Park City Dispatch Day Two: Bunnylvr and National Treasure Conan O’Brien

Vulture’s back in Utah for what could be the penultimate iteration of the Sundance festival in its longtime home, Park City. We’ll be here all weekend, checking out the buzziest films and seeing the sights on the festival’s main thoroughfare. We’ve even set up a studio, The Vulture Spot, on Main Street, where we’re welcoming directors, actors, producers, and all their publicists to stop by and talk movies over a spicy marg with host Jay Jurden. Keep this tab open for updates and highlights on everything going down in the studio and beyond, and check out the rest of our festival coverage here.

We tried to get the lay of the land

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Thankfully, we found our way to the only spot that really matters.

Alison Brie stopped by for coffee

The studio festivities kicked off bright and early Friday morning when Together star and producer Alison Brie dropped in for a conversation with Vulture senior news writer Fran Hoepfner. She discussed making the “physically intimate” psychological thriller with first-time writer/director Michael Shanks, and co-star, co-producer, and IRL-husband, Dave Franco. It being her seventh time at Sundance, she reminisced on the rag-tag days of partying and crashing on Ludwig Göransson’s couch. She also took a moment to appreciate a shirtless Adrian Brody from New York’s latest cover. Read the rest of their conversation here.

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Jimpa’s John Lithgow and Olivia Colman held hands

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They also discussed their latest movie, Jimpa with writer/director Sophie Hyde and co-star Aud Mason-Hyde. The group reflected on the recent political vibe shift — what Lithgow called a “ghastly sea change” — and underscored the importance of making a movie about queer joy at this particular moment in history.

Aisling Franciosi is in Twinless, and she’s funny

Twinless, starring James Sweeney, Dylan O’Brien, and Aisling Franciosi is ostensibly a movie about grief, centering around two guys dealing with the loss of their twin brothers, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still have a giggle. “In both this past summer’s Speak No Evil and Twinless, Franciosi gets big laughs out of pretending something kind of fucked up is actually totally fine and regular and not a thing to panic about. Being able to garner reactions of both horror, laughter, and the occasional double threat of horrified laughter is no small feat,” writes Fran Hoepfner. Let Aisling Franciosi be funny!

We learned about some casting drama on the set of Omaha

Discussing her latest film, Omaha, with co-star John Magaro and director Cole Webley, 11-year-old actress Molly Belle Wright revealed some exclusive gossip from behind the scenes: the original dog actor was fired for his on-set behavior and ultimately replaced by an identical dog. His crime? Being too hyper.

Cinderella scared us

Critic Bilge Ebiri attended the premiere of Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt’s The Ugly Stepsister, a dark twist on a classic fairytale. Our favorite line from his review: “Elvira swallows a tapeworm egg, and as the worms grow (and growl) inside her belly, she can eat whatever she wants and still shed inches. It’s like Ozempic, but alive.”

Dave Franco had to grin and bear it

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Juliette Lewis remembered that time she was a chair

Juliette Lewis took on an unconventional acting challenge in her latest film, By Design, from writer/director Amanda Kramer: she was a chair. Lewis stopped by the studio to discuss the body-swap-with-a-twist movie along with Kramer and her fellow cast-mates. We had a lot of questions going into this conversation, and somehow, we came out with even more.

Sly Stone got doc’d

Bilge Ebiri walked out of Sly Lives! feeling with a deep appreciation of the legendary artist. Questlove, it seems, was well-suited for the task of documenting the story of Sly & the Family Stone. “The real power of Sly Lives! lies in its presentation of Stone’s most iconic hits, which Questlove often lets play all the way through as his interview subjects dissect the songs and the imagery associated with them… Honestly, it helps when musicians make movies about other musicians,” he writes in his review.

Flora Lau made a movie fit for our times

Luz takes place in large part in the realm of virtual reality. Writer/director Flora Lau stopped by the studio with some of the cast to tell us how they pulled off the feat.

Harry Hamlin had some notes for his reptilian costars

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Thank god the snake had been to acting school.

The Dating Game revealed dark societal truths

The Dating Game, from documentarian Violet Du Feng, follows dating coach Hao as he makes over three single men in Chongqing, China, in an effort to attract them mates. “A grim, dystopian reality” is revealed in the documentary: the men in China outnumber women by 30 million, so the odds are stacked those seeking partners. As a result, Hao resorts to tactics of deception and phoniness in order to serve his clients ultimate goals. “Hao isn’t entirely a slime-ball. More than anything, he might be a reflection of his times,” writes Bilge Ebiri in his review. “Given the fake-it-till-you-make-it half-reality that governs all our social media lives, there may well be a dark truth running beneath the superficiality on display in this film. In an openly phony world, who cares about being genuine?”

Mary Bronstein and Rose Byrne gushed over Conan O’Brien

Because who wouldn’t? He’s a total mensch!

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Rachel Sennott did her best Charli XCX impression

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