Saturday, January 17, 2009

Brooklyns Finest: Sundance Film Festival 2009


I don’t want to sound too star struck by saying it was kind of exciting being in the same movie theatre as Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle, 50 Cent, Cuba Gooding Jr.,Russel Simmons, Spike Lee (who was wearing the most absurd fur baseball hat. I guess when your Spike Lee you do what you want.) and, of course, Antione Fugua, the director of Training Day and the movie we were about to see.

The theatre was filled with actors, directors, producers, the Sundance Institute, publicists, advertisers. At the very last second, after all the important people got in and the theatre was almost full, Mike used his charm to get a ticket from a female publicist for the movie Brooklyn’s Finest and I managed to score a ticket from a product advertiser. We were nobodies in a room full of somebody’s, trying our hardest not to stick out terribly.

Brooklyn’s Finest has taken a lot of criticism. However, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get choked up watching it. It was dark and tragic. Ethan Hawke’s character was heartbreaking. And though I can identify some points of underdevelopment, especially with some characters, I’m still struck by what Antoine Fuqua said about the film afterwards “Like Rembrant we are all living our lives in light and dark.” This was another good cop bad cop story that explored the blurry line between black and white and that enormous gray area in which we all reside.

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