I remember my dad listening to George Carlin albums when I was a kid.  I knew I wasn’t even supposed to hear them.  He didn’t listen to them in the house. He had a little record player down in the basement with the pool table and car parts, all the guy stuff that didn’t make it into the house.  He would sit down there with drinks from the abandoned old fridge and his friends and they’d laugh and laugh at George and the then very funny Bill Cosby and the raunchy Richard Pryor.  For some reason they let me stay and it was great.  I think the best way to get to really know my dad was to see what made him laugh and George made him laugh.

Of all the comedians that were relegated to the basement, George was my favorite. He was smart and quick and took you with him on his quest to make one question everything.  I was lucky when I moved to LA to get to know him in person.  He called me Zel.  Sometimes he would come by and I would hear him yelling out, “Hey Zel, you got a fax machine in there?”  One day I was roaming the neighborhood looking for who had hit my car and in that typical style told me, “Definitely blame somebody.”  As usual, he stopped me in my tracks and I gave up the stupid quest because in the scheme of the world it really didn’t matter.

That’s what I loved about George.  He always cut to the chase.  

We had been talking recently about working on a new film together, “Inventing the Buzz.”  The film is about the world of stand up comedy and we had great talks about all the new comedians who come to LA just to land a TV deal and don’t really care about the true art of telling a story and entertaining a crowd. 

The last conversation I had with him was about death.  A good friend of his had recently died and he was in charge of scattering the ashes in Malibu.

So, I get home today and George’s car in the driveway won’t mean he’s home.  And I won’t hear him calling out for his beloved Gertie (one of his cocker spaniels) or see the big black SUV that came by every week to take him to Vegas or Palm Springs or wherever he was performing that week, or see him sitting in his living room working on new material.  I’m sorry he won’t get to see his new house remodel finished.  I’m sorry for his wife and his daughter and his puppies and all those who loved him.  I knew him for a tiny amount of time and for all my life and he definitely made a difference.

If there’s a line to get into the afterlife, then I’m sure George is putting everything into perspective for those privileged enough to be in his company.  I know I am very grateful for the time I spent with him.

it’s pure cotton candy — entirely non-nutritious but too sweet and pretty for young people to resist

I’m hoping that at over two hours, many will become ill and not want to repeat the experience. Unfortunately youth has a short memory for painful experiences, especially if accompanied by lots of pretty flashing lights.

My other favorite line from McCarthy is that the film is “tolerable fun for the easy to please.” {Big Sigh}

What happened to the Wachowski Brothers? Isn’t part of what’s great about Science Fiction and cartoons that you have license to introduce subversive and intelligent subtext while entertaining the masses?

I loved Speed Racer as a kid. It was a great Saturday morning cartoon, I’m just not sure about 129 minutes of it. However, I will hold off judgment until I actually see the film — it it makes the list this summer. There are a lot of contenders.

Back to films I have seen. At least with Iron Man you have plenty to sink your teeth into. There’s the disturbing expose on ams dealing and where those weapons land. There’s the bigger investigation into what path do I follow, the one my parent’s laid out for me or the one I forge myself. And there are shiny costumes and pet robots and PG love interest and transformer on transformer fighting. Add a good smattering of wit and humor and suspended logic (if you crash into the ground at over 100 miles per hour, it doesn’t matter how strong the suit is you are wearing, you’re still dead) and flying, plus some cool cars – it’s a good 110 minutes of fun. Unfortunately Iron Man is 126 minutes long but all in all — still fun.

Critics agree. And apparently the film going audience is on board as well — over $100 million on this opening weekend. We’ll see how Speed Racer does. I know I won’t be in line next weekend. But then again, I’m not 10.

Iron Man isn’t the sort of film you see at film festivals – even the flashy ones.  However, with a nod to the emerging markets around the world, Iron Man did not have its world premiere in the US.  It opened a couple of weeks ago in Sydney and had showings in Berlin, Hong Kong, Rome, etc. before officially opening in the States. 

Theatres were packed today with fans of the Stan Lee comic inspired film starring Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Jon Favreau.  The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive for this film that marks the official beginning of Summer.  

I have never read this comic or seen the TV show so I didn’t know when to ooh and ahh as the iron man suit came together or the name SHIELD was revealed or a few other events that inspired spontaneous clapping from the crowd.  Even given that, I enjoyed the film.  The film has three things going for it that will probably keep it above the normal summer kid fare — Downey, who is fun to watch (and will be seen again in The Incredible Hulk in June), CGI work that is really impressive (and will be seen again in the The Hulk), and a smart script by Mark Fergus and Hank Ostby who wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Children of Men.

Well maybe it’s just the writing that will keep this film in the lead through the summer.  All in all I mostly stayed awake during the film.  There is one chase/battle scene that almost afforded me a short nap because I have no patience for long drawn out chase scenes.  Supporting players are nice.  The Iron Man costume is spectacular, especially when he is being bolted into it.  Paltrow, who plays Downey’s secretary/love interest is fine.  Favreau walks around in the background.  Jeff Bridges is creepy with the shaved head.

Bottom line, the filmmakers appear to have been loyal to the original source material, all the groundwork was laid for a serious franchise dynasty and everyone is going to get rich.  Who would have thought back in 1996 that these guys:

June 23, 1996 - Robert Downey, Jr. was arrested for driving drunk and being in possession of Mexican Black Tar heroin, crack, cocaine and an unloaded .357 Magnum revolver. He was sentenced to three years probation.

and

Jon Favreau as Mike Peters. A struggling comedian from New York, Mike recently broke up with his long-term girlfriend. Still pining over his loss, and unfamiliar with the dating game, Mike has difficulty meeting new women.

That these two guys would be sitting on the biggest film to come out of Hollywood in a long time?  If they keep up the writing, I imagine we’re looking at at least three more to come.  It’s a great year to be Stan Lee.  Who wants to be a superhero?

A great film festival is lost among all the hype that is Tribeca.  The well established and well regarded San Francisco International Film Festival began on April 24th and runs until May 8th.  The 51st SF festival opened at the wonderful Castro theatre with the Cannes Golden Palm nominated, The Last Mistress, controversial filmmaker Catherine Breillat’s new film based on the equally controversial novel by 19th century author Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly and stars the always looking for controversy Asia Argento.  Jeffrey M. Anderson has an entertaining review of the film on Cinematical.  

The festival closes with GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON directed by Alex Gibney, the Oscar-wining director of Taxi to the Dark Side and Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room.  This film features interviews with Johnny Depp and Jimmy Carter.  This film opened at Sundance.

This festival will always have a special place in my heart.  It was the first festival I ever went to, it was the first festival where I had a film play, and in my early years in the City, played a big part in my decision to leave engineering and pursue filmmaking.

Now it seems SF is playing at edgy films but premiering nothing new.  It’s not unusual for festivals to rehash other’s success.  However, it’s unfortunate that the oldest festival in the Americas is reduced to that as well.  You see, there’s another connection between SF and Tribeca besides timing.  SFIFF lost its director, Peter Scarlet to Tribeca.  

Scarlet went to Paris first but he was an advisor from the very beginning to the new New York festival.   And while Tribeca bookends their schedule in sponsor driven Hollywood fluff, at the heart of the festival, they still have some real gems that remind you why you to go to festivals at all.  

Scarlet ran SFIFF for 19 years.  The festival was always challenging and interesting and made you want to talk about it and argue.  It was invigorating. Scarlet brought directors like Jane Campion, Mike Leigh and Spike Lee into the limelight.  I was never interested in Sundance back then. I had more and better right in my own backyard. Plus, the food is MUCH better.  

Well, Las Vegas has stolen all of the City’s great chefs and Tribeca grabbed not only Scarlet but even the last bit of cinema buzz before Cannes.  I don’t know if SF will ever recover.  Let’s hope for the best.

Another note, In this era of new media, SFIFF is also providing podcasts of the festival.  It’s almost like being there.

The Station Agent is one of my favorite films.  It is beautifully shot, well paced and full of interesting characters, well acted.  It was Tom McCarthy’s first film and won a slew of awards including the Cassavetes award at Independent Spirit for films made for less than $500k.  I was so impressed with what a filmmaker could do for less than a million dollars when everyone in LA seems to tell you it’s not even worth trying for less than $10 million.

I was definitely looking forward to McCarthy’s second film, The Visitor.  Even in the trailer you could feel the slow deliberate pace, beautifully shot, interesting characters, great music and again, no big stars.  At least no big American stars.  The lead, Richard Jenkins was on the cable TV show Six Feet Under but I think most people would see him and think, where do I know that guy from?

The Visitor won Best Actor for Jenkins, Best Supporting Actress for Danai Jekesai Gurira and Best Directing for Tom McCarthy at the recently completed Method Fest.  Method Fest is named after the famed Russian acting coach — and Method-acting innovator — Konstantin Stanislavsky and states that it is the only film festival in the United States that focuses on acting.  

Filmmaking is a collaborative art form and excellent films are the ones where everything comes together.  It doesn’t matter how great the acting is if the story doesn’t work or the film is poorly edited.  Everything can feel off if the casting doesn’t support the overall feel for the film.  The SAG awards only honor actors as well and while on one hand I appreciate the gesture on another, how does it differ from the Golden Globes or the Oscars or any of the other award ceremonies leading up to those events?  The results are almost always the same.  No one ever honors an amazing performance in an otherwise acknowledged horrible film.  Then I might understand the purpose.  

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against awards.  At the festival level it’s fantastic when your film or someone on your team gets recognition for their work on a film.  It’s also great to get the chance to thank your team publicly for their hard work.  Maybe that’s the best part of awards, the chance to say thank you.  

I thought it was great that they created an award for Amy Adams at Sundance for her performance in Junebug.  I doubt she would have gotten the Oscar nod without it.  I thought the ensemble award for In the Bedroom at Sundance was great as well.  But lots of other things worked in these films as well.

I guess my point is, can you really have a festival or an awards show that purely recognizes only acting?  

I did love The Visitor.  I wasn’t as blown away by it as by The Station Agent and there are a lot of similarities between the lead characters.  I think the biggest difference is I had no expectations with The Station Agent and everything about it was a surprise and a delight.  I had lots of expectations with The Visitor and it didn’t disappoint.  There’s a lot to be said for that.  I continue to be a huge fan of Tom McCarthy’s and look forward to his next film.

By the way, Psycho Hillbilly Cabin Massacre! was the Audience Award Winner for best short at Method Fest.

Tribeca which comes from “Triangle Below Canal Street,” was founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro and the often left out money guy, Craig Hatkoff in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center as a way of revitalizing the economy of the neighborhood.

According to their web site, “The Festival’s mission focuses on assisting filmmakers to reach the broadest possible audience, enabling the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promoting New York City as a major filmmaking center.”

Critics of the festival complain that it’s merely a launching pad for big Hollywood movies and vanity projects directed by celebrities, while actually doing nothing to help filmmakers or the New York independent community.

It’s a huge festival. 201 Films, including shorts. Over 1000 screenings. 500,000 attendees if you include the outdoor family nights.

Has the festival helped with the revitalization of lower Manhattan? Undoubtedly. The festival has brought in more than $425 million dollars to the area already.

Has it assisted filmmakers to reach the broadest possible audience? That’s a bold statement and unless they are busing people in from rural Iowa and remote northern Canada, kind of unlikely.

Has it enabled the community to experience the power of film? No doubt. They’ve shown that films can make a lot of money, bring in a lot of money, tie up traffic, and in those special cases move people, inform them and sometimes change their lives.

Are they promoting New York as a major filmmaking center? Did it stop being the only real US filmmaking center outside of LA? One could make arguments on both sides. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt to host gigantic Hollywood film producers in New York for a couple of weeks. It’s bound to make them at least consider shooting there in the future. In addition, I’m sure local filmmakers get excited and inspired with all the activity. And Tribeca does provide awards for made in New York films – including special awards for shorts and documentaries.

Bottom line is Tribeca set out to put on a very profitable party with film at the center of it all and they’ve done that. Other festivals are going to have other goals. If you’re expecting Tribeca to be Sundance or Cannes or South by Southwest, it’s not. Each festival has its own flavor and own style and own agenda. If gigantic Hollywood blockbusters like Speed Racer and Spider-Man 3 fit into that agenda — all power to you. The great thing about putting on a huge successful party is you can also show interesting and provocative films that might not get exposure to a more mainstream audience as well.

In my world, I’m happy for all films finding an audience or provoking discussion. It’s all good.

Here is a Guide to the films playing at Tribeca this year.

The Tribeca Film Festival opened yesterday in New York and will run through May 4th. The opening film was Baby Mama, starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Reviews have been mixed for the film and it’s currently running slightly stale at about 56% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The closing night film is the much anticipated Wachowski Brothers’ Speed Racer with Emile Hirsh and Christina Ricci. To give it a look of live-action anime, Speed Racer was filmed entirely against green-screened CGI backgrounds. This film sat in development for almost 15 years and at one time had Johnny Depp attached to it.

The jurors for the 2008 World Narrative Competition are Peter Hedges, Gregory Hoblit, Callie Khouri, Oliver Platt and Christine Vachon.

The jurors for the 2008 World Documentary Competition are Jared Cohen, Whoopi Goldberg, Ross Kauffman, Padma Lakshmi and Jose Padilha.

The festival begins just a few days after Governor Patterson signed the enhanced New York tax incentive. The state now offers a 30% tax credit against qualified expenses and is now payable to the production company in one year instead of two. That’s three times as much as New York’s current tax credit and it matches the bill Connecticut passed in 2006. In the past couple of years, Connecticut was able to steal films from New York including one by Tribeca founder Robert DeNiro. New York City’s five percent remains the same, a 35% credit for films shot within the five boroughs.

The Birmingham SHOUT Festival ran only one day this year – March 29th. Normally it’s a three day festival. Last year they had Margaret Cho and Alan Cummings. This year, they opened with the world premiere of Chasing the Devil, featured Bi the Way and Sex Positive (both of which played at South by Southwest) and Spider Lilies which won the Teddy for best feature at the Berlin International Film Festival. So, it was a short, impressive line up for a Deep South queer festival. Hats off to their programmers.

Many festivals do overextend themselves. It’s hard to make those cuts but good programmers hold onto the integrity of their line up. SHOUT’s web site says they chose to condense the festival to one day this year but hope to return to a three day format in 2009, depending on community support. I totally support these folks in putting on a festival of high quality and maximum bang. As the brits would say, good on y’all. Well, maybe southern brits might say that.

On to other queer festivals that did make the Popcorn List.

New Fest, the New York LGBT Film Festival runs June 5-15 and tickets will probably go on sale mid May. Should be a great party.

Frameline32, aka the San Francisco LGBT Film Festival runs June 19-29. If you are a frameline member, festival passes are available now. The opening film is Affinty based on the book by Sarah Waters. Andrew Davies, who wrote the Bridget Jones’ screenplays, as well as 70 other produced scripts, adapted the novel for this ITV1 British television movie. I had always hoped to make this film myself and saw Gillian Anderson in the lead role but alas – a day late and several million dollars short.

The closing film is Breakfast with Scot. It stars Tom Cavanagh from “Scrubs” and “Ed” and Ben Shenkman from “Angels in America.” Looks cute, light and fun. It is out on DVD after a decent run in Canada. My favorite part about this movie is the “Christian” activists who campaigned against it before it was even finished.

the Los Angeles Times, Bernadette Mansur, the NHL’s senior vice president for communications, indicated that the protests are being spearheaded by Christian activist James Hartline, who claims to be a former homosexual. Although he has not seen the movie, he has called it “degrading” and accused the NHL of “promoting homosexualization of small children” and “becoming a willing partner with the fringe elements of the radicalized homosexual agenda and their ultimate goal of worldwide sexual anarchy.”

Sounds like it’s harder being a former gay than a current one.

Last but certainly not least on our Queer Summer of Films is Outfest,the Los Angeles Gay Lesbian Film Festival running July 9-21. One of the great things that Outfest does is the Legacy Preservation Project.

If you don’t make it to New York, San Francisco or LA this summer and you find yourself down South, consider going to The Prom.

I’m going. Gonna load up the pick up truck and take the whole family. The big question is, will I film it??

Stay tuned.