ArlenFaber Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Indie Spotlight: New Releases for July 24
Filed under: New Releases », Indie Spotlight »
Here's a quick look at what's opening in limited release this weekend. If they're not playing where you live, keep an eye out as they make the rounds. And if all else fails, there's always DVD.In the Loop (pictured), a smart, snarky, and hilarious British political comedy, is now playing in New York, L.A., San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Cambridge, Mass. It's one of the best-reviewed comedies of the year so far, with a 93% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Cinematical's James Rocchi, reviewing it at Sundance, called it "achingly, wrenchingly, dizzyingly funny, with a bleak, bitter sense of humor."
The Answer Man premiered at Sundance under the title Arlen Faber and is now hitting theaters in New York, L.A., and Philadelphia. It stars Jeff Daniels as a reclusive author of self-help books who -- get this -- is actually really screwed up! The mom from Gilmore Girls comes along and disrupts his life. The reviews at Rotten Tomatoes are mostly negative, citing the film's over-reliance on coincidences, easy solutions, sentimentality, and clichés.
Shrink, another Sundance premiere, has a strikingly similar premise, with Kevin Spacey playing a psychiatrist whose personal life is, you guessed it, really screwed up. It opens today in New York and L.A. Once again, the Rotten Tomatoes consensus is mostly negative.
Finally, there's Deadgirl, a splattery zombie horror that's been making the rounds in the midnight section of various film festivals. The Rotten Tomatoes news is not good here either, with three in favor and eight against. You can find it in New York, L.A., Chicago, Seattle, Houston, Austin, Dallas, and St. Louis.
Fun Out of the Sun: A Look at the 2009 Florida Film Festival
Filed under: Action », Animation », Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Horror », Independent », Romance », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Mystery & Suspense », Lionsgate Films », Magnolia », Festival Reports », Family Films », Samuel Goldwyn Films »
The 18th annual Florida Film Festival ended a week ago last night, and do you want to know why our coverage of the fest is going up just now? Because I'm selfish and wanted to catch up with as many of the forty or so features as possible, even after the awards had been announced and everyone had gone home (for the record, I managed to miss each and every winning film -- Prince of Broadway, The Garden, Prodigal Sons, Neil Young: Don't Be Denied, and the exceedingly popular Poundcake -- and am kicking myself still).
However, between the appearances by Ken Russell, Glenn Close, and Jon Voight (oh, my!), I did manage to catch my fair share of world, regional, and local premieres at this celebration of Original Cinema, and you can see what we saw after the jump.
Indie Roundup: 'Crips' Trailer, Berlin Deals, and Fests
Filed under: Documentary », Drama », Independent », Cinematical Indie », Trailers and Clips »
In this week's edition of Indie Roundup, we look at deals, docs, fests, and ... a refrigerator?
Deals. Our friends at indieWIRE have posted news about all kinds of distribution deals in the past seven days. World War II drama Woman in Berlin, for example, has been picked up by Strand Releasing for a summer release, and Arlen Faber, which stars Jeff Daniels and just played at Sundance, has been acquired by Magnolia, also for summer release. Magnolia's genre division Magnet Releasing got the rights to Tony Jaa's action flick Ong Bak 2 -- more on that one from me in next week's Asian Cinema Scene.
Box Office. The new doc from Stacy Peralta, Crips and Bloods: Made in America, scored the highest per-screen average among all films last weekend, earning $13,978 at the one theater where it's playing in Los Angeles, per Box Office Mojo. Peralta previously made the well-received Dogtown & Z Boys (skateboarders) and Riding Giants (surfers); Crips and Bloods tackles the explosive issue of the two most notorious African-American gangs in South LA. Check out the trailer below.
Festivals. Scott Weinberg wrote about his delightful first-time experience at the Oxford Film Festival in Mississippi, and Eric Snider posted a very funny video that screened there. (More from Kim Voynar at her blog.) Erik took a look at Splinterheads and I posted trailers for Sorry, Thanks, St. Nicks, and Breaking Upwards, all films that will play at SXSW next month. The True/False Film Festival unwrapped its lineup of more than 40 docs, which will play at the fest in Columbus Columbia *, Missouri, from February 26-March 1. A.J. Schnack notes that 39 (!) screenings sold out within a few hours of tickets going on sale.
After the jump: More on festivals in Portland, Oregon, and Berlin, Germany.
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