charlyne yi 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.

Festivals. The venerable New York Film Festival announced its first titles, while Eugene Hernandez and Brian Brooks of indieWIRE consider the impact of non-programming changes. In news from the other coast, Rachel Rosen is heading back to the City by the Bay to work as programming director for the San Francisco Film Society, reports The Wrap.

Rosen moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles eight years ago and helped transform the Los Angeles Film Festival into a truly major festival in a city that, oddly enough, doesn't give much respect to local film festivals. As Director of Programming, she and Senior Programmer Doug Jones chose a wonderfully diverse selection of international films that were challenging and not always the most audience friendly, yet they were distinctive and memorable. And now she's gone. (A more extensive report can be found at indieWIRE.) Whoever replaces her has big shoes to fill.

Online / On-Demand Viewing. I like free, legal movies, and Babelgum and Cinetic have a new title in their monthly program to tantalize cheapskates like me: Jack Says is described as a "contemporary film noir thriller," in which the titular character wakes up next to a corpse with amnesia (Jack, not the corpse). At SnagFilms, you can watch gamer doc Second Skin for free until tomorrow, as part of their SummerFest series. And from Friday through Sunday, the doc Captured -- all about Manhattan's Lower East Side -- will be available for free streaming via Cinetic's channel at Daily Motion.

What do Cold Souls and Paper Heart have in common? Indie Weekend Box Office, after the jump.

By Eric Snider (reprint from Sundance 2009)

There are documentaries, and there are comedies made to look like documentaries, and Paper Heart is both. Conceived by comedian Charlyne Yi and filmmaker Nicholas Jasenovec, it combines elements of reality and fiction in an amusing, meta-referential way, though one's enjoyment of it may ultimately come down to one's enjoyment of Yi as a performer.

It is set up as a documentary about Charlyne's search to determine whether true love really exists. She doesn't think it does -- or, at the very least, she thinks she's not capable of feeling it. (I can't imagine anything sadder than being unable to experience romantic love, but that's beside the point.) To investigate, Charlyne travels the country to interview biologists, old married couples, and Las Vegas wedding chapel officiators who dress as Elvis. Those segments are real, like you'd find in any documentary.

But in the process of making the documentary, Charlyne meets actor Michael Cera at a party, and they start tentatively dating. The documentary director (played by actor Jake Johnson), knowing a good thing when he sees one, insists on following Charlyne and Michael around. It's a no-brainer, really: She's making a movie about love, and in the meantime starts dating someone? Perfect!

Click image below for full poster

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Paper Heart, which stars Charlyne Yi and Michael Cera, and walked away from this year's Sundance as the darling of that festival. Part comedy, part documentary and part comedy-documentary, Paper Heart follows actress-comedian Charlyne Yi (Knocked Up) as she travels the country searching for not only the meaning of love, but also its definition as it pertains to her own life. Michael Cera (Yi's kinda, sorta boyfriend in real life) makes an appearance in the film as Yi's kinda, sorta boyfriend -- and the two struggle to navigate the rocky waters of an early relationship while a pestering camera crew follows Yi's every move.

In his review from Sundance, Cinematical's Eric D. Snider said Cera was " typically hilarious as Charlyne's potential boyfriend," and I whole-heartedly agree. In fact, I felt this was Cera's finest performance to date, partly because he gives off the kind of attitude we rarely see since he's normally too busy bumbling around. Here, though, Cera is real and honest and not afraid to be an a**hole if the moment calls for it. Cute, charming and a bit awkward, Paper Heart seems destined to become one of his summer's great date movies.

The film is set to hit theaters on August 7. Click the image below to scope out the full poster.

In this week's edition of Indie Roundup, we begin by noting the sad and untimely passing of one of the great champions of independent film, Wouter Barendrecht. The founder of Fortissimo Films, an international sales and production company, Barendrecht died unexpectedly last weekend from heart failure while in Thailand.

Eugene Hernandez at indieWIRE writes: "Perhaps his greatest professional achievement is the invaluable role he played as a tireless champion of Asian cinema and as a stalwart supporter of independent, queer and international film. On a personal note, his friendships with so many members of the worldwide film community are also hard to overlook." He was just 43.

Deals. Overture Films has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Nicholas Jasenovec's Paper Heart, which debuted at Sundance. In his review, Eric D. Snider said the film, which stars and was co-written by Charlyne Yi, "combines elements of reality and fiction in an amusing, meta-referential way, though one's enjoyment of it may ultimately come down to one's enjoyment of Yi as a performer." Yi's real-life boyfriend, Michael Cera, is featured. Overture plans to release Paper Heart in New York and Los Angeles on August 7 and expand it a week later, according to indieWIRE.

Box Office. Kate Churchill's documentary Enlighten Up!, advertised as "a skeptic's journey into the world of yoga," exercised its right to be the highest per-screen earner among indies, grossing $16,161 at the one theater where it played, per Box Office Mojo. (Check out the trailer, embedded below.) Fashion doc Valentino: The Last Emperor continued to draw good crowds, earning $14,196 per screen at four locations, while Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel helped Matt Aselton's Gigantic become the top performer among new releases, reaping $10,294 for a film that's received mixed reviews.

After the jump: Film festivals around the country.

There are documentaries, and there are comedies made to look like documentaries, and Paper Heart is both. Conceived by comedian Charlyne Yi and filmmaker Nicholas Jasenovec, it combines elements of reality and fiction in an amusing, meta-referential way, though one's enjoyment of it may ultimately come down to one's enjoyment of Yi as a performer.

It is set up as a documentary about Charlyne's search to determine whether true love really exists. She doesn't think it does -- or, at the very least, she thinks she's not capable of feeling it. (I can't imagine anything sadder than being unable to experience romantic love, but that's beside the point.) To investigate, Charlyne travels the country to interview biologists, old married couples, and Las Vegas wedding chapel officiators who dress as Elvis. Those segments are real, like you'd find in any documentary.

But in the process of making the documentary, Charlyne meets actor Michael Cera at a party, and they start tentatively dating. The documentary director (played by actor Jake Johnson), knowing a good thing when he sees one, insists on following Charlyne and Michael around. It's a no-brainer, really: She's making a movie about love, and in the meantime starts dating someone? Perfect!

Those segments are loosely scripted, of course; while Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi have been romantically linked, the film is not a real chronicle of their relationship. But the film plays it straight, shooting all the scenes, real and non-real, in the same way, as if they were part of the same documentary. Savvy viewers are meant to understand where the line is, but I wouldn't be surprised if some audience members come away thinking the whole thing was a straightforward documentary. A lot of people thought The Blair Witch Project was real, too.

Several films are heading into next week's Sundance Film Festival with a giant helping of buzz, and one of those is Paper Heart (pictured above) -- starring Charlyne Yi (Knocked Up) and Michael Cera -- which comes served with this description: "Combining elements of storytelling, reality and fantasy, Paper Heart brings a fresh perspective to the modern romance and redefines the classic love story." Since I kinda dig the randomness that defines the humor of both Cera and Yi, I've been waiting for a teaser of some kind to hit prior to the festival -- and while one has not found its way online, Karina over at Spout discovered Yi's YouTube page which is just packed with little nuggets of hilarity.

Karina highlighted a few videos in her post, but the ones that stood out for me were a series of conversations between Yi and SNL's Fred Armisen. It all started with an audition tape Yi made for Saturday Night Live, which she posted to YouTube in the hopes that it would become popular enough that Lorne Michaels would see it and put her on the show. Well, Michaels didn't see it, but Fred Armisen did and so was born a pretty funny series of videos featuring both Yi and Armisen communicating with one another -- with the last being my personal favorite. Are these real? Are these fake? What's the deal? Nevertheless, it gives us a better look at Yi, and the type of humor we should expect from Paper Heart (see images below).



Watch the audition tape below, then head after the jump for the rest (but make sure you watch them in order).

One of the big questions that has plagued cutie funny guy Michael Cera is whether he'll be able to find a career outside of his bumbling, awkward, mild-mannered roles. While that question is currently left unanswered, we will get to see if the guy on the screen is the same guy backstage.

The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's part of a "semi-secret" project called Paper Hearts. Why semi-secret? This sucker, which is being described as part-documentary and part-scripted comedy, has already been made and will debut soon at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. It seems this new film will follow his real-life relationship with Charlyne Yi (the stoner girl from Knocked Up, who you can see above), and like his recent Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, be greatly influenced by music.

I can't imagine how they'll meld the real and the fictional, but it should make for an interesting experiment. Will this secrecy pay off and help Paper Hearts explode during its debut in Park City? Or will it succumb to the woes of other struggling indie films? Stay tuned!