Santa Barbara

Oh Mickey, you're so fine, you're so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey, hey Mickey! 

Toni Basil's song played in my head all day and for good reason, I was planning on spending the night with Mickey Rourke.  Me and about 2,500 other people.

Roger Durling, Executive Director of The Santa Barbara International Film Festival was a frontrunner in recognizing the resurrected career of Mickey-where’ve-you-been-Rourke and swooped in to honor him for his heartbreaking performance in The Wrestler … I wasn’t missing this!

“I thought it would only take about a year to come back, not fourteen,” explained Rourke in his tribute interview moderated by Pete Hammond. 

Rourke was painfully honest, candidly funny and about as entertaining off screen as he’s always been on.  Its been awhile since I laid eyes on Rourke in Diner, Rumble Fish, and The Pope Of Greenwich Village but like a fainted memory realized, a retrospective of his career immediately refreshed why he’s made it back and in a big way.  This guy is so believable in every character you feel voyeuristic when watching him, as if you’re peeking through a portal of his soul.     

And if having Mickey on hand to personally tell you about his life and career wasn’t enough to blow your doors off, how about the incomparable Francis Ford Coppola showing up to present?!?!  Who cares about being one degree from Kevin Bacon when you’ve got The Godfather standing right in front of you!  Wine making becomes him, he looked great and the crowd went nuts when he walked out. It was an incredible night for Mickey lovers and film buffs like me and part of what makes the SBIFF such a stand out in film festivals.