I spent most of the day today snowboarding. I didn't have a film until 6pm, and with a world-class ski area literally sprouting out of Park City, how could I resist?At 6pm I had what I thought was a panel discussion with director Steven Soderbergh. He was supposed to talk about his previous films, like sex, lies, and videotape (which put Sundance on the map) and his latest, Che. Instead, he gets up there and says, "we have a movie to show." And then he plays his latest film for the very first time.
It's called The Girlfriend Experience. It was an ultra-cinema-verite film with a fractured narrative and all amateur actors. I liked it. I'm not sure how well it will do if it gets a wide release.
Directly after that I saw my final film at Sundance - Manure. It was a very stylized film about competing manure businesses. It was awful. It was so bad. It was derivative, predictable, nonsensical, embarrassing to watch - I wanted to walk out. Luckily the visuals were interesting enough to keep me. I couldn't believe that a film like that made it into Sundance. It was horrible.
It was so bad that when the directors, the Polish brothers, and the actors, including Billy Bob Thorton and Tea Leoni, came up for a Q&A, there were no questions. It was really, really awkward. Everyone thought it was stupid. Because it was.
Luckily we were out before long. And coincidence upon coincidences - it turns out that one of the actors I cast in my thesis project, La Nina del Desierto, happened to be at Sundance as well. He works for a PR company that throws parties, and he was able to let us in to the Manure after-party. A few of the minor actors were there, but the main ones weren't. Too embarrassed, I imagine.
I was sad that the last film I saw at Sundance was the worst I saw. I was on a roll of good films. But tomorrow I fly back to California and then it's La Nina straight for the next three months!
