Sundance 2009 Day 2: It Was Too Good to Be True!

January 17, 2009
by Alex Billington

I knew it was too good to be true! I had seen four films and almost all of them had been good. But it was inevitable - I had to eventually see a bad one. Tonight it was Toe to Toe, a high school drama set in Washington D.C. about one very determined black girl and one very promiscuous white girl. It was one of those films that's so bad, you want to just leave halfway through. Unfortunately there wasn't much going on elsewhere, so I decided to sit through it. And it didn't end up going anywhere and took forever to get to the end. Although there are always plenty of great films here at Sundance, there are also plenty of bad ones.

I've already published reviews for three of the four films I saw today (including Moon and Humpday). The first film started at 8:30AM and the last one ended at 11:30PM, just to give you an idea of a typical Sundance day. While other people I know are out partying almost every night, I usually prefer to see films and party when I get any free time, which is quite rare. Either way, these are long, grueling days at Sundance. As much as I love being here, it's exhausting. I don't get a lot of time to eat food, and what little time I do have, it's usually spent keeping the site up-to-date. And this is only the second day of ten!

As for Toe to Toe, I'm not even going to write anything about it. The sooner I can forget about it, the better. Though I will point everyone towards Neil Miller's review on Film School Rejects. He also sat through it and decided to criticize the film as harshly as he could in one hell of a brilliant review. If you're so desperate to seek out any opinion on that film, that's the only review of it that you'll need to read. I really tried to like it, I really tried to let it build into something, I really tried to appreciate the acting, but I couldn't. It was just a big mess, hardly worth watching by any means, yet I had to sit through it all from start to finish.

With my first full day out of the way, it's time to look forward at what's next. Saturday is looking like one of the busiest days of the fest. My current plan is to see Brooklyn's Finest, The Killing Room, The Greatest, 500 Days of Summer, Spread, and possibly Mystery Team. We'll see if that's how it turns out!

Sundance 2009 Review List:

THURSDAY (JAN 15th):
Mary and Max - 8/10

FRIDAY (JAN 16th):
Tyson - 5/10
Moon - 8.5/10
Humpday - 7.5/10
Toe to Toe - 2/10

Discover More: Editorials, Sundance 09

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Reader Feedback - 3 Comments »

Glad to hear that Moon was worth the watch…keep us up to date if you hear it gets a distributor.

peloquin on Jan 17, 2009

I'm a volunteer at the Yarrow and I was actually at that same screening… not the best movie for sure. I've seen worse though, even at Sundance.

michael sean on Jan 17, 2009

2/10? Ouch! Sooner you than me

btw - thanks for all the Sundance updates. Great work.

sleepykid on Jan 17, 2009