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Indies on DVD: 'The Counterfeiters,' 'My Brother is an Only Child,' 'The Executioner's Song'
Filed under: Drama, Foreign Language, Paramount, Sony Classics, ThinkFilm, New on DVD, Home Entertainment, Cinematical Indie  Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Stefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiters tells the true story of a Nazi plot to flood the US and UK with forged currency, using concentration camp prisoners to do the dirty deeds. Christopher Campbell thought it was "not quite a great film," while Kim Voynar wrote: "At its core, this is a film about courage and morality." Critical consensus overall was 94% positive, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The DVD includes an audio commentary...
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Review: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, ThinkFilm, Theatrical Reviews, Cinematical Indie 
Five years ago, Roman Polanski won an Oscar for directing The Pianist. But he couldn't attend the Academy Awards ceremony, because had he entered the United States, he would have been arrested as soon as his plane touched down. Or so the excuse went. While the scenario might have indeed played out that way, the story of his hypothetical incarceration was at that time more a part of the legend of Polanski than it was a matter of truth. More hearsay and speculation than complete fact.
Now the difference between that legend and the...
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Indie Weekend Box Office: American Girl 'Kit' vs. French 'Mistress'
Filed under: Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, IFC, ThinkFilm, Box Office, Family Films, Cinematical Indie, Samuel Goldwyn Films, Picturehouse  Despite dropping more than 50% in its second week of release, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Picturehouse) outdrew all other specialty releases over the weekend, earning $21,200 per screen at five theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo.
Directed by Canadian indie veteran Patricia Rozema (I've Heard the Mermaids Singing, When Night is Falling), Kit Kittredge has clearly benefited from a devoted fan base that convinced thousands of their parental units to...
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Discuss: Should Filmmakers Give THINKfilm a Break?
Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Deals, ThinkFilm, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Cinematical Indie  Last week, indieWIRE ran a provocative piece by Anthony Kaufman about the financial woes of THINKfilm, one of my favorite indie distributors. Kaufman detailed the cash flow problems at THINKfilm, which were causing acrimony between the distrib and many of its filmmakers, who were alleging that the distributor hadn't paid what it owed to them, as well as to advertising companies charged with marketing films under THINKfilm's banner.
Now indieWIRE has a follow-up piece up by Eugene Hernandez, which says that...
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Indie Weekend Box Office: Mongolian 'Mongol' Battles Antarctic 'Encounters'
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Sony Classics, ThinkFilm, Box Office, Family Films, Cinematical Indie, Picturehouse  An epic tale of a famed warrior edged out the modern explorations of a Bavarian filmmaker. Sergei Bodrov's Mongol (Picturehouse) earned $21,400 per screen in its second week of release at five theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Does this prove that indie film lovers like their blockbuster-style movies, too? If nothing else, I think it shows that people like a wide variety of movies, no matter...
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Review: Encounters at the End of the World
Filed under: Documentary, New Releases, ThinkFilm, Theatrical Reviews, New in Theaters, Cinematical Indie 
Early in Werner Herzog's unique, striking new documentary Encounters at the End of the World, the great German filmmaker reminds us that this will not be another movie about penguins. Spoken in Herzog's familiar rich, ironic drone, the line gets a big laugh, but it also brings up a good point. Does the inclusion of Herzog's personal interests make this a better movie than March of the Penguins? And, ultimately, what do we really expect from a documentary? Let's look at these questions a little...
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Werner Herzog and Jonathan Demme Talk About Life, Cinema
Filed under: Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Independent, Thrillers, New Releases, Noir, Mystery & Suspense, ThinkFilm, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Distribution, DIY/Filmmaking, Cinematical Indie, Stars in Rewind 
It's hard to say which event in midtown Manhattan on Thursday night was cooler: New German Cinema legend Werner Herzog in conversation with director Jonathan Demme at the Times Center, or the two crazed climbers who attempted to scale the New York Times building right next door just a few hours earlier. In some...
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Roman Polanski Doc Still in Dispute
Filed under: Documentary, ThinkFilm, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Cinematical Indie  Growing up in suburban Los Angeles, I knew Roman Polanski as a celebrity long before I knew his work as a film director. The murder of his wife by the Manson Family in 1969 and his controversial rape case in 1977 were well covered in the media, and I formed strong negative opinions about him, especially after he fled the US in 1978.
Still, I'd heard such interesting things about Marina Zenovich's doc Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired -- including Erik Davis' excellent, measured review from Sundance -- that I made sure to...
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Indie Weekend Box Office: 'War, Inc.' Continues Its Reign
Filed under: Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Foreign Language, Thrillers, IFC, Magnolia, ThinkFilm, Box Office, Cinematical Indie, Paramount Vantage  Most critics didn't love it, but for the second week in a row, viewers streamed in anyway. Still playing at just two theaters, Joshua Seftel's comedy-drama War, Inc. (First Look), starring John Cusack, averaged $12,100 per screen to continue its reign at the top of the indie weekend box office chart, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. That gives it a two-week total of $78,700.
Among new specialty releases, Leonard Klady...
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THINKfilm Sued by Allied Advertising
Filed under: Independent, Awards, Deals, Sundance, Cannes, ThinkFilm, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Exhibition, Home Entertainment, Politics  It's been clear for several weeks now that the independent distribution company THINKfilm has been suffering from some money troubles. Around the time the Cannes Film Festival kicked off this month, blogger AJ Schnack assembled reports from various sources that the company owed a lot of money to many different places. Now, Nikkie Finke reports that Allied Advertising Ltd. filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court today against THINKfilm owner
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