Sundance is over, and it’s kind of a kick in the butt to get back into reality. I loved this false world I was living in, at the same time that it was real life. It was one man’s livelyhood on the line for his film, and another woman’s family backing her entire production costs. Real life and great worlds blended together to create a phenominal experience, and I want to share it with you now.

Friday Jan 16th

“Before Tomorrow” Sundance

Probably one of the most amazing films I have ever seen, it told the story of a family, and later a grandson and his grandmother. It definitely was amazing as my first film, and so beautifully shot. It had me and my seat neighbors in tears at the finale. (more…)

My ten day stay in Park City was an experience I won’t soon forget. Though I have no other winter terms to compare it to - yes, God help me I’m a freshman - it was the perfect blend of an exciting and relaxing trip. I dedicated myself to doing nothing but movie hopping, and the result was a (to me) staggering 25 films viewed during the trip. Thinking them all over there were definite front runners. Movies that resounded to me as a viewer for their original plot lines, jokes, filmmaking and informative q and a. For my own amusement, I tried to rate my 25 films from favorite to least, for there were also some movies that completely missed the mark! (more…)

This Is Her

At Sundance we all willingly pay a jacked up priced to sit in the theater and watch innovative new cinema, but what about the sixth finger, the extra nipple, if you will, that comes along with the film we paid for? Ah yes, you know what I’m referring too, the short film preceding the feature that often leaves me saying, “um…ok, now play the movie.”  I have seen more short films in the past seven days then ever in my life, so I now feel I have some sort of reference point when it comes to judging what I mostly consider little nuggets of uselessness.

Ok, so that may be harsh, I have in fact seen some shorts that I liked as much as a feature, or in one case even more then the main film that came after, but there does seem to be a theme of the shorts being more personal then relatable to the audience. I was constantly frustrated by watching shorts programs because, for most films, I felt empty and slightly peeved after they ended, and for the ones I really enjoyed I just wanted them to continue. I wanted the characters to be developed instead of just revealing a glimpse and then rolling credits. For instance in shorts program five I was very intrigued by the little boy who was obsessed with rabbits in Netherland Dwarf, but I still felt slightly uneasy when the film ended because my time with the character was cut short.

Many shorts I saw felt completely indulgent on the part of the creatures. For instance Horsefinger3: Starfucker, the short before Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, was ten or so minutes of stupidity where an actor gets turned on by a girl wearing huge horse hooves on her arms. She dresses him in a porky-pine outfit was they have sex and then finds that he has fur under his skin. In my opinion a silly little film such as this just wastes time. But there are always those who think it is absolute brilliance so its objective I guess. (more…)

After a mind-numbing movie (Cold Souls, incidentally) I was ready for the lighthearted pseudo-documentary Paper Heart to help me remember why documentary film is so important. Paper Heart follows Charlyne Yi, a stand up comedian and musician who doesn’t believe that she can fall in love. She travels across the country interviewing people about their thoughts on love while she forms her own opinion. In the process of the documentary she herself experiences a surprising twist in her love life when boy heartthrob Michael Cera shows a romantic interest. This particular movie experience was unique in that I was one hundred percent enthralled by the movie.  I absolutely loved it, until the question and answer period. I felt like a little girl at a magic show who is suddenly shocked by the curtain being removed and the trick being proved as a fraud. But the movie, independent of the director’s comments, was one of the best I’ve seen while at Sundance.

Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera

When I believed Paper Heart was purely a documentary, there were so many wonderful, unique, believable aspects of the film. The whole audience was engaged; I have never heard such raucous laugher throughout the whole thousand-plus crowd, you really fell in love with this awkward, quirky tomboy in her quest for answers. There was a very natural, behind the scenes feeling to Paper Heart, often throughout the film it would show the sound and camera equipment. In the romantic scenes with Michael Cera it would sometimes pan over to the director and crew sitting near by which made the film all the more relatable and interesting.

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