To demonstrate how pervasive the laugh-factor phenomenon is this year, Schwenk points to a 2018 festival film that comes from a place not normally associated with comedy, unless Mel Brooks or Hogan’s Heroes is mocking it. “That’s one of the things we talked about early on: It’s usually extremely hard to find good comedies.” “Looking at the entire festival, one of the through lines I see are fantastic, exceptionally well-done comedies,” he says. Gregg Schwenk, the CEO, executive director and co-founder of NBFF, is sitting across from me in one of the fest’s large offices near John Wayne Airport, where he repeats something he has told me before previous opening nights: this is one of the strongest programs he and his staff has ever put together.
Beach films movie#
This is being brought up because, for the Newport Beach Film Festival that runs Thursday to Thursday, April 26 through May 3, the co-founders and programmers told me in separate conversations that they believe they have come up with the funniest fest lineup in 19 years, which is how old I was when I saw what is truly my favorite movie seen anywhere of all time, Airplane! Coincidence? As with the Oscars, funny films, no matter how worthy, just don’t achieve favorite status because sobering dramas say something about the human condition, maaaan.
For example, I really dug Matt Walsh’s High Road in 2011. Well, because comedy is actually my favorite movie genre, and there have been several worthy comedies (dark and otherwise) at NBFF over the years. It’s sparse, gritty and unsettling, just like so many other fest flicks I have caught, so why not give it the honors? It may not be the best film NBFF has screened, but it is the one that still gives me flashbacks. However, to deal with the oft-asked question concerning Orange County’s premier cultural event, I foist a stock answer: Rafa Lara’s suffocating drama La Milagrosa, which rolled at the fest in April 2009.īased on a true story, La Milagrosa is about a young upper-class man who is kidnapped by a guerrilla group in Colombia. It beats the hell out of me that would be like choosing a favorite toe. Because so many friends and family members know that, I am invariably asked to name my favorite NBFF film. I have sat through so many films while on the Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) beat.