Before the rain pooed on my parade and the poo rained on my parade at the Independent Spirit Awards Saturday, I had a pretty great time. The highlight for me was being "on set" for a series of interviews between Martin Short's Jiminy Glick and various celebs. I was just tipped off by the good folks at Netflix that those conversations have hit youtube, and if you're a fan of the character, you may want to check them out. Here's Jiminy with Matt Dillon, with a never foxier Illeana Douglas, with the always youthful Dennis Hopper (an interview that opens with a depantsing), with Ed Begley, Jr, with Juno director Jason Reitman and his father Ivan, with Aaron Eckhart, with John Waters, and with Allison Janney. They could all stand to be edited down a bit, but there's a lot of good stuff in there. If I had to direct you to the funniest couple of discussions, I'd recommend the Illeana Douglas and the Ed Begley, Jr, which contains graphic mouth-to-mouth.

I intended to run a live blog from the show, but the internet connection went out -- one of the dangers of doing a live show from a tent in the rain! I did get to see some cool people up close and personal. Philip Seymour Hoffman (a winner for Best Male Lead) charmed the little press room in a fun Q & A with Savages writer/director Tamara Jenkins (a winner for Best Screenplay) and it was a thrill to meet Scott Frank, a screenwriter I truly admire. He won Best First Feature for The Lookout, one of my favorite 2007 films. I always question what they deem "independent," but I do appreciate that the Indie Spirits have special honors -- like the John Cassavetes Award -- to honor the truly independent and low-budget films each year. Did anyone watch the broadcast? I know it's not the biggest awards show of the year (or even the weekend), but the show was really entertaining. Have favorite moments or disagreements with the winners?

Cinematical is live at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards! Our own Patrick Walsh will report back throughout the afternoon.

It is officially raining, and the big-time stars are rolling out. Javier Bardem is looking very dapper, I'm pretty sure I just saw indie favorite The Rock (?), and crowd just collectively spazzed out over Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I was just interviewed (insulted) by Jiminy Glick on Good Morning America so watch for that, though I'm not sure how much of it they'll be able to use. The discussion culminated with him dumping a barrel of popcorn on himself. Some quality journalism there! Seriously, I can't quite convey how funny Martin Short has been here today. Favorite line -- "I have lost weight, I'm doing Atkins. Not the diet, his widow."

Raining has given way to pouring, and the red carpet is looking soggy and bare. It's ten minutes to showtime and I'm about to head under the big tent for the show. I'll do my best to update you on the winners as they happen, and if you get the Independent Film Channel you can join in the Rainn Wilson-hosted fun live. My thanks to Netflix for setting up this sweet little blogging suite for me, and as an active subscriber, I don't even have to feel like a shameless whore saying that. Sorry for the rambling nature of these posts, but it's been pretty hectic...

For more photos and coverage, head on over to Moviefone.

Cinematical is live at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards! Our own Patrick Walsh will report back throughout the afternoon.

Just saw Forest Whitaker and his gorgeous wife, Jason Bateman and his gorgeous hair, and Julian Schnabel in what appeared to be pajamas. Now Illeana Douglas is telling Jiminy Glick how she "blew Lew Wasserman at age thirteen" to make it in the business. It's that kind of day. The crowd is screaming at a limo, it might be Angelina Jolie time, unless they're smuggling her in by underground tunnel. Oh snap, Steve Buscemi is here. That dude is one of my all time favorites, I'm going to go grab a photo or two.

Alright, now Glick is telling Mr. Pink how he'd "like to mount" Sienna Miller, a nominee today for Buscemi's Interview. Buscemi is talking about his heroes ("Robert Altman and John Cassavetes") and a production company he's starting with Stanley Tucci so they can make movies with their friends. He's been interrupted by the crowd chanting "Meg! Meg! Meg!" Yes, it's Meg Ryan. Not sure how she's involved with independent film, but always nice to see familiar face-lifts. Sorry, Jiminy's rubbing off on me. It's getting cold, and the skies remain foreboding. The Santa Monica pier amusement park rises bold and stark. Kids are huddled on the beach in the mist. I want to die with you Wendy on the street tonight in an everlasting kiss...

For more photos and coverage, head on over to Moviefone.

Cinematical is live at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards! Our own Patrick Walsh will report back throughout the afternoon.

Jiminy Glick just wrapped up a graphic conversation with indie legend John Waters and now he is asking Maria Bello what it's like to show her "down there hair" on camera. Oh wow, now he's humping her. Now he's asking Allison Janney if Juno is a film about people who won't tolerate Jews. "Jew? No!" The man is insane. He's interviewing The Office's Rainn Wilson now, who's looking mighty unkempt and unshaven considering he's hosting the show. And now the two are engaged in a huge pillow fight. There's Dennis Hopper! What does Jiminy ask a legend like this? "Why do men have nipples if they're not supposed to breast feed their pets?" Of course.

He just told Matt Dillon he was excellent as Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, and followed that up with a rave about his work in Saving Private Ryan. Dillon was in neither film. The red carpet is heating up, I just saw Kate Beckinsale, Tom Wilkinson, and now Aaron Eckhart -- who is discussing Mormonism with Jiminy. And now the skies have turned an unsettling gray, the winds are picking up, and I have a feeling a lot of expensive dresses are about to get destroyed. I'm gonna take shelter, but I'll be back.

For more photos and coverage, head on over to Moviefone.

Cinematical is live at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards! Our own Patrick Walsh will report back throughout the afternoon.

I'm coming to you live from the Independent Spirit Awards on the beach in Santa Monica, California. It's been raining here in the Los Angeles area for days, but the sun is out this afternoon, and so are the stars! The awards don't start for a few hours, but I just saw the hilarious Whitest Kids U Know gang, who have a sketch show on the Independent Film Channel you should really be watching. Jason Reitman -- a nominee for Juno, though I just overheard him say he thinks the award will go to Julian Schnabel -- is making the handshake rounds. And one of my favorite comedy characters, Jiminy Glick (Martin Short), just brutally mocked me.

Mr. Glick told me that were this 28 years ago, my jacket would have been very fashionable. He told me "blogging" is contributing to the decline of culture and I should be ashamed of myself. He told me I looked like all of the character actors from the old Preston Sturges movies rolled into one. And I loved every minute of it. Being insulted by Jiminy Glick is something everyone should experience. He's currently interviewing the head of content at Netflix and is asking him if you can get pornography on the site. Jiminy's favorite films? Something Liquid This Way Comes and Bang the Bum Slowly. I'll be hanging here just off the red carpet, doing some snooping and snapping some photos. More to come...

Check out the gallery below for our pics from the Netflix tent. More coming ...

Although I regretfully missed it when the film premiered last May at the Tribeca Film Festival, The Hollywood Reporter tells us that IFC has picked up Alex Holdridge's In Search of a Midnight Kiss which they'll release through their IFC First Take day-and-date program at some point next year. The romantic comedy centers on Wilson (Scoot McNairy) who, after suffering through the worst year of his life, decides to put a personal ad on Craigslist and winds up spending New Years Eve with a girl (Sara Simmonds) searching for the right man to kiss at midnight.

I had seen Holdridge's 2003 film Sexless back when it was touring the festival circuit, and thought it had a lot of potential for an extremely low-budget flick. When I missed Midnight Kiss at Tribeca, my good friend Aaron, who helps manage the film division over at Gen Art, tortured me for weeks. He absolutely adores this film, and so when I asked him for a quote he replied with the following: "Midnight Kiss is both beautiful and raw at the same time. So rarely do you see a movie that flows from moments of hilarity to compassion, then back again without missing a beat. It's easy to see why; director Alex Holdridge and his close-knit crew of actors truly care about the story being told, and this one will stick with me for a long time..." This comes from a guy who's job it is to watch hundreds upon hundreds of indie films each year. If he digs it (and he most certainly does), then I'm sure you will too. Keep an eye out for this; In Search of a Midnight Kiss ... arriving in theaters and in your living room (on the same day!) next year.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, IFC Films is going to release two new star-driven movies in theaters and On Demand on the same day. The films will be released by First Take, the "day-and-date" division of IFC. Previous attempts at day-and-date films have been extremely controversial with theater owners, who often refuse to book the movies, claiming, perhaps rightfully so, "Why would anyone leave the house and come to our theater if they can get the movie in the comfort of their own home?" Currently, Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban's Landmark Theaters are one of the few chains who will book day-and-date films, and even have their own day-and-date program, Sneak Preview. I'll stop saying day-and-date, I promise. You can read genius Cinematical writer Patrick Walsh's report on Steven Soderbergh's adventures with the distribution practice here, and Ryan's interview with Cuban right here.

What are the two new films? The crime drama Savage Grace, directed by Tom Kalin (his first feature-length film since 1992's Leopold and Loeb story Swoon) stars Julianne Moore and Hugh Dancy. Grace tells the "true story of socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland's 1972 murder," and was a $5 million production. Finishing the Game, a Bruce Lee mockumentary, was directed by Justin Lin (the very cool Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast and the Furious 2: Tokyo Drift). Game features cameos by James Franco and...uh...MC Hammer (how'd they get Hammer to sign on? Offer him a hot meal?), and "imagines the recasting of Lee's final role in Game of Death before filming was completed." You can read Scott's generally positive Sundance review of Death here. Grace will premiere in theaters and on IFC next year; Death next month.

Good news for fans of Icelandic cinema: IFC has picked up the cop thriller Jar City in what is apparently the first buy of this year's Toronto International Film Festival. (Variety calls it the "first official buy"; The Hollywood Reporter calls it "one of the first sales." The point is, the fest only started yesterday and already the cash registers are ka-chinging.)

Peter Martin told us last week about the film's fast-rising profile. It's Iceland's highest-grossing film of all time, and it won the Grand Prix competition at the Karlovy Vary fest in July. It picked up more steam when it played at Telluride last week. Based on a novel, it is the fourth film from writer/director Baltasar Kormakur, and the fourth to play at Toronto. I saw (and adored) his first two, 101 Reykjavik and The Sea; the third one, A Little Trip to Heaven, which I have not seen, was filmed in English and starred Forest Whitaker and Julia Stiles.

Kormakur returns to his native tongue in Jar City, which focuses on two connected plots. In one, a man tries to determine how his daughter could have contracted a rare genetic disease that no one in his family has ever had; in the other, a cop looks for a murderer. They cross paths; mysteries unfold; thrillarity ensues. IFC's First Take division will distribute the film theatrically in North America. No word yet on when that will be, or how much IFC paid for it.

I've been scouring the web lately looking for films available online. I think we're going to see more and more indie filmmakers using the internet as a means of at least initial distrib for their films -- a way to get their films noticed, to get grass-root support and word-of-mouth-buzz going, even to sell their film and maybe pay off some of those credit card bills.

Even if a film gets accepted on the fest circuit, getting it sold, and ever making money off it, is such a crap shoot, that more and more filmmakers are taking advantage of the ability to self-distrib their own films.
But are they any good? Here are some films you can see online right here, right now, and see for yourself what's out there ...

Maxed Out -- This feature-length doc explores the economics of credit and how and why so many Americans have over-extended themselves financially in their quest to have bigger and bigger houses and more stuff to fill them. Particulary scary? The revelation of the extent to which the major banks are involved in the highly profitable business of payday loans -- preying on the poor with high interest rates in the name of profit. If you, like a lot of folks, are thinking of buying more home than you can reasonably afford with one of those nifty loans that seem like such a good deal, watch this first.

Summer Shorts Online -- If you just can't get enough short films until the next film fest, never fear. IFC and Rooftop Films have partnered to keep your summer hot, hot hot with a new short film going up every day in their Summer Shorts Online program! Up for August so far: Monkey Versus Robot, a bizarre little music video, and a special treat: Take My Life, a new (at least I assume new) short by Kelly Oliver and Keary Rosen, who previously had another short, First Firing, in the "Welcome to Normal" program in April's New York Underground Film Festival. Reverse Shot had this to say about First Firing: " ... a play of associative and rhyming terms rattled off in British deadpan over some matching and non-matching images that's fun and strangely inspiring, especially if you, like me, enjoy words." That pretty much sums up Take My Life as well, so if you're into spoken word and/or experimental film, check it out.

Don't overlook the entries for June and July while you're there (don't miss Nutria, a short about the battle to eradicate a species of water rat that's taken over the Louisiana wetlands ... you'll never look at rats the same way again once you see one of these suckers -- they look like they could take on NYC sewer rats and come out on top) ... heck, invite your favorite cinephile over, order in some pizza, toss up a nice caesar salad and serve it all up with a bottle of decent-ish wine. Then dim the lights fire up your trusty laptop, and snuggle up on your secondhand couch for your own private shorts fest -- it's a perfect cheap date night.

If you're feeling a little more socially conscious, mosey on over to the Media that Matters Short Film Festival, where you can check out a wide array of shorts on social issues, many of them made by filmmakers under 21. It's a great way to see the next generation of filmmakers while getting educated about some important issues. For your convenience, the site even has the films broken down by category, so if you're in the mood to see films on, say, family and society, you can click on that and you'll find a list of films to check out including A Girl Like Me, about "African-American women struggling to define themselves," All That I Can Be, about a young man choosing the military as a means of making a better life for himself, and As We Sleep, the story of a young woman in a long-term care facility who was abused by her caregiver. Other categories include Gay and Lesbian, Criminal Justice, Economic Justice, Environment, Gender/Women, Health/Health Advocacy, Religous Freedom and more. Who knows? The next generation's Michael Moore may have his or her film on this site right now ... and years from now, you can say you saw the first film they made.

AOLs True Stories continues to bring you some great documentaries online. They still have Summercamp! up, and you can also catch Operation Dreamland -- both these films can be viewed in their entirety -- and there's a whole list of docs you can watch previews and trailers for as well.

Last but not least for this round-up, if you still haven't caught Four Eyed Monsters online in spite of our repeatedly telling you how great it is, never fear, you still have time to catch it over on YouTube. If you like what you see and want a higher quality DVD that you can watch over and over again, you can order the DVD from the Four Eyed Monsters website.

It's been a busy week for distributors buying the rights to independent films. One reason is Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF), which is taking place right now, but films from other fests this year are also landing theatrical release. I'm especially pleased about the first film on this list since it's one I've seen and enjoyed.

• Hannah Takes the Stairs, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year, has been picked up by IFC First Take for theatrical release. Hannah is Chicago filmmaker Joe Swanberg's third feature. The film has a large ensemble cast including Greta Gerwig, Kent Osbourne, Mark Duplass and Andrew Bujalski. The SXSW premiere triggered discussions about a potential new filmmaking movement called Mumblecore. The film will be released in theaters starting on August 22. First Take is IFC's day-and-date distribution program, so expect to see the film on cable soon too.
• The Cinema Guild obtained U.S. distribution rights to the German film Yella, which premiered at Berlinale earlier this year. Nina Hoss won a Silver Bear for Best Actress in this thriller. Erik Davis's review has convinced me to see this film when it opens here: "Like a drug, Yella slowly creeps on you long after the end credits roll, takes hold of your body and doesn't let go until you're convinced it was one of the best films this year's Berlinale had to offer." Look for Yella to open in theaters later this year.

News bites for the day before Friday:

• IESB has shared a juicy little rumor concerning the next Incredible Hulk installation. According to one of their readers who has an in at CW -- Peter Gallagher, whose OC series is just about to wrap, has been up for a part in the next installment. According to the source, his shooting schedule had to be juggled to include some sort of test for the movie. Could he be one of the villains (The Abomination or Thunderbolt Ross)? Or, is there a chance he'll take over the infamous man-that-turns-green himself? While he's a much different pick for the part of Bruce Banner, I'm a bit intrigued by the thought.
• Oldboy director Park Chan-Wook's latest film, I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK, is going places. After its first non-Korean screening at the Berlin Film Fest, it won the Alfred Bauer prize for innovative film-making and our Erik Davis gave it high marks in his review. Now, the movie has been chosen to close the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin on March 17. If you're curious for more, I shared the color-intense, quirky trailer in November.
• With each passing day, iTunes seems to do more to make itself irresistible -- not only to music fiends, but avid moviegoers as well. Since January, we've brought you news of their deal with Paramount, then Sundance Shorts and finally, Lionsgate. To further their involvement in film, iTunes has partnered with IFC Entertainment to offer a selection of indie films in their store. The selection will include their 2007 Independent Spirit Award nominees and previous noms such as Me and You and Everyone We Know -- for the low-low-low price of $9.99! Or not. (Is it just me, or is that a bit high for an iPod-quality video, when you could pay similar for a previously viewed DVD?) Thanks to tuaw for the news.
  

Close to Home is a film about love, friendship and policing a large population of Arabs. It centers on a group of young, naive female Israeli Army border guards who seek out companionship where they can while trying to do a good job and escape the icy stare of their hardened commander, Dubek (an entirely convincing Irit Suki.) Looking very much like the Israeli cousins of Claire Forlani and Selma Blair, the two leads are Mirit (Neama Schendar) and Smadar (Smadar Sayar.) Their days consist of smoking, talking, and dishing out petty humiliations like ID checks and bag dumps, all the while being watched by an upper tier of scowling superiors who have seen the worst that can come of such routine interactions. While the girls can handle the onrush of foot traffic that begins every morning and continues throughout the day, many of them clearly lack the physical wherewithal to overpower the problem suspects that occasionally come along. The film's most intriguing moments come when we see several members of the exclusively female guard unit swarming around a solitary Arab who goes off script

Although one of the recurring themes is self-doubt among the Israeli rank and file, Close to Home is aggressively self-aware in terms of its political shadings; each happening that could be perceived as casting an anti-Israeli light is blocked near another event that seems to reinforce the no-nonsense attitude of the grizzled veterans in the bunch. For better or worse, co-directors Vardit Bilu and Dalia Hagar have manipulated the plot so as to place the 'job' the girls do mostly in the background and focus on building a relationship drama between the two principals. Smadar is introduced to us first, conducting a point-by-point inspection of a Palestinian woman in a curtained booth as small as a fitting room. When a fellow inspector suddenly suffers a mini-breakdown on the scene, due to her own misgivings about the validity of the invasive, humiliating search process, Smadar just watches dispassionately. Mirit is closer in spirit to the broken-down recruit; she suffers from serious reservations about her service, but prefers escapism over conscientious objection.

Do you remember when MTV used to be completely centered around music and music videos? While other kids were watching cartoons, I'd slide out of bed and spend my Saturday with Toni Basil and memorizing the dance moves to Thriller. And then bit by bit, the station aired less and less music-related programming. Now it seems that IFC is following suit in the film world, and we'll be losing some of the home movie experience and narrowing the available space for independent film on television.

Obviously, other movie networks have found great success in steering away from movie-dominated programming and opening the lines up for adult shows. However, it seems less silly coming from something like "HBO" or "Showtime." IFC stands for Independent FILM Channel, so it's a bit harder to move away from the film aspect of the title, just like music and MTV. VP/general manager Evan Shapiro has said that the new television shows "are like true indie films." However, at the same time, he's also notes that this is the "first step toward untethering ourselves from just a film-centric focus." To me that sounds like the powers that be at IFC are sick of having a programming schedule full of film.

These things seem to move like clockwork, so it shouldn't be hard to determine the fate of IFC. These new shows will be the first step. Less independent fare will be shown until it becomes a big deal for the Independent Film Channel to air an independent film. Perhaps they will also come up with new words to associate with their abbreviation -- maybe the In Focus Channel? Anything that isn't blurry will be fair game! That's being petty, but is it too much to ask that if someone creates a great niche channel, especially about cinema, that they stick to it?

Kimmy V. and I saw Jonathan King's Black Sheep at a rather raucous and enthusiastic midnight screening during last September's Toronto Film Festival, and we were both pretty sure that the comedy/horror confection would be purchased by the end of the week. Well, it took a little longer than that, but IFC and Los Weinsteins both enjoyed the flick enough to invest some cash in it.

Now comes an all-new trailer for Black Sheep, and trust me on this: If the trailer does nothing for you, then you probably won't like the movie. If, on the other hand, the trailer had you chuckling a little, odds are you'll have a good time with King's "sheep gone psycho" exploits. The New Zealand import opens in its native land on March 22, and I've no idea when IFC plans to release it in North America, but since the Weinsteins have DVD rights for Black Sheep, expect some sort of theatrical release this year. (Probably fairly limited.)

Ah, and in case you forgot: Black Sheep is about a scientific experiment gone horribly wrong, a massive flock of rabidly infected quadripeds, and some well-intentioned (but stupid) hippie-types who end up as sheep zombie mega-monsters. It's all very insane, trust me.

Fresh off a pretty respectable performance in Hollywoodland, Kathleen Robertson has signed to star in the indie-thriller Player 5150. Robertson has climbed her way up from being a bad girl on Beverley Hills, 90210, through some regrettable film choices, but has managed to make successively better films each time out. Robertson also produces and stars in The Business for IFC, so there's no denying that she has come a long way from when I first saw her tempting Brandon Walsh, college man -- yeah, I watched way too much 90210 back then.

Variety announced that Robertson had signed on to the David Michael O'Neill film currently shooting in Los Angeles. The film follows a day trader and his fiancée who get caught up in high stakes gambling. The film also star's Ethan Embry -- who you might recognize from Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, or maybe from reports of the actor being robbed at gunpoint and even waving around a gun of his own. Who knows? The news of the actor firing a gun at muggers might even give the movie a little boost of press. There is no word of release date but one of the many blessings of independent productions is that they tend to run a pretty tight ship, so we probably won't have to wait long to find out.

[via Empire Online]