Daily

The Chief Justice Roberts-President Barack Obama oath of office flubadub transcript.

Gregor Jordan‘s The Informers, based on Brett Easton Ellis ‘s 1994 book of the same name, is about as rancid and repellent as a movie of this sort gets. Set in 1983 Los Angeles, it makes you feel immensely sorry for the actors but mostly for yourself because you’re stuck watching it. I just came out of it; everyone I’ve spoken to about it (i.e, those who saw it with me at the Yarrow) looks pained and deflated — like they’ve got the flu.

I know that I will never ever watch another sleazy, poison-virus flick about a bunch of empty, drugged-up Hollywood zombies smoking too much, drinking too much, doing too much blow and boring the living shit out of the audience. That’s it — I’m done. The script, co-authored by Ellis and Nicholas Jarecki, is occasionally functional but more often flat and tedious; sometimes it’s repulsively stupid. It may be the worst Sundance movie I’ve ever seen — it’s certainly one of the biggest stinkers ever to show here.

I have to go catch Bronson now but this film made me want to puke. What a thing to watch after cheering Barack Obama‘s inauguration! Shame on everyone involved with this film except for Billy Bob Thornton, the only actor in this film who manages to exude at least a smidgen of dignity.

Barack Hussein Obama is now the President of the United States, and we’re all listening to the speech. But I was shocked, I have to say, that Chief Justice John Roberts managed to screw up the wording in the oath of office. The second stanza is supposed to go, “To faithfully execute the office of President of the United States,” and not “to execute the office of President of the United States faithfully,” as Roberts put it.

1.20.09, 10:01 am (Park City time)

A critic friend just told me I’m not missing very much by not being at this morning’s Eccles showing of Adventureland. But a producer friend who saw it last night said he “loved it…a more realistic version of 500 Days of Summer, which is much more stylized.”

N.Y. Times columnist/reporter David Carr (right profile, notepad), producer Albert Berger (Little Miss Sunshine).

Inside Spur Bar & Grill –1.20.09, 11:07 am

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Here’s a Twitter text post from last night: “Remember not to forget [that Steven] Soderbergh‘s The Girlfriend Experience sneak-screens tomorrow at Eccles Theatre at 6:15!” Well, maybe. But when I asked Soderbergh about the Girlfriend Experience rumor yesterday morning he said, “Where’d you hear that?” From everyone, I said. It’s just a rumor but it’s been passed all around. “Really?” he said. So what is going to happen on Tuesday? I asked. “All I’ve heard is showing some clips and my doing some talking,” he said.

Armando Iannucci‘s In The Loop played like gangbusters during yesterday’s press screening at the Yarrow. Here’s a link to my 1.13.09 rave and chat with Iannucci.

A portion of the Sundance critic and entertainment journo community will attend the Obama Inaugural breakfast viewing party that starts at 8 am. The invite said 8:30 but some of us leaned on publicist Mickey Cottrell to at least open the doors by 8. The gathering is partly in honor of Bill Benenson and Gene Rosow‘s Dirt!, a thoughtful, quietly stirring tutorial doc that I saw last night. Today, in any event, is the day. Here’s to a great speech and the turning of the page.

The gist of IFC’s breakfast news conference this morning was to announce the availability of day-and-date video on demand and festival premieres. There was also an announcement of a partnership with South by Southwest. Steven Soderbergh attended, partly to talk about Che going into video-on-demand and partly to discuss the basic viewing landscape out there. Here‘s part of what he said.

I received an email yesterday (or was it Saturday?) saying that Taking Chance director Ross Katz wanted to sit down and dispute my 40% positive, 60% negative review of his film and explain how I’d misunderstood it. I wrote back to say “cool, let’s do it, I’m game.” I respect any filmmaker who stands up and argues back. But that was the end of it from his end.

“You should really check out Don’t Let Me Drown at Sundance,” a guy just wrote me. “It’s by far the best movie here,” he said. How does he know that, and what dies “best” mean? I’ve heard good recommends from two others, but not along the lines of it being the mother of all 2009 Sundance flicks. I’m catching the press and industry screening at 6 pm — an hour from now.

MySpace Celebrity and Katalyst present The Presidential Pledge

You can’t do the kind of column I usually do (seven or eight stories daily, if not more) and see three films daily plus attend a social function at day’s end and get five or six hours in the sack — it just doesn’t work. One or the other has to suffer. And these eighteen-hour days wear you down after four or five days. Not so much physically as emotionally, psychologically.

It’s right around this time during Sundance — middle of the fifth day, three nights and two days to go — that the sum total of all the films you’ve missed and are likely to miss come crashing down upon you. And you begin to feel almost paralyzed. And if that isn’t enough to make you want to reach for medication, there’s also knowing that you’re not posting enough. (I’ve experienced or have been told about several intriguing things since last Thursday morning, and written about none of them.) On top of which is the presumption that HE’s Sundance readership tends to be a bit less because people don’t kow the movies, don’t relate, etc.

I’ll snap out of my funk before long. The process has already begun by writing this item.