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The Austin Film Festival and Bob Bullock Texas Museum have teamed up to present six best of the best made in Texas, by Texans. Kevin Reynolds will be at the screening for Q&A.

Lamont Furlow, Suzanne and I went to this great event and all I can say is that is was great, just not long enough. For those who have not seen the movie on the big screen....find a way. It is sooooo much better. On that note....no copies available in FILM...we watched the DVD. I got a chance to ask Kevin about a copy and there is only one known copy in some archive and unavailable. I also ask him about a sequel and there will never be one. He hates sequels. I ask him what happened to the Groovers and he didn't have an answer. I commented that he knew all of them and he said they were a composite of people he knew. I gave him a card with our site on it and an invitation to UF 2010. I also ask him if he knew that we visited the locations and he was aware that we did visit and dug up or buried a bottle of DOM. Told the story of picking Chuck for Dorman at the 7-11 with less than 48 hours to go before shooting started and how Chuck was a little apprehensive and really didn't believe him when asked to be in the movie. He said Kevin Costner was easy to cast as Gardner, and had auditioned for the part in PROOF and didn't get it, but after reading two or three lines, he knew he was right for the part. . Judd Nelson was a natural for Phil, Sam was easy. He also talked about the music and how the songs he picked really determined how the scene was shot instead of the other way around. He was very DOWN on the movie making business because of all the comic book, blue screen movies being made and the studio gurus ONLY looking at the bottom line and not the creative process and life stories that were made into movies in the past. He did a little stand up moment right before the movie started and said that he always included a body part in his movies. My mind raced through our trivia questions and different scenes to no avail, then he told us that when Gardner runs out and jumps onto the rock overlooking the Rio Grande, there is a shot of his arm and elbow in the lower left corner of the shot. I looked for it during the movie and have concluded that he was jerking our chain, unless it is in the wide screen FILM version. More when I get a chance to digest everything. Oh yeah, got my photo signed....Very glad we went. fandangoJeff

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Special thanks to Luca Ciardelli for bringing this to us:

SCREEN: 'FANDANGO,' COMING OF AGE IN 1971

By JANET MASLIN
Published: January 25, 1985 New York Times

THE GROOVERS, a pack of college buddies, turn graduation into the occasion for one last blowout in ''Fandango,'' which takes place in the shadow of the Vietnam War. The year is 1971 and draft notices have arrived for several of the group's members, so their antics have both fraternity-house humor and a hysterical edge. Kevin Reynolds, who wrote and directed ''Fandango,'' is for the most part making just another coming-of-age film. But at its best, his debut feature has an appealing boisterousness, and it successfully walks a fine line between sensitivity and swagger.

''Fandango,'' which opens today at the Gemini, takes place in Texas, which means the characters drink endless beers and call one another ''son.'' Chief among them is Gardner Barnes, played dashingly by Kevin Costner, who suggests what the Tom Cruise of ''Risky Business'' might look like after a six-month bender. Gardner and four friends - one who's a scold (Judd Nelson), one who's just canceled his wedding (Sam Robards), one who's nearly comatose (Brian Cesak) and a huge, quiet one who shows equal interest in ''The Prophet'' and ''The Incredible Hulk'' - embark on a long, dusty journey.

They sleep beside the wreckage of an old movie set, because Gardner thinks James Dean was there to shoot ''Giant.'' They bathe in a car wash. They force one Groover to take parachute-jumping lessons from a hippie (Marvin J. McIntyre) whose habit of talking with his mouth full is one of the film's low points and whose casual, utterly indecipherable diagram of flight instructions is about its highest.

The note of hip nihilism on which ''Fandango'' begins is eventually balanced out by sentimentality. And there are moments, particularly those revolving around a speechless character known only as ''The Girl'' (Suzy Amis), when Mr. Reynolds goes way overboard on the sentimental side. Gardner used to love her; we know that from a sequence in which he frolics with her in a field of wildflowers. Then he lost her; we know that when we see him leave her on a sand dune, holding a kite string.

Mr. Reynolds isn't adroit with this sort of thing, but he does have a way with the sight gags and off-the-wall humor that make this a notable debut. And he brings a good deal of feeling to the moments in which the film's twin specters - Vietnam and maturity - intrude upon the frantic festivities.

''Fandango'' is rated PG (''Parental Guidance Suggested''). It contains brief nudity on the part of the story's various practical jokers.

FANDANGO, directed and written by Kevin Reynolds; director of photography, Thomas Del Ruth; film editor, Arthur Schmidt; music by Alan Silvestri; produced by Tim Zinnemann; released by Warner Bros. At Gemini Twin, 64th Street and Second Avenue. Running time: 91 minutes. This film is rated PG. Gardner BarnesKevin Costner Phil HicksJudd Nelson Kenneth WaggenerSam Robards DormanChuck Bush LesterBrian Cesak JudyElizabeth Daily The GirlSuzy Amis Truman SparksMarvin J. McIntyre