Steal my sunshine

The hits just keep on coming this week on the fellowship front. Unlike the last go round with Amy & Ami, this time I didn't make the final round of The Writer's Arc. I'm not sure if things were simply more competitive as awareness of the program has grown or if this script just didn't connect with them but there it is. I took a risk in not re-submitting the political drama (now having taken another pass at it) that I sent in last fall. This script, a romantic comedy, was more personal and with a tone and point of view that I understand might not necessarily click with others on a broader level. Assuming there is a next time -- their e-mail indicated that there will be, so keep watching the site -- I will probably try a more conventional story in a different genre. Strangely, I had a dream last night about receiving the bad news e-mail, so take heart: your dreams really do come true in Hollywood!

Apropos of clinging to one's delusions in the face of all available evidence to the contrary, I caught Sundance festival fave, Little Miss Sunshine, this weekend. Sort of a post-modern, indie Vacation, "Sunshine" follows the Hoover family on the road from New Mexico to a child beauty pageant in California (and their collective collapses along the way). The first half is about as darkly funny as one could ask for. The family members' dysfunctional fault lines make for great comic tension as the group threatens to come apart at the seams at every turn. Unfortunately, that edge disappears somewhere around Scottsdale and the Hoovers end up just another happy family, albeit learning to love and accept their quirks rather than conquer them. But given how well the first act established the film's "unpretty" tone, its feel-good resolution without many reasons in the story for the characters' changes of heart left me flat. Overall, however, many laughs and word of mouth is likely to be very good as it rolls out slowly over the next few weeks into more and more markets.