Last post!

Uh oh! I've gotten behind in my blogging. I haven't written about my movies since Thursday! So, here goes.

Thursday morning, I saw The Devil land Daniel Johnston, a documentary about an undergound rock musician who influenced Beck, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, etc. but who battled severe depression that drastically stunted his career. I hadn't heard of Daniel Johnston before I saw the fillm, and I felt that the film failed to justify why exactly he was hailed as a genius. It was an interesting story, though. I'm glad I saw it.

Next, we went to Strangers with Candy again. (And no Janis I am not including the second viewing in my totals!) It was just as funny the second time! Amy and Steven weren't at the Q&A, just Paul. Which was odd and annoying. But the Q&A was actually better this time around. More interesting. It was fun seeing it with Elissa and Thomas who of course loved it. Because it's great.

After that was Reefer Madness which was definitely one of my faves of the fest. I didn't quite know what to expect from this. I actually kind of thought it was going to be bad. I ended up totally loving it. It's a musical starting Alan Cumming, Neve Campbell, Ana Gasteyer and Christian Campbell (whom you might remember from the Worst Gay Movie Ever Made, otherwise known as Trick). I want the soundtrack like, now. Anyways, hilarious. Hard to explain the plot. Just be sure to watch it when it plays on Showtime later this year.

After that, I had tickets to the Crispin Glover movie What Is It? but I didn't really go. I went to the Queer Lounge party instead and by the time I left early to get to the Crispin movie, I had a pretty decent buzz. All I had really wanted to do was get a photo with Crispin Glover and I did that in the lobby, so I left and returned to the party.You've already read my party post. On to Friday's movies...

Friday morning we had to check out of our kick ass timeshare by the Library and move into a hotel by the Prospector. Audrey spearheaded the Project Clean Up And Check Out. Go Audrey. I spent the morning griefing the loss of my wallet (keychaini attached).j

Our first movie of Friday was Me and You and Everyone We Know which was superb! Artistic and fun and honest and heartfelt. It doesn't have an all-star cast and at first, nothing in the discription made it stand out for me at all. But so many people were raving about it, so I made sure to catch a screening. I'm really glad I did. I've heard this movie compared to Happiness, and I can see why. It has the whole multiple storylines thing going on, and some of them are certainly quite twisted. But Me and You and Everyone We Know is more hopeful than Happiness. It has more of a heart.

Next, I went to see Mirrormask, written by Neil Gaiman and directed by Dave McKean. I liked this about as well as I expected, which is...not very much. Don't get me wrong -- the look and feel of this movie is like nothing you've ever seen or will see again from anyone but these two. So imaginative. Just breathtaking. But the story just didn't interest me. I have to come to terms with the fact that Neil Gaiman is just not for me.

Mysterious Skin was the next movie we saw. My whole group went to this. It was the last Premiere of the festival. It's directed by Gregg Araki, of whom I am decidedly NOT a fan -- Nowhere and The Doom Generation are totally not my cup of tea. Violence just for the sake of it? Um, no. So I was kind of nervous about this. But I had heard it was a departure from his earlier work so I thought maybe I'd be okay. Anyways -- I'm so glad I went. I was so impressed. It's a movie about two teenage boys who went through the same thing in their youths and how it affected both of them. I was blown away by Joseph Gordon Levitt's performance. I highly, highly recommend this one!

My last film of the night was The Aristocrats, a documentary consisting of about 100 different comedians telling the same super raunchy, not-that-funny joke. This was directed by Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette. Even though the actual joke wasn't that funny, the way that the movie was structured made it so. I liked it. Very, very sleepy at this point in time. No more midnight movies for Dor!

Saturday is next. That's today.

The first thing I saw this morning was the Animation Program consisting of six animated shorts. I was interested in this because I saw that Don Herzfeldt had a short in it. You may know Don's work from the Acadamy-award nominated short that he did a few years ago called Rejected. Anyways, this shorts program was all right. Very welll done. Not 100% fascinating to me. I drifted in and out sleep.

Next came Live-In Maid, an Argentinian film about a rich woman losing her wealth. It was okay. Nothing special.

Then, Audrey and I caught a screening of Rock School at the Yarrow. Really good stuff!! This was the documentary on an actual School of Rock where the man who runs it is just as garish and seemingly un-suitable for children as Jack Black's character was in School of Rock. There wasn't a dull moment in this movie. Very good stuff.

Last movie of the night was the winner of the Grand Jury prize for Documentary, Why We Fight. This is defininitely one to watch for! It was political but without condemning any one person or group of people. Extremely powerful film. The Q&A that followed was my favorite Q&A of the festival. Eugene Jarecki (who also directed The Trialls of Henry Kissingers) is one of the most articulate people I have ever been in the same room with.

I'm basically done with my Sundance experience. I'm seeing, hopefully, two more movies tomorrow before we leave. Here's a list of every movie I saw, and how I would rate that movie on a scale of ONE THROUGH TEN.

1. Happy Endings -- 7
2. Loggerheads -- 8
3. Brick - 4
4. Ellie Parker -- 5
5. Inside Deep Throat -- 7
6. Dear Wendy -- 3
7. The Dying Gaul -- 9
8. Swimmers - 6
9. The Upside of Anger - 7
10. On A Clear Day - 8
11. Game 6 - 3
12. The Ballad of Jack and Rose -- 8
13. The Talent GIven Us -- 4
14. Thumbsucker - 7
15. Pretty Persuasion -- 6
16. Saving Face -- 6
17. Strangers with Candy -- 10
18. Lonesome Jim -- 5
19. Nine Lives -- 8
20. Steal Me -- 6
21. How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer - 6
22. The Squid and the Whale -- 7
23. After Innocence -- 8
24. Heights -- 8
25. This Revolution -- 3
26. The Girl from Monday -- 2
27. Mardi Gras- Made In China - 5
28. The Devil and Daniel Johnston - 6
29. Reefer Madness - 9
30. Me and You and Everyone We Know - 8
31. Mirrormask - 5
32. The Aristocrats - 6
33. Animation Program - 5
34. Live-In Maid - 5
35. Rock School - 7
36. Why We Fight - 8

Tomorrow, Sundance screens the award winners. I'm hoping to catch two of the documentary winners -- The Education of Shelby Knox and Grizzly Man. Then, we're driving back to Los Angeles. We will probably get in around 3 AM. Yippee!

Last thing -- here are some photos from the last day or so. Hope you enjoy!

Here's Bill and Audrey getting frisky in our hotel room:



Here's me and the supersexy Crispin Glover:



The MAN:



Me looking like total shit and Neve Campbell being her gorgeous self:



Neveness:



Audrey, Bill, and the snowball I demanded she not pelt me with:



Elissa and Thomas relax after a late movie:

<3<3

Just got back from the Queer Lounge party. It was SO FUN!

Celebrity Highlights:

* I bummed a cigarette from Neve Campbell

* I spoke at great length with Alan Cumming. We discussed me getting cable illegally even though it's not my fault. I also told him we had been thinking about the song that kid sings from The Anniversary Party (which he directed) and we couldn't remember how the song went. So, he sang it for me. I sang along. It was fantastic. The celebrity highlight of the festival, by far

* I spoke with my BFF John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig) at least twice. The first time I was not as sober as I should have been and I acted a little bit dumb. It's okay, though. He was DJing the party and he was really good. I wish I was a gay man because I would woo him like nobody's business.

* Me and Joel Michaely are also BFF. He's acted in a few things and produced a movie. I don't think he's anywhere near the hollywood elite, but he's fun and huggy.

* Audrey drove home from the party and we passed Crispin Glover on Main Street and we offered him a ride home. He turned us down. Damn!

* I'm still a little drunk and we have to vacate this condo in the next seven hours. Yikes!

Hot damn

Today I saw SIX movies.

I've never seen six movies in one day.

Never. Again.

So tired I want to die!

Here's a quick rundown:

First movie was Squid and the Whale. Probably the best one of the day, or second best. New York City in the '80's, kids, parents, divorced. Good movie.

Next, there was the documentary After Innocence which was about people who have been exhonorated after 5, 10, 15 + years in prison because DNA evidence found them innocent. It profiled several different wrongfully-accused men and how difficult it is to readjust to live outside of prison and how wrong it all is. I was really affected by this film. Loved it.

After that, I went to see Heights at the Library with Jason and Jed and Bill and Joel Michaely, whom I stubbed in. The movie was fantastic. Nowhere near an independent film, but really good all the same.

Then, I went to This Revolution which was less than stellar. It was highly political and shot documentary-style but it was not a documentary. It was toooo political for me. And just bad. You could tell in the Q&A that it wasn't well received with the audience. And the audience was pretty much their target market, too. So, yeah.

After that was The Girl From Monday which was Hal Hartley so we knew it would be really out there. And yeah. Way too weird and BAD bad bad. I actually napped a bit just from my sheer lack of interest.

Lastly, I went to see Mardi Gras: Made in China which was a documentary about how all of the beads that are used in New Orleans for Mardi Gras are made in sweatshops in China. It was sad and poignant and about an hour too long. They had made their point in about 30 minutes and just kept re-hashing and re-hashing.

Now I am ready. To. Die. So fucking tired. And oddly full. I had too much crap to eat today.

Tomorrow is the Queer Lounge party, the Crispin Glover Premiere, and what else. Another Strangers with Candy screening. I am going to try and sleep until a decent hour tomorrow. No early movie. Should be glorious.

Lateness and sleepy

I saw two more movies since I last wrote.

Steal Me was a poorly-titled, average movie that made me want to visit Montana as that's where it was set. The lead guy was HOT! And 16 years old. We sat right by Cara Seymour and she was one of the stars, so that was a little weird.

Next I went to How The Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer at the Raquet Club. Very long movie. There is a good movie in there, somewhere, but at least 40 minutes needs to be cut. I recommend starting with the scene involving the 70 year old woman masturbating in a bath tub. But no, I did like the movie a lot. It just needs some work.

Now I am freakishly exhausted and seeing SIX MOVIES tomorrow beginning at 8:30 AM which is way too soon. i'll be in deep shit if I don't sleep soon!

Oopsie

In all my haste last night to get the Strangers photos up, I forgot to talk about how FUCKING HILARIOUS the movie was!

Of course, we all absolutely loved it. I was laughing so hard at some points. It was a really fun screening over all. People were clapping and cheering when each of the characters first came on the screen. It was a blast.

Some of the characters weren't the same. Like there was no Orlando, but there was a character that kind of resembled him. And Jerri's brother Derrick was played by a different actor, as was her father.

Most everything else was the same, to me. The movie had a decent plot, starting off with when she first gets out of prison, and mostly focusing on the state science fair. I loved Allison Janney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman as school board members. It was just so great to get more of Jerri Blank.

The Q&A was short and left a little bit to be desired. We're going to see it again on Thursday, so maybe that Q&A will be better.

As for today.... I've seen two movies so far.

The first one was Lonesome Jim which was directed by Steve Buscemi and starred Casey Affleck and Liv Tyler. It was okay. Nothing spectacular. I almost expected a little more from Steve Buscemi. I dunno. The beginning was REALLY, really slow. Once it got going I did like it. Mary Kay Place rules.

Next I went to Nine Lives which I thought was outstanding. It was basically just nine 15 minute vignettes that weren't really connected. Each little story was shot on a single take. There was one where a woman runs into an old lover she hasn't seen in five years in a grocery store. That one was my favorite. Huge cast, too. But none of them were there. Bastards!

Now everyone is at Mirrormask in SLC and me, Elissa and Thomas are just chillin before we have to go to our next movie. My next movie is Steal Me.

I'm sleepy.

YESSSSSSSSSS

Such a great day. Such. A. Great. Day.

Started off by waitlisting Thumbsucker with Amanda and Matt. Good movie! It's based on a book, which I haven't read. I'd like to read it. The story was unique and the performances were good. Keanu Reeves' performance wasn't that great, actually. But yeah, I liked the movie.

Next I went to Pretty Persuasion. One fucked up movie! It had kind of a campy tone to it. Very dark. Lots of meanness. That's the one thing i didn't like about it. Some of the dialogue was really hateful. I mean like, James Woods' character calling his daugher a cunt. Maybe I'm just getting older and more conservative. Overall I did like the movie. Just when I think there's nothing that can shock me, something comes along like this.

After that, we were maybe going to go see The Jacket or Junebug but neither really interested me, so we just wandered for a bit. We met up with JED at 4 PM on Main Street and went to the good ol' Wasach Brew Pub where the meal began with us bitching and moaning and worrying about how the hell we'd get into the Strangers with Candy screening tonight, and the meal ended with us coming up with a daring and evil master plan that was so out there it just might work. More on that later.

Bill and I were very late to the Prospector for our next screening of Saving Face, which I was just expecting to be a cute lesbian movie with Chinese subtitles but it was so much more than that. I ended up really liking it for the family aspect of it. Joan Chen was HOTNESS! Really cute movie. It was fun watching Audrey watch the movie. Whatta dork!

After that, we went back to the condo to plot and plan. All four of us (Audrey, Jason, Bill and I) were total basket cases but in a good and fun way. We practiced our strategy and went over several possible scenarios.

The execution of the plan went off without a hitch. We were fucking THRILLED and so, so, so fortunate to get into the screening.

Before we did get in, though, two cool things happened. Here's what.

* We were asking around for extra tickets and one guy I asked was apparently with the film. He was all "no, I don't have extra tickets but here's a bag." He handed over a backpack that had a Strangers with Candy thing on it and was full of goodies. I gave the bag to Audrey and I kept the huge MAC makeup compact for myself. YESSSS!

* We saw John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig) and I asked him if he had extra tix. That's a no. i offered him $100 for his ticket. He got a kick out of that. The four of us chatted with him for a while and then I had to go inside. Right after I went in, he invited us to a party he's throwing later in the week. How cool is that. We're supposed to email them with our names to be added to a list. Hotness.

Now I am super sleepy. But I must upload some photos for your viewing pleasure. Now leave a comment, DORKS!

Here's Jason trying to come up with a good strategy for distracting the ticket takers.



Here's the world-class team who managed to get into theeee hottest screening of the festival:



Here's Steven Colbert, Paul Dinellow and Amy at the Q&A:



Here's me and the above three!



HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! Such a good night.

Tomorrow morning -- have a screening at 9:30 AM. SO tired. Must nap NOW!

Sleeeeeeepy

It's SO early. I am about to shower and get in the waitlist line for Thumbsucker. I probably won't even get in. I did get five hours of sleep, so, bonus.

Wish me luck. I hope today doesn't suck.

Bill is here. Well, he's in Salt Lake anyway, about to get a cab or bus here. Elissa and Thomas are well on their way. Jed arrives today as well. It's all happening!

The rest of the day...

I saw five movies today! Here's the ones I haven't written about yet.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose, directed by Rebecca Miller and starring Daniel Day Lewis and Catherine Keener. GOOD STUFF!! Really beautifully done. DDL's performance was the best I've seen yet a the festival. Jena Malone was in it in a somewhat atypical role, which was cool. It was such a gentle, poignant story. One of the better films I've seen thus far.

Then I went to The Talent Given Us which was a quasi documentary about this guy's family driving cross country in a minivan. Lots of family drama. Lots of discussing stuff that you don't expect parents to discuss with kids and vice versa. There were a few good laughs, but mostly I was severely bored.

One thing that was cool, though, was that when I came into the screening I realized I had to go to do the bathroom so I asked the dude that was sitting by himself in the row behind me to watch my stuff. Then I read his badge and saw that it was Don Herzfeldt, the creator of Rejected! So we chatted for a while. He has a film in the Animated Shorts program. Need to see that.

Here are a couple more photos:

Here's Catherine Keener from the Ballad of Jack and Rose premiere:



Here's Elijah Wood yesterday:



Tomorrow I am definitely seeing Pretty Persuasion, Junebug, Saving Face and HOPEFULLY HOPEFULLY HOPEFULLY Strangers with Candy.

COMMENTS!!

Okay, I am stupid and just now figured out how to enable anonymous comments.

So, now anyone can comment.

SO -- LEAVE A COMMENT!!!

Nap? No nap!

No time for a nap!

I woke up at 7 AM this morning to go to see The Upside of Anger which was good. Funny, touching, etc. My only complaint was that all three sisters in the family seemed too close in age and way older than their characters were supposed to be. Joan Allen was awesome, though. And I really enjoyed Kevin Costner's performance. His character was wacky and likeable.



Next, Amanda and I walked around Main Street for a while. Next was On A Clear Day with Brenda Blethyn and Billy Boyd. SO GOOD!! I liked it a whole lot. I cried, and not because it was sad. Yay for good movies.

Then, I went to the Library for Game 6 which was nothing special. Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr, Bebe Neuwirth. Totally forgettable.

Next, we are going to see The Ballad of Jack and Rose which I am quite excited about.

Bill comes tonight! Matt Page comes tonight! This is awesome.

Biggest Stressor Of The Day: STRANGERS WITH CANDY TICKETS! We need to buy these soon and are totally worried they'll be sold out. Cross your fingers!

Day THREE!

Done with Day Three of the festival. And what a great day it was!

We didn't have a movie until 3 PM. I only ended up seeing three movies today. That's okay, though. I'm seeing five tomorrow.

So we just milled around Main Street from 11 til 2 which was fun, 'cause I hadn't done that yet. We just walked around showing Bridget and Amanda the town and people-watching. Celebrities abound! Here's who we saw when we were walking around this morning:

James Woods
Juliette Lewis
Shawn Hatosy
Pierce Brosnan
John Leguizamo
Jay Mohr
Brenda Blethyn
Billy Boyd

Craziness.

So, then we went to see Dear Wendy at the Eccles. Written by Lars Von Trier. Congrats, Dear Wendy. You win the award for Worst Film of the Fest So Far. People really seemed to like it but after I saw it, I wanted to repell all memories of the film from my mind. It was all about guns. It made little sense to me. I know it was trying to make some kind of strong political statement, and yay for that, but even films that are meant to truly "mean something" shouldn't be painful nonsense to watch.

Next, we went to The Dying Gaul at the Raquet Club. I didn't know a whole lot about it before I went in, just that it had a good cast (Peter Saarsgard, Campbell Scott and Patricial Clarkson. Holy hell was this a good movie. Dark and twisted, yet with some heart. Absolutely stellar performances. Of course. Probably the best movie I've seen so far.



After that, Amanda and I an hour to get from the Raquet Club to the Library for our next screening. No problem, right? Wrong. It took SO LONG on the stupid city bus! We ended up getting off on Main Street and making a mad dash for the Library. We lucked out -- the movie we were seeing had a 17-minute short before it!

So, my last movie of the day was Swimmers which was pretty good. A sad, sort of slow family drama with good performances and one of those really intuitive 12 year old girl characters where she's far wiser than anyone even twice her age. I'm glad I saw it, though. I enjoyed Sarah Paulson, who played this kind of weird loner girl who befriends the 12 year old. And you can't go wrong with Cherry Jones, who also had a starring role.

Afterwards, we walked from the Library back to our COndo but on the way happened upon some Entertainment Weekly party, which I stopped to gawk at for a moment. During that time, Crispin Glover (my future boyfriend) came out and I snapped a photo.

I'm about to go to bed. The plan for tomorrow is to see FIVE MOVIES! They are:

The Upside of Anger
On a Clear Day
The Ballad of Jack and Rose
Game Six
The Talent Given Us

Here are some of the photos I've taken so far. Not in any order.

Here's Audrey stealing the Queer Lounge's wireless access while we camp out for tickets:



Here's Naomi Watts as she walked into her Ellie Parker screening yesterday:



Here's Bridget, me, and Amanda with Bonnie Hunt:



From when we stopped at Noodles in SLC on Thursday:



My man CRISPIN!!! <3<3<3<3



Here's the hotness that is Keira Knighley:



Here's Joseph Gordon-Levitt (that kid from 3rd Rock)



Peter Saarsgard, Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson and director Craig Lucas at the Dying Gaul screening



Me and Brenda Blethyn



Jason and Audrey at the Queer Lounge