Fantastic Fest Opening Night

Well, I've blogged about it a few times over the last couple of weeks, but tonight it was finally here--the Zack and Miri Make a Porno premiere & opening night of Fantastic Fest:








The historic Paramount Theatre, built in 1915, has been entertaining Austin audiences for nearly a century. As the oldest screen in the capitol, the Paramount has been graced by screen and stage acts throughout the decades and from across the globe.

Yet, Fantastic Fest’s opening night film, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and the Air Sex World Championships that followed on Sept. 18, may have been a new level of debauchery for this classic art-deco theater.

This is the fourth year for Fantastic Fest. The weeklong film festival sponsored by the Alamo Drafthouse and Aint it Cool News, is the largest genre festival in the country. Fantastic Fest screens films that are usually overlooked by other festivals, concentrating on specialty genre, fantasy, cult, science fiction, horror, Asian, animation and crime films.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno is a new comedy from fan-favorite director Kevin Smith. The Austin screening served as both the Opening Night Gala Film for Fantastic Fest, and the film’s US premiere.
The film, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks, is the story of two friends who decide to make a pornographic film together when they get strapped for cash.

Smith, who rose to fame for writing and directing films like Mallrats, Dogma, and Clerks, was present along with producer Scott Mosier to introduce the film and conduct a Q&A session.

During the Q&A session, Smith revealed that he was inspired to become a filmmaker at 21-years-old, after seeing the film Slacker for the first time. Richard Linklater's Slacker was shot here in Austin, and Smith acknowledged this connection.

“I owe a great debt of gratitude to Austin” he said, “I’m a member of the Austin film society.”
According to the Austin Film Society, Smith serves on the advisory board along with other prominent directors like Guillermo del Toro and Quentin Tarantino.

Unlike many of Smith’s films, Zack and Miri Make a Porno does not feature Smith’s usual crossover characters like Jay and Silent Bob. However, Jason Mewes, the actor who portrays Jay, does have a role in the film.

Smith acknowledged that in addition to Mewes’ performance, the new film does have a Clerks inspired vibe. He said that stripped of romance and sex, it was loosely inspired by his experience making Clerks.
“It just wouldn’t have been interesting to make a Clerks biopic,” he said. Hence Smith’s motive for choosing to depart from his classic characters.

After the premiere, festival director and owner of the Alamo Drafthouse, Tim League took the stage to remind the audience to stick around for the next event on the agenda—the Air Sex World Championships.

If unfamiliar with the sport, think air guitar, except with sex.

After 13 months of qualifying rounds, and dozens of competitors, the top ten Air Sex aficionados took to the stage to show off their best moves.

Each competitor came prepared with a choreographed routine, a song of choice, and in many cases costumes.

The top five were invited to compete in the final round, an impromptu routine to one gloriously unsexy song. The choice—“Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" written by Australian singer-songwriter Rolf Harris in 1957.

The winner was a competitor going by the stage name of “Sad Larry” who did unspeakable things while lamenting a breakup. Larry’s heartbreakingly raunchy choreography was a suitable mate for the song about an Australian rancher on his deathbed.

Larry’s prize will be a trip to the world-famous Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Nevada. All of the competitors’ routines will be available for streaming on the Fantastic Fest website.


A short review of the film to follow in the morning.