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Indies on DVD: 'I'm Not There,' 'Bella,' 'Teeth,' 'Born,' 'Tre,' 'Delirious,' 'Nominated Shorts'

The titles that will probably get the biggest play this week are Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, the indie auteur's take on Bob Dylan that inspired spirited critical debate, and Alejandro Monteverde's romantic drama Bella, which seemed to come out of nowhere to become an audience favorite, playing in theaters for months. Both hit DVD today; I'm Not There is packed with an audio commentary with Haynes, deleted scenes, featurettes, audition tapes, gag reel and more, while Bella has an audio commentary by the director, two featurettes and a music video.

Jess Weixler stars in Mitchell Lichtenstein's Teeth, which inspired no fewer than three reviews here at Cinematical: Scott Weinberg, Kim Voynar and Nick Schager. If that's not enough to lure you in, it's about vagina dentata! Read the reviews to learn more -- each of our reviewers focused on something different that appealed or repelled. The DVD includes an audio commentary by the director, deleted scenes, outtakes and behind the scenes footage.

As a mother of five, Kim Voynar presented a very personal perspective on Abby Ebstein's doc, The Business of Being Born, featuring Ricki Lake. Kim wrote in part: "Epstein does a thorough job of dissecting the cold, hard facts about the history of modern childbirth." Two featurettes are included on the DVD: one takes the viewer behind the scenes, and the other follows up with what happened to the participants.

Continue reading Indies on DVD: 'I'm Not There,' 'Bella,' 'Teeth,' 'Born,' 'Tre,' 'Delirious,' 'Nominated Shorts'

Twilight Watch: More Set Photos, Jackson Rathbone Interview, and More!

Boy, you're gone for a few days to cover a film festival, and you miss all kinds of new Twilight news. Here's a roundup of the most recent Twilight goodness:

Over on the Twilight Lexicon blog, they've posted several of new pics from the Twilight set from Twilighter Janae, who's town was used as the stand-in for Forks.

Also on the Lexicon, more set photos, these from Indian Beach, the stand-in for La Push. These have been edited into a nice little video, for your viewing pleasure. And this is just a preview, they're editing more as we speak. Nice job, guys.

Continue reading Twilight Watch: More Set Photos, Jackson Rathbone Interview, and More!

Indie Weekend Box Office: 'The Visitor' Beats Out 'Young At Heart'

"A damn fine film with a good heart and some really excellent performances" finished atop the indie weekend box office charts. The quote is from our own Scott Weinberg's review of Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (Overture), and I agree wholeheartedly. The film earned $22,000 per-screen at four theaters, according to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo. Richard Jenkins stars as a college professor who strikes up a friendship with an immigrant couple he finds living in his NYC apartment. It's even better -- and deeper -- than that description might sound.

An elderly chorus sings a repertoire of modern pop and rock songs in Stephen Walker's documentary Young @ Heart (Fox Searchlight); audiences responded to the tune of $13,075 per screen at four locations. Cinematical's James Rocchi wrote: "Even for all its flaws and failures it still succeeds in showing us friends who -- through song and art and community and, yes, love -- are doing their best to face it with everything that they've got."

David Ayer's Street Kings (Fox Searchlight) should be included, I suppose, because it's distributed by an studio specialty division known for its indie releases, though not much about the police drama screams "indie." By the per-screen numbers, it finished third, earning an average of $4,864 at each of 2,467 engagements. "As yet another tale of dirty criminals and even dirtier cops," Scott Weinberg opined, "Street Kings works well enough, albeit strictly in a 'been there, seen that' sort of way."

Continue reading Indie Weekend Box Office: 'The Visitor' Beats Out 'Young At Heart'

Indie Weekend Box Office: 'Starting Out in the Evening' Starts at the Top

Riding a wave of near-unanimous praise, Andrew Wagner's Starting Out in the Evening began its box office sojourn at the top, earning an estimated $11,610 per screen at seven theaters, according to Leonard Klady at Movie City News. Wagner previously made the fascinating dysfunctional family comedy drama The Talent Given Us, which starred his own family, but this time performances by non-family members Frank Langella and Lauren Ambrose have been roundly acclaimed. (Check out reviews by Cinematical's James Rocchi and Ryan Stewart.)

Todd Haynes' I'm Not There has received some ecstatic critical response, which translated into "encouraging but less than superlative response," in the words of Mr. Klady. By the numbers, the film made an estimated $5,310 per screen at 130 engagements, which actually sounds pretty good for an unconventional film that even the critics have had difficulty getting a handle on. (Read more: Cinematical reviews by James Rocchi and Jeffrey M. Anderson.)

The third new specialty release, Izuru Narushima's Midnight Eagle, barely opened, earning an estimated $1,630 per screen at two theaters. The action thriller also opened the Tokyo Film Festival but is probably most notable because it's the first time in memory that a Japanese film has opened day and date in Japan and the United States. Sadly, it was slaughtered by the few US critics who saw it, as recorded at Rotten Tomatoes.

Margot at the Wedding expanded from two to 35 theaters and continued to perform well, raking in $11,200 per screen, while No Country for Old Men jumped out into 860 theaters and made an estimated $9,000 per engagement. Mr. Klady pointed to three holdovers: Sean Penn's Into the Wild ($1,920 per screen), Alejandro Monteverde's Bella ($1,970 per screen) and Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead ($3,190).

Indie Weekend Box Office: 'Before the Devil Knows' Very Much Alive

Advance word has been positively gushing for Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead -- our own Erik Davis called it "a film that's exceptional in every way -- from its execution to its acting" while Jeffrey M. Anderson felt it deserves to be on "the list of the year's best American films" -- and New Yorkers flocked to the two Manhattan locations where it opened on Friday. It earned an average of $34,600, according to estimates compiled by Leonard Klady at Movie City News. ThinkFilm Company will expand it steadily over the next few weeks.

Klady says that "the bloom is definitely off the rose for documentaries," citing the poor returns for Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains and How to Cook Your Life as evidence that "the industry has effectively killed the layer of the golden egg with too many non-fiction movies ... that cannot sustain even a niche crowd at the multiplex." Jimmy Carter pulled in just $1,320 per screen at seven locations for Sony Pictures Classics and How to Cook drew about the same ($1,480 per screen at four locations) for Roadside Attractions, according to Klady. Another doc did good business on just one screen for distrib The Weinstein Co. -- Pete Seeger: The Power of Song earned an estimated $12,500, per Box Office Mojo.

Distributor Roadside Attractions had more pleasant news for a fiction feature, however: Bella, the Audience Award winner at Toronto last year, finally opened on 165 screens and did very nicely, averaging $7,390 per locale, according to Klady's estimates. Other new limited releases struggled to find audiences: Music Within ($2,790 average on 17 screens), Mr. Untouchable ($1,950 per-screen at 26 locations), Rails & Ties ($2,160 average at five locations), Black Irish ($1,650 average on four screens) and Slipstream ($970 at six locations).

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