Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Another op'nin', another show

Just got back from seeing 'Sunshine Cleaning,' the opening night selection for LSIFF. Nice, enjoyable movie, though not something I would have picked for the opening night of a festival -- it's a bit too low-key for the occasion. Amy Adams plays a single mom in New Mexico who starts a business cleaning up crime scenes after the cops are done with them. Emily Blunt plays the screw-up of a younger sister who gets in on the business. The story needed a bit of tidying up, but you can't fault the performances of the two leads, who both give the movie comic punch where it's needed. The crowd filled the big auditorium at the AMC Palace about three-quarters full, and they certainly liked the movie.

Did anybody make it to the post-movie Opening Night Reception at Fort Worth Club? I skipped it in favor of the Fort Worth Weekly party at Scat Jazz Lounge, and I think that might have been a tactical error. Also, did anyone else think Emily Blunt's character in the movie was a lesbian, or at least bi? We did see her having sex with that one guy, but she didn't seem very involved, and there's definite erotic subtext in the scenes with her and Mary Lynn Rajskub as the dead woman's daughter.

I'll be off at a screening of 'Bolt' tomorrow, so I won't catch the prime-time fare on the program. The rest of you will have to pick up the slack. I'm particularly bummed to miss out on 'Wendy and Lucy' -- the director Kelly Reichardt has a cult following, and even though I wasn't as big a fan of her last film 'Old Joy' as some people were, I'm still interested to see what she does now. I'll be back in time to catch some of the late showings. -- Kristian Lin

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