Best Movie Performance By a Municipality?

by Robert Strauss

Paulsboro turned out for the New Jersey premiere of “Jersey Girl.” Kevin Smith, left, with Liv Tyler and Ben Affleck while filming the movie in town in 2002. In the film, Paulsboro plays Highlands, where Mr. Smith grew up.

PAULSBORO – The cheers were loud for the star of the film at last Wednesday’s premiere here of “Jersey Girl.”

But for the 700 or so people jammed into the Paulsboro High School auditorium, where the film was shown, that star was not Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lopez, Liv Tyler or George Carlin, whose names will appear in reviews when the movie opens on Friday.

Instead, the cheers were for Paulsboro itself — Fiorile’s Bar, Borough Hall, even the auditorium in which the audience was sitting — and the surrounding area. Those sites provided the primary backdrop for “Jersey Girl,” which was filmed here for several weeks in 2002.

Kevin Smith, the 33-year-old writer and director of the film, and a native of Monmouth County, promised he would bring a premiere of the movie to Paulsboro, a tough South Jersey refinery town of 3,400, known mostly for its winning high school wrestling and football teams. After the star-studded New York premiere last Tuesday night, he made good on his promise. The event was a benefit for the local Boys and Girls Clubs, which Mayor John Burzichelli said colleted $25,000.

After the film was shown, Mr. Smith took to the auditorium stage to heap praise on the residents, who cheered every quip he made.

“Does Paulsboro love me in the Biblical sense?” Mr. Smith asked. “I’ll bet I could have any woman in this room.” Mr. Smith is known for his salty speech, some of which gets in the movie, making an otherwise sweet story into a PG-13-rated film.

“Everyone was so cooperative here,” he added. “I think if I went up to Mayor Burzichelli and said, ‘I’m going to need to blow up four square blocks with napalm,’ “he would have said, ‘Sure, whatever you want.’ ”

Mr. Smith said he thought the New Your premiere crowd especially like the Paulsboro scenes. “It’s nice if you can melt the frigid heart of a New Yorker,” he said.

Last year, Paulsboro renamed a small street near the high school Kevin Smith Way. For the premiere, the town brought in a floodlight and a red carpet that everyone, not just Mr. Smith, used.

In “Jersey Girl,” which Mr. Smith said has its autobiographical moments, Paulsboro substitutes for Highlands, where Mr. Smith grew up. Mr. Affleck plays a hard-driving public relations executive who is thrust into being a single father when his wife (Ms. Lopez) dies in childbirth. Mr. Carlin plays his father and Ms. Tyler, a later love interest.

“Paulsboro: home of the only good Ben and Jen movie,” said Mr. Smith to big laughs.

Mr. Affleck and Ms. Lopez were roundly panned for their first effort together, “Gigli.” They were a couple when “Jersey Girl” was filmed; Mr. Smith cut a wedding scene from the movie after they broke up.

Mr. Smith, whose previous films include “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy,” said he was not concerned that the poor reviews for “Gigli” and the subsequent breakup of the stars would affect “Jersey Girl.”

“Enough time has passed on that relationship,” he said. “And we’ve moved far enough away from ‘Gigli’ that the shrapnel from that bomb won’t bother us.”

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) – Oh, those crazy “Yes, Dear” guys. Wherever Greg (Anthony Clark) and Jimmy (Mike O’Malley) go, they just seem to run into celebrities. At the beginning of March, a visit to a Lakers’ game leads to a run-in with former Governor Gray Davis and later in the month, on Monday, March 22, writer-director-Silent Bob Kevin Smith will play himself. When Greg skips his studio’s big movie premiere, Jimmy steals his credentials and hits the red carpet. There, he runs afoul of Smith, the film’s director. Confirming the long-held theory that “Yes, Dear” exists in an alternate universe, Jimmy gets in trouble by insulting Smith’s recent inspirational war movie.

While Smith may not actually have an inspirational war movie on his resume, he does have a movie coming out in March. “Jersey Girl,” starring publicity-shy former couple Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, was scheduled to hit theatres on Friday, March 19, but has been pushed back a week.

For the “Clerks” and “Chasing Amy” director, this is a rare visit to the scripted television work, though his debut feature was turned into a short-lived ABC animated series which ran in the summer of 2000.

The Freedom Film Society presents:

The Fourth Annual Red Bank International Film Festival

Count Basie Theatre

Red Bank, New Jersey

October 8-10, 2004

CALL FOR ENTRIES: FILM/ VIDEO/ DIGITAL

$25 Shorts / $45 Features

Go to www.rbiff.org for submission form and guidelines

Deadline June 1st 2004

I was lucky enough to be able to see a sneak peak of Jersey Girl in Milwaukee this past tuesday. I am a long time Kevin Smith fan and have been waiting with baited breath to see this movie for over a year now, and Kevin did not disappoint.

Before I can truly review the movie’s good points, I have to address the one major flaw with it. This is something I never thought I’d say about a movie; it needs more Jennifer Lopez (Gertie Trinke). Yes, you heard me right. I understand why Kevin cut what he did, I know why we barely see her for 10 minutes, but I think it reverberates throughout the film. Ollie and Gertie meet, fall in love, get married, have a kid and she dies in child birth. This is seriously within the first 10 minutes! The rest of the movie deals with Ollie Trinke (Ben Affleck) dealing with the loss of his wife. How can we relate/empathize with his loss if we never get to understand why he feels the way he does? There’s a scene where Ollie is talking to his daughter in her crib where he’s crying about missing Gertie and it just feels forced because we have! no “why.” Having seen the unofficial trailer way back where it shows how these two characters meet, just made me miss the back story even more. Jen and Ben have chemistry onscreen and I am saddened we have to miss that because of Gigli and the very public relationship of Jen and Ben. My plea to Kevin for the future dvd release, please note that movie goers can keep the “real” world and the movie world separate and let us see these characters’ full story on video!!!!

Having said that…this is Kevin’s best movie to date. Kevin grows as a writer/director every time he brings something new to the screen. I loved that this movie had emotion, humor and heart. It’s got romance and emotion for the ladies, and it has the trademark Kevin humor that keeps the guys interested.

Ben Affleck does a good job as Ollie. I miss seeing Ben have a part he can sink his teeth into and act the hell out of it (has he been challenged like that since Chasing Amy? I doubt it). George Carlin was amazing as Pop, I would nominate him for a best support nod, he was that fucking good. Raquel Castro is truly an amazing child actor, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of her in the future. And the lovely Liv Tyler; she just lights up the screen and makes her character so fun and loveable. Great movie, great cast.

I think some Kevin fans are going to be disappointed, and call him a sell out, which is too bad. Just as an actor can do comedy, drama or action, I hope the fans realize that a director can do the same thing and be good at all of them, just in different ways. If this is the road Kevin is headed down, I will follow him wherever he leads us. I can’t wait to see what he does with the Green Hornet and Fletch Won! Don’t miss this movie March 26th!