Kevin Smith at opening night of Fantastic Fest Credit: Marjorie Baumgarten

Leave it to the inimitable Kevin Smith to slip the word, if not an actual skin flick, into the grand lady of Austin theatrical venues: the Paramount Theatre. A screening of his new film Zack and Miri Make a Porno was the opening film at the fourth annual Fantastic Fest. Smith’s simultaneously sweet and unsavory new comedy stars box-office king Seth Rogen and delightful Elizabeth Banks (who is soon to appear as Laura Bush in Oliver Stone’s W.

at next month’s Austin Film Festival, where her film will appear in yet another opening-night slot). Following the screening, Smith was joined onstage by his producer and “best friend,” Scott Mosier for a freewheeling Q&A. They were only shooed from the stage to make way for Fantastic Fest’s next event: the world finals of the Air Sex Championships.

This article appears in September 19 • 2008.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.