' ' Cinema Romantico: If I Were At Sundance....

Thursday, January 17, 2008

If I Were At Sundance....

Tomorrow the eyes of the cinematic nation turn toward the ski resort of Park City, Utah where thousands upon thousands will arrive to spend several days doing nothing but seeing movies and drinking coffee to stay awake and then seeing more movies. I will not be the among thousands. Why? 1.) That's a lot of people and that many people may cause me to freak out to a level no one has yet seen from me - in public, anyway. 2.) I have - for lack of a better term - a job.

Oh, but if I was there....a man can dream, can't he? I would not merely spend my days trying to catch a glimpse of Sienna Miller (who will be on hand for her latest film "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh") smoking or drinking or drinking coffee or swearing or preferably all four at the same time. No, I'd be seeing as many movies as humanly possible. And these are the ones I'd see (each synopsis is culled from the Sundance.org)....

Pretty Bird - A comic tale of three would-be entrepreneurs who set out to invent a rocket belt. It was written & directed by Paul Schneider who is quickly turning into one of my favorite character actors and so I'm interested to see what he can do from behind the scenes. Plus, it stars Billy Crudup. So it's a given.

Sunshine Cleaning - Struck by financial hardship, an ambitious mother and her unmotivated sister become entrepreneurs in the field of biohazard removal and crime scene clean-up. It stars Amy Adams ("Junebug", "Enchanted") and from what I've heard her performance is supposed to be spectacular.

Sugar - Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who last teamed up for "Half Nelson", chronicle the journey of Dominican baseball star Miguel "Sugar" Santos recruited from his native country to play in the U.S. minor leagues. Sounds pretty cool, no?

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Based on Michael Chabon's novel, the film chronicles the defining summer of a recent college graduate who crosses his gangster father and explores love, sexuality, and the enigmas surrounding his life and his city. So what if it stars Sienna Miller? Even if she wasn't present I'd still want to see it, maybe just not quite as much. Sue me.

The Last Word - An off-beat romantic comedy about a solitary writer who makes his living composing other people's suicide notes. After meeting the sister of a recently deceased client, he finds his reclusive life and secret career upended by an unusual romance. It stars Winona Ryder, Wes Bentley and....Ray Romano??

Absurdistan - This inventive and allegorical comedy centers on two childhood sweethearts who seem destined for one another until the women of their isolated village, angered by male indifference toward the water shortage, go on a sex strike that threatens the young couple's first night of love. Come on, after reading what it's about don't even try and tell me you don't want to see it, too.

2 comments:

Wretched Genius said...

The Last Word was originally written by the son of a Des Moines real estate agent that works in my company. The son's friend asked to read the script. A while later, the friend announced that he had sold a script and was going into production. Guess which one? The son was furious, but since he had never officially submitted a draft anywhere, he had no proof that the script was his. The friend offered the son a $50,000 payoff, but the son refused out of principle. The last I heard of it, the son was still trying to find a way to bring about a lawsuit.

So if you see this and enjoy it, just remember it's a stolen script.

Anonymous said...

Oh, dear God. That's awful. Scratch that one off the list.

And excuse me while I go and register every single script I've ever written with WGA.