The Wright Stuff film festival at LA’s New Beverly theater continues… to kick ass. Friday may have been my favorite of the series so far, as Shane Black showed up to talk about how much he hates The Last Boy Scout and how much Warner Bros hated Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Shane showed up about halfway through The Last Boy Scout and ended up sitting right in front of me, and was taking note of my cackling. He told beloved director and festival programmer Edgar Wright that the audience responded to the movie because it’s retro, but the truth is that everybody responded because it works. The film’s an embarrassment of one liners. Of course those one liners can’t hold a candle to the stuff in Kiss Kiss, which is a movie that works in a much more adult, fully realized way.
The Wright Stuff has also been a magnet for celebrity sightings. Getting drinks prior to Friday’s screening I was present for the first meeting of Diablo Cody and Zoe Bell. They hit it off immediately, and I could see Cody writing the Grindhouse star a nice role in the future. By the way, Cody was at the New Bev for both features on the first Friday her own debut film, Juno, was playing in Los Angeles theaters. I think that was pretty fucking cool.
The fun continues tonight as Edgar has two great movies, one of which is possibly my favorite horror film. First at 7:30 it’s An American Werewolf in London, and John Landis will be on hand to talk about it. After that will be Tremors, and the film’s writer, Brent Maddock, and the director Ron Underwood. This is going to be the first (and God willing only) installment of the Wright stuff I will be missing, due to a prior commitment, so I need all of Los Angeles to get out there en masse to make up for the lack of me. These screenings have been remarkably well attended, and I want that tradition to continue!
After tonight there are three more Edgar-hosted nights of The Wright Stuff, and here’s what they are:
December 12th – 7.30pm – TOP SECRET and BANANAS – with Top Secret co-
writer and co-director Jim Abrahams in attendance.
December 14th – 7.30pm – BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and HEAD –
with Mickey Dolenz in attendance.
December 16th – 7.30pm – RAISING ARIZONA and EVIL DEAD 2 – with
secret third feature.
Edgar won’t tell me what the secret third feature is, although he’s dropped hints. He promised it was gory, though.
And for those of you who have been unable to make it out, blogging.la continues their podcasts of the Q&A sessions from The Wright Stuff screenings. They have the audio of Timothy Dalton and Joe Dante from last week: click here to listen.