Looking For Jimmy Avignon NYC Film Festival 2001

Hello from New York City and my first shot as a Billy film reviewer,

Once again it was the annual meeting of the girls (Max, Cyn and Gretch) in New York for the film fests. Due to business obligations I was only able to get into the city on Friday but was able to hang out with Cyn and Max and do some catching up before Cyn had to head home.

Of course, Billy was at the screening of Reunion and I missed the chance to meet him. Hey, that's the way it goes but Cyn finally got to meet him which made me happy.

Max and I went to the screening of Looking for Jimmy. Of course, Max and I walked smack into the middle of a roomful of photographers taking pics of Julie Delpy. Talk about a quick exit. Oh well, maybe we will be discovered. : )

Julie Delpy spoke briefly before the film began. She explained that it was shot in 24 hours and a lot of the dialogue was improvised. A lot of the actors only had a brief guideline of what their characters were like or what was expected of them. She explained that the film was really about nothing that it was just her take of everyday life in LA.

The movie begins at a birthday party for Al (Emily Wagner). While all her friends are there celebrating, her brother is filming the entire time. V (Julie Delpy) is stressing over the fact that her boyfriend, Jimmy, has not shown up and was suppose to bring the potato salad. V continues to get more crazed and stressed and ends up pulling Al from her birthday party (along with Ernie who is filming everything) to go in search of Jimmy. To say that V's character is slightly neurotic would be pretty accurate. The more stressed she got the funnier she became. V and Al's friendship was portrayed in a way that I think a lot of people can relate to (at least I can). They were very vocal with each other and told it like it was. V and Al, along with Ernie, go from on place to the next in search of Jimmy.

After many stops, they show up at Billy's house (Billy Wirth). Billy plays this young guy that is at one with the universe. I enjoyed his character. At one point in the movie Billy, V, Al & Ernie are at a party and yes, ladies, Billy is dancing. Billy, V, Al and Ernie head to a party in the desert and after driving three hours to get to the party find that Billy had the wrong date and it was actually the following week. While they are out in the desert, they all kind of bond and I feel find themselves spiritually. Needless to say, although Billy had a small part, he was a natural for the part he played. There is also a couple of seconds of Billy singing and sitting with "his band".

Emily Wagner's character was excellent. She was complex and multifaceted. I really enjoyed her in this film. What made it even more enjoyable was the fact that her parents were sitting in front of us and we had the pleasure of meeting them before the screening and spoke with the for quite some time. The comments her parents made at points in the movie were just priceless.

Rereading my review of this movie just made me realize that I am lucky that I do not do this for a living. I am not sure how to say what I really want to except to say that if you get the chance to see this movie I would definitely say go and check it out.

Julie received a lot of great questions during the Q&A and I believe that the film was generally well received.

Gretchen---- NYC Avignon Film Festival 2001

Avignon Film Festival| Looking For Jimmy

built mm 4/2001

cg 6/05