"If a film fell in the multiplex, and no one was there to see it..."

Limited release: such a simple phrase, and yet two words that all but indicate to a majority of moviegoers that whatever it is they want to see may or may not escape the confines of a NY/LA run before the film in question comes to them by way of Netflix mere months later.

Meanwhile, screens upon screens across the nation are filled by the likes of the same stars and the same stories, with the same special effects and the same happy endings, leaving the smaller films, the different films, the better films to slip through the distribution cracks, as it were.

Among their number falls The Promotion, a film which we've admittedly supported ad nauseum to the oh-so-ironic tune of $365,928 on a grand total of 81 screens. It opened just this past weekend in my market, Orlando, Fla., on a single screen, for a whopping four days, with a grand total of eight showings, before being shuffled off to make room for that other Jason Bateman co-starring comedy-drama hybrid.

It was the first day of July, and the last night for the film. Having enjoyed it twice before and driven by - I don't know - a sense of romantic futility, I turned out for that final showing. Lo and behold, I wasn't alone...

The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting piece up on the disappearing space in print publications for reviews of independent films. The loss of print film critics in numerous outlets, coupled with the increasing number of independent films being released each year, is making it more of a challenge for indie films to get reviews of their films in print pubs. Online critics have taken up some of the slack -- we here at Cinematical still review as many indies as we can, in addition to the more mainstream fare, but there's still a perception out there among some that an online review carries less weight than a review printed on paper.

The article has some interesting dueling quotes; THINKfilm's Mark Urman notes, "We're not at a point where Internet writers have the credibility of established media with proven records and editors." Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells begs to differ, saying in part, "... there are maybe eight or 10 online critics who genuinely matter and are, in the parlance of the trade, 'conversation starters.' Due respect, but insisting that review quotes are still about print critics is generational hubris."

I was having an interesting heated argument friendly little discussion over IM yesterday afternoon with one of my Cinematical colleagues about what exactly designates a film as an "indie" film. Does it have more to do with the money spent on making it, or the artistic style of the film? Is a film an indie film if it's financed by an indie arm of a studio, like Juno? Or does it have to be financed by filmmakers on their credit cards, ala Four Eyed Monsters? What if it gets financed independently by a rich guy, like Little Miss Sunshine, and then bought by a studio for $10 million? And if an indie film gets bought by a studio and goes on to get Oscar nods, has it "sold out" like an indie band hitting the Top 40?

As you might expect, it was Juno that started this whole discussion. To me, Juno is clearly an indie film: it was financed not by Fox, but by Fox Searchlight, which is a studio arm set up specifically to buy and create indie films. Artistically, it certainly feels "indie" to me, although crossover hits like 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and Little Miss Sunshine have helped to blur the line between indie comedy and mainstream. If Jason Reitman had gotten independent financing for it instead of getting it done through Searchlight, I don't think anyone would question its indie status. I understand, though why some folks feel a film like Juno, which had the benefit of backing by a studio to get it made, and a tremendous, well-executed marketing push, is straddling the indie line.

Personally, I see Juno as nothing but great news for other indie films, and I think Fox was smart to recognize both the power and passion of indie filmmakers, and that they don't know how to make indie films themselves. Partnering with filmmakers like Jason Reitman, who have both a solid background and a good eye for what works, especially with indie comedy, allows Fox Searchlight to target the indie market with films that are likely to also appeal to a broader audience. They've found a niche that works, they're both making and acquiring good films, and if all that expands the audience for indie films in general, opens up the popcorn crowd to checking out more indie fare, and ultimately paves the way for more indie films to be funded that's a good thing.

What makes a film an indie flim? Let us know what you think in the poll, and make your arguments in the comments.

Hey, did you know that Cinematical's indie film content is on its own site now? If you're looking for news, reviews and interviews related to independent film, Cinematical Indie is where you'll find it. We're adding some new features to the Cinematical Indie, including a regular Indie Film Calendar with news of what's going on with indie film in your area. If you have news about screenings of indie films, indie films being shot in your town, inside scoops on casting, or anything else indie-related, send all your tips to kim(at)cinematical(dot)com and we'll get you covered!

Meantime, here's what's been going on over at Cinematical Indie lately:

• Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang passed away at the age of 59. Film journalists from all over wrote tributes to this filmmaker, who's work was vastly under-appreciated by American audiences. This weekend, why not rent Yang's most well-known film, Yi-yi, which won the director Best Director at Cannes in 2000. Yang never completed another feature; he was diagnosed with colon cancer shortly after winning at Cannes. Maybe now his work will finally be more well-known here in America.
• If you're looking for more DVDs to fill up your weekend movie-watching, Peter Martin (who, as you may have noticed, recently joined the team here at Cinematical Indie) has a solid roundup of the latest indie flicks coming out on DVD.
• Fans of the Matt Dillon-starrer Factotum, based on the book by Charles Bukowski, will be glad to know that director Bent Hamer has a new film in the works in his native Norway. The film, called O'Horten, is about a train engine driver named Odd Horten (played by Bård Owe), and it's likely to hit the fest circuit next year.
• Actor/environmentalist/friend-of-Al-Gore Leonardo DiCaprio has been busy promoting the film The Eleventh Hour, which he produced and also narrates. Leo showed up doing the intro for the film's trailer, which is up on the official MySpace page for the film.
• If you've wondered lately what former talk-show host Phil Donahue's been up to (and hey, who hasn't?) you'll be thrilled to your toes to know that he's directing a documentary about Iraq (there just haven't been enough of those lately, have there?) This one, titled Body of War, does take a different angle -- Donahue criticizes not just the Republicans on the war issue, but goes after the Dems, too.
• Also: New details about Young Victoria, Michael Moore takes on Wolf Blitzer and Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Once Upon a Time in Seoul promises some action, and the Edinburgh Film Fest announces its lineup.

Sad news about the fate of this podcast is contained within. But first: AMC goes indie; Conservatives rally against that cute little owl movie dangerous work of "eco-terrorism," Hoot; and Richard Dreyfuss slams a media that no longer cares about him.


Format
MOV

Get the Podcast
[Download] Get the podcast
[RSS] Subscribe to our RSS feed

The plummeting price of digital cameras and editing software, combined with the death spiral of network news, has resulted in a booming documentary offering over the past couple of Sundances. The public loves the genre, and like a William Gibson novel, it seems like everyone is now recording everything. If there's a conflict, obscure sport, or flamboyant personality you can be sure someone, somewhere, is making it into a documentary, and the result is a crop of boring-to-serviceable documentaries that are occasionally more suited for cable distribution than theatrical.

I thought for sure Clear Cut: The Story of Philomath, Oregon would fall into the television news documentary category, but was pleasantly surprised that the films excellent pacing and structure made it truly a film--not a Frontline episode.

Clear Cut, tells the story of a timber town in transition: as the blue collar jobs leave, the liberal information workers move in. They bring with them some unwelcome values including what locals perceive as a pro-environment, pro-gay, and ...

I got a chance yesterday to sit down with Geoffrey Gilmore, longtime Director of the Sundance Film Festival. Geoff is all about the films, and through the course of our conversation he talked about everything from his programming strategy, to the potential impact of technology on the festival's future. You can download the file directly here, or scoop it up from the iTunes music store.

Format
QT MPEG4 (3IVX), 18:39, 66.8 MB

[Download Here]

Sundance 2006 is now well underway, so here's a list of all of our reviews thus far. We'll be updating and reposting this list daily.


Features

Friends with Money - Karina's take
Friends with Money - James' take

Foreign
Man Push Cart

Documentary

Angry Monk - Reflections on Tibet
Crossing Arizona
Everyone Stares, Police Documentary

Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out, is a documentary about the punk/pop band derived from Super8 films shot by drummer Stewart Copeland. Sounds promising based on the level of access the director has to his subjects and the fact that the band broke up at the top of their game. After the break up fans were left with only their memories of a hard rocking Sting, who traded a kick-ass band for a life of Jazzy interludes on Light FM and sellout Jaguar commercials. In fact, sell out would be a kind assessment of Sting in the minds of most Police fans.

The film starts as the Police head out on their first US tour in the late seventies. This consists of long shots driving down the road and people cavorting in hotel rooms--nothing we haven't seen before. The voiceover from Copeland reveals little, and 40 minutes into the film I'm left wondering if anything will ever happen.

During all this time we're subjected to grainy, shaky video with horrible sound. It would be easy to forgive the poor quality of the video if it captured some rocking early performances, but the director/cameraman was too busy playing the drums at too many performance,s I guess.

Predictably the crowds develop from single digits to six figures, but the characters don't develop at all. The Police haven't said more than 20 lines to the camera 45 minutes into the film, and most surprisingly no one is taking drugs, fighting, or running around naked with groupies. Sting--who you would think would be an interesting person--has nothing to say.

Others on Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out: Variety's Dennis Harvey was decidedly unimpressed, calling the film "a trite, whitewashed-to-blankness vanity project."

I couldn't get a steady wifi connection at this afternoon's Sundance Opening Press Conference at the Kimball Art Center, so here's my "live blog" ... an hour after the fact:

Geoffrey Gilmore (fesitval co-director and programmer), Nicole Hofcener (director of opening night film, Friends with Money) and Robert Redford (duh) take the stage. Geoff starts, and right away the agenda seems to be about proving that Sundance still has cred:

"It's a pleasure to have an opening night press conference, we haven't in the past. Fest in the 20th year, Institute in its 25th. People don't understand the merging of the institute and the festival. Truth is, it's really hard to talk abou the festival when you haven't seen the films yet...I can tell you that I think the fest is as independent as a festival we've done in years, but you'll be the judge of that."

He lists the numbers on this year's program:

120 features
84 world premires
48 first time featuremakers
102 films to be presented on digital projection (!)
(Only 41 shot on digital formats)
46 docs
35 features by women - speaks to our diverstiy, speaks to what this festival is about

if the number of films being made in this country is any indication of the level of interest in independent cinema ... look at the diversity of the range of films that are at this festival.

Geoff wants to ask two things of the press: that we try not to talk about the films by reducing them to summary points, and that we hold your judgements about what the festival is, until we get through the festival, and that we try to see work we wouldnt ordinarily get a chance to see (obviously, that's three. Wonder which one he made up on the spot?)