Saturday was a pretty crazy day, as a lot more people arrived in Park City since the weekend had officially started. We got up early and headed to our first film at Eccles Theater, and it was fun, but a bit too long and overall a bit disappointing. It was ELLIE PARKER with Naomi Watts and others (including Chevy Chase). I stayed for the Q&A with the writer/director and Naomi and Chevy, which was fun, although it had me wondering when Chevy Chase stopped being funny. I think it was some time back in the late 80s. And it wasn't a slow process, it was like a BAM overnight sort of thing.
After the film, I headed to waitlist for the animation program at 1pm, and didn't have a problem getting in. The animated films were all amazing. The standouts were a short called RYAN, with an amazing CGI and compelling story, and 9, a funky fantasy film set in a bizarre world, loved it. There was also a very strange but creative short called FALLEN ART which was one of the oddest things I've seen, but very inventive.
After animation, I had a load of time to kill. I wandered up and down main street and checked the shops out, and ran into just about every celebrity you can imagine. Maggie Gyllenhall literally bumped into me (bonus), I walked behind Crispin Glover for about 10 minutes before I decided he might get paranoid and try to knife me, and I watched hordes of people stalking Pierce Brosnan. He's a really nice guy, but holy crud, people were climbing on trees and screaming at him, trying to get a photo. Speaking of screaming, a big group of women were screaming and Maggie to turn their way for a photo. When she didn't turn and got into her car, they said "What a bitch." Classy. My highlight was meeting Stepehn Colbert from "The Daily Show", what a nice guy. We took a picture together which I'll post later (I forgot my camera cable).
I met several filmmakers at Slamdance, which is in my opinion actually a better "indie" film festival that Sundance is. The Sundance films are becoming more and more "slick and polished" while the indie films are dying out. Slamdance gives those films a solid chance and they screen them during the same time at Sundance at alternate venues. The filmmakers were all very nice and creative, and they gave me a few screeners on DVD to take away because I couldn't make it to their films.
Later in the night I headed back to Eccles to meet up with the rest of my gang where we waitlisted for GAME 6. We had to get their 3 hours early because this was such a popular film that everyone was trying to see. We met some local Salt Lake City girls in line who were very nice. We played Texas Hold 'Em and chatted the time away. Our host's parents were in town, and were incredibly nice and brought us a box full of Quizno's sub, chips, juices, and cookies. God bless 'em.
I enjoyed the film, although reaction in our group was mixed because several guys thought it was going to be a sports film. Baseball only serves as a backdrop, but it was a good storyline. Michael Keaton was great, and it's good to see Griffin Dunne acting again. Where has he been?
We headed back out to main street, and wandered in and out of a few party crowds. Somehow we landed at Bandits (a local BBQ and bar) and I had two 25 oz beers. What was I thinking? Not only that, but Tristan (one of the guys in our bunch) and me chugged the last drink in a race. (I won, although not a claim to fame). I don't think I've done that since college, and now I remember why. My butt was kicked, we packed up, drove around forever looking for the car, eventually found it, de-iced it, drove home, and crashed.
Day Three has been great, and I saw one of the best films I've seen in a long while this morning. Three more films to go today, so I need to jet and head into one. More on Day Three tomorrow.
Over and out.
YOU: "I watched hordes of people stalking Pierce Brosnan"
Hee hee... that's awesome! I would be stalking Pierce Brosnan too *wink*
Posted by: Athena Stamos | January 24, 2005 at 12:12 PM