The titles that will probably get the biggest play this week are Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, the indie auteur's take on Bob Dylan that inspired spirited critical debate, and Alejandro Monteverde's romantic drama Bella, which seemed to come out of nowhere to become an audience favorite, playing in theaters for months. Both hit DVD today; I'm Not There is packed with an audio commentary with Haynes, deleted scenes, featurettes, audition tapes, gag reel and more, while Bella has an audio commentary by the director, two featurettes and a music video.
Jess Weixler stars in Mitchell Lichtenstein's Teeth, which inspired no fewer than three reviews here at Cinematical: Scott Weinberg, Kim Voynar and Nick Schager. If that's not enough to lure you in, it's about vagina dentata! Read the reviews to learn more -- each of our reviewers focused on something different that appealed or repelled. The DVD includes an audio commentary by the director, deleted scenes, outtakes and behind the scenes footage.
As a mother of five, Kim Voynar presented a very personal perspective on Abby Ebstein's doc, The Business of Being Born, featuring Ricki Lake. Kim wrote in part: "Epstein does a thorough job of dissecting the cold, hard facts about the history of modern childbirth." Two featurettes are included on the DVD: one takes the viewer behind the scenes, and the other follows up with what happened to the participants.
Big budget Iron Man racking up big box office? Not a shock. The latest from Harmony Korine (Gummo, Julian Donkey-Boy) topping the indie box office chart? That's a surprise. Mister Lonely (IFC Films) only opened at one theater in Manhattan, but it took in $19,100 for the highest per-screen average among indies this weekend, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Diego Luna plays a Michael Jackson impersonator; Samantha Morton, Denis Levant and filmmaker Werner Herzog also star. Our own Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote: "Though Mister Lonely seems sweeter and more mainstream than Korine's other films, it still has that sense of randomness, of pathetic luck and habit and wisdom all combining to make up a life, or a collision of lives."
David Mamet's Redbelt (Sony Classics) pulled in $11,433 per screen at six locations. Chiwitel Ejiofor stars as the honorable owner of a Jiu-jitsu studio who is drawn into the world of "pay-per-view mixed martial arts," as Cinematical'sJames Rocchi described it. He did not feel the film matched the writer/director's best work; "still, even minor Mamet can be a source of major satisfaction, especially with an actor as compelling as Ejiofor in the lead."
Son of Rambow (Paramount Vantage) averaged $10,500 each at five theaters. Garth Jennings' delightful kids' adventure follows two boys as they create their own action movie epic featuring John Rambo. James Rocchi called it "a brilliant celebration of the exuberance and thrill of bad storytelling, of making art, of having dreams."
Two notable indie releases this week are covered in more detail elsewhere (reviews not up yet, though): Julian Schnabal's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Todd Rahal's The Guatemalan Handshake.
Robert Wilonsky of The Village Voice wrote that Aaron Wolf's King Corn "is as much a thoughtful meditation on the plight of the American farmer as it is a rant against our expanding waistlines." The doc follows two college friends as they learn about their shared "agricultural heritage, and the tale of how kernels of corn have insidiously worked their way into America's diet." The DVD from Balcony Releasing includes deleted scenes, featurettes, a music video, photo gallery, and "the lost basement lectures."
The Japanese Army's horrific massacre of thousands of Chinese is documented in Nanking through the use of "vintage footage, interviews with survivors, and a staged reading of excerpts from journals and letters by a group of actors," according to Kim Voynar's review. She felt it was "deeply affecting" and that "the scripted reading actually works more effectively than mere voiceover would have, bringing to life the people who were a part of the events that happened." The DVD from ThinkFilm looks bare bones, with just a trailer gallery included.
Bobby Roth wrote and directed Berkeley with a great deal of affection. He based it on his own life experiences during the time that he attended UC Berkeley in the late 1960s and cast his son Nick Roth in the lead.
Nowadays, computer-generated imagery makes it possible to create just about anything the mind can conceive, but there is nothing quite like a man-made recreation of an ancient civilization to inspire awe. As Monika Bartyzel told us last month, Alejandro Amenabar has been busy preparing his next film, Agora, which takes place in Ancient Egypt. Rachel Weisz will star as an astrologer/philosopher battling to save "the collected wisdom of the world" as religious riots flare and threaten the fabled Library of Alexandria. Max Minghella will also star as her slave (nice work if you can get it).
Agora is being filmed on the island of Malta, and Times of Maltahas a picture of one of the giant sets. (Click through for a large photo.) The article says that the production marks a series of firsts for the island, including the fact that "many Maltese are being employed in roles and crew positions that are usually taken up by foreigners."
Pre-production on the island began last October, with 76 shooting days scheduled. The English-language film is due to wrap by the end of June. Agora marks the long-awaited return to directing for Amenabar, who last made The Sea Inside. That claustrophobic drama was a change of pace for Amenabar, who previously had been known for making thrillers like Open Your Eyes and The Others. Agora is definitely his most ambitious production to date, but it sounds like it could be a promising combination of intelligent thrills and historical drama.
A French master topped an American actress' directorial debut this weekend. Claude Lelouch's Roman de Gare (Samuel Goldwyn) opened at two theaters in Manhattan and grossed $25,500, for a very nice $12,750 per-screen average, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. The French-language thriller scored 73% positive at Rotten Tomatoes, though a number of critics had reservations about its twisty, playful nature.
Helen Hunt's comedy/drama Then She Found Me (ThinkFilm) hauled in $8,266 per-screen at nine locations. Hunt plays a teacher who must deal with an unlikely fiancee (Matthew Broderick), a volatile love interest (Colin Firth), and the unexpected appearance of her mother (Bette Midler). Ryan Stewart felt that the story is "as old as the hills," but that it was "still executed with style."
Standard Operating Procedure (Sony Classics), the latest doc by Errol Morris, has generated controversy not only because of its subject matter -- the story behind the notorious Abu Gharib prison photos -- but because Morris has admitted to paying some of the interviewees. Reviews were mostly positive (79%, according to Rotten Tomatoes). Opening at two theaters in Manhattan, the film averaged $7,450 per screen.
Two holdovers continued to perform well. Tom McCarthy's excellent The Visitor (Overture) expanded into 76 theaters nationwide and averaged $6,684 per screen in its third week of release. Stephen Walker's heartwarming music doc Young @ Heart (Fox Searchlight) expanded from 23 to 56 locations and grossed an average of $4,017 per screen.
Fests to the left of me, fests to the right of me. Tribeca started last night in the Big Apple and the San Francisco International Film Festival kicks off tonight; meanwhile, three other fests have been stimulating film-goers on two different continents.
I attended the first Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles several years ago, and even in its inaugural edition it was well-run, smartly programmed, and widely supported. The sixth edition started Tuesday night with the local premiere of Amal, described by the fest as a "charming fable [that] examines the true nature of happiness in a society obsessed with speed, technology and monetary wealth." Last night's highlights included Before the Rains, a "colonial noir" set in South India in 1937.
Romantic comedy Kissing Cousins unreels tonight, as does American Movie director Chris Smith's latest, The Pool, while gangster thrills take center stage on Friday evening with Johnny Gaddar. The program is packed over the weekend, with Liz Mermin's excellent doc Shot in Bombay (which I saw at SXSW) screening on Saturday, and the world premiere of Mumbai Cutting ... A City Unfolds, featuring the the work of ten top Indian directors, closing the fest on Sunday night.
The 38th annual USA Film Festival should be better known than it is, simply because of its longetivity, but the festival's organizers appear content to stage the carefully-curated event in Dallas, Texas with a minimum of fanfare.
As one giant monster is celebrated for destroying Manhattan, another is taken to court. Cloverfield stomps on DVD shelves in North America today (Erik Davis got an early look), and there's no question that the large, rampaging creature in that film was inspired by Godzilla. But the beast only bears a superficial resemblance to the Japanese Lizard King, and his urban rebuilding program was limited to Gotham City. What if he dared to destroy a Japanese city and more closely resembled Godzilla?
The Subway sandwich chain recently aired a new commercial that stepped over the line, in the eyes of Toho Co., the Japanese studio behind the original Godzilla movies. Toho filed a complaint in Los Angeles, according to The Japan Times, alleging that Subway "not only intentionally created a character that closely resembles Godzilla in its physical appearance, but placed the character in a setting, a Japanese city under attack, that is widely associated with Toho's Godzilla films."
Glenn Erickson, AKA DVD Savant, commented: "A big monster attacking a city isn't automatically Toho's private property -- or is it? Is Toho saying that another film company cannot make a movie about a giant monster stomping Tokyo?" He linked to the ad on YouTube; after watching it, I agree that the suit seems "really ridiculous." The monster appears for about four seconds and looks pretty generic. But you be the judge. Take a look at the video and decide for yourself: Does that monster look like Godzilla?
A solid handful of indie titles vie for your attention on the DVD shelves this week. I've already written about the marketing for Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs, my pick of the week, but that shouldn't overshadow the intrinsic quality of the film itself. The DVD from IFC includes Thanks for the Add!, a short film by Swanberg, an audio commentary by Swanberg and actors / co-writers Greta Gerwig and Kent Osborne, behind the scenes footage, and SXSW video production diary spots.
I watched Juan Antonio Bayona's The Orphanage (pictured) with expectations set perhaps too high. I thought it would be a thrilling Spanish ghost story; instead it's a rather pallid drama about a mother and a lost son with just a smidgen of suspense and supernatural overtones. Jette Kernion had a response similar to mine, but others liked it much more, including our own Scott Weinberg, who praised it as "entirely captivating from start to finish." The DVD from Picturehouse includes three featurettes and something on the somewhat misleading marketing campaign.
Family dysfunction and elder care may not sound like sexy subjects, but Tamara Jekins "simply takes us into the story of her fascinating characters, and the integrity with which she handles it makes it ring true throughout." That was the reaction of Kim Voynar to The Savages; she was especially impressed by the performances of Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The DVD from Fox Searchlight includes an extended scene, director's snapshots, and a featurette entitled "About the Savages."
How do you sell the merits of an indie film to the masses? Scott Macaulay raises the question at the Filmmaker Magazine blog in connection with the release of Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs on DVD tomorrow. The film debuted at last year's SXSW and then received a brief theatrical release last summer. Macaulay posted pictures of the theatrical release poster, in contrast with the home video box cover.
Which is more effective? Chris Thilk at Movie Marketing Madness commented on the poster last summer, describing it as "a very cool poster that manages [to] mix the starkness that identifies it easily as an independent, character-driven film with some wacky visuals that play the same sort of tune the trailer did. I love it." The DVD cover, with the titular character of Hannah (played by Greta Gerwig) almost fading into the background, makes it look more like a mainstream ensemble romantic comedy.
But, wait! The photo on the cover was one of the original publicity photos and can be found on the film's official site. It may not be the most representative, though, since the film is all about Hannah and how she flits through relationships rather quickly. The Chicago city 'scape background was obviously added later. The blurb is snipped from Owen Gleiberman's review in Entertainment Weekly. The theatrical poster featured a quote from Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe. Is one critic's quote more appealing than the other?
College professors rule! Well, at least the one that Richard Jenkins plays so well in Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (Overture Films). The comedy-drama expanded to 18 theaters in its second week of release and averaged $9,055 per-screen to remain in the #1 position, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Check the film's web site to see where it will be opening in the next couple of weeks (click on "in select theaters now").
Debuting indie films did not fare so well, judging strictly by per-screen averages, but it's notable that Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (Rocky Mountain Pictures), opened on more than 1,000 screens and made $2,997 per location for a total of more than $3 million for the weekend. The doc follows Ben Stein as he chases down Ferris Bueller ... oops, wrong movie! This one's about "intelligent design" in the classroom.
Opening on just one screen, Anamorph (IFC Films) grossed $3,000. Willem Dafoe stars as an NYPD detective investigating a serial killer. Critics were not kind: Anamorph scored just 28% positive at Rotten Tomatoes. David Hudson at GreenCine Daily rounds up pertinent quotes.
Two other holdovers did better as they expanded their runs. Young At Heart (Fox Searchlight), the "elderly folk chorus that sings modern rock songs" documentary, increased its theater count to 33 and averaged $4,393 per screen. Hou Hsiao-Hsien's gentle drama The Flight of the Red Balloon (IFC Films) proved its appeal beyond New York City, making $3,572 per-screen at 11 locations.
Certain movies get under my skin and refuse to leave. Case in point: Kiyoshi Kurosawa'sCure and Pulse (AKA Kairo). There are several startling scenes in those movies that left me on edge for days. Both are horror flicks, but differ in their approaches. Cure is a police procedural with an unsettling string of deaths, while Pulse imagines what happens when there is no more room in the spirit realm for dead people. Kurosawa has a gift for creating indelible imagery married to sometimes head-scratching stories. Even when things don't really add up, as in Bright Future, his films leave a distinct aftertaste.
Kurosawa's Retribution, from 2006, hit Region 1 DVD earlier this week, and it's an odd little beast. In the opening scene, a woman in a red dress is brutally drowned by a mysterious man in a shallow pool of salt water on a reclaimed piece of land near the ocean. Kôji Yakusho (Babel, Shall We Dance?) plays Yoshioka, a weary police detective (similar to the one he played in Cure) investigating the case. Before he can get too far, we witness a respected doctor kill his son, for little apparent reason, by the same method. Is the doctor a serial killer? Why are Yoshioka's fingerprints on the first victim's body? Why does Yoshioka start having nightmares about a woman in a red dress?
Deliberately paced, Retribution veers between an effective freak-out and a disappointing, frustrating mystery, but Kurosawa fans may want to check out its low-key artistic despair.
This weekend's release of The Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li, features the first teaming of the two Asian action heroes. (My review is here.) Jackie is older and got established first as a comic martial arts master before making a string of modern-day thrillers and adventures. Jet came along later and became known as an ultra-serious, ultra-deadly lethal weapon. Their relative merits have been debated endlessly, and The Forbidden Kingdom finally gives fans a chance to see them go man to man -- first against each other, and then against the bad guys.
Now it's your turn to weigh in. Who's your favorite Asian action hero? (For the purposes of this poll, we'll stick to the living, so that's why Bruce Lee is not included.) Do you prefer Jackie's humor and larger than life thrill-seeking stunts? Or do you favor Jet's solemn precision and frequently death-dealing fighting?
Or ... have you always been a secret backer of Donnie Yen? (He had his own square-off against Jackie Chan in Shanghai Knights.) Sammo Hung? (The former Martial Law TV star is still active in Hong Kong.) Michelle Yeoh? (Tomorrow Never Dies, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) Or the younger generation represented by Tony Jaa (Ong Bak, The Protector), Collin Chou (Jade Warlord in The Forgotten Kingdom), and Wu Jing (Invislble Target, Kill Zone)? Sound off in the comments to tell us your faves and let us know about anyone else we haven't mentioned.
Call this a consumer advisory. I stopped by the Blockbuster across the street from my apartment on Thursday night and rented the just-released DVD of French horror flick Inside. When it played at the Toronto fest last fall, Scott Weinberg raved about it, and I survived a memorable midnight screening at Fantastic Fest a couple of weeks later. As Scott said, it's well-crafted but incredibly brutal and violent. The Weinstein Co. picked it up and, as many of us suspected, a theatrical release was bypassed and it was sent directly to DVD, unrated, on their Dimension Extreme label. Scott's review was even quoted on the back of the box: "Unrelenting, brutal and stunningly violent."
Dimension Extreme has a "rental exclusive" deal with Blockbuster. I thought I'd save a few bucks by renting instead of buying. First problem: The rental version doesn't include the comprehensive 55-minute "making of" feature that a friend had recommended. Second (and even bigger) problem: the only version available at the store where I rented is the R-rated version, cut from 83 to 75 minutes.
What's Halloween in the 00's without a new Saw to dissect? We've received word from Lionsgate that Meagan Good will be featured in a supporting role in the upcoming Saw V as Luba, "a city planner who comes from a very wealthy family." That is good news indeed (sorry, couldn't resist ) for fans of the very attractive Ms. Good. I noticed her when she appeared as a tattoo artist in Biker Boyz five years ago, but she first made an impression in Eve's Bayou in 1997. Recently she's had substantial parts in Waist Deep and Stomp the Yard. As far as her horror credentials, she was all too briefly in One Missed Call -- I was disappointed she didn't survive her big dramatic moment -- and was also in the little seen Venom.
Monika told us last month that Julie Benz was cast in a starring role as a proper and elegant Brit, so it sounds like Jigsaw is planning to bring justice to the upper crust in this edition. That might help answer the question: Where do you go with a horror sequel when the arch-villain has already been sliced open on an autopsy table? If you caught Saw IV, you know that screenwriters Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan came up with a solution to that quandary. I wasn't entirely convinced, and the story as a whole felt too schematic and perfunctory to be fully satisfying, but I remain eternally optimistic. David Hackl is directing from a script by Melton and Dunstan. Saw V is set to open on October 24.
The good news? Two of Asia's biggest action superstars have teamed up for the first time. The bad news? It's 15 years too late. And what's with the white kid?
The Forbidden Kingdom is yet another picture in which we are meant to experience an exotic locale peopled entirely by "others" through the eyes of a Caucasian character. In this case, it's a fantasy world cobbled together from classic Chinese literature and period martial arts movies. As the latest entry in the category of "low expectation, Asian-themed, English-language movies written and directed by respectful American creative talent," the film is slightly above average entertainment. But I grow tired of having to lower my expectations in exchange for the pleasure of seeing talented Asian performers make an appearance on the big screen in America.
Writer John Fusco and director Rob Minkoff make fun of some of the stereotypes inherent in period martial arts pictures, while also sprinkling shout-outs into the material to demonstrate their love and knowledge of the various source materials that inspired them. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are cheerfully engaging as a drunken beggar and monk on a mission, respectively, providing most of the film's comic and action highlights in supporting roles. That's right -- Chan and Li have both achieved Hollywood stardom, are top-billed, are no doubt top-paid, but play second fiddle to "the white kid," Michael Angarano. We waited years for this?
The titles that will probably get the biggest play this week are Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, the indie auteur's take on Bob Dylan that inspired spirited critical debate, and Alejandro Monteverde's romantic drama Bella, which seemed to come out of nowhere to become an audience favorite, playing in theaters for months. Both hit DVD today; I'm Not There is packed with an audio commentary with Haynes, deleted scenes, featurettes, audition tapes, gag reel and more, while Bella has an audio commentary by the director, two featurettes and a music video.
Big budget 
Two notable indie releases this week are covered in more detail elsewhere (reviews not up yet, though): Julian Schnabal's 
A French master topped an American actress' directorial debut this weekend. Claude Lelouch's 
Fests to the left of me, fests to the right of me. 
A solid handful of indie titles vie for your attention on the DVD shelves this week. I've 
College professors rule! Well, at least the one that 
Certain movies get under my skin and refuse to leave. Case in point: 
Call this a consumer advisory. I stopped by the Blockbuster across the street from my apartment on Thursday night and rented the just-released DVD of French horror flick 
What's Halloween in the 00's without a new Saw to dissect? We've received word from Lionsgate that 
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Cinematical Seven: When an Animated Series Goes Live Action ... and Gets it Right_thumbnail.jpg)
Full 'G.I. Joe' Cast Photos!
