The Filmcake

Okay, so I’ve been sadly negligent with my blogging. Let’s just all agree that I’m a slacker and move on, shall we?

deadCENTER really did it up right this year, as befits its 10^th anniversary. There were great films, many locally-made. There were special guest appearances – Spike Jonze and Mat Hoffman made an appearance on opening night, Jesse Eisenberg was Skyped in for a Q&A after Friday night’s screening of Holy Rollers, and film critic/The Treatment host Elvis Mitchell stuck around for most of the festival. This year also introduced us to karaoke phenom Simply Irresistible (S. I.). And, as always, there were the parties. The glorious, glorious parties.

So, without further ado, I give you my Best of deadCENTER 2010:

Best Film: The Rock ‘n Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher. I wasn’t intending to see this one, but thanks to the festival omnipresence of karaoke cowboy Simply Irresistible (one of the film’s characters), I found myself crammed into Kerr Auditorium as part of a nearly sold-out crowd. While the first 20 minutes had me worried that Rock ‘n Roll Dreams would fall into the “group of guys make a self-indulgent film consisting of little more than in-jokes” category, I wound up utterly charmed by this film. The city of Tulsa is beautifully photographed, and I kind of can’t wait to buy the soundtrack (comprised entirely of Oklahoma artists). Rock ‘n Roll Dreams is truly a love letter to Oklahoma.

Honorable Mentions: Heart of Now, Junko’s Shamisen, Mr. Hypnotism

Best Party: I’d be hard pressed to decide which Friday night party was most fun – the Oklahoma Film and Music Office reception at Iguana, or the Film Row Frolic. So I’m declaring it a toss-up. The Iguana party had the music (clearly, someone at Iguana loves Sleigh Bells as much as I do), the food (a buffet of mini-tacos, tamales, cilantro rice, and loads more) and all-you-can-drink swirls. The only way it could’ve been better is if you added some highly entertaining conversation with an out-of-state film blogger.

Oh, yeah – that was there, too.

Nipping at the heels of the Iguana party was the Film Row Frolic, held in an un-air conditioned (but still pretty bitchin’) warehouse-type space on OKC’s Film Row. Girls dressed as geishas, more free booze, and a scorching performance from S.I.

Honorable Mention: The unofficial karaoke after-party Friday night at Cookie’s. I was drunk enough by that point to break my self-imposed karaoke ban and bust out a little Loretta Lynn. And, of course, ol’ S.I. was there to perform his staple, Blackstreet’s “No Diggity.”

Most WTF? Moment: Every deadCENTER has one, but this year had more than its fair share. The winning moment, however, had to be watching a soft-spoken former coworker of mine appear as a vagina enthusiast/poker player in The Rounder Comes to Town.

Honorable Mentions: Seeing S.I. for the first time at the opening night party – long before we knew his genius, and only thought of him as “that weird, karaoking cowboy guy – what’s up with him?”

Also, discussing The Human Centipede, A Serbian Film and much, much more with GreenCine Daily’s Aaron Hillis. This guy’s got some great stories.

Unofficial Mascot of deadCENTER 2010: Clad in black, with cowboy hat, mustache and never-removed sunglasses, Simply Irresistible was hard to miss. And he seemed to be everywhere. Rumor has it that he even spent part of Saturday at the river, entertaining families and tourists waiting for their river cruises. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if the guy made an appearance at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, too. With that being said…

Song I Hope Never to Hear Again: No Diggity.

See ya next year, deadCENTER!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 4:05 pm and is filed under deadCENTER 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.