Pop quiz: what was one of the most critically lauded films of the year, yet barely got seen in the US? Syndromes and a Century received many admiring reviews off its play at various film festivals and finished #4 in the indieWIRE Critics' Poll; DVD might be a natural home for director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's latest meditative drama. The Strand Releasing DVD is bare-bones, with only a few trailers included, but kudos to them for making this more easily available.

The Ten features an all-star cast in a comic dissection of the Biblical Ten Commandments. In his review, Scott Weinberg acknowledged the "fairly sketchy" framework but said he "discovered a solid handful of worthwhile chuckles in the flick." James Rocchi summarized: "The Ten's a wacky, hit-and-miss, shotgun blast of a comedy that stands apart from the corporate commodity comedy's become in major-studio Hollywood." The DVD from ThinkFilm includes an audio commentary, more than 55 minutes of alternate takes and deleted scenes, an interview, a "making of" feature, ringtones (!) and wallpaper.

PBS is broadcasting Robert Stone's JFK doc Oswald's Ghost starting this week, but it's also available on DVD with extra features, including an interview with Stone, "The Zapruder film and beyond," and a visit fo Dealey Plaza. In my review, I called it "the rare film whose power increases with distance," though I wish that more of Stone's opinions had been expressed. Maybe the DVD's extra features will add the "degree of balance of perspective that is otherwise missing from a very well-made documentary."

Kim Voynar felt Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, a documentary about a project that brought together distinguished writers, soldiers and their families, at times seems "uncertain of just what kind of film it wants to be," lacking any new insights into the Iraq War. She thought it would lend itself more to the intimacy of television "much more than the big screen." The DVD includes a discussion guide.

Yup, it's getting late in the day and we're going there. For those of you out there who've always wanted to see Winona Ryder doing the nasty with a puppet, now is your chance. So dim the lights, pour yourself a glass of wine and bring over that box of tissues (in case you accidentally spill the wine), then settle in to watch this ridiculous clip from The Ten (whose DVD hits streets early next month). JoBlo has the first clip, which is unedited, and features Winona Ryder ... well ... riding her way toward a comedic gold medal. The second clip, posted after the jump, features a press conference with Gary the puppet -- as well as snippets of his rendezvous with Ryder -- as he fields questions from the press regarding this explosive sex tape.

The Ten features all sorts of names, and the comedy presents ten different stories; each based on one of the ten commandments. In his review from last year's Sundance fest, Cinematical's Scott Weinberg called the film "a skit-intensive (and entirely bizarre) amalgam of ideas -- clever, silly and just plain stupid. Those who don't see the humor in this sort of stream-of-consciousness, ultra-strange and intensely self-referential material will walk out of The Ten with their reaction phasers set firmly on "hate" -- but I discovered a solid handful of worthwhile chuckles in the flick, most of which come from the smoothly reliable Paul Rudd and the still-adorable Winona Ryder." Oh yes, she is definitely adorable in this scene. Additionally, check out our interview with The Ten's David Wain and Ken Marino for more on the film. Head over to JoBlo for the first taste, and we have the second clip for you after the jump (though be warned there's some foul language and gratuitous human-on-puppet sex to be found).

Three of Hollywood's most beautiful and talented actresses -- Winona Ryder, Robin Wright Penn, and Julianne Moore -- are teaming up for a comedy/drama called The Private Lives of Pippa Lee. That title makes it sound like a sitcom doesn't it? According to Variety, the story "centers on a dutiful wife whose husband falls for a younger woman, freeing her to explore her buried sensuality and leading to a very quiet nervous breakdown." Explore her buried sensuality? OK, now this sounds like something you'd see on Cinemax.

Rebecca Miller will direct the film, which will be adapted from her upcoming novel of the same name. The book's release date is listed as October 5th, 2008, and filming is scheduled to start this April. Maybe they're going for a simultaneous release? Miller also wrote and directed The Ballad of Jack and Rose and co-wrote the snoozefest Proof, which starred Gwyneth Paltrow. The Variety article doesn't give many plot specifics, but I'd imagine Ryder plays the younger woman and Moore's the one having the "very quiet nervous breakdown?" And perhaps she "explores her buried sensuality" with Penn? Wishful thinking? Here's hoping Ryder is bringing up the comedy side, I thought she was hilarious in The Ten.

Who doesn't love a period drama? Becoming Jane earned $10,100 per screen for Miramax, sailing into the top slot for the weekend among more limited engagements, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Cinematical's James Rocchi called it "a warm and charming romantic drama" and audiences were clearly drawn either by the stars -- Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy -- or, more likely, the idea of a Jane Austen movie that's actually about Jane Austen. The picture opened in 100 theaters and will "likely" be expanding to about 500 locations next weekend, according to Variety's story, in which they chatted briefly with Miramax president Daniel Battsek.

Proving itself remarkably critic-proof, El Cantante had a very healthy weekend. Fans of Jennifer Lopez, Marc Anthony and salsa legend Héctor Lavoe drove the picture to #12 overall with a per-screen average of $6,003 at 542 locations for distributor Picturehouse. Variety says that it "performed especially well in New York and Florida." I'm not sure why they didn't just say: "Places with huge Puerto Rican communities." I think the success of the picture says something about the hunger people have to see movies that relate in some way to their lives and culture, even when the critics in general turn thumbs down. El Cantante managed only a miserable 23% rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Our own Kim Voynar highlighted the good points but also drew attention to its shortcomings.

The Ten was the third new film in limited release. Playing at 25 locations, David Wain's anthology comedy made an estimated $4,700 per screen for ThinkFilm. James Rocchi said it's "a wacky, hit-and-miss, shotgun blast of a comedy that stands apart from the corporate commodity comedy's become in major-studio Hollywood." It's a great weekend when you can choose to see a period drama, a musical biopic or a blasphemous comedy.

Have you been reading Cinematical Indie lately? If not, here's what you've been missing ...

COLUMNS, REVIEWS, and INTERVIEWS

• James Rocchi interviews Mike Binder, writer/director of The Search for John Gissing about the long road to getting his film distributed, and why he finally took matters into his own hands.
• Killer Bs on DVDs: Matt Bradshaw reviews a pair of Euro horror flicks, Black Candles and Evil Eye.
• James Rocchi interviews David Wain and Ken Marino of Ten Commandments comedy The Ten.
• Cinematical Indie Chats it up with Billy the Kid director Jennifer Venditti.
• Cinematical Indie Seven: A John Sayles Primer.
• James Rocchi reviews The Ten.
• Jeffrey M. Anderson's 400 Screens, 400 Blows: The Day the Movies Died
• Cinematical Indie reviews JLo and Marc Anthony's biopic of salsa king Hector Lavoe, El Cantante.
• RvB's After Images: Skammen, aka Shame (1968)
• The Rocchi Review Podcast: James Rocchi chats up Heidi MacDonald of The Beat on all things comic.

... and more right after the jump ...

Not long ago I had the chance to sit down with Gretchen Mol for an exclusive interview about her upcoming projects, including the new comedy The Ten, opening August 3rd, in which she plays a virgin librarian who is deflowered by Jesus Christ himself. If you were a fan of the MTV series The State, this is the movie you've been waiting for. It's a State movie, all the way down to a wink-wink cameo from Michael Ian Black. We also talked about the highly-anticipated Russell Crowe remake of the classic western 3:10 to Yuma, which is arriving in September, and in which she has the leading lady slot. Mol, who's about seven months pregnant at the moment, was in a pretty relaxed and reflective mood when we spoke, and among other things, talked about arriving at a comfortable place in her 30s and being able to relax a bit after the success of The Notorious Bettie Page -- she no longer feels like she's scrambling to get a major accomplishment under her belt, so to speak. Here's the interview, in full.

RS: For your character in The Ten, the glasses she wears and the whole outfit -- did they tell you to come up with your own idea of what a 35 year-old virgin should look like?

GM: No, well ... I always wanted to wear glasses, but the question was, it almost might be over the top or too obvious. But the movie kind of lends itself to these kinds of cliches -- especially my little section, I think, because it's got this torrid kind of romance novel vibe to it. So I thought the glasses would be great. And when I met with the costume designer, we were all in sync on everything.

RS: Did you watch The State's MTV Series back in the day?

GM: I'd heard of it, and since, I've seen it, but I'd seen Wet Hot American Summer. And actually, I've seen David do stand-up at the Fez Under Time Cafe years ago, so I was familiar with their stuff, and I was a huge fan of Wet Hot American Summer.

RS: So you had enough to work with, that you didn't feel the need to go back and study those old shows to get a handle.

GM: I didn't. David was very adamant about wanting people to basically play it straight, and the situation in the script, as he and Ken had written it, was just hysterical, so really it was just about taking what you know and applying it here -- just totally committing to this woman's story and her situation.

Image fests aren't only for the big summer blockbusters. IGN has thrown up pictures for a bunch of indie films, so I thought I'd share:

• First, there's The Hottest State, Ethan Hawke's first directorial feature since 2001's Chelsea Walls. I was able to catch the film when it was at TIFF a few years back, and it's not bad. I preferred star Mark Weber's stint in Dear Wendy, but it had an interesting take on NYC romance (surprise, surprise) and a cast that also included Laura Linney and Frank Whaley. The pictures include some of Weber's on-screen romance with Catalina Sandino Moreno, a chat with Michelle Williams and a few other clips as well as the movie's poster. While it's taken a while to get to the public-at-large, State is gearing up for a limited release on August 24.
• This year, Scott Weinberg reviewed The Ten from Sundance, saying that it felt "a little like a "cult flick" waiting to happen," and then I directed you to a trailer for the strange movie will a killer cast. Now, the collection of pictures that IGN has posted over the last month are definitely a must-see if you're curious about the movie. There's Adam Brody stuck in the ground, Justin Theroux's Jesus grabbing some toosh, a room full of almost-naked men with beer and munchies, Winona Ryder embracing a dummy (of the wooden variety) and Ken Marino (Vinnie Van Lowe from Veronica Mars) pointing at an x-ray that shows a scissors resting against a spine. The movie hits theaters on August 3 -- in, of course, limited release.
• Last but not least, there is a little documentary goodness for you indie fans. The final link will send you to images from David Sington's doc -- In the Shadow of the Moon. The movie, which is about the surviving crew from NASA's Apollo missions, won the World Cinema Audience Award this year at Cannes. This final collection of images is one that you space geeks will especially like because it not only includes pics of the crew, but also some funky scenes from space -- high-quality ones at that! Just like the other two, Shadow will head to limited release in a few months -- on September 7.
  

There aren't too many movies that necessitate sequels. Unless a movie is part of a pre-proposed series or is an adaptation of a series of books, it should probably be able to stand alone. But a lot of sequels come from movies that are perfect by themselves -- sometimes the sequels compliment nicely; sometimes they are easily ignored; occasionally they actually take away from the previously regarded original.

It isn't often that a movie screams out for a sequel, but I think I've come up with seven that at least whisper a request for one. Two actually have source sequels that they would be adapted from. One has a lot of history to mine material from. Three of them have been discussed at length at different points in time by makers of the original(s). The problem is that none of these sequels is likely to ever grace your DVD player let alone your local theater. For whatever reason, they simply have too much against them in the minds of studio execs. For now, though, we can dream.

1. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (sequel to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Even with the incredible cast and the surprisingly faithful-enough script, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was not the epic that I was hoping for. It also wasn't the blockbuster that Disney was hoping for. The filmmakers, Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith (aka Hammer and Tongs) and the necessary actors had signed on for the sequel, to be adapted from Adam's follow-up, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, but it appears to be dead in the water. Despite my few reservations with the first film, I would love to see the sequel, as well as the rest of the series (they could end before The Salmon of Doubt, I guess). I remember being bored with some of the prehistoric Earth sequences in Restaurant, but I think they'd make for great cinema. In any event, I think Martin Freeman and Mos Def were a great duo in the original, and they alone should have been propelled to stardom following its release. Maybe they can appear in something else together.

Three very-different morsels for Monday:

• I had thought Hellboy 2: The Golden Army was when my ex got really swollen from walnuts, but it's actually going to be a little more cinematic. The LA Daily News has reported that Guillermo del Toro is on his way to Budapest to "zero in on the beginning of principal photography," according to Beast-turned-Hellboy Ron Perlman. The actor is currently bulking up for the film, which will head into production at the end of May. His regimen: "The push-ups, the sit-ups, the stationary bike. Then, of course, there's the lifting of the pizza." So, Budapest, this May. Bring Perlman some pizza and you just might get behind the scenes.
• What do you do after you've securely planted your genitals in Sacha Baron Cohen's face? You Get Smart. Ken Davitian, who played Azamat Bagatov in Borat, is the latest name to join the cast of the remake, which already has Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, The Rock and Terrence Stamp. The furry funny man will play the evil assistance of Stamp, who will be the head of KAOS. Davitian says: "It's my first film that is with so many big people." Somehow, I bet it won't be his last.
• If you've been around Cinematical for a bit, you might remember that I have a thing for Justin Theroux -- especially as Jesus. While we still have to wait a God-awful 5 months until The Ten's limited US release on August 3, the official site now has a trailer linked on YouTube. Ignore the simple, mid-90's look of the website and click the "Trailer" link at the top, and don't be fooled by the music. Just delight in the many, many recognizable faces, in the strange naked dancing, and the profanity at the end. Yes, this might be considered NSFW.

It happens every year: films go to Sundance, play to packed crowds, win Jury prizes and/or score big deals ... and then essentially disappear. It happened in 2005, when Ira Sachs' Forty Shades of Blue took home the Dramatic Grand Jury prize, only to open nine months later on just three screens and eventually gross barely $75,000 in its 84 day release. It happened again last year, when The Darwin Awards and Right at Your Door landed multi-million dollar deals with major distributors, only to be shelved indefinitely. I guess if you're an acquisitions exec, it's easy to get carried away up there on the mountain, but sometimes the same picture that thrilled a packed crowd at the Racquet Club looks downright unmarketable back at the office in L.A. So, with the caveat that I have neither a crystal ball nor any sort of reliable inside information, here are my picks for five Sundance '07 films that will actually see a meaningful release sometime before Sundance '08.


1) The Ten (Cinematical review)


Stu Van Airsdale thinks Manohla Dargis was talking about this film in the NY Times, when she described a distributor who sat through a "bad comedy that features a clutch of low-level film and television actors" whilst fantasizing about "all those recognizable [actor] names once they are printed on a DVD box." I'm actually convinced Ms. Dargis was referencing Gregg Araki's Smiley Face, a stoner comedy starring Anna Faris and half the cast of That 70's Show, which was apparently so awful that even die-hard Araki fans couldn't sit through it. I think if Dargis had attended a public screening of The Ten -- or if she had even caught a glimpse of the hundreds of high school and college kids lining up for the wait list as long as eight hours in advance of the picture's second-to-last show -- she would have a hard time condemning a distributor for trying to cash in on it.

The movie, which was written and directed by David Wain of Wet Hot American Summer fame, consists of ten short segments, one representing each of the ten commandments, strung together by some filler involving Paul Rudd not being able to decide if he'd rather screw Jessica Alba, Famke Janssen or (this is not a typo) Dianne Wiest. It may be less engaging than a 90-minute stint watching old clips of The State on YouTube, but it's got huge college-campus potential, where boys and girls have been known to consume comedy without bothering to consult the second film critic for the New York Times to see if she approves. With savvy marketing, and maybe a few structural tweaks, this could be the sleeper comedy hit of the summer.

If you're a fan of comedic experiments like The State, Stella and Wet Hot American Summer, you're bound to find more than a few solid laughs in The Ten, a skit-intensive (and entirely bizarre) amalgam of ideas -- clever, silly and just plain stupid. Those who don't see the humor in this sort of stream-of-consciousness, ultra-strange and intensely self-referential material will walk out of The Ten with their reaction phasers set firmly on "hate" -- but I discovered a solid handful of worthwhile chuckles in the flick, most of which come from the smoothly reliable Paul Rudd and the still-adorable Winona Ryder.

The framework is a fairly sketchy one: Rudd introduces a series of broad and generally goofy little set pieces, each of which are based on one of the Ten Commandments. Of the ten sketches (and the framing device) perhaps half of them deliver some really funny schtick, while some of 'em simply flop around the screen until the next bit comes along. But just like an anthology flick is only as good as its most entertaining sections, The Ten manages to fly only during its best moments. Here's what's on offer here:

Well, wow. That's pretty disappointing.

I speak of the 2007 Sundance Film Festival "Park City at Midnight" selections. In previous year the PCM program introduced me to the wonderful horrors of The Descent, Hard Candy, High Tension, May, Saw and Three Extremes.... But next year's line-up seems alarmingly short on the scary stuff. Obviously I cannot make any judgments about the program before I see the films, but going only on the genres and the plot synopses, it seems that next January's Midnight picks are much more comedic in nature. Well, comedies and general weird stuff is what it looks like. Here's the breakdown:

Fido -- Andrew Currie's "Romero meets Sirk" farce earned a small amount of positive buzz at Toronto, which is where James and I sat together and had a really good time with the flick. (Kim liked it too!) Lionsgate is currently preparing a release date for the film, but now we know why they were taking their time on that front.

Finishing the Game -- A mockumentary about the guy called in to "replace" the legendary Bruce Lee on Game of Death after the star passed away. From Better Luck Tomorrow (and, ugh, Annapolis) director Justin Lin.

It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine! -- Director Crispin Glover returns with a follow-up to his certifiably insane What Is It?

The Signal -- "A mysterious signal is being transmitted from all media devices in the city of Terminus, provoking murder and madness within the psyches of its inhabitants." Sounds promising. And check out the trailer!

Sk8 Life -- Apparently it's a Can8ian indie about a bunch of sk8ers who band together to save their beloved hangout from dem0lition.

Smiley Face -- Anna Faris stars as a girl who eats some crazy pot brownies and has a day full of wacky Araki misadventures. And check out the cast!

The Ten -- Some of the old State members got together to do a comedy anthology based on The Ten Commandments. Again, the cast is absolutely jam-packed with colorful folks.

We Are the Strange -- Apaprently someone called it "Monsters Inc. meets The Nightmare Before Christmas inside of a retro Japanese video game." Hmm, OK. The trailer certainly promises something ... yeah, strange.

So there's one I've seen already, two promising comedies, an animated brain-twister, an indie that uses 8s instead of As, another piece of brain-rust from Crispin Glover ... and a Gregg Araki ensemble comedy? Which leaves The Signal as my one small beacon of late-night horror. Ah well, a cool-looking line-up all the same, even if it's not as blood-drenched as I'd hoped it would be. (Plus there's always a few genre titles mixed in amidst the more "highbrow" programs.)

There are times when casting news is like a make-your-own-sundae. You walk up to the smorgasbord of sugar knowing what tastes good. In this case, it's when our Chris topher Campbell reported about Michael Ian Black's new film, The Ten. Then, you start piling the goodies on top of your ice cream, every one looking better than the next. In August, Martha Fischer reported that the already solid cast sporting the likes of Paul Rudd and Amanda Peet had grown to include actors such as Liev Schreiber, Gretchen Mol, and Rob Corddry. You decide that although you want twenty more toppings, your mountainous sundae will do. But then, you spot the shining cherries.

In this case, the cherry isn't a simple maraschino, but a large, juicy cherry pickled in kirsch. Justin Theroux, who has been linked to the project since the beginning, will be playing Jesus. I don't know the details, but the New York-based vignette comedy includes one that takes place in Mexico City and centers on that Chris t guy. I haven't been so excited about casting notices since Bruce Campbell's Elvis befriended Ossie Davis' JFK.

Granted, I'm biased. I, like many women, have a thing for Justin Theroux. Sure, he looks like a deliciously dirty angel, but he also picks varied parts and he's a man of all traits -- he doesn't only act, but he also paints and speaks Chinese. He's taken Kyle MacLachlan's spot as David Lynch's it-boy, and he helped Crispin Glover make Full Throttle tolerable. Forget Jeremy Sisto and James Caviezel, Justin Theroux is my personal saviour.

Chris reported in June on The Ten, a David Wain-penned and directed 10-part spoof of the Biblical Ten Commandments (Yes, it's one story/commandment -- good work!). The potential in the film had him (and yours truly) excited, both because of Wain's past (he was a member of The State and Stella, and co-wrote Wet Hot American Summer, among other things) and the film's packed cast, which at that time included Paul Rudd, Jessica Alba, Amanda Peet, Justin Theroux and Adam Brody.

Depending on how you feel about Wain and this film, it either just got a lot better, or added a load of useless cast members, who will contribute nothing to its spoofy nonsense. Me, I'm in the former camp -- how can the addition of Liev Schreiber to anything fail to make it better? In addition to Schreiber, Winona Ryder, Famke Janssen, Gretchen Mol, Rob Corddry, Ron Silver and Oliver Platt have all come on board. That, my friends, is quite a cast. Granted, many of them will probably appear for 30 seconds in robe and beard, carrying a tablet, but still.

The film is currently filming in New York and Mexico; it'll come out some time in 2007.