Cinematical

• 'Why We Fight' Director to Helm HBO Vietnam Film
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Distribution, HBO Films, Cinematical Indie, War

  I was just re-watching Eugene Jarecki's terrific documentary Why We Fightthe other day and wondering, "man, how did this not win an Oscar?" Both its ineligibility and the strength of the 2006 feature documentary category aside, it's a really great visual essay on the problems of the U.S. military -- particularly the allowance for the military industrial complex to grow so large -- since the mid-20th century. If you've never seen it, you should. It'll bring you up to speed right up to the Iraq War (and feel free to make it an informative...
  



• 'Crazy Love' Story to be Fictionalized for HBO Films
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Drama, Deals, HBO Films

  One of my favorite documentaries last year was Crazy Love, about a New York couple named Burt and Linda who have been together off and on for 50 years despite some serious setbacks, e.g., the time Burt hired a man to throw lye in Linda's face and blind her. These are people who should hate each other -- she for the way he physically harmed her, he for the way she nags and pesters him now -- and yet they are in love. And yet I, a normal person, remain single. Life is bizarre and unfair, that's the message I got...
  



• Sundance @ BAM: Short Film Mayhem
  

  Filed under: Independent, Deals, New Releases, Sundance, Festival Reports, Shorts, Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, HBO Films

  
  
  For an emerging filmmaker, the Sundance Film Festival provides a starting point for the life span of a feature-length work. There's a far greater sense of immediacy, however, for the filmmakers involved in the shorts program, where a wide variety of material tends to begin circulating the festival world before fading into complete obscurity. That's why the short films that screened yesterday as part of the third annual Sundance Institute at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) signified the most...
  



• Tribeca Review: Baghdad High
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Foreign Language, Tribeca, Theatrical Reviews, HBO Films

  

  The HBO-produced documentary film Baghdad High offers a fairly basic yet intriguing enough premise: The filmmakers gave video cameras to four Iraqi high school students and asked them to simply record as much of their "normal life" as possible. (I'm of the opinion that any time you give a teenager a camera, you're getting everything BUT "normal life," but obviously I'm not the first to claim that the act of recording something instantly obliterates "normalcy.") The point here seems to be that ... hey, you know what? Aside from the fact that they live very far away in...
  




• 'Sex and the City' Gets a New Theme Song
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Warner Brothers, Fandom, Movie Marketing, HBO Films

  There is nothing new about the debate over rampant commercialism and Sex and the City. So, I'm not even going to go into whether empowerment can be achieved through shopping. But, Fergie's new theme song for the big-screen SATC has hit the web, and she has no qualms about making an ode to designer labels. Titled Labels or Love, the track sounds like a My Humps redux, and frankly, it's pretty awful. For starters, throughout most of the song I had a hard time understanding what she was even...
  



• Sundance Interview: 'Kids + Money' Director Lauren Greenfield
  

  Filed under: Festival Reports, Podcasts, Interviews, HBO Films, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  An award-winning photographer, Lauren Greenfield's work has appeared in magazines, newspapers and her own books; her debut documentary, Thin, was an impressive and sensitive examination of eating disorders in America through the lives of women at an outpatient center recieving treatment for their problems. She's back at Sundance with her short Kids + Money, an examination of shopping and spending among L.A. teens. Greenfield spoke with Cinematical about finding her subjects, whether school uniforms help keep kid consumerism at bay, and her own high school years in Los Angeles. Greenfield thinks her mix of...
  



• Barry Bonds Gets an Indictment and His Own HBO Film
  

  Filed under: Drama, Sports, Casting, Celebrities and Controversy, Scripts, Home Entertainment, HBO Films

  Variety reports that HBO Films will bring the Barry Bonds story to their network. San Francisco Giant Bonds recently broke baseball's all-time home run record, "allegedly" lied to a jury under oath concerning his use of performance-enhancing drugs, and was indicted on federal charges. Say it ain't so, Barry! HBO has purchased the rights to Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO and the Steroids Scandal That Rocked Professional Sports, which is said to paint Bonds as "a gifted player who made a Faustian bargain...
  



• Jeanne Tripplehorn will Play Jackie O in 'Grey Gardens'
  

  Filed under: Documentary, Drama, Music & Musicals, Casting, HBO Films

  So while I might not be the biggest Jackie OorJeanne Tripplehorn aficionado, I will say this: they do look an awful lot alike. The Hollywood Reporterannounced that Tripplehorn has signed to play the iconic Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in the HBO Films 'remake' of Grey Gardens. Tripplehorn will be joining Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange in the 'true' story of two of the most eccentric women you could ever meet.
  
  Back in 1975, Albert and David Maysles, Susan Froemke, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer made...
  



• AFF Review: Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Theatrical Reviews, Austin, HBO Films, Cinematical Indie

  
  
  
  Oh, what times we live in, that we can enjoy foul-mouthed documentaries like The Aristocrats and F**k. I grew up equating "documentary" with "National Geographic," so any nonfiction film that uses four-letter words or would shock my mom, automatically makes me smile a little. As a result, I was slightly biased toward Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project from the moment the film's subject uttered his first profanities during a stand-up routine.
  
  Rickles reportedly has been reluctant to have his live...
  



• Sarah Jessica Parker Joins 'The Late Bloomer's Revolution'
  

  Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Casting, HBO Films

  Before I go any further, I should probably get this off my chest. I never liked Sex in The City; there, I said it. I know there are millions of you out there with plenty of valid reasons as to why it was the greatest show ever -- but those four chicks just got on my nerves. Which is a shame considering how much I like Sarah Jessica Parker -- anyone who starred in Footloose and Square Pegs can't be all bad.
  
  Variety reports that Parker will star in The Late Bloomer's Revolution. Based...