Matt Dentler's Blog

April 2015 Film Preview

Tory Kamen and Becca Rose — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 14:00:00 GMT

Summer blockbuster season is just around the corner, but there's no need to wait until then to see a great movie. April brings us a wide variety of women-centric projects, as well as quite a few films helmed and/or written by women.

The month starts off with "Woman in Gold," starring Helen Mirren as a Jewish woman on a journey to recover her family's heirlooms, which was stolen by the Nazis. It's based on a true story, and Mirren roots the film with her powerful presence. "Closer to the Moon" is another WWII-era drama set for an April release, this one based on the crime capers of a group of Jewish resistance fighters a few years after the end of the war. "Marie's Story" is another period piece, centering around the efforts of a 19th-century nun to help a girl born blind and deaf.

There are a few more women-focused dramas being released in April, including the much-buzzed "Clouds of Sils Maria," which garnered Kristen Stewart the prestigious Cesar Award for supporting actress. Stewart has made waves for being the first American actress to win the French award, and the film looks to capitalize on that with its American release. “Félix & Meira" is another award-winner coming out this month. The Best Canadian Feature from the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival aims to make its mark with the story of an unconventional and radical love affair, one that reaches across racial and religious lines. "About Elly" also confronts cultural biases with its depiction of Iran's upper middle class.

"Effie Gray" tackles the sexual politics of the Victorian era, and with a screenplay from Emma Thompson, it's sure to be intriguing as well as quick-witted. Speaking of intriguing, "The Age of Adaline" follows a woman who mysteriously stopped aging eight decades ago. Blake Lively centers the film as Adaline, struggling with love and trust and all the other things that might follow when one lives seemingly forever.

Courteney Cox makes her big-screen directorial debut (the actress has previously directed episodes of "Cougar Town," which she stars in) with "Just Before I Go," and screenwiter Gren Wells makes hers as well with "The Road Within." Director Mia Hansen-Løve ("Goodbye First Love") directs Greta Gerwig in "Eden," a look at the rise of French electronic music in the 90s.

The month will also see the release of a few very different documentaries. "The Hand That Feeds" focuses on undocumented immigrants struggling to form an independent union, while "Iris" follows 93-year-old Iris Apfel, a flamboyant New York City fashion icon. "Antarctic Edge: 70° South" is focused on the changing climate of the Antarctic's Peninsula and was made with the collaboration of Rutgers University students and scientists.

We'll also see comedic projects featuring Mary Elizabeth Winstead ("Alex of Venice") and Rose Byrne ("Adult Beginners"). Nia Vardalos returns to the screen with a role in "Helicopter Mom," which promises an outrageous performance from the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" star. "Sweet Lorraine" and "Farah Goes Bang" round out the women-centric comedy offerings of the month.

Here are all the women-centric films opening in the month of April. All descriptions are from press materials unless otherwise noted.

April 1

Woman in Gold

"Woman in Gold" is the remarkable true story of one woman’s journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice for what happened to her family. Sixty years after she fled Vienna during World War II, an elderly Jewish woman, Maria Altmann (Helen Mirren), starts her journey to retrieve family possessions seized by the Nazis, among them Klimt’s famous painting "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I." Together with her inexperienced but plucky young lawyer Randy Schoenberg (Ryan Reynolds), she embarks upon a major battle, which takes them all the way to the heart of the Austrian establishment and the U.S. Supreme Court, and forces her to confront difficult truths about the past along the way.

April 3

The Hand That Feeds (doc) - Co-Written and Co-Directed by Rachel Lears

At a popular bakery café, residents of New York’s Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. But behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery, and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick. Mild-mannered sandwich maker Mahoma López has never been interested in politics, but in January 2012 he convinces a small group of his co-workers to fight back.

Risking deportation and the loss of their livelihood, the workers team up with a diverse crew of innovative young organizers and take the unusual step of forming their own independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. In one roller-coaster year, they must overcome a shocking betrayal and a two-month lockout. Lawyers will battle in back rooms, Occupy Wall Street protesters will take over the restaurant, and a picket line will divide the neighborhood. If they can win a contract, it will set a historic precedent for low-wage workers across the country. But whatever happens, Mahoma and his coworkers will never be exploited again.

Effie Gray - Written by Emma Thompson

In her original screenplay “Effie Gray,” Emma Thompson takes a bold look at the real-life story of the Effie Gray-John Ruskin marriage, while courageously exposing what was truly hiding behind the veil of their public life. Set in a time when neither divorce nor gay marriage were an option, “Effie Gray” is the story of a young woman (Dakota Fanning) coming of age and finding her own voice in a world where women were expected to be seen but not heard. “Effie Gray” explores the roots of sexual intolerance, which continue to have a stronghold today, while shedding light on the marital politics of the Victorian era.

April 8

About Elly

As with director Asghar Farhadi's better-known films, “About Elly” concerns the affluent, well-educated, cultured, and only marginally religious members of Iran's upper-middle class. Elly (Taraneh Alidoosti), a pretty young woman invited as a possible romantic interest for one of the newly single men among this group, disappears suddenly without a trace. The festive atmosphere quickly turns frantic as friends accuse one another of responsibility. Plot-wise, Farhadi's drama has been compared to “L’Avventura”; but the film is less concerned with Elly's disappearance per se than with exploring the intricate mechanisms of deceit, brutality, and betrayal which come into play when ordinary circumstances take a tragic turn.

April 10

Clouds of Sils Maria

At the peak of her international career, Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is asked to perform in a revival of the play that made her famous twenty years ago. But back then, she played the role of Sigrid, an alluring young girl who disarms and eventually drives her boss Helena to suicide. Now she is being asked to step into the other role, that of the older Helena. She departs with her assistant (Kristen Stewart) to rehearse in Sils Maria; a remote region of the Alps. A young Hollywood starlet with a penchant for scandal (Chloë Grace Moretz) is to take on the role of Sigrid, and Maria finds herself on the other side of the mirror, face to face with an ambiguously charming woman who is, in essence, an unsettling reflection of herself.

The Sisterhood of Night - Directed by Caryn Waechter and Written by Marilyn Fu

Based on the short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steven Millhauser, "The Sisterhood of Night" is a story of friendship and loyalty set against the backdrop of a modern-day Salem witch trial. Shot on location in Kingston, NY, the film chronicles a group of girls who have slipped out of the world of social media into a mysterious world deep in the woods. The tale begins when Emily Parris (Kara Hayward) exposes a secret society of teenage girls. Accusing them of committing sexually deviant acts, Emily’s allegations throw their small American town into the national media spotlight. The mystery deepens when each of the accused takes a vow of silence. What follows is a chronicle of three girls’ unique and provocative alternative to the loneliness of adolescence, revealing the tragedy and humor of teenage years changed forever by the Internet age.

Farah Goes Bang - Directed by Meera Menon, Written by Laura Goode and Meera Menon

A road-trip comedy that centers on Farah (Nikohl Boosheri), a twenty-something woman who tries to lose her virginity while campaigning for John Kerry in 2004. Farah and her friends K.J. and Roopa follow the campaign trail to Ohio, seizing this charged moment in their lives and the life of their country.

April 17

Closer to the Moon

Set in 1959 Bucharest, “Closer to the Moon” opens as the crime is hatched and executed by old friends from the WWII Jewish Resistance, who seek to recapture the excitement of their glory days. Led by a chief police inspector (Mark Strong) and a political academic (Vera Farmiga), the quintet also includes a respected history professor (Christian McKay), a hotshot reporter (Joe Armstrong), and a space scientist (Tim Plester). Their postwar influence fading amid an ongoing Stalinist purge of Jews and intellectuals, the disillusioned gang retaliates by hijacking a van delivering cash to the Romanian National Bank, staging the robbery to make it look like a movie shoot. Caught and convicted in a kangaroo court, the culprits, with help from an eyewitness (Harry Lloyd) to the robbery, are forced to reenact their crime in a devious anti-Semitic propaganda film.

Felix & Meira

Winner of Best Canadian Feature at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, “Félix & Meira” is the story of an unconventional romance between two people living vastly different realities mere blocks away from one another. Each lost in their everyday lives, Meira (Hadas Yaron), a Hasidic Jewish wife and mother, and Félix (Martin Dubreuil), a Secular loner mourning the recent death of his estranged father, unexpectedly meet in a local bakery in Montreal's Mile End district. What starts as an innocent friendship becomes more serious as the two wayward strangers find comfort in one another. As Felix opens Meira's eyes to the world outside of her tight-knit Orthodox community, her desire for change becomes harder for her to ignore, ultimately forcing her to choose: remain in the life that she knows or give it all up to be with Félix.

Alex of Venice - Co-Written by Jessica Goldberg and Katie Nehra

In “Alex of Venice,” workaholic environmental attorney Alex Vedder (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is forced to reinvent herself after her husband (Chris Messina) suddenly leaves the family. Dealing with an aging father (Don Johnson) who still aspires to succeed as an actor, an eccentric sister (Katie Nehra), and an extremely shy son (Skylar Gaertner), Alex is bombarded with everything from the mundane to hilariously catastrophic events without a shoulder to lean on. Realizing she will thrive with or without her husband, Alex discovers her hidden vulnerability as well as her inner strength as she fights to keep her family intact in the midst of the most demanding and important case of her career.

Cas & Dylan - Written by Jessie Gabe

When 61-year-old self-proclaimed loner and terminally ill Dr. Cas Pepper (Richard Dreyfuss) reluctantly agrees to give 22-year-old social misfit Dyland Morgan (Tatiana Maslany) a very short lift home, the last thing he anticipates is that he will strike her angry boyfriend with his car, find himself on the lam, and ultimately drive across the country with an aspiring young writer determined to help him overcome his own bizarre case of suicide-note writer's block. But as fate would have it, that is exactly what happens. Suddenly Cas's solo one-way trip out West isn't so solo. With Dylan at his side, the two take off on an adventure that will open their eyes to some of life's lessons -- both big and small.

Antarctic Edge: 70° South (doc) - Directed by Dena Seidel

Dena Seidel’s documentary not only offers rare, beautifully shot footage of West Antarctic Pennisula's rapidly changing environment, studying the connections that reveal the concrete impact of climate change; it is also a one-of-a-kind collaboration between the Rutgers University Film Bureau and the Rutgers Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences and contains interviews and insights from some of the world’s leading ocean researchers. It is a fascinating look at their life’s work trying to understand how to maintain our planet.

The Road Within - Written and Directed by Gren Wells

Vincent (Robert Sheehan), a young man with Tourette's syndrome, faces drastic changes after his mother dies. Because his politician father is too ashamed of the disorder to have Vincent accompany him on the campaign, Vincent is shuttled off to an unconventional clinic. There he finds unexpected community with an obsessive-compulsive roommate and an anorexic young woman, and romance eventually -- and uneasily -- follows.

One of Variety's "10 Directors to Watch," screenwriter Gren Wells makes her directorial debut with this ambitious yet light-hearted coming-of-age tale about the potent medicine we all carry within ourselves. The film is packed with a talented ensemble, from emerging talents Zoë Kravitz, Dev Patel, and Sheehan to beloved veterans Kyra Sedgwick and Robert Patrick.

April 23

Sweet Lorraine

The double life of a Methodist minister's wife (played by Tatum O'Neal) catches up to her, as her husband campaigns for mayor in a small New Jersey town.

April 24

Just Before I Go - Directed by Courtney Cox

Ted Morgan (Seann William Scott) has been treading water for most of his life. After his wife leaves him, Ted realizes he has nothing left to live for. Summoning the courage for one last act, Ted decides to go home and face the people he feels are responsible for creating the shell of a person he has become. But life is tricky. The more determined Ted is to confront his demons, to get closure, and to withdraw from his family, the more Ted is yanked into the chaos of their lives. So, when Ted Morgan decides to kill himself, he finds a reason to live.

The Age of Adaline

After miraculously remaining 29-years-old for almost eight decades, Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) has lived a solitary existence, never allowing herself to get close to anyone who might reveal her secret. But a chance encounter with charismatic philanthropist Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) reignites her passion for life and romance. When a weekend with his parents (Harrison Ford and Kathy Baker) threatens to uncover the truth, Adaline makes a decision that will change her life forever.

Adult Beginners - Co-Written by Liz Flahive (Simultaneously releasing to VOD)

A young, hipster entrepreneur (Nick Kroll) crashes and burns on the eve of his company’s big launch. With his entire life in disarray, he leaves Manhattan to move in with his estranged pregnant sister (Rose Byrne), brother-in-law (Bobby Cannavale), and three-year-old nephew in the suburbs – only to become their manny. Faced with real responsibility, he may finally have to grow up – but not without some bad behavior first.

Eden - Directed and Co-Written by Mia Hansen-Løve

The film follows the life of a French DJ who's credited with inventing "French house" or the "French touch," a type of French electronic music that became popular in the 1990s. Greta Gerwig costars. (IMDB)

24 Days - Co-Written by Emilie Frèche

January 20, 2006: After dinner with his family, Ilan Halimi (Syrus Shahidi) gets a call from a beautiful girl who had approached him at work and makes plans to meet her for coffee. Ilan didn't suspect a thing. He was 23 and had his whole life ahead of him. The next time Ilan's family heard from him was through a cryptic online message from kidnappers demanding a ransom in exchange for their son's life. (IMDB)

Helicopter Mom - Directed by Salomé Breziner

An overbearing mom (Nia Vardalos) decides that college would be more affordable if her son were to win an LGBT scholarship, so she outs him to his entire high school. However, he might not be gay. (Rotten Tomatoes)

April 29

Iris (doc) (Opening in New York City)

"Iris" pairs legendary 87-year-old documentarian Albert Maysles with Iris Apfel, the quick-witted, flamboyantly dressed 93-year-old style maven who has had an outsized presence on the New York fashion scene for decades. More than a fashion film, the documentary is a story about creativity and how, even in Iris' dotage, a soaring free spirit continues to inspire. "Iris" portrays a singular woman whose enthusiasm for fashion, art, and people are life's sustenance and reminds us that dressing, and indeed life, is nothing but an experiment. Despite the abundance of glamour in her current life, she continues to embrace the values and work ethic established during a middle-class Queens upbringing during the Great Depression.

April 30

Marie’s Story

At the turn of the 19th century, a humble artisan and his wife have a daughter, Marie (Ariana Rivoire), who is born deaf and blind and unable to communicate with the world around her. Desperate to find a connection to their daughter and avoid sending her to an asylum, the Heurtins send fourteen-year-old Marie to the Larnay Institute in central France, where an order of Catholic nuns manage a school for deaf girls. There, the idealistic Sister Marguerite (Isabelle Carré) sees in Marie a unique potential, and despite her Mother Superior's (Brigitte Catillon) skepticism, vows to bring the wild young thing out of the darkness into which she was born. Based on true events, “Marie's Story” recounts the courageous journey of a young nun and the lives she would change forever, confronting failures and discouragement with joyous faith and love. (Film Movement)

7+ years

mattdentler — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 07:12:07 GMT

That's how long I've had this blog, ever since Eugene Hernandez asked me to join the newly-launched indieWIRE Blog Network. I've decided that the time has come to bring this all to an end. As the years have gone by, I've had much less time to maintain this blog and update it with any semblance of regularity or schedule. Therefore, I'd rather pull the plug than keep it limping along. I know enough about social media, blogs, and digital culture to know that updating a blog only once a week is almost worse never updating a blog at all. So, let's do that instead. Over the next few weeks, I'll wind the blog down with some final posts... assuming I get around to updating it. Thanks for reading.

Warren Klein is back...

mattdentler — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:02:11 GMT

Some more voicemails have been discovered:

NEW!! 1980's Hollywood Agent Voice Mails #2 (msgs for Kim Cattrall, Andrew McCarthy) - watch more funny videos

Errol Morris and his 'Tabloid'

mattdentler — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:15:13 GMT

I had the pleasure of attending the NYC premiere of Errol Morris' new documentary, Tabloid, earlier this week, ahead of its theatrical roll-out this summer. The film is probably the most entertaining piece of work from the legendary non-fiction filmmaker. Yes, even more entertaining than the mild diversion Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. This new film is a must-see, especially for documentary fans who have been waiting patiently for a thick slice of enjoyment (after the more serious stripes of Project Nim, Buck, or Page One). Morris establishes this tone, thanks to the subject of Tabloid, a boisterous and bizarre woman named Joyce McKinney. McKinney will go down in history as one of the great documentary characters. Not only because she's so watchable, but because the events of her life are so crazy.

For New York Magazine, Billy Baker spends some time with Morris in his Cambridge basement, where the filmmaker keeps a treasure trove of news clippings. When you think about it, nearly all of Morris' films are about scandalous subject matter. Some are more absurd than others, but they all take shape from the world of shock journalism. From that article:

The files almost always start when Morris reads what he calls “a tabloid story”—they can appear anywhere, he says, not just in the National Enquirer or the Weekly World News, each of which he has subscribed to for years, but as often on the front page of the Times. “Gates of Heaven, which is my first movie, is a tabloid story from the San Francisco Chronicle,” he says, reciting a headline he says he will never forget: “500 Dead Pets Go to Napa.” This past week, the Times published the belated obituary of Randall Dale Adams, the man wrongly convicted of murdering a Dallas police officer in 1977 and freed in 1989 thanks in part to evidence uncovered in Morris’s The Thin Blue Line. His newest project, Tabloid, is a kind of tribute to his obsession and opens next week. It recounts the sordid life of a former Miss Wyoming with an IQ of 168 who may have kidnapped, or perhaps honestly seduced, a Mormon missionary in England in 1977. “It’s a quintessential tabloid story,” he says. “Sex in chains."

“Everything today is Rod Serling"

mattdentler — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 08:05:52 GMT

I still stand by my long-time belief that Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone is the greatest TV series ever produced. At this point, the show is more than that: it's an entertainment benchmark, a milestone in storytelling form. Every few holiday weekends or so, there will be a Twilight Zone marathon on Syfy and I will stop what I'm doing to revisit a few episodes. I've seen most of them, studied all of them, and adore what the legacy of the series has meant to popular culture. For the New York Times, Maureen Dowd writes a piece that kind of hints at what I'm getting at:

It’s impossible not to watch a stretch of the endlessly inventive Serling and not notice how many of his plots have been ripped off for movies, and how ahead of his time he was. In a popular new Samsung ad, a young woman jumps up from the lunch table and begins screaming because the tarantula screensaver on her colleague’s 4G phone is so lifelike; another guy at the table takes off his shoe and smashes it.
There’s a “Twilight Zone” episode where a Western gunfighter time travels forward and goes into a bar, where he sees a TV with a cowboy coming toward him. Thinking it’s real, he pulls out his pistol and shoots the screen.
Looking at this summer’s lame crop of movies and previews you can appreciate Serling’s upbraiding of the entertainment industry for “our mediocrity, our imitativeness, our commercialism and, all too frequently, our deadening and deadly lack of creativity and courage.”
“The Twilight Zone” was never gangbusters in the ratings, and Serling — who smoked on screen — died at 50 from the ravages of six packs a day. He felt like a sellout and failure. He had sold syndication rights for his show to CBS for a few million, thinking he had not written anything of lasting value.

Project Nim

mattdentler — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:29:10 GMT

James Marsh's first documentary after the Oscar-winning Man On Wire, is the provocative and disturbing Project Nim. The often amusing, but ultimately unsettling portrait of a chimp raised by humans, this is the sort of nostalgia study that should resonate with the older arthouse audience. Project Nim is essentially another cautionary tale about the hubris of man: an unjustified assumption that we know how to nurture better than nature. The story of Nim can relate to other historical examples of egocentric tampering, from science to war. Project Nim opens in theaters this month, and here's the trailer:

Netflix is coming to Latin America

mattdentler — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:21:23 GMT

After expanding its base beyond the United States of America, and into Canada, it looks like Netflix will launch itself in Latin America soon. In a blog entry posted July 5, Netflix marketing exec Jessie Becker writes:

We’re excited to share with you the news that later this year, Netflix will expand to 43 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, offering unlimited TV shows and movies streaming instantly over the Internet to TVs and computers for one low monthly subscription price.
Netflix members in the U.S. and Canada have really taken to watching instantly and we feel great about being able to offer the same combination of convenience, choice and value to people in Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
Members in the region will be able to access Netflix.com in Spanish, Portuguese or English, depending on their preference, and will be able to enjoy entertainment on their TVs via a range of consumer electronics devices capable of streaming from Netflix, as well as on PCs, Macs and mobile devices.

It's probably safe to assume that, like in Canada, the Netflix Latin America launch will be a slow burn. The company will want to make sure that the demand is strong, before bringing a robust offering to these territories. What makes this announcement a major development for Netflix, is that it will be the first big push in foreign-language markets. Sure, there's a large French Canadian population, but it's nothing like the exclusively Spanish and Portuguese territories in Latin America.

Calgary

mattdentler — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 06:20:51 GMT

The latest Bon Iver album is one of the best of the summer... and here's the first video:

Yes I Know

mattdentler — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:14:55 GMT

A trippy new video for the upcoming Memory Tapes album:

Palin Documentaries Face a Tough Future

mattdentler — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:53:41 GMT

The tale of two Sarah Palin documentaries: one that is decidedly pro-Palin and one that is reportedly the opposite. Either way, New York Magazine argues that the films will have a hard time making waves:

To be fair, docs are always a notoriously tricky niche in which to seek success, regardless of subject, and only a dozen have ever even grossed more than $13 million. (Four in this group came from lefty firebrand Michael Moore. The rest mostly star animals like penguins, lions, and Madonna.) And when it opens on July 15, The Undefeated will face another handicap: The audiences for documentaries are generally liberal, says Rocky Mountain Pictures principal Ron Rodgers, who released the 2008 pro-intelligent design documentary Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (with star Ben Stein). "It's hard to keep the attention of the faith-based audience," says Rodgers. "Even with a faith-based message, they don’t like documentaries. [Expelled] performed poorly throughout the whole southeast - the whole Bible Belt was quite soft with it.”

Noted documentary provocateur Nick Broomfield has made the documentary which is supposedly critical of Palin, but even that may have a challenge reaching Michael Moore box office heights. Broomfield's film is currently seeking distribution:

Those behind Broomfield's untitled film are just as confident that their doc won't cross party lines in the other direction. First, there's the previously cited opinion that docs don't play as well in red states; but more specifically, Broomfield's spokesman says that the film will turn off right wingers “because it’s the truth.” Zing!
Ultimately, how it does depends on what kind of story Broomfield tells. “The films themselves have to work as movies,” insists John Lesher, the former head of Paramount Vantage, which distributed An Inconvenient Truth. “Al Gore’s story is as much a story of his personal redemption as it a story about the issue of the climate crisis.” Ninety minutes of people pointing out various ways that Sarah Palin is evil may be cathartic for haters, but not necessarily anything they want to pay for.

Online Video is Ready for Primetime

mattdentler — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:31:51 GMT

Three years ago, when I first started working in the business of online video over at FilmBuff, it was overwhelming evident that most broadband video streaming took place in the morning or around lunchtime. Why? Because it was mostly caused by people sitting at their desk, either: 1. getting ready for the day ahead or 2. browsing videos during their lunch break. Netflix and other embedded services have changed the trends, and Yahoo just published a study to prove it:

Peak online video viewing today is during prime time, between 6 PM and 9 PM. Only two years ago, prime time showed the biggest dip in online video viewing as people turned off their computers and turned on their TVs. But now, more people are streaming TV shows and movies from services like Netflix and Hulu, and they tend to watch those videos during the same time period they previously watched regular TV. While people may not yet be cord cutting, this data suggests that online watching does encroach upon regular cable and satellite TV watching.
Not surprisingly, people are watching longer form videos online. Today, 18 percent of online videos watched are full length TV shows, versus 11 percent two years ago. And 8 percent are full-length movies, up from 5 percent in 2009. Meanwhile, the percentage of overall video content made up of short clips watched online declined by 10 points from 84 percent to 74 percent.

How did we ever evolve from this?

mattdentler — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:24:04 GMT

VOD and streaming feel like science fiction, compared to these procedures:

Never Will Be Mine

mattdentler — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 09:23:44 GMT

Could Netflix and Hulu End Up On Your Cable Box?

mattdentler — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:43:28 GMT

During a discussion at The Cable Show this week, Time Warner Cable Chief Programming Officer Melinda Witmer was open about the idea that consumers could one day access Netflix and Hulu from their cable boxes. Of course, many cable subscribers get their access to these video portals through their broadband component, but this would be something else. You would access Netflix and Hulu video product, as if it were another channel on your cable menu. Here's more about the idea from paidContent:

“Consumers are getting it on every device that’s coming on an IP basis today but not the set top. They look like a programmer to me and it makes me sense that we’d be doing business with them in the home on our equipment too.” She’s them as apotential fit with TWC’s VOD service.
Is TWC in talks with Netflix or Hulu? “We’ve reached out and I think probably virtually every operator has had some discussions. It’s unclear what their rights are to be able to come to a set-top box, which is an interesting question. But we’re interested in offering our customers what they want and if 23 million people or 25 million subscribe to Netflix, there might be something we can do with them that makes sense. Hulu just offers slightly different windows, a different ad load and an opportunity to sell a consumer a robust VOD product at a price that can make sense for them."

Southern Belles

mattdentler — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 06:19:58 GMT

Yet another "funny how life works" moment: About six years ago, I premiered a film at SXSW called Southern Belles. I've always thought the film, which stars Anna Faris, deserved more attention, and now, we've made it available to stream for free on Hulu. Enjoy:

Page One

mattdentler — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 08:16:29 GMT

Page One: Inside the New York Times is a time capsule of a struggle that won't always exist. It's a struggle between "old media" and "new media," a tug-of-war built around the information age and social networking. Andrew Rossi's documentary, which opens nationwide through this summer, gives its audience an unfiltered look inside what transpires when the most respected newspaper in America tries to hold onto that respect. The staff of The New York Times media desk is the appropriate focus, because they themselves are faced with covering the shifting floor of newsmakers and newsbreakers. All the while, these reporters and editors find a way to keep their heads above water while covering outlets that essentially compete with them (WikiLeaks, Vice Magazine, The Huffington Post, Gawker, etc.). A gift-wrapped delight for news junkies, Page One is also about universal issues impacting all businesses today: how does your established company survrive a boom in disruptive technology?

(Page One director Andrew Rossi at the New York Premiere of the film on Monday night, at Lincoln Center's new Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.)

The issues in Page One exist in the businesses of music, film, theater, television, tourism, and all kinds of communication. Experiencing this crisis through a legendary organization like The New York Times, helps put a lot into perspective about the way we treat the information we consume. While few information companies are better examples than the Times, few journalists are better to follow than columnist David Carr. He's the protagonist of the film, a dedicated writer who not only defends the integrity of journalism but also does his best to adapt with the ways it can evolve. Rossi struck gold with Carr, and some of his great onscreen moments, but this isn't some superficial documentary portrayal. David Carr is not simply a wisecracking fireball of charisma, he's a walking and talking personification of the film's deeper meaning. In framing the film around Carr's journey, Rossi commands the same sort of layered reporting that Page One forces you to respect.

Northside grows in Brooklyn

mattdentler — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 06:20:46 GMT

The annual Northside Festival will take place in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, from Thursday through Sunday. Here's the easiest way to describe the festival's programming: it's SXSW in Brooklyn. Northside incorporates music, film, and new media panels for a welcome mix of events that take place in venues all along Bedford Avenue and its outer realms. Run by the folks at the free publication L Magazine, the Northside lineup can be broken down like so:

Up-and-coming musicians at clubs around Williamsburg: Theophilus London, Dom, Oh Land, Wavves, Diamond Rings, Luke Rathbone, Woods, Twin Sister, etc.
Established musicians at McCarren Park: Guided By Voices, Beirut, etc.
Screenings of recent film festival hits at IndieScreen: Errol Morris' documentary Tabloid, Robert Mitchell's drama The Myth of the American Sleepover, and David Dworsky & Victor Köhler's documentary PressPausePlay. That last one, is presented by FilmBuff, so please join us on June 19...
The DIY Film Festival at UnionDocs: Dustin Guy Defa's Bad Fever, Nathan Christ's Echotone, and Zak Forsman's Heart of Now.
Panelists speaking about new media at Brooklyn Brewery: Alyson Shontell (Business Insider), Alex Rainert (Foursquare), Jim Moran (Yipit), Sarah Kessler (Mashable), Emily Hickey (Hashable), Charles Smith (Ex.Fm), Steve Martocci (GroupMe), Eric Mortensen (blip.tv), etc.

Plus, there will be street fairs and other free events for people just walking around the neighborhood. See you there.

Buck

mattdentler — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 05:14:10 GMT

On Tuesday night, Sundance Selects hosted a screening and party for the acclaimed new documentary Buck. Winner of an audience award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, I had been dying to see the film upon hearing so many great things at Sundance and subsequent festival stops. "How could a documentary about a horse trainer be all that interesting or entertaining?" was my cynical thought. Thankfully, my cynicisim was proven wrong, and the documentary is an emotionally powerful and charming look at a really good guy. Buck Brannaman has had brushes with celebrity throughout his life (appearances on TV shows as a kid, loose inspiration for the Robert Redford film The Horse Whisperer) but it's clear that he's never achieved the true connection with audiences, like he does through this film. Try to see Buck this summer, as it rolls out to arthouses nationwide. Here's the trailer:

Anderson Cooper Weighs In...

mattdentler — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 08:22:03 GMT

On his CNN show, Anderson Cooper weighs in on the aforementioned Alamo Drafthouse scandal over texting in a theater:

The Trip

mattdentler — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:40:27 GMT

One of the funniest movies this summer, will surely be Michael Winterbottom's The Trip. Originally conceived as a TV series for BBC2, the project was edited into a two-hour feature film and premiered at the 2010 Toronto Film Festival. Those of us who saw it at Toronto, still find ourselves quoting many of the films hilarious lines. IFC Films will release The Trip in theaters and on VOD this month. Here's the U.S. trailer:

She texted. They kicked her out.

mattdentler — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:53:32 GMT

Austin's famous Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas has gone through great pains to remind customers that the venue takes silence very seriously. There have been countless video warnings that have played before each Alamo Drafthouse screening: during film festivals, during regular engagements, during special events. No one who attends an Alamo Drafthouse screening has any excuse to believe that making noise (or using your phone), will result in anything other than an ejection from the premises. That didn't stop a young woman from shock and awe when she was thrown out of an Alamo Drafthouse theater recently, after using her phone. Not only did the customer in question call to complain after the fact, but this voicemail is now the theater's latest precautionary measure:

iCloud News, But Nothing Yet For Movies and TV

mattdentler — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:46:05 GMT

Apple announced the iCloud storage option today, as expected, and it's a boon for customers of the iTunes Music Store. As for customers of the iTunes Movies or TV Store, the use of iCloud is still unclear. iCloud will help you save your music, as well as other data. But when it comes to the movies or shows you buy off of iTunes, there is no announcement thus far. GigaOM takes a look at what this might mean:

A cloud solution for Hollywood fare could have been a great extension to Apple’s existing iTunes video offering, which largely centers around rentals and sales of movies and TV show downloads. Apple does offer streaming of select TV show episodes for $0.99 on Apple TV, but it hasn’t made this price point and functionality available to users of the iTunes desktop client, or to other iOS devices like the iPad or iPhone.
That’s a problem, especially in the mobile space where storage is oftentimes limited. Google announced at its developer conference in May that it is going to stream to Android devices through its new Android Movie service, and Amazon has been offering streaming to a variety of platforms. However, both companies don’t extend these services to videos that customers already have on their hard drives either. Google’s recently launched cloud music service doesn’t have any movie streaming functionality, and Amazon’s Cloud Drive only offers basic support for video streaming that requires users to upload each and every video file individually.

Five New Albums Worth Your Dime

mattdentler — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 06:36:49 GMT

1. Moby, Destroyed
(It's the DJ/musician/producer's best studio album in almost 10 years, a series of mood pieces inspired by long hours of travel. Moby balances the soulful melancholy with the raved-up rock in a way that he hasn't, in some time.)

2. Cults, Cults
(Shimmering garage pop from a couple of New York film students. Maybe one of the best summer rock albums you'll find this month.)

3. Danger Mouse & Daniele Luppi, Rome
(A tribute to classic Italian composers, featuring guest vocals from Jack White and Norah Jones. For my money, the Jones tracks outshine the White songs, but the true stars of this album are the elderly Italian musicians called out of retirement.)

4. EMA, Past Life Martyred Saints
(An attitude like Lou Reed, married with a vocal snarl that sounds like PJ Harvey. Tough love ballads, and dirty anthems dedicated to the street.)

5. My Morning Jacket, Circuital
(This time, the boys from Kentucky regain focus and precision, but the album still sounds like it was recorded in a sweaty gymnasium. It was.)

Forget Everything You Know About Pizza

mattdentler — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 14:54:17 GMT

...,and remember everything you know about California. Filmmaker Jody Lambert sent me this recently-discovered audio from 1980s Hollywood super agent Warren Klein. Remember when the movie business was so amazing? Relive it here:

1980's HOLLYWOOD AGENT VOICE MAILS - (msgs for C. Thomas Howell, Jami Gertz, Kirk Cameron) - watch more funny videos

Miramax Comes to Hulu

mattdentler — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 05:31:56 GMT

After closing a deal with Netflix, legendary arthouse studio Miramax (which is under new management) is making its catalog available on Hulu Plus. In addition, a limited rotation of Miramax content will be made available on the free Hulu experience. The launch was announced over on the Hulu Blog by company exec Andy Forssell:

At Hulu, we spend a lot of time thinking about innovation and how to foster it. Apart from how much I love these movies themselves, that is another reason I have so much respect for Miramax. They innovated, and they were absolutely relentless about it for more than 30 years. So, I couldn’t be more excited to announce today that Miramax films and more are coming to Hulu and the Hulu Plus subscription service. On Hulu Plus, 27 titles are available today, with hundreds more to be added steadily over the next month or so. For those of you who are Hulu Plus subscribers, enjoy playing Pulp Fiction and many other great Miramax films in HD today on your Internet-connected TV, phone, or iPad. If you’re not a Hulu Plus subscriber, it’s a great time to try the service free for a week. And, in addition to all these great movies being added to Hulu Plus, starting in mid-June, we’ll be showcasing a selection of Miramax titles each month for free on the ad-supported Hulu service. This is the first time Miramax has made films available to movie fans on an ad-supported, on-demand streaming basis.

The Miramax deal is the next big studio deal, following an exclusive deal with the Criterion Collection in February.