LIVE BY NIGHT REVIEW

If you've read my blog before, you might remember the excitement when Ben Affleck chose our area for his movie LIVE BY NIGHT. We were overjoyed that a real, live movie star would be in our little town filming. My guy and I finally got to see it some weeks back, just before it left the theaters.

I am sad to say it was not good. Not that it was bad. It just wasn't good.

The story seemed fragmented and was hard to follow. I'd read the book by Dennis Lehane--which was engrossing--some years back, but I still had trouble following the movie. Basically, it was about a Boston gangster. He falls in love with his crime boss's daughter, gets beat up, is forced to flee to Florida, builds up his boss's crime empire there... Throw in the Ku Klux Klan, the sheriff's daughter, the black brother-sister Cubans who run the rum trade and...

Oh, my! It's so confusing. Too much is going on. It never really sucked me in.

However, I must say the setting is marvelous! Brunswick, Georgia standing in for Ybor City, Florida is absolutely amazing. The scenery, especially on a road twining through the marshes (which may be from our area?), is breathtaking. And I'm sure some of the local actors/actresses did a great job in their bit parts. Our area did indeed put its best foot forward.

So if you get a chance, see it. Just for the background.

MOVIE

As you may know, Ben Affleck chose our little mainland city as setting for scenes in his new movie based on the novel Live by Night by Dennis Lehane.

The whole county's been agog.

This is an old town. Most of the businesses have moved out to newer shopping centers and outer areas, leaving the core to fall into vacancy and disrepair. To their credit, some farsighted mayors and other people have been sprucing it up. If their efforts continue, they should succeed because the area has a lot to offer, including beautiful Victorian homes and nineteenth century buildings.

But the book's setting is Boston during the twenties. We scratched our heads? We're to stand in for Boston? Does Boston have palm trees? Will we have to disguise them as sugar maples?

Our fears were ungrounded. The movie people want us to look like Ybor City, Florida, where part of the story takes place.

Ybor City? Home of cigars and a blend of Latin cultures?  Okay, even if our area was the southernmost outpost for Anglo-Saxon settlement before the Revolution, we'll take our moment of fame however we can get it. Lucky we have lots of empty buildings and space for the filmmakers to work their magic. And a lot of actors who can impersonate Cubans. Just remember when you go to the theater that we're really not Ybor City. We aren't even in Florida!

 Now, some pix of the sets being built to turn us into...wherever.

This is the area of downtown they're working with. The road is blocked off and you can see a few of the old buildings they're putting new fronts on. Yes! They're actually making them look good!

This was once the old Bluebird Cafe.

The beige building is being worked on, getting ready for make-believe shutters and sign.

And this is an entirely new structure. The lot was empty, the business torn down years ago. So they're putting up the kind of building they want. Or at least the semblance of one.

I hope this set-building/touching-up helps people remember what downtown used to be like. If the movie stirs up interest in restoration, it will be well worth the trouble of rerouted traffic and noisy construction!

Hollywood, welcome to Brunswick!

FIRST FRIDAY

Each month, the Downtown Development Authority has an event on the first Friday of each month to encourage people to come to the older section of town. Shops stay open late. Some offer refreshments or other entertainment to people wandering by. Musicians play, restaurants offer samples, and there are crafts or other things for kids.

On last night's First Friday, people were encouraged to wear their Halloween costumes. We were there early and left as the crowds began to gather, but there were still things to see.

The kiddy corner held the play castles. We watched them being blown up.

And here is a cute little ladybug with her mom, ready to start having fun.

This exotic beauty handed out samples of fireball shots (some kind of liquor with coffee) outside The Southern Table and Bar. The woman on the right had just drunk one. The one on the left was about to take one. I haven't tried this restaurant but it's on my to-do list!

Here are people wandering on the sidewalk by one of the squares. The table on the left, if I remember correctly, was giving out literature on a no-kill animal shelter.

Across the street, at another square beside the restaurant Tipsy McSway's, a band played jazz.

This is the front part of that square. I didn't realize it at the time, but the bending woman on the right, was trying to get a response from a man who'd been listening to the music. Evidently, she had noticed him having problems.

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The response was quick, within a few minutes. Here you can see the yellow emergency vehicle over the bushes.

I don't know the outcome but I hope it was good. Other than that, we enjoyed the outing!