Los Angeles Film Festival Opening Night

Los Angeles Film Festival Opening Night. Independent Film? Hardly. This is as serious and professional that Hollywood can be. It’s a monster. It’s at LA Live which is a film food complex next to the Staples Center, which actually improves the stature of the festival from it’s days in Westwood Village. I’ll admit I thought Westwood Village was a great idea and the perfect venue but for a heavily industry infused event, LA Live is the spot. The opening film was Bernie by Richard Linklater. I’ve been a fan of his work from the get go, even pre-Slacker. What sold me on his work was Dazed and Confused, Suburbia, Before Sunrise, and even some of his more recent work that are part of box office game. His biggest hit is probably School of Rock. But what I like most, he’s a survivor of the early wave of 90s, talky, indie films.

 

The bad dude from “Lost”. He’s now the number two on the island with Hurley. Flash sideways! He’s at the LA Film Festival doing something sinister. Yeah, I can’t separate the fiction.

 

Ayako Fujitani gets the red carpet treatment.

 

That’s Shirley MacLaine and Jack Black. Two stars of Bernie. The movie is a strange one as Linklater uses what feels like real interviews and intercuts it with the fiction. It’s based on true events which makes the film even more strange. We’ll see where this “passion project” ends up. It’s not a “hit” type of film, but it’s not indie either.

 

A bit out of focus, it’s Matthew McConaughey… (his name is hard to spell) It’s obvious where he’s from, and he and Richard Linklater grew up together in East Texas. He too is in Bernie, but his best? Dazed and Confused.

 

The food is where it’s at. It was Southern themed and not bad. The after party was gigantic. Luckily we got there early and I doubt that food or drinks could have run out.

 

Maybe the parrot dress helped out the press line.