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Indie Roundup: 'Away We Go,' Deals, Online Options, CineVegas
Filed under: Deals », Box Office », Distribution », Cinematical Indie », Samuel Goldwyn Films »
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.
Locarno Fest's Open Air Delights and Indoor Surprises
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Drama », Foreign Language », Other Festivals », Cinematical Indie »
Wednesday marks the kick-off of the 60th anniversary of the film festival in Locarno, located on Lake Maggiore in the southern part of Switzerland (nearest to Italy). The signature event of the festival is the Piazza Grande program, where up to 8,000 people can watch one or two movies each night on a giant screen in the open air. If, like me, you're stuck at home, they have a webcam set up to make you jealous. The picturesque setting looks like a really fun way to see Knocked Up, The Bourne Ultimatum, or Hairspray. Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez's full blown 105-minute version of his Grindhouse segment, will be shown, along with a warning: "Some scenes might hurt spectators feelings." But there are also screenings of Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon, Luchino Visconti's 1951 Bellissima, the world premiere of Kenneth Bi's The Drummer, documentaries, short films and other non-Hollywood fare.Of the 19 films in the International Competition, 13 are world premieres and 11 are by first or second-time filmmakers. I've already written about Thieves, from Spain; there's also Anthony Hopkins' intensely personal Slipstream, George Ratliff's critically-berated Joshua and Masahiro Kobayashi's newest, The Rebirth. Extraordinary Rendition, from the UK, has an explosive subject: the kidnapping of terrorist suspects by the CIA. Argentine director Sandra Gugliotta, who previously made the starkly affecting drama A Lucky Day, returns with another personal drama, Las Vidas Posibles. In the other sections, stand-outs include Chris Fuller's exciting youth drama Loren Cass, which played at CineVegas and earned a rave review in Variety. With so many world premieres and generally less-heralded films in the program, I'm hoping that a few more will break out and get some good reviews so we can learn more about them. The Locarno festival runs from August 1-11.
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