10 Days at Sundance: Day 1

The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is here! Tens of thousands of filmmakers, actors, movie studio executives, cinephiles, PR reps. and party-goers have descended on Park City, Utah, a mountain town with a year-round average population below 10,000 ("year-round average," because the number of residents fluctuates between summer and winter). 

I'm here to report on the experience of attending the festival, specifically from the perspective of a local resident. True, I've been a "local resident" for only eight weeks, having , one of three mountain resorts in Park City. But my press credential's still current, meaning I have access to the films and after-parties – for free! 

To start, there are many residents who have mixed feelings about the festival. While they acknowledge that the event brings much-needed revenue to Park City and the State of Utah, they dislike the disruptions that inevitably come with Sundance: namely traffic on local roads, and overcrowded restaurants and bars. Imagine if more than 40,000 people descended onto Scotch Plains or Westfield every year for 10 days, and you'd get the idea. Forget about reservations at Ferraro's or the Stage House, for one – most locals would be having home-cooking for a week and a half.

On the other hand, Sundance offers an unparalleled opportunity to see dozens of movies at once – almost all by filmmakers bringing unique visions and approaches to the art form. 

The films are being screened at nine theaters in Park City, plus other venues in Salt Lake City and surrounding towns. Four are actual theaters or auditoriums, the rest are ballrooms or libraries that have been converted for screenings. One theater is dedicated entirely to separate screenings for members of the press and film industry. 

The Film: Wish You Were Here

After clocking-out from patrol Thursday, I rushed home, ate a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich for dinner, then hurried to a 7 p.m. screening of "Wish You Were Here," my first film at Sundance. 

The film is, in essence, "The Hangover" re-imagined as melodrama: two Australian couples spend a week vacationing in Cambodia, and after a night of drug- and alcohol-fueled partying, a member of their group mysteriously disappears. Rather than stick around Cambodia to find their friend, however, the remaining three vacationers return to their homes in Sydney, where they seek answers (and their lost friend's whereabouts) from afar. Nothing they discover is particularly happy.   

The movie stars Joel Edgerton, who played one of the mixed-martial-arts fighters in 2011's critically-acclaimed "Warrior." He and the actor portraying his on-screen wife, Felicity Price, each deliver strong, emotional performances. The movie, itself, is slickly edited, with sharp cuts between the group's holiday in Cambodia (browsing outdoor marketplaces, sampling local cuisine like barbecued crickets, dancing at a rave), and its struggles back home in Sydney.  

Ultimately, however, the film felt unfulfilling. After the movie's shocking, violent climax, followed swiftly by the closing credits, there seemed to have been little gained or learned by the audience, either emotionally or physically. 

Post-Film

There was a second press and industry film being screened at 10 p.m.: "Searching for Sugar Man." Instead, however, I decided to head downtown to see Main Street's transformation. Bars, restaurants, event spaces, and several vacant storefronts had been converted into festival-specific destinations, such as a Hewlett-Packard-sponsored cybercafe, and a cozy "Filmmaker's Lodge." One sports bar hosted a masquerade party, organized by festival-goers who have come to know one another by attending Sundance every year. 

Two fellow patrollers and I kept things low key, but Friday was shaping up to be riotous: a film after-party at 5:30 p.m., another after-party at 8:30 p.m., a performance by Wiz Khalifa, and then another party at midnight.

Every once in a while, it's good to be the press.