Day Three of Sundance was a bit of wash, thanks to what I will hereafter refer to as “Snowpocalypse Now.” I’ve been staying at my parents’ house in Midway, UT, a few miles past Park City proper down the dark and foreboding Highway 40. Now, in mild driving conditions the trek from Midway to PC isn’t that bad—roughly the same time and distance between Hollywood to Sherman Oaks. But in snow, and especially a lot of snow, it quickly transforms into an epic-ass journey. Like, from the Shire to Mordor epic. And very nearly as dangerous.But on Saturday morning I woke up not to snow, but rain. What I should have done: quickly get ready and leave while the roads were merely wet, not icy. What I did do: checked e-mails, wrote yesterday’s blog post, took a long Jacuzzi tub, and played with the dogs. A strategic genius I am not. And naturally, before I left the temperature dropped, rain became snow, and, well… I guess someone’s gotta throw that ring in the fucking volcano, or whatever. So I white-knucked it all the way into town through the whiteout, passing at least a dozen other vehicles that had spun out. Listening to local radio station KPCW, the DJ frequently broke in to repeat the same basic piece of advice: do not attempt to drive today—you will die.But drive I did, though ultimately for naught. Without a place to stay in Park City overnight, and worried about worsening driving conditions, I made the difficult decision to quickly fulfill a few of my in-town festival commitments and head back up the canyon. And if anything, the trek back was even worse. I won’t belabor the details, but suffice to say I now know was it’s like to slide in a complete 360-degree circle on a major American freeway. So instead of feature reviews, I decided to catch up with some of the festival shorts online, which are available for anyone, anywhere to view at sundance.yahoo.com through January 27. Here you go…The Arm, 9min(d. Brie Larson, Sara Ramos, Jessie Ennis) Funny, well acted black comedy about a pair of teenage lovers whose relationship only exists as a series of text messages. When one of them dies in a car crash, the other wonders if they were ever really in love at all. Well-paced, stylish little satire infused with just the right amount of mean-spiritedness.The Debutante Hunters, 12min(d. Maria White)Disappointingly, this docu-short is not, in fact, about some kind of Most Dangerous Game –type scenario set at the Miss Teen Georgia pageant; rather, it’s about a select subset of young female red-staters, equally as likely to shoot an alligator in the face with a crossbow as they are to sip mint juleps at a cotillion. Interesting, but slight.Dol (First Birthday), 11min(d. Andrew Ahn)A gay Korean American man attends his nephew’s first birthday, walks around looking sad, despairing over the belief that his lifestyle will forever preclude him from having the same level of domestic bliss his straight brother enjoys. Nothing we haven’t seen a bazillion times before, but well-executed.Henley, 11min(d. Craig Macneill)Ten-year-old Henley helps his depressed father operate an isolated roadside motel, collecting a nice side income from a roadkill clean-up racket. Things threaten to turn tragic, however, when Henley resorts to artificial means in order to prop up his flagging businesses. Really well done. Nice build, great payoff. Very good short film.Long Distance Information, 8min(d. Douglas Hart)Somewhere in working-class Britain, an aimless young man gives his grumpy father a call on Christmas morning. Paced a little slowly at the beginning, I wasn’t quite sure where this was going, but the twist ending had me floored—funny, touching, and unsettling all at once. A real surprise.Odysseus’ Gambit, 11min(d. Alex Lora Cercos)Slick docu-short about the life and philosophy of Saravuth Inn—musician, Cambodian refugee, and Central Park chess-player extraordinaire. Basically just the same type of earnest downtrodden-person snapshot that film schools all across our great nation are churning out by the dozens every semester, but gussied up with stylish post-production.Una Hora Por Favora, 13min(d. Jill Soloway)The annoying, condescending, possibly racist tale of a white Silver Lake narcissist (Michaela Watkins) who picks up a Hispanic day laborer (Wilmer Valderrama) for some housework and gets a lot more than she bargained for. I don’t how to explain my dislike for this one, other than to say it’s just very “L.A.”—in a bad way.’92 Skybox Alonzo Mourning Rookie Card, 12minFunny, improv-heavy tale of two sports-loving adult brothers reunited for their dad’s funeral. Their selfish antics threatening to ruin the memorial as they bicker, fight, and compete with one-another. Very droll in a Curb Your Enthusiasm sort of way, even if the unstructured riffing doesn’t always cut together smoothly.Aquadettes, 10min(d. Drea Cooper, Zack Canepari)Quick look at a synchronized swimming team for elderly women in Orange County, CA. Inoffensive to the point of being totally boring, despite a somewhat charged medical marijuana angle. Another example of the kind of uninspired docu-short I feel could’ve come out of any film class anywhere in America
Day Three of Sundance was a bit of wash, thanks to what I will hereafter refer to as “Snowpocalypse Now.” I’ve been staying at my parents’ house in Midway, UT, a few miles past Park City proper down the dark and foreboding Highway 40. Now, in mild driving conditions the trek from Midway to PC isn’t that bad—roughly the same time and distance between Hollywood to Sherman Oaks. But in snow, and especially a lot of snow, it quickly transforms into an epic-ass journey. Like, from the Shire to Mordor epic. And very nearly as dangerous.But on Saturday morning I woke up not to snow, but rain. What I should have done: quickly get ready and leave while the roads were merely wet, not icy. What I did do: checked e-mails, wrote yesterday’s blog post, took a long Jacuzzi tub, and played with the dogs. A strategic genius I am not. And naturally, before I left the temperature dropped, rain became snow, and, well… I guess someone’s gotta throw that ring in the fucking volcano, or whatever. So I white-knucked it all the way into town through the whiteout, passing at least a dozen other vehicles that had spun out. Listening to local radio station KPCW, the DJ frequently broke in to repeat the same basic piece of advice: do not attempt to drive today—you will die.But drive I did, though ultimately for naught. Without a place to stay in Park City overnight, and worried about worsening driving conditions, I made the difficult decision to quickly fulfill a few of my in-town festival commitments and head back up the canyon. And if anything, the trek back was even worse. I won’t belabor the details, but suffice to say I now know was it’s like to slide in a complete 360-degree circle on a major American freeway. So instead of feature reviews, I decided to catch up with some of the festival shorts online, which are available for anyone, anywhere to view at sundance.yahoo.com through January 27. Here you go…The Arm, 9min(d. Brie Larson, Sara Ramos, Jessie Ennis)
