One movie review you’ll never read

Welcome to HP’s Backstage at Sundance blog. HP returns as a presenting sponsor for the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and this is your backstage pass to share in the creative passion that makes Sundance so special. From films, stars and directors to the HP technology that drives the festival, visit this blog daily to get the Sundance scoop!

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» One movie review you’ll never read

Kate Sheofsky
Web Content Manager

Let me start by saying I went to film school. And for several years I belonged to a screenwriting group. Then, to further prove my commitment to the art of storytelling, I emptied my bank account and went and got myself an MFA in creative writing. Writing movie reviews should be right up my alley. I should enjoy writing them, and probably even be good at it. Yet, when I sat down to try to write a review for Merry Gentleman, I felt my eyelids get heavy, my head tilt back and I woke up an hour later wiping drool off my chin. It shouldn’t be this way.

Perhaps it’s because I don’t have a very high tolerance for reviews conceived by other people. For years I used to read them in the paper or listen to people give their thoughts verbally. While they would speak passionately about the craft of filmmaking, all I would hear was “When the movie opens… blah blah blah… yet ultimately … meow meow… the end.”

It’s not that I don’t enjoy other people’s opinions; it’s just that I prefer to have the opportunity to form my own ideas before my brain gets filled with someone else’s. Because I try to think not just of my own brain, but of other brains as well, I find myself unable to write reviews. Happily, Robert Redford and the folks involved in the Sundance film festival also exhibit concern for other people’s brains. As Mr. Redford said at the festival’s opening press conference, Sundance is a place of discovery- discovery for filmmakers, many of whom are first-timers, but also for the people who come simply to watch movies. How many other opportunities are there to view a film before a full promotional campaign has been launched? Walking into a premiere screening at Sundance offered a rare chance to experience a movie all on my own, unencumbered by the thoughts of my predecessors, and I welcomed that.

For those of you who aren’t in Park City, the reviews will all roll in soon enough, but they won’t be coming from me.