Anyways,...at the beginning of December I was in Austin, Texas with My Guy Dave. We had driven all the way from Los Angeles, California to Texas through rain and cold to attend BUTT-NUMB-A-THON 15, put on by HARRY KNOWLES of AICN. Yup, we got into BNAT once again and I couldn't have been a happier film watching fanatic!!!
Now if you don't know much about BNAT, it's a 24 hour movie marathon that Harry Knowles puts together to celebrate his birthday and celebrate movies, new and old! It's a super awesome time. This was my 8th BNAT! (THANKS THANKS THANKS HARRY!!!)The day of BNAT arrived and it was a cold day in Austin! We couldn't wait to check in and get into the theater. Dave and I got row 1700 and we were happy to see many familiar faces along side us. I got to also make some new friends! We were close up to the screen and all getting settled.
The theater was buzzing and we were talkin' about what could possibly play. Harry puts out a FAKE LIST: BNAT Fake List with hints for what's to come, but guessing is never easy.
Soon some introductions began the show was about to start. Harry had a seat in the back row and a camera projected him on the screen to address the audience and it was the kick off to BNAT!
There were trailers: TRADING PLACES, THE LAWYER and STUNT ROCK
Watching Jordan's lavish lifestyle and learning how he swindled people out of money with no remorse was just WOW and WOAH! Leonardo was great in the role showing he can do physical comedy. It's a movie you can't look away from and are amazed by from beginning to end. Mr. Belfort is no hero, but his life sure made one helluva movie. Yup.
As the movie's credits rolled a small marching band made it's way down the aisles, they were The Patriot Brass, from Mr. Scorsese and they played Happy Birthday for Harry and everyone sang along.
Next up was to be the 1980's Australian flick HARLEQUIN a.k.a DARK FORCES. Harry said he'd only ever seen the trailer and shared that originally the casting was almost David Bowie and Orson Wells.
TRAILERS: THE FURY (for lovers of the shocking, suspenseful, terrifying...), the flick 3 RING CIRCUS featuring Jerry Lewis as JERICHO THE WONDER CLOWN.
Powell is Gregory Wolfe, clown, faith healer, wearer of black nail polish and oh so mysterious. Gregory cures the son of an upcoming politician played by Hemmings. There's political intrigue and magic as Powell struts around performing more than just a few parlor tricks. At one point we had a break from the film as the reel jumped from the projector. It seems the Harlequin's magic was just too strong.
It's really a fun film out of the Aussie "Ozplotation" era and should be seen with a crowd to appreciate its full effect. Many Bnatters had never seen it and it was thoroughly enjoyed. I'm inspired to wear black nail polish more often and to make Dave wear some too!
TRAILERS: THE LEPRECHAUN, UNDER THE RAINBOW and Ralph Bakshi's THE LORD OF THE RINGS
Can you guess what we saw next? It was THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG. We saw the first part of THE HOBBIT at BNAT last year and we're happy to see part two. I had a lot of fun with this adventure. It's more action, it's more elves, it's more chases, more battles, more dwarves and Bilbo wearing that ring! We didn't watch it in 3D and I was cool with that. That dragon Smaug was pretty freakin' awesome! He looked amazing, I was entertained from beginning to end and am ready to watch part 3. Yup.
At this point Harry said we were 15 minutes ahead of schedule, but this next film was 20 minutes longer than they expected so things were balancing out. It was time for one for Harry's bucket list movies, a 70mm print he hadn't seen in 70mm yet! (Now he's seen every 70mm film in 70 mm, I'm jelly!) This next film was absolutely one of my most favorites of the day!
The whole beginning of the film shares Michelangelo art, from his sculptures and paintings and it's amazing. I just wish I could go see the Sistine Chapel with my own eyes, until that day comes, watching THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY on a big screen from the second row is close runner up. Ah, it was splendid and I'm teary eyed just thinking about it.
Now the next film was a secret flick, and we weren't to share the title as it was going to SLAMDANCE...but a few days after BNAT we got the ok that we could share, and sooooooooo....that movie was from Bill Plympton; and called CHEATIN'. Bill's latest animated feature, a kickstarter project, and Bill was in attendance! He was to do a Q and A and even sketch some sketches for folks.
CHEATIN' is the tale of a couple in love, who think the other is cheating and things soon spiral out of control...I won't say much more. But if you're a fan of Bill Plymton you'll surely dig this movie. It's whirly, dreamy, whimsical, and hypnotizing. Bill talked about his kickstarted getting the movie together and how it's his most favorite to date. There were 40,000 drawings done for the film!
From animation we went on to live action of a cartoon, it was time for a film from the Drafthouse's own archive, one of my favorites; Robert Altman's POPEYE.
Now, I absolutely love POPEYE, unconditionally. I watched it many times as a kid with my sister. Yes, you can say it's a bit of a mess of a movie, but it's really so great! I'm awed by the choreography of scenes, where so many characters walk around and over each other with random lines of dialogue delivered in the background, and then it manages to synch together.
Robin Williams is a great POPEYE and Shelly Duvall is spot on fantastic as Olive Oyl. It was a great print, but it wasn't a complete. POPEYE is almost a 2-hour movie, but the print we saw had more than a few songs cut out. BLUTO didn't get sing I'M MEAN, no SWEET PEA'S LULLABY, no KIDS, no SAILIN'....but it was still a fun trip to SWEETHAVEN.
That little Sweet Pea is the cutest movie baby and hearin' him say "POPEYE" just makes me smile!! "I ain't no physicist, but I knows what matters."
From here we were at the half way point, with 6 movies down and 6 more to go! Whew! Tim League came on down to address the crowd with Kristen Bell (also of the DRAFTHOUSE who helps so much with BNAT!) for the SHOT portion of the evening. It was time for SLAP SHOTS. We all got a little shot of vodka and had to slap our neighbor after the drink. So yea, I guess Dave and I can now say we've slapped each other.
Doug Benson was in attendance and he shared a snack with all, some chocolate covered espresso beans were passed out. WOOT!
Harry's next pick was a Black and White film called THE LOVES OF EDGAR ALAN POE, following Poe's childhood and growing up to write and find love. This one was among my most faves! It was from 1942 featuring Linda Darnell as Virginia Clemm and John Shepperad as Poe. I had never even heard of this movie, so it was a nice surprise. Who doesn't love Edgar Alan Poe???
The next film was a surprise, and most unexpected. We were treated to Adam Green's latest feature, a sort of documentary on Monsters called DIGGING UP THE MARROW. Now it wasn't a finished film, he's still got effects and things to do, but it's coming in 2014!!
Adam was in attendance and asked that we try not to spoil what's in store when we share, so I really won't say much. But, this was a lot of fun and the crowd reaction was a good one too. Just know that I give it a big recommend and I can't wait to see it again once it's all complete 100%. Oh, and of course I can't forget to mention Alex Pardee who's also involved in the film. Alex and Adam are a good team and they were both at BNAT too to share their movie. Alex had brought prints of a drawing from the film and he handed 'em out to the crowd during the break. I managed to get one and Dave did too. So it was a nice bonus indeed! :D
Alex and Adam did have a Q and A after the film but to really share what was said is spoiler territory, yup, I just can't do that. Yup.
It all takes place in the New England town of Arkham, where Joseph Curwen (Vincent Price), warlock, was burned at a stake. Joseph of course cursed the town and swore vengeance.
110 Years later Joseph's great great grandson, Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price) comes to the castle with his wife. Charles is then possessed by his great great grandfather and is pushed into using the Necronomicon to summon the Elder Gods and other creatures. Joseph also has some help from Lon Chaney Jr, as the strange caretaker Simon!
Talk about some legendary cinematic giants; Corman, Price and Chaney! This is a great film, a classic of Corman's. These films are meant for a big screen and I'd only ever seen it on VHS before. It was a good follow up to MARROW for sure.
And then we were down to the last two films and man, we were in for something most surprising. Yup. Tim League came on back down and shared that the next film from the Archive was a Hong Kong Category 3 film, and it was from the Category 3 sex, porn side of the spectrum. Yup. Tim wouldn't tell the title, but said that the next two trailers would give a clue to what we had in coming...
TRAILERS: BIG and the film for Adults Only; HAPPY DAYS (You'll never see this on television!)
Peach and her best friend run away to the Wishing Tree and wish to be big. The next morning Peach is 18 years old, body wise. She's young, bubbly and oh so naive. This movie, it's soooo cringe worthy, because PEACH is an 8-year-old-girl and there's no forgetting that she's 8 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!!
I didn't look back much to see how much of the crowd stuck it out, but everyone in my row was there and cringing and doing a bit of yelling at a few particular moments...the yelling was "She's 8 Years Old!"
There was a lot of sex scenes. PEACH ended up watching the sex and there were more than a few uncomfortable moment with skeezy guys, gross sex, sex with food and it all was a not so hot mess. But, that was THE FRUIT IS SWELLING. I've already said too much. (My mom could read this, she'll get upset!)
So yeah, "That Happened." And then everyone wondered how FRUIT would be followed up as we had the last break of the morning.
Harry got another round of HAPPY BIRTHDAY singing, many thanks were given and cheers cheered to the Drafthouse folks! Then we were ready for one more movie!
THE WIND RISES is a beautiful story based on the life of Jiro Horikoshi who designed the WWII Mitsubishi A5M. Jiro grows up dreaming of building planes and as he works on his designs, he gains more inspiration from the Italian plane designer Caproni who he meets in a cloudy dream.
Jiro also meets and romances Nahoko who further inspires his plane creations. It's a gorgeous, sweet, romantic and sad film and Miyazaki delivers wonderfully. It was a perfect end to our movie marathon!
It's always quite fascinating how somehow all of Harry's movie picks tend to weave and tie together one way or another. There was more than one POPEYE reference along with the screening of POPEYE. There were kissing cousins, and Cheatin', bumper cars, monsters and art. It's just shows that the magic of movies, deliver some universal truths, criss crossing the spectrum of entertainment, or something like that. (I'm delirious just thinking about it!)
Well, I had a blast from beginning to end as it truly was a super Butt-Numb-A-Thon. Looking back at it just keeps me on the movie watching high. (Maybe that's why I take a while getting to writing it, to relive the memories and make them last and last and last!)
I can only hope for more movie adventures in the next year, but 2013 wouldn't have been as great, fantastic, amazing, awesome without BNAT 15 so THANKS again Harry! Yup Yup Yup!!
