The Toronto Wrap 1

In an internet driven era, full of fire and speed and the ultimate in misleadingly independent minded hype, the word “good” is similar to the word “neat,” as spoken to Madonna by Kevin Costner infamously in Truth or Dare. “Good” has no value to those who are desperately hungry to be “great.”
But before you start pointing fingers at the studios or the increasingly self-limiting domestic theatrical distribution system or The Great Unwashed, I would argue that we should look first at both our expectations and what filmmakers considered “indie” are actually making these days.
The rest…

Home Again

Sometimes I forget that coming home is a group process with you all nearby…
Los Angeles didn’t change in the weeks I was gone on the fest circuit. Surprise!
I did come home to my three-pack of Fox Searchlight awards-bait movies. Not only can I listen to that song from Once over and over and over again (all in one viewing), but the packaging is smart looking at environmentally friendly. I would actually be thrilled to see every studio model their packaging on this packaging.
The first half on my Toronto wrap will be up in the morning.
I now feel the need to rev the awards season engines. 20 Weeks is just a few weeks away and Tuesday night is the first of the “didn’t see it in Toronto” screenings.
I have intended to write a piece about the Toronto premiere, Nothing Is Private, a very, very challenging film that is not the kiddie porn that some silly people wish to tag it as. Tomorrow is another day…
Of course, the first priority is to catch up on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
(P.S. Apologies to TWC for tagging them with the delayed and unhappy distribution of Mr. Woodcock in Saturday’s box office comments. It’s actually another bad experience that New Line can blame – unfairly – on Russell Schwartz.)

Sunday Estimates by Klady – Sept 16

Klady's Friday Estimates – Sept 14

This will be Jodie Foster’s weakest mainstream opening of the last decade aside from 1999’s Anna & The King, which opened the week before Christmas, which is traditionally a grower slot, not a show-er slot. The question over at Warners will be whether they played this one right. The film is not actually “Death Wish With A Chick.” It is more complex than that. But how to sell more complex? More importantly, how do you sell to women, for whom Foster is an embodiment of power? Power is great, but do they really want to see her shoot bullets? After all, she is a strong woman in previous films who doesn’t end up firing the gun. Interesting.
Meanwhile, what is The Weinstein Co getting out of Mr. Woodcock? Damned near the same thing they got out of School For Scoundrels. Even The Bad News Bears didn’t open much better. Clearly there is an audience who wants to see Billy Bob Thornton hit people in the balls… but it is a specific and limited group. The difference with Bad Santa? It turned out to be a really good film. But at the start… similar numbers.
I guess someone knew Dragon Wars was opening… not me.
As for Across The Universe and Eastern Promises, you’re going to have to find more than 250 people per screening on fewer than 25 screens each to impress me that you have anything other than high profile talent that people have some interest in seeing.
The Taymor/Beatles film has some good ammunition in the Fab Four and the thumbed Ebert, who raved the film. I expect to see a lot of towns like Toronto, where the critic at one paper gave an absolute rave and the other nearly threatened to burn down the cinema. Sony has a challenge on its hands and whether the movie is actually good or bad (it’s both, actually) has little to do with it. Is there an audience that will pay to see a really complex, beautiful, star-free (domestically, at least… the stars of significance are mostly European) film… will the teen girls show up… or are they just going to wait for that DVD? I don’t get the feeling that this is MTV’s movie of the season… but then again, I have been in a country where MuchMusic dominates MTV for the last couple of weeks.
In the Valley of Elah is the sad story of the weekend, drawing fewer than 100 people per screening of the film on Friday. It is a film for adults, who are notoriously slow to get to the theater, so it will do a little better as the weekend progresses and perhaps over its run. But the must-see is dusty. Crash, by the way, opened on 1864 screens back in 2005. So comparisons are impossible.
I bow to the holding power of The Bourne Ultimatum.
And the quick death of Shoot ‘Em Up once again proves one of my favorite theories… The Geek 8. Unfortunately, this time it was The Geek 5.7. However, the film’s marketing never found a single reason for a woman or non-geek adult to show up for the film. And unless you are happy grossing under $20 million, you HAVE to find another segment, no matter how strong you feel in the geek universe. (I’d be curious to hear from AICNers about why they think that even the geeks didn’t show up in full force for this one.)

Looking At Toronto 3

People aren’t exactly tip-toeing around 9/11 anymore, are they?

One of 3 such outdoor layouts of pirated DVDs on Spadina. The newest titles on Friday afternoon were last weekend’s releases.
By the way… the most popular running gag at TIFF this year was for audience members to cry out, “Arrrrrrrr” when the piracy warning was on screen before movies.

Kill Bill is “Still Ill” on the streets of Toronto.

Box Office Hell – Sept 14

Desperately Seeking Seeger

In spite a long (as in “from the beginning”) relationship with TIFF, the Michael Cohl produced doc, directed by Jim Brown, Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, a Weinstein Co release, was completed after Sundance and now, released in exclusive release in three cities before the end of TIFF ’07. So the only appearance of Pete Seeger at TIFF this year is in another Weinstein Co movie, Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There, in which Seeger goes nuts when Dylan goes electric.
I first wrote about the film last April after the film played Ebertfest. Roger gave the film a 4 star review in today’s Sun-Times.
And this from another Chicagoan…
“In this deeply touching and powerful documentary, we discover that Pete Seeger not only is the most influential folk singer in the world but is as American as apple pie – only more nutritious. This is the
first portrait of Pete the artist, the husband, the father and the most courageous of Americans. He hated bullies no mater how official they were and proved so during our most traumatic movements –
endangered freedom of speech and thought, civil rights and a civic environment.
Just remember – whoever or wherever you see a young guy or girl, with banjo, chest high, and singing freedom, Pete, like Kilroy, has been here.” — Studs Terkel
It would be nice for this film, so much of the moment, to find a place with ticket buyers this fall.

The Brave Directing One

Sex As A Weapon

What struck me most about Ira Sachs