indieWIRE’s Eugene Hernandez dealt with this issue on his blog on Wednesday, but as I look at what’s opening this weekend, I have to also ask, what’s with the ridiculous number of movies, and potentially interesting ones at that, coming out every single weekend in August. I suppose it’s because August is usually a slightly slower time for the big blockbusters — the major Hollywood tentpoles generally open between Memorial and Independence days — and so every indie distributor out there is trying to grab a piece of the pie. Life hasn’t been so kind to Murderball or Happy Endings, and I must say I was somewhat shocked that the 7:20 PM show of Last Days at the East Village’s Landmark Sunshine last Saturday night was not even half-full, but just scanning this week’s releases is enough to give me a headache. How is someone supposed to see all this stuff? There really isn’t time. There’s more than a week’s worth of notable films opening, and that doesn’t even include any of the more-than-worthy repertory fare.
Of course, with all that said, the movie most of America will flock to The Dukes of Hazzard. I’m guessing at least a $35 million weekend, and if there’s a tremendous drop-off from Wedding Crashers, maybe more. I have to admit that I’m more than curious to see the movie; I was a big fan of the TV show. I was around 8 years old when it first arrived on TV, and I remember watching it on Friday nights after dinner at my grandparents with my younger cousins while all the adults talked. More importantly, don’t necessarily write it off: if you’re a fan of the Broken Lizard movies Super Troopers or Club Dread, this Dukes was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar, who also made both of those films and has directed a few episodes of the best comedy on television, Arrested Development. Personally, I actually haven’t seen either Broken Lizard movie, so I’m not endorsing nor negating … I’m just saying.
Still, for any real film lover, whether you shun big Hollywood product or not, The Dukes of Hazzard has to be the least interesting offering this weekend. What the hell are Focus Features and Sony Pictures Classics thinking? Releasing indie film god Jim Jarmusch‘s Cannes-winning latest Broken Flowers the same weekend as cinephile favorite Wong Kar-wai‘s long anticipated and eagerly awaited 2046? And that’s not even Sony Classics’ only release this week. Why, why, oh why? I have job letters to write. I have to find a new apartment. I have too much stuff to do to spend all weekend in the theaters. Really, it’s not fair. Think of your audience and the Sophie’s choice dilemma with which you’re presenting us.
You know, now that I think about it, we’re lucky there’s no Chumscrubber. The weekend, and next week, after the jump:
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I guess I’ve waited this long for 2046, it can’t be any higher than number two on my priority list. I’m simply dying to see Broken Flowers after reading raves all over the blogosphere and being an intermittent fan of Jarmusch. While the trailer reportedly plays up the trademark Murray-deadpan, knowing its Jarmusch, I don’t expect it to be Wes Anderson, anyway, and I just love watching this new, evolving catalog of roles Murray is creating.
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Sony Classics’ other entry is Junebug, which actually opened at the Angelika and (thankfully) the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas on Wednesday. First of all, I’ve had a crush on Embeth Davidtz since seeing Army of Darkness and Matilda. (Saying “since Schindler’s List” just doesn’t sound right.) Junebug is a bit of a culture-clash tale when a big city art dealer (Davidtz) goes to North Carolina with her husband in order to spend time with her in-laws while also wooing an eccentric southern artist. (One named “David Wark,” by the way, and no, Cinetrix, I didn’t catch that. In fact, I depend on those much smarter than I, such as yourself, to catch those things for me. Thanks.) With everybody likely rushing to 2046 and Broken Flowers, Junebug may be the one I actually get to.
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I was supposed to go to a free screening of My Date With Drew about a week ago, but I wound up skipping it because I had had a bad day and just wasn’t in the mood. Of course, this is just the kind of documentary that could totally catch-on and become a big hit — at least on a Super Size Me scale. To me, it sounds fun, and I’m still curious. Of course, when I invited a friend to either this screening or the one I did go to for Must Love Dogs, she wrote back saying, “Those both look like poo! i can’t respect you as film buff if you go to either.” And she certainly was right about the latter. But who knows: this film following one yutz’s attempts to score a date with long-time crush Drew Barrymore could range from sweet to creepy, and both extremes have potential for entertainment.
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Darwin’s Nightmare, playing exclusively at the IFC Center, is getting rave write-ups everywhere I look. The film is a documentary about how western capitalists introduced the Nile Perch to Tanzania’s Lake Victoria to provide better access to market and sell to European customers only to have this non-native fish disrupt the entire natural ecosystem as it ate everything else in the lake. It sounds fascinating and terrifying, and I can’t wait to see it, even though I may have to.
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A film that seems like it has as big a chance of being a sleeper hit as getting lost among bigger name indie releases, Saint Ralph looks like a pleasant-enough coming-of-age, feel-good, root-for-the-underdog tale like Billy Elliott or maybe even Breaking Away. Set in the ’50s, 14 year old Catholic schoolboy Ralph is punished for his “sins of the flesh” by being forced to join the cross country team. He decides that if he’s determined and works hard, he can run in and even maybe win the Boston marathon, a miracle of such magnificent proportions, it might also be just what it takes to help cure his ailing mother. Of course the Catholic priests consider him a fool and tell him he’s wasting his time, except for the one teacher who’s just a bit different from the rest. He’s played by the generally fantastic and for some reason often forgotten Campbell Scott.
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Secuestro Express : “Every 60 minutes a person is abducted in Latin America. 70% of the victims do not survive.” The title refers to quick kidnappings conducted in Latin America by thugs looking for a quick payday. The film apparently tells the story of one such kidnapping set in Caracas, Venezuela, of a couple played by Jean Paul Leroux and the gorgeous Mia Maestro. Shot on DV and described as a violent and gritty tale that may be a bit too influenced by Tarantino, Secuestro Express feels like a toss-up to me, and in this crowded field, it has an easy chance of getting lost. Is Miramax trying to dispose of films they don’t care about during these final days of the Bros. Weinstein?
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Young Rebels is a documentary from filmmakers Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden who won the 2004 Sundance Film Festival short film award for Gowanus, Brooklyn. This time around, they’ve made a feature-length documentary (although at 70 minutes, it’s a short one) about the burgeoning Hip-Hop movement in Cuba. The film follows five Hip-Hop groups as they attempt to survive and succeed creating rebellious music under an oppressive regime. (Playing through Tuesday at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater on 3rd and A.)
Whew! And that’s just the newbies. There’s a whole slew of repertory stuff out there definitely worth catching, and even though I mentioned it last week, I once again highlight Bernardo Bertolucci‘s 1970 classic The Conformist which seems to be enjoying a sold-out run at Film Forum. It’s only scheduled to run through Thursday, although since the Film Forum web site now says that Saraband “must end on Aug. 11, maybe The Conformist is getting held over. Either way, when several good bloggers insist that you go see something, you should pay attention. Meanwhile, after you’ve been turned away from the sold out screenings at Film Forum, check-out some of these other highlights for the week:
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The “Midnight Movie” is back … or something. It’s certainly all the talk these days. IFC Center will be showing Macauley Culkin as murdering club kid Michael Alig in the 2003 film Party Monster tonight and tomorrow. A better choice, however, would be Park Chan-wook‘s brilliant, compelling, and ultra-violent Oldboy playing at The ImaginAsian on E. 59th Street. Here were some brief comments I wrote after seeing Oldboy back in February. Then there are the East Village theaters that seem to have decided “Midnight Movie” actually means “porn.” Head (no pun intended) to the Landmark Sunshine tonight or tomorrow for The Lollipop Girls in Hard Candy, a 3D X-rated movie from 1977 starring John Holmes. Wait, John Holmes in 3D? Is that really necessary? And if you didn’t understand what all the fuss was about recently when Woodward & Bernstein were all over the news as a team for the first time in 30 years, go to the Two Boots Pioneer tonight at 10:30 or tomorrow at midnight for Deep Throat. OK, so the movie came before Watergate (uhm, again, no pun intended), but it is a very important piece of movie history if only because it proved that Coca-Cola was, in fact, “the real thing.”
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Anthology Film Archives continues its “Tribute to Kino International” with an incredible weekend of films. You could literally stay at Anthology all day on Saturday and Sunday and see some of the best and most important works in film history. Saturday is devoted to the great Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky with three of his most notable films: his first feature My Name Is Ivan at 2:30 PM; his masterpiece Andrei Rublev at 4:30 PM; and the difficult but rewarding Solaris at 8:30 PM. Sunday’s schedule is as good albeit with more variety, starting with the Chaplin classic Modern Times at 2 PM, followed by Fellini‘s I Vitelloni, and capped with two of Fritz Lang‘s best, most famous and most important works, the visionary and futuristic deco classic Metropolis at 6 PM and the creepy thriller M at 8:30 PM.
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Bamcinématek starts its two-week series celebrating the Hong Kong Shaw Brothers Studio, who was responsible for most of the great late-’60s and ’70s Kung Fu movies. Check-out one of the all-time best on Sunday at 6:50 or 9:15 PM when BAM shows Come Drink With Me.
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Most people probably remember the 1983 Mel Brooks comedy To Be or Not To Be, but if you’ve never seen the 1942 original from comedy maestro Ernst Lubitsch starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard, you ain’t seen nothing yet. The most amazing thing about watching the early To Be or Not To be today is the fact that it came out in March 1942, just months after the US finally entered World War II and three years before the world really knew the true evil of Hitler and the Nazis. Lubitsch obviously took the Nazi takeover of his home country personally, and he satirically scours them. Would this movie have been made four years later? Who knows, but probably not, or at least not the same way. Check it out Saturday night at 9 PM at Makor on W. 67th Street.
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As I mentioned yesterday, The Museum of the Moving Image continues its Raoul Walsh series with some fascinating selections including Gentleman Jim on Saturday at 2 PM starring the great Errol Flynn as former boxing champ “Gentleman Jim” Corbett; and one of Walsh’s earliest films, the silent Regeneration, being screened with live piano accompaniment — always a bonus!
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Last but not least, it’s a little bit rare for The Walter Reade Theater to show one film exclusively for a week, but that’s what’s going on right now as the Film Society presents a new restored print of the 1951 The River from the godfather of French filmmakers, Jean Renoir. The River was one of the last films Renoir made and his first in color.
So what are you going to see? Going through this all just makes my head hurt again, especially since I’m going to see The Constant Gardner (sort of, but not exactly, again) on Sunday. At least I won’t have to worry about that one when it finally comes out on Aug. 26. I guess that’s looking at the bright side … or something.
Out of Focus 