TribecaFilmFestival! WEST32ND! TribecaFilmFestival! WEST32ND! TribecaFilmFestival! WEST32ND! SEETHISMOVIE: WEST32ND!
The Tribeca Film Festival.
Two Daily Vesey passes (all-day admission for one to all general and special screenings of the Festival, as well as admission to Festival lounges and music venues).
Two Chinese people, married, and going to the movies like a first date...
... only we get to attend whatever movie we want playing at the Tribeca Film Festival..
... for one whole day of the festival. any number of movies playing for the entire day. (There's.. um. a LOT playing on any one given day of the Tribeca Film Festival).
So. yeah. it was cool. damn cool. We started the day, just slighty late, with Blue State featuring Breckin Meyer as a disgruntled liberal who moves to Canada after Bush wins the 2004 re-election, and Anna Paquin as his traveling companion. Smart flick, very funny, thoroughly enjoyable.
Then we had the full experience of traveling to a different venue as part of the Film Festival to catch the 3:30 showing of The Grand featuring Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Werner Herzog, Ray Romano, and Andy ... Andy ... what's-his-name (the one who plays Larry's cousin in Curb Your Enthusiasm). This movie is hilarious!. And like Curb, the scenes are all improv'd. Very impressive, very very funny.
By this time, after enjoying our second screening and a Q&A session with the director Zak Penn, it was around 5:30 or so. After barely making it into The Grand, we decided we'd stick around at this venue rather than attempting the hectic travel and squeeze into a screening at a different venue. We had a couple hours to kill.
By now, I felt just a tad disillusioned with the Film Festival. Sure, I had just seen two freakin awesome movies that I would have undoubtedly paid money to see. I would have happily paid $20. Hell, $50 even to see those cinematic pieces. They were great. And okay, yes, I was just perhaps a bit intoxicated with the raw power of wearing the Daily Vesey pass around my neck and flashing it at the volunteer workers at the Festival to let me into any damn screening I wanted, like a press pass.
But. Damn. Those volunteers are annoyingly disorganized.
Who the hell are these people from Kansas who obviously have no idea how the hell a line works?
What? Bathrooms are on separate floors from the actual theaters.. Umm...
The theater's at 34th Street. Isn't this the Tribeca Film Festival?
And now... with two hours to kill and a mere hot dog from before the screening of Blue State in our stomachs, we foraged for food near Penn Station and found...... a McDonald's. Oh my dear God. Well. All right. The movies are damn good. And we promised we'd hit Koreatown for a damn good dinner (since one of our favorite spots, KumGangSan is open 24/7 there anyway), after the screening of West 32nd... It's worth it, right? It's got to be.
7:30 and we catch the screening of You Kill Me. Now, Ben Kingsley. oh, wait, I apologize - Sir Ben Kingsley is unbelievably brilliant. He's an alcoholic contract killer and he meets up with Tea Leoni, who, I never was a big fan of as she never seems to act like a fully animated human being in any film I've seen her in - but she was damn animated in this one. This one's hitting the theaters in late June - and again would be well worth the cost of a ticket and a trip to the theater, my friends.
Finally, we hit the line for the last movie of the night. West 32nd. We know nothing about this film. In fact, had it not been for a co-worker of mine (he happens to be a friend of the director) who passed on a promo card to me, I may not have even known about it. At first, I was just very glad to hear about it as it features John Cho - and both of us firmly believe that he is one of the best and most talented actors today. So we knew we'd catch it. We also know it's probably an Asian-American film. All Asian cast, and for those of you who don't know, West 32nd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) is Koreatown, a block of Korean restaurants, bakeries, clubs, and stores that we frequent for food (the same block we were planning to hit this very same night after this movie). So, immediately, we were intrigued.
As we're seated and getting comfortable, we see none other than John Cho himself in the theater.
Oh yeah. It really is all worth it.
Even though the only food that's been in my stomach all day has been a hot dog, a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke and I'm annoyed by the midwestern boy in the front row with the kool-aid-blue-hair-dye-job who deserves to get his ass kicked in the west village... It really is all worth it.
West 32nd turns out to be a completely incredible film. Don't get me wrong. I still would pay $50 to see any of the movies that we got to see. At least. They were all unbelievably great cinematic works, but this happened to be my favorite of the entire night. It was absolutely stellar. I could go on and on praising it, but really you have to see it for yourself.
Go and see it for yourself.
Go.
Right now.
Find out where it's playing and go see it.
Afterwards, a Q&A session is held with the director, the producer, and virtually the entire cast, including John Cho. What an amazing experience.
It's around 12:30 and we've made our way to Kum Gang San, one of our favorite Korean restaurants on West 32nd Street (which also conveniently happens to be open 24/7). At this point, I realize. F_ck, I'm a damn whiner. What an incredible experience. Had we not had the fortune (well, okay, had my wife not had the fortune) of winning these passes, it still would have been worth it to buy our own way.
We definitely have to do this again.
Two Daily Vesey passes (all-day admission for one to all general and special screenings of the Festival, as well as admission to Festival lounges and music venues).
Two Chinese people, married, and going to the movies like a first date...
... only we get to attend whatever movie we want playing at the Tribeca Film Festival..
... for one whole day of the festival. any number of movies playing for the entire day. (There's.. um. a LOT playing on any one given day of the Tribeca Film Festival).
So. yeah. it was cool. damn cool. We started the day, just slighty late, with Blue State featuring Breckin Meyer as a disgruntled liberal who moves to Canada after Bush wins the 2004 re-election, and Anna Paquin as his traveling companion. Smart flick, very funny, thoroughly enjoyable.
Then we had the full experience of traveling to a different venue as part of the Film Festival to catch the 3:30 showing of The Grand featuring Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Werner Herzog, Ray Romano, and Andy ... Andy ... what's-his-name (the one who plays Larry's cousin in Curb Your Enthusiasm). This movie is hilarious!. And like Curb, the scenes are all improv'd. Very impressive, very very funny.
By this time, after enjoying our second screening and a Q&A session with the director Zak Penn, it was around 5:30 or so. After barely making it into The Grand, we decided we'd stick around at this venue rather than attempting the hectic travel and squeeze into a screening at a different venue. We had a couple hours to kill.
By now, I felt just a tad disillusioned with the Film Festival. Sure, I had just seen two freakin awesome movies that I would have undoubtedly paid money to see. I would have happily paid $20. Hell, $50 even to see those cinematic pieces. They were great. And okay, yes, I was just perhaps a bit intoxicated with the raw power of wearing the Daily Vesey pass around my neck and flashing it at the volunteer workers at the Festival to let me into any damn screening I wanted, like a press pass.
But. Damn. Those volunteers are annoyingly disorganized.
Who the hell are these people from Kansas who obviously have no idea how the hell a line works?
What? Bathrooms are on separate floors from the actual theaters.. Umm...
The theater's at 34th Street. Isn't this the Tribeca Film Festival?
And now... with two hours to kill and a mere hot dog from before the screening of Blue State in our stomachs, we foraged for food near Penn Station and found...... a McDonald's. Oh my dear God. Well. All right. The movies are damn good. And we promised we'd hit Koreatown for a damn good dinner (since one of our favorite spots, KumGangSan is open 24/7 there anyway), after the screening of West 32nd... It's worth it, right? It's got to be.
7:30 and we catch the screening of You Kill Me. Now, Ben Kingsley. oh, wait, I apologize - Sir Ben Kingsley is unbelievably brilliant. He's an alcoholic contract killer and he meets up with Tea Leoni, who, I never was a big fan of as she never seems to act like a fully animated human being in any film I've seen her in - but she was damn animated in this one. This one's hitting the theaters in late June - and again would be well worth the cost of a ticket and a trip to the theater, my friends.
Finally, we hit the line for the last movie of the night. West 32nd. We know nothing about this film. In fact, had it not been for a co-worker of mine (he happens to be a friend of the director) who passed on a promo card to me, I may not have even known about it. At first, I was just very glad to hear about it as it features John Cho - and both of us firmly believe that he is one of the best and most talented actors today. So we knew we'd catch it. We also know it's probably an Asian-American film. All Asian cast, and for those of you who don't know, West 32nd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues) is Koreatown, a block of Korean restaurants, bakeries, clubs, and stores that we frequent for food (the same block we were planning to hit this very same night after this movie). So, immediately, we were intrigued.
As we're seated and getting comfortable, we see none other than John Cho himself in the theater.
Oh yeah. It really is all worth it.
Even though the only food that's been in my stomach all day has been a hot dog, a Big Mac, fries, and a Coke and I'm annoyed by the midwestern boy in the front row with the kool-aid-blue-hair-dye-job who deserves to get his ass kicked in the west village... It really is all worth it.
West 32nd turns out to be a completely incredible film. Don't get me wrong. I still would pay $50 to see any of the movies that we got to see. At least. They were all unbelievably great cinematic works, but this happened to be my favorite of the entire night. It was absolutely stellar. I could go on and on praising it, but really you have to see it for yourself.
Go and see it for yourself.
Go.
Right now.
Find out where it's playing and go see it.
Afterwards, a Q&A session is held with the director, the producer, and virtually the entire cast, including John Cho. What an amazing experience.
It's around 12:30 and we've made our way to Kum Gang San, one of our favorite Korean restaurants on West 32nd Street (which also conveniently happens to be open 24/7). At this point, I realize. F_ck, I'm a damn whiner. What an incredible experience. Had we not had the fortune (well, okay, had my wife not had the fortune) of winning these passes, it still would have been worth it to buy our own way.
We definitely have to do this again.
posted by jamah at
7:55 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home