Sundance With Dor 2009

The List!

2009-01-26T22:04:00.001-08:00

Here's a list of every movie I saw this year at the festival. The number that follows is how I would rate the movie on a scale of 1 through 5 where 5 is best and 1 is worst.

1. Mary and Max (3)
2. No Impact Man (4)
3. Passing Strange (5)
4. The Missing Person (2)
5. Helen (3)
6. Brooklyn's Finest (3)
7. Amreeka (5)
8. The Greatest (4)
9. 500 Days of Summer (5)
10. Spread (2)
11. Lulu and Jimi (1)
12. Cold Souls (3)
13. Endgame (3)
14. I Love You Phillip Morris (4)
15. Documentary Shorts Program (3)
16. Paper Heart (4)
17. Nollywood Babylon (3)
18. Shouting Fire (4)
19. Why We Laugh (4)
20. World's Greatest Dad (5)
21. The End Of The Line (3)
22. Dare (3)
23. Adam (4)
24. Arlen Faber (3)
25. The Killing Room (3)
26. The Winning Season (5)
27. Zion and his Brother (2)
28. Humpday (5)
29. Shrink (3)
30. Motherhood (1)
31. Peter and Vandy (3)
32. Unmade Beds (4)
33. Art & Copy (4)
34. An Education (4)
35. Prom Night in Mississippi (3)
36. La Mission (5)
37. Dada's Dance (2)
38. Moon (3)
39. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (3)
40. Toe to Toe (5)
41. The Cove (5)
42. Quest for Honor (2)
43. It Might Get Loud (2)
44. The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle (5)
45. Pomegranates and Myrrh (2)
46. The Maid (4)
47. We Live In Public (4)
48. Good Hair (5)

The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

2009-01-26T00:09:00.000-08:00

I would like to take a moment to ask you to remember the name of this movie: The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle

It doesn't have US distribution yet, but once it does, I am confident it will gain a cult following pretty quickly due to how wildly surreal and insane it is.

Please add it to your mental list of movies you'll need to see in the coming year.

You can read more about it here.

Some statistics

2009-01-25T23:13:00.000-08:00

Here is just a little snapshot of our Sundance trip, by numbers.

# of movies seen: 48
# of times i bought popcorn: 0
# of movies we tried but didn't get into: 4
# of sit-down restaurants we ate at: 0
# of veggie sandwiches I ate from Java Cow (venue concessions): like at least 14,000
# of times I fell asleep in a movie: 0
# of starbucks solo espresso shots purchased: 4
# of hours it is taking me to download ten days worth of work emails: 4
# of dollars paid on average per movie ticket: $9.06 (face value was $15!)

Shiri took this photo of snowy trees on Main Street

2009-01-25T23:05:00.000-08:00

Shiri & Matt waiting at the Temple for Little Dizzle to start

2009-01-25T23:01:00.000-08:00

Benjamin Bratt at La Mission screening

2009-01-25T22:59:00.000-08:00

Anthony Edwards with Shiri

2009-01-25T22:58:00.001-08:00

Minnie Driver, Uma Thurman, Anthony Edwards at Motherhood screening

2009-01-25T22:58:00.000-08:00

Kevin Spacey at Shrink screening

2009-01-25T22:57:00.000-08:00

Sam Rockwell at The Winning Seasons screening

2009-01-25T22:54:00.001-08:00

Hugh Dancy at Adam screening

2009-01-25T22:54:00.000-08:00

Peter Gallagher at Adam screening

2009-01-25T22:53:00.000-08:00

Emmy Rossum at Dare premiere

2009-01-25T22:52:00.000-08:00

Sandra Bernard at Dare screening

2009-01-25T22:49:00.000-08:00

Michael Cera at Paper Heart screening

2009-01-25T22:48:00.000-08:00

Snowww

2009-01-25T13:59:00.001-08:00

Chillin

2009-01-24T19:38:00.001-08:00

Six movies today

2009-01-24T12:45:00.000-08:00

We have seen two of the six movies we plan to see today. Barring any ticket/shuttle issues, we should be able to pull this off.

Tonight the awards are announced and I can't wait to find out what won. Will post a link here when it's available.

Favorite film of the fest - THE COVE

2009-01-24T12:42:00.001-08:00

We loved this movie so much. Anyone who is familiar with my experience watching Food Inc in Toronto - very similar reaction here.

The movie is about the annual slaughter of 23,000 dolphins in Taiji Japan. It was stunning, terrifying, devastating, empowering, inspiring, etc.

This film is close to securing distribution so PUT IT ON YOUR RADAR to see it as soon as you possibly can.

Here is a link to some other reviewer's opinion on The Cove.

http://www.bloggingsundance.com/2009/01/24/sundance-review-the-cove/

And here is a link to the film's website. WORTH A VISIT.

http://savejapandolphins.org/

Shiri collects free tix for Toe to Toe

2009-01-23T22:08:00.001-08:00

Dude!

2009-01-23T00:44:00.000-08:00

I just realized we got free tickets to almost every movie today. One show we got a $10 ticket and a freebie. So we spent a total of $5 on tickets today. That's $1.00 per movie.

Crazy!!!

Gotta love the last few days of the fest!

Exhaustion

2009-01-23T00:36:00.001-08:00

Five movies today. Dead tired and have to wake up in five hours.

FML

Nappersons

2009-01-23T00:24:00.000-08:00

Chris Rock

2009-01-22T18:43:00.001-08:00

Unlucky

2009-01-22T12:43:00.001-08:00

Shiri and I are up to our ears in love stories/romantic comedies and we are soooo ready to be done with it! Thank GOD our next film is a doc about advertising.

Later today we are seeing something called Brief Interviews with Hideous Men which should be educational.

We are up to 32 movies now.

Posters

2009-01-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

People taking photos of Kevin Spacey

2009-01-21T17:06:00.000-08:00

Good stufff

2009-01-21T13:10:00.000-08:00

We saw The Winning Season this morning and it was SOOO great! It's by the same director as Grace is Gone and Lonesome Jim. But it's a comedy about an alcoholic busboy misanthrope (Sam Rockwell) who is asked to coach girls basketball at the local high school. The result is a totally non-formulaic sports comedy with some family drama and redemption mixed in for good measure.

And how funny was this - during the final scene, who do me and Shiri spot in the background but a friend of ours from work, JR who does security at OTX screenings. He ended up being in about a million shots and we got a kick out of it. Go JR!

Then we saw an Israeli movie called Zion and His Brothers which wasn't really up my alley but Shiri liked it.

Now we are sitting at the Raquet Club about to see Humpday which is supposed to be awesome.

We probably will only see five movies today. What a bunch of SLACKERS!

Shiri loved this movie

2009-01-21T12:46:00.001-08:00

The Eccles 5 min before morning movie starts, ghost town!

2009-01-21T08:10:00.001-08:00

We did it

2009-01-21T00:49:00.001-08:00

Six movies!!

I did not fall asleep once. And I liked all of them.

Bad news though, we have an 8:30 am movie tomorrow! Shite. And it's
the last screening of a highly anticipated film so I cannot miss it.

--
Sent from my mobile device

I'm not gonna lie...

2009-01-20T22:44:00.001-08:00

We are about to watch our sixth movie and I am dead ass tired.

--
Sent from my mobile device

a Six-er

2009-01-20T18:59:00.000-08:00

We're about to see our fifth film of the day, called Arlen Faber. One more after this - a scary midnight movie. GO US!!!!!

Miracles

2009-01-20T18:56:00.000-08:00

Would you believe the Racquet Club has been actually starting their screenings on time all day long? Crazy shit, man!!

Cause y'all know how much I love fish

2009-01-20T10:31:00.000-08:00

We are about to watch End Of The Line, a doc about bad fishing practices. Should be a scream!

We are still on track to see six today.

I'm enjoying everyone's Facebook updates about the innauguration.

World's Greatest Dad

2009-01-20T09:36:00.001-08:00

We just saw World's Greatest Dad starring Robin Williams. LOVED IT SO MUCH! Super inappropriate subject, wicked evil dialogue, exceppent performances, crazy hilarous and even a little heartwarming. Highly recommended!!!! Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. I think it has surpassed 500 Days of Summer as my current festival favorite.

Doc Day

2009-01-20T00:27:00.000-08:00

Today was a doc day.

We started out with the doc shorts which I believe I mentioned earlier. One was so amazingly fucked up that I literally could not watch it - I covered my face the whole time. It was about a guy who likes to amputate his own fingers and toes. My favorite short of all of them was about John Cazale, who was in five films in his lifetime and all were nominated for best picture. The filmmakers talked to everyone from Al Pacino to Meryl Streep to Francis Ford Coppola and really gave a good wrap up on this guy's talents and impact on Hollywood in his short life.

Then we saw Paper Heart which was all about finding love and if it really exists or not, and it was cute. It was a weird hybrid of documentary plus narrative meant to be passed off as documentary, and that's the only part that was a little bit frustrating. The parts between the two protagonists (who were relatively famous actors, playing themselves) felt unscripted but actually were, which felt like a let-down.

After that was Nollywood Babylon, an examination of the Nigerian film industry which is the third largest in the world. It was a really upbeat and energetic story on a subject about which I knew absolutely nothing, so that made it an ideal film for me. There were about 20 minutes that delved deeply into the religion genre that I could have cut out but ah well.

Next came Shouting Fire - Stories on the Edge of Free Speech. This was another great doc! The director exploited her personal connection to the issue of free speech (her father is or was a lawyer and advocate) and examined three powerful stories.

more about the last movie later.

Dor attempts to acquire the taste of coffee

2009-01-19T19:01:00.001-08:00

Scowl

2009-01-19T17:10:00.001-08:00

We stayed for the Paper Heart Q&A and thus did NOT get into Dare which is a big bummer since I really wanted to see it.

Plan B is a film called Nollywood Babylon, of which I know nothing. Fingers crossed - sometimes those are the best ones. We'll see.

How's everybody's MLK day???

Mark my words

2009-01-19T13:12:00.001-08:00

We will see six movies tomorrow. Come hell or high water!

Mixing it up (and solving an internal dilemma)

2009-01-19T10:29:00.001-08:00

Right now we are about to see some doc shorts. It is important to not see only celebrity-saturated mainstream-ish stuff at festivals, so here we are taking advantage of some programming that won't be at a Landmark-near-you within a few months.

The bummer is that we are at the Holiday which first of all is owned by Cinemark theaters (their CEO supported Prop 8) and second of all, they make amazing popcorn. Many of you know that my love of popcorn and strong desire to consume it daily may even be stronger than my ____ for ____ (guess). So, I will connect the two in my head - I won't eat any popcorn for the dual purpose of ____ as well a not supporting the Cinemark chain.

Problem solved!

Sleepiness

2009-01-18T23:30:00.000-08:00

We are tired! But back in good spirits.

It was a rollercoaster of a day! We saw two movies, and then got turned away from three, which put us in a shit mood. We didn't get into Yes Men Fix The World, An Education or The World's Greatest Dad. Huge let-down! It's the PITS looking for tickets for hours in the cold and snow to no avail. Especially since for one of them, we actually WERE able to find hard tickets but they turned us away at the door because too many people from the cast/crew entourage showed up and they couldn't accommodate all the ticket holders. We were able to get two free tickets apiece for the inconvenience, though, so that's something I guess.

A few things made everything turn around, though, and the first one was how fast we got tickets for I Love You Phillip Morris. Whew!

Now I'll review the movies I haven't reviewed yet.

Cold Souls - A weird existential movie that was not unlike Being John Malkovitch. It starred Paul Giamatti as himself, a tortured actor trying to cope with an internal crisis who turns to a new service called soul storage where they extract your soul and keep it safe for you. of course his goes missing and it all goes on from there.... Eh, it was fine. Had a few funny moments but mostly not something I'll remember for the rest of my life.

Endgame - a dramatic retelling of the informal talks in South Africa that lead up to the abolition of apartheid. Very, very dry. Interesting and good, especially at the end when the pace finally picked up, but there just simply wasn't enough heart in this. Plus in the epilogue they had an improperly placed apostrophe - not cool!

I Love You Phillip Morris - the gay prison comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan Macgregor. This was an interesting one. Too long, first of all. Weird tone, second of all. I really couldn't figure out who the target audience would be for this film. There were simply a few too many Chuck & Larry level jokes (even though it really was just a few) to cater to an exclusive indie or GBLT audience, but it was a little too much for the multiplexes. Performance-wise, I have to say that I forgot almost immediately that I was watching Ewan, he just disappeared in to the role. Jim Carrey, not so much. He was always Jim Carrey. That said, I definitely laughed, and several times.

We have no idea what we're seeing yet tomorrow - time to figure it out!!

Doesn't he look happy to see me from the stage? Sigh

2009-01-18T23:24:00.001-08:00

Jim Carrey

2009-01-18T23:24:00.000-08:00

Ewan again

2009-01-18T23:23:00.001-08:00

Jim Carrey at I Love You Phillip Morris

2009-01-18T23:23:00.000-08:00

Ewan Macgregor

2009-01-18T23:22:00.001-08:00

Johnny Reznik and my friend Cam

2009-01-18T23:22:00.000-08:00

Shiri, Rachael Yamagata and Dor on main street

2009-01-18T23:21:00.000-08:00

Paul Giamatti at Cold Souls Premiere

2009-01-18T23:20:00.000-08:00

Ashton Kutcher at Spread premiere

2009-01-18T23:19:00.001-08:00

Matt, Dor and Shiri - front row of the Eccles

2009-01-18T23:19:00.000-08:00

Zoey

2009-01-18T23:18:00.001-08:00

Zoey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt

2009-01-18T23:18:00.000-08:00

Joseph Gordon-Levitt at 500 Days of Summer premiere

2009-01-18T23:17:00.000-08:00

Pierce Brosnan at The Greatest premiere

2009-01-18T23:16:00.000-08:00

Susan Sarandon at The Greatest premiere

2009-01-18T23:15:00.000-08:00

Jim Carrey

2009-01-18T22:33:00.001-08:00

Ewan

2009-01-18T22:30:00.001-08:00

The Eccles is packed!

2009-01-18T20:24:00.001-08:00

Oh and...

2009-01-18T19:56:00.001-08:00

Earlier today around two I caved, and drank a shot of espresso. It was.... Not as disgusting as I was expecting, and it definitely woke me up. Zinnnnnggg!! Maybe I'll have another one tomorrow.

But I will not get addicted! I guess if I must, I will slowly prepare for an out of town visitor/coffee date in the spring/summer.

Improvements!

2009-01-18T19:48:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a relatively crappy day til this point (ticket struggles that I will detail later) but I think that it's finally coming 'round. We were SO nervous about getting tickets to I Love You Phillip Morris (gay prison comedy starring Jim Carrey and Ewan Macgregor) that we almost didn't want to try. But we just scored THREE tickets about five seconds after we started looking!

GO US - who is better at getting tickets to sold out events than me, Shiri and Matt? And if only we had John and Maria here, we'd be unstoppable!

I will post a review in a few hours.

Thanks for the comments, y'all, keep 'em comin'!

Sundance gripe #1,536

2009-01-18T16:44:00.001-08:00

Bus drivers who stop at unauthorized places on the route, delaying and frustrating me to no end.

Main Street

2009-01-18T15:15:00.001-08:00

Miss

2009-01-18T09:55:00.000-08:00

You win some and you lose some at this festival. This morning, we lost 90 minutes at a heinous pile of dog crap called LuLu and Jimi. No offense to the filmmakers but it is an insult to film in general to even call this a movie. Badness!!!

Giggles

2009-01-18T07:48:00.001-08:00

Shiri just mentioned that there are a lot of mermans in Utah. After I paused for a moment to enjoy that mental picture I offered her a correction: "its MORMONS."

Moderate success

2009-01-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few things I'm doing great at so far:

1) No caffeine. Hi, I usually LIVE on soda at this festival, but since I've cut it out four months ago (and since I'm not a coffee drinker), I'm flying solo these ten days of 5 to 6 hour a night sleeps. I can't speak for the rest of the fest yet but so far I'm feeling good!

2) Not falling asleep during movies. I suppose this is a bit connected to the first but maybe it makes it even more amazing. I haven't fallen asleep or even thought of falling asleep once! Knock on wood since I'm on my way to a 9 AM subtitled feature.

3) Finding a Sundance hoodie. Done and done!

Here's the big fail of the trip:

1) I am NOT drinking enough water. I am so scared I will over-do it and have to pee during the middle of a movie. Failure!!

Saturday Sundancing!

2009-01-17T22:38:00.000-08:00

As previously reported, we did five movies today. Here's what they were:

Brooklyn's Finest - Antoine Fuqua directed cop drama set in the Brooklyn projects. Starring Wesley Snipes, Ethan Hawke, Don Cheadle, and Richard Gere as cops and bad guys with varied degress of rightness/wrongness. It was dark and unsettling and not bad at all.

Amreeka - GREAT MOVIE! I already posted about it.

The Greatest - the tale of a grieving family. Great performance by Susan Sarandon. Not as great performance by Pierce Brosnan. It was a good movie, but I felt like I'd seen it a few times before.

500 Days of Summer - Absolutely the favorite so far. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zoey Deschanel (playing Zoey Deschanel basically). Really interesting narrative devices. This movie will do *VERY* *VERY* well in theaters!

Spread - starring Ashton Kutcher as a hustling LA actor guy. Pretty vapid but entertaining. Wicked mainstream. Surprising (but not really) to see this at Sundance.

We don't quite know yet what tomorrow will bring.

Five-movie day

2009-01-17T22:11:00.000-08:00

We caught just five today. Not too bad I guess. More later!

Matt and Dor wait for Spread to start

2009-01-17T20:06:00.000-08:00

500 Days of Summer....

2009-01-17T19:28:00.001-08:00

Is our favorite movie so far!!!! So quirky, cute, fun, sweet, original...

Eccles

2009-01-17T13:30:00.001-08:00

Amreeka

2009-01-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

We just finished watching Amreeka, which is in the dramatic competition. It is about a mother and son from the West Bank who emmigrate to the US.

Besides having a heartwarming story, the performances blew me out of the water. Gran Torino, this is how its done, take note Eastwood!

It seems to be getting a very good audience response too so that's great.

Omg.

2009-01-17T10:32:00.001-08:00

I am so over people asking stupid, innane questions during the Q and A. Wtf is wrong with people?

Anybody got good stories of stuuupid questions you've heard asked in movie Q and As?

Dor is cold while waiting for the bus

2009-01-17T07:02:00.000-08:00

Shir

2009-01-17T07:00:00.000-08:00

Dor, Rachel Dratch, Parker Posey

2009-01-17T06:57:00.000-08:00

Shiri and Goran

2009-01-17T06:56:00.000-08:00

Goran Visijnic

2009-01-17T06:54:00.000-08:00

Ashley Judd

2009-01-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

Cast of Passing Strange

2009-01-17T06:51:00.000-08:00

Spike Lee

2009-01-17T06:48:00.000-08:00

Robert Redford

2009-01-17T06:47:00.000-08:00

Two more reviews

2009-01-16T23:39:00.001-08:00

We saw two since I last wrote.

Missing Person starrs Michael Shannon in a noir tale of a private investigator trailing some guy fopr a mystery boss he has never met. The plot thickens when we realize his person ties to the saga. For me this wasn't a great piece. Highly stylized for what felt like no story-driven reason. But Shiri liked it.

Then we went to Helen, starring Ashley Judd and Goran Visijnic. Basically a portrait of a severely depressed woman. Outstanding film! Very slow and sad, but great.

Then we failed to get into Spring Breakdown. Boo! We will try for five tomorrow.

Ashley Judd

2009-01-16T22:00:00.001-08:00

Passing Strange

2009-01-16T16:57:00.001-08:00

We loved the filmed version of the broadway musical Passing Strange!

The sheer fact that they used 14 cameras and you never saw one even for a second made this a great movie. The high energy and emotion of the cast was icing on the cake. Seeing the material for a second time and in this different medium allowed me to focus more on the meaning of the story and lyrics rather than the incredible production itself.

Now we are about to see The Missing Person, our first live action narrative feature of the fest. After this, two more movies, and then sleeeeep!

Spike Lee!

2009-01-16T13:41:00.001-08:00

We got into Passing Strange

2009-01-16T13:30:00.001-08:00

It wasn't too hard to find two tickets. Now we are about to watch the Spike Lee-directed theatrical production of one of my favorite Broadway shows of the past year. Yesssss!

Workin it

2009-01-16T12:47:00.001-08:00

No Impact Man

2009-01-16T12:18:00.001-08:00

I really loved it! It was hilarious and inspirational!

This family lived for one year without impact. They gave up non-local foods, electricity, carbon-emitting transportation (subways, planes, elevators), etc.

I loved seeing this story against an NYC backdrop - they did such a good job of pointing out the contrast of No Impact Man's project against the vapid consumerism of the big city, without demonizing it.

I also loved how the film was environmentally-centered without preaching or spewing the same statistics you see regularly in these types of films. The movie never talked-down to the audience which I also loved.

They didn't treat this guy like a hero or like he was fault-less. I enjoyed that the film explored the paradox of his wife's job ay Business Week. And I liked that it addressed the philosophy of it all too.

Good stuff! Recommended!!!

Excuse any typos since I'm on Blackberry now!

Fyi

2009-01-16T10:22:00.001-08:00

I am not ashamed to admit I am feeling totally holier-than-thou with my Kor reusable hydration vessel surrounded my filmgoers drinking from plastic bottles, about to see an environmental picture about leaving no trace.

I rule! Nyah nyah.

(But I have a feeling the movie is gonna kick my ass in terms of all the other ways I am not doing so great)

Success

2009-01-16T10:19:00.001-08:00

We just got two tickets to No Impact Man at the library. One free, one face.

Inside the theater it is only 60 or 70% full which is weird for opening weekend but I am sure it will pick up tonight and tomorrow.

They are scanning tickets on entry (but not re-entry) for those of you who are interested in that sort of thing.

We got a ton of sleep last night so we are in good spirits. But with a midnight movie tonight and a movie at 9am tomorrow, that should change pretty fast!

Shiri explores the festival's uber independent roots by enjoying a free drink from a sponsor

2009-01-16T10:16:00.001-08:00

Lunch for later

2009-01-16T09:19:00.001-08:00

Half a hunnus sandwich, carrots, grapes, red peppers!

Let your voice be heard

2009-01-15T21:40:00.003-08:00

I've changed the comment rules so that now anybody can comment. That means you.

What we're planning on seeing tomorrow

2009-01-15T21:28:00.001-08:00

Here's what we're going to try to see tomorrow, the first REAL day of the festival.

No Impact Man

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1280011/

Passing Strange <--- I'm super excited about this one! A doc directed by Spike Lee about the broadway show of the same name (which I loved)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259583/

The Missing Person

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1105512/

Helen

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1012729/

Spring Breakdown

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814331/

Not enough here for you yet?

2009-01-15T21:24:00.000-08:00

Feel free to browse my blogs from Sundances past...

2008 blog
2007 blog
2006 blog
2005 blog

I can't promise I wasn't a huge dork -- in fact I still may be.

Mary and Max

2009-01-15T19:13:00.001-08:00

The opening film of the fest is Mary and Max, an animated film about two lonely penpals, a world away from one another.

The film was sweet and quirky. There were some funny moments, and I think technically speaking it was VERY well done. But I'm afraid to say I was a bit bored. They could cut a good 20 minutes out at least.

We found tickets to the opening night film....

2009-01-15T16:44:00.001-08:00

And I bought a really dry and boring veggie sandwich from Subway. Not much else to report!

We've arrived!

2009-01-15T15:46:00.000-08:00

We just got into Park City and checked into our favorite hotel, the Park Recency.

The opening film is called Mary and Max, which is an animated movie from Australia and we are super psyched since we loved the short film made by the same people called Harvie Krumpet.

Right now, we're just hanging out at the hotel room watching the news about the NYC plane crash this morning, being amazed and glad everybody's okay there.

Shiri and I made the mistake of staying awake all night last night (well, I had a brilliant reason at least) but that means we're wicked tired now. Hopefully we'll get to bed right after the movie tonight since tomorrow the insanity begins!