Sunday, January 30, 2011

Cedar Rapids



EJ and I went to see locally filmed Cedar Rapids on Friday at the lovely Michigan Theater. Overall, the movie was pretty damn funny and painted Midwesterners as loveable, good-natured, and somewhat naive. Spoiler alert! John C. Reilly is topless more often than not in the movie, so if that's a turnoff then you might want to skip Cedar Rapids when it makes its way back to Ann Arbor in early March.

Check out that line!

The sold-out crowd at the Michigan Theater included many movers and shakers, notably Ann Arbor's own Mayor Hieftje and Cedar Rapids' mayor Ron Corbett. Mayor Hieftje gave his Cedar Rapidian counterpart a key to the city that doubles as a bottle opener. Stay classy, Ann Arbor.

Complete double mayor!

The people at Sundance also were kind enough to fly out the film's director, Miguel Arteta, to do a question and answer session after the screening. It seemed like he really enjoyed filming in Ann Arbor.



The audience played a big role in the impact of the film. Everyone was excited to see Ann Arbor on the big screen (even if it was gussied up as Cedar Rapids). People were seriously applauding for landmarks and buildings the recognized. There were also several cast and crew members in attendance.


This local Jack Nicholson impersonator played a Jack Nicholson impersonator from some other Midwestern town in Cedar Rapids.

This picture of the Michigan Daily photographer covering Cedar Rapids is what the kids these days are calling "meta."

Cedar Rapids is worth seeing. Even if you are not from Ann Arbor, or if you hate Ann Arbor, you will probably enjoy this film.

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