We saw two movies and a short film on our first day of the Festival. The second film redeemed the day for us. But first, I will try to describe the terrible short film and depressing feature film that kicked-off the day. As I seriously doubt that these films will be shown anywhere but here, I don't think I'm spoiling anything for you.
The short film was called Don't Hug me I'm Scared. It featured a crafty (and I mean that literally) set made entirely of felt. Picture a felt refrigerator. A talking notebook (also made of felt) encourages three puppet-like characters to use their brains and "get creative." In the course of this less-than-10-minute film, things degenerate into rolling brains in glitter and slicing a brain-filled cake. Blech, blech, blech!
The feature film that followed at least had human characters. Primarily one very alone, bored and neglected 11-year old girl named Annie. As you follow her through one empty day after another, you get the point ... this girl is completely lacking supervision and any sense of a moral compass. The bleakness of her life is further amplified by the ridiculously slow pacing of the movie and almost non-existent dialog. (How many cars do we need to watch ram into one another to understand the character is now at the demolition derby?) When Annie discovers a woman who has fallen in a remote well, she has a chance to make a good choice. In the end, she makes several very wrong choices and jumps in the well herself. The End. Blech, blech, blech!
Luckily we ended the night with Mike Birbiglia's comedy based on events from his life, Sleepwalk With Me. Already a fan of Mike's from The Moth (search his name on www.themoth.org or check out birbigs.com.) I was really hoping I would like this film. And I did. Throughout the movie Birbiglia (renamed Matt Pandapiglio in the movie) speaks directly to the audience as he takes us back through the events that brought him to the present. Despite the name change, the movie is clearly autobiographical. A fine cast, a story-telling format and a series of unbelievable dream/sleepwalking sequences all work together to keep the audience engaged.
At the start of the film, Ira Glass (one of the Producers of the film) says he just wants the audience to leave liking Mike the way he likes him. We did.
In true Sundance fashion, we bumped into many of the cast from this film having lunch in the booth next to ours the day after the screening. I congratulated them and then slid into the booth next to them for a photo. Carol Kane played Mike/Matt's mom in the film and we were all proud of ourselves for resisting the urge to quote lines from "The Princess Bride."
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