Sundance Preview Day Five: Soderbergh, Shelton, An Education and Adventureland (views)
As sometimes happens at a major fest like Sundance, my carefully plotted schedule for Sunday went awry. I missed the Women in Film panel, but caught a screening of Moon, which had just been added to Sunday's slate in place of Shrink. I also missed 500 Days of Summer, which I'm hearing great things about, due to press schedule changes that caused a conflict. I did, however add Paper Hearts, which is also getting some positive word-of-mouth, to Sunday's slate.
Today's slate will keep me hopping (and no guarantees that things won't shift around yet again) starting with an early-morning Steven Soderbergh breakfast and panel (and, word has it, a possible sneak peek at his next film), followed by an interview with Humpday director Lynn Shelton.
Screenings I'm planning to catch today include An Education, the Lone Scherfig-directed, Nick Hornsby-scripted drama about a teen-age girl who gets involved in a relationship with a much older man. The script was mentioned in Variety's list of best unproduced Brit scripts in 2007, and I'm hearing great word-of-mouth on this one. I'll also be catching Adventureland, Greg Mottola's semi-autobiographical comedy about a recent college grad who's forced to take a summer job at an amusement park.
Heading into Day Five of the fest, I've had good luck with the films I've worked into my schedule so far, with several films I loved (Humpday, Moon, Lymelife and Mary and Max), several more that I enjoyed, in spite of some flaws (Rough Aunties, Paper Heart, Push) and only one that I was more negative on (Big River Man). Fingers crossed that the trend of more good films than bad at the fest continues.