After almost a week at Sundance, I was finally able to sneak away from all the red carpets, happy hours, mixers, and parties and see an actual movie at Sundance! Had I known that the Library theater was so close to our condo, I would have snuck away sooner!

What I saw was Never Forever, directed by Gina Kim, and starring Vera Farmiga, Jung-Woo Ha, David McInnis, and Hwa-Si Lee.

Never Forever was a really good movie. I do think that the acting was not on the same level across the board, but in the end a really enticing story and even better Q&A after the showing.

The movie starts with Sophie, a pampered Caucasian housewife, married to an Asian American man. As they encounter difficulties in their lives, she places all her hopes on conceiving a child to make them happy, and even resorts to desperate measures by undergoing a desperate arrangement with another Asian American man. There are so many issues brought up with this movie! The foremost in my mind has to do with the fact that there are two Asian American men in this movie, and they're portrayed as strong and virile. That is so awesome to see! It's interesting to see what people will do for love. It's interesting to analyze Sophie's character, from her actions to her outfits. And the ending just brings up a couple different possibilities. There's a lot to think about with this movie, and even more with the awesome Q&A! Make sure to check it out if you get the chance!

Hey guys,

Sundance was a flippin blast! We had a great time. Efren actually got to drive a car up Main Street... and here is the proof in video form...

The Red Ford was a huge hit, as you can see by the crowds clamoring to be photographed with RedFord!

Check out high-res photos of our road trip, with additional photos!

I've been home a week slowly thawing out various body parts and enjoying not having to wear long underwear under my clothing every day. Amazingly enough - I'm still following sundance films at the awards unravel and was extremely happy to run across this little nugget earlier today.

You all know how much I loved Teeth and especially Jess Weixler's performance. Apparently I'm not alone as today she was given a special award from the U.S. Dramatic Jury for "a juicy and jaw-dropping performance" for her role in Teeth. I must say this is a very well deserved award as she delivered the best performance I saw while I was at Sundance.

I wish Teeth had gotten more awards this past week but I'm extremely happy to see Jess recognized for her superb performance in this film. See - I wasn't completely crazy when I told you to go see a movie about a woman equipped with a lethal genital mutation.
Just partially.

Can somebody please show me the door!
Sundance Festival, nocturnal emissions
by raymond leon roker

As much as I hate to make it about one spot during such a phenomenally packed week, Main Street institution Harry O's reigned supreme during this week's Sundance. Again. Highlights of the week include the Pharrell and Mos Def performance at night two of the Tao/MySpace parties (bailed on by me for, ahem, 30 Seconds To Mars down the street); Akon and Nelly at the Blender/Tao Sessions, proving that if you can make the ladies dance, you will win the hearts of the guys too; and Nas allegedly made a stop on Wednesday night but I was beyond burned out by then. Were you there?

Contenders for the performance(s) of the week were Zion-I (totally dope, on point and completely underrated) and Talib Kweli smashing it at the X-Dance party on Tuesday night. Maybe it was the fact that the X-Dance crowd weeded out some of the hyper fake deal-making losers VIPs and welcomed real fans (at $40 a ticket though!) to Park City's high profile venue. After hustling in to the upstairs balcony thanks to my man J. Swartz, the whole show seemed to go into overdrive. Talib dropped his rhymes over his RIAA taunting loop of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby ("I look at all the lonely people") to a rawkus raucous and packed house. And almost as a real-life affirmation of my July/August 2005 editorial, dirty southerner David Banner joined "intelligent" hip-hop's Kevin Bacon on stage in a statement of universal rap harmony. Sure, Banner was there pushing his budding film career, but the symbolism was beautiful. And to cap the night off exquisitely, Talib, summoned breakers, dancers and a rainbow coalition of drunk snow bunnies up onto the stage for a Rocky Mountain version of American Bandstand. God was smiling.

Check out Hollywood Party Girl's column on E! Online:

http://www.eonline.com/gossip/partygirl/index.jsp

Hello Everyone,
The Hollyscoop girls are back home in Hollywood. We have to say we had the best time in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival. We wanted to thank you all for checking out our posts. We have one last Sundance post for you guys and its on video so make sure to check it out! Dont forget to get all the latest scoop on Entertainment, Fashion and Hot spots on our website HOLLYSCOOP.COM

ENJOY!
THE HOLLYSCOOP GIRLS

….and now a brief interlude to dish on the much anticipated SWAG (“sh@t / stuff we always get”) suites of Sundance. Here’s a quick overview of our personal favs:
Project Green House – my personal fav and one that VeeV would certainly like to be included among next go around…as the name suggests it was all eco-friendly stuff like Lexus Hybrid, bath products from Lush, Sambazon Acai juice, and Steaz organic drinks
Kari Feinstein’s Style Lounge – always a staple at Sundance, Kari didn’t disappoint with a very well done suite that included iMac, Hanes, Netflix, Rubber Ducky, Serendipity Chocolates, and some custom t-shirt and jewelry designers
American Eagle – our girl Rachel Krupa did a great job with this one…mostly girl’s stuff, but cute little shorts, fundies (fun + undies = fundies), hoodies, etc. They even had comped massages for the big celebs…and the whole staff was really friendly and outgoing
ESPN Lounge – not much SWAG, but def a sportslover’s dream. Our girl Brooke Ensign rolled out the red carpet and took care of us…even had video games upstairs
Airborme Lounge – kinda silly, but as the name suggests there was certainly lots of Airborne to go around…they even put it in alcohol and tea!
The Ultimate Green Lounge – another eco-friendly house…a bit smaller than Project Green House but Nicole was a consummate host and showed us a lot of great products geared towards the green consumer
Maruqee / Tao Lounge – hosted by the good folks at Strategic Group, this was a very high end lounge that had some great jeans, Lacoste gear, and a host of other high end stuff
Village at the Lift / Hpnotiq – this little complex had a lot of stuff going on all week and was a collaboration of a bunch of people. More than a regular gifting suite, this was a great place to have happy hour drinks, watch the football games, and just generally convene or take a break from the cold on Main St.

Hey guys, I just finished up at a Slamdance screening of The Path Of Most Resistance and The Visitor. I loved both films. The Path of Most Resistance is the shortest feature film ever in Slamdance. It stars Spencer Grammer and Tim Rouhana. Spencer definitely has an amazing career ahead of her. There is another screening of the film this Thursday at 12:30PM.

We also went Off Roading with VW a few miles outside of Park City with Chris Barrett and Chris Lux. It was pretty sweet man. If you have the means of off roading do it!! But be smart, go with a professional. They are sending me a link to the video in a few weeks so I'll post it on my page when I get it.

Tonight is my last night in Park City. I am DJing again tonight at the Media House at 570 Main so if you're around please come check it out.

I have a shoot for my documentary tomorrow in Salt Lake City and then I head out to the airport and back to LA for a few days. Chris will take over the posts for the rest of the week!!

If a little blond girl in a purple jacket bumped into you yesterday running up the hill of main street - I apologize. It was me trying to make it to the screening of Noise at the Egyptian.

So far all of my movie experiences here at Sundance have been positive ones. I should have known it was too good to be true. Noise is billed as a murder mystery, which it is, but.......it really drags on and on and on and never really wraps up.
It just kind of ends abruptly.

And it definitely lives up to it's name of Noise. Matthew Saville - the writer and director - does a good job utilizing sounds to create an atmosphere and dynamic, but at times goes a bit overboard. I'm hoping it was just the sound system in the Egyptian that couldn't handle the output, but some parts of the movie turned into an assault on your ears!

Several times I found myself bored watching the movie and lulled into a nice relaxed state about to doze off when I was startled awake by a loud noise. Now while this helped to keep me awake for the entire move - it got annoying when the sounds continued on and on and on and at high levels.

I suppose I should give a quick synopsis of the movie so you have a bit of an idea what I'm talking about.

There's a massacre on a commuter train in a small town in Australia with one lone girl surviving. A few days later while the town is still reeling from this, a girls body is discovered in a culvert. The bullets from the massacre and this new body are linked to the same gun.
In the meantime - there's a police officer who suffers from a chronic hearing problem, Tinnitus (ringing in the ears), who asks for workers comp but ends up being stationed in a "caravan" (aka a trailer)near the second crime scene for "light duty". He interacts with the locals and gets to know the people and see how these two tragedies effect them.

It really just kind of drags from there with a little focus on a few minor characters. You never find out who did it, why they did it or anything of the like. I enjoyed the first 30 minutes of the movie, but found myself extremely bored for the rest of it.

On another completely unrelated topic - I found what could easily be classified as "the worst gringo mexican food I've ever eaten" as my friend so eloquently put it. I wont name the restaurant, but I will say it's a mexican joint in Park City and here's a view out the front door.