Park City Shuffle

Im heading off to Park City for Slamdance (and Sundance) on Wednesday at the crack o’ dawn. Second year of the competiton for Best Horror Screenplay. I wasn’t sure until just today whether I was actually going to go. I am going. And I am looking forward to it. I don’t know where I am going after that – whether I’ll go to LA or come back to NY. My plane booking is that I am coming back to NY. We will see though.

We’ve got some great screenplays coming in, and picking the best one isn’t going to be so easy. There are least three or four very strong candidates. I hope we (the judges/producers) can reach a consensus on the screenplay winner.

Speaking of movies (how rarely do I do that), I went to the National Board of Review screening of Cloverfield this past Friday. For the uninitiated, Cloverfield is a Godzilla type story which definitely evokes a 9/11 feel. It does so on purpose, without a doubt. I am not the sort of fellow who likes to give away the ending, so I won’t, although I think the marketing of it does so a bit. (Stop reading if you’re worried about any of that, though I am going to be very careful not to give anything away).

It’s an interesting film. Some of the photography is so bouncy at times, though, that I got a little bit nauseous about two thirds of the way through the movie. But other than that (and I was a bit hungover, juiced on caffeine and hadn’t eaten, so maybe it wasn’t totally just the jumpy handheld), I liked the movie, and was definitely entertained despite some script holes and goofiness.

It did feel, watching the film, like seeing some 9/11 stuff all over again. In its oblique approach to the events of 9/11, it was some how more affecting than some of the movies I’ve seen that directly discuss those events. I am not sure why – perhaps its just that I had more in common with the experiences of the characters in Cloverfield than in some of those other films. (I did find United 93 quite affecting, but maybe for different reasons).

Don’t read this and think that Cloverfield cannot be viewed as simple escapism and a monster movie. Most of the time, that’s exactly what it feels like. It doesn’t come across as a diatribe on politics or anything else, and given the topic, that’s definitely to its benefit.

America seems to agree, as its headed for a monstrous 50 million dollar opening. Yes, monstrous. Couldn’t resist.