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Good news about one of the films we've been following on this blog for over a year. Choose Connor has been acquired for North American distribution by Strand Releasing.
The film had its World Premiere at CineVegas in May, 2007. I attended the East Coast Premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival in October. I saw it a second time this past April at the Philadelphia Film Festival.
Choose Connor is a singular achievement and the vision of one man, Luke Eberl, who wrote, directed, produced and edited this film at the age of 19.
The cast is filled with industry pros as well as relative newcomers -- no doubt you'll recognize many faces. Veteran Steven Weber (Wings, Brothers & Sisters) stars as Congressman Lawrence Connor. But most of all this is Alex Linz's (Max Keeble's Big Move) film. Linz, 17 at the time, plays a bright but vulnerable campaign volunteer and is onscreen virtually from opening to closing credits. Other favorites include Escher Holloway (The Tillamook Treasure) as the congressman's nephew and Chris Marquette (The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog) in one moving, emotional scene which is one of the most pivotal and important moments in the film.
Strand Releasing is a major theatrical distributor of foreign and domestic independent films. Their home entertainment division is known primarily as the premiere brand for LGBT-themed titles.
Posted by phileysmiley at 11:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I've attended 29 film festivals since the start of 2006, but none as prestigious or breathtaking in scope than the Toronto International Film Festival. At the last two festivals combined I saw over 50 films there, and many of my Top Picks from all festivals over the past couple of years (of over 300 films in total) came out of those lineups.
This year's festival runs from September 4-13 and is considered the premiere film festival in the Western Hemisphere, second in the world only to Cannes. Many films have their World or North American Premieres there.
The complete film list will be revealed on August 19. In the meantime, the following three sections have been announced in their entirety:
Other titles have been rolled out in various press releases over the past couple of months:
2008 Festival To Open With World Premiere Of Paul Gross’s Passchendaele
TIFF Brings Home Best Of The Festival Circuit For Toronto Audiences
TIFF Announces High Profile Special Presentations From Around The World
TIFF Adds International Titles To Masters And Contemporary World Cinema
Gala And Special Presentations Added To The Festival Lineup
Canadian Titles Announced In Contemporary World Cinema
New Works By Homegrown Talent Are Celebrated In Canada First!
Edgy Canadian Films And Documentaries Announced To Screen In Vanguard And Real To Reel
Canadian Favourites Return With Gala And Special Presentations
Posted by phileysmiley at 06:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
We've been following the exploding career of young actor Michael Welch for several years on this blog. He turns 21 today and we'd like to wish him a very Happy Birthday! Michael has an official MySpace at myspace.com/officialmichaelwelch. He'd like all his fans and friends to stop by his birthday blog and post their greetings.
Also, in honor of his birthday, Twilight fan site BellaAndEdward.com has posted a new interview. He also has an official site at michaelwelchonline.com/ where regular updates are posted. Fan site http://michael-welch.com/ had a server crash from all the attention he's been getting. They hope to be back up soon.
It's been an amazing year for the (now) 21-year-old. In February, PROnetworks was the first online to announce that he had been cast in the role of Mike Newton in Twilight, the highly anticipated Summit Pictures release of the film based on Stephenie Meyer's popular novel. Twilight is due in theaters on December 12.
In addition, Michael has seven films just released or coming out before the end of the year, as well as a number of television and even theater projects. He starred in several of my favorite films of 2006 and 2007: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (scheduled to be released within a few months), An American Crime (currently airing on Showtime), and Lost Dream (in post-production). He has also completed Remember the Daze and Day of the Dead (both recently released on DVD), The Thacker Case, American Son (soon to debut on Starz), and four episodes of the FX series The Riches. This fall he will be appearing onstage in Los Angeles...details to be announced.
Posted by phileysmiley at 04:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
As we first reported here two months ago, Dance of the Dead will be released by Lionsgate Home Entertainment and Ghost House Underground as part of an inaugural series of horror films on DVD.
The first collection in the series is an eight film boxed set which will also include Brotherhood of Blood, Dark Floors, Last House in the Woods, No Man's Land: The Rise of the Reeker, Room 205, Substitute, and Trackman.
All eight films will also be available as individual discs.
The DVD boxed set and individual discs will hit store shelves on October 14.
Dance of the Dead was my #1 Top Pick from this year's SXSW Film Festival. This is a film that has so much to like it's bound to cross genres and please audiences of all types. Earlier on this blog you can find my review, pictures from the Q&A following the screening, a video interview with lead actor Jared Kusnitz, and an interview with Kusnitz and co-star Greyson Chadwick.
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I attended a screening of The Dark Knight last night. This won't be my typical review per se because this is essentially an indie film blog and, at $150 million+, this Warner Brothers movie is about as Hollywood as it gets. But it's impossible not to discuss this film, especially in the light of the untimely passing of one of our most gifted actors. The Joker was Heath Ledger's final role.
Pluses: Action, action, action, and more action. Did I say action? Good Lord. Guns, bombs, explosions, knives, fistfights, various other weapons, car chases, more explosions, more bombs, and more car chases.
You know how in most action movies there's one great bomb/explosion scene? Something big is blown up towards the end? Well, in director/co-writer Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight it happens time and time again, all throughout the film. Not only do you not have to wait until the third act to see something huge blown to smithereens but, every time you think, "ah, that's the big explosion of the movie," there's another. And another.
Best of all, though, are the chases. This movie has some of the best chase scenes I've ever seen. And there's not just one. Cars, trucks, motorcycles, and even helicopters are involved in some fantastic action sequences. Crashes galore. And, just like with the explosions, just when you think you've seen "the" big chase scene, there's another. And another.
The action is relentless.
There's even a love story thrown in for the ladies. And not one F-bomb. Not even an S-word. No sex. No skin. The kids will love it. Men, women, teens, all will find something to like here.
Minuses: The storyline is a bit confusing. I'm not giving anything away here, of course -- there's Batman/Bruce Wayne, the Joker, the district attorney, police commissioner, mayor, the Hong Kong businessman, the Mafia, and various other public officials and thugs. All play a role in the plot at some point, more or less, and it's hard to tell the players without a scorecard.
Someone said to me, "a comic book story and it's hard to follow?" Well, frankly, yes. I actually wished it was a bit more mindless so that I could focus on the action. I would have preferred to use my brain less in this case, to tell you the truth. But it didn't lessen the film's impact.
Christian Bale is a capable Batman. But The Dark Knight is, most of all, a tribute to Heath Ledger. His Joker and intense, maniacal portrait of him is, supposedly, what drove him to his death. As the story goes, he couldn't leave the character at the set. It haunted him day and night. It's not hard to see why. His performance is so chilling that it was hard to see him onscreen and not imagine what it must have been like for him when he went home at the end of the day. Ideally, one is not supposed to be taken out of a movie -- the audience should never think about the actor instead of the character. But it was hard not to, knowing that this was the final role of his life, and one which may have contributed to ending it. That made it even more frightening.
The curiosity factor will probably get people into the theaters who might not otherwise have gone. But it's just as well. It will be his legacy, or part of it, and must be seen to be believed.
Is The Dark Knight the best film of the year? I don't think so. Will it make a gazillion dollars and turn out to be the #1 movie of the year? I wouldn't be surprised. Is it worth seeing? Yes, I'd recommend it to just about anyone. Does Heath Ledger deserve an Oscar? I'd say yes. His performance IS all that the hype has led you to believe it is.
Posted by phileysmiley at 11:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Rocker doesn't quite fit the mold of the indies I generally see and review. It's distributed by 20th Century Fox or, more specifically, Fox Atomic -- the new youth-oriented distribution arm created by this Hollywood studio to tap into the MySpace market (literally). In fact, the social networking site holds a prominent place in the film as well as in its marketing -- MySpace and Fox are both owned by Rupert Murdoch. That said, having spent most of my adult life in the music industry, with it still being my first love, any film with rock & roll at its core is of special interest to me.
Robert 'Fish" Fishman (Rainn Wilson), drummer for 80s big-hair rock group Vesuvius, is unceremoniously kicked out of the band just as they're about to begin their volcanic rise to fame and immortality. This forces Fish to put his dreams on the shelf. Enter his nephew Matt (Josh Gadd) who, 20 years later, is in need of a drummer for ADD, the band he's formed with classmates Amelia (Emma Stone) and Curtis (Teddy Geiger). And so begins Fish's journey to redeem himself, avenge his wrong, and fulfill his dream.
The Rocker is schizophrenic. Director Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) made two movies here. One stars Rainn Wilson channeling Jack Black and is a comedy heavy with farce and sight gags. His dialogue is a nonstop jokefest and the audience loved it. The other is an Almost Famous/That Thing You Do drama about a high school band's rise to fame, starring Teddy Geiger as their frontman. He hardly has one funny line in the script, nor do several other bandmates and family members. And that was fine by me. That movie was story- and character-driven with poignancy and heart.
I loved the ADD story (as in Attention Deficit Disorder, which might describe this movie's script). As a singer-turned-actor, Geiger carried that film on his shoulders with heart and soul. Robert "Fish" Fishman's (Rainn Wilson) story is a cute skit that felt shoehorned into an otherwise authentic musical biopic. I get the sense that co-writers Maya Forbes (The Larry Sanders Show) and Wally Wolodarsky (The Simpsons) submitted two separate scripts and the producers couldn't decide which one to go with, so they flipped 'em like a deck of cards and played the hand that came up.
Fortunately, the best thing about The Rocker is, indeed, the music. While the soundtrack does include your standard classic 80s rock and hair band tunes (Kiss, Foreigner) it's the original music which made this movie work for me. Just as one could listen to That Thing You Do over and over and over (which was exactly what writer/director Tom Hanks was aiming for in his film of the same name), the songs by Chad Fischer are good enough that I could have closed my eyes and still enjoyed the movie. Not only that, but the "star" of the film, Teddy Geiger, (Rainn Wilson aside) is a bonafide singer/songwriter who actually does do all the singing himself. As Wilson pointed out in the Q&A following the screening I attended, having authentic music performed by a real band was a priority, and Fischer's songs along with Geiger's artistry fit the bill.
Take out Fischer's original soundtrack and Geiger's performance and what's left is a tolerable 90 minute film that I wouldn't even be writing about right now. As it is, at one hour forty-two minutes, I couldn't wait for the credits to roll so I could go out and buy the soundtrack.
Posted by phileysmiley at 01:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
On Friday, June 27, I attended the Hollywood Premiere of American Son at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival. The film tells the story of a young Marine (Nick Cannon), fresh from Camp Pendleton, who is forced to confront the complexities of adulthood and a volatile home life during a four-day Thanksgiving leave prior to shipping out to Iraq.
American Son wowed audiences at its 2007 Sundance Film Festival debut. It was acquired for distribution by Starz Home Entertainment, who will be premiering it on their cable channel soon.
Director/co-writer Neil Abramson attended along with Nick Cannon (Drumline, Weapons, Day of the Dead), Melonie Diaz (Lords of Dogtown, Remember the Daze, Be Kind Rewind), Michael Welch (Joan of Arcadia, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, Twilight), Matt O'Leary (Spy Kids 2, Spy Kids 3D, Brick), Jay Hernandez (World Trade Center, Hostel Part II), Erika Ringor (Love & Basketball), April Grace (Playing by Heart, Constantine, Choose Connor), Erica Gluck (The Game), and Ray Santiago (Meet the Fockers, Accepted).
Click thumbnails to enlarge
(Clockwise) Neil Abramson, Nick Cannon, & Erica Gluck
Erika Ringor
Erika Ringor & Jay Hernandez
Jay Hernandez & Erica Gluck
Michael Welch
Ray Santiago & Melonie Diaz
Erica Gluck, Jay Hernandez, & Neil Abramson
Michael Welch
Posted by phileysmiley at 03:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Rants are not my style, especially outside of a small circle of friends. There are several topics, however, which dominated some recent conversations which I thought might be worth mentioning in passing -- trailers, the threat of an actors' strike, the IMDb message boards, Get Smart, and Teeth. While any or all might be worthy of its own 1000-word post, some random thoughts should suffice.
Trailers are immensely popular. Articles and posts with links to clips are among the most viewed on the internet. But, personally, I don't like them and try to avoid watching them. Why? Because they are all about spoilers and deception. For example, a comedy trailer usually:
A) Makes the film appear funnier than it is
AND
B) Places all the funniest jokes within the trailer
OR
C) Makes the film appear not to be a comedy at all (a slasher film or coming-of-age drama, for example) or vice-versa
To wit, as lacking in wit as Love Guru was, there were a few genuinely funny gags -- none of which was a surprise since I'd seen them all in the trailer. The idea, of course, is to get butts in the seats. To the extent that they do, trailers are successful and will continue to do what they do as they do it. I just prefer not to watch.
================
Having just returned from a week at the LA Film Festival, where I stayed at the house of some friends in the business, I spent quite a bit of time having meals with actors, writers, and producers (when not seeing movies). Needless to say, the threat of a strike was the number one topic of conversation.
The prevailing feeling is that there is no way SAG will strike given all that would be lost. The town never recovered from the writers' strike and even the threat of an actors' strike has already curtailed or shut down production on projects which were scheduled to begin this summer. It would be devastating.
Having spent close to half my life in a performers' union (AFTRA) I certainly sympathize and side with unions almost without question. In this case, however, one has to wonder whether or not a strike would do so much long-term damage to the membership itself that any gains won would already have been lost. I pray for a quick settlement and no work stoppage.
===============
The IMDb message boards are like the Wild Wild West. Anything goes and posting there is not for the faint of heart. Others avoid them at all costs. But I don't. I have something of an obligation to post there because it's usually the first (and sometimes only) source for information about independent films prior to release. Fans of the film or the actors in it will look there for links to reviews, photos, articles, etc. so it's essential for me to post links to my articles and news there. Unfortunately, it's both a resource for valuable information as well as a soapbox for anyone with an axe to grind. I just try to stay out of the arguments. Maybe it actually helps, in a reverse psychology kind of way. Haters tend to bring out the rabid fans in equal or greater numbers.
==============
Get Smart received mixed reviews although it has done quite well at the box office. I'm one of those (ahem) Baby Boomers for whom the television show was a big part of their childhoods. We watched it religiously and, obviously, the appeal here for us is in the remaking of the characters and dialogue we know so well. "Would you believe..." and "missed it by that much" were parts of our vocabulary just as "is that your final answer" was for another generation.
To the extent that the film pays homage to the original series it's fun. Not only did they reprise all the famous lines, they brought back as many of the original actors as they could for cameos. There was also the theme and both the beginning and ending sequences which mimicked the TV series.
Interestingly, the audience I saw the film with were way too young to have known the original (most didn't even know it was based on a TV series) but they laughed anyway and enjoyed what, for me, had two meanings where, for them, it had one. I enjoyed it and found it to be a nonstop action comedy that kept me engaged from start to finish. It's worth it if you need a couple of hours to kill. But the DVD? Not on my list.
=================
Teeth came out on DVD two months ago following a dismal domestic theatrical run which took in less than $345,000. It was a low budget film but nowhere near that figure. It opened at #7 in its UK release two weeks ago.
I attended the World Premiere of Teeth at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It was originally scheduled as a midnight movie (reserved for horror films) but was moved into prime time because of its subject matter (sex, which always fills the seats). It was one of the few films (Hounddog was another, also about girls and sex) for which it was almost impossible to get a ticket. Of course, that also made it one of the few films to get picked up for distribution almost immediately.
It was one of my Top Picks from that festival but didn't make my Top 25 of the year. I took some pics at the Q&A and the actors were very nice but I could not for the life of me figure out why it was picked up so quickly, other than the fact that it had sex and nudity in it. It's salacious but there's not much else there. But if one approaches it as a B movie horror/comedy it can be a lot of fun. Think Deep Throat meets American Pie. Plus blood.
Posted by phileysmiley at 07:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
If there's one single thing I wish more than anything it's that independent films reach a wider audience than they do today. Any attempt to turn what are now undiscovered gems into discovered ones is a worthy pursuit as far as I'm concerned, and that's why I was excited when IFC Festival Direct debuted back in January.
IFC already had a decent track record with video-on-demand (VOD) offerings, which currently number about 25 a year. Adding a new channel for the purpose of exposing indies to the cable TV audience is a win-win for everyone involved. I see so many films at festivals that never see the light of day.
One of those films, which I've written about extensively on this blog for over two years, is Michael Schoeder's Man in the Chair. It was my #1 Top Pick from the 2007 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and one of my Top Picks of the 2006-07 festival year. The film did have a limited theatrical release but was in danger of fading away into the indie ether.
So it's with great excitement that I'm able to report that Man in the Chair can now be seen On Demand via the IFC Festival Direct series, now through September 2. It's available on most major cable systems -- call your local provider if it's not.
Sometime after the Festival Direct On Demand run concludes in September, IFC will be releasing Man in the Chair on DVD.
This is one of those rare independent films that was in danger of being "one that got away." Fortunately, thanks to IFC, it's been reeled in.
Posted by phileysmiley at 01:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Los Angeles can be a fun town if you know where to go, what to do, and who to do it with. That said, I had a wonderful time at the LA Film Festival -- not because of the lineup of films there but in spite of it. There were far fewer screenings than at most festivals I've attended, most starting at 1 PM or later, and timed in such a fashion that it was difficult to see more than two or three on any given day. Keep in mind that being able to see four or five a day is easy to do at other festivals. There were also times during which only one film was being shown, as opposed to having a choice of as many as 10 during any given block of time at other festivals. The result is that I only saw one or two films a day, except for last Saturday when I saw three. But I made the best of it, and found joy outside the theaters instead.
The good news is, I have so many friends and colleagues in Los Angeles that the meals, meetings, and parties more than made up for the lack of moviegoing. The films I actually did get to see weren't all that impressive either, so I'll be hard pressed to come up with a meaningful list of Top Picks. It will be much easier to list a few "highlights of the week" instead. And, ironically, neither of the two most exciting events I attended involved seeing a new independent film.
One was the Hollywood Premiere of American Son. This film wowed audiences when it premiered at Sundance and was immediately picked up for distribution (it will debut on the Starz premium movie channel). It was screened again at the Brooklyn Academy of Music during their Sundance at BAM series (where I saw it). This was its debut on the West Coast and garnered a lot of media attention due to the fact, for what it's worth, that the star of the film is married to Mariah Carey. She didn't show up for the red carpet but hubby Nick Cannon did, as well as cast members Michael Welch (Twilight), Melonie Diaz (Be Kind Rewind), Matt O'Leary (Brick), Jay Hernandez (World Trade Center), and writer/director Neil Abramson.
I took a great deal of pictures on the red carpet as well as during the Q&A following the screening, which I'll be posting as soon as I can.
The other fun event, although listed as part of the LA Film Festival, wasn't actually run by them at all. It was the World Premiere of Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D, and Warner Brothers was in charge of the festivities. It's ironic that I avoid Hollywood studio movies in favor of independent films shown at festivals, and here I am at a festival sponsored by Film Independent, the folks behind the Spirit Awards, and the most exciting screening is a studio-sponsored big budget blockbuster that spent two years in post-production. Go figure.
It was like the Oscars -- nobody could even approach the theater without an invitation-only ticket, and the public was cordoned off behind barricades on the opposite side of street, facing the rear of the red carpet backdrop. The venue was the magnificent Mann Village Theatre, originally part of the Fox chain, built in 1930 and virtually unchanged to this day. The 1400-seat house was packed to capacity, and WB sprung for free popcorn and sodas.
I passed up the ridiculously packed paparazzi pens on the red carpet before the film for the privilege of actually seeing the movie (most photographers don't) and shadowing a couple of the actors after the screening as they posed for pictures and signed autographs.
Some special personal thanks to all the friends and colleagues who showed me that even a week in LA is too short.
(in alphabetical order)
Josh Hutcherson (Journey to the Center of the Earth)
Doug Lloyd (Still Green producer/editor)
Rocky Marquette (1968 Tunnel Rats)
Georgia Menides (Still Green writer/producer/editor)
and especially Michael Welch (Twilight)
...plus Jill, George, Jack, those friends and family who shall remain nameless along with those who couldn't make it, but did their best.
Next up: some capsule reviews of a few "okay" films.
Posted by phileysmiley at 05:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
As we celebrate the Fourth of July it's also worth noting that the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival is exactly two months away. I've attended 30 film festivals since the start of 2006, but none as prestigious or breathtaking in scope as this one. I saw over 50 films there in 2006 and 2007, and many of my Top Picks from all festivals over the past few years (of over 300 in total) came from the Toronto lineup.
This year's festival runs from September 4-13 and is considered the top film festival in the Western Hemisphere, second in the world only to Cannes. Many films have their World or North American premieres there. Almost every major Academy Award winning film debuted at this festival. The total number of films typically totals over 350.
The excitement is building once again. The official site is up and running, and the following dates should be noted:
July 7
Box Office opens for Ticket Package purchases at 10:00am, Visa only.
July 14
Ticket Packages available for purchase by Visa, debit and cash.
July 15
Canadian film program information announced at 3:00pm.
July 23
Program information announced for Midnight Madness, Sprockets Family Zone, Wavelengths at 3:00pm.
August 19
* Complete film list by title available online as of 3:00pm.
* Gala and Visa Screening Room schedule available online at 3:00pm.
August 23
Premium tickets (Galas at Roy Thomson Hall, Visa Screening Room presentations at the Elgin Theatre) available as of 10:00am by Visa, debit and cash.
August 26
* Festival Box Office at Toronto Life Square opens; Program Book and Official Film Schedule available at 9:00am.
* Schedule information available online at 10:00am.
September 3
* All tickets onsale as of 7:00am.
* Festival Box Office at Roy Thomson Hall opens at 7:00am.
Posted by phileysmiley at 05:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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