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Sunday, May 23, 2010

You Gave Me SIFF?!?

It’s that time of year – The SIFF is here.  I haven’t been to the SIFF in a number of years for the sole reason that I generally dislike most of the people who go to the SIFF.  B1 and I coined a term for these generally snobby film “aficionados” as Film F*cks.  You know the kind - the obnoxious, hyper-analytical, scene dissecting people who moon light as movie “reviewers” but really just get off at demonstrating their useless knowledge of movies to a room full of strangers.  These are also the people who applaud at the end of movies, which is my personal movie-going-experience pet-peeve (with the exception of the director/producer/actors being present, then it’s perfectly acceptable).  This is also why I generally avoid midnight showings of movies because it’s all the crazies who are for sure going to clap at the end AND carry their own commentary throughout the show, which is equally, if not more, annoying.  Plus, being the introvert that I am, I generally avoid crowded rooms of crazy people….but I digress.   

Last night I was able to get my hands on a ticket to the SIFF/Seattle premier of Cyrus (Thanks, MR!).  Sitting in the theatre I was catapulted back to the time when all I did was sit in packed theatres with the aroma of popcorn that always smells so much better than it tastes, while the hum of the crowd chattered as we eagerly awaited for a show to start.  I felt 18 again. 

Our seats were upfront which makes for the always comfortable 2 hour backwards neck tilt. I was already a bit woozy after not quite recovering my from my spin class sweat-fest and lack of any sort of real sustenance through out the day, needless to say, I’d felt better.  The show was already 30 minutes late I was getting pretty restless. But that’s what a Seattleite does at the SIFF.   

I won’t rate the movie or go over any of the plot but I will say that  I loved John C. Riley, I thought Marisa Tormei was stunningly beautiful and Jonah Hill was played a more subtle whack job than usual which was oddly refreshing. When it comes out in wide release, you might want to check it out.  Is that vague and non-committal enough?   

Post-movie festivities led us to Late Night Happy Hour at Palomino Downtown.  Palomino serves up a fine paper thin crust, lightly cheesed with basil and roma tomato pizza that will titillate the taste buds and not overstuff. As usual, I opted for the always classy Shirley Temple to round off the meal. 

Over food and drinks, the conversation of five grown ups obviously moved towards a ranking and discussion of our favorite animated Disney movies which covered the whole Disney animated repertoire. My top 3 I proudly declared as 1.) Beauty and the Beast; 2.) Aladdin; 3.) Little Mermaid.  (With an honorable mention to Sleeping Beauty if Maleficent wasn’t the most petrifying animated villainess ever created.)  Then at some point NR tried to provide a synopsis of the last 3 seasons of LOST and just ended up sounding like a crazy person.

It was a classic urban Seattle evening with great film, food and friends.   


Sidenote – Movie/Movie Going Thoughts:

+Waiting, I hate waiting, in general. Let alone for something I have no control over, like when a movie starts.  After I’ve seen all the commercials and fun-fact trivia screens, I am ready for the show to begin. I can go from 0 to cranky in record time if I have to wait too long for a movie to start.

+Movie theater popcorn:  Why can’t movie theatre popcorn taste as good as it smells?  We’ve made jam without seeds, cereal crunchier, peanut butter smoother, cured polio, put men on the moon, can we not make movie theater popcorn less stale and synthetic and thus more delicious?   

+Movie reviews:  The same thing I feel about book reviews; they do a disservice to the movie and the movie-going experience.  I prefer to go in completely blind with no knowledge of what’s going to happen, how the critics like it or what it’s rated on Rotten Tomatoes.  (With the exception of Robin Hood I would have loved to known what the eff was going on before I walked into that one so that I didn’t spend the whole movie trying to figure out when he was going to start stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.)

There was a time in my life when I would watch 275+ movies a year.  These days I’m lucky to get 50 a year. I love movies, I really do.  There isn’t anything more wonderful than falling asleep to a movie on a stormy wintry Saturday afternoon (much to B1’s dismay).  I love music in movies, I love well written movies, I love fictional characters that in no way resemble real life yet we hold and fantasize to some real-life standard.   

Sure it’s all very American, there is something inherently lazy and escapist about movies, but as the SIFF begins, it’s all very exciting. 

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