The Madness has Begun!

I am currently in line at the Box Office for tickets tomorrow morning. I have seen one movie so far. More on that later. Let's get caught up.

The drive was nice. We stopped in Vegas at a total dive casino called Ellis Island where they offer $4.99 steak dinners (not $5.00! $4.99!) The cool thing about that was running into my buddy Kristian who I drove to Sundance with last year. He had two pals with him, Jeffrey and Sal, so we got a big table for six and had a nice dinner. I lost some $20 gambling which is neither here nor there. ;)

Back on the road, we were treated to what will now be known as BCDOS (Best CD of Sundance) which is the Crispin Glover spoken word/really freaky weird ass music album. I was and still am at a total loss for words. Anyways. At first, we had planned to drive the whole way to Salt Lake overnight but we totally pussed out, stopping in Cedar City to enjoy what may quite possibly have been The Cheapest Hotel Room Ever In The History Of The World ($32!).

We napped from 6 AM until 11 AM and then got back on the road. We played a few rounds of the Initial Game, which met an untimely end I pissed everyone off with my (aparently too obscure BC (Bud Cort). Once in Salt Lake, we picked up Amanda and Bridget at the airport, had a glorious lunch at NOODLES and then went to Park City to join the wait list line for the opening night film.

The opening night film and our first film of the 2005 Sundance FIlm Festival was Happy Endings, written and directed by Don Roos who also did The Opposite of Sex. Since I love that film, I was really excited about this one.

It definitely did not disappoint. This was one of those movies that goes back and forth in between several different interconnected story lines. There were a few characters that were the same conniving backstabbing yet complex and strangely sympathetic types that he had in Opposite of Sex. Maggie Gyllenhaal played a different character from what she usually plays. Lisa Kudrow was delightful and funny and engaging. I even enjoyed Tom Arnold. The story was told in a unique way, with sidebar text. Hard to explain. But it worked.

If this movie is any indication as to the quality of the rest of the films in the fest, it's going to be an great year.

More later!