Working at the New Beverly Cinema is, to be sure, a pretty sweet ass job. I get to watch movies at work (and get paid!), eat all of the free candy and popcorn I like, and get to program festivals with film makers I admire.
Let me just start off by saying that every single person who has done a festival with me, or even just come to do a Q&A for a film has been incredibly rad. I have loved everyone.
But Rian Johnson is just NICE. Really nice.
Tomorrow night is the last night in his Festival of Fakery, and I shall be sad to see him go. He has been so dedicated, showing up for every night of his fest and putting together a kick ass slide show for every double. He even arranged for Joseph Gordon-Levitt and friends to play a Tom Waits song on stage before F for Fake! (And he did a silly dance! And played the cowbell! And let me play tambourine!) Awesome.
Besides being nice, Rian is also very talented. Anyone who saw Brick knows this. We got to sneak preview his new film, The Brothers Bloom, at his festival and it is a super duper film. Highly recommended.
The long and short of it is, support this man. He’s good people.