeze, and dream about the caramel apples on Main Street. Oh, and the movies. I'm feeling challenged by this year's choices. But I'm in the mood to be challenged. Sometimes my film choices at festivals are like my workouts at the gym have been for the past several years - reading on the machines - not breaking a sweat. I fear I will be breaking a sweat because they're offering up a lot less 'name' projects. On the other hand, we need some 'name' projects to show at Sundance Cinemas. My dream is that we will truly discover films this year (and that our discoveries have distributors). We have SIO passes that only those in 'the industry' have, so we'll be primarily at one or two theatres the whole time, seeing the same folks over and over again in the Disneyland-like snaking lines under a big tent. I'll try to be diligent in my posts, and as always will take pictures of people and things of interest, note the sightings or talks on the blog, and count my consumption of caramel apples.