Orange Coast College is not the only institution of higher learning celebrating 10 years at the 14-year-old Newport Beach Film Festival.
This also marks the 10th anniversary of the “Yale in Cinema” celebration organized by 1983 graduate Jim Gonzales. The New Haven, CT, university that educated William Howard Taft and George H.W. Bush–and which George W. Bush attended–won't have a short-film program like other colleges at NBFF. No, Yalies are cooking up something different.
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The celebration runs during half the festival because 11 NBFF entries have ties to Yale, including the opening night documentary Broadway Idiot, which is about the neo-punk band Green Day staging of the musical American Idiot.
Q&A's with Yale filmmakers, panels, receptions and after parties accompany these screenings, coalescing into the 10th annual Yale in Cinema Celebration at 4 p.m. Saturday at Fashion Island.
Here is the film program:
Broadway Idiot, 7 tonight, Big Newport: 1987 Yale School of Music graduate Doug Hamilton directed the doc about the blockbuster Green Day album that became an acclaimed musical.
Some Girl(s), 8 p.m. Friday, Triangle Square: 2005 Yale grad Zoe Kazan is among the stars of this flick, based on the Neil LaBute play (and his script) that finds a travel writer (played by The O.C.'s Adam Brody) crossing the country to meet up with ex-lovers and make amends for past relationship transgressions–on the eve of his wedding.
Terms And Conditions May Apply, 8 p.m. Friday, Fashion Island: 1991 graduate Ben Wolf was the cinematographer on this documentary that has the filmmakers actually reading the fine print on the contracts we sign or click “I agree” to online. Those binding pacts apparently allow corporations to do things with your personal information you could never even imagine.
In Security, 8:15 p.m. Friday, Lido: Amy Aquino, a 1986 drama grad, appears in this comedy about a failing home security business that decides to start robbing local homes to drum up more business.
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Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business, 1 p.m. Saturday, Triangle Square: Dr. David Kessler ('97) appears in this documentary follow-up to Burzynski, which played NBFF last year and won awards around the world. The filmmakers return to take another compelling look at the Burzynski Cancer Clinic in Houston, Texas.
One Small Hitch, 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Triangle Square: Daniel J. Travanti of Hill Street Blues and The Boss fame was a 1964 drama grad, proving that, yes, there really was drama way back in '64. (Who knew?) Here he's in a comedy about a couple's fake engagement exploding into a full-blown wedding once their families learn the “news.”
The Discoverers, 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Fashion Island: Triple threat Justin Schwarz ('96) wrote, produced and directed and Laura Kleger ('98) produced this bittersweet comedy about a family that discovers themselves and each other after being forced to go on a Lewis and Clark historical reenactment trek. If I had a nickle for every time that's happened to me …
Lost on Purpose, 8:15 p.m. Saturday, Fashion Island: You remember Jane Kaczmarek as the Malcolm in the Middle mom. Yale remembers her as a 1982 drama grad. She's in this comedy about a feud between a third-generation dairy farmer and the owner of the area's largest co-op who's threatening to buy her out.
The Iceman, 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Triangle Square. Oz the Great and Powerful's James Franco, a 2017 Yale PhD candidate, plays Marty to Michael Shannon's Richard Kuklinski, in this (based on a true) story about a devoted husband and father living the American dream–and working as a notorious contract killer.
Kilimanjaro, 5 p.m. Sunday, Triangle Square: Bruce Altman (drama, '90) is in the cast of this flick about a guy who celebrates his girlfriend walking out on him by climbing to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Love, Marilyn, 8:15 p.m. Sunday, Lido: Sideways' Paul Giamatti ('89, '94) is among the star-studded cast of actors reading the diaries and letters of Marilyn Monroe, attempting to evoke her “passion, ambition, insecurity, soul-searching, power and fear,” according the doc maker, so the sex symbol can be pushed to the side and the real woman can come to life.
Gonzales notes that, to date, the Yale in Cinema first decade archive includes 115 films by 150 Yalies. For more information on this year's NBFF Yale screenings, receptions, panels, and/or after parties, contact him at ja************@lp*.com or call 949.975.8145. Tickets to individual films vary in price and are available at newportbeachfilmfest.com.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.