I covered the FANBOYS opening at the Alamo Ritz on 2/6 for the Austin Chronicle’s Chrontourage. Here is what I reported:
“I walked up to the Ritz on Friday night to find a bevy of Darth Vaders wandering the sidewalk. I was entering foreign territory. Though I worked on the film, I was not a fangirl myself, and I was intimidated by the dense fog of Star Wars lust that hung over the theater. I quickly went inside, but my uneasiness was magnified when a Stormtrooper sat next to me and proceeded to describe every fan convention he’s ever been to. When I turned to get away, I was blocked by men and women with lightsabers waiting to go onstage for the costume contest. My nerves frayed when I noticed how many of them were children! I sat there anxiously as screenwriter Ernest Cline introduced the movie and explained how it had been ten years in the making (Ernie wrote it here in Austin, Harry Knowles championed it, eventually Kevin Spacey produced it, and Weinstein Co. distributed it- not without a lot of speed bumps along the way). The film rolled and it was not until then, that I began to truly appreciate the company I was with. The crowd laughed and yelled and hugged and cheered. It was infectious. Towards the end of the movie, I turned towards the Stormtrooper and put my hand on his cast metal arm. “What a ride!” I said, and I left the theater contemplating how good or bad I’d look in a slave Leia costume.”
screenwriter Ernest Cline
costume contest at the Alamo
some dude
Amber and Josh
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