Sundance experience offers both highs and lows

PARK CITY — You have to know this: I don't get flustered around celebrities.

Not even at the Sundance Film Festival, which is a supposed paradise for the so-called "star gazers."

For example, I pretty much kept my cool when Tom Hanks put his arm around me at the Rose Wagner Center last year. (He had to do something to make it up to me after he called me "some poor schlub with a note pad and a pen.")

I didn't freak out when I bumped into actress Amy Adams (from "Enchanted") at the New Frontier on Main premiere event in Park City last year, either.

And I didn't even panic when I more than bumped into actor Forest Whitaker at the festival a couple of years ago. A gentle giant of a man, Whitaker chuckled when I abruptly turned around and smacked right into him accidentally. He was standing just outside of the festival headquarters at the Park City Marriott.

Yet I found myself getting a little panicky in the presence of British writer Nick Hornby. He's one of my favorite authors — I'm a big fan of his books "About a Boy," "High Fidelity" and "A Long Way Down," in particular.

Hornby was at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival to promote "An Education," a coming-of-age tale that he wrote and was the executive producer. And I'm happy to report that Hornby, whom I interviewed, appears to be a genuinely nice, funny guy.

Of course, I do think his publicist was getting a bit angry with us because of all our post-interview talk about music (in regards to power-pop bands like Teenage Fanclub and Big Star).

We went on for good 10 or so minutes, much to her clear frustration.

Here are a few other highlights of my Sundance '09 experiences:

Getting to see movies at two of my favorite theaters — the Egyptian Theatre in Park City and the Tower Theatre in Salt Lake City — is always a pleasure.

(So is being at Peery's Egyptian Theater in Ogden, though I didn't have occasion to go up there this year.)

I was completely charmed by both "An Education" and "500 Days of Summer," a romantic comedy that stars two terrific young actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.

So, I'm hoping that the film's distributor, Fox Searchlight, will give "Summer" as wide a release as possible. (Its scheduled date is July 24). This could be the breakout movie for both of them.

It's always fun to talk movies with other festival-goers.

I'm more than eager to talk to the people in line for screenings or on the festival shuttles about the festival movies I've either seen or plan on seeing.

I just wish I had taken the advice of the person who told me to avoid the Billy Bob Thornton vehicle "Manure." You were right, it wasn't worth my time and effort.

E-mail: jeff@desnews.com