The weekend went by in a blur but it was an interesting, happy blur. N and I saw five movies at the Sundance Film Festival and on Sunday we celebrated Mimi’s fourth birthday with N’s parents.
So far I’ve been impressed with all the movies we’ve seen. The first movie we saw was What Happened, Miss Simone?, a documentary.
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I had heard of Nina Simone but didn’t know much about her life or music. But the documentary did a great job covering her life and music and placing it in the context of the times she lived in. It took a subject I knew little about and made it fascinating which I think is a sign of a successful documentary.
The second movie we saw on Friday was Bronze, an edgy comedy about an washed-up Olympic gymnast living in her small town milking her former glory for all it’s worth. It was written by wife and husband team Melissa and Winston Rauch as a vehicle for Melissa to star in it.
They did a Q&A after the film with the director and Thomas Middleditch (whom I like from Silicon Valley on HBO ) who plays a love interest. Melissa and Winston said that the idea for the movie sprang from a moment when Winston told Melissa, “You know, you’re really short. You could play a gymnast!”
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| Left to right: director Bryan Buckley, actor Thomas Middleditch, writer/actor Melissa Rauch, and her husband and co-writer Winston Rauch. |
The movie is very very very funny, but definitely not for the faint-of-heart. The Q&A after was fun–it was neat to hear Melissa and Winston share about working together as a married couple and unbelievable to hear that the movie was made in just 22 days.
All of the movies we saw this weekend except for one had Q&As afterward which was great. So far I think this might be the best year we’ve had at the festival.