Jason goes to the Beanbag Film Festival for HAROLD AND MAUDE and RUSHMORE

Excited to see a larger turnout last Friday night. I was otherwise engaged Saturday night so I didn't see the closing of the festival, but I hope this means it was successful enough to do it again. If I may make a suggestion, put it in the fall/winter when it gets dark early enough to not affect the first movie. This was particularly bad with the opening scene of HAROLD AND MAUDE.

Speaking of that movie, no need to review it. Everyone who has seen it knows how awesome it is, and if you haven't seen it just freakin' see it already. But I do want to point out one important, fleeting scene that I always manage to forget, because I somehow always wait several years between HAROLD AND MAUDE viewings. MAUDE, of course, is a Holocaust survivor. It's just a brief scene when Harold sees Maude's tattoo, and no one ever says anything about it, but it's there, near the end, and it retroactively colors everything in the movie. Maude is so full of life because she's seen so much death, and Harold is so infatuated with death because he's seen so little of it. Somehow I always get sucked into the oddness of the characters and am re-reminded of that message every time. Perhaps actually writing it down will help me remember this time.

And then RUSHMORE as the second film. Some interesting, obvious parallels, of course. But mostly it's just fun seeing the movie that not only introduced the audience to Jason Schwartzman but re-introduced us to the subtlety and wit of a mature Bill Murray. Those who were 'amazed' at his dramatic performance in LOST IN TRANSLATION should have known better, he's been doing some pretty fascinating work his whole career, and RUSHMORE was just one of the highlights.

Total Running Time: 184 minutes

My Total Minutes: 232,103

Jason goes to the Bean Bag Film Festival for a night of Zombies

As I mentioned in a previous post, there's a new film fest in San Jose. Last night it kicked off and I was there at The San Jose Women's Club for it (with a few friends). It was sparsely attended, but honestly I've seen worse at inaugural film festival attempts. It's hard to get the word out. Plus last night they were competing with the Shark's opening playoff game, so here's hoping tonight will be better.

As it was, the space was pretty cool, beanbags across the first half of the floor, tables and chairs in the back if you wanted to eat and drink a little more civilized. The food was provided by Tikka Bytes food truck (different truck every night) which had tasty, tender lamb naanwiches and of course veggie options (if you really like spicy be sure to ask for extra peppers). And they served beer and wine inside. All in all, a comfortable, chill space to watch a movie, although the windows let in a bit too much light until the sun went down midway through the first film.

Okay, as for the movies, not too much to say since I've seen them before:

SHAUN OF THE DEAD: Still hilarious. It had been so long since I had seen it that I had forgotten many of the callback scenes in it. And it's fun to remember that feeling of first being introduced to the comedy team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

ZOMBIELAND: Also still hilarious. The voice-over narration is still a bit too much. The big BM cameo is still awesome. It's a little weird to watch now that Jesse Eisenberg is famous for playing Mark Zuckerberg in THE SOCIAL NETWORK. Which leads to the best line in the movie, Jesse Eisenberg's character declaring, "The best thing about Zombieland: no Facebook status updates!" Did he know he was cast as Zuckerberg when he said that?

Anyway, the mini-fest continues through Saturday with HAROLD AND MAUDE + RUSHMORE tonight, and SWINGERS + THE BIG LEBOWSKI on Saturday (and rumor has it the bar menu will expand to include Martinis and White Russians that night). Come out and check out some great, modern classic flicks!

Total Running Time: 187 minutes

My Total Minutes: 231,823