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By: By ERIN EDGEMON-April 21, 2007- 9 AM
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I didn't think it would be so hard.
When I finally got to the Nashville Film Festival held at the Regal Green Hills Theater Friday night (April 20), found someone to give me my press credentials and started perusing the film guide, I knew I hadn't reserved tickets for enough screenings.
There are just too many films to see and so little time to do it in. I read somewhere that some 240 films from 40 different countries would be screened at the 38th annual Nashville Film Festival this week.
I had never been to a film festival before and really had no idea what to expect or what to see.
I mean how do you choose between a documentary about a Hurricane Katrina relief camp set up by one of the survivors a month after the storm and another about young Israelis forced to leave their home because of a government decree?
Or what about the non-fiction piece about the family that was selected to be on the realty show version of "The Beverly Hillbillies"? Before the pilot was even shot, the show was denounced as being offensive to mountain people, and the show was canceled.
It is impossible.
What if this is my only chance to see this film? That is what runs through my head as I read the descriptions of each of the films.
The publicity guy for the festival talked me into seeing the world premiere of "Randy and the Mob." I think I had previously selected a series of short films called "Fun with Your Shorts On."
I am glad he changed my mind.
"Randy and the Mob" turned out to be a laugh out loud comedy about Randy, a good ol' southern boy, who while trying to be the "big shot" in his very small town, gets into some real trouble with the mob.
Walton Goggins (of TV's "The Shield"), in my opinion, steals the movie as Tino Armani. The southern-raised Italian is the problem solver of sorts for these mobsters. He is dispatched to Randy's small town to collect the money Randy owes.
Almost everyone Tino comes in contact with in the town is taken to the slow and steady speaking man and the profound and caring remarks he shares.
Randy, played by the film's writer and director Ray McKinnon, gets in too deep and is forced to make amends with his gay twin brother to get out of his predicament.
Burt Reynolds has a cameo in the film.
The last show of the night was the Hong Kong action flick "Exiled" directed by Johnnie To.
I didn't know what to make of this feature about five friends who just happen to be professional thefts and contract killers.
For reasons that weren't apparent to me, one of the friends is contracted to kill another.
"Exile" plays out like a Greek tragedy, or at least something like that, when one thing after another goes wrong. It seems the group of bandits don't have any luck at all. And it is in those moments when the film turns funny.
The use of sound in the film is brilliant from the soundtrack to the sounds of bullets hitting flesh and a can being kicked.
Through the whole movie, I kept thinking "Exiled" is the kind of movie that film writer and director Quentin Tarantino would love for its quirky and violent moments, and of course, because of its music.
"Exiled" is the Hong Kong version of "Reservoir Dogs" without much of the dialogue.
Erin Edgemon can be reached at 869-0812 and at eedgemon@murfreesboropost.com.
Visit www.nashvillefilmfestival.org for film descriptions and to buy tickets.
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