Before each screening at Sundance, one of several short promos, featuring various filmmakers being interviewed about the festival, runs. One of these has John Waters saying, “You could probably make a porno film and get it into Sundance!†This is ostensibly meant to be funny and sorta hyperbolic, but the fest has indeed shown some films in the past that came pretty damned close: 2006’s Destricted, for example, was an omnibus film with various auteurs taking a stab at erotica. And who can forget 2005’s fuck-fest, 9 Songs?
Luckily, this year’s festival is no slouch in the sex department. We can confirm that the Bret Easton Ellis adaptation, The Informers, handled the downturn in the indie-financing arena by entirely excising Amber Heard’s wardrobe from its budget, and that the competition title Unmade Beds gives us exactly the kind of naked-young-polyglot bed-hopping that we had hoped to find when we backpacked to Europe back in [date deleted]. The Ashton Kutcher gigolo flick Spread was apparently no slouch in the T&A department, either. And, of course, there’s Humpday, the dudes-make-a-gay-porn-flick that’s been one of the big hits of the fest. We can’t confirm that there’s that much explicit sex in the gay-prison-love movie I Love You Philip Morris, but it does feature Ewan McGregor, whose schlong once had its own development deal, so who knows.
In addition, there are rumors flying fast and furiously that this evening’s Secret Sneak Preview will in fact be a screening of Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, The Girlfriend Experience, starring mega-porn-star Sasha Grey. There are, however, some counter-rumors that it will not. We’ve got tickets, so we’ll know for sure in a few hours. In the meantime, stay away from the Sundance bathrooms …