Indie Roundup: German Terrorists, Irish Kisses, Boston Indies

In this week's edition of Indie Roundup, the headline says it all.

Deals. Nominated this year for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, Uli Edel's The Baader-Meinhof Complex has been acquired for US theatrical distribution by Vitagraph Films, according to indieWIRE. Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, and Bruno Ganz star in a film that "dramatizes the history of the real-life West German terrorist group Red Army Faction (RAF), which rose to violent action against the German political status quo in the late 1960s." Current plans are for a platform release in August, with 18 of the top 20 markets targeted. When the film opened in the UK last fall, David Hudson compiled the mixed critical reaction at GreenCine Daily. We've embedded the action-packed trailer below.

Lance Daly's Kisses, described as an Irish "romantic coming-of-age film," will see release later this year, courtesy of Oscilloscope Releasing, per indieWIRE. Kelly O'Neill and Shane Curry star as "two kids who run away from their abusive homes and set off to Dublin," seeking a better life. HollywoodChicago.com called it "surprisingly genuine and sweet ... with two of the best child performances that have come out of any country in a long time."

Box Office. Space was the place last weekend, as the IMAX re-release of Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3-D remained atop the indie charts, according to Box Office Mojo, grossing $9,763 per screen at four theaters. Debuting indie pics posted respectable per-screen results: Jean-Pierre Melville's 1961 drama Leon Morin, Priest, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo ($9,515); "A Chorus Line" doc Every Little Step ($8,563); John Crowley's drama Is Anybody There?, starring Michael Caine as a retired magician ($7,702); and Eran Riklis' Israeli drama Lemon Tree ($7,301).

After the jump: the Independent Film Festival of Boston gets underway.

Festivals. As described in the Boston Globe, the Independent Film Festival of Boston "is a professionally curated festival with a mission to bring local audiences the next wave of important work. IFFB heads Jason Redmond and Adam Roffman do the rounds of other festivals and cherry-pick the best, but they also keep the door open for new work from area filmmakers and beyond. ... Boston is graced with a lot of film festivals, but this is the one that tries hardest to bring it all back home." The ninth edition opens tonight with Rian Johnson's con man caper flick The Brothers Bloom, starring Adrian Brody, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel Weisz.

Of the titles that I've seen, I recommend:

• Best Worst Movie, Michael Stephenson's outstanding, warm, and poignant doc about the people involved in making Troll 2, possibly the worst movie in history.
• Children of Invention, Tze Chun's excellent portrait of a family in crisis.
• Make-Out with Violence, the Deagol Brothers' low-key, "coming of age with a hidden zombie" drama.
• MINE, Geralyn Pezanoski's doc about pets and their owners in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
• Beeswax, Andrew Bujalski's adroitly-played drama.
• Trimpin: The Sound of Invention, with the Seattle-based musician / inventor as its fascinating subject.

But there are certainly more films that I've missed so far but have received good reviews: Winnebago Man, Invisible Girlfriend, Still Walking, We Live in Public, In the Loop, Big Fan, and more. In short, it's a terrific lineup. The fest runs through next Tuesday, April 28, concluding with Bob Goldthwait's World's Greatest Dad. Complete schedule and ticket information is available at the official site.

Other Fests. The Tribeca Film Festival opens tonight with the premiere of Woody Allen's new film, Whatever Works, starring Larry David. Eric D. Snider has a list of the seven most anticipated titles (upcoming), and Cinematical will be covering it from morning 'till night, so look for much more on Tribeca in the coming days.