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Scarred
by Stacia J. N. Decker
My husband's heart surgery made him a new man.
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The Nerve Date with Jacqueline
by Jessica Yatrofsky
'Tis the season to be daring.
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The Road
by Scott Von Doviak
Looking to celebrate your holiday with two hours of solid despair? /entertainment/
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Sex Advice From . . . Turkey Farmers
by Kristen Gangwer
Q: What can turkeys teach us about sex?
A: Absolutely nothing. With barnyard birds it's business, not pleasure.
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Watch Your Back
by Susan Barnett
What can you tell about a person from their t-shirt?
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Dealbreaker: The Self-Help Book
by Jen Kirkman
How DIY therapy can ruin dating.
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Savage Love
by Dan Savage
How do I tell my girlfriend that I'm pregnant? /advice/
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Pop Culture We're Thankful For
by the Nerve Editors
Toasts from around the Nerve family table. /entertainment/
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The Five Sexiest Apocalypse Movies
by Phil Nugent
Perfect for curling up with the last man (or woman) on earth. /entertainment/
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My First Time
by You
"I remember the zip of the door, and our naked dash across the dark campground to his tent..."
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Things Drunk People Say
by Kathleen Go
"Get the duct tape. You have dropped your last beer."
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Five TV Families to Avoid on Thanksgiving
by Scott Von Doviak
These clans will make you appreciate your own. /entertainment/
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Miss Information
by Erin Bradley
So many women, so few decision-making skills. /advice/
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Hosting Your Own Hedonistic Thanksgiving
by Ben Reininga
Drinking, smoking, and gorging with your friends: this can be the best holiday of the year.
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Culture Wars: Will James Cameron's Avatar live up to the hype?
by Andrew Osborne and Scott Von Doviak
Worthy successor to Aliens, or the world's most expensive Smurfs movie?
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The Confessies
by You
The Robert Pattinson Award for Twilight Devotion
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Platinum Goddess
by Kim Weston
Forget gold: these women are striking in silver, and not much else.
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Mutual of Omaha
by Rachel Shukert
In my Jewish Nebraskan youth group, they taught more than Hebrew.
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Planet 51
by Scott Von Doviak
The premise is Pixar-caliber; the execution is strictly terrestrial. /entertainment/
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Sex Advice From . . . Dungeons and Dragons Players
by Eric Larnick
Q. What has D&D taught you about dating? A. Some days you're the knight, some days you're the dragon. /advice/
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Nerve Made Me Do It: New Moon Midnight Screening
by Jack Harrison
We send a professor of medieval literature to face 1,000 screaming Twilight fans.
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 Whale Rider
A feel-good movie that ends with a preteen girl riding an animatronic whale might
sound like a formula for sentimental disaster, but Kiwi director Niki Caro pulls it
off brilliantly. A contemporary epic about a Maori girl determined to lead her
indigenous tribe, Whale Rider picked up audience awards at the Toronto Film Festival
and at Sundance, where a five-minute standing ovation followed its first
public screening. Emotional and visually stunning, the film should make
newcomer Keisha Castle-Hughes (who was discovered by the same casting director
as Anna Paquin) an international star. — MR
 Camp
Fame meets Revenge of the Nerds in this out-of-nowhere delight written and directed by former actor Todd Graff (Broadway's Baby, The Abyss). Camp centers on a group of teen outcasts who take refuge in a summer performing-arts retreat; while preparing for the big performance, they wrangle with acne, sexual identity, self-esteem, betrayal and loyalty. With a surprising appearance by Stephen Sondheim and stellar performances by singer-songwriter Don Dixon and a group of incredibly talented unknowns, it's one of the most rewarding and refreshing films in recent memory. — AV
BEST SUPPORTING
ASS SHOT
And other Sundance awards we'd like to bestow
 Best actress: Patricia Clarkson (star of four films, each character a sharp departure from the others)
Best actor: Javier Bardem (Mondays in the Sun)
 Best comeback: Danny Boyle (director, 28 Days Later)
Worst comeback: Tatum O'Neal (The Technical Writer)
Biggest shocker: the seven-minute, real-time rape scene in Gaspar Noe's Irreversible
 Best body: Katie Holmes in Pieces of April
Best soundtrack: Camp
Most E-xcellent party: Killer Films' Party Monster, which went way past closing time
Boldest ass shots: William H. Macy and Maria Bello in The Cooler
Best money shot: Hospital patient Robert Downey Jr. shoots his load on nurse Katie Holmes as she moisturizes his dick in The Singing Detective
 Best straight actor playing gay: Seth Green in Party Monster
Best gay actor playing straight: Will we ever really know?
Hottest couple: (tie) Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris in 28 Days Later; Gael Garcia Bernal and Natalia Verbeke in dot the i
Best cocksucker (non-L.A. agent division): Emile Hirsch, for slurping on a live chicken in Mudge Boy
— Matthew Ross and Alisa Volkman
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Capturing the Friedmans
Originally a documentary on clowns that perform at children's birthday
parties, this film took a sharp turn when director Andrew Jarecki discovered
that one
of his subjects had a secret: his family was involved in a high-profile
child pornography case that led to the incarceration of his younger brother
and the suicide of his father. The film examines the case in rough chronology, from the arrest of Arnold
Friedman, a upper-middle-class Long Island high school teacher, for mailing child
pornography; to his family's discovery that he conducted private computer classes
for young boys in the basement of their home, employing his youngest son, Jesse, as his "aide," to Arnold and Jesse's "coerced" guilty pleas and imprisonment. Using interviews and family video footage, Jareki traces an exhausting maze of conflicting accounts, creating a portrait of a family in serious denial. — AV
What I Want My Words to Do to You
Set inside the writing workshop established by playwright Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) at an upstate New York prison, Wordsis a heart-wrenching look at the lives of female inmates. Through a series of writing exercises, Ensler challenges each woman to address her crime. The stories are then performed for the prison by a group of actresses (including Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei and Rosie Perez), and the resulting film is an incredibly moving story of human experience, compassion and transformation. — AV
Awards for dramatic features went to American Splendor (Grand Jury prize), The Station Agent (audience award and Waldo Salt screenwriting award), Whale Rider (world cinema audience award), thirteen (directing award), Joey Curtis's Quattro Noza (cinematography award), A. Dean Bell's What Alice Found (special jury prize) and David Gordon Green's All the Real Girls (special jury prize). Acting prizes went to the ubiquitous Patricia Clarkson (she was in four movies at Sundance) and to Charles Busch for Die Mommie Die. One conspicuous absence from the list of winners was Pieces of April, an early favorite for several awards and, as of publication, and the biggest sale of the festival at $3.5 million.
Overheard at Sundance:
"Even though we stand side by side, we're different. Women can't hold on to their dicks." — Maori
actor and Whale Rider star Rawiri Paratene, when asked about the nature of gender relations in native New Zealand tribes at a post-screening press conference.
"When the muff confetti stops coming, that's when you know you're in trouble." — smarmy
casino head Alec Baldwin, holding a pair of panties that were thrown onstage,
to aging troubadour Paul Sorvino in Wayne Kramer's The Cooler.
"I'm your fluffy little pooch." — the pickup line Robin Wright Penn gives
Jeremy Northam in Keith Gordon's The Singing Detective (Later, as they fuck nastily on his couch, two gangsters break in and drown her in the tub.)
"It's okay, Bernie, I've had worse." — Maria Bello to William H. Macy after
his quick-trigger routine between the sheets in Wayne Kramer's The Cooler.
"Oh my God, I'm so fabulous." — New York club kid legend James St. James,
outside the world premiere of Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato's Party Monster, a dramatic retelling of the relationship between St. James (Seth Green) and party promoter/convicted murderer Michael Alig (Macaulay Culkin).
"I had a drink at about six this morning. It's okay, because it only cost $6. The Evian costs $8." — director
Thomas Vinterberg at the screening of his new film It's All About Love.
Gaspar Noe (to a packed house right before Irreversible premiered) "Remember, this is just a movie . . . if you stay until the end, you will see that it has a happy ending." (Sixty-six
people ultimately walked out of the screening.)
"Some people just don't understand that a girl trying to cook a turkey is going to mean something." — director
Peter Hedges on his struggle to make Pieces of April.
"It's a lament, but it's not depressing." — filmmaker David Russo on his
short film Pan With Us, which is based on a Robert Frost poem.
n°
© 2003 Matthew Ross and Nerve.com.
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