Press Launch: Drinks, Food, Films

Press launch! Always exciting. You get your press pass and then hobnob with your fellow critics. So it was off to the Harvard Exit this morning. This time, we got our passes in the outer lobby, which helped with congestion. At 11 the doors to the main lobby opened and we went in to find a table of mimosas awaiting. I drank heartily. There were also four kinds of salads to sample, rolls, and chocolate cupcakes. Some of the cupcakes had a plastic heart on top saying “You are the best!” It’s not often the press hears that.

Then we were shooed in to hear the SIFF staff say how great this year’s festival was going to be. Hey ho. Then some trailers, including the special ones they do for SIFF. They are animated this year, are wacky. Fun. I wonder if they will drive you crazy though, after hearing them for three weeks. I still have some fondness for last year’s ads: “Who ordered the murdered mistress?”

Nothing wildly interesting conversation-wise, mainly catching up with folks I haven’t seen since last SIFF. Today heard positive comments about Half Nelson. Mixed comments on Road to Guantanamo. And an unconfirmed report that Heart of the Game will be the basis of a fictional feature film. See the original while you can! Wasn’t able to ask publicists Laura and Ginger about their exciting day in Aberdeen looking after Mr. Cruise. The film A Soap was recommended to me by a SIFFer.

I concur with Mr. Jeffers on The Illusionist (see below). It was like a lush romance novel come to life. Kinda cheesy, kinda hokey, and the storyline followed such a predictable path I was able to guess most of the plot twists. Still, pretty to look at, and the actors were all good, so it was relatively painless. Didn’t like it as much as last year’s opener (You and Me and Everyone We Know). Did like it more than the 2004 opener (The Notebook). I think opening night attendees will go off to the post-film party in a cheerful mood. And it opens in theaters soon, June I think. A SIFFer made the observation that, haircut aside, Edward Norton looks not unlike Sean Axmaker (fellow critic). Which was meant as a good thing. And why not. Everybody likes Sean Axmaker.