Posted Jul 3rd 2008 1:02PM by Christopher Campbell
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, IFC, Theatrical Reviews, Cinematical Indie
Some of cinema's most iconic shots of Chicago appear in
Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and the film is certainly Matthew Broderick's most iconic role. So, it's hard to watch the actor in the Chicago-set
Diminished Capacity and not ask yourself, "is this what's happened to Ferris?" He is now relatively passive, paunchy and pitiful in the role of Cooper, a newspaper editor who has recently suffered a mildly debilitating concussion. And the character could be classified as yet another sad sack, one of three such parts he can be seen playing at present (
Then She Found Me opened in April and is still in theaters;
Finding Amanda debuted last week).
But is it fair that we most associate Broderick with
Ferris, thereby continuing our disappointment in seeing him play one nebbish nobody after another? Couldn't we redirect our memories and accept that Broderick's modern roles are more like grown-up versions of Eugene Jerome, of Neil Simon's plays
Brighton Beach Memoirs and
Biloxi Blues, who he portrayed on Broadway as well as in
the film adaptation of Biloxi? Were Eugene not the fictional incarnation of Simon and had he not therefore become a famous writer (and were he not from an earlier time period), the character surely could have gone on to be the pathetic teacher of
Election or
Then She Found Me or the absentminded editor of
Diminished Capacity.
Continue reading Review: Diminished Capacity
Posted Jul 1st 2008 5:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, Romance, IFC, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Images, Posters
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Cinematical is stoked to bring you this exclusive new poster for
In Search of a Midnight Kiss (click image to enlarge), which I've heard is just absolutely awesome. Seriously, my best friend caught this flick back when it first premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007 and he hasn't stopped talking about it since. I swear, he's a nut -- completely and utterly in love with this film. And I think it's totally rad. Written and directed by the very cool and extremely talented Alex Holdridge,
Midnight Kiss tells of Wilson, who, considering he'll be broke and alone on New Year's Eve, is convinced by his best friend to post a personal ad. Through that he meets Sara, who's hell bent on finding the right guy to be with at midnight.
We talk up a lot here on
Cinematical, but I have such good vibes about this one. Watch it. Support it. Then watch it again. Oh, and
here's the trailer.
In Search of a Midnight Kiss hits theaters in limited release on August 1.
Posted Jul 1st 2008 3:02PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, IFC, ThinkFilm, Box Office, Family Films, Cinematical Indie, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Picturehouse
Despite dropping more than 50% in its second week of release,
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Picturehouse) outdrew all other specialty releases over the weekend, earning $21,200 per screen at five theaters, according to estimates compiled by
Box Office Mojo.
Directed by Canadian indie veteran Patricia Rozema (
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing,
When Night is Falling),
Kit Kittredge has clearly benefited from a devoted fan base that convinced thousands of their parental units to fork over $20 per ticket -- which, to be fair, includes a limited-edition t-shirt -- to see the movie in advance of its wide release tomorrow. That's a very good performance when you consider its main competition was not, actually, a French-language flick that skewed very adult, but actually a heavily-advertised animated film.
Catherine Breillat's
The Last Mistress (IFC Films), starring
Asia Argento, took in $17,600 per screen at two locations, which probably owes as much, if not more, to the name recognition of Argento as that of the often-confounding Breillat.
Continue reading Indie Weekend Box Office: American Girl 'Kit' vs. French 'Mistress'
Posted Jun 27th 2008 2:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Romance, IFC, Trailers and Clips
Cinematical has just received two exclusive clips from
The Last Mistress (watch one above, and the other after the jump). Based on the novel by Jules-Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly,
Mistress comes to us from writer-director
Catherine Breillat (Fat Girls, Romance) whose film's are known for carrying distinct personal and sexual flavor. Reporting from the San Francisco International Film Festival,
Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson called
The Last Mistress "the most enjoyable of the three Breillat films I've seen," and says "It works on a gut level of sexual turmoil that her other films never approach ..."
Back when
Cinematical premiered the poster for this film, Monika provided this description: "Asia Argento stars as Vellini, a courtesan who has lust-filled and violent forays with Ryno (Fu'ad Aït Aattou) for years. But then he leaves her to marry Hermangarde (Roxane Mesquida), and she's not prepared to say goodbye." I'd see this based on the Breillat/Argento pairing alone, as one can only imagine the amount of devilish spice contained within.
The Last Mistress arrives in theaters today, June 27, in NYC at the IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, as well as On Demand. Look for it to expand in the coming weeks.
Continue reading EXCLUSIVE: Two Clips from 'The Last Mistress'
Posted Jun 26th 2008 4:34PM by Eric D. Snider
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Deals, New Releases, IFC, Distribution, The Weinstein Co., Cinematical Indie
With the film industry so busy that even the art houses are having trouble finding room for the indies they want to show, some execs are starting to look at more creative ways of getting their movies seen. That's why the Weinstein Co. is handing over one of its products to IFC Films, which will release it later this year in theaters and -- on the same day -- through Video-on-Demand, right into people's homes.
The movie is
Elite Squad, a Brazilian drama about police corruption that
won the top prize at Berlin in February and comes from a great pedigree: it was directed by José Padilha, who made the fantastic documentary
Bus 174, and co-written by Bráulio Mantovani, who wrote
City of God. (
Cinematical's Scott Weinberg
reviewed it mostly favorably at Tribeca.) It's the kind of foreign film that would normally do pretty well on the U.S. art house circuit, if the art houses weren't already overcrowded at the moment.
So the Weinsteins -- who actually helped produce the film, rather than merely buying the finished product at a festival -- have
made a deal (with unspecified terms) with IFC Films. IFC will release it in a few theaters at the same time that it becomes available through IFC's Video-on-Demand service. Our Christopher Campbell wrote an
excellent summary of this practice, known as "day-and-date," in April. Basically, day-and-date helps non-blockbuster films get seen by more people.
Continue reading Award-Winning 'Elite Squad' to Hit Theaters and VOD Simultaneously
Posted Jun 23rd 2008 8:32AM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, IFC, Sony Classics, Box Office, Family Films, Cinematical Indie, War, Picturehouse
I noticed an unusual number of young girls clutching dolls at a multiplex on Saturday afternoon. This made me very nervous. I know it's summer and school's out, but the early Saturday crowd tends to be non-teenage people like me who try and catch up with the latest Hollywood releases without the distractions of the Friday/Saturday night teen crowd. What were all the young girls coming to see?
Kung Fu Panda?
Get Smart?
Sex and the City?
Nope, the hordes of girls were lining up politely to see the latest trendy indie release:
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl. One of the last three releases from distributor Picturehouse, which is due to shut down completely very soon,
Kit Kittredge may be based on a doll, yet has further indie cred thanks to
Little Miss Sunshine star
Abigail Breslin. And maybe all those little girls will grow up to write their own
Juno some day? In any case, the film opened in five theaters in five cities, two weeks in advance of a wide release, and grossed a super impressive $44,600 per screen, according to estimates compiled by
Box Office Mojo.
Picturehouse also scored with another one of their last-gasp releases, the Mongolian war-mongering
Mongol, which expanded to 94 screens and turned in a muscular performance of $7,914 per screen.
Continue reading Indie Weekend Box Office: American Girl 'Kit' Leads Them All
Posted Jun 20th 2008 1:02PM by Erik Davis
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent, IFC, Movie Marketing, Images, Posters
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Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for
Diminished Capacity (click to enlarge), starring Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen and Alan Alda. Based on Sherwood Kiraly's novel, the film is -- to borrow an old quote from myself -- a "quiet little comedy starring Matthew Broderick as a guy suffering from memory loss due to a concussion who joins up with his Alzheimer's-impaired Uncle (Alan Alda) on a journey to a baseball memorabilia expo to sell a rare card."
While it first premiered back at Sundance, I managed to catch this gem at the Gen Art Film Festival a few months later and really enjoyed it. If you're from Chicago or happen to be a Cubs fan, definitely check out this flick because it's tailor-made for you. Everyone else should enjoy the subtle performances and quirky characters (Alan Alda is a blast to watch); I know I did. As I said back
when I first saw it, it's the kind of film that just leaves you with good vibes. And don't we all need a little of that every now and then? You can check out the film's
trailer over on Moviefone, and make sure you head out and support this indie winner when it hits theaters in NYC (Sunshine Theater), Los Angeles (Music Hall Theatre), Chicago (Century Centre & Renaissance Place) and On Demand (Your living room) this July 4.
Posted Jun 2nd 2008 2:02PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Thrillers, IFC, Magnolia, ThinkFilm, Box Office, Cinematical Indie, Paramount Vantage
Most critics didn't love it, but for the second week in a row, viewers streamed in anyway. Still playing at just two theaters, Joshua Seftel's comedy-drama
War, Inc. (First Look), starring
John Cusack, averaged $12,100 per screen to continue its reign at the top of the indie weekend box office chart, according to estimates compiled by
Box Office Mojo. That gives it a two-week total of $78,700.
Among new specialty releases, Leonard Klady at
Movie City News reports that Tom Kalin's drama
Savage Grace (IFC Films) made $11,150 per screen at the two theaters in New York where it opened.
Julianne Moore stars in a suffocating period piece about a twisted mother/son relationship. You can read more about it in the reviews by
Nick Schager and
Kim Voynar.
Jody Hill's comedy
The Foot Fist Way (Paramount Vantage) opened in four theaters and earned $8,550 per engagement, according to Mr. Klady.
Patrick Walsh offered up a mostly positive review on this "character study about a character you'd never want to meet," a children's Tae Kwon Do instructor who goes off the rails when his wife cheats on him.
Jeffrey M. Anderson described Giuseppe Tornatore's
The Unknown Woman (Outsider Films) as "
a restless, panicked, devastating emotional roller coaster, meticulously planned and executed like a razor." The film follows the travails of a woman who leaves the Ukraine to look for work in Italy. It made $6,000 at one theater in Manhattan.
Continue reading Indie Weekend Box Office: 'War, Inc.' Continues Its Reign
Posted May 31st 2008 12:32PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Deals, Sundance, Cannes, IFC, Magnolia, Distribution, Cinematical Indie
Time to play catch up with a couple of indie distribution deals that were completed during the past few days.
In the warm afterglow of Cannes, IFC Films acquired one more title to add to their stockpile, according to
The Hollywood Reporter: Italian crime drama
Gomorra. Directed by Matteo Garrone, the film is based on a best-selling book and follows five separate stories. "Set in the provinces around Naples," wrote
our own James Rocchi, "
Gomorra's a sweeping, stirring drama that has the shoot-and-loot tension of the best crime cinema but also has the scope and serious intent of great drama."
Gomorra won the Grand Prix at Cannes, which is unofficially considered the "runner-up" prize. IFC plans a theatrical release and will also make it available day-and-date on its video-on-demand service; they are also seeking a cable TV deal of some sort.
Months after it debuted at Sundance,
indieWIRE says that Sean McGinley's comedy-drama
The Great Buck Howard has finally secured distribution from Magnolia Pictures.
Cinematical's Scott Weinberg thought it "might be the most affectionate look back at old-school entertainment since Peter O'Toole boozed his way through
My Favorite Year" and called it "a smoothly, strongly appealing comedy." Colin Hanks and Emily Blunt star as an ex-lawyer and a publicist, respectively, trying to help magician Malkovich make a comeback. Magnolia plans a fall theatrical release.
Posted May 29th 2008 3:02PM by James Rocchi
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, Cannes, IFC, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports
Odd Horten (Bard Owe) knows who he is and what he does. He's a driver for the train, and has spent so many years on the same route that he knows it instinctively; he has his work, he has his life. But in
Bent Hamer's
O' Horten, which played in the Un Certain Regard selection this year at Cannes (and has since been picked up for distribution by Sony Pictures Classics), Horten has to face the fact that his life, as he knows it, is changing; he's hit retirement age, and he simply has no clue what to do next.
Hamer's earlier films had a finely-tuned capacity for observation, perhaps best demonstrated in
Eggs (1995) and
Kitchen Stories (2003); Hamer's English-language debut,
Factotum (2005), took the boozy, woozy prose of Charles Bukowski and put a little air and space in it, turning the alcohol-fueled anger of Bukowski's words which, on the page, hit like a shot of cheap whiskey and turning them into something smoother and finer with the smooth burn of regret going down. In
O'Horten, Hamer's back in Norway, and still crafting careful, considered portraits of day to day life, but ones which nonetheless have a deadpan comedy to them, a careful and humane sense of the absurd.
Continue reading Cannes Review: O' Horten
Posted May 22nd 2008 7:32PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Drama, Independent, Deals, Cannes, IFC, Distribution, Cinematical Indie
IFC Films has acquired yet another hot
Cannes title. British director Steve McQueen's
Hunger has impressed a number of critics, including our own Kim Voynar,
who called it "a brilliant portrayal of a tragic moment in human history." The short article on the acquisition by
Anne Thompson in Variety does not reveal what distribution plans IFC may have in mind.
Michael Fassbender portrays Bobby Sands, an IRA volunteer who led a long hunger strike in 1981 while he was imprisoned on gun charges by British authorities. (More information is
available at Wikipedia or the search engine of your choice.) The case stirred up a considerable amount of controversy; I remember visiting New York City at the time and being besieged by daily headlines in the
Post and
Daily News screaming about one side or the other.
Kim notes that the film doesn't "address the circumstances that led to these men being incarcerated" but commented in response to a reader: "I don't believe we achieve greater humanity by sinking to crass brutality in our treatment of others, regardless of how they might have wronged us ... Nonetheless, I tried to keep the focus of my review on its artistic merits, and in that respect, it's a brilliant film." I hope IFC makes
Hunger as widely available as possible -- it sounds like an incredibly timely subject.
Posted May 19th 2008 5:32PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Foreign Language, Thrillers, Deals, Cannes, IFC, Distribution, Cinematical Indie
Chalk up another deal for IFC Films at Cannes. In addition to their acquisition of distribution rights for Josh Safdie's indie comedy
The Pleasure of Being Robbed, Arnaud Desplechin's acclaimed drama
A Christmas Tale (
Un conte de Noël), Olivier Assayas' family drama
Summer Hours and Russian dramatic fairy tale
Mermaid (which I wrote about
here and
here), they have picked up all North American rights to an Asian serial-killer thriller that screened as one of the Cannes Midnight selections this past Saturday night.
According to
indieWIRE, Na Hong-jin's
The Chaser (
Chugyeogja) "tells the story of a detective turned pimp who finds himself in trouble when several of his girls disappear without paying him." The film was released in its native South Korea in February and was a good-sized hit. IFC Films has not yet announced whether
The Chaser will get a theatrical release or head directly to the company's video on demand service. More information is available at the Korean-language
official site, including a trailer.
David Hudson at
GreenCine Daily gathered links to the first few reviews out of Cannes, which give away the basic structure of the film, so beware if you want to enter cold. The reviewers basically agreed that
The Chaser shows a lot of promise for a first-time director, but whether it fully delivers is a different matter. Several noted the extreme, grisly violence. Remake rights have already been snapped up by Warner Brothers, which
Monika Bartyzel wrote about in March.
Posted May 19th 2008 8:02AM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, IFC, Box Office, Miramax, Cinematical Indie, Paramount Vantage, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Roadside Attractions
Two new indie releases fared well, while two others struggled. Hailing from Norway,
Reprise (Miramax) earned a very good $15,500 per-screen average at three theaters, according to estimates compiled by
Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Our own
James Rocchi gushed in his review: "Directed by
Joachim Trier,
Reprise is one of the most brilliant, heartfelt, exciting and exuberant feature film debuts in recent memory."
Mexican film
Sangre de mi Sangre (AKA
Padre Nuestro) (IFC Films) nestled into the #2 spot, earning $8,500 at one theater in Manhattan. The film follows two teenagers, one honest, one dishonest, trying to reach their disparate goals (reuniting with family, making money).
Eric D. Snider noted: "The trouble is that the film is so bleak as to be almost hopeless ... Its grimness is not matched by its excellence."
Cinematical's Erik Davis raved about German director Christian Petzold's
Yella (Cinema Guild) when he saw it at the Berlin film festival last year: "Like a drug,
Yella slowly creeps on you long after the end credits roll, takes hold of your body and doesn't let go until you're convinced it was one of the best films this year's Berlinale had to offer." Opening at two theaters, the film made $3,450 per screen.
Despite good reviews (82% positive at
Rotten Tomatoes), Georgina Garcia Riedel's
How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer (Maya Releasing) failed to make an impact, opening at 84 theaters and marshaling just $1,040 per screen, per Mr. Klady's estimate.
Continue reading Indie Weekend Box Office: 'Reprise' and 'Sangre' Lead the Way
Posted May 18th 2008 6:02PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Deals, Cannes, IFC, Distribution, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie
IFC Films has certainly been busy making deals at
Cannes.
As I posted a few days ago, they picked up Josh Safdie's indie comedy
The Pleasure of Being Robbed and Arnaud Desplechin's drama
A Christmas Tale (
Un conte de Noël), which impressed
our own Kim Voynar with its "humor, beauty and depth." Now they've added two more films to their arsenal, according to
indieWIRE, both European dramas.
The latest from director
Olivier Assayas (
Demonlover,
Clean,
Boarding Gate) is entitled
Summer Hours and stars
Juliette Binoche,
Charles Berling and
Jérémie Renier as siblings dealing with the death of their mother. They must make hard decisions about what to do with her valuable estate and all its many possessions. The film opened in France in early March. IFC plans a US theatrical release next year. More information in French is available at the official, super-duper, Flash enabled, slow loading
official site.
Russian dramatic fairy tale
Mermaid (pictured) won
Anna Melikyan the prize for best director when the film played in the World Cinema section at Sundance this year. The film follows a young girl with telekinetic powers into adulthood, where she encounters the mysteries of love.
Mariya Shalayeva plays Alisa as an adult.
Mermaid has been provoking good reaction on the festival circuit; IFC will not release it in theaters, but instead add it to the offerings on its "Festival Direct" video on demand service, already available on many US cable systems. More infromation is available on the Russian-language
official site.
Posted May 14th 2008 4:35PM by Peter Martin
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Deals, Cannes, IFC, Distribution, Cinematical Indie
The deals are already flying fast and furious in
Cannes. As befits an international marketplace, most of the action involves far-flung territories, but we're keeping an eye out for US distribution deals too.
indieWIRE has a great round-up of the first day's activity, which includes the news that IFC Films has acquired distribution rights to two films.
Good buzz about 24-year-old Joshua Safdie's feature debut
The Pleasure of Being Robbed began when it world premiered at
SXSW in March. Somehow, the
Cinematical crew missed seeing it (hey, we're only human, we miss things sometimes), but
David Lowery at Spout raved: "It's pure cinema, and as such it's one of the best films I've seen this year." The comedy revolves around a kleptomaniac, played by co-writer Eleonore Hendricks, with a philanthropic streak.
Pleasure is the only US title in the Director's Fortnight this year.
In 2005,
Tom Hall declared: "There is not a more important filmmaker working today than
Arnaud Desplechin." He previously made
Kings & Queen and
Esther Kahn, among other critically-acclaimed work. The French filmmaker's latest,
A Christmas Tale (
Un conte de Noël), features Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Paul Roussillon and Mathieu Amalric "in a contemporary family drama set in France." The film plays in Official Competition and has its first screening on Friday night before opening theatrically in France next week.
We'll have to wait to hear about IFC's specific plans for distribution.
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