LYT's Weblog

And it was a unique opening night party – normally at a film fest, you open with a high-profile movie, then have an after party to mingle. Friday, though, there were no movies being shown – just partying to be had. The movies don't start till Monday, but music and fashion-related stuff is ongoing

Drinks at the House of Blues aren’t cheap, and nearly all their special house cocktails contain Southern Comfort, which I still do not get the appeal of. But free food was coming, not that everyone could wait – filmmaker Stan Harrington and his party just had to have the nachos, and I think regretted it.

Here’s how the menu describes the nachos: “Tri-colored tortilla chips, topped with mozzarella, sliced jalapenos, black beans and cilantro and served with salsa.”

Here’s the truth: The salsa served with it is a little sealed container of Heinz salsa. The black beans look like they were individually counted and rationed out. And mozzarella? That’s a lie. It’s typical nacho sauce, which certainly disappointed Stan, but as I told him, orange nacho sauce is the fake tits of the food world – wrong in many ways, but still totally awesome.

Not worth seven bucks. When the free food came, it came in three varieties – chicken skewers (a bit dry, but tasty), veggie spring rolls (greasy good and hot), and corn muffins topped with shrimp (odd combo, but acceptable – really needed cutlery for that one, though).

Working the party and the press most effectively was actor-director Alexandra Fulton, whose short film “OMgasm” has a mostly-nude picture of her on the poster. She was dolled up like a pin-up girl in person, flirting and striking poses for everyone in the room (she even asked for my phone number, and I doubt I was the only one). If I were beautiful, I’d do the same – I recall numerous movies playing Laemmle theaters that got an audience simply by having a shirtless dude on the poster. I don’t know if Alexandra’s nude in the movie or not, but she’s topless (in pasties) on her own website.

["OMgasm" plays as part of SHORTS BLOCK 7, Tuesday at 5 p.m.]

I did manage to acquire a couple of screeners, and I’m going to review them right now.

“Money Bone” (short)
A young man lives with an obnoxious older man who likes to play mean pranks, but then while the young guy is out buying apples, the ol’ bastard dies, and his daughter accuses our hero of neglect. In the will, the daughter gets everything, except for a big elk bone that her dad treasured, which goes to the guy. Turns out there are directions to hidden treasure etched on the bone, and now it’s a race to find it.

Shot in Montana, the movie has a great look to it, but the 26-minute length is, I think, a mistake. We need either more, or less. Edited tightly as a short-short, with more broad-strokes storytelling, it would have more momentum; but if it’s going to breathe and be moody, we need more information, such as: what is this young guy’s relationship to the old guy? Why do they live together? What possessed him to carve directions on the bone, and where did he get the bone anyway?

“Money Bone” is the sort of movie that I think will make for a good reel for all involved, or possibly as a pitch for a longer movie. On its own, it’s well-made but narratively incomplete.

["Money Bone" also plays as part of SHORTS BLOCK 7, Tuesday at 5 p.m.]

RANCHERO (feature)
It sounds like a bad cliché – hard-working, clean-cut country boy moves to the city, is troubled by what he sees and tries to “save” a woman he falls for from her gutter life. But make the guy a rockabilly-Mexican with a thing for photography, and suddenly you’ve got a whole new twist. Jesse Torres (Roger Gutierrez) is his name, and after his father dies, leaving the NoCal farm behind and moving to Hollywood is his game.

Jesse’s “in” to the big bad city is a childhood pal named Tom (Brian Eric Johnson), who flakes on him almost immediately, then asks to borrow money. Not a good sign. He also seems to be constantly strung out, and has a penchant for starting fights with women, one of whom, a neighbor named Li’l Bit (Christina Woods) catches Jesse’s eye in more ways than one.

But Li’l Bit has her own problems – most notably a wheelchair-bound pimp named Capone (Danny Trejo, maximizing his star cameo in one complete scene and lots of voice-over). Can good-guy Jesse’s farmboy old-fashioned values save the day?

The actors all do a great job. If I have any criticism, it’s that Li’l Bit seems just a li’l bit too together, when her character should probably be more strung out. I’d have suggested a less tidy hairstyle, dirtier clothes, and a few Red Bulls for enhancement. As is, she doesn’t come across as someone who needs saving, except that the story makes it clear in other ways.

I’m not fond of the black-and-white flashbacks – since nobody deliberately shoots B/W video, it generally takes me out of a movie shot on video when B/W is used. Had those scenes been shot on Super-8 instead, or at least processed to look that way, it would have worked better.

I do kind of like the fact that by the end of the movie, Jesse is more or less where he started. In film school, every teacher hammers home the notion that a character has to change and develop, and certainly you don’t send them back to square one. So I enjoy when people do it, and do it well. You do have to know the rules before you break them, and it’s a decision that feels real, like almost everything else in this movie. The Hollywood represented here is, in many respects, the Hollywood I know.

Gutierrez should have some good possibilities after this. Like Trejo, he’s the kind of guy who will likely get labeled as a character actor, but I’d rather see a character like him playing the romantic lead then, let’s say, Ethan Hawke. Putting him front and center is slightly reminiscent of Robert Forster getting the lead role in JACKIE BROWN; it’s a hero who could have been horribly white-bread as written, but you get a guy whose face says it all, and so much is added.

[RANCHERO screens Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.]

Yes, Stan, I know I didn’t get to your movie yet. I will.

Here’s Indiefest main man Ray Gibb, chillin’.