Sure, MirrorMask will come to New York eventually, but not on my birthday. And not with Neil & Dave getting up on stage afterwards to answer questions. Also, I knew that some of the people in the company who were already going to Sundance would probably want to have a meeting with Neil & Dave, and I really did not want to hear about that second-hand and be all grumpy, or have to worry that they'd say something dumb.

So now I only have to worry about me saying something dumb, since it's a breakfast meeting, and I'm a zombie until I've had my morning coffee.

Hi, gang, I'm posting from a wireless lounge in Park City, so here's an update on Sundance so far.

My flight was scheduled to leave Newark airport at 3:30pm Saturday, which, as it turned out was 3 hours after the blizzard started. Flights were being cancelled left and right, but, unbelievably enough, after a brief delay, they let us board and we managed to get out of the snow, made it to Atlanta for my layover (which had been delayed by fog), and made it to Salt Lake City with my luggage.

I've only seen one movie so far, a documentary called "A Twist of Faith", about the Catholic priest sex-abuse crimes & cover-ups. The focus of the doc was on one man, a 34-year-old Toledo firefighter, who had been a victim of abuse, and his struggles to come to terms with it. It was an incredibly intense film, and the firefighter & his wife were at the screening for the Q&A afterwards. This was an HBO doc, so it will find its way to cable & a dvd release, and I can't recommend it enough. Keep an eye out for it.

Celebrity sightings so far: Jeff Daniels, Robert Carlyle, Mary Steinbergen, James Cromwell, and others I'm forgetting now.

So, now I'm just killing time for a couple of hours until dinner. With Neil & Dave. I've got my camera with me (but left the usb cord back in my suitcase) so I may not post again til tomorrow, when I'm killing time before heading down to Salt Lake City for the MirrorMask screening.

*burning with jealousy*

But happy for you none the less! Relax and have a wonderful time!

Yeh Mara, glad to hear you got there safe and sound and away from the blizzards back east-we got about 15 to 20 inches ourselves, and I have been shoveling like a madwoman. hope dinner is fun, have a great time!!!!

Ok, don't kill me, but, I completely forgot about my camera until after Neil & Dave had already left. It was just so nice to sit there having dinner & talking, that I just completely forgot. I'll do better tomorrow at the screening, since I'll be in convention-mode. I did remember to say hello to him from the boarders though.

Not sure what I can say about the dinner other than it was as much fun as you would expect it to have been. It was with four people from my office who are not that familiar with Neil's work, so most of what we were talking about were things that I think anyone who's actually reading this thread already knows. Like how he wrote umpteen drafts of Princess Mononoke (complete with Harvey Weinstein impersonation).

They'd had a screening of MirrorMask this morning at a high school, which Neil said went very well. He was especially happy because this was really the first screening for an audience who weren't already fans. (I have a feeling he'll be posting about that on the blog) And he & Dave will be recording a commentary track for the dvd tomorrow.

Dave was relatively quiet, content, I think, to let Neil be the center of attention (or just used to it<g>. I brought along my beat-up old copy of "Violent Cases" for him & Neil to sign. Actually, it was funny, I've been lugging a heavy bag around all day with dvds for Neil & Dave, and various old comics stuff. So at the start of dinner, I gave Neil some more Bolton dvds, and gave Dave one Bolton and one of our other titles I thought he'd enjoy ("Rivers & Tides", the Andy Goldsworthy documentary). Then I pulled out Violent Cases for autographing, which made Dave raise an eyebrow in surprise. Then later he was explaining to someone how he & Neil had met, and their early collaborations, so I whipped out "Black Orchid" from the bag. I felt like Mary Poppins with the magic carpetbag. Hee.

Well, my time is running out here at the cybercafe. What else can I say? It was great. I'll try to post tomorrow night after the screening. And I WILL remember to turn on the damn camera.

that is so great mara!!!!!
im so happy for you!
and happy birthday as well

That's right! A happy happy birthday to you Mara, what a nice way to spend it - hope the trip continues along splendidly!

Sorry for the delay, I was too beat by the time I made it back to Park City to do anything but grab a quick dinner, and today was all planes, trains & automobiles, but now I'm finally home.

Tuesday started out badly--temporarily lost cell phone, problems getting an affordable shuttle down to Salt Lake City, etc. Traditionally, my birthdays are plagued by bad luck, and though all of the bad luck seemed to run its course in the morning (got the cell phone back via the kind folks at Hertz) I wouldn't have been surprised if I missed the movie altogether. But, eventually, I did make it to Salt Lake on time, and saw the movie finally.

I don't think I should go into much detail about the specifics of the movie--I feel like I'd be robbing you of the fun of getting to see it unfold. I'm pretty anti-spoiler in general. If you disagree, let me know.

Overall, I was happy with the movie. I think the imagery came out terrific. There's only an occaisional dogdy shot, most of it looks spectacular, and absolutely McKeanish. The cast are all terrific. I thought that there was a point where the movie seemed to get a bit lost, but then it ramped up for an exciting finish. Oh, and the clips that Neil showed at Fiddler's look much better in their final version.

Now, on to the Q&A. My pen went missing (due to the cursed morning) so I'm just going by memory. I guess my favorite question was when someone asked when we were going to get to see Dave's shorts--when Neil repeated the question, Dave sighed and began to undo his belt. But then he answered truthfully, that he was working with a distributor (us!) to get them out this year (actually, he said that it was New Yorker, so afterwards I was all "Um, you meant New Video, right?" That was the bit of the dinner that I wasn't sure I could talk about, since we haven't actually signed a contract, but he said it first, so the cat is out of the bag).

Someone asked "Are you happy with the film?". Dave responded by banging his head against the wall while Neil said someting like "You can't ask him that, it's not fair."

They talked about the animating team, who were 17 people they hired straight out of a school in Bournemouth, so not only was it their first film, it was their first job. And his method was to assign each of them a specific sequence rather than working on little bits throughout.

I'll try to write up more tomorrow, but I'm crashing, and I'm going to have lot of catching up to do at the office tomorrow (I shudder to think--I haven't checked my work e-mail since Monday) so I've got to get to sleep. But here's a photo of me with Neil & Dave after the movie:

hooray! i'm so glad you got to spend your birthday doing that! thank you ever so much for the updates, and for giving neil our hellos.

I so glad one of us got to go and get the inside scoop... and hang out with Neil & Dave a bit....

Good for you Mara!

Thanks!

Besides Mirrormask, didja see any other movies that looked good, bad, or indifferent?

The only other movie I saw besides MirrorMask and A Twist of Faith was another documentary called "Unidentified White Male" which I liked. The filmmaker had a friend (Doug) who mysteriously developed total amnesia. Doug was living in NYC (he's from England, originally) and after speaking to a friend on the phone one night, somehow in the following 12 hours he went into a fugue state, and when he came out of it, found himself on the subway to Coney Island, realized that he didn't know why he was on the train or where he was going to/coming from, and then realized that he had no idea who he was. He had a backpack & keys, but no ID - the only clue was a phone # on a scrap of paper which turned out to be the mother of a girl he'd dated a couple of times. The mother thought he sounded familiar, but couldn't place him, but she got the daughter to call the hospital (Doug had gone to the police for help, they had taken him to the hospital, and he was stuck in the psych ward for observation) and once she heard his voice she was able to tell him his name and to check him out of the hospital and bring him back to his apartment. The film was about Doug's journey to rebuild his life having lost his past, and about the connection between personality & memory. It was a fascinating story. The filmmaker was there for the Q&A, and said that Doug hadn't yet regained his memories, though the doctors do expect him to someday.

Sorry for the delay in replying. I've been in a bit of a funk. Work is kicking my ass, and I got the brush-off from a guy that I was very attracted to. (Not a heartbreak, more of an annoyed/frustrated horniness feeling, but certainly not great for the self-esteem department.) Eventually I'll get back over to the nerve.com personals & try again, and I will hopefully find a way out of the hole that I've dug for myself at work, but, for now, I will mope around the apartment in my pajamas all day, watching weepy movies.

Aw.. you should head over to the World's End, the main part of the board! There are a ton of cool people, and some live in the NJ/NY area... heck, some are guys. And single.

(er... not me. I used to live in CT, but i moved)

Thanks for the report... you can come over to World's End and Flame Wars and talk about your life and stuff

or you could tell us of the weepy movies you watch and compare them with mine

man, Mirrormask had competiton:

quote:

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Pop Quiz: Jenny McCarthy is:

* a) Really hot
* b) Like, smoking hot
* c) A brilliant screenwriter and actress who we may have underestimated
* d) My wife

Well, people, believe it or not the answer is "All of the Above" (well, with the exception of 'd'... for now). I know, I got it wrong my first time too.

Jenny McCarthy is earning critical acclaim for writing and starring in Dirty Love, a movie which has sold out every one of its screenings at Sundance. I don't think it's a surprise that the movie has been selling out. Come on, if somebody told you that Jenny McCarthy was starring in a movie called Dirty Love you'd buy a ticket too, right?

Apparently the movie is pretty amazing. I hear McCarthy delivers such an outstanding performance it surpasses her work in "Playboy's The Very Best of Jenny McCarthy" home video. I know you're thinking, "But that's impossible! She was practically flawless in 'Playboy's The Very Best of Jenny McCarthy home video!" Well, I'm just telling you what I heard, that's all.

Dirty Love also stars Carmen Electra and American Pie's Eddie Kaye Thomas. That's right people. THE Eddie Kaye Thomas!

So yeah. The chick from Singled Out, the girl that replaced the chick from Singled Out, and the guy who had to go home to use the bathroom in American Pie are all in a critically acclaimed motion picture that sold out all of its screenings at the Sundance Film Festival. You didn't see that one coming, did you?

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