On this second day I woke up early despite having been out late and headed to the Eccles Theater, Sundance's largest venue, to see Mary and Max, a claymation feature film. I was there about an hour early, so I got excellent seats. I'm not sure how many times I'll be able to repeat my luck there. The theaters fill up very quickly.
The film itself was great. I have a soft spot for claymation, since I grew up doing hours upon hours of it myself. But despite being a comedy, and being an animation, it was very dark. It dealt with depression, mental illness, suicide, and lots of death. Not something you'd expect from a film that visually reminds you of Wallace and Gromit. Still, very good.
Later that evening I saw The Missing Person, a neo-noir in the vein of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye. The lead actor, Michael Shannon, was amazing as an antiquated gumshoe in the modern age. Other than that, the narrative meandered and overall it was very slow, but the director afterwards admitted to owing Raymond Chandler a debt, and that probably had a lot to do with the pacing.
Directly after that I had a ticket for Rudo y Cursi, the debut feature film from Carlos Cuaron, director Alfonso Cuaron's brother. This is the film I was most excited for, and I almost didn't make it to the theater. I was chatting with two guys I met after Missing Person, and we all stepped on what we thought was the right bus. Well, after about fifteen minutes of unrecognizable scenery going by, we realized the bus had taken us straight out of Park City. Now it's a half hour before the show and we're far from where we need to be.
We eventually found a taxi driver at a nearby 7-11 willing to take us back into town. By this point I'm frantically calling my friend James to hold us a seat, because for such an anticipated film, there's going to be a line around the block. Unfortunately, he's at the end of the line. Well, I arrive just as they're letting the snaking line of people into the theater. I look around, jump the line, and make it in long before James or most of the people in line. I snag the best seat in the house.
After the show there was a Q&A with the director, his brother and producer Alfonso, fellow producer and amazing director in his own right Guillermo del Toro, and the star Gael Garcia Bernal. They seemed like a very friendly, very passionate group of filmmaker friends. I was amazed how most people meandered with their questions. One guy started talking about his Mexican grandfather, and another guy stood up and goes, "I have a script written just for you, Gael! Can we set up a meeting?" All in front of 1,200 people. Ridiculous.
But what wasn't ridiculous is that I stepped outside after the theater emptied and met Carlos, Alfonso and Guillermo, who were standing around in the cold. Awesome.
