Cinematical just received this exclusive poster for What Just Happened? (click to enlarge), which comes to us from director Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Wag the Dog). Based on producer Art Linson's memoir What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line, the film stars Robert De Niro as a middle-aged Hollywood producer who tries to juggle an actual life with an outrageous series of crises in his day job.

As you can see from the poster, however, this puppy is packed with talent. You've got De Niro, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, John Turturro, Stanley Tucci, Catherine Keener and the list goes on. When What Just Happened? premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, Cinematical's James Rocchi described it as "movie geek heaven," saying De Niro produces "his best 'sly' comedic work since (probably) Wag the Dog." And how can you not love that poster and its tagline? Hilarious. Really looking forward to seeing this one when it arrives in a few months. (Check out the full synopsis after the jump)

What Just Happened? is set to hit theaters on October 3.

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the opening night premiere of American Teen (in theaters July 25) as part of the third annual Sundance Institute at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). The Sundance fav launched an eleven-day festival of sorts, showcasing the best of the best from this year's Sundance Film Festival; 22 features and 36 shorts in total, plus filmmaker Q&As, parties, art installations and tons of Brooklyn hipster-watching.

The screening itself was completely sold out and held inside the gorgeous BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, where, conveniently, free popcorn and bottles of water were handed out at the door. And as my wife pointed out after we sat down: "They're smart -- free things always put a person in a good mood before a film." Indeed! Before the curtain rose on American Teen, a number of folks approached the mic for some words, while the crowd cheered every time 'Brooklyn' was used in a sentence. The speakers included BAM President Karen Hopkins, Sundance executive director Ken Brecher, Brooklyn Borough President (and an awesome guy) Marty Markowitz, Katherine Oliver, Commissioner of the NYC Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting, BAM Cinema Club Chairs Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard, and, finally, American Teen director Nanette Burstein (sporting a very pregnant belly) and one of the film's teenage stars, Hannah Bailey (pictured above).

Check out a gallery from the premiere, the film and the prom-themed after party below -- then head after the jump for my thoughts on American Teen. (All pictures courtesy of the fine folks at the Sundance Institute and Paramount Vantage.)

Cinematical has received this exclusive clip from the upcoming documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster, which premiered earlier this year to very good reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. The film, which was directed by Chris Bell and comes from the producers of Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, takes a long, hard look at the steroids issue from all sides. When we sat down with Bell for an interview at the Tribeca Film Festival, he summed up the film in pretty simple terms: "Some guys are saying steroids will kill you and others say they'll make live longer. Who's telling the truth? We tried to study the truth so that, as an audience member, you can draw your own conclusions."

In the clip above, Bell confronts bodybuilder (and model) Christian Boeving and asks whether he thinks it's wrong to promote fitness pills, etc ... when it's clear steroids played a key role in getting his body to where it is today. As the last line in the film's synopsis so eloquently puts it, "When you discover that your heroes have all broken the rules, do you follow the rules, or do you follow your heroes?" For more, check out the film's official website.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster arrives in theaters on May 30.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for the film Baghead (click on the image to enlarge), written and directed by two very good friends of this site, Jay and Mark Duplass. Baghead marks the brothers' second feature-length film and follow-up to the very funny (but very uncomfortable) 2005 flick The Puffy Chair. Starring Ross Partridge, Elise Muller, Steve Zissis and my personal fav Greta Gerwig, Baghead tells of four struggling actors who retreat to a cabin in the woods in an attempt to write a screenplay they can produce and star in themselves. Will they succeed or will their personal relationships crumble? Oh, and is there really a stranger with a bag over his head lurking in the shadows, tracking the group's every move?

Baghead premiered to all sorts of great buzz back at Sundance, where our own James Rocchi said it "has warmth and innovation, and the mischievous good sense to subtly make fun of the type of film that it is." As Mark Duplass told us when we interviewed the boys during Sundance, "Baghead is a movie about the funny, horrific, tragic, terrible life of being a desperate actor." Needless to say, we highly recommend it.

Baghead arrives in theaters on June 13, after making a stop at the Tribeca Film Festival later this month.

Well, this could be interesting. I got a press release about this free service being offered by an outfit called Cha-Cha, a "human-powered search engine" (and doesn't that just give you a mental picture of a bunch of kids in third-world countries furiously pedaling stationary bikes to power it?). Okay, not that kind of "human power;" ChaCha has "guides" who will answer the questions you text to them, like, "where can I find an arthouse theater near Oklahoma City?" (good luck with that one, until Landmark gets around to opening a theater here).

This could come in pretty handy when you're out on the town on that hot date, and you've planned on dinner at that new sushi place followed by the movie, and just found out that your date hates seafood and is a film snob who only watches subtitled films, but what's really kind of cool is that they're kicking things off at the Sundance Film Festival, by offering their service for free with instant access to all the latest Sundance news. If you're at Sundance, and want to know where you can grab dinner without having made a reservation, or whether that buzzed-about film is sold out, you can text your question to ChaCha and they'll find the answer for you. If you're not at Sundance and want to feel like you are, you can get the latest Sundance news from the service as well.

Of course, we'll have all the Sundance news you can handle here at the awesome Sundance hub we're building as we speak, but for those times when you just need an answer NOW, this might be a cool service to check out. I'll try the service out myself when I'm on the ground at Park City, and let you know how accurate their info is.

Even with all the films our Sundance team saw in Park City this year, each of us left having missed more than one film we really wanted to catch. Such is the reality of a film fest -- there's just never enough time or energy to see and do everything. Nevertheless, Cinematical brought you a slew of coverage over the course of the fest, including reviews, interviews, deal news, happenings around town and all the minor controversies that seem like a big deal at the time and will be completely forgotten two months from now. Here now, all in one place, is a round-up of what we brought your way from this year's Sundance Film Festival. Most of it is after the jump....


REVIEWS

Premieres
An American Crime
Away From Her
Black Snake Moan
Chapter 27
Chicago 10
The Good Night
King of California
The Savages
Son of Rambow
Year of the Dog


Independent Drama Competition
Adrift in Manhattan
Broken English
Four Sheets to the Wind
The Good Life
Grace is Gone
Hounddog
On the Road With Judas
Rocket Science
Snow Angels - Kevin's Take
Snow Angels - James' Take
Teeth - Kim's Take
Teeth - Scott's Take
Weapons

The 71 short films screening at The Sundance Film Festival next month have been announced, and it looks like we'll be getting a little taste of everything -- including one film that stars real-life lovers Peter Sarsgaard and Maggie Gyllenhaal. (Hmm, I wonder if Sarsgaard seduced her with his creepy, quiet charm?) Directed by Andrew Zuckerman, High Falls features Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal as a husband and wife whose relationship runs into trouble after the two confess something (that they both despise Grey's Anatomy and cannot, for the life of them, understand why anyone watches the damn show?) to their best friend.

The 71 shorts were chosen amongst a whopping 4,445 submissions, and in total there are 19 countries represented. The shorts were then separated into two categories, U.S. and international, and broken down into three sub-categories: dramatic, documentary and animated. Perhaps the greatest news to come from this announcement is that 50 of the 71 shorts will be available online at the Sundance website for free from January 18 through April 18. How cool is that? I mean, how fricking cool is that? Of course, this means I shall be dedicating a few Eat My Shorts columns to those shorts playing Sundance, picking out my favorites and discussing them with you. As always, Cinematical will have a team of writers at Sundance where we'll be bringing you everything from reviews to interviews to photoblogs to, well, that last one is a surprise (but I will not count out James suddenly taking off his shirt and serenading the camera with his rendition of You've Lost That Loving Feeling).

A full list of shorts playing this year's festival is waiting for you after the jump, courtesy of the official Sundance Film Fest website ...

We're just over six weeks away from the Sundance Film Festival, and it's shaping up to be a fun fest. I love film festivals, and thankfully, haven't yet gotten so jaded that I don't get excited when fest lineups are announced (seriously, if I ever get to the point that I'm not excited about the possibility of finding a wonderful film or two a fest, someone please just shoot me and put me out of my misery). We've already told you about the competition films and the Midnight offerings, which Scott Weinberg will be covering extensively for us at Sundance, once he recovers from his deep disappointment at the lack of horror there this year.

Now it's time to unwrap the big, shiny packages labled "Premiere", "Spectrum" and "New Frontier" and take a peek at what's inside ...

Do we need another documentary about the 1968 Democratic National Convention? More importantly, after almost 40 years, do we need even one film about that turbulent week in August? The answer to both questions is, yes. The thing is, aside from Medium Cool, which is only part-documentary, I can't think of any docs that actually focus specifically on the convention and the infamous protests/riots that ensued in Chicago at the time (that doesn't mean there are none). And as far as the significance and relevancy of such a film, well, in my opinion it could serve us an inspiration for young people looking to take action in 2008.

Anyway, there is a new film about the DNC, and it is called Chicago 10. The doc, which was directed by Brett Morgen, has just been announced as the opening film for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It may seem strange for a nonfiction film to kickoff the fest, but it isn't the first time. In 2004, Stacy Peralta's Riding Giants was the opener.

Chicago 10 reportedly tells the story of the DNC protests thoroughly, including the courtroom trial of the "Chicago 7" a year later, using an innovative style combining animation, archival footage and interviews. The film will also feature music from the period as well as revolutionary music of today, which is likely meant to parallel the current political atmosphere with that of the late 1960s.

The rest of the Sundance line up will be announced after the Thanksgiving weekend.

Anthony Kaufman has an interesting bit up about three little gems from Sundance - Madeinusa, The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros, and Old Joy - which all had good showings recently at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Kaufman reports that all three films won awards at Rotterdam, but seemed to be "under the radar" at Sundance, and wonders how many Sundancers actually saw them.

Interesting question. Given that pretty much everything was sold out before the fest even started, I'd venture to guess quite a few. I actually heard some buzz here and there about Madeinusa. All three films were on my personal list of films I wanted to catch, and I missed all of them. In fact, I don't believe any of our team of four reviewers saw those films, and collectively, we saw and reviewed over a third of the films at Sundance. There are only so many films you can see in 12 days. Hopefully, a lot of the under the radar gems at Sundance will be showing up at a film festival near you - and me - and we'll have another opportunity to see them.