Sundance Days 6, 7, & 8

Thursday:
I started off the day by going to see "Arlen Faber". I loved this movie! Jeff Daniels, Lauren Graham, and Lou Taylor Pucci starred in this nontraditional romantic comedy. Daniels plays a reclusive author, Graham plays a protective mom/chiropractor, and Pucci plays an owner of an independent bookstore (I happen to work in one). I like movies with a cast full of great actors because they all seem to compete for the best performance, which means that the whole film is full of amazing performances. This was definitely one of my favorites. Then I wasted time until I went to the Animation Spotlight. I was rather excited for this one, new Bill Plympton, new PES, AND new Don Hertzfeldt! Not to mention that one of them was just nominated for an Oscar, "This Way Up". The set was dark, one was like a "28 Days Later" type film, and quite a few were underwhelming. The ones I wanted to see, plus the Oscar nominated one, were fantastic. While in line for it, I met a man named Tony Donoghue, who has done some amazing animations himself, he once worked for Aardman Studios (Wallace & Gromit) and now teaches animation in England. We sat together and critiqued each one as they finished. Then I got to meet Don Hertzfeldt, who was super nice and I think I have a bit of a crush on him.

Friday:
This day was almost as busy as Wednesday, almost. I went to three movies, "Dare", "Peter and Vandy", and "The Glass House", in that order.
"Dare" was a high school movie that wasn't completely lame. I loved it, in fact. There were three main characters that got involved in a menage a trois, the girl-an uptight goody-goody, the popular boy-that guy in high school who was to good to be nice to you, and the girl's loner friend-a guy who runs the sound booth for the plays. It was great to see a boy questioning his sexuality, a girl who wanted to let go, and a boy who just wanted connection, all in a high school movie.
"Peter and Vandy" was the story of a couple, played by Jess Weixler (Teeth), and Jason Ritter (Happy Endings).The style of this movie is what made it really interesting, it was told completely nonlinear with color schemes that popped. The acting was fantastic as well.
"The Glass House" was a documentary-the only documentary I saw this year-about a center in Iran that helps young women be independent and strong against their difficult home situations. My friend Shari drove up to see this with me, and we both were floored by how fantastic it was. I couldn't believe what some of those girls have been through, and what they're going through still. They are much stronger than I am, of that, I am sure.

Saturday:
In the year's past, I've never seen a movie on the last Saturday. I'm usually traveling. But this year, I decided to go to a 12:15 added showing of "500 Days of Summer". My goodness, you guys, this is going to be a hit. Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star in another unconventional romantic comedy. In "500 Days of Summer", boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy doesn't get girl. Now, don't get mad, they tell you five minutes into the film that this is how it will turn out. It's told like a fairy tale, narrator and all. I truly loved this one, and mark my words, it will be huge.

And it was over. Never does a week fly by so quickly as it does during Sundance.