Essays

Experience Sundance 2012: Final Movies, Fond Farewells, and ‘Nerd Prom’

By  · Published on January 29th, 2012

As Kate said in her wrap up from yesterday, the closer you get to the end of a festival, the more likely you ending up hitting that wall where it seems like you just cannot do anything more. But you do, because it’s Sundance, and yes you’re exhausted, but you’re also almost done. The last day of the festival is also always the most bittersweet since you say goodbye to friends and colleagues you sometimes get to see but once a year while at the same time the promise of your own (warm) bed, sleep and three real meals a day is so close you can almost taste it. Luckily my first (and last) screening of the day wasn’t until noon so I was able to sleep in a bit and eat a real meal (i.e. a delicious breakfast sandwich and a carafe of coffee) before heading to the Eccels theater, one of the biggest venues at the festival, for 2 Days In New York, making my final screening feel as epic as the end of the festival itself.

2 Days In New York is Julie Delpy’s sequel to 2 Days In Paris and actually ended up being one of the funnier films I saw this week (please keep in mind that I was sadly unable to catch either Safety Not Guaranteed or Sleepwalk With Me.) Chris Rock’s performance stood out to me the most (especially his scenes with “Barack Obama”) while the chaos of Marion’s (Delpy) French family invading the New York apartment she now shares with Mingus (Rock) got funnier the more things spun out of control. It was a nice note to end the week on, made even better by being surrounded by friends (Kate, Katey Rich, Ben Pearson and Jordan Hoffman) during the screening (like I said, things get a bit cheesy once goodbyes and “this is the last time I will…” start becoming a reality.)

After the film, Kate and I played a little game we like to all the “hotel shuffle” where we get kicked out of the condo we have been staying in all week and jump over to a Holiday Inn located in close proximity to the Closing Night party venue. It surprisingly felt weird to spend the remainder of the afternoon writing in silence (as Kate was off at her last screening) and I realized I had grown accustomed to writing with a bunch of people running around, talking, singing, rapping, laughing and the sudden quiet was actually really off-putting (i.e. I miss my condo-mates!) I’m not sure how this will translate when I am back home and writing solo once again, but it is good to know that I have honed a good “drown out the noise” skill that should (hopefully) serve me well in the future.

Tonight will be the festival’s Closing Night Party, also known as “Nerd Prom” (as coined by Brandon Rowher, one of Sundance’s publicists for the Spotlight and Park City at Midnight programming), where basically everyone left at the festival from filmmakers to programmers to critics get together to drink, dance and cling to those we know we will not be seeing for a while. I am sure Kate will have more details and hilarious stories about the goings-on that will surely happen at this event tomorrow as we look back on the past week, but for now I am going to try and convince myself that while thermal leggings and jeans barely kept me warm last night, tights and a skirt will definitely keep me warm tonight. In twenty degree weather. We’ll see how this goes…

Tomorrow: Catching a 4:30am shuttle to airport, flight home, SLEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.

— –

Snuggle up with the rest of our Sundance 2012 coverage

Related Topics: