Cinematical

Yesterday, Lou Lumenick posted a piece for the NY Post on a new book called Our Movie Houses: A History of Film and Cinematic Innovation in Central New York. This got me thinking about oldie movie houses and movie theaters before the huge, crisp megaplex experience.

I grew up in upstate New York. I remember watching Interview with the Vampire at Proctors Theater, and better yet, I remember hitting the Northway Mall's Cine 10 for $3 screenings in chairs so old they reclined into perfection, as long as you didn't move around and make them squeak a lot. They weren't old movie houses, but they weren't today's cinematic incarnations either.

Even today in Toronto, I flock to the Bloor and ignore sound problems and flaws for a grittier moviegoing experience. Sure, I love seeing some blockbusters in IMAX, or on other sweet, high-tech screens, but the experiences I remember are the less-than-slick ones. The charm of the simple indie theater has never died for me, no matter how crisp the pictures get in new theaters. No matter how much the sound envelopes me.

Is it the same for you? Is there an old movie house you love, or mediocre, ill-kept theater that you can't live without? Or, do you praise the end of that flicker of dust on a lens?

I don't know the last time I felt like a kid at the movies, but while watching Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D this past week, I honestly reverted to my 8-year-old self. That isn't to say the movie is necessarily as good as the movies that astonished me as a kid -- because of the subject matter, I'd think about comparing it to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, both of which came out when I was around that age, and neither to which this film holds up in terms of originality or storytelling craft. But as far as holding onto my sense of wonder, Journey is up there.

Of course, it's necessary to point out that Journey would be nothing without the digital 3-D factor. It's actually the first live-action narrative feature to be shot and released in the new format (the non-fiction concert films, U2 3D and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour were technically the first live-action 3-D features), and while it's far from perfect, it is a terrific pioneer. I shall continue favoring the look of animated 3-D films, especially those directed as well as Monster House, and I anticipate that James Cameron's Avatar will blow away all live-action 3-D films released prior to its arrival. For now, though, I'm telling you, with the utmost cinemaphilic urgency: you need to see this ASAP.

Just the other day, I shared the new trailer for the bloody, music extravaganza known as Repo! The Genetic Opera, and I noted that the flick was still without a release date. If Ace Showbiz is to be believed, the opera has found itself a new tentative square on the calendar -- November 7, 2008. That puts it face to face with the next James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.

Spies. Genetic repossessors. Gadgets. Song and dance. Bond girls. Paris Hilton. Okay, going back and forth between the perks of each feature isn't going to win this battle. These are certainly different films, but I wonder if it's wise to put them head to head. But even more to the point -- why the 7th? Heck, seeing that it's only one week after Halloween, it would make more sense to zip it into theaters a week earlier -- it might have to go up against Kevin Smith, but it would have the Halloween creepiness on its side.

Stay tuned to see if this release date sticks.

"If you don't make it yourself, it isn't fun. It's entertainment."

I apologize to my colleagues and readers, because most film critics, reviewers and cinephiles have been known, at least at one point in his or her life, to call a movie "fun." I certainly am guilty of it somewhere, in some review or blog post or whatever. But I'm here to finally set the record straight, even though David Mamet clearly already informed us via the quote above, which is spoken by his wife, actress Rebecca Pidgeon, in his 2000 film State and Main. A movie can not be fun, it can only be entertaining. That is, if we're merely watching it on the screen and had no involvement in its production. Actually, even if we make a film ourself, watching it afterwards should technically still be considered entertaining rather than fun.

Of course, a movie experience can be fun. I have fun at a lot of movies I attend, but not because of the movie I'm watching. Like in the case of my recent experience with The Strangers, the movie was not what was fun, not even my observance of the audience was officially fun. But for me, the ticket buying, the popcorn eating, the sitting in the dark is all fun. And the movie was entertaining, as was the crowd. I guess that the experience of watching a movie at home or on your iPod can also be fun, but still in any scenario, the actual movie itself is never fun; it's only entertaining.

It seems fairly certain that Hancock will do decent business when it hits theaters this week, if only because Will Smith rarely stars in a dud these days -- especially when it's his face selling the movie before all else. Whether or not the film has staying power after opening weekend, however, remains to be seen, but Sony Pictures clearly has a lot of faith in its potential: Last week, the studio revealed its intentions of releasing the film online sometime after its theatrical run and before its DVD release, but only to users with Sony Bravia TV sets. It's a bold maneuver, one that assumes its core base of consumers actually have an interest in Hancock -- but the movie will make a profit either way, so it's a reasonable choice for this intriguing experiment.

Left in the dust by Apple's iPod, Sony continues to struggle in its search for a piece of the digital revolution. Company head Howard Stringer recently told the New York Times that the strategy for releasing Hancock "vanishes the memory of the failures of the Sony Walkman." Well, maybe. While on-demand technology has changed the way audiences consume their media, they don't like paying more money than necessary. Asking your audiences to buy a special device in order to access what, at this point, amounts to one movie -- well, that's asking a lot. But it's still a step in the right direction.

What do you think?

This week, I don't want to talk about anything new. I don't want to discuss the good news about studios and European exhibitors finally agreeing on a virtual print fee. I don't want to comment on Nielsen's research showing the strong consumer appetite for 3-D films (I'll be talking enough about 3-D next week in anticipation of Journey to the Center of the Earth). I don't want to even get people's hopes up about Microsoft's supposed "manners device" that silences cell phones instead of blocking them (signal blocking was recently found to be illegal in the U.S.). I really don't want to comment on Mark Gill's "The Sky is Falling" speech from the L.A. Film Festival loosely concerning the state of art house cinema (the speech is more related to film making and financing, plus I already played Chicken Little last week).

Earlier this month, I posted about a contest for Full Grown Men. It's the story of a 30-something man and father (Matt McGrath) who can't seem to grow up, so he runs away from home -- right back to his childhood. But it's not just a case of a man taking comfort in environmental memories -- he puts on the whole kid suit, reverting back to the self-centered and pretty careless kid he once was as he tries to hook up with an old friend and find reinforcement for his idea that never growing up is okay.

I was able to see a screener of the film, which just opened in New York City, and it's not a bad indie. I will admit -- watching a man act like a selfish child can be pretty tiresome, but there are some great supporting performances that make the journey enjoyable -- Judah Friedlander as the friend, plus Alan Cumming as a "disgruntled ex-theme park employee," Amy Sedaris as "a horny bartending clown," and Debbie Harry as "a delusional mermaid."

The film is currently playing at the Cinema Village Theater in New York City, and will roll out to San Francisco, Florida, and other cities next month.

Mike Jones over at Variety's The Circuit Blog posted yesterday the first 27 films announced for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)and, not surprisingly, most of them hail from previous fest premieres at Cannes, Berlin and SXSW.

The Gala Presentation will be South Korean director Kim Jee-woon's The Good, The Bad and The Weird, which I saw at Cannes earlier this year and loved. Somewhat reminiscent of Tears of the Black Tiger, the film is a crazy, busy Western that centers around a map to a treasure happened upon by a (seemingly) bumbling fool, who ends up being pursued by a good-guy law-enforcement type, a wicked bad guy dressed in black, and, at one point, an entire army. It runs a little long, but it's funny and sharp, with a spectacular chase sequence near the end and a nice final payoff. Toronto film fans should really enjoy this one.

A bit of math tells me that after this weekend, 2008 will be halfway over. But here at The (Mostly) Indie Film Calendar, we prefer to think that 2008 has only halfway begun. There are still six months left to participate in the many cool film-related events that happen every week outside the nation's multiplexes! If you know of something coming up -- special screenings, retrospectives, mini-festivals, etc. -- send me a link! My e-mail is Eric.Snider (at) Weblogsinc (dot) com.

This week, even if WALL-E is what you've always Wanted, try to make room in your life for these...

INDIE THEATRICAL RELEASES

• Gunnin' for That #1 Spot is a doc about the nation's top high school basketball players competing in a tournament -- and the film was directed by Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, so you know it's hip. Cinematical's Scott Weinberg gave it a rave review at Tribeca. It opens today in places where basketball is big, just in time for the NBA draft: New York, L.A., Phoenix, Portland, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C.

• Finding Amanda stars Matthew Broderick as a TV producer who goes to Las Vegas to convince his niece (Brittany Snow) to enter rehab. Our Erik Davis tried to find something nice to say about it at Tribeca but was unsuccessful. Opens today in NYC, L.A., Chicago, Boston, Philly, D.C., San Francisco, and Palm Desert, Calif.

After the jump, more indie theatrical releases, plus the city-by-city list of special events....

It was awesome to see character stills from Watchmen, and then get a glimpse of the Minutemen, but the news that has just gone up on Collider is even sweeter. Some of it is location-specific, so let's start with the stuff we can all enjoy. As if there wasn't already enough reasons to watch The Dark Knight, it looks like a trailer for Watchmen will slip in with all that dark bat goodness. Zack Snyder didn't say for sure, but when Collider asks, his smile and word scramblage are pretty darned revealing. It better be true! It's been a while since I've gone gaga for a trailer as much as a film.

But that's not all. Yeah, he says Doc Manhattan looks cool, which is a relief, but he's also got some great Comic Con news for you lucky buggers that get to go: First, there will be a few minutes of footage to ooh and ahh over. But it also looks like some Nite Owl rumors could be true. When asked whether Nite Owl's ship would land at Comic Con, Zack once again tripped over his words and let out that revealing smile as he discussed how expensive it would be to do so. Expensive, but so very sweet. I can only hope that bit is true for you fans out there. The ship is awesome. Really, absolutely awesome.

Other nuggets you can check out in the video interview: the battle for running time, making the release date, and other nibblets.

Excited yet? No? Then check out our Watchmen gallery below ...

As usual, I'm not going to pretend to understand the technologies behind modern home entertainment. And so, before I begin, I'd like to prematurely thank any commenters who choose to weigh in on things such as "selectable output control," "the analog hole" or any other terms I might misuse or incorrectly explain. The only thing I comprehend about those electronic doohickeys in my living room is that they each somehow connect to my antiquated analog television and through the magic of, well, I don't know, I'm able to watch the occasional classic movie and mindless cake design program.

Those familiar with this column should know that I'm not here to necessarily explain how threats to movie theaters work. I'm just here to yell, "the sky is falling!" from within the lobby of the local cinema and hope that you Henny Pennys and Goosey Looseys are listening to my rants and ramblings and at least try to go to the movies more often (and hopefully buy at least one thing at the concession stand). This time, however, I feel even less knowledgeable about the latest threat, and I feel even more fearful that this is the beginning of the end. The cinemapocalypse, if you will.

OK, so maybe they aren't turning all their movies into Broadway musicals, but it sure seems like it. According to Variety, The Weinstein Co. is out to produce a number of adaptations for the stage, beginning with Finding Neverland, which is expected to hit the stage in 2010 (or re-hit the stage, since the movie was based on a play by Allan Knee). After that, it's a stage version of Pink Floyd's The Wall (apparently adapted from the album, not Alan Parker's 1982 film). Then, other titles in the pipeline include the Miramax hits Shakespeare in Love, Chocolat, Save the Last Dance and Cinema Paradiso. Wait, a stage musical based on a movie that celebrates moviegoing? That's gotta be one of the dumbest things I've heard.

These certainly aren't the first movies to be exploited adapted for the stage, and they won't even be the first stage productions from the Weinsteins, who also had a hand in Tony-winner "August: Osage County," as well as the hit stage adaptation of The Producers and the soon-to-be-a-film "Frost/Nixon." The Finding Neverland musical is already being written, with book by original playwright Knee and music by "Grey Gardens" composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie. The Wall also is in the works under the care of playwright/screenwriter Lee Hall (Billy Elliot).

So far, it appears TWC is only adapting Miramax films, from back when the Weinsteins were in charge there, but maybe one day we'll get to see "Grindhouse: The Musical" or a stage adaptation of Fanboys (maybe it can even hit the stage before theaters, at the rate it's going).

When my parents used to drag me along traveling as a young kid, not much would phase me. However, even at a young age, there was no way I could not be in awe of the Grand Canyon. It's a huge and stunning landscape that reveals almost two billion years of history, and small pictures just don't do it justice. So, now we're getting IMAX 3D. The Hollywood Reporter posts that National Geographic is planning to distribute Grand Canyon: The Hidden Secrets to theaters worldwide, starting in 2009.

The funny thing is -- this isn't a new film, but Kieth Merrill's 34-minute short from 1984. It's also a film that, according to the National Geographic website, has been screening in their Visitor Center every day for about 20 years. Talk about lasting power. The film covers "man's fragile kinship" with the canyon, and then goes into the history, from the Anasazi to Major John Wesley Powell.

Now, if this picks up, and other awe-inspiring geographical locations get short films, I'm hoping we get a 3D IMAX walk through El camino del Rey. Just watching the walk in a small frame is freaky enough. I can't begin to imagine what it would be like huge, and 3D.

As proclaimed by then-president Clinton, June is Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. Pride festivities and parades are gearing up across the world with a flurry of color and rainbows, but lately, it's been about more than just extravagant celebration. Gay marriage is now legal in California, and more people are coming out, like the indirectly out Jodie Foster. Yet, as a new article by Reuters reports, these advancements are not doing anything for the LGBT box office take.

Sure, they're talking about a lot of indie films no one has heard of, but it's not like all of those films are worth just small whispers of existence (where the only people who have heard of it worked on it). The article specifically mentions C.R.A.Z.Y., the 2005 film from Jean-Marc Vallee.

Last year, the Toronto International Film Festival opened with Jeremy Podeswa's World War II film Fugitive Pieces -- an opener that elicited descriptors from "smart choice" to "leaden and pretentious." This year, we're going to get more war, but this time around, it'll be a few years earlier for WWI and it comes from a surprising source.
The NY Post reports that Paul Gross' Passchendaele will kick off the festival on September 4. Yes, this is the Paul Gross of Mountie-clad Due South, who starred with now-director Peter Berg in Aspen Extreme, and recently was one of the Men with Brooms. He wrote the feature, and stars as Michael Dunne -- a man injured in France who comes home to Calgary. However, a romance with a nurse inspires him to go back to France to protect her younger brother, who is embroiled in the third battle of Ypres, otherwise known as Passchendaele.

Unfortunately, even though Gross has a ton of light fare under his belt, this film should prove to be just as heavy as last year's selection. Passchendaele wasn't a battle that ended in great strategic gains, but rather a battle that gained a little bit of land in exchange for the deaths of approximately half a million men. (And most of the territory was regained by Germany the next year.) Still, kudos to you, Mr. Gross, and I can't wait to see what you've done!