Cinematical

• Review: The Intruder -- Kim's Take
  

  Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Wellspring, Theatrical Reviews, Cinematical Indie

  

  When you go to see a Claire Denis film, you don't go expecting to be spoon-fed a lot of information, and The Intruder is no exception. This hauntingly visual, dream-like film blends together a narrative storyline with dream sequences, abstractions, and maybe-prophetic moments. Denis, who said in an interview with Senses of Cinema that she "doesn't make highly intellectual films"  and that The Intruder is like "a boat lost in the ocean drifting,"  makes you work to piece together a narrative out of seemingly obscure and unrelated bits and pieces. While you're never quite sure if you've got it all figured out, you leave feeling...
  




• Weinstein absorbs Wellspring
  

  Filed under: Foreign Language, Independent, Deals, Wellspring, Distribution, The Weinstein Co., Weinstein Brothers, Cinematical Indie

  The distribution company behind some of the most interesting indie and foreign releases in recent memory, from the theatrical rollouts of The Brown Bunny and The Beat That My Heart Skipped, to Funny Ha Ha's DVD release, is turning its theatrical division over to Harvey Weinstein. It's not a deal that could not be foreseen: Weinstein's Company acquired a 70% stake in Wellspring's parent company, Genius LLC, in December, which gave them control of a stunning library, including films by Peter Greenaway, Michaelangelo Antonioni, and Francois Truffaut. The CEO of Genius is...
  



• Review: Unknown White Male
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Independent, New Releases, Wellspring, Theatrical Reviews, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  On July 3, 2003, Doug Bruce found himself on a New York subway headed for Coney Island. Looking around at the nearly-empty car, he realized not only did he not know where he was going, but he also had no idea where he had been, or who he was. At some point in the previous 36 hours, everything he knew about himself had vanished, and he was now a nothing more than an anonymous man clad in shorts, t-shirt, and flip-flops, with no identification and only the few possessions he carried in a backpack. Terrified, Bruce...
  



• Helter Skelter: The Animated Musical?
  

  Filed under: Animation, Wellspring, Newsstand

  Touring the midnight movie circuit during the first quarter of 2006 is the animated musical about Charles Manson, Live Freaky! Die Freaky!, the brainchild of Rancid's Tim Armstrong. The film, which, according to its website, will likely be released unrated, takes place in the year 3069 when a boy discovers a copy of Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry's book, Helter Skelter, which described the murders committed in 1969 by Manson and his "Family" of followers. The boy considers the tome gospel, adopting Manson as a messiah and planning a better world through "music, murder and mayhem", according to the Yahoo!...
  



• New Releases: The Beat That My Heart Skipped
  

  Filed under: Foreign Language, Independent, New Releases, Wellspring, Theatrical Reviews, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  Landing as it does in the middle of a summer movie season in which virtually every major release is either a remake, or else a franchise ender, extender or re-inventer, or else is so self-referential that it might as well be (and I *liked* Mr. And Mrs. Smith), the release of The Beat That My Heart Skipped almost plays like a clever joke. A French remake of an underappreciated American classic (James Toback's Fingers), it manages to respect both its genre-busting source material and placate a contemporary, highly fractured audience that doesn't want to...
  



• The Beat That My Heart Skipped Trailer Online
  

  Filed under: Foreign Language, Independent, New Releases, Tribeca, Noir, Wellspring, Cinematical Indie

  I think, when I first saw Jacques Audiard's The Beat That My Heart Skipped earlier this spring at Tribeca, that I made the mistake of writing it off as a well-made genre film. I'm so glad I had a chance to see it again last night, because now I understand that it's not genre-bound at all, and that's most of what's great about it. If anything, it's a coming-of-age story cast in French neo-noir clothing. A vague remake of James Toback's Fingers, Beat stars Romain Duris as a professional thug...