Sundance with Dor & Shiri 2007

Waiting in the ticketholder line - yay!

2008-01-17T20:40:00.001-07:00

The Big List

2007-01-29T19:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of every film we saw this year.

1 Chicago 10
2 Strange Culture
3 Expired
4 Delirious
5 The Savages
6 Rocket Science
7 Broken English
8 Slipstream
9 Reprise
10 Snow Angels
11 Teeth
12 Adrift in Manhattan
13 Starting Out in the Evening
14 Save Me
15 Interview
16 The Good Life
17 Dedication
18 Hounddog
19 On the Road with Judas
20 Grace is Gone
21 Zoo
22 Four Sheets to the Wind
23 Dark Matter
24 Summer Rain
25 Never Forever
26 If I'd Known I Was a Genius
27 Angel-A
28 Once
29 Fido
30 Girl 27
31 For the Bible Tells Me So
32 The Good Night
33 Chapter 27
34 The Go-Getter
35 Banished
36 Sweet Mud
37 La Misma Luna
38 The Signal
39 Waitress
40 Life Support
41 The Ten
42 Hot House
43 Joshua
44 Hear and Now

OF THESE 44, here are the BEST! That is, the ones both Shiri and I rated a 5 (out of 5):

Delirious
Rocket Science
Teeth
Starting Out in the Evening
The Good Life
Dedication
Hounddog
Grace is Gone
Once
Girl 27
For the Bible Tells Me So
Hear and Now

The last ones

2007-01-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

Here are the rest of our Sundance reviews – six more!

Waitress – WHEW, what a hard movie to get into! It initially had only two Park City screenings and we missed them both, so we were ecstatic to hear they added a screening of it later in the week. The film was really cute. Keri Russell plays a southern waitress unhappily pregnant by her jerk of a husband (Jeremy Sisto). But, the girl’s got a hottie obstetrician and a heart full of dreams….

Life Support stars Queen Latifah and will air on HBO sometime soon. It’s the true story of a Brooklyn woman living with AIDS and the good work she does in her community as well as the impact the disease has on her already taxed family. It was okay. Kind of long and not super fast moving, but the performances were great.

The Ten – we got in! It was showing at the Holiday, which is the smallest theater (150) seats). But Matt and Tim helped us find tickets, so we finally got to see it after failing in our attempts to attend the premiere earlier in the fest. The movie was pretty dumb. Huge cast, but eh – just silly. I guess that was the point? It was very random, which I did appreciate. But, eh.

On the last day of the festival, they play primarily the award winners, which are announced on Saturday night. Surprisingly enough, after seeing over 40 movies, we still hadn’t seen many of the films that were singled out by the Sundance jury. So, we were lucky enough to check out the following films yesterday (the last day of the fest):

Hot House – This is a documentary that stepped into the prisons in Israel that house Palestinian terrorists. Wow – this was scary stuff. It was also pretty well done in that the film didn’t take a huge stance on either side. There were some pretty militant people in there, and I was happy to learn even more about what’s going on there.

Joshua – Holy Creepy movie!!! This was about a wealthy Manhattan couple whose lives began to unravel, seemingly at the hands of their twisted, evil 9 year old son. The score was so effective for this one. Freeeaky. Another film that reminded me why Vera Farmiga is a force to be reckoned with.

Hear and Now – this one won the Audience Award for Documentary. And for good reason! It follows director Irene Taylor-Brodsky’s hearing-impaired parents as they make the decision at 65 years of age to get cochlear implants which may give them the ability to hear after spending their lives in silence. Shiri says it’s her favorite of the festival. I agreed that it was quite moving and beautifully made. It will air on HBO in 2008 so make a mental note to catch it in a year or so.

How we got in to 44 movies

2007-01-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Park City hospitality

2007-01-29T16:12:00.000-07:00

We beg differ

2007-01-29T16:04:00.000-07:00

Lazy day

2007-01-27T12:46:00.000-07:00

I think we're only going to see three or four movies today. For shame!

We slept in today, which is probably a good thing since we want to avoid napping in films and have successfully done so thus far.

Last night we saw a freaking SCARY movie, The Signal. Wow! Horror movies and Dor usually do not mix. But as one would expect, I became desensitized to the violence about 10 minutes into it, and was able to just enjoy myself. You'll definitely be hearing about this film sometime this year. Wowwww. And it was funny, too!

The next one we're seeing is Waitress, starring Jeremy Sisto and Kerry Rossell, directed by Adrienne Shlley, the indie filmmaker who was found murdered a couple months ago in her West Village apartment. Yikes.

The cleaning and packing process has begun. Very excited to start going home already.

Penultimate

2007-01-26T23:39:00.000-07:00

It's the end of the second to last real day of Sundance. Tomorrow is Saturday, and then Sunday they just screen the award winners.

We are about to see our fifth film of the day.

This morning began with a delightful road movie called The Go-Getter, starring Lou Pucci (Thumbsucker), Zooey Deschanel and Jena Malone. Hilarious script, complex characters, etc. Loved, loved, loved it. It's about a teenage boy who steals a car to drive cross country to tell his estranged brother that their mom is dead. Superbbbbb.

After that, we stayed at the Library for a documentary called Banished, about the racial cleansing that occurred in the deep south in the early 1900's when blacks were driven out of their communities in droves, and the issue of repairation. I thought it was good. Shiri wasn't convinced.

The 5:30 timeslot brought us to Sweet Mud, an Israeli film about a young boy living on kibbutz dealing with his mentally troubled mom. Very good, and of course Shiri enjoyed the whole experience a great deal.

After that, we made our way over to the Prospector for La Misma Luna, a Mexican film about the human side of illegal immigraion. I fell in love with the 9 year old boy in the film who risks his life to reunite himself with his mother who has been working across the border in the US. This one was purchased very early on in the fest, and for good reason. It's soooooooo good, and sweet. A little sentimental, but all of the positives weigh out that one kind of negative.

Now we're waiting at the Egyptian to see The Signal. Aint It Cool News calls it "the discovery of the festival," so for that reason I am excited. But, I'm nervous since it's a horror movie and I'm not too big on gore. We shall see.

Tomorrow we will probably see four movies, or maybe five, if we can get into The Ten at the Holiday (yeah right).

Now I will sip my Mountain Dew and hope not to fall asleep during the film (soooo tired).

Markus Redmond of If I Had Known I Was a Genius

2007-01-26T14:10:00.000-07:00

Jared Leto at Chapter 27 Q & A

2007-01-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

Danny DeVito at the good night Q & A

2007-01-26T13:59:00.000-07:00

Gwyneth Paltrow at the good night Q & A

2007-01-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

Glenn from the Frames at the Q&A for Once

2007-01-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Day Eight

2007-01-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

Some interesting facts about our experience the festival so far:

1. We have not fallen asleep in even one film yet - has to be a record!
2. We've only eaten two meals out - the rest we've had at the condo or packed and brought with us (yay)
3. There have only been two films we have not gotten into so far (Joshua and The Ten)
4. We've seen all the Dramatic competition except for 4 films
5. We have seen 32 films so far. If we see five today, five tomorrow and four on Sunday, that will bring us up to 46 - woo!

We're currently at the Library about to see The Go-Getter, which is Matt's favorite film so far, so hopefully we're in for a treat.

The celebrities are dwindling since it's the end of the fest, so we won't have too many more photo updates.

It feels like we've been here a month. We love it but it will be so nice to be home. Also, at $15 a ticket this year (ugh), I am now pretty damned broke! Boo.

Take a sad song and make it better

2007-01-25T23:19:00.001-07:00

We just watched Chapter 27, the film that chronicles Mark David Chapman's three days leading up until the point that he killed John Lennon.

The film was pretty pointless, but the performance was remarkable.

The Q and A is interesting. I don't think the film was well-received. It was controversial and not supported by Yoko Ono and they are kind of skirting around that issue. And people keep shouting out questions and being confrontational.

Yeah, the film was pretty worthless except Jared Leto's acting, and the Q and A was horrible and awkward. Ugh.

SLACKING!

2007-01-25T20:59:00.000-07:00

Okay, I realize we are behind in blogging.

Give me some credit - we are exhausted! 31 films so far, and we'll hopefully see six tomorrow.

Last night brought us to Fido, a midnight screening of a zombie comedy. Shiri didn't care for it but I laughed regularly. Carrie-Ann Moss was dead on as the perfect charicature of a a '50's wife/mother.

This morning, we could NOT wake up! So we slept in until 10 AM (slackers) and then went to see Girl 27, a doc about a young actress who was raped at an MGM party in the 1930's, and the total cover-up that followed. WE LOVED THIS - really powerful and disturbing. I hope it comes out. Great footage.

Next, we saw what may have been the best film of the festival - For the Bible Tells Me So, a documentary examining religion and homosexuality. There was not a dry eye in the house. It profiled about five different families whose lives have been affected by the clash between Christianity and their gay loved ones. Wow, Wow, Wow. Tears. The director was SO well spoken and many of the subjects were there. Amazing.

After that, we saw a crappy movie directed by Gwyneth Paltrow's brother called The Good Night. What was the point? I don't rightly know.

We know we suck for not labeling our celebrity photos. We'll get around to it soon.

A movie so nice I could see it twice

2007-01-24T22:57:00.001-07:00

It's screenings like this that remind me of why I love Sundance.

We saw a BEAUTIFUL film called once, starring the frontman for The Frames. It was basically a musical with the most gorgeous soundtrack. It was about a lonely busker in Dublin who meets a girl who also makes beautiful music.

The Q and A ruled so amazingly hardcore. They did a full question and answer session and THEN they played two songs from the film on acoustic guitar. I loved it so much.

Now we are headed up to Main St again to see if we can get into a midnight screeening of Fido.

Slacker

2007-01-24T20:34:00.001-07:00

-----Original Message-----
From: Dorothy Dotson
To: 'hantenhoney.sundance@blogger.com' <hantenhoney.sundance@blogger.com>
Sent: Wed Jan 24 15:56:09 2007
Subject: Slacker

I have been a big slacker. Not in movie-going but blogging.

Let's get caught up. Last night saw Shiri and I attending two mediocre screenings.

Dark Matter starred Meryl Streep (not in attendance) and Aidan Quinn and I did not particularly care for it. The plot involved a Chinese exchange student going for his PHD iin cosmology, going head to head with his advisor and struggling to prove himself and make his parents proud. MEH

Summer Rain, directed by a very long-winded Antonio Banderas, was touted by him to be more poem than prose. According to him, it lived in "dreams and memories" and in that way, it worked. And although it had gorgeous actors and steamy sex scenes, the movie was too long and the story was difficult to follow.

This morning, we began with Never Forever, a drama about reclaiming one's sense of self, which starred Vera Farmiga as a white woman who enlists the help of a Korean illegal immigrant in order to get pregnant after she learns her husband is impotent. We liked this one a lot!

Next, a movie break for a few hours. Whew!! We trekked up to Main Street to claim some lame goodies from the Airborne lounge. Plus, we laughed at the gaggle of paparazzi waiting for Gwyneth Paltrow, and then later couldn't resist the urge to snap a photo of her when she crossed our path.

Now we are on the shuttle headed to the Prospector where we will try to see the new Luc Besson. We just got out of an autobiographical comedy about a black guy struggling to make it as an actor called If I Had Known I Was A Genious. Light-hearted and cute. A nice break from the wrist-slashing heavy melodramas we have been subjected to all week!

Meet Skippy - WA-HOW..

2007-01-24T17:18:00.000-07:00

Mian Street Sightings

2007-01-24T14:36:00.001-07:00

Antonio Banderas at Summer Rain Q&A

2007-01-24T14:34:00.001-07:00

John Cusack at Grace is Gone Q&A

2007-01-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

2007-01-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

2007-01-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

2007-01-23T19:49:00.000-07:00

2007-01-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

Over halfway done

2007-01-23T14:27:00.001-07:00

Would you believe it is day six? We are about to see our twenty first film? Not too bad.

Shiri is currently making fun of me because she says I move my lips silently to the words that I am typing. I hotly contest this assertment, but she swears.

We have seen some stellar works of cinema since I last wrote.

Hounddog was utterly remarkable! Starring Dakota Fanning who I normally don't love but whose performance was staggering, and the equally impressive Robin Wright Penn the film follows a charismatic young girl's tumultuous childhood in the south. WOW - it was a moving and beautiful film that I strongly believe will be recognized next award season.

After that we saw the bland and forgettable On the Road With Judas. Not even worth reviewing here.

This morning our first film was Grace Is Gone, starring John Cusack as a father of two struggling how to tell his girls that their mother has just been killed in the line of duty in Iraq. Holy crap, awesome film. At the Q and A, John talked a lot about how even though he has very strong political beliefs, he wants the film to stand alone as a story about grief, and the sacrifices families of the troops must endure.

I predict Grace is Gone or Hounddog will win the Grand Jury prize.

Oh I forgot to mention that the PR person for RAINN was part of the Hounddog Q and A, and they had the hotline number in the end credits, which is great case I was thinking about that throughout the film.

Now we are about to watch Zoo at the library. Shiri is uploading pics as I type this.

We miss NYC.

2007-01-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

2007-01-23T14:20:00.000-07:00

Falling behind!

2007-01-22T20:33:00.001-07:00

I am crap at blogging today!

I will make a general statement. I was expecting a low-key, slow year for film here, but we have yet to see a bad flick! Everything has been good or great. I haven't been totally blown away yet, but I have been seriously thrilled by jusy about everything.

This morning, we slept in until ten thirty, woo! Shiri made eggs and then we dashed over to the Eccles for a somber film called The Good Life. Mark Webber and Chris Klein gave the stand out performances in this poetic piece about a small town boy's struggles with his family. Very typical Sundance movie.

Then we saw Dedication, starring Billy Crudup (swoooon) and Mandy Moore. FUNNY STUFF! A bit formulaic in the ending but a very fun ride. Quirky.

Now we are sitting down waiting for Hounddog to start. This is the controversial film that stars Dakota Fanning as a child abuse victim.

2007-01-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

2007-01-22T18:52:00.000-07:00

The Interview

2007-01-22T01:09:00.001-07:00

Just finished watching the Steve Buscemi film The Interview which is basically a ninety minute conversation between a journalist (Buscemi) and an actress (Sienna Miller). I thought it was going to be kind of like My Dinner With Andre which I didn't like, but this one was much better. More action. And dayam, that Sienna Miller is gorgeous!

Oh, and before the movie when we were asking for extra tickets, Sienna Miller walked up to Shiri and was like "are you looking for tickets for Interview? Wait here and I will try to hook you up." But then someone cam ewith another pair and the show was about to start so we bought them and went in.

So sleepy. Worried about waking up tomorrow.

Sunday's Fourth and Fifth Films

2007-01-21T22:56:00.001-07:00

Sleeeeeeeeepy.

The Lili movie, Starting Out in the Evening, was GREAT! She was awesome and not her typical gay or weird character. Frank Langella was also great, as an accomplished author in his golden years as he contronts a daughter whose clock is ticking and a young grad student doing her master thesis on his work.

The next film, Save Me, tenderly dealt with the issues of homosexuality, Christianity and rehabilitation. It featured a stellar performance by Judith Light as the leader of a Christian rehab house for men who are "sexually broken." I have not seen so many crying fags since the last show of Tori tour. I found a few flaws with the film but it was hard to fault such a sweet and socially concious premise.

We have done well with tickets today. We have gotten into everything we wanted to see. I think for our potential sixth film of the day, however, we may fail. We shall see.

Adrift in Park City

2007-01-21T16:19:00.001-07:00

We just saw one of the best of the fest, I'd imagine.

Adrift in Manhattan, starring Heather Graham and Victor Rasuk (of Raising Victor Vargas) starred in this somber portrait of three troubled New Yorkers. I just loved it. Today is a great day for movies.

And the next one stars Lili Taylor! Woo.

Sunday morning

2007-01-21T13:47:00.001-07:00

We started the day out with Snow Angels, a powerful drama from the director of All the Real Girls. It featured the best performance I have seen yet this year, by Sam Rockwell.

We have just finished watching Teeth, one of the boldest and most fucked up movies I have ever seen. It was disturbing and graphic, but in a very, very funny way. I won't spoil it by mentioning the plot, but let's just say it's something you have never seen before at the movies. Absolutely incredible. The Sundance programmer who introduced it said it could have easily been a midnight screening but he just kept picturing it playing to a sold out crowd at the Eccles. WOWOWOW. I hope this comes out.

The Latest

2007-01-21T11:47:00.001-07:00

We are exhausted! I will try to catch up.

We saw the Anthony Hopkins movie. He was in attendance of course, which ruled. The film itself was super trippy. Kind of like Mulholland Drive meets The Wizard of Oz meets some weird wacky experimental short. But GOOD! Weeeeird. The Q and A was one of the most enjoyable in Sundance History, for me. He talked about how he basically wrote it as a creative joke and never thought it would even get made. He mentioned he wanted to break the rules. "What do you mean we can't edit like that? Who says? SAYS WHO?" He was incredibly charismatic and well-spoken.

Next, we tried and failed to get into Joshua at the Raquet Club. Soooo freezing cold out at that point. We hauled our defeated selves back home and made a pizza.

We had planned to try and see the new Araki, Smiley Face, but Tim told us that two and a half hours before show time, they had already given out 200 waitlist numbers. We did not want a repeat of the night before (The Ten) so we changed our minds and decided to see something we'd definitely get into.

So, tha made our last film of the day a Norwegian flick called Reprise, about two lifelong friends in their twenties - writers who are struggling with their place in the literary world and the social sphere - friends, lovers, and even their own sanity. Pretty good stuff.

And more...

2007-01-20T22:47:00.000-07:00

Dorkiness

2007-01-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

Back on the shuttle

2007-01-20T13:50:00.001-07:00

We spent the early afternoon on Main Street. We first stopped by the box office where we complained (nicely) about the fact that we had hard tickets for The Ten last night and still did not get in. They had already heard about the issue and they gave us FOUR free tickets! We picked a pair foe Broken English and a pair for Slipstream, the Anthony Hopkins directed flick that he also wrote and starred in. SWEEEET!

Then we just wandered. We stopped and ate sandwiches on a bench, and visited all the lounges to pick up free junk. We now have armfulls but no idea when we can bring this junk back to our place.

We are still planning on updating with photos as soon as humanly possible.

Next year: VIP! Ha

2007-01-20T11:20:00.000-07:00

Apparantly someone is making a film about the Sundance experience. A big film crew approached me today before the Rocket Science screening and wanted to interview me on camera. Being a total ham, I was like "um, yeah!" So they asked me questions for five minutes or so about my thoughts on the festival - is it still really indie? What do I do for a living, and then a lot about the philosophy of the test screening process. Then they gave me a free ticket to the next film and said they wanted to interview me again because I was the most intelligent subject they had talked to so far. Ha! Good thing I put on makeup this morning.

Shiri is tired. I chugged a diet Mountain Dew at 9 am so I am goin' strong. We are on the bus headed for main street now to kill a few hours before we go to the Raquet Club for... I forget which movie. Oh, Broken English. More later!

2007-01-20T11:07:00.001-07:00

On the shuttle now, sitting next to Kirby Dick, director of Twist of Faith and This Film Is Not Yet Rated, docs from the last few Sundace fests, both highly recommended by me and Shiri.

Rocket Science

2007-01-20T10:53:00.001-07:00

We just saw our first film in the dramatic competition, Rocket Science. No recognizable names but you may remember the female lead, Anna Kendrick, as the scene-stealing young star of Camp. Rocket Science was a coming of age story about a stuttering teenage boy and his debate team aspirations.

There are so many quirky characters and funny moments. I would compare this to Thumbsucker meets Election. And almost as good! The movie strayed from any traditional formula. I would give this four out of five stars.

We are going to try and upload some photos soon: there are many.

Success?

2007-01-20T02:32:00.001-07:00

We waited around during the screening of The Ten even though we did not get in. We spoke to volunteers and theater staff who informed us that the entourage (director, cast, crew, etc) was supposed to be 60 but 108 ended up showing up. So we hung out hoping to see the Q and A at least and the staff kindly accommodated that request.

After the Q and A I was able to speak with Winona Ryder. She was incredibly sweet! Her eyes lit up and she said "oh my god how are you!!" And later she came back over to tell me she still listens to the Tori CD I made for her three years ago. She kept saying "it's so nice to see you!" She looked good.

We also met Gretchen Mol, Justin Thoreaux and Paul Rudd and I exchanged witty banter for a few minutes.

Photos to follow. Any text-only entry was posted from my Blackberry which is unable to upload photos from Shiri's camera of course.

Failure

2007-01-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

We tried and failed to get into a film tonight called The Ten. We did absolutely everything we could possibly do, and more. There were actually about 75 people with hard tickets that didn't get in, because the entourage was humongous. Bummer! Shiri is still thawing out. We stood outside for so long looking for tickets!

Well, you win some, you lose some.

The entire cast is here, though. We asked a heavily-bearded Paul Rudd for an extra ticket. We didn't realize it was him until after he passed although Shiri did blurt out "hey, I know you." Then she was like "ohhhhhhh." We just saw him in Toronto, but I forget the name of the film he was in. It was good.

So, in total we saw four films today. We are aiming for five tomorrow, but we have no tickets. So, it's anyone's guess.

Bonus - rumor has it a wireless card will be fedexed to me today. Because Julio rules.

The Savages

2007-01-19T20:24:00.001-07:00

We will have some good photos later of Q&A from The Savages. The movie itself was fine. Won't change my life but it had its moments as Shiri said.

Our next film is The Ten at the library at midnight. Now we will wander main street. I think Erin is here somewhere

I miss Audrey and Shaggy.

The day progresses

2007-01-19T18:18:00.001-07:00

We just finished our third film of the day. After Strange Culture we saw Expired, starring Samantha Morton and Jason Patric. Not bad, not great. Matt and Shiri liked it a lot but it seemed pointlessly depressing to me, although Samantha Morton was awesome as usual.

Next we saw Delirious, a fun, kinda not indie movie starring Michael Pitt, Steve Buscemi (brilliant in this), Gina Gershon and Alison Lohman. It was funny and really entertaining. It was about a homeless guy who befriends a paparazzo and then falls in love with a big popstar. It centers around the kid's relationship with his friend and deals with themes of fame and family and more. Highly recommended.

Now wee about to see The Savages. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is two rows behind me.

Second Film

2007-01-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

We just finished watching our second film, also a documentary that blended innovative methods of telling the story.

This one is called Strange Culture, and it was a scary and moving tale of an artist who, following the unexpected death of his wife (heart failure in her sleep), was indicted by the federal government and is facing a potential 20 years in prison. He was thought to be a bio-terrorist because his house contained legal scientific materials for an art installation about the perils of genetically modified foods.

The film spoke a great deal about our civil liberties of course, and it is SCARY to think what happened to him could have occurred (and is still occurring) in this country.

Because of a court gag order, the artist (Steve Kurtz) cannot speak about events relating to the case, so they had actors interpret parts of the story. Tilda Swinton plays Steve's wife and Thomas Jay Ryan (from Henry Fool) played Steve Kurtz. I loved how they spliced the actor's own passionate feelings on the morality and legality of the issues at hand.

Highly recommended.

Housing

2007-01-18T23:21:00.001-07:00

I forgot to mention earlier that we worked things out with the place we are staying. The guy still scares the crap out of us but he took our money and agreed to give us a receips which was all we wanted in the first place.

Now we are stocking up on groceries at Albertsons. I am typing this by Blackberry from the long line to check out. Gotta love modern technology, right?

By the way, if your last name is Dotson, you need to comment more. If you work in the OTX sample department, unless your name starts with an O, you need to comment more. If you have not left a comment yet, well, what in God's name are you waiting for?!

The First Film

2007-01-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

We saw the opening night film tonight, the aforementioned Chicago 10. It combined animation and rock music and real footage and animation and it was a captivating and innovative way to tell the story of what happened during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. I was sad to admit I don't know a lot about that actual event in our history and it was incredible to hear what went down.

The director (Brett Morgen) was engaging when he introduced the film, and even provocative afterwards. He was trying to get the crowd excited for what he felt was the important political message to take away from the film (the obvious, since it's the story of anti-war protests). I didn't feel the audience was very receptive, probably because it's the opening night film and there were likely a lot of (conservative?) Salt Lake and Park City people as well as hoity toity sponsors. Maybe I'm wrong. I bet he'll get a better reception during subsequent screenings.

We have tickets to two movies screening tomorrow and they are:

Expired, starring Samantha Morton, Jason Patric, Teri Garr and Illeana Douglas. It is in the dramatic competition.

Delirious, starring MIchael Pitt, Steve Buscemi, Alison Lohman and Gina Gershon

We also MUST see The Ten, showing at midnight. We will have to waitlist or find extra tickets. It may be a challenge.

Now we have to go to Albertsons and then get to BED - WE ARE TIRED!!

PS - there is no Internet where we are staying. Nightmare.

Bonneville

2007-01-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

We spent the afternoon in the Bonneville Salt Flats and the Bonneville Speedway. This is where all of the records for speed have been set. It's been in use for racing for over a century. They say the salt flats are so flat, you can see the curvature of the earth. I can verify this to be the case.

It was beautiful! Shiri took lots of photos. A few are here for your enjoyment.

2007-01-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

The Great Salt Lake

2007-01-18T10:22:00.001-07:00

We are driving west on the 80 on our way to the salt flats.

It is SO FREAKING COLD!!

Believe it or not, after visiting Salt Lake City no fewer than 15 times in my life, I just today had my first glimpse of the great salt lake.

Our hotel, called the Ramada Limited, was so crappy. The hallways smelled like sewage, and we had to change rooms twice due to non-functioning heat. We convinced them to take $30 off of the room rate, but still. Ugh.

In what could be somewhat dangerous news, we have learned there casinos ten minutes from where we are now headed. And we are running an hour ahead of schedule. Hmmm...

Tomorrow's Film

2007-01-18T00:36:00.000-07:00

The opener of the festival this year is a documentary, for the second time ever.

Indiewire.com has this to say about the film:

The 2007 Sundance Film Festival will open with the world premiere of Brett Morgen's "Chicago 10," a new documentary about the 1968 protests around the Democratic covention in Chicago. According to Sundance planners, Morgen's film combines historical footage, interviews, animation and music to tell the story and also explore the subsequent Chicago Conspiracy Trial the following year.

Sounds good to me. We'll report on it tomorrow night, if we aren't homeless, cold and traumatized by the most evil person in all of Park City. More Later!

2007-01-18T00:32:00.000-07:00

So as not to dwell on the negative, I will show you a photo of where we are going tomorrow - it's called the Bonneville Salt Flats and it's two hours west of Salt Lake.

We'll get up at 8 AM, eat free breakfast at this crappy Ramada, and then drive out there. We'll come back with enough time to get into Park City for the opening film.

Things could be better.

2007-01-17T21:04:00.000-07:00

The festival starts tomorrow and we planned to check into our condo tomorrow. We are subletting this place from a local resident. Since we were in the area tonight, we made arrangements to give him the rest of the money and pick up the keys now, so tomorrow we could go straight to the place.

I won't go into the entire story, but I will tell you that the person we are subletting from is Satan himself, and our exchanges both on the phone and in person rank #1 and #2 as the worst moments of my life thus far. Long story short, for absolutely no reason other than he is an irrational monster, he stormed out on me and I have no keys. I will supposedly get them tomorrow, but hi - major, major drama. There were tears.

Please send good vibes.

The Best Pitstop

2007-01-17T11:33:00.000-07:00

Today, we enjoyed a two hour nickel slot session in Primm Nevada (Whiskey Pete and Buffalo Bill's) followed by steak at Ellis Island casino on Koval & Flamingo in Vegas.

I highly recommend the place, if you ever find yourself in Sin City.

We would have lost a couple hundred bucks, were it not for one final spin on Shrimpmania which garnered $189. Whew!

The Journey Begins

2007-01-16T03:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow (er, today) we leave for Sundance. I usually drive overnight to Park City and arrive haggard, exhausted, and pissy. Not this year! We're giving ourselves two full days to make the 12 hour drive, which is almost embarrassingly easy for such seasoned travelers.

We plan to stop in Primm, Nevada and try our hand at the Lobstermania nickel slots, and then Las Vegas for the $4.99 steak special at our beloved Ellis Island casino. Our next update will likely be from wherever we stop tomorrow night. Hopefully we'll make a fortune on the slots. Yeah, I'm not holding my breath.

Audience Participation!

2007-01-16T02:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our blog. Please comment, so that we know people are reading it and we don't get discouraged and stop updating it.

THIS MEANS YOU!

Screw getting advance tickets!

2007-01-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

We tried to buy individual tickets today. As it has every year, the advance ticket buying experience SUCKED!

We ended up with a pair of tickets. One pair. To a movie called Never Forever, which does look interesting. But c'mon now. Sundance charges us $5 for the privilege of buying tickets in advance and then doesn't save any tickets for the later timeslots? Super. Love it. Fantastic.

LAME! But, this has been the case every year, so I am not too stressed.

The 45 Films we saw last in 2006

2007-01-12T19:50:00.000-07:00

Here’s the full list of what we saw last year. An asterisk means I highly recommend.

Friends With Money *
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Solo Dios Sabe
Little Miss Sunshine
Lucky Number Slevin *
De NADIE
Wild Tigers I Have Known
Thank You For Smoking *
The Night Listener *
KZ
Wordplay *
The Science of Sleep
Wide Awake
Who Needs Sleep
Sherrybaby
Factotum
Art School Confidential
The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez
The Hawk is Dying
Quinceanera *
All Aboard! Rosie’s Family Cruise *
So Much So Fast *
Don’t Come Knocking
Puccini For Beginners *
Stephanie Daley *
Crossing Arizona *
The Darwin Awards
This Film Is Not Yet Rated *
5 Days
The Secret Life of Words *
The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros
Steel City
Right At Your Door *
The Ground Truth
God Grew Tired Of Us *
Half Nelson *
TV Junkie
American Blackout *
Wrestling with Angels
Animation Spotlight
13 Tzameti *
In Between Days
Dreamland
In The Pit

Check out last year's blog

2007-01-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

If you're dying to read about our Sundance experience and pissed we haven't posted anything yet, take a moment to read about last year's fest:

LAST YEAR's BLOG

Topics include:

Controversial: Dor didn't LOVE Little Miss Sunshine!

No Surprise Here: Updates & Photos from Multiple Noodles & Company visits

Depressing: See how much hotter Dor looked last year than this year :(

Risque: Pics of Shiri in the hotel's hot tub!

Avant-Garde Audrey's edgy, wait-list-line-bordom-enduced Snowman Art

Ode to my Movie Buddy

2007-01-11T17:46:00.000-07:00

I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite movie buddy Janis, who is always with me at Sundance in SPIRIT, but has yet to actually attend. She’s the only person I know who loves movies even more than I do. Reason number 2,353 that she is my personal hero – she sees more than 200 movies in theaters every year!

She’d kill me if I uploaded her photo to the Internet, so this is the best you’re gonna get. Love ya, Janis!

Sundance 2007 starts in nine days!

2007-01-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

Hi,

Welcome to our 2007 Sundance Blog! Copy by Dor, photos by Shiri. We leave Los Angeles for Park City, Utah in one week's time. We'll make the obligatory stop in Las Vegas, and then it's up into the mountains we go.

Now is the time I make a list about the films I am excited about. Honestly, I usually have about 50 films I absolutely MUST see. This year, the list is shorter for some reason. This could be not enough time spent reading up on the films, or maybe it will be an off year, relatively speaking.

Last year, we saw 45 films, including 16 documentaries. I don't think we will beat that this year, if only due to the fact that TICKET PRICES WENT UP FROM $10 to $15! Not happy!

Now is a good time to point out to you that our favorite film from last year's festival, a doc called God Grew Tired Of Us, is coming out in limited release this month. It's the captivating story of several Sudanese boys who grew up in refugee camps for "Lost Boys" in Africa and their relocation and cultural assimilation to the United States. Do yourself a favor and catch it in theaters this month.

While we're at it, here is my (Dor's) top ten films of 2006. Janis says I cannot count God Grew Tired of Us on this list since it didn't actually get released until 2007.

1. Volver

Almodovar's best since All About My Mother

2. Jesus Camp

Frightening and powerful documentary that sparked a huge debate in the Dotson family

3. Children of Men

Film-making at its best

4. The Secret Life of Words

Solidifies Sarah Polley's status as one of the best actresses of our time

5. Borat

I nearly died laughing.

6. The Bridge

Controversial, intriguing doc that examines the Golden Gate Bridge as the #1 spot in the US to commit suicide

7. The Prestige

Enchanting and worthy of repeat viewings

8. Shortbus

John Cameron Mitchell's follow up to my all time favorite movie Hedwig which blew me away, even with my high expectations

9. This Film is Not Yet Rated

Eye-opening documentary about the secrecy and shadiness surrounding the MPAA's procedures for film ratings

10. Pan's Labyrinth

Magical, disturbing and epic.