With all due respect to my esteemed colleague Elisabeth Rappe, geeks are not the only ones who learned important lessons from watching movies this summer. Herewith is my personal, arthouse summer school summary.
Werner Herzog cast a disapproving eye on the ugliness he discovered at Antarctica's McMurdo Station ("they even have a yoga studio and an ATM!") and was skeptical about the sanity of some of the real-life characters he met, which is partly why Encounters at the End of the World was so entrancing. What I learned: Evidence for gay penguins is skimpy, but they have been known to have threesomes.
The Wackness (pictured) didn't became the breakout hit that some had hoped for, but it did showcase the talents of rising star Olivia Thirlby and director Jonathan Levine. What I learned: Never kiss Ben Kingsley in a telephone booth.
Nanette Burstein's filmmaking techniques were much more off-putting than her ultimately winning subjects in American Teen, another would-be smash that didn't live up to box office expectations. What I learned: Never break up with your girlfriend via text message, especially when a documentary filmmaker is interviewing her.
Unexpectedly, Tell No One became the breakout limited-release mystery thrill ride of the summer, and Man on Wire proved that impassioned high wire walkers can make dreams come true and enthrall audiences to boot. What I learned: It's good to be French.
Now it's your turn, all you indie-loving, doc-devoted, world cinema aficionados: what did you learn from the movies this summer?
I'm not partial to overtly subjective reviews, yet I can't seem to find any better way of relating my response to Isabel Coixet's latest film, Elegy, an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel "The Dying Animal," which follows the romance between a college professor and his much younger former student. First, though, a note of appropriateness: early in the film, this professor, the Roth regular David Kepesh, who previously appeared in the novels "The Breast" and "The Professor of Desire," is lecturing about how literature, specifically Tolstoy's "War and Peace," will be appreciated differently by a reader at different points in his or her life. In ten years, for example, it may seem like a new book entirely.
Perhaps in ten years, then, or more likely in thirty, I will be able to watch Elegy again and have a new perspective. Maybe I will be able to relate to Kepesh, here portrayed by Ben Kingsley, when I am in my sixties and have similarly lived and experienced as much. Yet the fact that Coixet's film is so depressing makes me almost hope that I never actually live so long to find out. I should have known, what with the filmmaker's past films, such as My Life Without Me, with their gray atmospheres and dreary dealings with illness and death. While appearing on the outside to be a sexy drama about how one lecherous old man discovers love, Elegy is on the inside really just a slow, uninteresting depiction of a selfish fool who possibly too-late realizes that he's grown old before he's actually grown up.
Out of all the specialty releases that have appeared in theaters -- including American indies, docs, and world cinema -- why is one standing out this summer as a "word-of-mouth" hit? That's how Steven Zeitchik in The Hollywood Reporter descibes Guillaume Canet's terrific French thriller Tell No One, which has grossed nearly $1.7 million since opening in New York and Los Angeles at the beginning of July.
Zeitchik provides background on distributor Music Box Films and its founder William Schopf and then says that strong reviews in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker "certainly helped, particularly with the film's older demo." (Hmm, did someone take a poll?) He also speculates that press days for director Canet, its mystery/thriller genre, and timing -- an indie slipping between the cracks of the big summer movies -- may have been factors.
Tell No One opened the same July 4th holiday weekend as Hancock, and the mixed reviews for the Will Smith picture may indeed have pushed some folks to try the French flick. But The Wackness also opened that weekend, and despite some very good reviews and a smashing opening weekend, its per-screen average has declined as it has expanded across the country. More than one million dollars at the box office is a decent return for a rather desultory stoner period comedy-drama, in my opinion, though it's far less than others thought it could achieve. Still, why did Tell No One -- with, evidently, a substantially smaller marketing budget -- catch on and not The Wackness?
As always, we seek to highlight indie films with this weekly post, so let's pause a moment and celebrate the success of a good, old-fashioned railroad movie. Brad Anderson's Transsiberian opened on two screens and earned a very tidy $17,600 at each, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. That has to be considered a triumph in the face of "The Bat Effect." Perhaps Transsiberian will get to a few more cities before its eventual landing on DVD shelves.
In a very welcome upturn of events, French thriller Tell No One expanded from 19 to 55 screens in its third week of release and averaged $9,725 per screen. More people will have a chance to catch this word-of-mouth success when it expands again this coming Friday.
Also in its third week out, The Wackness expanded by three theaters and kept a decent $4,441 per-screen average. It finally opened where I live and, while I loved Olivia Thirlby more than I should and was convinced that Jonathan Levine has good instincts as a filmmaker, I'm amazed it's done as well as it has, considering how drab so much of it feels. But that's just my minority opinion. I would still encourage you -- especially you 90s kids -- to consider checking it out when it expands wider this Friday.
Finally, Lou Reed's Berlin earned a per-screen average of $3,825 at the two theaters where it opened. Must be more Lou Reed fans out there than I thought.
French thriller Tell No One and American dope comedy The Wackness traded places at the top of the specialty chart in their second week of release, outearning all new indie releases at the US box office this weekend. According to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo, Tell No One made $13,388 per screen as it expanded from eight to 18 theaters, while The Wackness took in $7,258 per screen in its slightly wider expansion from six to 31 theaters.
Tell No One expanded into Chicago, Northern California (Berkeley, Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Jose), Philadelphia, and Seattle. Music Box Films brings it next to Baltimore/Washington DC area, Denver, Detroit, San Diego, St. Louis, and a flock of theaters in greater New York this Friday. It has further expansions laid out for the following three weeks.
The Wackness moved beyond New York and Los Angeles into San Francisco, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, San Diego, Chicago, and Seattle. Sony Pictures Classics will expand the run into four more markets this coming Friday, and then open much wider into 34 more markets on July 25.
Debuting releases August ($6,500 at one theater), Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired ($5,500 at one theater), and Harold ($3,433 per screen at three theaters) rounded out the Top 5. How did everybody else do?
Back at this year's Sundance Film Festival, a bunch of folks were "losing it" over Jonathan Levine's The Wackness-- saying, to a certain extent, that it was the dopest flick of the fest. And that's cool. Support those films you love, right? Well, not long after the film premiered at Sundance, it was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. Wonderful! A film a lot of people loved was picked up and would hit theaters at some point later in the year. Ah, but all was not well in blogger land -- see, a few bloggers were disgusted that SPC picked it up, going so far as to send an email around trying to get other people to either join their cause and/or write about it. Their reasoning was that SPC had a poor track record when it came to promoting indie films, and were afraid The Wacknesswould become yet another casualty. That it would disappear in limited release ... and be eaten by a Cabbage Patch Kid, or whatever.
And so it was. Some folks agreed with their cause, while others couldn't understand why they'd be upset when, in reality, their favorite film WOULD eventually hit theaters. You can't say that about every Sundance film, or festival film for that matter, and so the simple act of being picked up for distribution is, well, kind of a big deal. After a flurry of posts from a few different blogs which attacked the deal, attacked the teaser poster and then attacked the first teaser trailer, it all seemed to fizzle out. From that point on, SPC continued to poor on the Wackness marketing: We got roughly four or five different trailers, a poster, a viral campaign, a dope website, TV spots and a slick soundtrack.
Was SPC botching it all up? Hardly ... but then came the film's box office debut this past weekend ...
What's the formula for success? Teens, drugs, Ben Kingsley kisses and 90s nostalgia, evidently. Jonathan Levine's The Wackness scored the best per-screen average of the weekend -- $24,166 -- at six theaters in New York and Los Angeles, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo.
On the other hand, French thriller Tell No One packed them in without any of those elements, earning $20,120 per-screen at eight theaters, according to Leonard Klady's estimates at Movie City News. As somebody once said: C'est la vie.
At the one theater in Los Angeles where it opened, the box office went Kabluey for the film with the same name ($7,900 in receipts) while Alex Gibney's entertaining, if schematic, doc, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, made $7,307 per screen at 26 theaters celebrating independence across the nation.
Not as many were interested in Holding Trevor ($3,400 per-screen at 2 theaters) and audiences declined interest in Diminished Capacity ($2,830 per-screen at 4 theaters). You can read more about all these releases in Indie Spotlight, the new column by Eric D. Snider.
Notable holdovers include Trumbo ($4,233 per-screen average, 6 theaters, 2nd week of release); Mongol ($3,490 per-screen, 253 theaters, 5th week); Brick Lane ($3,451 per-screen, 31 theaters, 3rd week); Roman de Gare ($2,400 per-screen, 37 theaters, 11th week), and The Visitor ($2,017 per-screen, 176 theaters, 13th week).
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl broke into the overall top 10, expanding to more than 1,800 theaters and drawing $1,953 per screen -- but that's a very disappointing figure after the gangbusters box office of its very limited first two weeks of release. The film has grossed more than $6.1 million so far.
(Note: We're re-posting the following review of The Wackness from The Tribeca Film Festival to coincide with the film's theatrical release this weekend.)
Finally, a film for kids of the 90's!
This is a hard review to write because it feels as if The Wackness was tailor-made for people like me: a male who grew up in New York City and graduated high school in 1994; the year this film was set. (Actually, I graduated in 1995, but it doesn't matter much: same kids, same lingo, same music, same surroundings). How do you review your childhood? These were all kids I hung out with, this was the music we listened to, these were the mix tapes we made and these were the girls we tried to hook up with ... but didn't. And, to some extent, it actually surprises me that so many people have loved The Wackness -- not because it's a terrible movie, mind you, but because kids who grew up in New York City during the '90s were annoying as all hell, with their "Yo, that was mad good" and their "He's got da skillz, kid!" Trust me, I know -- I was one of them.
Welcome back to another funtastic, Americana edition of Insert Caption -- the game where you don't need fireworks to blow our minds. Last week we asked you to step up to the mic with some dope captions for a photo from The Wackness. Congrats to Kurt P., who can now escape the summer heat and chill out with a new portable DVD player. We're jealous. We might stalk you Kurt. Be ready.
1. "Young couple seeks father figure, must have Hawaiian shirt, facial hair, and soft focus." -- Kurt P.
This week we're celebrating our independence with a big, bad red dude named Hellboy. That's right! Guillermo del Toro, Hellboy and all his freak-ish friends are back to get their fight on in Hellboy II: The Golden Army, and the winners behind our three favorite captions based on the photo below will slip away with one Hellboy 2 t-shirt, one Hellboy 2 hat, one Hellboy 2 belt with buckle and one official Hellboy 2 poster. It's hot as hell outside, and come July 11 (when Hellboy 2 hits theaters), it'll get even hotter. Sound off critters!
It usually takes about a week after the kids get out of school for summer to kick in, and if there was ever an official starting line, it's Fourth of July weekend. Maybe you're hitting up a barbecue with some friends this weekend, relaxing by the pool or shooting off some fireworks -- and that's cool. Enjoy yourself. Me? I'll be doing a little of the BBQ, but I'll also enjoy a screening of at least one of the following seven films. See, what's summer without a memorable summertime flick ... or several?
This year's best summertime film (according to me), The Wackness, hits theaters in limited release tomorrow before rolling out to other cities. That film caters a bit more toward a specific time period (1994) and a specific location (NYC), but those summer-in-the-city flicks are rare, especially a good one. Instead of following all those kids who left town, went to camp, traveled abroad, what have you, The Wackness remains with the one dude who didn't leave town. The kid who was stuck spending his summer on hot pavement, dealing pot to his therapist while chasing the girl of his dreams.
But perhaps that's how you remember summer growing up. Or maybe you spent most of your summers in camp, or on the baseball field, or with a few of your best pals on another bizarre adventure. Those summer months hold a lot of memories for you, I'm sure, as they do for me. And what's up with summertime movies and awesome soundtracks? Ever notice that? Anyway, here are some of my favorites ... feel free to tell me yours.
A brand new trailer forThe Wackness has touched down over at Rotten Tomatoes, and it basically covers a lot of what we've already seen from the film. I tell you, a lot of marketing is going into a flick that's opening up on six screens this Friday (all in NY and LA), so here's hoping you remember this puppy when it eventually expands to your city. It's a fun summertime flick, and with the kids now out of school and Fourth of July weekend upon us, this is the kind of movie you want to chill out with in a darkened, air-conditioned theater. Trust me. You'll dig it.
Additionally, I know we've talked tons about the music featured in the film, so here's what the soundtrack looks like. Kids of the '90s should eat this sucker up -- I know I will.
01. "The What" - Notorious B.I.G. feat. Method Man 02. "You Used to Love Me" - Faith Evans 03. "Flava in Your Ear" -Craig Mack 04. "Summertime" - Fresh Prince 05. "Can't Ya See" - Total 06. "I Can't Wake Up" - KRS-One 07. "The World is Yours" - Nas 08. "Can I Kick It?" -A Tribe Called Quest 09. "Heaven or Hell" - Raekwon 10. "Bump and Grind" - R. Kelly 11. "Just a Friend" - Biz Markie 12. "Tearz" - Wu Tang Clan 13. "Long Shot Kick the Bucket" - The Pioneers
Bonus Tracks (only on iTunes) 14. "All the Young Dudes" - Mott the Hoople 15. "Season of the Witch" - Donovan
I haven't seen Jonathan Levine's The Wackness yet (I know, I know), but I have seen his long-in-limbo All the Boys Love Mandy Lane -- almost a year and a half ago now, at SXSW 2007. It's a smart, expertly made horror film that's been mistreated in a way that Levine, who now has a career despite his debut's fate, should never forgive. As Sony Classics prepares The Wackness for a nationwide release, Levine has lined up two more projects that will take him through 2009.
The first, Positive, is a thriller about a young man who visits his fiancee's family in Martha's Vineyard but winds up being seduced by the woman's sister. The second, currently (though I'm guessing not for long) titled Echelon Vendetta, will be an adaptation of David Stone's spy novel about a CIA "cleaner" (think a superspy version of Michael Clayton) who investigates the death of a friend and colleague and stumbles upon something more nefarious. Levine, who wrote the screenplay for The Wackness but not Mandy Lane, will write both projects, and direct at least Positive. More at The Hollywood Reporter.
Horror, character comedy, romantic thriller, spy actioner... That'll be quite a resume. Now if he can actually convince -- who is it now? Senator Films? -- to put All the Boys Love Mandy Lane into at least a few theaters...
Welcome to another edition of Insert Caption -- the game that's so much more dope than it is wacked. Last week, we asked you to bend down, lean forward and give us your best captions for a photo from The Love Guru. I don't know if you all brought in your own Caption Gurus (or if there was some other mystical power at work), but we received some of the most awesomest captions yet. Good job!
1. "This is hard to say, but the reason I called the four of you in to my office is to let you know that you are being downsized." -- Anthony G.
2. "We're sorry, we thought this was a shrink's office." -- Kurt P.
This week, you're gonna have to bring out those mad skillz for a movie that's hotter than a McSkillet, ya dig? (What does that even mean?) Yup, we're shellin' out some lovin' for a little indie called The Wackness, featuring mad rhymes, dope flava ... Josh Peck, Olivia Thirlby, Famke Janssen and Ben Kingsley. Holla! But check it: One grand prize winner will take away a ridiculous Sony DVP-FX820 portable DVD player. Word. Seriously, though, The Wackness is a blast -- great soundtrack, fun movie, take your friends, the whole nine. Flick hits theaters on July 3. Sound off punks!
Here it is, the groove, slightly transformed ... and another trailer for The Wackness has hit the net. I'm not sure why folks were all over Sony Pictures Classics when they picked this flick up at Sundance, because, not for nothing, but they've promoted the hell out of it ever since. This is, like, the fifth or sixth trailer I'm seeing ... for a Sundance film! They've done viral videos, photos, posters -- props definitely go out to the fine folks over at SPC, and now it's our turn to tell all you crackerjacks to go see this dope show when it hits theaters on July 3rd.
Featuring one of the best soundtracks I've heard in quite some time, The Wackness tells of the quirky relationship between a pot dealer (Josh Peck) and his therapist (Ben Kingsley) -- both of whom have no friends and no sex life. There's a cute summer crush (Olivia Thirlby), an ex wife who's barely "there" (Famke Janssen) and a hippie chick (Mary-Kate Olsen) who likes to swing her arms a lot. The film takes place in 1994, so if you grew up in the '90s, there's a ton here to relate to. I had fun with it, I know a lot of other people had fun with it, so if you're just chillin' over Fourth of July weekend, take it over to the theater and settle in for some dopeness, er, wackness.
Red Band trailer (which is also available over at IGN in a larger size) posted after the jump due to random drug use and a little foul language.
I opened up my email before to see a new arrival from someone named Luke Shapiro that went something like, "Yo, yo, yo, check out this video. I found it in the archives. My doorman and super are crazy dope. Stay tuned for more episodes of my flyness." For a brief second, I totally thought it was spam -- until I realized Luke Shapiro was the name of the lead character in The Wackness. Then I clicked over to the video above, which confirmed this was indeed created by one Mr. Shapiro (Josh Peck).
The video, titled Luke's Dope Show, is reminiscent of those old public access shows with colorful, scrolling graphics and 90's style wipes, fades, what have you. The first part of Luke's Dope Show features Luke, Miguel (Luke's Doorman and resident DJ), and Tony (Luke's Super). What do they talk about? You'll have to watch the video above. And if I receive anymore emails from Luke, I'll be sure to let you know.
With all due respect to my esteemed colleague Elisabeth Rappe, geeks are not the only ones who learned important lessons from watching movies this summer. Herewith is my personal, arthouse summer school summary.
Out of all the specialty releases that have appeared in theaters -- including American indies, docs, and world cinema -- why is one standing out this summer as a "word-of-mouth" hit? That's how Steven Zeitchik in 
As always, we seek to highlight indie films with this weekly post, so let's pause a moment and celebrate the success of a good, old-fashioned railroad movie. Brad Anderson's 
French thriller .jpg)
What's the formula for success? Teens, drugs, Ben Kingsley kisses and 90s nostalgia, evidently. Jonathan Levine's 
1. "Young couple seeks father figure, must have Hawaiian shirt, facial hair, and soft focus." -- Kurt P.
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I haven't seen Jonathan Levine's 
1. "This is hard to say, but the reason I called the four of you in to my office is to let you know that you are being downsized." -- Anthony G.
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