My first full day at Sundance this year began with a strange encounter. Steve Carrell offered to give me a ride into town and I turned him down. At least, that's how I took it.

Crunching on the ice-covered sidewalks from our condo to the Prospector Square theater, I came to a crosswalk, and looked both ways. A white Suburban stopped to let me across. About to walk, I noticed the driver seemed familiar, so I looked closer to be sure. It was in fact him — I'm pretty sure of it — the Office boss, the Almighty Evan, the 40-year-old-virgin. He looked at me and pointed forward, the direction he was heading, shrugging a query: You need a ride? That's how I took it anyways. Too surprised to accept, and realizing the pause was already awkward, I shook my head, no thanks, and walked my way.

First up on my schedule was Uncle Kent, the latest film by the amazingly prolific (and very nice guy) Joe Swanberg. He's been cranking out small semi-improvised films about youth and everyday life and relationships for several years now, beginning with Kissing on the Mouth and LOL and Hannah Takes the Stairs and, his best, Alexander the Last. They're not perfect films, but they're funny and fresh and surprisingly intimate and tend to be rooted in real-life approximations of lives the director knows well.

This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.