caramel Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Indies on DVD: 'Super High Me,' 'Joy Division,' '4 Months,' 'Caramel'
Filed under: Classics », Comedy », Documentary », Foreign Language », Music & Musicals », New on DVD », Home Entertainment », Cinematical Indie »
It started as a joke, became a documentary, and now it's on DVD. Comedian Doug Benson undertook a bold initiative: to smoke marijuana every day for 30 days. Of course, he'd already been smoking pot pretty much every day of his life, so to make things really interesting, he first stopped smoking for 30 days and took a battery of tests so he could later compare the results of smoking vs. non-smoking on his thirty-something body. Super High Me is the result.
The stoner crowd laughed much harder than I did at SXSW, but, as Erik Davis wrote, Super High Me is still "funny as hell," and the doc, directed by Michael Blieden, manages to sneak in plenty of social and political commentary. The DVD doesn't appear to have any extras, but it is available with two different covers. See if you can tell the difference. To quote Erik again, "True stoners, however, will most likely place this film on a shelf among their favorites of all time ... then forget it's up there five minutes later."
One of my SXSW favorites also premieres on DVD today. Following on the heels of Anton Corbjin's biopic Control, Grant Gee's doc Joy Division is a rousing, illuminating peek into the lives of the original members of the band, featuring interviews with almost all of the key players.
Indie Weekend Box Office: 'Caramel,' 'Tre,' 'U2 3D,' 'Juno,' '4 Months'
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Music & Musicals », Romance », IFC », Box Office », Fox Searchlight », Cinematical Indie », Roadside Attractions »
On a quiet weekend for new indie films, several stories merit attention. Let's begin with Caramel, a film from Lebanon that our own Kim Voynar quite enjoyed, calling the comedy/drama set in and around a Beirut beauty salon "funny, heartwarming, and sensitive." Distributor Roadside Attractions opened the picture at 12 locations, where it earned a tidy $6,210 per screen, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. That was tops among new limited releases.Kim also recommended Eric Byler's Tre, a relationship drama. I haven't seen Byler's latest, but I agree with Kim that he's a very talented filmmaker; she says that he's "at the top of his game" with Tre. Playing on just two screens in Los Angeles, the film grossed $1,800 at each for distributor Cinema Libre. I'm hoping more people will get to see it as it opens in other cities in the coming weeks. The official site has a trailer and more information on future engagements in Chicago and San Francisco.
U2 3D got thoroughly dusted by the Hannah Montana phenomenon, but I would imagine there was no crossover in the audiences. And earnings of $12,620 per screen at 61 engagements is nothing to sneeze at -- that's good enough for second place in the overall per-screen standings, though far behind Hannah's $43,550 per-screen juggernaut. Have two G-rated 3D concert documentaries ever been 1-2 like that before? I think not!
Speaking of face-offs, Juno continued its remarkable run, dropping just 28% in its ninth week of release while playing on 2,475 screens. Its cumulative total is $110 million for distributor Fox Searchlight. Meanwhile, IFC Films expanded Romanian abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days into 17 theaters where it made $7,176 per engagement, according to Box Office Mojo.
Review: Caramel
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Gay & Lesbian », Independent », Romance », Theatrical Reviews », Cinematical Indie »
Admittedly, I'm one of those women who abhors the term "chick flick," though more because I find it an insult to the men in my life than to my fellow chicks. The mere existence of the term implies a film that "manly men" would only go to see if their wives or girlfriends drag them to it, because they couldn't possibly, all on their own, want to see a film about the relationships between women (unless, of course, there are some hot pillow fights or sex scenes involving the fairer sex). Caramel, directed by and starring Nadine Labaki, is a Lebanese version of the chick flick, but most of the men I know would enjoy it just as much as I did.
Set in and around a Beirut beauty salon, the film follows the lives of five women, each going through her own personal struggles. Layale (played by Labaki -- and I'll add here that she has a pair of the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen onscreen) is caught in a go-nowhere affair with a married man who has no interest in leaving his wife for her; he honks his horn outside her shop, and Layale comes running. Her friends stoutly disapprove, not so much of her having an extramarital affair, but of the willingness with which she allows her lover to use her. Layale cannot seem to break free of the affair, to the point that she develops an obsession for finding out more about her lover's wife and child, the better to understand the ties that bind him. Meanwhile, a lonely cop pines for Layale from afar.
Middle East Film Fest Wraps, Announces Black Pearl Winners
Filed under: Independent », Awards », Festival Reports », Exhibition », Other Festivals », Cinematical Indie »
The Middle East International Film Festival has wrapped, and the winners of the first-ever winners of the fest's Black Pearl awards have been announced. The closing night of the fest included a screening of In the Valley of Elah; Paul Haggis was on-hand on the red carpet, along with a slew of other talent from Bollywood and the Middle East. Director/actor Nadine Labaki of Caramel walked away with the Variety Middle East Filmmaker of the Year award,; while the UAE Filmmakers of the Year went to Fadel Al Muheiry and Hani Al Shibani.
Side note: Variety's Mike Jones, who's there covering the fest, has an interesting piece up about prayers in Abu Dhabi, and some pics of the Variety MEIFF party.
The complete list of MEIFF's Black Pearl winners can be found after the jump ...
TIFF Watch / Foreign-Language Oscar: South Korea, Lebanon Submit
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Foreign Language », Independent », Romance », Toronto International Film Festival », Cinematical Indie »
Two more countries have officially tossed their hats in the ring for the Foreign-Language Oscar, according to separate stories in Variety, and both selections are screening at the Toronto International Film Festival. South Korea's entry is Lee Chang-dong's Secret Sunshine. The well-regarded drama debuted at Cannes, where Jeon Do-yeon won the award for best actress. As the Variety story notes, she plays "a young widow who moves from Seoul to start over in a provincial city." Variety says that Secret Sunshine was selected over Kim Ki-duk's Breath (also a Cannes selection) and May 18, a box-office hit based on real events. In addition to its screenings in Toronto, Secret Sunshine will also be playing at the New York Film Festival and at AFI Fest in Los Angeles, but does not yet have US distribution.Another Variety story covers the general wariness of buyers toward the films on display in Toronto, but also reports that Lebanon officially selected Nadine Labaki's directorial debut Caramel as their Oscar entrant. According to Variety, the film opened in France and Lebanon in August and is already on course to become the top-grossing Lebanese release in those two territories. Caramel is a romantic comedy revolving around the lives of five women, set in and around a beauty salon in Beirut. The trailer at the official French site looks low-key and glossy. Jason Anderson at Eye Weekly called it "a Lebanese chick flick" that's "usually as fetching as it is familiar." Roadside Attractions has US distribution rights.
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