DearZachary Tagged Articles at Cinematical

I know that Scott has already sung the praises of this film back when he saw it at Sundance, but last week, I finally got to see The Cove for myself and found it to be every bit as emotional and riveting an experience as described by not only him, but colleague after colleague. In a summer season as packed with action as any other, it was this documentary that stood out as one of the more tense and touching films of the year, and the only thing that's probably keeping any of you who can see The Cove from rushing out to do so is its subject matter...

Because The Cove is kinda sorta about dolphin slaughter.

While zoning out during the baseball game last night, a random thought popped into my head: "Ya know, I don't think I'd ever watch Atonement again." Don't ask me where these stupid random thoughts come from, or why I was thinking about Atonement when it wasn't on TV or anything, but the thought came from somewhere and so I began to pursue it a little. The end result came in the form of a question I posed on Twitter: Name some great movies that for some reason or another you wouldn't watch more than once.

I thought Atonement was a good film; I really enjoyed it. But I have no need to watch it again ... just because. A whole bunch of people responded to my Twitter question (thanks everyone!), and a pretty big majority of them went with Requiem for a Dream, which I completely understand. (I love you Jennifer Connelly, but you're a freaky mess in this flick.) Some other films mentioned include The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Irreversible, Dear Zachary, United 93, Citizen Kane, Leaving Las Vegas, Beauty and the Beast, Battleship Potemkin, Monster, Se7en, High Fidelity and The Machinist.

Now it's your turn: Give us a great film you won't watch more than once, and why.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
Devastating, haunting, infuriating, and shamelessly manipulative: Kurt Kuenne's film about his murdered friend Andrew Bagby is all of those things and more. Erik Davis described it as "a film that will rock you to your core. You will cry. You will hurt -- and the flick will sit with you for days, weeks, months. But you will come away believing in people." After the film aired on MSNBC in December, we received dozens of comments, to which director Kuenne responded with appreciation. The DVD includes deleted scenes and additional footage as well as other extra features. Buy it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon. | Read Erik's review. | Watch trailer.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley
Mickey Liddell's would-be horror flick is not, in fact, haunting; most often it's simply a series of regurgitated SHOCK cuts accompanied by LOUD music cues. Eric D. Snider called it a "lame, tame psychological thriller ... I've read fortune cookies that were scarier, not to mention smarter and more interesting." Skip it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon. | Read Eric's review.

Sex Drive
A teen comedy featuring a Mexican donut. "It's like The Sure Thing crossed with Road Trip" and five or six other movies, according to William Goss. "Is this the best modern teen comedies have to offer? A Mexican donut costume?" Skip it.

Add to Netflix queue. | Buy at Amazon. | Read William's review.

Also out: Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder.

After the jump: Indies on DVD and Collector's Corner. Plus: Is William Friedkin's rejiggered view of The French Connection on Blu-ray an artistic leap forward or a desecration of a classic?

"Oh, good grief, it's Oscar."
--Lucille Bluth, "Arrested Development"

(The following post is written to the tune of Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler," which was not among those nominated for Best Original Song when the 81st Academy Award nominations were announced earlier today.)

Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free?
We'd call 'em by another name, the Academy
Have you ever seen a piece of pap that they all wouldn't eat?
If you've ever seen that Crash, then you'd agree.

Then you'd agree, The Dark Knight should've had more of a shot
Then you'd agree, Gran Torino deserved to go home with naught
Then you'd agree, I'm struggling to come up with just one more bon mot
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
We sure as hell would've asked for a whole lot more

Couldn't Let the Right One In have been recognized outside of Foreign?
If they'd even seen that movie, then they'd agree
Didn't The Reader leave most of these guys snorin'?
If they'd stayed up for this movie, then they'd agree

Then you'd agree, Dear Zachary... shouldn't have been snubbed from the start
Then you'd agree, The Fall was a tremendous work of art (direction)
Then you'd agree, they left off Gommorah too, old fart after old fart
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
We really would've asked for a whole lot more

Those nods that have comforted me, I drive away
For all of Milk's attention, I just cannot feel gay
The snubs here and there have caused far too much dismay

Have you ever seen a year where AMPAS actually got it right?
I'll plan to watch something else that February night...

Talk all you want about Sundance, but some of my favorite films often come out of the Slamdance Film Festival, Sundance's illegitimate dorky little half-cousin. While Sundance features clean, glamorous "message movies" starring people you're very familiar with, Slamdance films are a little rough around the edges; cultish with a touch of fanboyish flavor. Oh, and their docs are always very good. Last year saw Dear Zachary come out of Slamdance, and the year before was The King of Kong. One of the docs entering the 2009 Slamdance Film Fest with a little buzz behind it is Zombie Girl: The Movie, a doc about a 12-year-old girl who attempts to make her own feature-length zombie flick. Not only is it ridiculously hard to make your own feature-length film on a shoestring budget (I know from experience), but imagine if it was a horror movie ... and you were 12. Check out the trailer below, and learn more about Zombie Girl: The Movie over on its official website.




Check out the Spooner trailer after the jump ...

One might chalk up a reluctance to cry at the movies to having sat through roughly four hundred of them a year and grown numb to the more melodramatic efforts. And yet I can't say that I've ever been given much cause to shed tears in the theater or at home, even from the earliest years of my moviegoing. I'd be willing to admit it -- heck, I believe that I'm just about to -- but I've just never been one to end up wiping at my cheeks when the lights come up, and yet more and more often, I find myself wondering: Why not?

Are the filmmakers to blame for failing in other respects to elicit tears for these characters and the fates they face? Sometimes. Am I to blame for coming in on guard, waiting for a film to get at me and maybe throwing up some hurdles along the way if there's no lack of trying? Perhaps. Isn't it acceptable to feel something without showing it, and to do so without being labeled a callous bastard? You better believe it.

I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed reading all your comments today following the television debut of Dear Zachary last night, and I'm happy to say someone else has been reading them too. Here now with a special message for Cinematical readers is Dear Zachary director Kurt Kuenne:

"Thank you SO much to everyone who took the time to watch "Dear Zachary" on MSNBC last night and for all the incredibly supportive, passionate comments they've been leaving on the site. The support means the world to us. And we encourage you to share your feelings about what happened with the government of Canada; if this movie affected you and you want to see things change to prevent a recurrence in the future, they're not going to know unless you tell them. That's the greatest thing anyone can do to honor Andrew & Zachary's memory. Information on who to write to can be found at www.dearzachary.com/bailreform. (I saw one viewer comment saying that they couldn't get on the website yesterday; it's working fine, we just had some overload with all the traffic from yesterday's show, but it should be fine now.) It shows again on MSNBC this Sunday, December 14th at 4 PM EST, and will likely be re-broadcast again on MSNBC very soon after, so please feel free to tell anyone you know. (Also feel free to tell MSNBC you'd like them to show it again. :) The DVD is being released on February 10th and can be pre-ordered on Amazon. Thank you so much to the Cinematical community for all your tremendous support during this entire year. I can't tell you how much it means to both myself and Andrew's parents."

Ever since we began championing the fantastic documentary Dear Zachary earlier this year, several of you have written in wanting to know where and when you can see it for yourselves. Well, cancel plans for tonight because the flick will air on MSNBC later this evening at 9pm EST, and will be shown again at midnight EST. That time adjusts for the other time zones, so my advice is to look it up on your cable guide to get the exact time it's airing in your neck of the woods. Here's what some folks have said about Dear Zachary:

"One of the best documentaries I have ever seen in my entire life... a film that will rock you to your core. You will cry. You will hurt – and this film will sit with you for days, weeks, months. But you will come away believing in people. Believing that even where there is evil, there is also a tremendous amount of good." - Erik Davis, Cinematical.com

"Before all else, there's Dear Zachary, documentarian Kurt Kuenne's shockingly intimate account of his road trip a few years ago, after his childhood friend, Andrew Bagby, was shot under mysterious circumstances in 2001. Excuse the hyperbole, but Dear Zachary is one of the most alarmingly forceful documentaries in years." - Eric Kohn, IndieWire.com

"This documentary will rip out your heart and leave you in the snow without a sweater. But afterwards, all wounded and broken down, you will see the power of the human spirit even in the face of the darkest of souls." - Sarah Diamond, director of programming, Slamdance Film Festival

"...The talk of Slamdance... Dear Zachary is, above all, a virtuoso feat in editing, and Kuenne uses the material at his disposal to devastating effect... it's impossible not to feel emotionally exhausted." - Peter Debruge, Variety

Check out the trailer after the jump. MSNBC. Tonight. Watch it.

There's a reason that us critics tend to hold certain films in excessive regard -- because after seeing hundreds and hundreds of them every year, to champion one or two or a dozen across those fifty-two weeks is a chance to bring attention to something that deserves it, something distinctly non-mediocre and perhaps unconventional.

Dear Zachary: a letter to a son about his father falls into that category. Erik praised it effusively from its Slamdance premiere and beyond; soon joining his ranks would be Monika; and it currently lingers second to only one on my own tentative top ten list for 2008. We get it. According to Rotten Tomatoes, 33 out of 34 critics get it. In fact, it seems like the only ones who don't get it just happen to make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The Halloween weekend scared up frighteningly weak numbers for bigger studio releases. How did independent films fare?

Winners:
1. My Name is Bruce (Image)
2. Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom (Logo)
3. Religulous (Lionsgate)

Let's hear it for Bruuuuce! (Not, not Springsteen.) Ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous Bruce Campbell debuted at the top of the heap among limited releases, with a per-screen average of $18,800, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Opening at one theater in New York, My Name is Bruce features Campbell as both star and director. Campbell's site lists upcoming screenings and appearances by The Man Himself.

Romantic comedy Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom fared well in its second week of release, making an estimated $14,820 per screen, representing a normal drop of 50%. Are there enough loyal fans of the Logo TV series out there to support a wider release? It will expand to Detroit, Houston, San Francisco, Palm Springs, and Ocean, New Jersey on Friday; the official site has complete theater information.

Now in its fifth week, Religulous continues to draw audiences eager to see Bill Maher's take on organized religion. Earning $1,358 per screen, the film has grossed $11,452,000 so far; it recently became the highest-grossing doc of the year and is among the top 10 highest-grossing docs of all time, according to Docsider.

Not Winners / Indie Horror Scorecard:
1. Dear Zachary (Oscilloscope)
2. Splinter (Magnolia)
3. Eden Lake (Third Rail)

Despite our editor-in-chief's highest recommendation, Dear Zachary only made $2,800 at its single engagement. Perhaps word-of-mouth will build? That's still better than highly-regarded horror pic, Splinter, which managed only $2,200 each at four theaters (per Leonard Klady), or well-reviewed Brit thriller Eden Lake, which got dumped by the Weinsteins onto their loss-leader distribution arm Third Rail Releasing and drew just $550 per screen at 10 theaters.