Here are some Sundance notes from the last 24 hours:
Katie Holmes arrived early last night for a private dinner at Greenhouse (this is a New York nightclub that’s taken over a beautiful Park City home for events) for a film she’s in called “The Extra Man.” I happened to be walking up the driveway as she came by in a window-darkened Escalade, stayed for a few minutes, and then retreated. By the time dinner was served, Holmes was gone. Nevertheless, stars Kevin Kline, Paul Dano, and John C. Reilly mixed and mingled with directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (”American Splendor“)…If Katie had’come’into the dinner that was going on when she did arrive, she’d have met Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, who were promoting “Mother and Child,” which Rodrigo Garcia directed, Lisa Falcone produced and Sony Pictures Classics is releasing this spring…’Annette Bening wound up missing Sundance despite two hits ‘ “Mother and Child” and “The Kids Are All Right.” Well, she has four kids, and at least one of them needed her attention. Too bad, she would have been mobbed with well wishers…Naomi Watts was happy, too. Her husband, Liev Schreiber, got raves on Broadway over the weekend opening in Arthur Miller’s “A View from the Bridge.” Watts told me Liev is very excited because co-star Scarlett Johansson, also widely praised by critics back home, is great to work with…Sam Jackson took pictures with a couple of fans, who said the photos were for friends. Said Sam: “Why do people always say that? You know it’s for themselves!”…
Meanwhile: another big Sundance hit is the Quentin Tarantino-esque “Animal Kingdom” from Australia. A crime family led by a cunning and evil mother/grandmother (a knockout Jacki Weaver) who has her’four sons killing and stealing all over Melbourne. Joel Edgerton (who just played opposite Cate Blanchett in “A Streetcar Named Desire” in Brooklyn, Luke Ford and Ben Mendelsohn are the terrifying sons. Eighteen-year-old James Frecheville, the Australian Channing Tatum, is the grandson who could be the family’s undoing. Director David Michod said his favorite movie was “The Godfather Part 2″ and it shows. He’s done a great job of delivering a film that’s as if Francis Ford Coppola had made “The Krays.” This is one Sundance film I can’t wait to see in theaters this year. And Jacki Weaver has to get some attention. I’m not sure if she’s even five feet tall. She told me she always gets Sally Field-type parts at home and almost never plays a villian. Wait til she’s seen as Janine, one of the most’diabolical mothers in cinematic history. She’s going to have’ cult following!…
P.S. to all this: People.com says Katie went to dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Park City while the rest of her movie crew was at Greenhouse. There are several well known restaurants in Park City. That’s not one of them. She couldn’t have had much time, and it doesn’t seem possible that Kerry Washington and Samuel L. Jackson time traveled, and had two dinners at two different places simultaneously during a two hour period. But, hey, whatever…

Sundance 2010 has been waiting for a breakout hit, and one that didn’t have a distributor. It finally happened at 8:30 on Monday night at the Library Center theater, which was packed for a “Special Surprise” screening of Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right.”
After a mostly depressing day of dramas, Sundance 2010 got a much needed jolt Sunday night.
Ryan Gosling has a very good way of distracting his mom when she’s watching one of his racy movies.
Sundance 2010 Saturday in the snow: yes, it keeps snowing. There are fewer good parties this year and one Sundance insider admits that this year “the festival was done on a shoestring.”
The big question mark of the day wasn’t answered until late in the evening, when Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman showed his “Jack Goes Boating.” Hoffman’starred in’this play off Broadway last year. Now he shows a real flair for directing, putting himself into the movie along with the amazing Amy Ryan, Daphne Rubin Vega, and John Ortiz. This was the big news of the day, as Michael Moore, Adrien Brody and Chris Cooper (who’s great in the Ben Affleck-Tommy Lee Jones film “
Just realized this: the musician who co-wrote “The Weary Kind” from “Crazy Heart”–which has won the Critics Choice and Golden Globe for Best Song–is named Ryan Bingham.
The best film from Sundance this year so far? Nicole Holofcener’s “Please Give.” Unfortunately for headlines, it’s already taken by Sony Pictures Classics.
Robert Redford was everywhere last night for the opening of the Sundance Film Festival. He made the 6 p.m. screening of “Howl,” the 8:30 screening of four short films including one by Spike Jonze, and then presumably introduced the documentary, “Respeto” at 9 p.m.