Cinematical

• Fan Rant: Truth Be Sold
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Disney, Paramount Classics, Warner Independent Pictures, Cinematical Indie, Paramount Vantage, Fan Rant

  It wasn't that long ago that documentaries carried the stigma of being educational first and entertaining second. As with foreign-language fare, an audience for them lingered on the fringe, and an industry was willing to offer them their very own awards, but they really weren't terribly high-profile box-office prospects... that is, until the '04-'05 summer successes of Fahrenheit 9/11 and March of the Penguins made it seem perfectly okay for audiences to see, and for studios to market, a film without so much...
  




• Indie Weekend Box Office: 'Flight of the Red Balloon' Soars Above
  

  Filed under: IFC, Paramount Classics, Box Office, New on DVD, The Weinstein Co., Cinematical Indie

  A Taiwanese filmmaker's tribute to a celebrated French short soared easily to the top of the indie charts this weekend. Flight of the Red Balloon (IFC Films), directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, averaged $17,450 at the two screens where it played in Manhattan, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Jeffrey M. Anderson wrote: "Like Hou's more recent work, Flight of the Red Balloon moves a little more toward international accessibility and away from...
  



• SXSW Review: Shine a Light
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Music & Musicals, SXSW, Paramount Classics, Theatrical Reviews

  
  
  Concert films are constantly at war with themselves. If the musical act is transcendent, then a filmed document will never come close to reproducing the experience of seeing and hearing the act live, in the same way that an ordinary photograph can only serve, at best, as a reminder of a moment. Even a great, exact reproduction is still just a copy, not the original. If the act is merely average or worse, then why bother to record it?
  
  The Rolling Stones have been captured performing in concert on film or tape numerous...
  



• Cinematical Seven: Best Non-Halloween Costumes and Disguises on Film
  

  Filed under: Classics, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Paramount, Paramount Classics, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Family Films, Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, Lists, Miramax

  

  If you're a true movie geek, you probably refuse to dress up at Halloween in anything but a movie-related costume. I guess I'm not a true movie geek, because two years ago I went as Family Guy's Quagmire, who as of yet is not in any movies. Last year, though, I was Harpo Marx. I haven't decided what to be...
  




• DVD Review -- 50th Anniversary Editon of 'Funny Face'
  

  Filed under: Classics, Music & Musicals, Paramount Classics, DVD Reviews, New on DVD, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie

  One of the most iconic actresses to grace the big screen, Audrey Hepburn, stars opposite Fred Astaire in Funny Face, a light-heartened romp about an oh-so-intellectual bookworm who unwittingly becomes the muse for a French fashion designer. Kay Thompson (best known as the author of the Eloise books) has an entertaining turn as Maggie Prescott, the editor of Quality, a fashion magazine. The film has a completely different plot than the 1927 musical of the same name, although it does incorporate...
  



• TIFF Review: Into the Wild
  

  Filed under: Drama, Paramount Classics, Theatrical Reviews, Festival Reports, Toronto International Film Festival, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  I felt conflicted about reviewing Into the Wild, Sean Penn's new film chronicling the life and death of Christopher McCandless. Jon Krakauer's best-selling book of the same name -- published to wide acclaim in 1996 -- told of how McCandless took a journey across America seeking some deeply-held goal that ended with his death, alone, in an abandoned bus in the Alaskan wilderness. And the reason for my conflicted feeling was simple: For all of my carefully calculated professional cynicism, I don't like speaking ill of the...
  



• HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray: The Battle Rages On
  

  Filed under: Paramount, Paramount Classics, Tech Stuff, Dreamworks, Steven Spielberg, Home Entertainment, Paramount Vantage

  Paramount Pictures shocked Hollywood this week by announcing it would no longer distribute its movies in the Blu-Ray format. Instead, Variety reports the studio would have an exclusive deal with HD-DVD, a partnership that would include films from DreamWorks Animation (like Shrek the Third). Since 2005, Paramount had been releasing videos in both formats while DreamWorks had not released any high-definition discs in either format. With a large consensus in the biz decidedly declaring Blu-Ray the winner in the hi-def war, it was definitely strange...
  



• Scorsese's Rolling Stones Doc Pushed Back Seven Months
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Music & Musicals, Paramount Classics, Distribution

  You like Martin Scorsese, right? You're a fan of The Rolling Stones, correct? Well, get ready to have your "19th Nervous Breakdown." AOL is reporting that the release date for Scorsese's Stones documentary has been pushed back. Waaay back. Seven months, to be exact. Just a couple weeks ago, Monika told you the film would be released in both conventional and IMAX theaters on September 21st. But now we won't get it until "sometime next April." What's the reason? Why can't we get no "Satisfaction?" A spokeswoman says that more time was needed to set up the...
  



• 'Arctic Tale' Trailer: How to Sell a Documentary (Or Not)
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Paramount Classics, Family Films, Cinematical Indie

  When an innocuous-sounding nature movie called March of the Penguins smashed box office records two years ago -- to the tune of $77 million in the US -- you better believe Hollywood was paying attention. Distributor Paramount Classics was quick to snap up rights to another documentary about polar creatures in early November 2005. Call of the North was not some hurried project put together to capitalize on the success of Penguins, though. Filmmakers Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson had worked together on at least two Arctic-themed episodes of the long-running series...
  



• Retro Cinema: The Virgin Suicides
  

  Filed under: Drama, Paramount Classics, Out of the Past, Retro Cinema

  
  
  
  With only three feature films, Sofia Coppola has already roused supersize portions of both praise and disdain. I am firmly planted in the former camp; Coppola's Lost in Translation (2003), is the best American movie I've seen since the year 2000. It's only too easy to explain the latter camp: Americans have never been too fond of women in powerful positions, and because of her obvious connections her detractors believe that she doesn't deserve her position. To many, she's just "daddy's little girl," and is only allowed to play on the big...