Cinefest 2011 - April 9th (Ceremony)

Hope I didn't miss any funnel cake at the Cinefest fair Saturday afternoon (held in the cobblestone circle between Ritz 5 and Positano Coast). I got in town too late to really check it out, caught the tail end set of a band called Mage. At least I think that was their name, asked a couple of the people gathered and everyone told me something different, but one woman knew the drummer, (whose face is totally blocked in my photo), Wayne Smith, Jr., she talked him up like he was a local music celebrity. Supposedly he was just sitting in with the band. Anyone familiar with him or a band called Three Blind Mice?

With time to kill before my film, it pained me not to patronize one of the many, many wonderful eating establishments in Olde City.  That really was my original intention with Tinsel & Tine, to dine between films while covering a festival, perhaps trying to match the meal to the setting of the film.  Maybe one day...

Had I gotten in earlier, my first film of the day would have been The One (Director Caytha Jentis), not your typical Rom/Com, as the protagonist is a man, and the love triangle involves him being torn between being in love with the perfect woman and falling in love with the perfect man. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to screen it during QFest in July.

The film I did see also turned out to veer away from standard romantic comedy trappings -

Ceremony - Writer/Director Max Winkler (Son of The Fonz!) Starring Uma Thurman, Michael Angarano (Jack's son, Elliot from Will and Grace) & Lee Pace

Quick About: Sam a 23 year-old boy (Angarano), tricks his best friend into coming with him to crash a weekend party in the Hampton's, with the secret intention of thwarting the wedding plans of the woman he loves; the captivating and free-spirited, Zoe (Thurman) who is determined to marry the insufferable, overblown documentary filmmaker, Whit (Pace).

Pleasing: All the natural light filming at the beach. The quirky nature of the film, tone of angst being a bit of Wonder Boys meets Sideways. The sweetness of Sam's devotion to Zoe. The strain put on the friendship between Sam & his friend Marshall (Reece Thompson). The Soundtrack is pretty good and Rebecca Mader (Lost & No Ordinary Family) has a small part; I find this flame-haired actress extremely watchable.

Not So Pleasing: Marshall is reading an F.Scott Fitzgerald novel in the beginning of the film, recommended to him by Sam, and it feels as though all the dialogue throughout the first half of the movies is written like a novel, very verbose and intentionally unnatural, combined with too much nervous energy on the part of Sam. But thankfully this heightened sense of reality ends shortly after they crash the party.

Summary: I'm sure Henry is quite proud of his off-spring's debut offering, as well he should.

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Nathan Lerner, Film Critic, caught up with Cinefest Artistic Director, Josh Goldbloom (who by the way has a fabulous mother, Phyllis, that I met in the ladies room at Ritz East)

Goldbloom - “Are we a little edgier this year? Yes. Are we bringing a little more attitude? I have an edgier taste in cinema, so some of that might shine through a little bit. But we’ve got a little something for everyone.”

Check out the full interview on MontgomeryNews.com