Newport Beach Film Festival opening night
April 20th, 2007, 7:48 pm · Post a Comment · posted by jchin
As I approached Edwards Big Newport last night, I had one question in mind for all the people crowding on the red carpet – Are you famous?
I mean, truly, are you? I’m bad at recognizing actors’ faces. Everyone looks like they’re sort of famous. Look at that dude in the hat – all decked out with rings, like Dave Navarro, but tall. And that guy with the dreadlocks standing in front of him. The guy with the “messy” hair on the far right told me he was a hairdresser from San Diego. Who knows if he was messing with me.
It’s not that I don’t want to talk to you if you’re not famous. It’s just that I feel stupid when I wake up in the morning and read in the paper that I missed everybody. Like today. Thora Birch, where were you?
Anyway, the opening movie was Chad Lowe’s directorial debut, “Beautiful Ohio.” It stars Rita Wilson, William Hurt and Michelle Trachtenburg. Wilson and newcomer Brett Davern turned in good performances in this family drama set in 1970s Ohio, but otherwise, I’m afraid to say I didn’t like the movie very much.
“Beautiful Ohio” is about a family, in which the older son is a moody math genius. The younger brother tries to figure out the mystery of his brother – how he solves his math problems, why he sometimes speaks in a made-up language, how he has attracted such a hot girlfriend (Michelle T, looming awkwardly). I felt frustrated watching the movie because I thought it had so much potential, but the scenes were not well paced and I never felt myself sucked into the drama. My mind drifted to Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm,” and I started to think how much better “Beautiful Ohio” could have been with better teen actors like Christina Ricci, Tobey Maguire and Elijah Wood.
Post-movie, the crowd shifted to the courtyard outside Bloomingdale’s in Fashion Island. About a dozen restaurants set up tents and gave out samples of their signature dishes. Thank you Fleming’s for those delicious mini-burgers!
Before his movie screened, Chad Lowe talked about how Newport Beach Film Festival is a “pure” festival in the sense that film lovers actually get to enjoy movies here. In bigger film festivals like Sundance, for example, the talk shifts often to $$$ — which movie sold for the most. I agree with that. Newport fest is just small enough to feel local, and big enough (and near enough to Hollywood) to get lots of good indie movies and visitor filmmakers.
The opening night party was listed as a “gala” with “black tie optional” dress. But of course, this being SoCal, lots of people showed up in jeans and casual dresses. Despite the fashion show, it didn’t feel like a super-glamorous affair. It seemed like it was just a bunch of eager filmmakers talking to each other. There were lots of regular joes who are employees of sponsoring companies. I think Kantina on a Saturday night is more intimidating.
Our photographer Dominique Riley got lots of great photos of the opening party. Check them out here.
— Jit Fong Chin
