Day 9 (Friday, January 25):

The guys from Film Threat were kind enough to let me stay at their condo last night, as most of their crew had gone home. I felt safe despite their publication’s ominous title. Film Threat? What about Film Promise? That would be so much more pleasant.

After getting up at 8:30, showering, stumbling around half-asleep, going outside, going back inside, putting clothes on, and going outside again, I gave the Film Threat guys a lift down to the Yarrow. One of my favorite secrets about Sundance used to be that the Yarrow Hotel didn’t care if you parked there. This was in stark contrast to every other business in Park City, which will tow your sorry butt within seconds if you’re not actually a customer. Everyone assumed the Yarrow had the same policy, so no one parked there, so there was always plenty of space for me.

Anyway, last year the Yarrow jumped on the bandwagon and started blocking off their parking lot — unless you paid $20 to park there. I thought it was the end of an era. But this year it’s open again, and I’ve been parking there the last few days, even overnight. Please do not tell anyone, though, as I want this to remain my little secret.

I actually didn’t have a screening until 1:30, so I spent a few hours in the Yarrow lobby (the fireplace was fixed now) writing and such. At about 11 a.m., a young man of about 22, apparently a guest of the hotel, emerged from his room and began shouting to everyone within earshot — which included a lot of people, since he was shouting — that he was drunk. He was drunk and happy and very, very friendly. His friends tried to keep him under control, but they soon gave up and let him wander the lobby, being drunk. I asked him, “Are you drunk already today, or still drunk from last night?” Either way, it is quite impressive to be drunk at 11 a.m. He said it was left over from last night. He also said he had vomited in the fireplace, but I don’t think that was true. On the other hand, why would you make up something like that?

My first film of the day was “Hamlet 2,” in which Steve Coogan plays a washed-up-actor-turned-high-school-drama-teacher who stages a sequel to the famous tragedy as a means of addressing his own issues with his father. It’s a very funny movie, albeit a little uneven, with a tone that reminds me of “Waiting for Guffman,” “South Park,” and even “The Office” (the Coogan character is frequently as awkward as Michael Scott).

The movie is a Sundance curiosity. It was added to the schedule so late that it doesn’t even appear in the printed film guide, something I don’t remember ever happening before. And then it was the first film bought — by Focus Features, for $10 million, an almost unheard of amount. (The last Sundance movie to fetch a price that high was “Napoleon Dynamite.”) Because of all that, the screening room was packed, despite it being the last day of press screenings and much of the press corps having gone home already. For some reason Tom Arnold and Illeana Douglas (you’d recognize her if you saw her) were at the press screening, too. We don’t usually get celebrities sitting among us, so that was weird.

Next up was a film I’d heard good things about, “Good Dick,” about a reclusive young woman who fends off attempts by a nice guy to bring her out of her shell. What’s interesting about this movie is that its title is not double-entendre. You figure there will be a guy named Dick, or someone will be a private detective, or whatever. But no: It really is about a woman who hates and fears men and their man-parts until she meets a good one. The title is single-entendre. Good luck marketing that one.

Since I’d had lunch at Burger King, that meant I needed to have dinner elsewhere. So Used To Be A Burrito Place it was! (Turns out it’s called Atlantic Pizza & Deli. Who knew?) Had me a hearty chicken parmesan sandwich, then walked next door to the Holiday Village venue for a screening of “Red.” I hadn’t heard much about this film either way; accordingly, the press screening was nearly empty. Still, this did not prevent a man from sitting directly behind me and wheezing and sniffing a lot. I moved farther back to get away from him. He knows that’s why I moved, too, and I don’t care.

“Red” is a lot like “Death Wish,” only instead of a man’s wife being killed as the inciting incident, it’s a man’s dog being killed. DON’T MESS WITH A GUY’S DOG! The man is played by Brian Cox, who is a terrific actor, and his performance makes the film a B- when otherwise it probably would have been a C.

Turns out I had a Brian Cox double feature in store, as the next film — my last of the festival — also starred him. It was “The Escapist,” a good old-fashioned manly prison-break movie from England. I sat with Cinematical’s James Rocchi, and we both got a kick out of it. We also got a kick out of spending the rest of the night making naughty Brian Cox puns on the order of “If you want to make your movie better, just put Cox in it” and “I love seeing Cox on the big screen.” See, “Good Dick”? That’s how you do childish double-entendre.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Sundance Film Festival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.