Rambling Reporter

Have Sundance-Goers Forgotten How to Sundance?

The Sundance Film Festival made a triumphant in-person return to Park City after being held online the past two years because of the pandemic. In the interim, some attendees seem to have misplaced their festival manners. Case in point: At the midnight screening of Laura Moss’ horror film Birth/Rebirth — a twisted look at the extremes of motherhood — one male guest brought in a full rack of barbecue ribs from the Fresh Market next door and proceeded to dig into it (with a fork and knife, bizarrely), unbothered by the stomach-churning, bloody birth scenes onscreen. Ribs aside, the overall vibes on the ground were undeniably celebratory, as hordes of film lovers flocked to theaters all over town. But catch any Sundancer between screenings and you were likely to hear a litany of petty grievances. Traffic is always an issue in Park City, but this year backups and delays were nightmarish. One publicist reported having to miss her film’s premiere because there was no room on any of the buses and multiple ride-share services didn’t show or drivers kept circling for 30 minutes and more (a common complaint). The Jan. 20 bow of Magazine Dreams, featuring Jonathan Majors, started 45 minutes late because of fest congestion. Not helping matters: That night, an accident at the roundabout onto Deer

Valley Drive involving a horse trailer and a pickup truck left traffic at a standstill for some time. Nerves were frayed, visitors were disoriented and the biting cold wasn’t helping. It was common to see people cutting lines, shouting from the back of buses (“Does this bus go to Prospector Square?!”) or “forgetting how to cross the street,” as one festival insider put it. One exasperated commuter looked as if he’d had enough: On a jam-packed bus coming back from the premiere of the documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, he whipped out a booze-filled flask and downed it one gulp.

Sundance traffic has reached nightmarish levels in Park City this year.