Before I go into Sunday's Half-Assed-A-Thon, my final show at the original Alamo Drafthouse location, a small rundown of other things I did during my 3 days in Austin, just to give you an idea of why I love this place:- Attended a party to help celebrate the birthdays of pals Thomas Humpreys and Zack Carlson and the Austin arrival of another pal, Justin Ishmael. I walk in the door to Thomas' place and there's another friend, Jasmine Baker, who I haven't seen in over a year. The party had a TROLL 2 theme, with most everything (from food to balloons) the color green. Best part of it was having been at the party for about 20 minutes and finally seeing Thomas, wishing him a happy birthday, and the look on his face when he saw me there. Turns out no one told him I was coming. That was great.
- Got inaugurated into "The Gastronauts" food club, sampling the finest buffets that Austin has to offer. We went to Cannoli Joe's with the group of about 34 people in all, and I've got to say that for an all-you-can-eat Italian buffet it really wasn't that bad. A group of "Red Hat Society" ladies were there, too, but they weren't part of our group.
- Stepped into Half Priced Books on South Lamar and bumped into Weird Wednesdays programmer Lars Neilsen, who also didn't know I was coming. It's fun to fly into town and surprise people who don't know I'm coming.
- Saw SHREK THE THIRD when I had some time to kill. It was just OK, although there were a few inspired bits and the animation was excellent.
- Saw Canadian comedy duo Canned Hamm live at Room 710, where they performed such hits as "Father & Son", "Seafood Taco" and "Who Needs A Hug?". Neither of them knew I was coming, either. It was great to watch them win over the crowd completely, because they really had no idea what to expect. The show started with screams of "You suck!" and ended with full-on applause and much hugging. I also got my driver's license scanned so I could get a free pack of smokes for a friend of mine. I'm too good to her.
- Ate at Smitty's (the pork chops were first rate that day) and shopped for legal fireworks, in that order. Suffered a meat coma and crashed for 2 hours. Then I hit the Drafthouse...
Sunday night's show was Half-Assed-A-Thon, an attempt to do a half-day version of Butt-Numb-A-Thon, Harry Knowles' standard 24-hour birthday movie marathon every December. That event usually hosts more premieres than retrospectives, but this time out the schedule was more oldies heavy, primarily to go with the half-assed nature of the event (which was put together in an admittedly haphazard fashion). Sitting with my pals from the Drafthouse, no one was taking the event like it was one last blast (probably because everyone else had other shows to deal with before the big finale tonight) so there wasn't any nostalgia involved and that was just fine by me. I was there to have fun and hopefully see some good flicks and I got a good evening's night of fun, despite a somewhat mixed bag o' flicks. They were:
WONDER BAR - Harry Knowles' wanted to screen his 16mm print of this one again (it showed at BNAT 2000) because he felt that it was the one film out of all the BNAT titles that had the most adverse reaction from the audience. For those unfamiliar with it, it's an Al Jolson vehicle from the early 30s (made before the production code came into being) that is pretty damn un-PC, which makes cracks at Asians, gays (the famed "boys will be boys" bit comes from here), condones suicide, adultery, and lets one character get away with murder. Mixed in are plenty of songs, dances, romance, comedy, and two Busby Berkeley numbers, one of which is probably what Harry was talking about, because it's "Going To Heaven On A Mule", probably Al's most infamous black face number, which depicts heaven for poor black folks. All of the racial cliches are here (pork chops grow off trees, dancers emerge out of water melons, fried chicken is readily available) and there's no doubt the number is an incredible head-smacker. It's about as racist a number as you're apt to see (and kudos to whoever programmed the trailer for DRUM before this one), although I did get one genuine laugh out of the sight of Jolson getting reunited with his dog, who flies over to him in a hilarious shot (the dog obviously being on wires). If it wasn't for this number, WONDER BAR would probably sit in obscurity, but if you're going to be remembered for something, being one of the most racists things ever in the history of Hollywood movies isn't really a good thing. I don't regret seeing it, but I'll never for the life of me really understand it, either.
STARDUST - The sole premiere screening was for the new Matthew Vaughn fantasy epic, which opens in August, and we got a video introduction from Vaughn (sitting in front of a TRANSFORMERS poster, probably to throw people off). He thanked AICN for its support and then apologized to everyone for leaving X-MEN 3 and letting Brett Ratner take over, but I think he apologized for the wrong picture. I'll get into it more later on this week, but STARDUST has a lot of problems. A lot of them.
TOPKAPI - Having never seen this 1964 heist flick, I figured it would be a good fit for the night and thought that if it were anything like director Jules Dassen's other heist film, the classic RIFIFFI, we'd be in for a good time. However, TOPKAPI tries way too hard to be a light and charming picture and until the actual heist comes in, it's kind of a slog to sit through. Co-star Peter Ustinov really is the bright spot here, giving his role (and the film) the right amount of levity needed to lift the film up. Interesting to note that he turned down the role of Inspector Clouseau in THE PINK PANTHER to do this film; while he won an Oscar for his efforts here, in return we got one of the greatest comedy characters in cinema history, so I guess it all balances out. But outside of Ustinov, it's the climatic heist that saves this picture, as it really is the model of how to do this kind of thing (no surprise that De Palma lifted much of it for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE) and the HAAT audience was very much into it. It's one of those pictures I can say I was glad to have seen once, but if it never passes my way again it won't be any kind of a tragedy.
IMPULSE - Also known as WANT A RIDE, LITTLE GIRL?, this was, without question, worth the trip all on its own. It is, in some ways, William Shatner's finest hour, or William Shatner's worst hour or probably both, but it's a marvel none the less. Made in 1974, before the STAR TREK revival revived his career (and before the infamous "Rocket Man" performance), Shatner was slumming in a lot of drive-in movies and TV work and IMPULSE may have been the nadir for Shatner, but it was a boon for the rest of us, since he's never been so entertaining. Directed by Florida auteur William Grefe, Shatner stars as a con man with a psychopathic streak (all due to a traumatic event from his childhood), not so much a love 'em and leave 'em type but more of a love 'em and kill 'em type and I'm gonna pretty much leave it at that so as not to ruin the film's many delightful surprises. By "delightful surprises" what I really mean is "Shatner's acting", which is astonishing and wonderful all at the same time. Many others would pass this off as bad acting, but it's something so odd and yet so strangely compelling that I think you simply have to experience it for yourself. Is it good acting in the standard sense? Well, no, but as William Shatner performances go, it's easily one of his most memorable and yet oddly experimental and it made me very happy.
Turns out there was one more film to go, SEVEN BLOWS OF THE DRAGON, a 16mm print that Harry borrowed from Quentin Tarantino, but as it turns out a) I've already seen the film under its original title, THE WATER MARGIN, on DVD, and b) Not only was the film cut and dubbed, but the print wasn't even in scope, taking away much of its appeal. With this, I decided to cut out with friends, so for all of the boo-hooing I've been doing about this being the last time I was going to see a movie at the Drafthouse, I actually walked out on the final show. What a fucking asshole am I. But hey, I wrapped it up with a classic (IMPULSE) and for my last night I had one more great time in the place that helps define my love of movies. I'll be back there in September for Fantastic Fest and will see the new Ritz Sixth St. location for the first time and am sure it will measure up to the high standards of the original. I'm looking forward to it.
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