Celebrity Sightings

Last Sunday night, I went to Alamo Ritz for this month's Cinema Club screening, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Cinema Club is a monthly(ish) series that focuses on older films, with a discussion of those films afterward. A special guest is invited who has expert knowledge of the film being shown, and the discussions are often lively and interesting.

This month's Cinema Club special guest was Joe Bob Briggs, as you can see in the center of the above photo. You might not associate the drive-in movie critic of Grapevine, Texas with Preston Sturges movies, but he knew all about Sturges' work for Paramount and the ways in which Sturges managed to push this surprisingly racy-for-its-time movie -- about a young woman who finds herself pregnant after a night with a lot of soldiers -- past the Production Code office. I love Preston Sturges films and 1930s screwball comedies in general, but I definitely felt the limitations of my own film knowledge during the post-movie discussion. I didn't mind; it's a pleasure to learn new things about movies from someone like Joe Bob Briggs.

A note from Jette: I'd like to introduce you all to our newest Slackerwood contributor, Paul Gandersman. Paul is an amazing photographer who attended the Predators red carpet and world premiere. My own red-carpet photography skills have come a long way since my first experience with them, but Paul's photos leave mine in the shade. He captured some great photos of Predators producers Robert Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan, director Nimrod Antal and star Adrien Brody. In addition, red carpet appearances included a couple of actors from previous Troublemaker Studios films who Joe O'Connell tells us are about to star in blacktino, a movie produced by Avellan (that I'd love to hear more about): Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids, World's Greatest Dad) and Jeff Fahey (Planet Terror).

I'm posting these photos without any descriptions in between them -- I think they stand on their own very well. For those of you needing a hint, you can mouse over the photos themselves. Enjoy.

While checking out photos from the red carpet events across the globe for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, I was struck by how photogenic co-star Ashley Greene is. Her natural grace and beauty stands out on the red carpet -- but perhaps I'm biased since I was able to get some great shots of Greene and the rest of the cast during the Skateland premiere at SXSW this year, like the one above.

It has to be no easy feat with the pandemonium that follows The Twilight Saga stars Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning, as I experienced at The Runaways premiere. Stewart seemed quite withdrawn at the SXSW event both on the red carpet and onstage for the Q&A. I dismissed it as the effect of a rigorous press junket, but according to this NY Daily News article, Stewart is quite uncomfortable and fearful during large events. That would definitely explain why she spent most of the Q&A crouched down on the stage.

I was sorry to miss the City of Austin's "Night of the Bat" festivities a couple of weekends ago. Among the events celebrating bats and their ties to local history and culture, the Paramount screened the 1966 camp classic Batman. Back in 1966, the film had a gala world premiere at the Paramount. Texas Archive of the Moving Image showed footage of local interviews with the cast of Batman from that premiere, which you can watch online.

To add to the "Night of the Bat" fun, Adam West showed up and, I am told, fascinated the audience with a variety of tales from his Batman days. You can see West in the above photo (do I need to tell you he's second from the right?) with Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell and a couple of masked crusaders. We've got more photos after the jump, including the Batmobile.

You were expecting some Cine Las Americas news this morning, right? I didn't make it to the one fest screening at Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar on Tuesday night. I was at another screen in the same theater for a special star-studded screening of Iron Man 2 complete with gifts, Robert Downey Jr. and Jon Favreau.

I don't have pictures, in part because no cameras were allowed in the theater -- and yes, at least one sneaky type was escorted out for bringing in a cell phone despite multiple warnings not to do so Security was tight, and for good reason. This was the first public screening of Iron Man 2 apart from the film's red-carpet premiere.

The event was the hot-ticket item for movies in Austin tonight, which is saying something. Every screen at the Alamo on South Lamar was booked already, most for special events, so there was no chance of an overflow screen being used. We were all seated about an hour early but in this digital age, so few of us had watches that it felt surreal.

When the event finally began, we were told we would see a video intro to the film, which has been done at special screenings before. But some of us just knew that this wasn't going to be a simple sneak peek. The gal next to me, who has a crush on director Jon Favreau, thought I was pulling her leg when I said I was absolutely sure he'd show. Not that I was told anything, but he was here for the very first Fantastic Fest's opening-night film (Zathura), so why wouldn't he be here ... especially since the twitterpation about this event started with him tweeting about this special screening? The video was a snarky comedy bit with Favreau trying to wrangle Downey's snipes about geeks. I told my seatmate to keep an eye on the doors, and she was enthusiastically surprised to see Favreau walk in.

The documentary Best Worst Movie kicks off a cross-country tour tomorrow with a week-long run in the best city possible for such an event ... this one. It's not that I'm biased about Austin, although I am, but this is a town where screenings of the cult film that is the focus of the doc, Troll 2, sell out like crazy. In fact, Troll 2 events at Alamo Drafthouse and Rolling Roadshow are featured in the documentary, and you can even catch a nostalgic glimpse of the original Alamo Drafthouse on Colorado. Opening the movie in New York or LA first would have been downright wrong.

As all good Troll 2 fans know, Troll 2 isn't actually about trolls. The monsters are in fact goblins. And to promote Best Worst Movie, a pair of goblins have been venturing around Austin all week, visiting some of the city's finest and most unusual landmarks. You have to admire their dedication -- after all, you didn't see any Na'vi bumming around Barton Springs to promote Avatar, or sad teen vampires lurking around the Daniel Johnston frog mural for the Twilight movies.

You can view the full set of photos from the "Austin Goblin Tour" on the Facebook page for Best Worst Movie, including stops at Iron Works (but aren't they vegetarian?), Toy Joy, Spider House and I Luv Video. The Best Worst Movie folks have kindly granted me permission to show you a few of my favorites from other stops on the tour, below the jump.

With Kick-Ass opening on Friday, it seemed like time to revisit the film's screening on the opening night of SXSW. This year's festival started with a record crowd turning up for Kick-Ass, with many of the film's stars and creators in town. Although Clark Duke (Hot Tub Time Machine), pictured above, had not been to SXSW before, he revealed that this wasn't his first time in Austin. He admitted that he loved Austin and had planned to move here after college, but landed in Los Angeles instead.

I've missed John Pierson's master class at The University of Texas this year. I've enrolled in the master class several times, and have always enjoyed the guests from the film industry that Pierson interviews each week. He's brought a variety of speakers to Austin, from film-festival programmers to local film critics to actors such as Steve Buscemi to well-known filmmakers such as Kevin Smith and Ross McElwee. The "celebrity" speakers are always fun, but I naturally have a soft spot for the local guests ... one of my favorites was a very candid evening with Alamo Drafthouse founder Tim League a few years ago.

Last week's class was one I was especially sorry to miss: author Alison Macor, whose book Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids was recently published, discussed Austin film history with local filmmaker Richard Linklater. I hope this is one of the sessions that KUT recorded and will air this summer, as they've done with other sessions from Pierson's classes.

This was my sixth SXSW Film Festival and my fifth as a distinguished member of the press. This was also the first SXSW that I seriously felt like an editor here at Slackerwood. If you look at our SXSW coverage list, you'll see why. We've written 50 articles during and after SXSW so far, not counting the guides and interviews done beforehand. We were able to run five articles a day some days, which is really fucking incredible for a site that used to be dead for two weeks at a time because Chris and I felt too busy or slackery to update it. We had unexpected contributors who pitched in and added to the fun. It did mean more time on the computer and less time in the theater, but I still saw so many wonderful movies that I can't complain.

Let's get to the fun part. I'm taking the slackery way out and giving you a list of my SXSW 2010 experiences.

Favorite movies coming to a theater near you: Micmacs, the latest film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie), which I liked so much that I saw at a press screening and then at the official SXSW screening. Okay, part of that was because the line for Cold Weather was too long and I knew I wouldn't get in, but still. Here's my Cinematical review. Expect to see Micmacs in American theaters sometime this summer. I also really liked Steven Soderbergh's film about Spalding Gray, And Everything Is Going Fine, which I hope to review soon (we'll see). And the Duplass brothers' film Cyrus was quite enjoyable (my review), and should be hitting theaters this summer too.

I know I've mentioned before (possibly to the point of causing you to roll your eyes) that my favorite Austin red-carpet event every year is the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards. The only drawback to the evening is that it's the night before SXSW, so I get sucked up into this whirlwind of festival-tude before I can show you all the cool pictures I took.

This year, for the tenth annual awards, I covered the red carpet portion of the evening and Debbie Cerda took over for the actual awards ceremony. I admit I missed getting to watch the ceremony, which I enjoy, although I get exhausted from all the standing and kneeling and photography work by the end of the night. Someday maybe I'll get a seat at one of the tables. I'd probably have to dress up then, though. One advantage of working as press is that I get to wear sneakers.

I wrote about the evening for Cinematical, and that article includes a nice photo gallery of nationally recognizable celebrities, as well as excellent embedded videos from other media sites. You might want to check that out first. But I still have some photos left, especially of familiar Austin faces, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. Off we go.