Call-kin back to the Lymelife. Orange County's biggest film festival concludes
By Carlin Nguyen
The 10th Annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) fromwas more than I expected. The largest film festival in Orange Country was full of glamour, evening parties galore, expensive food, and plenty of popcorn to eat. While I’m still fighting off on popcorn withdrawal symptoms, this is what I remember.
Lymelife –- A nice opening to the festival, Scott Barlett (Rory Culkin) is a fifteen-year-old boy living in the suburbs of Long Island during the late 1970’s with his overly-ambitious father (Alec Baldwin), high-tempered mother (Jill Hennessy) and older brother (Kieran Culkin). A story about two families affected by scares of Lyme disease, director Derrick Martini's comedic, interesting and powerful Lymelife is well-made from the start.
Wake –- A movie where Wedding Crashers meets “Funeral Crasher," Carys Reitman (Bijou Philips) goes to one funeral without knowing anyone, then pretends to know the person who just passed away and finally meets a cute man. Her friend, Shane (Danny Masterson), works at the mortuary and advises against going to random peoples funerals. This movie was alright overall. The acting from the characters was good. However, I’d pass on watching this director Ellie Kanner's movie again.
Our Time –- Is the young generation of today ‘"spoon-fed’"? Not according to this movie. A movie consisting of interviewing people from all over the United States, the audience also gets to know who they are as individuals, Our Time is a raw and honest interpretation about a young generation of people. .
Beautiful –- Following rumors of abducted girls in their neighborhood, Daniel (Aaron Jeffrey), a quiet fourteen-year-old boy, along with Suzy (Tahyna Tozzi), the cute sixteen-year-old neighbor find many surprises along the way. Daniel has two obsessions: one is photography and the other is of course Suzy, the cute girl from across the street. How this movie unravels is amazing and at the end, what drives Daniel to find answers, one answer remains: are they really true or not? I would see this director Dean O'Flaherty's movie again once.
500 Days of Summer –- In director Marc Webb's film, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets Summer (a subtle Zooey Deschanel) and woos her. There’s definitely uncertainty on Tom’s face as he wonders how this relationship might turn out. A different kind of love story, NBFF's closing night film was an enjoyable way to end the festival.
