01.25.07
Waitress
Well I’m back in Hyrum. I caught a cold that kicked my ass and piled on top of the Sundance atmosphere, which I discovered, is not really my scene – I scurried back to D’s house to hunker down and get better.
Been reading and snotting and sleeping a lot. But I’m guessing a few of you want to know more about Sundance. I did stand in line one night for three hours to get in to a movie called ‘Waitress’. I was already feeling the sickness so I was pretty unresponsive to the crowd around me feeling that I could fall onto the pavement and take a 100 year nap and just let people step over my body to get to Nathan Fillion.
I adored the movie actually. Not my favorite appearance by Capt Tightpants, but he was still adorable. In fact of all the movies I hoped to score tickets to, Waitress and Slipstream were the two I made the trip to Park City for. So I’m glad I got to see it.
Last summer I saw the movie title listed on IMDB and started looking forward to it being released, however, in Sept or Oct I stumbled across an article about the Director, Adrienne Shelly having been murdered in New York. I foolishly didn’t make the connection until I told Pha about the two movies I wanted to watch and she reminded me about the director.
I’d been so obsessed with seeing Nathan that I hadn’t even connected the two dots. When I finally sat in one of the last seats available in the very front row, a grumpy old man sat next to me and proceeded to ask a hundred questions. He had a very negative attitude and everything I replied to he seemed to have a problem with.
Grumpy- “where you from?”
Me- “Portland.”
Grumpy – “You come all this way to see this movie cuz the director got herself killed?”
Me – “Uhm, no. Actually, I drove all this way to see Waitress because Nathan Fillion is in it?”
Grumpy – “You drove? From Portland….” He gave me a sidelong look. “for an actor?”
Me – “I like to support the work of people I think can do good things with the industry.”
Grumpy snorted and rolled his eyes. He smelled strongly of vodka and chewed his gum like a toothless horse.
Grumpy –“Point him out. I don’t know this guy.”
So as the movie started, Grumpy pulled out a bag of potato chips and chewed like a cow, while runching his food bag so loud people started giving ME dirty looks.
Nathan Fillion entered the scene and I leaned over to say, “That’s him.”
Grumpy – “THAT guy? You drove all the way here to see that guy?”
He started chuckling before I glared evil daggers of death at him. I heard once that I have an evil eye that can turn men to stone – like Medusa. I tried, oh god, I tried to make him inanimate if only for awhile. But alas, I think I must have lost my touch, because he shuffled, moaned pathetically in the funny parts and groaned aloud when the scenes took on music from the “Flight of the Valkyries”
When the movie ended he fled, and rightly so, I think I wasn’t the only one ready to do bodily harm. The director’s husband and the producer did a Q&A session and I listened with a heavy sadness as the Director’s husband still seemed to have a great deal of pride and love for his wife, Adrienne. I walked out of the theater feeling the ache of flu setting in to my lower back and the groggy funk of a head cold settling into my sinuses. I wandered to a nearby restaurant and ordered a soup, coffee and Crème Brulee, before driving out of the canyon knowing I wouldn’t likely be coming back.
Waitress was shot in 20 days and is one of the more creative ideas for a movie (based on pies) that I’ve seen in a good long while. While I adored the premise, I hated the soundtrack. They told us in the theatre that Fox Searchlight Pictures bought the film and it would likely be released this summer. My only hope is that they work on the soundtrack, which had cheesy moments of overused songs. Other than that I loved it.
Was it worth driving all the way to Sundance to see Nathan Fillion? Of Course. What a stupid question.
As to Grumpy, I can only hope he goes to the “special hell” the hell created by Joss Whedon in Firefly that states it was specifically constructed for “child molesters, and people who talk at the theatre.”
Here’s to wishing.
dom said,
January 25, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Nathan Fillion AND creme brulee? Sounds like a good night. Or as Cap. Mal would say, “Shiny” !
Kungfukitten said,
January 26, 2007 at 12:38 am
I see my internet boyfriend has been stalking you.
I can’t believe that old man. You should have said “I’d drive her from New York for a peek at Captain Tightpants. Why is a whiny angry smart ass like yourself here?” Creme Brulee has been clinically shown to reduce the symptoms of the flu so I suggest you have some more.
Athena said,
January 26, 2007 at 12:48 pm
It was Shiny! Thanks Dom.
Athena said,
January 26, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Damn, KFK, I just didn’t think of a good response that fast. I was using all my strength to keep from braining him with my camera bag. But I think you have an excellent point - More Creme Brulee will certainly help with the flu.
I’m on it….