Like Crazy has already been picked up for national distribution.
In January, Madison and Park City, Utah have much in common. It's cold. There's lots of snow. And both cities host the Sundance Film Festival.
Well, Madison hosts a piece of it, anyway. On Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m., the west-side cinema Sundance Madison will be the local outpost of Sundance Film Festival U.S.A., a project that brings movies and filmmakers from Robert Redford's famed confab to nine cities, including Seattle, Ann Arbor and Nashville, as well as Madison.
The film screening here is Like Crazy, about a young couple's long-distance romance. It was directed and co-written by Drake Doremus, who directed Douchebag, and who will be answering questions at the Madison event. Like Crazy was picked up by Paramount for national distribution after its Jan. 22 Sundance debut.
Madison's inaugural Sundance U.S.A. event was last January's presentation of The Runaways, the film about the 1970s all-girl rock band. It was a fun, festive affair, a touch of Tinseltown here on the frozen prairie. I confess I didn't think much of the film, but after the screening, Runaways singer Cherie Currie won audience members over with her charm -- especially when she bonded with one of them about a 1976 Runaways performance at the West Gorham Street club El Tejon.
Currie also talked about her fortuitous association with former Runaway Joan Jett. And Currie even talked at some length about her passion, chainsaw sculpture. To follow all of that, Doremus has his work cut out for him.
