Linking In with Kevin Bacon

I was searching for a co-worker on LinkedIn and one of the results that popped up presumed to be Kevin Bacon's LinkedIn page. I suppose, in some sense, it makes sense. The actor who inspired a game called "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" should probably be represented on every networking site. Still, I somehow don't believe that it's him.

Brangelina

One thing I failed to disclose about the Brad & Angelina red carpet madness in my posting yesterday: When I came out of the No Country screening and saw the huge crowd there, I couldn't help myself. I got a little swept away in the excitement.

I stuck around for a few minutes, and the couple soon arrived, to much shrieking and cheering. They walked up and down the barricades on both sides of the street, signing things and posing for photos. Really I could only tell this by the direction people were pointing their cameras, because mostly all I could see was the back of other spectator's heads. I did catch a quick glimpse of them as they walked by. And I managed to get a couple photos (poor quality I'm sure) by holding my camera as high as I could and aiming it randomly where I guessed they were. I haven't had a chance to get those off the camera yet, but I'll post something when I do.

I suppose that was worth waiting 5 minutes for, but I still can't understand the people who waited for 4 hours.

Toronto Film Festival

Today was my second day at TIFF. On Saturday morning I saw Chacun son Cinema - a collection of 3-minute shorts by a range of celebrated directors, on the topic of cinema, originally created to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Cannes.

Later in the day I saw the new Coen brothers film, No Country for Old Men. Pretty good stuff. Very violent & mysterious. Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem were both pretty amazing. The story, the characters, the dynamic between them, and the rampant brutality reminded me a little of History of Violence. Unfortunately, I was sitting in the balcony, and the sound was kind of crappy, so some of the dialogue went right by me.

At the venue, though, the screening was a little overshadowed by all the hoopla surrounding the imminent arrival of the world's most newsworthy couple, Brad and Angelina. See, Brad Pitt's new movie was premiering in the same theater immediately following No Country, and the festival actually closed off the entire street in front of the theater four hours before the film, in preparation for the red carpet. When we went into the theater for the Coen Bros film, there were already hundreds of people lined up out front, waiting by the barricades. By the time we came out of the theater, the crowd had taken over the entire block.

And, of course the power couple was on the cover of most of the Toronto papers today. I thought the choice of the above image, by the Toronto Star, was kind of odd. Aside from being a really unflattering angle, they both look exhausted and miserable. She looks on the verge of tears! Maybe it's a little hard to tell from the online version of the photo, but blown up bigger on the front of the newspaper, it looks much worse.

More about the other films I saw when I get back to the U.S. in a couple days.

Sundance Institute at BAM, continued

Tonight I went to BAM to see Chasing Ghosts, another Sundance film that I didn't get to see out in Park City. The film was really good: a documentary about video game champions from the '80s (think "Dogtown and Z-boys" with Pac-man). But I was kind of tired and not in a great mood. After about 40 minutes I started feeling like it was too long. If it had been an hour-long special on TV, it would have been perfect for me at that time.

When I left BAM, I saw JJ Lask riding up on a bike. His film, On the Road with Judas, was screening next. That's one that Rohanna and I actually did see when we were out at Sundance. Kevin Corrigan, one of the stars of the film, came walking along after JJ. Without realizing what I was doing, I waved "hi" at Kevin, like a complete dork. He gave me a confused look, like "do I know you?" and I quickly just kept walking. What the hell? I never do that!

Kevin Corrigan
Originally uploaded by Mirka23

The only way I can explain this is that, when I saw JJ, I wanted to say hi to him. Because, see, we did actually talk to him at the screening. And Rohanna's roommate works for him, and was an extra in the film. So I guess you could say I'm two degrees from JJ Lask. But then he zipped by so quickly on his bike and my brain fixed on the next person it recognized, who happened to be Kevin, and transferred the greeting to him. Yeah, that sounds like a plausible theory.

Anyway, Kevin probably doesn't remember it, but I did have my picture taken with him at the film's premiere, back in January.

Sundance Institute at BAM - Opening Night

Over at BAM they're showing a series of films that played at Sundance this year. This is great because it means I get to see some of the films I wanted to see, but didn't get the chance. The opening night film was Son of Ranbow, which got a lot of good buzz when it screened in Park City.

So, I was expecting to like the film. What I didn't expect was Robert Redford introducing the mini-fest. It makes sense, I just didn't expect it! He said some very nice things about why Brooklyn, and especially BAM, is the perfect place to expand his famous independent film festival. I didn't realize this is only the second year they've done this.

The film was fantastic. An entire opera house full of people cracked up, numerous times. I highly recommend going to see it when it comes to theaters.

Director Garth Jennings was also quite charming and funny. That's him at right, greeting people at the reception after the screening. At one point, as I tried to make my way across the very crowded party, I realized I was walking aside Wes Anderson.

Frost/Nixon

Tonight I went to see the play Frost/Nixon, and it was great despite numerous logistical problems with the production. At first I thought they were just making some weird lighting choices, but then they stopped the play and announced that there were technical problems. Michael Sheen did an amazing job of picking the scene back up again several minutes later, but the spell was broken a little and I think the audience was a little less engaged after the interruption. Sirens in Times Square were going off endlessly during what was supposed to be a silent, pensive scene. People were fidgety. The spotlight had a weird tendency to suddenly shift away from the person on stage and point straight down onto the audience below. Oh and some jackass's phone starting ringing (ringtone: "When the saints come marching in") during the dramatic final monologue. It continued through the end of the monologue and into the next scene. It went on for so long that other jackasses started shouting "shut it off!" (as if that helped).

Still, as I said, the play was really amazing. Plus, when we left, we saw Matthew Fox standing outside talking to some friends. Unless he just likes to hang out outside the Jacobs Theatre, I'm guessing he saw the play, too.

Tribeca Film Fest - Tuesday, May 1

Watching The Detectives Q&A
Originally uploaded by Mirka23.

Tonight I saw two films. The first was Watching the Detectives, a quirky, wonderful comedy written and directed by Paul Soter (sitting on the left in the photo). It stars Cillian Murphy as a video store owner and movie enthusiast, and Lucy Liu (standing on the far right in the photo) as his eccentric love interest. I'm not even sure what to say about this film, because you should really just see it.

It's weird and adorable, and even though the characters are kind of off-the-wall, I never had the feeling (like I so often do with comedies described as "quirky") that the screenwriter was trying too hard, that the characters are all just a little too wacky and interesting. I think this is because their personalities are unusual, but at different volumes. Like real people. The mistake so many movies make is that everyone is equally weird. This film has some people that are mildly strange, some that seem interesting but very normal, and some that seem completely absurd. But they all interact like it's totally normal, and it seems somehow kind of realistic, at the same time that it's clearly a complete fantasy.

Since it was the premiere, Paul Soter and much of the cast were there to talk about the film and answer questions. Man, Lucy Liu is stunning! Some celebs not in the movie were also in attendance, including Ajay Naidu (Office Space) and Rachel Dratch.

I almost forgot to mention the second film I saw, Suburban Girl. I think the fact that I just saw it a couple hours ago and I've pretty much already forgotten about it kind of says it all. On the surface it's like a cross between Devil Wears Prada and Shopgirl, with more literary aspirations. On a deeper level, well, there is no deeper level. The chemistry between Alec Baldwin and Sarah Michelle Gellar alternates between not that interesting and kind of creepy. Even more than Baldwin's performance in last year's Mini's First Time, which I think was supposed to be creepy. (Alec Baldwin, you are hilarious, but please stop playing guys who are dating girls in their teens and early 20s!)

Plus, I think it's going to be hard for people to put aside what's going on in Baldwin's personal life at the moment. His character in the film has some similar issues with his daughter, which, in the screening I saw, resulted in a lot of laughter at scenes which were definitely not meant to be funny.

Tribeca Film Festival 2007 - Thurs, April 26

Heckler Q&A
Originally uploaded by Mirka23.

On the first full day of the Tribeca Film Festival, I saw two films.

The first was Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist and I loved it. It's amazing to see how much this one man did for the medium of comics, which is now a pretty major player in the entertainment industry. Not only did he invent the graphic novel (which I kind of already knew), but he pretty much came up with the model for the modern comic book in the first place. AND he innovated using comics as a more accessible way to teach people - first in the army, and then with kids. Pretty amazing.

The film was also really well put together, with lots of interviews and lots of dynamic, detailed views of some really incredible artwork.

The second film I saw was also a documentary. I didn't mean for it to work out that way, but it wasn't a bad thing. The film was called Heckler, made by Jamie Kennedy and director Michael Addis (pictured above). It seems that they set out to make a tour film, and Jamie was getting heckled a lot. Around the same time, Son of the Mask came out and it was getting panned - both by traditional critics and by pretty much anyone with a blog and an opinion.

So, the film turned into this thing where they were exploring the phenomenon of hecklers, and then critics. They interviewed a bunch of comedians and filmmakers, a few hecklers and (in some hilariously uncomfortable sequences) some of the critics who panned Kennedy's film. It definitely has the feeling of being a sort of therapeutic exercise, but it's also hilarious and pretty brave, I think.

The proliferation of online communities and publications has made the practice of criticism available to everyone, and the perceived anonymity of the internet makes people feel comfortable being vicious, especially if they can look clever while doing it. Sure, they have the right to say whatever they want, but online it's also way too easy to ignore how your words are going to affect people. The film presents the perspective of those people that are the targets, and I can definitively say that I would not want to go through what they go through.

Craig Ferguson Week

Craig Ferguson
Originally uploaded by Mirka23.

Last week there was a lot of Craig Ferguson in NYC. First I saw him perform at Comix on Friday, April 13th. The show was hilarious - very autobiographical, very personal, much like his monologues on The Late, Late Show, but with more swearing! He cracks me up.

Some women came to the show in full-on kilts and gear.

The following Wednesday, Craig was doing a book signing for the paperback version of his novel, Between the Bridge and the River. He read a few passages, answered some questions, and joked that he'd be back next year to promote the book on tape. Then he signed copies of the book of course.

In between, he seemed to keep himself pretty busy appearing on lots of New York based talk shows.

Grindhouse Overload

Grindhouse at the comic book store
Originally uploaded by Mirka23.

Yesterday someone asked me if I'm going to see Grindhouse. I said I felt like I had already been totally overexposed to it, so probably not. It seems like they're promoting it on every show on every channel. Not just with ads. Every show I watch seems to be leading into commercials with little snippets of Quentin Tarantino talking about the film and sneak peak clips that I've already seen.

Then, today, I was out and I went by the comic book store only to discover that there was a huge crowd outside and I couldn't get in to shop. Of course, it was a signing for Grindhouse! At first I was pissed because I didn't want to have to leave and come back later. But then someone told me it was almost over. So I hung out for a minute and the celebs came out and each got into their separate black SUVs. That caused some excitement among the crowd, and by chance I was actually in a good position to take some crappy pictures of Quentin Tarantino, Rose McGowan and Rosario Dawson with my cellphone, so it was kind of fun afterall.

I guess I have to admit, as sick as I am of hearing about Grindhouse, I do love the fact that NYC is the kind of place where you can stumble across something like this when you're just out walking around on a Saturday afternoon. Celebrity spotting is fun, as long as they don't interrupt my shopping plans.

Tim Gunn sighting!

My sister, Wendy, and I saw Tim Gunn when we were going to an ATM near Parsons. His ATM wasn't working, so he left. But before he did, he announced, "There's no cash in that one." He sounded so Tim Gunn-like!