A Rock n Roller Coaster Day at Sundance

I escaped the Park City cold by seeing a marathon of world premiere films at Sundance yesterday.

The day started with The Dry Land, a heartbreaking film, wonderfully written & directed film by Ryan Piers Williams and superbly acted by Ryan ONan, America Ferrara, Jason Ritter and Wilmer Valderrama. It’s about a soldier physically coming home from war but mentally battling the war still raging in his head. The Dry Land is an incredibly moving and real film.  I did a brief on camera interview (not sure for whom!) as soon as I walked out. Hope I made sense…I may have been feeling kind of emotional at the time!

Then came another back-to-back emotional drama, Blue Valentine, which had Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams dealing with a broken marriage. Also an extremely written and very real film with two amazing performances by young, talented actors.

If you have not yet seen Ryan Gosling in Lars and the Real Girl, you also gotta check that one out!

So now I was a bit emotionally spent for one day after two really moving dramas. Next up was The Runaways was a great change of pace with its rock n’ roller coaster ride through the 1970s.

Twilight New Moon Stars, Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, who had a bunch of screaming fans outside delivered great performances. Kristen Stewart does a dead-on performance of Joan Jett that has you thinking she’s the real thing. Lots of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll drama in this one, and I mean LOTS of it!

The night’s finale was The Killer Inside Me. Now this, my friends, has to be seen to be believed.  Casey Affleck is a polite, small time sheriff who has more than a few screws lose upstairs in this film noir. Extremely well-done but brutally disturbing and sadistic. Lots of people, including me, seemed  shocked at seeing the graphic violence towards women, which is really hard to sit through, even knowing it’s acted.

Casey Affleck delivered an incredible performance in the twisted lead role. However, this was the first premiere I’ve been at where the lead actor was not in attendance. Kate Hudson, who plays Casey’s girlfriend, was also not there. Hmm, not a favorable trend. Then Jessica Alba who was there, did not stay for the Q&A which is not a good sign. Regardless, this one will sit with me for quite awhile, and I really still don’t know what to make of it.

So, there’s my Sundance Recap 2! It was 3 degrees when I got back to my car last night, and by far, the coldest night so far! Brrrrrr. This “southern boy” is so not used to Park City weather! Today I start my theatre volunteer job. One more randomly interesting job for me!

Cheers,
-Johnny T