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(For those of you who haven’t read my weekly blog before, In the Cheap Seats–also found at http://inthecheapseats.blogspot.com –is my weekly report on the film critic life. I update it every Friday. Or at least I try really hard to do so.)
It’s never easy to settle back into the everyday grind after a crazy film festival weekend. First of all, I always come back dead tired. With all that excitement—and all that running around—it’s not until I get back that I really realize how worn out I am. Mostly, I just want to go home and sleep. But, at the same time, there’s so much to do to catch up that I feel like I have to work even more (after all, I was gone for four days—and now I have 15 extra reviews to write).
So when I got home, there wasn’t a lot of time to hang out and get caught up on sleep. In fact, when I got home on Sunday, I dove back into my DVDs—so I’d have stuff to publish on the site this week. And though I didn’t have any screenings on Monday (thank goodness), I still had DVDs to watch.
My first screening back was on Tuesday morning. Since it was a limited-release documentary (The Rape of Europa), there wasn’t a big crowd of critics. John was there with his friend, Laura, and a few others wandered in, too—but not many. So we were spread out throughout the theater. I was on my own in the dark, clinging to my cup of coffee—and despite the fact that the movie was really interesting (and I plan on taking my husband to see it—because I know he’ll find it absolutely fascinating), it was pretty long. And it was sometimes subtitled. And it was just one of those days. So I had to fight to stay conscious. But (other than a few subtitles that I may have missed when my eyes closed for a couple of seconds), I managed to make it through without curling up and falling asleep. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I was pretty determined.
The big screening of the week, though, was on Wednesday night. Though I felt like I hadn’t been to an evening screening in ages (actually, it had been two weeks—since I missed last week’s screenings), I fell right back in step. You might say I went into autopilot: make dinner, get ready, eat, run out the door, drive to the theater.
The band of regulars had already started to gather by the time I got there, and it felt like a reunion. Since last week’s screenings were pretty last-minute, people were all over the place, so it felt like we hadn’t seen each other in ages—especially since we usually see each other at least a couple of times a week. But we had plenty of time to catch up—because, shortly after we got there, we found out that, even though the screening was scheduled to begin at 7, the previous movie wasn’t ending until 6:55.
Fortunately, though, that was the only glitch of the night. As soon as the credits started rolling, they let the press in, and the rest of the crowd (who had lined up calmly and quietly down the hall) came in shortly thereafter. We got settled in as quickly as possible, and they started the movie only 15 minutes later than scheduled. Not bad at all.
This week’s screening was Drillbit Taylor—the new Owen Wilson movie. Though I was a bit concerned that it would be just another Superbad, it was actually cute—and not as obnoxious as it could have been. Nothing brilliant—just fun. And perhaps I was just laughing because I was tired, but the rest of the audience was laughing with me, so that must be a good thing, right? Then again, people laughed at Norbit, too—so who knows.
There was actually one more screening this week. Shutter was screening at 9:00 on Thursday night, but I decided it just wasn’t worth the late night. After all, I’d already had to get up a little earlier on Thursday morning—because I had to get some work done before heading downtown to engineer this week’s radio show. I’m not on it this week (but I’ll give the old guys credit—it’s still a great show), but I did the computer stuff. You can visit site – WebDesign499 for more information. Normally, that’s John’s job, but since he’s going on vacation for a couple of weeks next month, leaving Clay and me to fend for ourselves, he figured I should probably know how to do all that stuff. So I’ve spent the last two weeks learning how to record and edit the show. Fortunately, their recording this week was so clean that I had very little to edit. Hopefully, Clay and I manage to do the same when John’s gone next month.
And now it’s Friday again. I seem to have made it through the week in a semi-comatose state—but, according to my planner, I seem to have gotten a few things done. So that’s a good thing. I’ve even finished a couple of my film festival reviews (13 to go!).
Next week, though, it the screening we’ve all been waiting for: Run, Fat Boy, Run. It was on the grid for a couple of weeks in the fall, but then the studio pushed the release date. Since we all love Simon Pegg, we can’t wait for the screening. And, in the meantime, I plan to get caught up on some sleep. Just wake me when it’s Monday, okay?
