crazy love Tagged Articles at Cinematical

My latest starting point is DVD Talk; their list is not comprehensive, but I appreciate the simplicity. Looking over what's out this week, I realized I need to watch more movies in theaters! I haven't seen any of these releases yet, but I plan to do some catching up. My rental picks begin with Patrice Leconte's My Best Friend. Monika Bartyzel called it "an entertaining, solid comedy." Daniel Auteuil plays "a completely conceited art dealer who is stunned to learn that none of his so-called friends like him" and is inspired to gamble on himself. The DVD from IFC includes a "making of" feature and the trailer.

The Trials of Darryl Hunt "tells the story of ... a black man who was tried and convicted for the rape and murder of [a] white newspaper reporter," according to Christopher Campbell. "Hunt was sentenced despite there being no physical evidence, simply off a testimonial given by a former Ku Klux Klan member." ThinkFilm's DVD includes bonus interviews and an "exclusive HBO featurette."

Another doc, Crazy Love, about a long-term relationship with, shall we say, questionable elements, made James Rocchi wonder: "What movie didn't get in to Sundance because this horrible, clammy, grim and pathetic tale of co-dependent madness did?" But Kim Voynar had a very different view, describing it as "an engaging, intelligent" film. Magnolia's DVD features an audio commentary by co-director Dan Klores and the couple, deleted scenes and other extras.

Other titles that sound intriguing include documentary Girl 27 (a woman hired as a movie extra in the 1930s is instead raped at an MGM party) and the box set Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy (including Blood Wedding, Carmen and El Amor Brujo) from Criterion.

Just how crazy can being in love make you? Just ask Burt Rugach and Linda Riss, subjects of the film Crazy Love, whose star-crossed, bizarre love affair has spanned more than 50 years. Starting with their magical first date in the late 1950s, through a first year of dates at glam nightclubs, to Linda's discovery that (oops!) Rugach was already married, to Linda's subsequent dumping of Burt, to Burt's stalking her relentlessly, the couple's love affair was fraught with drama.

Linda was both beautiful and insecure when she met Burt, who was a wealthy negligence attorney at a time when the term "ambulance chaser" was just coming into vogue. Burt wasn't particularly handsome, but he was rich and exciting; he owned a nightclub and his own plane, he had a new car every year, and he showered Linda with attention, even having the house band at his glamorous nightclub play the song "Linda" whenever Linda walked in.

To most movie fans, Sundance is this far-off and distant place they can't visit because, well, it's a pretty damn expensive trip -- and who the heck wants to spend a week on a mountain in January and not ski? The second question I'm always asked upon my return home from Sundance (after "What good movies did you see?") is "What famous people did you meet?" But the third question is usually something like "So when will I actually get to see these movies that everyone's been chattering about for the last two weeks?" And so I decided to collect all the acquisition news from this past festival and offer it all up on one convenient platter. I'll keep the chatter to a minimum, but if you want more info on a particular film, please do partake of all the links below.

• Clubland -- Warner Independent Pictures -- $4,000,000
• Crazy Love -- Magnolia Pictures -- n/a
  
• Grace is Gone -- The Weinstein Co. -- $4,000,000
• How She Move -- Paramount Vantage -- $4,000,000
• In the Shadow of the Moon -- ThinkFilm -- $2,500,000
• Joshua -- Fox Searchlight -- $4,000,000
• King of California -- First Look Pictures -- $3,000,000
• La Misma Luna (The Same Moon) -- The Weinstein Co. & Fox Searchlight -- $5,000,000
• My Kid Could Paint That -- Sony Pictures Classics -- $1,500,000
• Nanking -- Fortissimo Films -- n/a
  
• Once -- Summit Entertainment -- n/a
  
• Protagonist -- IFC & Netflix -- Under $1,000,000
• The Signal -- Magnolia Pictures -- $2,300,000
• Son of Rambow -- Paramount Vantage -- $8,500,000 (some say even higher)
• Teeth -- The Weinstein Co. & Lionsgate -- $1,000,000
• The Ten -- ThinkFilm & City Lights Home Entertainment -- $4,500,000
• Waitress -- Fox Searchlight -- $4,500,000
• Weapons -- After Dark Films -- $1,000,000

Thanks to Variety, Movie City News, THR's RiskyBiz Blog, and our own Cine-maniacs (particularly Jette and Karina) for all the info. [Have any updates, additions or corrections? Leave 'em in the comments section please!] Added Bonus: After the jump you'll find a list of movies that already had North American distribution set up before they arrived at Sundance!

Greetings from Park City, Utah, where, contrary to what everyone and their mother -- including my own mother -- warned me before I came here, it's nice, sunny and not that cold. Yet.

Part of the fun of Sundance is trying to play prophet and figure out which movies are going to end up becoming the Next Big Indie. Last year, the one movie I truly loved was 'Little Miss Sunshine,' and we all know what ended up happening with that one. So far this year, everyone's asking each other, "What have you heard?" "What's supposed to be good?" and there isn't anything close to a consensus. But we'll do our best to figure it out.

To that end, I saw three films on Friday, the first full day of the festival: 'The Savages,' 'Snow Angels' and 'Rocket Science.' The one I liked best was 'The Savages,' which despite the title is not about a couple who gets stranded in the wilderness and turns to cannibalism to survive. Nope, it stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as John and Wendy Savage (get it?), dysfunctional siblings who are forced to take care of their estranged father (Philip Bosco) when he develops dementia. Specifically, he starts writing vulgar words on the bathroom wall using, instead of ink, his ... uh, well, it's a word that rhymes with "grit."

There's nothing like a crime drama which revolves around real life events, and Simon West (When a Stranger Calls) has just signed on to helm one such pic, Crazy Love. As you can imagine (based on the title), the film will center around characters who are not only in love, but also prepared to do crazy things for their significant other. (Thank God they're not interested in my own real life romantic adventures, because the craziest thing I've ever done in the name of love was taking the dog for a walk during the Yankees opening playoff game. Wait, that was last night -- see, I'm not good at this sort of thing.)

According to Variety, the plot "revolves around a surfer girl who takes up with a drug smuggler and agrees to bring millions of dollars into Pakistan, only to be interrogated by authorities and persuaded by a DEA agent." See, mayyybe I could understand if there were some killer waves in Pakistan, but as far as I know (and, trust me, I know very little about hot surfing locations), that's not the case.

Okay, so now I have to ask: What's the craziest thing you've done in the name of love?