Matthew Modine provided a great finish to Cinequest on Sunday night, as he was presented with the film festival’s Maverick Spirit Award following the screening of his latest movie, “Hard Miles.”
In the film — which opens April 19 — Modine plays a tough, but fair cycling coach who takes four incarcerated students on a 762-mille bike ride to the Grand Canyon. It’s based on a real story and Modine’s character, Greg Townsend, is a real person at RidgeView Academy, a correctional school, in Colorado.
In an an onstage conversation with Modine and “Hard Miles” director R.J. Daniel Hanna that I moderated at the California Theatre, the actor said he thinks directors have been casting him in more edgy roles lately — like Dr. Brenner in “Stranger Things” — because it’s such a departure from his early screen roles and his personal desire to “bring more kindness to the world.”
Modine signed autographs and took photos with fans at the California Theatre and said it was great to be back at Cinequest, where a decade ago he received the Maverick Innovator Award for the “app-umentary” version of his Full Metal Jacket Diary, a multimedia recounting of his time on the famed 1987 Stanley Kubrick film.
The in-person portion of Cinequest may have ended, but the virtual edition, Cinejoy, runs March 21-31. You can check out the lineup of movies available at creatics.org/cinejoy.
STRIDING TOWARD CIVIC PRIDE: Let me be honest with you and say that I don’t like running. But I do love San Jose and I’m a big fan of the people who put together the various 5Ks, 10Ks and half-marathons throughout the year that take place in the city.
That’s why I was among the crowd of nearly 2,000 people who ran, jogged and walked through downtown for the sixth annual Shamrock Run, which benefits the San Jose-Dublin Sister City Program’s scholarship fund. San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan greeted everyone with some words at the start, the San Jose Police Emerald Society bagpipe and drum band played and it was a great opportunity to see downtown from a different vantage point.
The route took us past Silicon Valley sites like the headquarters for Adobe and Zoom and the Tech Interactive as well as some very San Jose spots like Caravan Lounge, Plaza de Cesar Chavez and San Pedro Square. Plus, there was a free Guinness at the finish for all the over-21 runners courtesy of O’Flaherty’s Pub. The next three runs I’ve heard about are the Heart and Soles Run on April 27, the San Jose 8K and Half-Marathon Race to the Row on June and the Stars and Strides Run on June 29.
I’m not going to take part in them all — remember the “I don’t like running” part — but I’ll at least come out to cheer.
SAN JOSE LUNCH: As it does every year, San Jose’s Italian American Heritage Foundation will open its doors March 19 to celebrate St. Joseph’s Day, welcoming any and all to a free pasta lunch prepared by volunteers — following an 11 a.m. Mass performed by the Rev. George Aranha at the group’s cultural center at 425 N. Fourth St. Get more information at www.iahsj.org.
It’s customary to bring a gift of pastries or desserts to St. Joseph Day celebrations, so there’ll be plenty of sweets on hand, and monetary donations will be accepted and given to local charities, too. Everyone who attends will receive a traditional “take home” bag filled with a prayer card, an orange, a piece of bread and three dried fava beans. That’s a nod to the story that people stayed alive eating fava beans during a drought in the Middle Ages in Sicily. Rain returned after people prayed to St. Joseph — Sicily’s patron saint and San Jose’s namesake — and a huge banquet was held in his honor.
