Salt Lake City and Sundance January 2020

Jan. 23- Flight to SLC via Atlanta

On the flight C and I watched “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. I particularly liked the cars from 1968, the old TV clips from the westerns, the interposition of Leo into “The Great Escape”, the sound track, and references to the other shows. It was amazing how the movie maker got a very close lookalike for a cameo of the late Steve McQueen. I wish I could remember more of the book “Helter Skelter” but I do remember the house on the hill on Cielo Drive and the Spahn Ranch scene. That scene in the movie felt very much like the ominous hippie scene it was meant to as well as an homage to western back lots. Like Al Pacino in the movie, I see nothing wrong with spaghetti westerns.

When we got to SLC, we met Michael just for a minute before he went on out to Park City and we went to our hotel in the middle of a well populated down town, the Kimpton Monaco. The desk clerk referred us to a “healthy” restaurant called Lamb’s Grill right across the street. Unfortunately for us and for the restaurant, after being in operation 100 years, it closed permanently in 2019. Not knowing anywhere else to go we went back across Main Street to Murphy’s Bar, with a sign outside that said “ a step down in dining”. There weren’t many folks in there, a table of native Americans doing shots and perhaps a couple of others, but the burger and beer were good.

Friday, Jan. 24- For brunch we went to Molly and Ollie’s, which is a semi Cava kind of place with scrambles and granola bowls to order. We liked it so much we went back 2 more times.

Then we drove 45 minutes or so to Park City. It took us quite a while to find a parking place, very far from town at Richardson Flats, but with a convenient bus to the Festival HQ, then another bus to the Main Street Transit Center and the Egyptian Theater for the world premiere of “Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets”, produced by Michael’s DoMP among others. It is about the final closing of a bar in Las Vegas and the party its denizens had to celebrate the closing on November 11, 2016. The characters reminded me of the ones on Cannery Row, a little grubby, a lot inebriated, and very lovable. One in particular, Mike, had a craggy face that could be on Mount Rushmore- he says he is 58 and looks 70, but since I’m 70, I’d say add a few more. 

Michael and The Department of Motion Pictures' Trifecta at Sundance this year:

The film was generally well received but was also a bit controversial since it was entered, at the request of Sundance, in the documentary competition even though it was technically not a documentary in that the characters were playing themselves, unscripted, in an 18 hour long shoot, but the facade was Vegas while the bar scenes were shot in NOLA at the Roaring 20s bar.

For our third bar in two days we went to the after party and met many of Michael’s team as well as the Ross Bros. Michael raised most of the money, with an angel coming in to help at the end. It cost about $350 to make and I am not sure whether it is anything but low attendance art house material, but very good nonetheless, just not my subject matter.

I must add there were some pretty funny moments such as when an old woman flashes her boobs to the crowd and asserts they are good boobs for an old woman, when an African American veteran says Trump will either be impeached or shot, and when one patron says he is a good sometimes step dad or sometimes a good step dad.

On the way back we had a little bit of snow.

Saturday, Jan. 25- Molly and Ollie again. C at first expressed not much interest in seeing any of the Mormon sites but at breakfast I read to her about the Mormans and she got a little more interested. We walked to Temple Square and visited Brigham Young’s Beehive House, which was the first site of the government of Utah Territory and the LDS church. BY lived there with one of his 54 wives (he had something like 57 children by 17 of the wives, many kept next door). One of our fellow tourists’ Moms lived in the Beehive House during a period when it was converted into a boarding house. The party line now seems to be BY was an early advocate of women rather than taking advantage of them. It was pointed out that Utah was one of the first states to have women’s suffrage, way before the 19th amendment. Why not let women vote since BY could command how they vote?

Then we drove to Park City, feeling a lot better about how to handle the parking and bus system to get around.

Today’s world premiere was the second of DoMP’s entrants at Sundance this year called “Farewell Amor”. This is the story of an immigrant family from Angola, torn apart by the wars and then reunited in NYC after 17 years. It was beautifully directed and cast by a Tanzanian woman and the story was gripping and lovely. This was also the most conventionally plotted and filmed of the three movies we saw. I hope this one gets bought and shown widely and does well at the box office. However these days the movies are all about superheroes so I don’t know what will happen.

Sunday, Jan. 26 was the climax of our visit. It started with a walk up to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra radio show “Music and the Spoken Word” in a theater with 21000 seats and about 250 in the choir and 85 in the orchestra. Unbelievable and beautiful!!

In Park City today’s movie was Benh Zeitlin’s first movie since “Beasts” again produced by DoMP among others, Wendy. It is a deconstruction and then reconstruction of Peter Pan, shot in NOLA, Montserrat, and Mexico with a couple of the same actors as in “BNEP” and with an incredibly photogenic 12 or so year old as Wendy. The movie played to a home crowd and was well received as expected. I thought of (leaving out all the “s around the titles) Goonies, Moby Dick, Princess Bride, Lord of the Flies, and maybe a few more movies while watching. As the credits rolled by at the end I noted there was a cast and crew of hundreds involved. For just the “olds” there must have been 50 and Michael said he had to audition each and every one. For reviews of BNEP and Wendy, I’d suggest Indiewire, Hollywood Reporter  (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/bloody-nose-empty-pockets-review-1272822) or Variety.

Needless to say, the pizza party with the cast and crew afterwards was a joyous affair.

Monday, Jan. 27- When checking in our rental car, the attendant noticed a crack in the windshield- $500. We watched Parasite on the way home- funny, clever, and then a very dark turn.