Legend bloodies up the Regal Winter Park movie screens.

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I went to a free screening of Legend at the Regal Winter Park 20, 510 N Orlando Ave, Winter Park, FL. Gladys West from Elite Animation Academy somehow always gets me hooked up with these advanced screenings. I got there several  hours early so I could complete a sketch before standing in line. Terry didn’t want to see a gangster movie. She was going to see a co-worker’s baby. The ticket taker didn’t want to let me in the theater, since the line for the movie would form outside. I had to talk to the manager to let him know that I needed to finish a sketch for my report. Inside I sat at one of fire empty tables to sketch the concessions stand. 

Star Wars, The Legend Returns banners announced that movie’s opening in December. Recent Star Wars films have been rich in digital effects and short on story. With Harrison Ford back in the franchise, I’m hoping some of the original magic might return. A dark robotic villain is barely visible behind his high saber. I hope the film lives up to the hype.

A huge candy machine kept coming alive, belting out its sickly sweet song. It’s hard to ignore concessions when they keep shouting for your attention. Terry showed up since she was denied access to the baby. The mom had simply forgot. She still didn’t want to see the movie, so I was confused as to why she came. She spent some time on her phone as I finished up the sketch. Then she announced that she was leaving. She realized that she was in a fowl mood after not getting to see the baby, and she didn’t want project it on me. Maybe ten minutes after she left, the sketch was done. I went outside to see how long the line was for Legend. There was no line. With time to kill, I decided to get Mexican food at Lime next door. As I ordered my surfer tacos, Terry said hello. She had also stopped for a taco salad, so we got to have dinner together. we talked about trolls, Nazis and gun control. My tacos were fantastic. I will definitely be returning to Lime.

After dinner,  I went back to the movie theater and went straight inside. The theater was 3/4 full. Perhaps because of Thanksgiving most people were home. The security lady told us all to turn off our phones. The lady two seats from me kept texting, clueless. The security lady shouted that is is very easy to spot an illumined phone in a dark theater. She marched over to the texter and stood in from of her saying that if she needed to text she could text in the lobby. When the texter stopped the audience clapped and hooted its approval. 

So, the movie, Legend had the Suave, charming and volatile, Reggie Kray (Tom Hardy) and his
unstable twin brother Ronnie (also played by Tom Hardy) leaving their mark on the London
underworld in the 1960s. Using violence to get what they want, the
siblings orchestrate robberies and murders while running nightclubs and
protection rackets. With police
Detective Leonard “Nipper” Read hot on their heels, the brothers
continue their rapid rise to power and achieve tabloid notoriety. The film was better than I expected. It was narrated by Reggie Kray’s girlfriend an then wife, played by Emily Browning. Just like in the Godfather, Reggie dreams of going straight as a club owner, but he can’t give up his East End London criminal past, he is just too good at it. The violence is graphic and insane, so don’t bring your kids. It is a story of brotherly love and the pain that comes from loving a gangster. I gave the film 7 out of 10 hammers.

Bridge of Spies hits theaters October 16th.

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I went to a free preview screening of Bridge of Spies starring Tom Hanks and directed by Stephen Spielberg on October 13th. I arrived several hours early an hours early and decided to sketch this larger than life chess set. A young couple set up the board and began to play. Across the street at the Regal Winter Park Cinemas, two large lines had already formed to get in the theater. I overheard that one was for Goosebumps the movie, and the of he was for Bridge of spies. As I was finishing my sketch, the spies line moved forward into the theater. There was more than an hour before the movie was to be screened, but I went inside to assess the situation.

Two co-workers from Elite Animation Academy were in the lobby. They were waiting for friends and family. Guards were collecting and bagging cell phones so the no one would record video of the movie prior to it’s release on October 16th. I waited with them since Terry planned to arrive minutes before the screening. All the heightened security seemed appropriate for a movie about Soviet and us relations as the  Berlin wall was raised. Everyone was patted down and scanned by y metal detector as we went through Check Point Charlie to go into the screening room. I had purchased a large popcorn and realized the had I hidden my phone in the popcorn I could have smuggled it into the theater.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union captures U.S. pilot Francis Gary Powers after shooting down his U-2 spy plane. Sentenced to 10 years in prison, Powers’ only hope is New York lawyer James Donovan (Tom Hanks), recruited by a CIA operative to negotiate his release. Donovan boards a plane to Berlin, hoping to win the young man’s freedom through a prisoner exchange. If all goes well, the Russians would get Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), the convicted spy who Donovan defended in court. Although Rudolf was clearly a spy, I rather liked him since he was also a rather go representational artist. He seemed unfazed during the court hearing in which he was found guilty. His lawyer kept asking, “Aren’t You worried? to which Abel replied “Would it help if I were?  This became a running joke between them.

At times the film  reminded me of “To Kill a Mockingbird” in which Atticus Finch had to defend a black man in a racist Southern town. Like Donovan, he and his family were threatened for taking the case. Spielberg’s influence can be seen in the interrogation scenes in which the windows are brightly illumined behind the actors. Negotiations in Eastern Germany involved as much strategy as a game of chess. The film is smartly written and brilliantly directed.

Stuck in Love

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A marketing firm asked me to give away tickets to a movie screening. I could give away as many tickets as I wanted, but seating at the theater would be on a first come first served basis. I decided to go to the screening of “Stuck in Love” to see how full the theater was. Terry was going to meet me after work, so I quickly sketched the theater, Regal Winter Park Cinemas 20,(510 N Orlando Ave Winter Park, FL) before she arrived. I saw a line form outside the theater but they filed in before the schedules screening time. Small groups of people were let into the theater at a time. The guy at the front of the line told me it was to avoid chaos and a mad rush to seating.

The writer and director of the film, Josh Boone was there along with actor Logan Lerman to quickly introduce the film and take questions afterwards. The film is about the Borgens family. William Borgens is an acclaimed author who hasn’t
written a word since his ex-wife Erica left him 3 years ago for another
man. In between spying on Erica and casual romps with his married
neighbour Tricia, Bill is dealing with the complexities of raising his
teenage children Samantha and Rusty. Samantha is publishing her first
novel and is determined to avoid love at all costs – after all she’s
seen what it has done to her parents. In between hook ups, she meets
“nice guy” Lou who will stop at nothing to win her over. Rusty, is an
aspiring fantasy writer and Stephen King aficionado, who is on a quest
to gain ‘life experiences’. He falls for the beautiful, but troubled
Kate and gets his first taste of love and a broken heart. A tale of
family, love (lost and found), and how endings can make new beginnings.
There are no rewrites in life, only second chances.

Josh Boone related after the screening that some of the material in the movie was autobiographical. Rusty’s first love is based on his own experiences in high school, of love found and lost. Being fiction he was able to rewrite his family history, having his father wait three years for his wife to return.  Terry felt that no man would wait that long in hopes that love would return. Logan loved working on the film because the entire cast stayed in a hotel during the shooting and they truly became a tight knit family. This is a rare film with plenty of sincere emotion. Josh had written the screenplay many years ago and the true challenge was to find the money to make it. Once he had the backing, things fell into place quickly. He has a bright future ahead of him and he is already onto the next projects, “Pretenders“, and “The Fault in Our Stars“. “Stuck in Love” is in select theaters now. Don’t miss it.

Free Samples

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After finishing a sketch at the Regal Winter Park Cinemas  , I looked to see if there were any other films playing in the Florida Film Festival that might interest me. “Free Samples” directed by Jay Gammill had a Tippi Hendren playing the role of a sage old Hollywood actress. I rushed over to the Enzian Theater and got in just as the film began.

The film stars Jillian played by Jess Weixler as a Stanford law school drop out in Hollywood trying to find herself. She tried music but realized it was too difficult and she gave up painting for the same reason. She seems to have her life on hold for her Stanford boyfriend or fiance.

A girlfriend asks Jillian to spend a day in a soft serve ice cream truck handing out free samples.  She interacts with the costumers with dead pan wit not caring about the consequences. When a local musician asks if she will come see his band perform, she plainly states that the band sucks.

When a little girl arrives with her dad who is distracted arguing on a cell phone, Jillian becomes sincere lamenting her own parents. The little girl takes Jillian’s hand and says it will be alright.

Tippy comes up for a sample needing two walking sticks. Jillian and the old actress sit together and have a magnificent candid conversation. The sincerity and honesty of the characters had me wiping my eyes a few times. Jesse Eisenberg as Tex, shows up in a suit asking Jillian where she would like to go to dinner. She had been so drunk the night before, she forgot she had agreed to the date. The adventure of the day had softened her allowing her to let people back into her life any softening her empathy for others.

After the film, the director in his lace less sneakers and Tippi in her blue jumpsuit took questions. On person asked if the role had been written specifically with Tippi in mind.  The director was pleased and amazed to get such a legend into his first feature. Jess Weixler’s playful deadpan performance was the cement that brought this amazing film to life.

Film Maker Forum

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At the Regal Winter Park Cinemas, on April 12th at 2:30PM, the Florida Film Festival hosted some of the most talented new independent filmmakers every year and always sets aside one day just to pick their brains. This lively and dynamic exchange of ideas and know-how inevitably defines a high point in the festival—peppered with tales of triumph, challenge, and creative methods. The panel was moderated by Florida Film Festival selections committee member, and Rollins College Professor, Denise Cummings, Department of Critical Media and Cultural Studies.

Marc Menchaca was an actor who decided to become an independent film producer and director.  His film, “This is Where We Live“, is about an intelligent young man who suffers from Cerebral Palsy who has a caretaker. The scene screened showed the two in a restaurant getting ready to place an order. The caretaker tries to get an order from the young man but because communication was impossible, they can’t reach a consensus. Someone waiting behind them says, “For crying out loud” and the caretaker gets abusive saying he should air his complaint to the young man with cerebral palsy. The scene packed a punch even though no punches were thrown.

Todd Looby‘s, film called, “Be Good“, was about a young filmmaker who has a new child and he is realizing his creative freedom has vanished. Stephen Silha had a documentary called “Big Joy“, about James Broughton, a poet and filmmaker in San Francisco whose mantra was “follow your Wierd”. He celebrated pleasure and sexuality with humor and joy. Justin Lang was a young first time director who created a horror film called “The Dark“. He recounted his youth in which he covered himself completely under the sheets in order to sleep, because his brother told him that aliens would eat him at night. Renae Su created a short animated film called, “Daisy“, that is sort of a story reel with narration about a beautiful girl who always makes men fall in love with her. Her life becomes difficult when a man feels the need to possess her and he locks her in her room to keep other men from seeing her. Renae said she got the idea for the film from a male classmate who always made women uncomfortable, because he didn’t know how to approach them.

When the audience was asked for questions, a woman asked Renae “How do you feel being the only woman on the panel?” Renae said that she hadn’t thought about it. Then the woman asked if any of the male panelists wanted to address the issue. Justin pointed out that he had studied with and learned from many great women filmmakers. The conversation went on for some time and then Marc said, ” I am part Mexican, so this panel is more diverse than you think.” That got a good laugh. Afterwards in the Daily City Lounge area, several film makers complained about how much time was wasted answering questions of gender rather than discussing the creative and financial challenges of making a film.

Louder Than a Bomb

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I began my evening by going to the Regal Cinemas in Winter Park. I arrived an hour and a half early in order to have some time to sketch before watching films. I walked back to the two theaters that were set aside for the Florida Film Festival. In the hallway student volunteers were waiting around between screenings. Their job was to collect tickets and hand out ballots so the audience could rate the films. While I sketched, Jeremy Seghers and a friend stopped to say hello. Jeremy told me I HAD to see Louder than a Bomb! He was adamant, and he told me I would love it. With a spirited review like that, I had to see this film. I rushed from the Regal to the Enzian theater.

Mr. Happy Man by local filmmaker Matt Morris was screened first. I met Matt, Emma Kruch and Betsy Dye in the theater lobby. Matt wanted to get in early to get a seat for his screening. The volunteers turned him away offering no VIP treatment. This offered me the chance to meet him and shake his hand. He complained that the shoe laces on his sneakers were too long. Betsy dug into her bag and pulled out a crochet needle. She kneeled down and shoved the needle under the crossed laces and then she pulled the looped ends of the knot down underneath. It was a sudden inspired solution that very well could cause a national fashion trend. Mr Happy Man was about an inspiring character, named Johnny Barnes in Bermuda, who stood at a busy intersection each morning shouting out his love and blowing kisses to everyone who drove by. People came to depend on him and were reassured by his constant presence. A sculptor did a life sized bronze statue of him to commemorate his message of love. Here was a man with a simple message we all can learn from. Life is beautiful, don’t waste it being upset or stressed. Let people know you love them.

Louder than a bomb was a documentary about high school students who compete in a spoken word competition. The film followed four students from two different high schools as they prepared for the competition. Steinmetz high was located in an underprivileged section of Chicago. In their neighborhood there were few opportunities. The first year they competed in the slam, they won. They hoped to repeat that performance. Oak Park high school was in the quiet suburbs, a privileged school in comparison.

What made the film so vibrant and vital was the creative spirit and drive of the students. Nova Venerable, a young Indian girl had a father who was a substance abuser. She basically had to raise her little brother since her mom had to work multiple jobs to keep the kids away from the father. Nova had not spoken to her father in years yet her poetry about him was filled with both anger and love. She started high school angry, often fighting with other students. She said, “My life seemed to fit once I started writing.” Her brother, Cody, had special needs, with a form of autism. Her poem about him was filled with the purest love and yet she feared he might forget her when she went away to college. Her poetry was so raw and honest that it would silence the audience.

Adam Gottlieb felt he had grown up privileged since his parents supported him allowing him to pursue his dream. A poem he wrote about the simple act of writing sparked with life. Every line flowed forth, a constant stream of expression, the words piling up in the rapid need to be expressed. The poem poured out of him with such force that he was short of breath. Then he paused for the longest time and said, “poet breathe now.” The audience breathed with him. The audience on the screen erupted in applause as did the audience in the Enzian theater.

Because of the challenges faced by the students from Steinmetz, I found myself rooting for them. Five judges scored the poetry from one to ten points. High and low scores were removed. The final competition came down to a matter of one tenth of a point. There were tears of joy and sorrow. Nate from Steinmetz stressed that the world is bigger than a poetry slam, that the poets should not be afraid to step beyond the papers edge. All the students were learning to be inspired by people that were different than them. They were becoming true students of life. Louder than a Bomb explored the pure joy of students striving for creative expression. They left their hearts on the stage and that is inspiring, a gift to anyone who would listen! The movie audience stood and applauded. I wanted to jump and shout ready to wrestle my own need for creative expression. You need to see this film!