Melanie Lynskey, Sadie, Sophia Mitri Schloss, slow restaurant, quick dinner at home
A couple of days ago, I received an invitation for "J" and I to attend a small (I think) gathering with Melanie Lynskey for this afternoon. But somehow I managed to forget to add it to my schedule of plans for this afternoon, so we missed it. From people who attended, we heard that it was a really nice event. I feel so silly about my planning slip-up.
But we didn't miss out on Lynskey entirely. She also appeared before her film Sadie at the Egyptian. Sure, we were part of a crowd of around 500 people there, but it was still nice to attend an event with such a gracious guest. In the past, some interviews with featured guests have been disappointing, because of a clumsy interviewer, a guest who doesn't interview well, or both. However, Lynskey was a wonderful guest.
Although the film had shown during press screenings, we skipped that day because we planned to see today's public screening. The film was excellent, highlighted by great writing and an outstanding performance by teen actress Sophia Mitri Schloss in the title character performance. She's so good that I think she has a career in film for as long as she wants one.
After the film, Lynskey, Schloss, at least one supporting actor, and a bunch of behind-the-camera people including writer-director Megan Griffiths came on stage. Although the moderator of the post-film discussion was good, the discussion wasn't as good as the pre-show interview with just Lynskey. (I'd love to see an interview with just Schloss too though. She's an amazing kid.) The film was scheduled for just 20-days of shooting, which they reduced to 19 days with a 14-hour marathon shoot at one of the locations.
After the film, J and I were both really hungry, and walked across the street from the Egyptian to Bill's off Broadway. The place was really noisy from lots of sports televisions, lots of people trying to talk over the televisions, and noisy architecture. And the servers didn't notice us, even though one took orders from another table quickly. We had experienced really slow service there before, and after a quick (shouted) conversation we decided to bail. We went home and had dinner - and even with drive time it was a lot faster than our previous visit to Bill's. Bill's was so much better when it was a dive.
In the evening, J and I visited my parents in Bellevue. They were pleased to see us both. We gave "T" a ride home from his usual afternoon in Bellevue.