Whenever Sundance begins again and I prepare to head back to Park City, one word comes to my mind: early. Because every time I have headed off to the snowy mountains that surround this festival, I find myself – and I know many others do as well – setting my alarm for the wee hours to get up, get to the airport, and get to the festival with hopes of making the most of those precious few hours left in the day by the time I arrive.
This is especially true for me, as I usually get in on the official third day of the festival and screenings are well under way. But the second I’m here, that early wake up call is a distant memory and it feels like I’m back in a home away from home (granted this home is a bit colder and I have to be even more careful not to slip and fall while walking), getting back into the festival swing of things.
After a thankfully quick flight (especially after hearing what happened on Kate’s flight in), I landed in Salt Lake City to grab fellow FSR-er – and 1/3 of the Reject Sundance Team – Rob Hunter and shuttle our way into Park City. After meeting up with the other 1/3 of our team, Ms. Kate Erbland and being gifted a necessary survival kit, grabbing press badges, running into friends, and having my one real meal for the day, I headed out to see my first film of the day: Austenland. I went in with low expectations and it was silly fluff that had more laughs than I thought there would be (although most of the things I was laughing at were probably unintentional…).
Next up was It Felt Like Love, which is an interesting little coming-of-age indie that definitely captures the feeling of not quite knowing who you are and trying to speed up the process to getting there. From there I headed to the MARC (for the first time ever!) to see one of my most anticipated films of the festival: Mud. And it did not disappoint. As I said after leaving the film, “The year of McConaughey continues, but solid performances all around.” Full reviews for both these films to come.
Solid first day, not nearly as cold as I expected, and I’m only down one complimentary Nalgene bottle.
But now (per usual) I end the day in the “Bloggerati Condo of Dreams” with Eric Snider, Jordan Raup, Raffi Asdourian (DJ Raffi), Dan Mecca, Sam Fragoso, Matt Patches (not to be confused with Pat Matches), and Katey Rich writing, screaming about movies, and eating many, many bowls of cereal.
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