Just in time for the 2011 awards-release homestretch come the first trailer for Rampart, promising star Woody Harrelson as “the most corrupt cop you’ve ever seen on screen.” Which isn’t a review blurb, mind you, or some praise from Toronto, AFI Fest or elsewhere on the circuit where Oren Moverman’s latest has made its first impressions. That’s just a bold claim by distributor Millennium Entertainment — kind of the Pepsi Challenge of Oscar-chasing bad-cop dramas.
And while no one can know for sure until they see Rampart how Harrelson’s performance stands up to those of awful, awful Orson Welles in Touch of Evil or — more in the awards mold — Denzel Washington in Training Day, that really heavy rock riffage implies that it’ll be up there! Kneel before Woody! Or something.
VERDICT: Sold.
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Cannes has the glamour of the Croisette, Sundance boasts the first discoveries of the year, and Toronto and Venice have awards season buzz in their corner. Even Tribeca, finally, has its own distinct identity. But the Los Angeles Film Festival has often been too many things to people, and being smack dab in the middle of the entertainment industry has contributed in the past to that identity crisis. This year’s edition may change that.
Nearly every major festival these days includes a Hollywood program, even if out of competition. (Pirates of the Caribbean at Cannes — why not?) Big films mean big stars, big stars mean big publicity, and big publicity means you’re not running films out of guild buildings or studio lots anymore. You’re gonna need a bigger red carpet.
For these reasons, 2011 could be the year that puts Los Angeles on the global map as a festival town. AFI Fest boosted its profile three years ago by offering free tickets to all screenings and the TCM Film Festival, inaugurated in 2010, established itself strongly and quickly with its niche focus on classic films, retro cinema, and old Hollywood star wattage. But the LA Film Festival, which enters its 17th iteration next month, has what AFI and TCM don’t: a balance of prestige independent and foreign selections and coveted high profile attractions.
Truthfully, LAFF has been building that balance for years now. In 2008, both Timur Bekmambetov’s Wanted and Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy II: The Golden Army debuted at the festival, kick-starting a run of relatively huge studio films using LAFF as…
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