Movies

Dallas likes its stars big and its carpets red. It likes image and glamour. And the AFI Dallas International Film Festival, which drops the curtain on its sophomore year today, had all of that in spades.Charlize Theron? Yeah, she was here with her latest, Battle in Seattle. Robert De Niro? He took part in a rare Q&A in support of the Hollywood-insider comedy What Just Happened? There was even a dash of old Hollywood courtesy of Mickey Rooney, who for all I know is still spinning war stories on the stage of the Majestic.

Photos by KYE R. LEE/DMN

Charlize Theron hit the red carpet at NorthPark Center on Saturday. She stars in Battle in Seattle, which showed at the film festival.

AFI Dallas would be a pretty hollow affair if it were all glitz, all the time. Fortunately that's not the case.

Sponsored to the gills by corporate giants and not above bestowing an award upon one of its own board members (Star Award winner Todd Wagner), AFI Dallas also had the one thing you need above all else to gain credibility as a festival.

That would be quality cinema.

In 2007, the festival's first year, all the machinery hummed along smoothly. Filmmakers raved about how well they were treated. Victory Park buzzed with activity. But too many of the films carried the stale odor of mediocrity.

This year brought a quantum leap in programming quality. Strong docs were everywhere, covering everything from small Texas towns under massive microscopes (Crawford and Tulia, Texas) and the ailing newspaper biz (Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril) to a proud family circus (Circus Rosaire) and a crazed journalistic trailblazer (Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson).

The consistency of the narrative films was much thinner, which gives AFI Dallas something in common with most other festivals.

But the films are only one part of the equation. The festival is the other. Wednesday night the Magnolia had the feeling of a celluloid carnival, with three sold-out films starting within 30 minutes of one another. It must have been hard on the staff, but the lobby hum after all three films let out was palpable. The bar line was several people deep. Laughter, conversation and congratulations for filmmakers flowed steady and easy. And was that a monkey in a tux over there? Yep, straight from the screening of Circus Rosaire, Rickey the chimp was holding court amid the divine madness.

This wasn't some VIP party for the high-toned and well-heeled. It was a theater lobby bursting with energy, and that never gets old.

Some insiders might complain that too many of AFI Dallas' best films played first at other festivals, including Sundance and South by Southwest.

But what does that matter to Dallas moviegoers? They don't care about keeping score. They want to see good stuff and have a good time, and AFI Dallas had ample opportunity for both activities.

At the end of the day, AFI Dallas can be seen as two festivals. One is for those who want in on the exclusives, the champagne parties, the chance to hobnob with wealth and power. The other is for regular folks who want good movies and good times.

So by all means, continue stroking the few. As long as you keep delivering for the many.