Running Around!

I just saw the movie Lymelife at Arclight. It’s got a fantastic cast including Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessy, Timothy Hutton, Cynthia Nixon, Kieran and Rory Culkin, and Emma Roberts (who is actually Eric Roberts’ daughter). I would say across the board the performances were really good and Alec Baldwin, frankly, was just terrific.

Afterwards, one of the producers (Jon Cornick) was available to take questions. Among some of the more interesting things that he mentioned:
–workshopped at Sundance and Kieran was one of the actors who participated in the workshopping of the scenes (who played the younger brother at the workshops but the movie took so long to make, that he ended up playing the older brother in the movie)
–Alec Baldwin was the first to sign on and from the time he signed on to when the movie finally got made, it took an astounding FIVE years
–Alec Baldwin was shooting this movie and 30 Rock simultaneously — so he was working 3 days on 30 Rock and then 4 days on Lymelife for 4 weeks straight. (all the more remarkable when you consider how good his performance was and how little time he likely had to prepare)
–shot in Franklin Lakes / Mahwah, NJ area

It’s funny. This was one of those movies that my friends and I really wanted to see at Sundance but absolutely could not. At Sundance, everything is sold out — especially ANYTHING that has even small names it — forget this cast. Here (and granted, Arclight does a horrible job publicizing when they have guest speakers) — they had the producer available for Q&A afterwards and it played to a very small crowd. I only mention this because I think it’s a real shame.

Movies usually draw me in one of two ways. Either I hear it’s good (certainly friends, but even reviews, high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, etc.) or I see a compelling trailer. In this case, it was neither. I just like going to these movies with Q&As because I think it’s fascinating hearing how movies come together. I’m sure you haven’t heard of Lymelife — but it’s a good movie. In fact, because I hadn’t heard of it, I will say that I was quite surprised at how good a movie it was. Very enjoyable. Extremely well acted (which was what Manohla Dargis’ said) and really quite a pleasure to watch.