So Very, Very Tired ...

... and so very, very far behind. Trying to catch up on a day-plus worth of screenings doesn't generally work at 1 a.m.

Working on my fourth late-night of Festival Update-ing, I feel kind of like the characters in Adrift in Manhattan appear to feel: lost, confused and incapable of doing anything that makes a shred of sense. I devoted all of 125 words to a capsule review, and I still think I put more thought into that movie than the filmmakers did.

A number of disappointments among the Dramatic Competition films reminded me that the Documentary Competition films almost always seem to be stronger top-to-bottom -- yet my less densely-packed schedule hasn't made all that much time thus far for the docs (only Zoo and My Kid Could Paint That in the first three days. Today I managed two of them: For the Bible Tells Me So and Chasing Ghosts. Capsules will be posted in the Tuesday festival update, likely by the time anyone gets around to reading this. But they were enough to start washing the taste of Adrift in Manhattan and The Good Life and Weapons out of my mouth.

Meanwhile, a reader emailed today asking about whether Joshua -- probably the best of the Dramatic Competition films thus far, though Rocket Science runs a close second -- had been picked up by a distributor. I had to confess something that makes me a bit of a Sundance pariah: I don't pay active attention to what films have been the subject of intense bidding wars or actually purchased. When the festival is ending, I take a look at IndieWire and gather the info, so I know if my favorites will be making their way out into the world. For now, I know such things only if I happen to overhear industry chatter on a shuttle.

The much-talked-about Hounddog -- better known as the "Dakota Fanning's character gets raped" movie -- premiered tonight, but I was not there. The press screening is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, and it is sure to be packed to the rafters. Meanwhile, there are still people who have not seen Once. These people should rectify the situation immediately. (Scott Renshaw)