A new year, new movies to look forward to. Are you excited? I am. Here are the upcoming films to be released in the next few months I am most looking forward to and/or what I recommend. Many of them represent the reunion of director-actor or actor-actor teams from well-known and successful past projects. Also included are related media and blog posts you may be interested in:
January 11
Gangster Squad: You know I’m a sucker for Ryan Gosling films and this one, a 40s/50s throwback to a time where smooth-talking gangsters ruled the streets, reunites him with Emma Stone and is one not to be missed. Anticipate This.
Zero Dark Thirty: Kathryn Bigelow has found a sweet spot with combining acting talent with stories of war. This one, focused on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, seems like it will even surpass her Oscar win (first female director in history) for The Hurt Locker.
Side Effects: A Soderbergh psychological thriller in the vein of Contagion that preys on our paranoia of mood-affecting drugs; it’s a follow up to Magic Mike for the Soderbergh-Tatum pair.
Day 1 [Jan 20]: I’m finally down in Park City again! After a drive into downtown, I reached the heart of it all. I love this cute little town. Most of the day I spent chilling on Main Street, specifically in the Sundance Channel HQ, Co-Op, and HP cafe/lounge. The cool thing about hanging out is getting the free stuff. The sponsors of Sundance are everywhere and since this is not my first time, I know where to go to get the swag - in lounges people keep coming up to me with trays of free snacks, the signature free festival water bottle (Sundance is green, folks), giveaways in the Co-Op, and people handing out free products on the streets. The best thing though is celeb spotting and I had some good ones. Now that I think about it, all of my really Main street sightings have been around the same place - at the corner of Heber and Main where the Entertainment Weekly Photo Studio sits. My first was being surprised by James Marsden walking towards me on the empty sidewalk (I think he was trying to find the studio). It shocked me firstly because I didn’t expect him to just be in front of me when I looked up from the phone and secondly because he is so much hotter in person. He stopped behind me so I got to snap a picture. I also ran into Anthony Mackie as I crossed the streetby the EW studio later that day and again around the same area later that evening. I do have a sort of connection to him as he is a friend of a friend. I’ll leave it at that ::smile:: I tried to see my first movie for this year’s festival through the waitlist, Celeste and Jesse Forever (starring Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg; about a a married couple in their early 30s who has been together since high school and decide to break up since they have not experience dating but try and remain friends) but unfortunately not a single person from the waitlist got in. That’s the risk you take when you don’t have a ticket, especially when it was the premiere of a movie. Better luck tomorrow, hopefully.
stoppe