THERE WERE plenty of highlights to this year’s Sundance Festival but as usual the parties and pop-up events were a mixed bag. But one of the more obvious highlights came towards the end of the week when after a full day’s schedule my group were confronted with a howling Utah snowstorm and it was becoming dangerous to walk up and down the iconic Main Street of Park City. The sidewalks were becoming very slippery as a result of the heavy layer of snow accumulating, so we were eager to find a nice warm place to call home for the rest of the evening. Spotting what looked to be a party on the second floor of one of the nicer restaurants on Main Street I decided to inquire as to the function.
My party consisted of Neil Fletcher, my editor from the British Weekly newspaper, a close friend from Southern California Bud Elam, and myself . The attractive woman guarding the door asked our names… surprise, surprise our names were NOT on the invitation list. As we turned to leave, the hostess of the party overruled the door guard and beckoned us inside “saying you look like you should be in here”. I hope she said this because of the distinction with which we carried ourselves…..but I’m pretty sure it was our gray hair that gained us entry.
As it turned out the party was for the film “Wilson”, which we had viewed earlier in the day, an offbeat tale about a lonely, neurotic and hilariously honest middle aged man (Woody Harrselson) who reunites with his estranged wife and meets his teenage daughter for the first time. Although billed as a comedy the movie is often quite uncomfortable. Wilson is honest to a fault, far from politically correct, and not afraid of talking to strangers, though most of them clearly wish he would not. The film revolves around Wilson’s somewhat humorous yet mostly painful attempt to develop a relationship with both of the ‘new’ women in his life. A slight but interesting tale, the movie was a welcome change over what I sometimes call the Sundance dysfunctional family films which are often darker and much more depressing.
The movie also stars Laura Dern and Judy Grail, and was directed by Craig Johnson. But for us the best part of the evening was chatting with producer Jared Goldman, who not only provided some intriguing insights into the ‘story behind the story’, but also shared some interesting tidbits about his previous film, the critically-acclaimed Loving (2016).
Sundance offers plenty of opportunities to run into the A-list the Hollywood and New York film set and this party certainly lived up to that expectation. Agents, directors, and producers were in abundance at this party as was the principal cast….no doubt partly due to the fact that the bar was free and pouring some very fine top shelf liquor. As my friend Bud observed, it made a welcome change from ‘some of the swill’ you get at these events.
Sundance has a broad spectrum of films that they showcased during the festival but very few seem to be uplifting and humorous films so when I see films that appear to be comedies I try to make an effort to see those films. While I would not classify Wilson as a laugh-out-loud bellyaching comedy it certainly has plenty to recommend it.
– Franz Amussen
