Film Festival Focuses on the Issue of Animal Welfare

• New Event Offers a Reprieve from Onslaught of Blockbuster Flicks Playing This Summer

BY JEREMY WALKER

I was talking last week about horror movies with a colleague who knows more than a thing or two about why we love them, and why they make money, as did the top two films at box office just now, “The Final Destination” and Rob Zombie’s critically pilloried sequel to his re-make of “Halloween.” These are the kinds of films that are usually dismissed by critics, causing distributors to render their barbs irrelevant by not holding advance screenings to begin with.
In my mind, this behavior is about as mature—but also just as emotionally prudent—as breaking up with a girlfriend before she can break up with you.
This colleague, whom I won’t name because we are connected by the most tangential of business ties, observed that horror is “almost perennially popular, but the degree of ardor among fans tends to ebb and flow.”
My friend went on to argue that because Hollywood has given us “a slew of competently made remakes and branded properties designed to score singles and doubles, not home runs” that the audiences will soon start craving more original fare.
He could just as easily be talking about an increasingly available brand of inexpensive comedy, a mini-glut sparked by the success of smart, soulful comedies like Jason Reitman’s “Thank You For Smoking” and “Juno” and gross-out bromances from the Judd Apatow factory.
Case in point: a movie I’m glad got made but I fear will be dismissed by critics and audiences, a workplace comedy called “Extract” that cleverly opens this Labor Day weekend and was written and directed by Malibu’s own Mike Judge.
On TV, Judge is a genius of the working class; his MTV show “Beavis and Butthead” and Fox sitcom “King of the Hill” are, well, if not modern-day classics, at least much smarter than their characters appear to be. On the big screen, Judge made a teensy Jennifer Aniston movie called “Office Space” that gained huge cult status on DVD.
His new film benefits greatly from the presence of its star, Jason Bateman, as the founder of a flavor extract business who hires a very dumb pool boy to screw his wife, played by Kristen Wiig. His clingy neighbor is played by David Koechner; his no-nonsense foreman at the factory is J.K. Simmons; an hirsute Ben Affleck does a fine turn as a druggy bartender. All of these folks made me laugh.
But they also started me thinking about comedy as a kind of insular club: Bateman, Koechner and Simmons are regular Reitman players; when it comes to movies, Wiig is perhaps the most terminally underused supporting actress of all time (yet no single performer has brightened up “Saturday Night Live” to the degree she has since the late Gilda Radner).
Judge is a talented guy working with a talented cast, but not only has his film been released in what is traditionally a dumping ground for the mediocre, the difficult-to-sell and the just plain bad, he did himself no favors by putting a weird title on his picture that makes me think more about a trip to the dentist (no offense, Dr. Niebergall) than a trip to the movie house.
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If you want to escape what may be excruciating Labor Day crowds, a new event in Santa Monica may be worth your time. The Blue Planet Film Fest, a unique Animal-Welfare/ Environmental Film Festival and Forum, will be held there Sept. 4-7. The mission of the non-profit festival is to screen films that raise mainstream awareness about saving the earth and ending the suffering of animals at human hands. Tickets are specially priced at $6.50; kids, student and seniors tickets are just $5.50.
Mira Tweti, the Festival’s executive director, is quoted in a press release saying, “Blue Planet will be more than an entertaining weekend. We’re going to provide both a visual and visceral experience with interactive, hands-on events to connect with attendees on an emotional level, and motivate them to action.”
Friday, Sept. 3 may be a good day to bring the children. Feature films on animal issues and two live afternoon events with pelicans and parrots will follow a morning of marine wildlife films; audience members will then be invited to participate in a beach-release of rehabbed waterfowl from the International Bird Research and Rescue Center. Lunch will be served in the carousel on the Santa Monica Pier afterwards. All you need to know is at www.BluePlanetFilmFest.com