Krovich's 2004 Indie Preview

Dan Krovich's 2004 Indie Preview

January 21, 2004

Compleat Female Stage Beauty

The first thing they are going to have to do is to change that title, but other than that it looks promising. Richard Eyre, who is better known as a stage director but had success on film with Iris, will direct this adaptation of Jeffrey Hatcher's play. The period piece takes place in 1661 England when all stage roles, male and female, were played by men. Edward Kynaston is the most famous leading lady in the land (I guess that makes him the Julia Roberts of that day) at the height of his fame, when King Charles II passes a law allowing women to perform on stage and forbidding men from playing female roles. Kynaston's career is ruined unless a current leading lady (and his former dresser) can teach him how to be a "real man" again. The film stars Billy Crudup as Kynaston, Claire Danes as the new leading lady, and Rupert Everett as King Charles II. The film was financed by Artisan, so it's now apparently in the hands of Lions Gate.

The Corporation

That question is the jumping off point for this documentary by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, based on the book "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power" by Joel Bakan. Considering that the world is essentially run by corporations and the recent scandals involving Enron, et. al., it's not a bad idea to take a look at the general nature of these organizations. Seven CEOs, three VPs, two Whistleblowers, one Industrial Spy, one Broker, and individuals including Michael Moore and Noam Chomsky give their takes. The documentary takes the unique approach based on the odd legal fiction that deems corporations as "people" in the eyes of the law. They then subject this "person" to actual diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and DSM IV, the standard tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. Diagnosis: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a psychopath.

Dogville

Lars von Trier's latest opus is finally making its way to America this spring after playing on the festival circuit and in Europe. As might be expected from one of the founders of the Dogme 95 movement, process again plays a big part in his new film. Nicole Kidman plays a woman on the run from a group of gangsters who winds up in a small Rocky Mountain town. The townspeople agree to shelter her in return for her labor. Dogville's style was influenced by televised theater and was shot completely in a studio with a minimum of props (think Our Town). No one would argue that von Trier's films aren't gimmicky, but he usually doesn't forget to tell a compelling story within his cinematic exercises and gets great performances from his actresses.

The Dying Gaul

File this one under dream casting. Three actors who gave three of the best performances of 2003 -- Campbell Scott (Secret Lives of Dentists), Patricia Clarkson (The Station Agent), Peter Sarsgaard (Shattered Glass) -- costar. On top of that, playwright and screenwriter Craig Lucas (Longtime Companion, The Secret Lives of Dentists) makes his directorial debut adapting his own play. The play tells of a triangular relationship that develops between a gay screenwriter, a bisexual Hollywood producer and his wife, while telling yet another story of how Hollywood corrupts the artist with a splash of the cyber in the form of chat room interactions. The play also features a somewhat controversial and debated ending, and here's hoping the movie is the perfect confluence of cast and writer.

Eulogy

Here's hoping that this black comedy about a dysfunctional family that comes together for the funeral of the family patriarch is better than Daddy's Dying, Who's Got the Will? Dark comedy is probably the trickiest genre to pull off, but it can be the most satisfying when it hits. Zooey Deschanel, who made a splash with last year's All the Real Girls, plays Kate, the favorite granddaughter who gets saddled with the responsibility of writing the titular eulogy. When she tries to find happy memories to use in her speech, she instead uncovers family secrets and opens old wounds. The impressive ensemble cast is rounded out by Hank Azaria, Jesse Bradford, Glenne Headly, Famke Janssen, Piper Laurie, Kelly Preston, Ray Romano, Rip Torn and Debra Winger. Artisan Entertainment held the rights to the film, so it will now be handled by Lions Gate. The current plan is to release it May 21st.

Garden State

Zach Braff parlayed his success starring on perhaps the best sitcom currently on television (Scrubs) into getting the money to write, direct, and star in his first feature film. The lucky bastard then was able to cast Natalie Portman as his love interest in this quirky romantic comedy. The clever, self-deprecating style has already garnered praise that says he could develop into the new Woody Allen (and Lord knows the old one hasn't come through in awhile.) In the film, Braff returns home for the funeral of his mother (what is it with dead parents in movies this year?) and reunites with past friends. He also picks this time to go off his antidepressant medication and deal with his issues without the aid of drugs. This is when he meets Portman, a young woman with issues of her own. Miramax and Fox Searchlight picked up the film at Sundance in a joint deal, though it is currently unknown which company will handle the domestic release.

Good Bye, Lenin!

A box office hit in Europe and the big winner at the European Film Awards, Sony Pictures Classics will bring this crowd-pleaser to the U.S. in February. Alex's mom, a staunch and proud Socialist in East Germany, falls into a coma in October of 1989. When she awakens eight months later, the world has changed, the wall has fallen, and East Germany is now a capitalist country. Because her weak condition means that any big shock is life-threatening, Alex must devise a ruse to convince her that Socialism still rules the day. The Rip van Winkle-esque tale is said to be heartwarming and poignant. Hopefully it will be able to overcome the American aversion to subtitles to become a breakthrough here.

Grand Theft Parsons

This film is based on a true story involving alt-country musician Gram Parsons' corpse and his friend and road manager, Phil Kaufman. It seems that while drinking one night, Kaufman made a promise to bury Parsons in Joshua tree when he died. Two months later Parsons died of an overdose, and Kaufman had to spring into action to carry out his friend's wishes before the body was shipped back home for a family funeral. So Kaufman stole the corpse to make good on his promise of taking it to Joshua Tree. Johnny Knoxville plays Kaufman, a role that might be a little more straight than his fans are used to even though this is still a comedy.

Heir to an Execution

One of the 12 finalists for nomination in the Best Documentary Feature category at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, perhaps a nomination could help it gain a theatrical release, though at the very least, it will surely show up on television at some point. Someone making a documentary about their grandparents might seem kind of boring, but when those grandparents were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, things get more interesting. Ivy Meeropol tries to learn what her grandparents were like as people and to understand the times and paranoia amongst which they were executed for treason. Interviews with colleagues of the Rosenbergs and the Rosenberg's son (her father Michael Meeropol) gives insight into the couple, who became icons of an era.

Love Me if You Dare (Jeux d'enfants)

Julien and Sophie began playing their game of dare as childhood friends. Whoever has the "dare box" gets to make the other perform a dare. Now that they've grown up, they still play the game, and it complicates the romantic relationship that develops between the two (perhaps their game is missing the "truth" element.) The film has drawn comparisons to Amélie at least in visual style. The couple is played by Guillaume Canet (who played Leo's friend in The Beach) and Marion Cotillard (who plays Billy Crudup's wife in Big Fish).

The Motorcycle Diaries

On the list last year, but apparently not ready until this year, The Motorcycle Diaries tells the story of the motorcycle trip across South America that Che Guevera took as a 23-year-old medical student with friend Alberto Granado. The future leader of the Cuban Revolution is played by Gael Garcia Bernal (Y tu mama tambien) and this trip, which greatly shaped his beliefs, is sure to be absorbing viewing. Made by veteran Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles (writer/director of Central Station, producer of City of God), the film was picked up by Focus Features for release some time this year.

Open Water

A super low-budget horror/thriller based on a true story about people lost in the middle of nowhere and unable to find their way home plays at this year's Sundance Film Festival. While Open Water may not duplicate the Blair Witch Project phenomenon, there do seem to be some surface similarities. Open Water reads something like Blair Witch with sharks. A young couple is abandoned in the middle of shark-infested waters when the careless crew of a dive boat botches a head count at the end of a scuba diving expedition. The film imagines what their time together in those waters may have been like, and if it's successful, may have audiences rethinking yet again whether they think it's safe to go back in the water. Lions Gate (who now owns Artisan, the company that successfully released The Blair Witch Project) bought the film at Sundance for an expected Summer release, just in time for those beach vacations

P.S.

Dylan Kidd follows up his successful debut (Roger Dodger) by adapting Helen Schulman's comic romantic novel. The novel is about a divorced woman in her thirties who meets a grad school student in his early twenties -- and he may be the reincarnation of her high school crush. Laura Linney and Topher Grace head the cast, which also includes Marcia Gay Harden, Gabriel Byrne, and Paul Rudd. Sophisticated romantic comedies are in short supply, and this looks like it could fill that need. Without distribution lined up as of yet, it may not see theaters until 2005, though a premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival (where Roger Dodger debuted and won the Best Narrative Feature award in 2002) seems likely.

Remember Me (Ricordati di Me)

Gabriele Muccino had a big hit in Italy with his last film L'Ultimo bacio (The Last Kiss), which also had a mildly successful run in the U.S. He returns to the subject matter of the disaffected Italian middle class family with his latest film. It's a fairly standard story of a family with teenage children; the parents are beginning to wonder if they had settled and wonder what would have happened had they followed their dreams instead (he wanted to be a novelist, she an actress), while the kids are starting to formulate their own dreams. Witnessing the youthful ambitions in their children rekindles old thoughts and old heartthrobs reenter their lives. With The Last Kiss (which reminded me stylistically of Magnolia), Muccino showed that he can handle multiple storylines with style, so even if the plot seems a little pedestrian, there's a good chance the filmmaking will make it interesting.

The Return (Vozvraschenie)

This film has impressed over in Europe and has been entered as Russia's official submission for the Best Foreign Film Oscar, while director Andrey Zvyagintsev, making his feature debut, has been declared a rising new talent. When two young brothers who grew up without a father return home one day to find that their father has returned after a 12-year absence, they are excited to get to know the man they only know from a faded photograph. They head out on a trip to reacquaint themselves, but as they head further into the wilderness, the trip turns more hostile and violent. Kino International will handle the U.S. release, so it may be a slow rollout, but perhaps an Oscar nomination or win could speed things up a bit.

Super Size Me

It looks like this project could be the perfect film to pick up on the current documentary winning streak and expand on the success of recent nonfiction films. This is due to the fact that Super Size Me seems to have a certain amount of irreverence that will keep it from being considered too dry, but contains enough substance to allow it to hold up in documentary circles. Director Morgan Spurlock gave himself a month-long challenge: for 30 days he can only eat items on the McDonald's menu, he must eat three meals a day, he must eat everything on the menu at least once, and he must super size if asked. Throughout the month as he documents the physical and emotional changes this diet causes, he interviews fast food experts. In what may become a sort of companion piece to the book Fast Food Nation, Spurlock takes a look at America's growing obesity problem and the industry that may be partially to blame. In a time when lawsuits against fast food chains are beginning to show up, this could be entertaining and an eye-opener. The film will play in competition at Sundance and will be looking to pick up distribution there.

Touching the Void

Kevin Macdonald (Academy Award winner for his documentary One Day in September) takes on Joe Simpson's nonfiction first person account of an ill-fated climb of Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes. Purists may have problems with what seems to be extensive use of dramatic re-enactment in a documentary, but by all appearances, this looks like a truly suspenseful film. Simpson and his climbing partner Simon Yates made the ascent, but disaster struck on the climb down when Simpson broke his leg in several places. With no chance for rescue, it was up to the two men to find a way down the mountain together. IFC will release the film beginning January 23.

Trauma

Director Marc Evans had a minor hit last year in the U.K. with a stylish reality show-themed horror movie called My Little Eye. The film has still not seen release in the U.S., even on video. His next film, Trauma, will be released in February in the U.K. by Warner Bros, but there is currently no distributor in the U.S. Perhaps Warner Bros will pick it up for its new indie division when it plays at Sundance. The film stars Colin Firth as a man who has been in a coma as a result of an auto accident. When he awakens to learn that his wife died in that accident, he retreats into his delusions, seeing his wife everywhere. To try to make sense of the situation, he turns to his psychiatrist, his neighbor, and even a psychic. The people involved give me faith that this will be a solid thriller and not just another "I see dead people" retread. (If we ever get to see it.)

We Don't Live Here Anymore

The last time a film based on a story by Andre Dubus premiered at Sundance, it was In the Bedroom, which was picked up by Miramax and went on to receive multiple Oscar nominations. There's no guarantee that this film from John Curran will share the same success, but it has all the elements to make it an intriguing film. The film of marital discord stars Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern, Peter Krause, and Naomi Watts as two married couples and friends whose lives come to a turning point due to infidelity.

The Yes Men

The Yes Men is a documentary that should be right up the alley of anyone who enjoyed Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Mike and Andy were just a couple of middle-class activists with no economics training who managed to pass themselves off as spokespeople for the World Trade Organization. They created a mock website (www.gatt.org) that many believed to be an official WTO site, issued press releases, and were invited to speak at conferences on behalf of the organization which they opposed. As they travel the world making absurd modest proposals, their ideas are met largely with vague interest. Andy even appears on CNBC's Marketwrap Europe as the WTO's mouthpiece. The Yes Men not only calls into question the actions of the WTO, but also sheds light on how easily the media can be duped. United Artists (the same company that released Bowling for Columbine) plans to release this film in July.

Young Adam

It was on the list in 2003, and it played several film festivals and opened theatrically in the UK, but it hasn't opened in the US yet, so we're still stuck anticipating David Mackenzie's adaptation of Alexander Trocchi's novel. Soon after a young drifter shows up and gets a job on a barge run by a husband and wife, they discover the body of a young woman floating in the river. As an attraction develops between the drifter (played by Ewan McGregor) and the wife (Tilda Swinton), connections between McGregor and the dead girl come to light. There has been a bit of controversy raised over Ewan McGregor's penis. Even though British audiences were apparently able to handle it without incident, Sony Pictures Classics plans to edit it out of the movie to get an R rating for the film when they release it in the U.S. in April. Perhaps Fox Searchlight's decision to release Bertolucci's The Dreamers with an NC-17 rating will serve as a successful example for Sony to follow.