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Peter Martin

Dallas, Texas - http://www.cinematical.com

Indie Roundup: Swanberg Sex, Veterans Day Docs

Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Deals, Box Office, Distribution, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie

Cinematical's Indie Roundup

Indie Roundup is your guide to what's new and cool in the indie film world.

On-Demand / Online Viewing. Love him or find him irritating, he's practically a category unto himself now. Joe Swanberg continues to explore the endlessly fascinating topic of twenty-something romantic relationships in Young American Bodies, a web series now on IFC.com. Season 4 debuted on Monday at IFC.com, and future episodes of the five-part series will premiere on a weekly basis. If you're a Swanberg fan, you'll want to check it out: it expands on his vision of sex and everything that leads up to it and follows afterward: elusive, kinda real, kinda fake, pretty messy.

In honor of Veterans Day, SnagFilms presents a selection of films appropriate for the occasion, covering a national shrine in Arlington: Field of Honor, dangerous missions in Baghdad Bound: Devil Dog Diaries, remembering the Battle for Midway, and so one. Truly, there's something for everyone to discover among the documentaries showcases. Similarly, Hulu has two films of interest: Jerabek, the tragic story of U.S. Marine Ryan Jerabek, and When I Came Home, which covers the troubling issue of homelessness among veterans.

Also newly available online: the enchanting "banjo player goes to Africa" doc Bela Fleck: Throw Down Your Heart (on iTunes) and a close-up (sorry) view of artist Chuck Close (also on iTunes).

Deals. As always, our friends at indieWIRE has been tracking recent acquisitions. The latest: romance My Year Without Sex (Strand Releasing, due spring 2010); drama The Good Heart, with Brian Cox and Paul Dano, directed by the very talented Dagur Kari (Magnolia Pictures, due next year); and social satire The Joneses, with David Duchovny and Demi Moore (Roadside Attractions, due spring 2010).

After the jump: more than Precious at the box office.

'Meatballs' on TV: Only $25!

Filed under: Animation, Sony, Exhibition, Family Films, Home Entertainment

'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs' (Sony)The war for your wallet may be shifting from DVD stores to your living room. Just yesterday, our own Jessica Barnes described the price war between Walmart, Target and Amazon as the three retailers have temporarily slashed their profits and passed the savings on to you. Now comes word that Sony will pre-empt retailers by making their animated hit Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs available exclusively to owners of selected Sony television sets and networked Blu-ray players more than a month before it's released on DVD. Sony, however, expects you to slash your savings and pass the profits on to them, charging $24.95 for a rental.

That's a big chunk of change for a pay-per-view movie, dramatically higher than cable and satellite systems charge for pay-per-view flicks in their window of availability before DVD and Blu-ray release. Details from a business standpoint are provided in The New York Times -- the higher price is meant to avoid angering Walmart, the largest and thus most powerful DVD retailer in the country, and the move is part of Sony's strategy to leverage its ownership of both hardware (TVs, Blu-ray players) and software (movies, television) production. I'm sure Sony shareholders will be pleased.

What about the consumer? In his Home Theater blog for ZDNET, Sean Portnoy wonders: "In this economy, is being able to rent this successful movie a few weeks ahead of the masses really worth an extra $20? In fact, if you're using Netflix or renting at $1 per night through Redbox, the pricing difference is even starker." Sony tried this last year with Will Smith and Hancock, but economic times are even more difficult now. Will you pay $25 for Meatballs?

'Ridgemont High' Inspirations Are Now Protective Parents

Filed under: Comedy, Fandom

L to R: 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High,' the book and the movie

Would you want your children to know you were the real-life inspiration for a famous tale of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll? Fast Times at Ridgemont High holds up as a heady brew of authentic teen life in the late 70s / early 80s, mixed with a fine sense of the absurd and served up by an amazing cast. It's definitely a teen sex comedy that DOESN'T suck. The movie's 25th anniversary two years ago inspired plenty of "Where Are They Now" recollections; our own Erik Davis offered his observations on an eye-opening gallery of "then and now" images for the cast.

Before the movie, however, there was the book, and before the book, there were the real-life students of Clairemont High School in San Diego, California. Cameron Crowe, then 22, went undercover at the school in 1979 to research a book on teen life. He'd graduated from another area school in 1972 -- at the age of 15! -- and was busy writing for Rolling Stone (as documented in Almost Famous), so he took a refresher course by soaking in the atmosphere at the school. Recently the class held its 30-year reunion and it turns out that some of those students have become very protective parents, according to a report in The San Diego Union-Tribune.

One graduate won't let his 15-year-old son watch the movie: "We are not going to show it to him until he's in college." The former class president says she finally allowed her daughter, a senior at the school, to read Crowe's book but isn't ready yet to allow her to see the flick, though she admits that it accurately portrayed the sex and drug activity among teens at the time.

You Say 'Twilight,' Taylor Swift Says 'Firelight'

Filed under: Drama, Romance, Trailers and Clips

Taylor Swift on 'Saturday Night Live'They're hit and miss, but I always try and catch any new digital short from Saturday Night Live. * Pop / country singer Taylor Swift hosted last night's show, and the 19-year-old star really surprised me, and I'm sure a lot of other people who don't necessarily follow young pop / country singers. Her song during the opening monologue (pictured) got in digs at her ex-boyfriend, made clear her feelings on Kanye West and his MTV Video Music Awards disruption, and commented amusingly on her supposed romance with Taylor Lautner, one of the stars of the upcoming The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

That was followed up by Firelight, the SNL parody of the first Twilight flick, with Swift taking on Kristen Stewart's role of Bella Swan, complete with hair fixing, downward-cast eyes, and lip-biting. The new boy who catches her eye at school is not, however, pasty-skinned Edward Cullen but green-skinned Phillip Frank of the Frank clan. The short captures the key moments from the first film, provides a different excuse for the "good / bad boy" not to kiss the "good / good" girl, and includes a cameo from a very concerned mummy. All in all, a solid little short.

I thought Swift was pretty hilarious throughout the show. I'm not sure if that's because of lowered expectations on my part or because of better than average writing from the staff, but, in any event, Swift displayed a flair for comedy. Check out the video to get a taste.

Watch 'Firelight' after the jump!

Is Pakistan's Film Industry Dying?

Filed under: Foreign Language, Independent, Distribution, Exhibition, Cinematical Indie



Left to right: Hand painted movie poster, Peshawar, Pakistan, 2006 (photo by Jim Henry); The Odeon Cinema, Lahore, Pakistan, 2009 (photo by Rahat Ali Dar for Los Angeles Times).

You've heard of Bollywood, Nollywood, and even Dollywood, but what about Lollywood? Based in Lahore, the second-largest city in Pakistan (and home to the U.S. Consulate), Lollywood produced more than 100 movies annually back in the 70s and 80s. Today, however, "Pakistani cinema has all but vanished," writes Alex Rodriguez in Los Angeles Times. Reportedly, the number of movie theaters in the country has declined from 1,100 in 1985 to just 120 today, and local film production has shrunk to fewer than a dozen movies each year. It's gotten so bad, the theater pictured above has been playing the same movie for three years. The same movie, and evidently not by popular demand!

Most of the usual suspects are blamed, with one that is unique to the country: "VCR, cable television, President Muhammad Zia ul-Haq's Islamization of Pakistani society, and finally DVD piracy." (Emphasis added.) While film industries have weathered changes in viewing habits, it appears that government edicts played a big role in the collapse of the industry: "Many cinemas were shut down, the rest were heavily taxed. New laws that required producers to have college degrees thinned the ranks of movie makers. The message Zia ul-Haq's government was sending to society was clear, [theater owner Jahanzaib] Baig says: 'We were being told that filmmaking was a vulgar and bad business to be in.'"

Indie Roundup: 'Splinterheads,' 'Ghost World,' 'Devil'

Filed under: New Releases, Box Office, Cinematical Indie

Cinematical's Indie Roundup for the Week of 11/3

Clockwise from upper left: Splinterheads, Ghost World, An Education, House of the Devil
.

Opening. Amiable and pleasant, Splinterheads revolves around a romance between Justin (Thomas Middleditch), an aimless small town dreamer, and Galaxy (Rachael Taylor), a gorgeous grifter who (literally) bumps into him at a gas station. She's more interested in separating him from his money than getting to know the lunkhead within, while he quickly decides that he's met the love of his life -- or, even better, a reason to leave his upstate New York world behind and start living for himself instead of his mother and grandfather.

Brent Sersen (Blackballed) is a better director than writer; the characters hold few surprises and the plot's trajectory threatens to die of old age before it reaches its pre-ordained conclusion. Still, he takes advantage of a visiting carnival and the grifter's obsession with geocaching, a variation on treasure hunting, to string together several lyrical interludes and enough laughs to deserve a recommendation. Dean Winters, Lea Thompson, and Christopher McDonald provide reliable support. Splinterheads opens in New York on Friday and expands to other cities the following week; check the official site for theaters and showtimes. Also opening in New York the same day: Collapse, Chris Smith's latest doc (more from last week and the exclusive poster debut).

On-Demand / Online Viewing. Terry Zwigoff's adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World departs from the source material quite abruptly, but still remains faithful to the dark spirit of loneliness that haunts the characters. Thora Birch, Scarlett Johannson, and Steve Buscemi star. It's now available on FilmBuff, Cinetic's cable on-demand channel; check local listings to watch this essential indie at home.

After the jump: Who educated the devil?

Cinematical Seven: '80s Military Recruitment Movies

Filed under: Fandom, Cinematical Seven, Lists, War

'Private Benjamin'

We live in a time when war movies based on toys (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) are better received by the public than those that have a basis in truth (The Hurt Locker). G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, out on DVD and Blu-ray today, dances around its origins as military action figures by positioning its heroes as an elite unit, more like well-armed spies than anything resembling common soldiers. The aim appears to be similar, though: provide heroic figures that inspire others to follow in their footsteps.

Back in the 80s, movies that could be mistaken for recruitment propaganda became surprisingly common. The film industry, which had firmly resisted anything related directly to the Vietnam War while it was being waged, became schizophrenic in the 80s, releasing anti-war and pro-war flicks side by side into theaters. Here are seven key films, listed chronologically, that helped shape the public's perception of the military during that decade.

Private Benjamin (1980)
Nancy Meyers began here, co-writing and co-producing the tale of Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn), a bride who wears black after her husband (Albert Brooks) dies on their wedding night. A spoiled woman-child, Judy enlists in the armed forces; basic training toughens her up as she realizes she can deal with the rigors of military life. As a budding feminist, she still had miles to go to learn that she didn't need a man or the military to be all she could be; as a poster child for plucky women in the armed forces, Private Benjamin was a positive-reinforcement milestone.

Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 11/3

Filed under: Action, Comedy, Documentary, Independent, Thrillers, New on DVD, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie

Cinematical's Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 11/3

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Here's my problem with the picture: a furiously-filmed chase through the streets of Paris should be spectacular and thrilling. Instead, it's incoherent, routine, even disappointing. Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) turns in another by-the-numbers action spectacle, this time starring Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Marlon Wayans, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. There are better ways to waste your time and money. Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Tony Scott's remake is a higher-grade disappointment, coming achingly close to delivering an unqualified success. Derailed by John Travolta's unrepentant scenery-chewing, which goes far beyond the bounds of bad taste, and an unhealthy preoccupation with explaining everything, the film motors along reasonably well, fashioning a paranoid tale of post-9/11 terror and ticking time bomb suspense. Denzel Washington is eminently watchable, and James Gandolfini has a good turn as the Mayor of NYC. Recommended with reservations. Rent it. Also on Blu-ray.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

I Love You, Beth Cooper
As I wrote in my review, Larry Doyle's very funny book has been transformed into a dreadfully boring movie. Hayden Panettiere and Paul Rust are miscast as a rule-breaking dream girl and the boy who loves her from afar, respectively. The spend a night together that seems endless. Chris Columbus directed, without distinction. Skip it. Also on Blu-ray.

Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon

Also out: Aliens in the Attic.

Indies on DVD, more Blu-ray picks, and Collector's Corner -- after the jump!

Top 250 Movies as a Subway Map

Filed under: Fandom, Lists, Images

Top 250 Movies as a Subway Map

Here's a different way of thinking about well-known movies: imagine each one is a stop on a subway line! Designed by David Honnorat and posted at Vodkaster, the cinematic subway map is based on the top 250 movies as voted by IMDb users on June 19 (which, I suppose, is why The Hangover made it). Honnorat created 16 different imaginary subway lines, including "Universally Acclaimed Masterpiece," "Political drama," "Drama about tolerance," "Dark and weird drama," and other, more traditional categories, and then placed each film on one of the lines. He asked: "How would you go from Alien to North by Northwest without crossing The Godfather: Part II? Which station have you not visited yet?"

The placement of movies on the map can be amusing (Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction side by side with Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America on the gangster line) as well as bizarre yet strangely fitting (Se7en sitting at the intersection of Vertigo, Rashomon, Nosferatu, and Let the Right One In). Click through to see the big map and roll around a bit. Like all subway maps, it's confusing at first but starts to make more sense as you follow the lines from station to station. What's your favorite cinematic subway line?

[ via Geek Tyrant ]

'Roger Rabbit' Sequel Finally Moving Forward

Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Disney, Fandom, Scripts, Family Films

'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'To misquote Jessica Rabbit: "Sequels to beloved animated / live-action classics aren't all bad. They're just motion-captured that way." As our own Elisabeth Rabbit Rappe reported earlier this year, Robert Zemeckis has been thinking about a sequel to 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit. And now the sequel is moving forward toward reality. Zemeckis told MTV News that "a script is in development" for a sequel, and original writers Peter S. Seaman and Jeffrey Price are involved.

Way back when, Seaman and Price adapted Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, a novel by Gary K. Wolff. The hard-boiled mystery drew upon the history of the Los Angeles transit system and provided a strong framework for a dazzling mixture of traditional cell animation and live-action period footage. Wolff wrote a sequel, Who P-P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?, and other follow-up ideas have been discussed over the years, but Zemeckis says he wasn't involved in any of them.

Of course, any sequel script would need to be very, very good on its own merits to have any hope of living up to the original. In view of Zemeckis' fascination, nay, obsession with performance capture digital tools, I share Elisbeth's fear that a new Roger Rabbit will be "a dead-eyed motion capture and not a lovable toon." The original was a mystery, a comedy, and a thriller, but it was the idea of brightly-colored cartoons living side by side with humans in a mundane real world that gave the film its distinctive flavor. Whose performances will be computer-animated in the sequel -- humans, 'toons, or both?
 
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