No Impact Man 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. Both Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE and Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood described the sale of Tom Ford's A Single Man as an electrifying event at the Toronto International Film Festival. Riding a wave of good buzz from the Venice festival, the debut feature from the famed fashion designer stars Colin Firth "at a turning moment in his life after the death of his longtime lover," Eugene wrote. "Despite a distinctly gay storyline, there was little doubt that this universal story of middle-aged lonliness and isolation in the 1960s would quickly find a home." Anne notes that it's "gorgeously designed ... it's an idealized L.A. shot like an Italian movie of the period, plus a stunning digitally-enhanced color palette." The Weinstein Company won the bidding war, as Monika Bartyzel noted this morning.

Festivals. Speaking of Toronto, be sure to check out all the great coverage from our team of writers on the scene to find out what's been hot -- and not so hot -- during the first half of the fest.

News. Not much news has been happening outside Toronto during the past week. In fact, in my usual rounds of news sites and search engines, I have found ... nothing much of interest! (Sorry if you made some news that you thought was notable and either I don't agree or don't know about it.) Come back next week, and I'm sure something interesting will have happened by then. In the meantime, did I mention our great coverage from Toronto?

How do you make crude oil sizzle? Find out in Indie Weekend Box Office -- after the jump!

Cinematical has just received this exclusive new poster for No Impact Man, a documentary directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein. The film follows Manhattan-based author Colin Beavan as he makes a life-changing decision that affects not only himself, but his wife and infant daughter as well.

Researching his next book, he founded the No Impact Program in November 2006, and pondered what he could do personally to help end the environmental crisis. What would have the greatest impact -- or, rather, what would allow him to have the least impact? From the official synopsis: "A newly self-proclaimed environmentalist who could no long avoid pointing the finger at himself, Colin leaves behind his liberal complacency for a vow to make as little environmental impact as possible for one year. No more automated transportation, no more electricity, no more non-local food, no more material consumption...no problem. That is, until his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two year-old daughter are dragged into the fray." No Impact Man is "a film about a couple, more than a movement," wrote John Anderson in Variety. It's "the best kind of propaganda, as well as a very entertaining movie."

Oscilloscope Pictures will open No Impact Man in New York on September 11 before expanding it across the country in the following weeks. Check Oscilloscope's site for more information on playdates, and head to Beavan's blog to read much more about his experiences.

You can also watch the trailer at Moviefone, which gives a good idea of the film's lively spirit.

Before we look back at the past week, let's peak at what's opening this weekend: Francis Ford Coppola's family drama Tetro; Duncan Jones' sci-fi trip Moon; Daryl Wein's AIDS activist doc Sex Positive; Tommy Wirkola's Nazi zombie flick Dead Snow; Robert Kenner's appetizing (maybe) doc Food, Inc.; and Chai Vasarhelyi's music / tolerance plea Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love (poster and more info after the jump).

Box Office. Opening in four theaters, Sam Mendes' Away We Go scored a smashing $32,603 per-screen average last weekend, according to Box Office Mojo. The road trip comedy / drama, starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as anxious, expectant parents searching for a place to raise their family, far outpaced other debuting indies, which had, on their own terms, decent returns: Seraphine ($6,640 per-screen at four theaters), Unmistaken Child ($6,293, one screen), and 24 City ($6,082, one screen). Our critic William Goss feels that Away We Go is "easily among the very best films that the year has offered so far." I was less impressed; the real test will come as it expands over the next couple of weeks.

Deals. Our friends at indieWIRE have details on the recent acquisitions of Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's doc No Impact Man, due September 4 from Oscilloscope; Jonathan Parker's comedy (Untitled), due September 18 from Samuel Goldwyn Films; and Kenneth Bi's The Drummer, due this fall from Film Movement.

Online Viewing Options. New selections at iTunes Movie Store include Bob Odenkirk's comedy Melvin Goes to Dinner; Scott Smith's dysfunctional 60s family drama Falling Angels, with Miranda Richardson; and Mike Akel's mockumentary Chalk, which school teachers have assured me is very funny (it drove me this former bad student nuts).

After the jump: CineVegas, the "Mile High Mutiny," and a sweet-looking poster.

While I am, by no means, a queen of green, I do a good deal of recycling -- much more than many people I know. I reuse containers until they can't be used any more; I have a green bin; I rip those damned windows out of envelopes before recycling the paper; I walk almost everywhere, even in the winter. And even so, I think the story of Colin Beavan is scary. Variety reports that his upcoming book, No Impact Man, has been picked up by Columbia Pictures for a feature treatment. What's it about? Well, a man who tries to live a completely green lifestyle in New York City.

Beaven, who has written interesting stories before, like the first murder to be solved by fingerprints, chronicled "a year in which he, his wife, and young daughter redesigned their lives with the goal of doing no damage tot he environment. As he says: "I set out to eliminate the negative net impact we made, while creating a positive impact so that we could be as close as possible to creating no net impact. If the typical cosmopolitan New Yorker can do it, anybody can." And he doesn't mean just environmentally-friendly living, but also no television, AC, or even electricity...not even any carbon-producing transportation like buses or cars.

During this year, he not only got closer to his daughter because there was no television to distract them (or electricity to do anything with), but also because they only ate "local seasonal natural foods (grub trekked cross-country creates carbon emissions)." They've hooked me, if only to see what sort of locally-grown food one can eat in the dead-winter of Manhattan (wouldn't electrically-powered greenhouses be a no-no too?), and how the hell they stayed warm. Speaking from experience, it's easy to wait a bit longer to turn on your heat in the fall, but at some point, no amount of clothing will stop the shivers.

And besides, doesn't putting out a wide-spread book and film negate all he did for the environment? I hope it'll at least be printed on fully recycled paper...