So I'm putting on my coat and getting ready to leave the theater after seeing
Justin Bieber's Believe this afternoon, when I notice a small group of young girls standing around me, looking quite quizzical. One of them -- whom I'd peg as 14, tops -- asks me, smiling but serious: "Are you a believer?" And for a fraction of a second, I think, hey, it's Christmas Day -- maybe I'm about to recruited for some Christian group...
But no: I quickly realized they were Justin Bieber fans, part of the group that had sporadically cheered each time Bieber said (or sang) something they found impressive during the movie we'd just watched.
(
Update: I have subsequently been informed that the girl probably asked if I were a
Belieber, not a believer. Quite possibly.)
And of course, I am certain -- as certain as the turning of the Earth -- they were downright flabbergasted to see someone of my, ahem, advanced years in attendance at an opening-day screening of a movie about.... well, such a
young pop star.
So I politely explained that, yes, I enjoy some of Justin Bieber's music -- but that I was there to review the movie for Variety. And while I was at it, I suggested they look for
my review later today on Variety.com. I am not quite as certain about this, but: I think this may have been the first time any of them had ever heard of Variety. On the other hand: I'm sure they'll tell all their friends, and their friends will tell
their friends... and I will wind up generating a lot more hits for the Variety website than I did with
a far less favorable review I wrote about another movie I saw at that very same theater seven Christmas Days ago.
By the way: This is a pretty nifty music video for "All Around the World," which Bieber performs in
Believe. It's got a great Eurodance beat -- the sort of thing I used to dance to, when suffciently inebriated, before my knees went bad on me -- and a cameo appearance by Ludacris.
