FiveMinutesOfHeaven Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Deals. Ahead of the Toronto film festival, distributors are firming up their release schedules for the next few weeks, which means acquisitions a-plenty are being announced. Our friends at indieWIRE have posted details in the last seven days about Police, Adjective (IFC, release next year, after playing at the Toronto and New York film festivals); Trucker (Monterey Media, October 9); Black Dynamite (Apparition, October 16); and Vincere (IFC, no release date yet, will also play at the Toronto and New York fests).

Online / On-Demand Viewing. Starting this week, Scott Hamilton Kennedy's Our Town will be available at iTunes. Kennedy is a skilled documentary filmmaker whose most recent work, The Garden, was nominated for an Academy Award and was recently released on DVD and online. So this is a great time to catch up with Mr. Kennedy. Our Town follows a high school in Compton, California that hasn't staged a play in more than 20 years. Then they decide to put on their version of the venerable Thornton Wilder classic.

Looking ahead to next week, Tickling Leo, described as a family drama about the modern-day aftermath of the Holocaust, will open in theaters on September 4, and will simultaneously be available on Amazon VOD. More and more I'm getting accustomed to this idea of simultaneous release online and in theaters, and more and more I like the increased options for viewing, especially as head into the busy fall season (see more comments on this subject below).

Better than Basterds? Indie Weekend Box Office, after the jump.

By Scott Weinberg (reprint from Sundance Film Festival 2009)

The latest film from Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel is a simple, straightforward, and very sincere story that covers some rather fascinating issues: The cyclical nature of violence, the difficulties inherent in forgiveness, and the importance of being able to defeat tragedy and go on to live a happy life. If it sounds like a dark and slightly depressing story to hear, well that's the good news. For all its stark honesty and confrontational emotions, the messages found in Five Minutes of Heaven are refreshingly humane and hopeful.

We open in mid-'70s Belfast, and a very young Alistair Little is about to commit a heinous act. Fueled by streetwise fury and a need to prove himself, Alistair assassinates another young man, leaving his little brother as the horrified witness to the act. Poor Joe Griffen has just began a cycle of tragedy that would defeat most people: Dead brother, accusing mother, heartbroken father ... one act of horrible violence leads to a ripple effect that virtually destroys Joe's life.

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....

The Marc Pease Experience (pictured) is a comedy, allegedly, about a former high school musical star trying to recapture his glory, several years later, by teaming up with his old director, who still teaches at the school and is sleeping with one of his female students. Jason Schwartzman, Ben Stiller, and Anna Kendrick star -- and so far every review is negative. (Cinematical's Will Goss has a review on the way, and he tells me it will be no exception.) Playing on about a dozen screens, not in New York or L.A. but Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Tampa, Phoenix, Philadelphia, etc.

Casi Divas comes to us from Mexico and is a quasi-satire about four young women competing to star in a film adaptation of a popular TV soap opera. The indication from the lukewarm reviews is that Hispanic audiences with some connection to the stereotypical Latina characters on display might find it funny, but it won't have much crossover appeal. Playing on a couple dozen screens in New York, Southern California, and South Florida.

Do not be confused by the title of the film Five Minutes of Heaven, as it does not refer to the game you played as a middle-schooler where a boy and girl were chosen at random and locked in a closet together. (I believe that was "Seven Minutes in Heaven.") Five Minutes of Heaven is, rather, a thriller from the U.K. in which a man confronts the guy who killed his brother many years ago. James Nesbitt plays the bereaved, and Liam Neeson plays the killer.

The film debuted at Sundance this year, where it won awards for its director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, and screenwriter, Guy Hibbert. Cinematical's Scott Weinberg gave it a rave review, saying it's "bolstered by a smart, insightful screenplay, directed with low-key style and restraint, and supported by two fantastic performances." Hirschbiegel's last film was the Nicole Kidman flop The Invasion, but before that he made the Oscar-nominated Downfall, about the final days of Hitler.

Five Minutes of Heaven opens in New York this Friday and is already available on demand through the IFC in Theaters program on some cable and satellite providers. Check out the full version of the poster below.

The key players from the indie film world will be gathered together in Cannes for the next 10 days. Look for our daily roundups of news each night, titled "Cannes in 60 Seconds." But first, what's been happening during the past week?

Deals. Oliver Hirschbiegel's drama Five Minutes of Heaven, starring Liam Neeson, has been acquired by IFC Films, according to indieWIRE. IFC will release the film, which "explores aspects of Northern Ireland's 'Troubles,'" simultaneously in theaters and VOD in August. Michael Meredith's drama The Open Road has been picked up by Anchor Bay, again per indieWIRE. Justin (Motherlover) Timberlake stars as a man who tries to effect a reconciliation between his dying mother (Mary Steenburgen) and his estranged father (Jeff Bridges). Release plans have not yet been announced. I Love You Phillip Morris, a gay con man prison romance, has secured distribution via the fledgling Consolidated Pictures Group, says Variety. The picture stars Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor. A release is planned for next Valentine's Day.

Box Office. While mainstream audiences trekked into theaters, indie film lovers divided up their love, resulting in less than stellar results for new releases. We've embedded the trailer below for Outrage, Kirby Dick's new doc, which inspired hypocrisy by NPR; it made $6,518 per-screen at five locations. Little Ashes, with gay love scenes by Twilight's Robert Pattinson, averaged $6,116 per-screen at 12 theaters. Julia, featuring Tilda Swinton's extraordinary performance, took in $4,175 per-screen at three cinemas. Jim Jarmusch's excellent, exquisite The Limits of Control expanded into eight more theaters and grossed $4,153 per screen, a drop of just 18.2%. [Box Office Mojo.]

After the jump: Festival heads talk about the future; AFI Fest in Los Angeles will be (almost entirely) free.

The latest film from Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel is a simple, straightforward, and very sincere story that covers some rather fascinating issues: The cyclical nature of violence, the difficulties inherent in forgiveness, and the importance of being able to defeat tragedy and go on to live a happy life. If it sounds like a dark and slightly depressing story to hear, well that's the good news. For all its stark honesty and confrontational emotions, the messages found in Five Minutes of Heaven are refreshingly humane and hopeful.

We open in mid-'70s Belfast, and a very young Alistair Little is about to commit a heinous act. Fueled by streetwise fury and a need to prove himself, Alistair assassinates another young man, leaving his little brother as the horrified witness to the act. Poor Joe Griffen has just began a cycle of tragedy that would defeat most people: Dead brother, accusing mother, heartbroken father ... one act of horrible violence leads to a ripple effect that virtually destroys Joe's life.

The part of me that loves strange premises is having daydreams of Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt (Match Point) getting to grab each other's hands, giggly with giddy glee, whilst running off for five minutes of heaven in some closet somewhere. Sure, it should be seven minutes, but still, this title makes me think of teenage forays into kissing, not the serious themes that it's actually about.

Variety reports that both actors have signed on for a new film called Five Minutes of Heaven, and it's about the troubles in Northern Ireland -- not exactly prepubescent romantic fare. Under the eye of director Oliver Hirschbiegel (The Invasion), the film focuses on "two men wracked by the violence that plagued Northern Ireland from the late 1960s through to the peace process in 1998, and how they attempt to come to terms with the Troubles' aftermath."

The project is currently filming on location in Northern Ireland.