LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL READY TO KICK OFF
Now in its 15th year, the Los Angeles Film Festival has grown quite a bit since its days sharing the 2nd floor of a Hollywood mall with a Crunch Gym and a Virgin Megastore. Now settled into its relatively new Westwood digs, flanked on all sides by an impressive array of theaters (the Majestic Crest, the Mann Village and Mann Festival, and the Regent, to name but a few), and boasting enough star-studded galas and red-carpet events to jazz up even the most Gawker-fueled Angeleno, the festival begins its newest edition tonight with the screening of the indie comedy Paper Man, starring Jeff Daniels as a creative writer caught between deadlines, middle-aged frustration, a wife’s expectations, and oh yes, a spandex-clad imaginary “super hero” who pops up now and again to offer advice.
If Paper Man finds the festival safely in Sundance-approved American indie-comedy mode, its Gala events promise a slightly more, well, Hollywood approach to cinema. The phrase “film festival” and “Michael Bay” are rarely seen in the same sentence together, but this year LAFF continues its partnership with the mega-millioned director by snagging the premiere of his newest popcorn-moving blockbuster, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Tuesday night’s Centerpiece Gala continues the summertime throwdown, with the world premiere of Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp as gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale as the FBI man hot on his trail.
There could easily be criticism levelled at the festival for the inclusion of such mega-watted works, who don’t exactly need a festival launching-pad to help either the films or their directors succeed. On the other hand, there’s no “Independent” in the Los Angeles Film Festival; just like Cannes, Toronto, Berlin and others, LAFF relies (or hopes to rely on) such higher-profiled works to bring out more audiences (and press), and hopefully triggering a spillover effect for other films. This year’s LAFF offers plenty of newer, more intriguing works as well, including the Narrative and Documentary Features Competitions, a spotlight on the innovative independent Mexican festival Ambulante (championed by Mexican stars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, both of whom will appear at the festival), and an extremely strong International Features line-up. The latter boasts the L.A. premieres of such acclaimed films as Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum, Miguel Gomes’ road-trip ramble through the Portuguese countryside Our Beloved Month of August, Argentine director Martin Rejtman’s newest comedy Elementary Training for Actors (perfect for Hollywood audiences), and notorious Japanese political/pinku director Koji Wakamatsu’s United Red Army, which tracks the last days of a radical Japanese political group. The festival’s spotlight on preservation works offers up a new print of Curtis Harrington’s Night Tide (preservation by the Academy Film Archive, The Film Foundation and Milestone Film & Video), an eerie psychological horror film set along the Santa Cruz boardwalk, with Dennis Hopper in his first starring role. There’s also a throwback to the L.A. of decades past, with a series of fabulous hot-rod movies, including the immortal Hot Rods to Hell.
Transformers, hot rods, Japanese political radicals, Mexican documentaries, Johnny Depp, and Gael García Bernal: Hollywood in the summer, indeed, and the LAFF for the next eleven days. We’ll be posting more as the festival continues. For more info, visit the festival’s website at http://www.lafilmfest.com/2009/
