To Anonymous

I took down my post about the documentary Tabloid.  I am not a journalist and made a mistake in saying in my review that Ms. McKinney was on parole in England.  The documentary led the audience to believe that she was somehow released out of jail in England but awaiting some follow-up legal action and fled the country in disguise.  So I guess if they use the same legal jargon I should have said she was out on bail (?)  Nevertheless, no matter what I think about the entire situation, from the beginning to the end of the documentary I never thought she harmed that missionary in any way and I am certainly not and never will be a member of the LDS church.

So anonymous, I was shocked to get this comment on my blog post:

NOTICE OF INTENT TO SUE: Consider this official notice that your article has been turned over to Ms. McKinney's libel attorneys and that you are going to be sued for the false and defamatory comments you made about her as well as for Reckless Disregard for Truth, a facet of her libel actions toward you and others who contune to spread the Mormon press hoax. First of all, as a Christian girl with high moral standards, SHE WAS NEVER CHARGED AND THUS NOT CONVICTED OF RAPING A 300 pound 6'5 inch Mormon! And since she was never even convicted, she is certainly not "on parole", as you LIED in saying! What a dishonest ignorant person you are! You have commited Criminal Libel and can actually be arrested for what as well as a civil suit lodged against you, which we plan to do. And by the way, are you a member of the Mormon CULT yourself? Hundreds of books and ex-Mormons KNOW they are a cult, are you really that stupid that you think they are a "religion?"


Since my review is no longer posted, here's a link to what Roger Ebert had to say as well as what the Salt Lake Tribune said about the screening that I saw.

One of the Scariest Experiences Ever

So far I am loving the Screenwriter's Project.  I've met with my mentor once and she gave me some great tips.  It has got to be one of the best feelings in the world when you write something and someone describes what they took away from it and it is EXACTLY what you wanted to convey. 

We had our first peer group meeting.  We've been broken up into smaller groups of 10 to meet on a monthly basis and have what we've written so far read aloud to the group.  Act One outlines are what we are currently working on.  First off, I loved hearing everyone's ideas.  There were a few that just by hearing the Act One outline I'd so buy a ticket to see.  My outline was the last to be read and I stared at my shoes the whole time.  The feedback was so helpful and it inspired me to re-work a few things.  One of my peers said they didn't know where the story was going to go and she was excited to hear the rest.  Of course because I'm slightly OCD that night I dreamt about that like it was the biggest pressure of my life.

Can't wait for next month's meeting! 

Volunteering for Sundance - It Begins

Last weekend was my first weekend volunteering for the Sundance Film Festival. I worked in the box office in Park City. If you live in Summit County, which is where Park City is located, you can register for a timeslot to purchase tickets early. When I arrived for my shift at the box office on Saturday, I was shocked at the number of people. During my shift I probably checked the IDs of about 500 people. The other volunteers were great to work with, especially the veterans who shared lots of festival tips with me. Park City residents in general are posh and usually not year round residents, but just come for ski season. Many of them queued for their tickets directly off the ski slopes still wearing some of their gear.  I've never been to Park City during ski season and when I left the box office on Saturday night and walked down Main Street it had an energy that I'd never experienced there before.  It's really a great place to visit.


Today I’m off to help set up the headquarters for the festival in Park City. I have some additional training to attend this week and they are screening some of the films for volunteers before the festival which I plan to attend. Everything officially kicks off on Thursday and I can’t wait!

If you’re interested in reading about the films being shown at the festival or the festival itself, go here.

A Few Movie Suggestions

Driving to Idaho the other day reminded me a ton of the desolate scenery in the movie Winter’s Bone. I didn’t know after I watched it what I thought of it but I’ve thought about it quite a few times since then so it certainly made an impact. Besides catching up on old seasons of The Office and 30 Rock, I’ve watched a few good documentaries.


Here are some recommendations…

Banksy’s documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop

Chris Rock’s Good Hair

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

I also watched the controversial Joaquin Phoenix documentary I’m Still Here but I wouldn’t say I recommend it. It’s got some brilliant moments but most of it is hard to sit through.  His hair alone kept me interested.  It always makes me laugh when someone faces the world with bed head.

Films in Utah

I was on the fence about going to see 127 Hours. It is set in Canyonlands which we visited on Labor Day weekend and there’s been a lot of press surrounding it because some of it was filmed here. Saturday morning, A wanted to waste her allowance to see Harry Potter once again so I told her I’d go see another movie and in I went. What a tense film! I found myself curled up in a ball looking through my hands during a lot of it. And then at the end I burst into tears and I think it was tears of relief. Danny Boyle did an amazing job bringing the story to screen. It’s really inventive. Since I’m not a nature girl, I did think at the beginning, what was this guy thinking, going off in such a remote place by himself? I don’t understand the mind of the adrenaline junkie at all. Here he went through hell and it all could have been avoided. Nevertheless, the story is really moving.


I’m starting to get back into movies again. I picked up a book from the library called When Hollywood Came to Town: A History of Moviemaking in Utah by James V. D’Arc. I had no idea how many films have been shot here. Southern Utah was the Mecca for westerns in the 40s and 50s. As all three of us sat in the living room and I was reading this book, I read one of my favorite facts aloud. The famous warehouse dance sequences in Footloose were filmed very close to here! I told A that we are definitely going to check that out. You probably heard her groan.

While folks all across this great land are preparing for Christmas, my mind is firmly looking towards January. With Park City just a short drive from here, I signed up to volunteer for the Sundance Film Festival and I absolutely can’t wait. The woman who interviewed me for the gig said that no one on staff is star struck. I need to practice my game face in case I see Mr. Redford himself.

J's Pick - Nowhere Boy

This film was out in England before we left. I was wondering why it took so long to come here and then I read that they wanted the release date to coincide with Lennon’s 70th birthday. A. came with me and I didn’t know if she’d like it. She did. Her comments afterwards made me laugh.  Here they are:


1. Why can’t boys these days have cool hair like that? Mid-film Lennon starts sporting a rockabilly pompadour. As I’ve said before about boys today, it isn’t the golden age of hair for sure.

2. There’s a scene in the film where the family is eating fish and chips. Oh to go to the chippy again!

Now I Gotta Cut Loose

Having a child is sometimes like what I imagine it would be like if an alien landed on earth and you had to describe our strange human customs. It is part of the joy of parenthood to watch your child experience things for the first time. I’ve especially loved watching A’s reaction to some of my favourite movies and I’ve noticed, sometimes describing plotlines instead of just screening the film make them seem ridiculous. I had that experience once when living in Germany and talking to my sister-in-law in the U.S. She and my brother had just gone to see Edward Scissorhands. As soon as she said something like there’s this guy and he has scissors for fingers I didn’t hear anything else she said. I was thinking, really? This is popular? You liked it? However, now anytime I pass Edward Scissorhands on the telly I always stop and watch.


One of the movie channels has been running a promo for their 80’s movie month and they always show a clip from Footloose. A. mentioned that they were currently remaking that film and she asked me if it was any good. I had a flashback at that very moment laughing about Footloose with my friends J & T. J said any movie when someone dies in a “rock-related accident” is, I can’t remember what he said afterwards because I was laughing so hard. So I start describing the plot to A. and explaining that when I was her age it was THE most popular movie and I remember loving it. Her response was, “It sounds like crap”. So once again, maybe I should have avoided the description.

Fast forward two days later and we are in the store and guess what’s on the shelf for £3? Footloose on DVD. I pick it up and tell her that now our Saturday night entertainment is sorted and she will watch it. Begrudgingly she half-watched it as she IM’d a friend. As the music started I told her that the soundtrack was my favourite and she groaned, “Oh you sad-o”. Hahahahaha

Watching it from start to finish now, gosh that movie is awful! Not just for the ridiculous plotline and the heavy-handed rebel with a cause lead character, but how about the violence towards women! Hopefully the remake will not have an ex-boyfriend beating up his ex to have her run to her new boyfriend instead of maybe I don’t know, the police? So in this case watching it or explaining it, both bad propositions.

I’ve been totally stressed out at work lately. Maybe I need to find an abandoned mill, turn up the jams and dance my way out of it.

We Needed a Little Hollywood...

but we got a lot of London with it. February has been all about work and other drudgery and the weather has been really cold and basically the pits. Some mornings H and I have time to have a cup of coffee and catch up but it’s never long enough these days. Yesterday he was sharing some work annoyances that had me laughing out loud. Sometimes all we can hope for is that our work misery is amusing to someone else. Think of all the great comedy born from someone’s tragedy! My favourite quote about his work lately was that he figured the whole point behind fine dining is to allow the diner to avoid chewing. Everything is pureed, foamed, whipped, etc.

Anyway, so because of February being February, A and I took the train after she got out of school yesterday to go see if we could see a glimpse of Johnny Depp at the world premiere of Alice in Wonderland in Leicester Square. A is just a tad bit obsessed with him in Sweeney Todd, which I’m wondering, should I be concerned by that? :)

There were sooo many people. In fact I have never seen that many people in Leicester Square which is usually swarming with tourists. As we stood there I was counting the languages that I heard: Spanish, Italian, Polish, German, French, and Cockney. Of course you would hear this string of foreign words and then “Johnny Depp” somewhere in the middle. The cockney was a dad whose daughter was standing next to A and would not give up waiting for a glimpse of the celebrities after it was pretty certain they were not going to come as far as where we were standing. His words were something like, “Bloody hell Elizabeth, I’m standing out in this blasted rain any longer!” Yes, it was raining, and cold, and well English. So any Hollywood glitz and glamour was soggy like our shoes. The screams from the crowd were, in A’s terms “Epic”. At one point when Johnny looked to maybe be heading down the line of people close to A a woman yelled out a very serious “JOHNNNNNNNNNNNNYYYYYYYYY”. It sounded a little like a very loud coyote. This prompted a guy standing next to me to double over in laughter.

We thought about heading to Chinatown for dinner before taking the train home but we were both soaked to the bone. The thought of sitting in a restaurant didn’t appeal so we headed home for some hot cocoa.

Julie and Julia

While I was in America last week I found time to go to the movies and see Julie and Julia. Julie Powell has lived a blogger’s dream, a book deal and then a movie deal! I really enjoyed the film, especially Julia’s story, what a love story.

Maybe I should have written a companion blog to Julie's which would have been called "Washing the Dishes and Eating While Someone Else Masters The Art of French Cooking".

To Kill a Mockingbird

The neighboring village has a multi-purpose theatre that shows concerts, plays, and films and the films usually only run for one night. When I was here alone I would go often to see whatever they were showing and what I like about their selection is that it is not usually a Hollywood blockbuster but some quiet world cinema selection. The fact that the movie shows for just one night also makes the experience a little more special than your average cinema experience. I noticed on their website that they were screening To Kill a Mockingbird this week for one night and I told A that I didn’t care if she wanted to go or not she was going with me. I didn’t think I could get her to read the book but because the adaptation is so good, I wanted her to see the film. To Kill A Mockingbird was the first “required reading for school” book that I ever read that I fell in love with. It opened up a whole new world to me and for that reason, I will always love it. I bought a used copy last year here at a charity shop before I went home for Christmas and when I took it to the counter the sarcastic clerk said something to me like “and you always wanted to read it right?” It was blasphemy! Don’t get sarcastic about Atticus Finch!

A was in quite a mood this week, for reasons she wouldn’t share so when the night arrived to go see the film, I gave her the choice of going or not because I didn’t want the experience ruined. She went with me. The movie was being shown as part of a fair-trade film festival and I couldn’t get the connection. Before the film one of the organizers explained that they were showing the film because it was about injustice, but before the film started they wanted to run a short about fair trade cotton production. When the short began I turned to A and said “You studied fair trade at school recently didn’t you?” And her response was, with absolute disgust, “Yeah and it was boring there too”. I started laughing which made her realize just what a pain in the neck she was being which also made her laugh. The mood lightened significantly.

The theatre was packed and in spite of the print of the film being in really poor shape (it even snapped at the crucial Walter Cunningham syrup scene and had to be mended) everyone thoroughly enjoyed it. I guess I was surprised to see so many Brits come out for a movie about injustice in the American South. I got teary eyed during those beautiful opening credits. On the way home A did tell me that she really liked it and was glad she went. Obviously the stories transformative powers worked on her too.

Sex and the City is Big Here Too

In an attempt to stay awake after a redeye flight back, I went to see the Sex and the City movie yesterday. I was afraid that a dark movie theatre would put me to sleep. The film had the opposite affect on me. It’s the second weekend for the movie here and the theatre was packed with only a few men here and there. I think me and the woman sitting next to me might have been the only women who didn’t come with at least three of her closest friends.

My Friends Are Back!

After T and J visited Paris and Amsterdam they made one more stop in London arriving Saturday morning for two days. We had a fun day walking around the secondhand shops and relaxing in one of the coffee shops. After many days of sightseeing they were ready for a slower pace so we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, which wasn’t the best of the lot but wasn’t awful either. At some point in the movie Indiana Jones mentions the crystal skull that is housed in the British Museum and I wanted to shout out, “Hey, I’ve seen that!”

Perfect Marketing

Stopped by Blockbuster to rent a movie Friday night and to my surprise, when I took P.S. I Love You up to the counter, I was told I got a chocolate bar for renting it. Is that perfect marketing or what: a chick flick and chocolate. Unfortunately both of them were so so.

I would have preferred to watch Million Dollar Baby again sans chocolate.

What the Hell, Oscar?

So I watched “No Country for Old Men” on the plane. My buddy C had sent me an email about a month ago saying she didn’t like it and I agree with her. I’m really glad I didn’t spend £12.50 to see it! I think I’ve enjoyed watching the trailer for the upcoming Indiana Jones trailer more than that entire film.

Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens

I scored a pass to a screening of a documentary on Saturday in London called Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens. After doing some research, it looks like this documentary ran on PBS just last year but is just being released here in 2008. I really love Annie’s work, and the documentary which was produced by her sister, did an excellent job of not just focusing on the fact that Annie has taken a lot of pictures of celebrities. It was also about her documenting her relationships and her family history. At times the audience laughed and at times we cried. Early in the documentary Annie explains that at some point in her life she realized she loved to travel and see new places and things and being a woman on her own, if she had a camera in her hand, she had a purpose.

If you are a fan of her work or photography in general, do see this. Here is also a link to one of her most famous photographs, the picture of John and Yoko taken just hours before John was murdered.

Juno

My friend T gave this a thumbs up, which usually means I'll like it too. I laughed out loud several times and teared up in the end. What a terrific cast!

Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office) has a cameo at the beginning of the film as the cashier at a convenience store that had me laughing from the beginning. I was hoping it wouldn't go downhill from there and it didn't.

As Juno shakes her positive pregnancy test results in front of Rainn, he says:

"That ain't no etch-a-sketch. This is one doodle that can't be un-did, homeskillet."

Discover America

As I took the train out of London to Hampton Court Palace last Saturday I saw two billboards for for www.DiscoverAmerica.com. The first one was a still from the movie Thelma and Louise with the ladies riding in their convertible, and the beautiful desert landscape behind them. The other, which I took a picture of, but it was blurry, was a still from Forrest Gump where Forrest and the nurse are sitting on the bench talking about George Wallace. The slogan on both of the billboards reads, “You’ve Seen the Film, Now Visit The Set”.

My buddy B HATES the movie Thelma and Louise. She can't get past what idiots the women are to appreciate that this is Brad Pitt’s first movie. I don’t feel that strongly about it, but I have a terrible crush on Brad Pitt so a multitude of sins can be forgiven in one of his films. But, while the scenery in that movie is just beautiful, I can’t help but think of the plot and don't know if watching it I could get past that to think, wow I want to visit that place if I were a foreigner. As for Forrest Gump, I don’t know what to say about that one, except even though Greenbow, Alabama is a fictional place, I love that in the end Alabama is the safe haven, the place in the film where everything makes sense. They don't call it Alabama The Beautiful for nothin!

Sweeney Todd - The Film

Sweeney Todd has fascinated me since I saw the commercials for the national production with Angela Lansbury when it came through Chicago many many years ago. You mean there’s a musical about what? After listening to the audiowalk I had to see the film. If you like musicals, definitely see it. Johnny Depp is always a box office draw for me, but also the art direction and the costumes are really good. It is a bloody film but it is mostly done in a very theatrical way so I didn’t find it as gory as I expected it to be.

An Untimely Death

I drifted off to an early sleep last night and then work up sometime between 11 and midnight. My laptop always close by, I checked my email and my friend M from Alabama had sent me an email about the recent Heath Ledger announcement. I was shocked. M and I used to go to movies quite often when we lived in the same state and we had both become a fan of Heath’s long before Brokeback Mountain. I had recently emailed her asking if she had seen the trailers for the new Batman movie because Heath looked amazing in it. How sad. In the digital age, it is amazing how speculation becomes fact. Me and my buddy K sat online comparing the news outlets’ coverage of the story. You could actually watch coverage of the crowd outside his apartment building on gawker.com and long before any of the other outlets were painting a picture of a troubled life, The Daily Mail was stating that a heroin addiction was the problem. What is really true?

Ashridge Business School

Yesterday, L took me out to show me the neighboring town of Berkhamsted, which I really liked. She decided to take the scenic route back and we found ourselves in some beautiful woods with lots of bright green moss growing on everything. Out in the middle of nowhere we stumbled upon the Ashridge Business School. Not knowing what it was, L stopped and struck up a conversation with the security guard who told us a little bit about the school, and also how some of one of the Harry Potter films were filmed here as well as part of Lee Marvin’s The Dirty Dozen. What a find!