Mommie Dearest for Mother’s Day (May 8)
TriggerStreet.com Tribeca Film Festival Screening (May 9)
Good days at the movies. Found out the night before that the Chelsea 23rd would be screening Mommie Dearest the next night at 7pm, and for only $5!
It was absolutely one of the greatest filmgoing experiences of my life. People were invited to talk along with the movie by Hedda Lettuce, who mostly put on a really great show. There were a couple of jokes that were run over film lines, which is too much. The audience wants to enjoy it for themselves also. The worst one was having Hedda as Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford being chased down and up and around and by a male Christina in drag, brandishing an axe held above her head while running, DURING the ‘Clean up this mess!’ scene right after the coat-hanger beating scene. This was a DISTRACTION! People were actually yelling SSSSSH! while they were running.
The good parts were people who brought their own hangers and Ajax (baby powder), but Hedda had Christina hand out about 50 hangers. Of course, I got rid of all my wire hangers immediately after seeing this film. I’ve been plastic ever since. Wire hangers are removed immediately upon entering the household.
God, this is such a great movie. How did Faye Dunaway find this? Or the writers? Joan Crawford adopted four children, though only Christopher and Christina are mentioned. Christopher drops out of the movie entirely about halfway through and we don’t hear of him again until he’s an adult. But man, Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford is truly one of the greatest coups of global cinema acting. It’s an unbelievable performance, and however ‘bad’ anyone wants to say the film is, Joan by Faye is delivered with all the power in Faye’s vocabularic mastery. So much so that almost every line uttered by Faye is a cinema moment, a flash of line that enters the global consciousness. Here Faye Dunaway smashes out line after line of instantly embedded memory bits. Many of these could become commercial slogans.
At least 25% of the audience knew all the lines. It was a really super-great night. I would do this again in a heartbeat.
Faye Dunaway, a master.
TriggerStreet.com Short Film Festival – Top Ten Finalists
So my mom had told me about this Kevin Spacey website thing, I thought why not, and got very caught up in it from the films and scripts to the ‘community’ itself.
It’s a pretty incredible experiment, and besides a bunch of weird stuff for awhile, the festival has produced a fine 10 short films through community reviews and rankings. Unfortunately neither Nikki West nor Stephen Kilkie took the front stage for their films, but incredibly talented Jeffrey Travis from Austin, TX was there for his very funny “What’s Wrong with this Picture?,” Twilight Zone-esque filmmaker Tony West (and yes he knows Nikki) with ‘The Return,’ Phil Powell and his very funny in-the-vein of ‘Waiting for Guffman’-esque film ‘Non-Abductees Anonymous’ about people who feel left out because they haven’t been abducted by aliens. Levi Holiman I would vost as a most-likely for top prize because of his handling of telling, and the appreciation from the crowd. I did not connect with this short so much, though I’ve heard that his new short film is horror, which he loves, so that’s a good thing.
Sadly Stephen Kilkie was not there, and his short ‘The Strange Case of Patient X’ showed last, leaving the greatest impression. I’ve seen five of Kilkie’s films and I love them all. He’s got a site up at http://homepage.mac.com/skilkie and I highly recommend a visit.
#1 TriggerStreet.com reviewer with over 700 reviewers, Elizabeth Anne, flew up for the screening herself and said hello to everyone she’s reviewed. #2 reviewer is myself and it was great to meet these filmmakers that left such impressions with me that I will remember and recite their work from time to time, or at least tenor praise.
Kevin Spacey was there to announce the filmmakers and shake their hands. He walked and shook a few hands afterwards, so I introduced myself. Maybe he’s actually looked at the site and seen my name. Nice to say hi to him, and to the filmmakers. This was a very successfull short film festival, producing some nice work.
Then we went and saw X-men 2 at the Ziegfeld. It was alright. There was this ugly cunt in front of us though. Now, you may think those words harsh, but we kindly asked if she could remove her hat, and she pursed her lips, smoothed her hat down, and pulled it on tighter. I got up to get the manager and John was telling her that was rude, and even the manager couldn’t get her to take her hat off.
So we sat in front of her. Still, I can’t think of anything else to call her. ‘Human’ is just too kind.