arts&life

film

My Five

Totally Crazy
Very
True
Celebrity Tales From

&

The 2017 Film Festivals

MARA REINSTEIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

D

etroit-native Mara Reinstein is the Us Weekly film
critic and Parade magazine movie contributor. She
also has her own site, MaraMovies.com, and serves
as the Michigan-based Emagine theater chain’s designated
movie expert. She is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics
Association and the Detroit Film Critics society. She lives in New
York City. In 1996, she was an editorial intern at the JN.
To read more about her life on the red carpet, turn to “Talking
To Herself ” on page 28. In the meantime, enjoy this Reinstein
wrap-up, excerpted from her Nov. 13 post on MaraMovies.com
(visit the site and UsMagazine.com for her reviews of films and
festivals mentioned here).
I try to be a professionally jaded journalist, I swear.
I don’t fawn over big stars or gush about movies just
because I was fortunate enough to sit in the theater during

its world premiere. Hello? I attended a whopping eight film
festivals in 2017 — Sundance, South by Southwest, Tribeca,
Cannes, Telluride, Toronto, New York and Savannah — and I
only wrote extensively about the actual films. A recap of that
quietly provocative Swedish drama from Cannes? I’m your
girl. I even raved over Angelina Jolie’s social-issue refugee
Netflix film and purposely neglected to mention she strolled
down the street in Telluride with her kids.
But this whole time, I’ve been itching to tell you my stories.
I’m not talking about “I met Emma Stone after a Downsizing
screening in Telluride and she was cool” stories. (Though I
did and she was.) These are the semi-awkward, totally uncen-
sored, unnecessarily detailed anecdotes that I’ve been keep-
ing inside for months. Enjoy and don’t judge.

TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL, SEPT. 2017

The Telluride Film Festival is a laughably difficult travel
destination because of its remote location in the moun-
tains. Only a few airplanes go in and out of the closest
airport a day, which is how I — along with many other
industry folks — ended up on a flight back to LAX with
Natalie Portman (in town to promote her documentary,
Eating Animals) and two-time Oscar-winning director
Alejandro Innaritu (in town to moderate a panel). They sat
in first class. I did not. But for a change, they missed out on
all the drama.
Midway through the flight, there was a commotion in
the row directly adjacent from my seat. A woman in the
aisle was standing up, convulsing and unable to speak.
She was either having a heart attack or choking to death
on something from her fruit plate. People around me were

“Is there a doctor (or an actress) on the plane?”

26

December 28 • 2017

jn

“Hi, R-Patz. I mean, Robert. I mean, Rob!”
Pattinson received the Maverick Award in
Savannah for Good Time.

SAVANNAH FILM FESTIVAL, NOV. 2017

R-Patz!!!!!!!!! ZOMG!!!!! All right, the truth
is that I’ve always recoiled at the Twi-
Hard phenom. I once wrote an essay
for the Huffington Post expressing my
disdain for the overwrought Twilight
franchise. [Redacted] read it and voiced
a complaint to my boss at Us Weekly.
Whatever. When I was assigned to inter-
view Robert Pattinson in Savannah for
Parade.com, I went in all business.
But when the actor walked in the
small, nondescript room in the stu-
dent library, I finally got it. “Is it Rob or
Robert?” I inquired when he shook my
hand. “Call me anything!” he replied,
then added that he despises his tabloid
nickname. Rob/Robert has a goofy high-
pitched laugh and says the word “really”
a lot. An anti-brooder, the actor does
not give the impression that he consid-
ers himself a Serious Thespian. And
much to my surprise, he has unabashed
affection for the franchise that made
him a tabloid staple. He was quite open
about discussing its legacy. (“They didn’t
even try to market it to men!”) Kristen
Stewart’s name was never uttered dur-
ing the conversation, by the way. I won-
der if they still talk. I bet not.

shouting, begging for help. In this key fight-or-flight sce-
nario, I chose to grab my friend’s arm and shout, “Oh, my
god, oh, my god!” (Uh-huh, I was a big help.) Even the flight
attendants were panicked, unable to help. Gotta say, I was
shocked at their ineptitude under extreme pressure.
Luckily — very, very luckily — a man sitting behind
us got up and successfully performed the Heimlich as if
he were just grabbing a napkin off the drinks tray. Calm,
cool, done. (Then the flight attendants rushed over with
an oxygen mask to the still-shaken, red-faced passenger.
They also brought the man a drink.) I’m not exaggerat-
ing: He saved her life. So, who was this superman? A UTA
Hollywood agent named Jeremy Barber. The savior story
ended up in Page Six in the New York Post. I fully expect
Portman to play the unidentified woman in the movie.