There was a time before the show when I wished I'd kept one of the other ones, but let's not get ahead of ourselves here.
Forthwith, the "Gah!!"s and "LA!"s of this gala premiere:
Gah!! I arrived at Village Cinemas at Crown Casino, not one of the typical premiere spots, to find that there were already 150 people in line ahead of me. I foolishly thought I could show my printed out ticket (yes, I still print these out) to the two gatekeepers and I'd ascend the escalator, but oh no. We had to get lanyards and then we'd be told what time our showing would be. That's right, there were multiple showings, which I might have guessed from the fancy red carpet being walked by people who are not quite famous, but probably recognized by some people. (Williams wasn't here, in any case.) That meant standing in a slow-moving line for nearly a half-hour. There was not really any panic, especially as 100 more people joined the queue behind me -- we were all getting in. But I was hot from a long walk from work to get here just on time, and it now looked like I'd be quite a few minutes from a refreshing beverage lest I sacrifice my place in line.
LA! Once I was past the gatekeepers, I saw what all the fuss was really about. There was a second red carpet on the cinema's second floor, but that wasn't the half of it. (With my backpack slung over one shoulder and five days of stubble, I was hardly photogenic.) They'd installed a giant lighted star in the second floor lobby, and the bar was giving out Negronis. Not just any Negronis, but smoking Negronis. That's right, a guy would unleash this bubble above the drink, and when it burst, it dropped a brief cloud of smoke into the icy beverage, which disappated after about five seconds. If you drank it quickly enough you could even inhale some of the smoky chemical flavor. I drank the second one quickly enough, but then decided that was probably enough.
Gah!! Standing in line as long as I did ruled out the possibility of a second movie after Better Man. I had scoped out a later screening of Heretic, but I quickly realized this was not in the cards. When I finally reached the lanyard station, they told me the movie was going to start at 6:45. It was ten past 7 when things finally got underway.
LA! Although the movie was playing on at least three screens, I appear to have picked the lucky one, despite having had all those other people ahead of me. There were about ten cast members and producers at the front of the auditorium, introduced by the head of VicScreen, the most notable of which was Michael Gracey himself, a Melburnian. A screening always has a little extra juice if the director is there. I suppose, if our films were really staggered, this group could have shuffled into each screening before it started, but the people certainly didn't look as though they'd just gone through two other incarnations of this dog and pony show.
And to demonstrate how the experience was overall a good and memorable one, the rest are also "LA!"s.
LA! We got a water and a popcorn on each seat. The four people sitting next to me changed their seats when they found friends they wanted to sit with, but they'd already left an empty Negroni glass behind them, and one of them took her water with her. The picked over quality of the other seats meant that a few other candidates for these seats ultimately rejected them, leaving me with two extra popcorns within my reach without even having to get out of my seat. I thought I would only eat one -- I had finished almost the entire first one before Michael Gracey even stopped talking -- but I ended up eating both. Plus two little individually wrapped Lindt chocolates that had also been available at the entrance. (I didn't partake of the champagne.)
LA! It wouldn't be a musical if there weren't one "LA!" saved for the singing itself. I came away feeling very favorably toward the Williams catalogue I was exposed to, especially the two songs I knew, which had incredible staging: "Rock DJ" and "Angels."
LA! The central gimmick -- that Williams is embodied as a talking and singing monkey -- really works! In fact, even calling it a gimmick is unnecessarily belittling. It was just a choice, a choice I had not seen before, and a choice that never ceased to be interesting. The motion capture performance by Williams is really good too, with lots of subtle expressions capable of being captured in that simian face. (I actually see that he only did a small amount of the mocap stuff, and the actual person worth crediting here -- who was also present -- is an actor named Jonno Davies.)
LA! I realized afterward that it doesn't feel like Christmas season without seeing a screening for one of the films that doesn't come out until Boxing Day. Last year it was Ferrari -- which I think actually came out the first week of January -- and although I did like that film, it doesn't have the same feeling as a joyous, jubilant musical.
