All good things must come to end, and so too must the Sundance Diaries. But we’ve still got a bit of recapping and general merriment to delve in to, so let’s do so now. (If you want to catch up on previous days, do so here.)

For the first time in the fest I didn’t set an alarm. I slept in! This was because day four had little to offer, morning movie-wise. It was pleasant to wake up and do a little writing, catching up to the point where I was only 48 hours behind. I ended up watching a little bit of the Cardinals-Eagles game before heading over to the Yarrow Hotel to see Paper Hearts. Actually, if you want to read about everything I’ve personally reviewed you can use this handy chart:

Reviews

500 Days of Summer = A (review)

Passing Strange = A (review)

Taking Chance = A (review)

Paper Heart = B- (review)

The September Issue = C+ (review)

Spring Breakdown = D+ (review)

Big Fan = D+ (review)

src=”http://i.realone.com/assets/rn/img/2/2/3/2/25532322-25532327-thumbnail.jpg” alt=”Paper Hearts” width=”104″ height=”142″ align=”right” hspace=”6″/>So as you can see, day four brought us a middling Paper Heart and one of my favorite movies of the festival that you’ll actually see in theaters one day, 500 Days of Summer. I also saw The Greatest, with Pierce Brosnan and Susan Sarandon, both of whom were really weak in what ended up being a bad film. It had all kinds of logical issues and tended towards the melodramatic. However, I’ll agree with Jeffrey Wells — Carey Mulligan was the most impressive actor I saw at the festival, even though her movie was awful. I actually got into a little discussion with Wells on Taking Chance in the lobby of the Yarrow. His take is that the film was right-wing propaganda; my take was that it was a well done and focused film. So it looks as though we’re agreeing to disagree. And the beat goes on. One of the fun things about attending the Sundance Film Festival is arguing movies with people who have seen a ton of them. You’ve really got to sharpen your arguments or else you’ll get run over.

Day five ended with the nightmare that was Arlen Faber. Wow, is that a disappointing film, given the cast and concept. They’ve got Jeff Daniels, Kat Dennings, Lou Taylor Pucci and Lauren Graham. Daniels is a reclusive writer who penned an iconic religious philosophy book twenty years prior. The opening of the film shows promise, as every wacko in the world clearly wants to meet Arlen Faber (Daniels). But the entire piece goes off the rails when it takes faulty premise after faulty premise and runs with them. There are weird edits, characters with little depth, and then a poor resolution. So, yeah, it was super duper. I did have a nice moment in the hall right after the film, as I, Eric D. Snider, Erik Childress and a few other fellow critics talked about the film for 15 minutes, each trying to top the other for a punchline.

The next morning (bonus day six coverage!!) I saw Bill Heder in the Yarrow Hotel Lobby. I forced him to give me an interview because I’m an SNL fiend. He was there to promote Adventureland, a film which is not getting good buzz at all. Still, he was cool, and we’ll be running the interview later today. This segues nicely to our buzz section:

Buzz I heard from random strangers:

Shrink isn’t good.

Humpday is.

The Carter, the story of Lil’ Wayne, is really good.

When You’re Strange has great Doors footage but is a little disjointed.

Moon has a big twist.

Brooklyn’s Finest has an odd ending, but some folks loved it.

I Love You Phillip Morris is a skip.

The Informers is also a skip.

Black Dynamite is great.

Tyson is interesting but self-serving.

It Might Get Loud is top notch.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I left Eric behind, so we’ll be covering Sundance throughout the week. Thanks for your participation, here’s one last video to keep you warm:

Tags: 500 days of summer, carey mulligan, kat dennings