We don’t like goons at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. They’re not needed or wanted, and they just make everyone feel vaguely uncomfortable. For one thing they’re unnecessary — the SBIFF vibe is always loose and mellow and free of trouble of any kind. Last night’s goon [pictured below] was standing next to the stage in the right-front area, and I just knew that when it came time at the very end of the Virtuosos event to rush the stage in order to take snaps that this big fucking ape would probably block me. So I left early — who needs the aggravation? I understand hiring goons with infra-red scanners to guard against preview audiences from taking videos of unreleased films, but this concern obviously didn’t apply last night. Nobody was drinking, no one was rowdy or belligerent…why was this guy there?

“Don’t come around here no more…”