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It’s never a good thing when you wake up feeling exhausted—especially when you have a long day ahead. But, then again, that’s pretty much every day when you’re pregnant—so I guess today was like any other day. After my upstairs neighbors finally stopped stomping around at 1 this morning (or, technically, I guess that’s yesterday morning now), I got to sleep until around 7, when I was inexplicably wide awake (again…pregnancy). My alarm was set for 8:45, so I refused to get out of bed. But, eventually, I gave up, took a shower, and headed for the breakfast room, where a nice, warm waffle was calling my name. Then, after turning on my computer and checking my mail, I met up with Michael at around 10:30.
Our first stop at the Tower was Dunkin Donuts—so Michael could get some breakfast and coffee. We spent some time browsing through the schedule for the next couple of days before we had to head off to the first movie of the day.
Movie #1 was The Hollywood Complex, a little doc about kids (and parents) who flock to Hollywood each spring for pilot season. It’s an eye-opening and sometimes heartbreaking film that, really, doesn’t offer a whole lot of hope. It just calls it like it sees it.
Our documentary day continued right afterwards with Movie #2: Brooklyn Castle, a documentary about Brooklyn’s IS 318 and their championship chess team. It’s a much more upbeat film—though long and somewhat unfocused. But it was definitely a crowd pleaser. It’s not often that you see audiences cheering during a doc—but the crowd went nuts for this one.
After our documentary double-feature, we had a much-needed break—mine even longer than Michael’s. We decided to make our way to the passholders’ lounge, where we knew we’d find plenty of goodies to tide us over—like focaccia and hummus and cookies and fruit and chocolate sorbet. It also gave us some time to discuss the rest of our day—most importantly, where we were going for dinner. Last year, we planned Saturday night dinner, only to be completely unable to get into any restaurant in the area—so we survived on pastries and beer from the hospitality suite. This year, we were determined to eat real food.
We also worked out a plan for the next couple of movies. Michael was intent on seeing some Eastern European film—but, since I’ve sworn off Eastern European films (especially during festivals), I was going to skip. Since he was also interested in my next movie—but there was absolutely no gap between the two—I decided to go early and save seats. But that still left me more than an hour to hang out, wander the mall, check my mail, do some reading, and munch on some fruit snacks. For some reason, though—probably because of the horrible signal in the Tower—I haven’t been able to post anything on Facebook from there, so I eventually just stopped trying. Still, it was definitely a much-needed break in the middle of my day.
I made sure to leave extra early for my next movie. It was one of the Director Spotlight films, so I knew it would be busy. Once I got inside, I lined up in the passholders’ line and pulled out my phone to text Michael which of the two theaters I’d ended up in. Then I played solitaire until we got to go in and take our seats.
It was definitely a challenge saving that extra seat. I had one man insist that no one else was coming in, so he was going to sit there—despite the fact that there was another empty seat in the row ahead of me. Finally, though, Michael figured out where I was, and I didn’t have to defend his seat anymore.
So Movie #3 was Shuffle, a film about a man who wakes up to find himself at random times in his life—sometimes he’s 30…or 24…or 8. I was hoping for something a little more Memento-clever from it, but it turned out to be much sweeter and more sentimental that I expected. Still a pretty good movie—just not what I was hoping to see.
After Shuffle we had yet another long break in our day—this time, it was dinner time. We had agreed to try Tower 230 first—but, since they had closed down the entire dining room last year, we didn’t have the highest of hopes. This time, we got there and were unable to find a hostess—or anyone, really. So we just gave up and went next door to Houlihan’s instead. There, we were greeted and seated right away, after which we ordered nice, big burgers. It was absolutely heavenly to sit at a nice, quiet table and eat a real meal with real silverware. It was so wonderful that I almost slipped into a blissful coma. Unfortunately, though, it didn’t last—because we had another movie to get to by 9:10.
Movie #4 was another popular one—and, for me, a very important one. If you’ve read my festival posts before, you know all about my love of Norwegian films—and Headhunters was the only Norwegian film showing this weekend. That made it a must-see for me. Based on a novel by Jo Nesbø, it’s a rather quirky crime thriller about a corporate recruiter / art thief. Like most Norwegian films, it really defies categorization—which is what I adore about Norwegian films. It’s dark and suspenseful and bloody—and sometimes just downright odd. Definitely a highlight for me.
The film got out at 11, and Michael and I were both ready to head back to our hotels and crash for the night. I’m just hoping that the neighbors (and the little one) will let me get a little bit of rest tonight. If not, I don’t know how I’ll make it through another big day tomorrow.
