Bits of Kirby
J. Edgar Screening
Finally, something exciting to write about! On Friday night I went to a screening of J. Edgar at LACMA. Afterward the New York Times Talk interviewed Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer, and Dustin Black. So one step at a time: the movie itself. At first I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy it, I’m not a huge biopic fanatic, also I didn’t know much about the story. It started off a little slow, but quickly became more engrossing. The story intermixed the past with the present timeline of the film, had anyone else made this it might have been confusing, but we are talking about Clint Eastwood here!
I’ve never been a crazy Leonardo fan. I’ve enjoyed much of his work but have never been completely blown away. I’ve described my feelings towards him as the following: no matter what performance of his I am watching, I never forget that I am watching a Leonardo DiCaprio movie. That being said, his performance as J. Edgar Hoover, was amazing. He was completely physically transformed, but his emotional performance was what really changed my mind about him. I have no doubt that he will be nominated for an Oscar this year. There is this scene after his mother dies where he is looking into the mirror and he completely breaks down, it was great because it wasn’t completely over the top and seemed very real and believable to me.
Another performance that helped the movie was that of Armie Hammer. I’ve seen Armie in The Social Network, didn’t think much of his performance. But, his performance here will certainly attract the attention of many. There is a scene where Clyde learns that J. Edgar has slept with a woman, (Clyde and Edgar are not only friends but they also lovers) Clyde starts destroying the hotel room, the two end up physically hitting one another, and ultimately end up kissing. This was my favorite scene of the whole movie, and I love how it was executed. The only negative to Armie Hammer was that when he was madeup to look like he was in his late 60’s/70’s the makeup was overdone and a bit distracting
Overall, I enjoyed the film. I shed a couple of tears on two occasions. After, the film the two main actors, the director, and the writer came out. I was lucky enough to score a seat in the middle of the fifth row. The theater was small and intimate; I was probably 15 or 20 feet from the stage! It was very surreal sitting so close to people I’ve seen on screen. Clint Eastwood came out munching on a cookie, he was wearing a brownish/camel colored suit, with a black polo shirt, and white athletic socks. He looks great for being 81 years old! Next to him was Leonardo DiCaprio. DiCaprio looked a lot slimmer then he appeared in the movie, he was slightly orange colored (spray tan? Thank you Hollywood), he was dresses in a black suit with an open white dress shirt. Thirdly (is this a word?), was Armie Hammer. Now let me just say that I have never in my whole life seen a more attractive male specimen. Whenever I’d see a picture of him I’d think “well, yeah he’s attractive, but not really my type.” DAMN, that man is perfection. He was very modernly stylishly dressed (he has said that his wife picks out his clothes for events. haha) he was wearing dark wash jeans, a dark navy and forrest green plaid shirt, with a brown skinny tie.
I really want to post the Times Talks video recording, as soon as it hits the internet I will upload it.
Some of things I remember are: When the interviewer asked Clint Eastwood what it was like to work with Leonardo DiCaprio and vice versa. Clint said he’d wanted to work with Leonardo for a long time, and that Leonardo called him saying he wanted to play this character. Leonardo said it was great working with Clint Eastwood. Armie described Clint’s set as a tightly run ship, and that at first it was intimidating working with the other two because he felt like “the new kid on the block,” but that he quickly realized that everyone just came to do their best work.
Woooh my longest post yet! Ha! I’m really excited to go to more of these kinds of events. It was amazing to be in the same room as Clint Eastwood (okay room might be a bit of a stretch, a more appropriate word would be auditorium, but an auditorium is still a room right?)
