"What fresh hell is this?" -Dorothy Parker, reportedly as she cast her first glance upon a poster for Disaster Movie
Let's get this out of the way: Disaster Movie is indeed a disaster first, and a movie barely, pure pop culture pablum for da masses (say it aloud, there you go) as can only be expected from the likes of Aaron Seltzer and Jason Friedberg. It's another opus that, despite opening titles done in the style of Armageddon's and a feeble thru-line borrowed from Cloverfield (mixed with some of The Day After Tomorrow), is as much a send-up of disaster-related...
The last weekend of the summer means the multiplexes will be crammed with Hollywood's leftover products, most of them rolled out without being screened for critics (never a good sign). But don't despair! The Indie Spotlight is here to fill you in on the limited-release, art-house films opening this weekend, and if they're not playing where you live, you can keep an eye out for when they do arrive. See, it gives you something to look forward to!
The six films opening...
Cinematical Seven: Good Ideas for Bad Shakespeare Sequels
William Shakespeare left many of his plays appallingly open ended. Look at Malvolio in Twelfth Night -- he storms off, swearing revenge, and no one seems unduly concerned. Don John the Bastard in Much Ado About Nothing is left unpunished until the weddings are over, and probably escaped once his brother's back was turned. All's Well That Ends Well does anything but end well, with Bertram demanding a DNA test of his wife Helena. But even the most bloody and tragic endings have a little bit of wiggle room -- and as this week's Hamlet 2 proves, all you need...
Only nine years ago, Ron Livingston played the young, fax machine-stealing, disgruntled worker Peter Gibbons in Office Space. Whoever would've thought that less than a decade later, he'd head back to the office to be an aging businessman. Man, Hollywood is tough on age.
Variety reports the Livingston will lead an indie comedy called The Company Men, that Raul Sanchez will direct from his own screenplay. As the star, Ron gets to be "an aging businessman who struggles with a collapsing economy as he tries to...
Last year was great for American independent cinema; this year, not so much. The lineup for the 35th annual Telluride Film Festival has been announced, and only two U.S. filmmakers made the cut -- Paul Schrader (Adam Resurrected) and Tim Disney (American Violet). In addition, David Fincher will be there to screen his cut ofZodiac and to accept the festival's Silver Medallion.
According to Michael Jones at Variety's festival blog, the scarcity of U.S. films is simply...
Author, Director, Distributor, Academics Respond at Length to 'Towelhead' Protest
As Eric wrote yesterday, the upcoming dark comedy Towelhead is facing a protest from an Islamic group because of its title, which is perceived as derogatory and a racial slur. Not only is the film's distributor, Warner Independent, sticking by the title, but they have issued a press release containing lengthy, candid, and sometimes even moving responses to the controversy from: 1) Alicia Erian, the author of the original novel; 2) Alan Ball, the director of the film; 3) Warner Independent itself; and 4) a group of theologians.
You think Hilary Swank would have learned her lesson after finding deep love that died way too early and left her with a suspenders scar. You'd also think she might be wary about her involvement in perky fare, since her forays into the genre haven't brought her as much success as her dramatic work. Guess not.
Swank is going nuts scooping up projects to produce and star in. Earlier this month, she was looking at Fat, and now Varietyreports that she wants to backstab her best friend. Along with producing partner Molly Smith she's grabbed Emily Giffin's debut...
When two guys with a dozen episodes of The Office and an upcoming Judd Apatow project between them (that'd be next summer's biblical comedy Year One), I'd be willing to see what else they've got up their combined sleeve. For Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, that sleeve is home to Bad Teacher, the spec script that Columbia just picked up.
According to Variety, the story concerns "a foul-mouthed, gold-digging seventh-grade teacher who's dumped by her sugar-daddy boyfriend and turns her attention toward a colleague. That pits her against a rival who happens to be the school's model...
Clooney Will Headline Jason Reitman's 'Up in the Air'
For the longest time -- until earlier this week, in fact -- I was convinced that Jason Reitman's next directing project was Diablo Cody's horror flick Jennifer's Body. Maybe that's because at a Team Juno roundtable interview last year, the two of them talked about it like it was their project (which it is, sort of -- Reitman's producing). Anyway, it's actually Karyn "Aeon Flux" Kusama who is directing Cody's follow-up, while Reitman is moving on to helm an adaptation of Walter Kirn's Up in the Air.
I strongly recommend the novel, which is a terrific satire about a perpetually transitory businessman...
In the earlier part of this decade, 
The last weekend of the summer means the multiplexes will be crammed with Hollywood's leftover products, most of them rolled out without being screened for critics (never a good sign). But don't despair! The Indie Spotlight is here to fill you in on the limited-release, art-house films opening this weekend, and if they're not playing where you live, you can keep an eye out for when they do arrive. See, it gives you something to look forward to!
Last year was great for American independent cinema; this year, not so much. The lineup for the 35th annual 
As 
You think 
When two guys with a dozen episodes of 
For the longest time -- until earlier this week, in fact -- I was convinced that Jason Reitman's next directing project was Diablo Cody's horror flick Jennifer's Body. Maybe that's because at a Team 
