Day 6 (Tuesday, Jan. 20)

Laremy and I had to check out of our Film.com-funded condo this morning, but first we had to watch a few minutes of the inauguration proceedings on the telly. Dick Cheney was in a wheelchair, presumably because his powers are diminishing as his empire slips out of his grasp; by the end of the day, he was nothing but a withered bag of skin. Laremy said it would be funny if, as Obama took the oath, he announced that he was a secret Mormon. Nobody would have seen that one coming!

But then we had to go watch movies. My first screening, a sparsely populated press event at Holiday Village, was “Mystery Team,” starring the comedy troupe DerrickComedy as a trio of child sleuths (think Encyclopedia Brown) who are now high school seniors but still act like child sleuths. (All their usual suspects are 7-year-olds.) And now they’re trying to solve a double murder. It’s funny, sometimes hilarious, but it’s way too long. It’s an 80-minute movie trapped in the body of a 105-minute movie.

Immediately after this, with hardly a moment to spare, was “Sin Nombre,” a violent drama about gangs in the southern reaches of Mexico who cross paths with immigrants on their way to the U.S. It was interesting to be reminded that Mexico has another border, i.e., the one with Guatemala, and that apparently that border is significantly easier to cross than the northern one.

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“Grace”: Yet another movie about zombie babies. Give it a rest, Hollywood! http://tinyurl.com/92az2v

James Rocchi is on a Twitter vow of silence, but just so you know, right now he’s sitting in the Yarrow lobby.

“Push” pushes it real good: http://tinyurl.com/9jaub9

Sundance Diary Day 5: http://tinyurl.com/8njswa

Speaking of dead inside, apparently Emperor Cheney’s powers are diminishing in the waning hours of his tyranny.

Pixar-hating critic is Ray Greene of BoxOffice.com. Very nice, smart guy, enjoyed chatting with him. He’s just dead inside, that’s all.

Day 5 (Monday, Jan. 19)

I didn’t mention this before because I was hoping it would prove to be a non-issue, but now it’s gone too far. There is someone else in the Sundance press corps who has the same laugh as my pal Erik Childress. I heard it during “Humpday” and again last night during “Paper Heart,” and Childress wasn’t at either one. When I hear it, I try to look around and see who it’s coming from, but I’ve been unable to identify the source.

I heard it — Erik’s Chuckleganger — again today at my first screening, “Big Fan.” This is a somewhat dark comedy about an obsessive New York Giants fan, played by Patton Oswalt, who gets into an altercation with his quarterback idol that results in the QB being benched — which means the fan has unwittingly sabotaged his favorite team. It’s a solid film that mocks sports obsession specifically but is just as applicable to other obsessive types (coughmoviegeekscough).

In addition to the impostor Childress, this screening also contained several beautiful French women. I don’t know if they were journalists or what, but they traveled in pairs, going so far as to ask someone to move so they could sit together. Since they were beautiful and French, no one had a problem with that. I was slightly annoyed by the pair who sat right next to me and whispered Frenchly to each other during the film, but perhaps one had to explain some of the nuances of Patton Oswalt’s performance to the other one. I would have shushed them, but I don’t know how to say “Shh!” in French. The glare-accompanied-by-throat-clearing apparently is not a universal language.

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A fellow critic is ranting about how he hates Pixar. It takes all kinds to make a world, I guess. EVEN STUPID KINDS!!!!!!!!!

Sundancers: Who has a bed or couch I can sleep on Wednesday and/or Thursday? I have a car, and I’ll put out. Just FYI.