My attempts to see Craig Gillespie‘s Million Dollar Arm continue to frustrate. As regular readers know, the Hand of Kumudu kept me out of an early May press screening at Manhattan’s Regal E-Walk on 42nd Street. Today I figured I’d try to see an HDX version on Vudu, but (a) it’s not yet viewable and (b) their pre-order tickets are $22.99 a pop. That’s a bit rich, no? So I checked to see if it’s still playing in some sub-run craphouse theatre in Los Angeles. It is but too far away. It’s playing in Long Beach at the AMC Marina Pacifica 12 (afternoon shows only) and at the AMC Fullerton 20 (ditto)…no, thanks. If only that Regal manager had said to himself, “Aahh, what the hell…the guy’s a journalist, he came all the way from Prospect Park on a slow-arriving, slow-moving F train and he’ll just be missing the first-act set-up stuff with Jon Hamm‘s career on the ropes plus a scene or two with Lake Bell…the movie doesn’t really kick in until the 30-minute mark so I guess I can let him in.”
It’s 85% my fault for being late for today’s 11 am press screening of Craig Gillespie‘s Million Dollar Arm (Disney, 5.16). (The MTA and more particularly the F train are 15% at fault, but let’s not get into that now.) So I arrived at the 42nd Street E-Walk at 11:35 am, which was roughly 30 minutes after it started. (I didn’t think I’d miss much if I began at the half-hour mark as it would be all set-up about Jon Hamm‘s sports-agent character having career trouble and deciding to go to India to find some talent.) But E-Walk management wouldn’t let me in. The manager’s first name is/was Kumudu. I took his picture four times and he kept blocking with his hand. He said that the Disney-affiliated publicist had left instructions for no one to be admitted after she left. What are the odds, honestly, that some wino or internet psychopath or axe murderer is going to ask for entry to a screening that no one except Disney and journalists know about? I tapped out the following to Disney publicity after realizing it wasn’t happening: “Came all the way up from Brooklyn with subway delays and other hassles, and E-Walk management wouldn’t let me in, per Disney’s instructions. Thanks very much. Is there another screening tomorrow? I can’t believe you & yours would instruct E-Walk management to deny access to invited journos. Brilliant! I guess I’ll just buy a ticket if all else fails.” A journalist friend who saw it this morning just called: “Jerry Maguire meets Slumdog Millionaire…a lot of it really works really well.”
The hand of Kumudu during a discussion about why he was denying me admission to the press screening of Million Dollar Arm.
I went to the Landmark last night to see Anton Corbijn‘s A Most Wanted Man for the second time. It’s a subtle, finely tuned thing. It was satisfying to note that the clues and indications seemed easier to spot this time. In yesterday’s review I called it “one of those films you want to see twice to scan for whatever clues may have been revealed early on but which you, the all-but-clueless or perhaps not-smart-enough viewer, missed the first time.” I did notice that the sound at the Landmark seemed sharper and more precise than at the Wilshire Screening Room, where I first caught it. What sounded murky or muttering at the Wilshire was clear and discernible at the Landmark.
I was given a complimentary ticket and therefore didn’t have a chance to choose my own seat. I got there in the middle of the trailers and was shown to my seat, which was in the middle of a crowded row of 70something bluehairs. I didn’t want to sit there but the row in front was half empty. So I stood and waited for latecomers to arrive, figuring that at least a couple of seats would be available five or ten minutes after the film began. I waited five minutes (the show was scheduled to start at 7:10 pm) and sure enough, two or three people arrived. Four empty seats left. I waited another five and nobody else showed. At 7:20 pm I took a seat on the aisle and settled in.
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