“Crips And Bloods: Made In America” – IFC Films- Stacey Peralta
What You Need To Know: From the director of “Dogtown And Z Boys” comes this documentary featuring street-level testimony from current and former gang members of two of the most notorious and violent South L.A. gangs. The doc charts the origins of their rivalries, plus takes a sharp look at the genesis and reasons behind gang culture. Forrest Whitaker narrates.
Release Date: January 23
“California Dreamin’ “- IFC Films – Cristian Nemescu
Synopsis: A trainload of U.S. marines bound for Kosovo in 1999 are held by a corrupt, small-town stationmaster on a customs technicality in a Romanian backwater. The locals see their guests as tickets to political power, financial advantage and romances, but eventually sparks begin to fly.
What You Need To Know: Coming from the Romanian New Wave (which brought films like “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and “The Death of Mr. Lazarescu”) the film is a satirical black comedy that was accepted at Cannes in 2007 and one the Washington Post called, “a masterpiece.” What’s more, this is the talented director’s first and final film. He died tragically in an auto accident just weeks after wrapping. It stars Armand Assante.
Release Date: January 23
“Medicine For Melancholy” – IFC Films – Barry Jenner
What You Need To Know: A 24-hour love story about black hipsters that are marginalized in very-pasty-white San Francisco which is of course scored to ghostly white, Urban Outfitters compilation ready white indie rock (Au Revoire Simone, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone). The identity politics theme in the film however make it not a total wash and the filmmaker could be one to look out for. Wally Cenac of “The Daily Show” stars.
Release Date: January 30
“Katyn” – Koch Lorber – Dir. Andrzej Wadja
What You Need To Know: The greatest living Polish director alive Andrzej Wajda (RIP Kieslowski) is 83-years-old and still at it, what’s your excuse? This examination of the Polish massacre at the hands of the Soviets in the Katyn forest in 1940 and was nominated for an Academy Award last year (it lost out to “The Counterfeiters”) and the New York Times called it “remarkable and classical.” Two years after its release in Poland its finally hitting U.S. shores.
Release Date: February 18 (limited)
“Il Divo” – No Distributor Yet – Paolo Sorrentino
What You Need To Know: Italy’s biopic about former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti who somehow weaseled his way into election to Parliament seven times before his ties to the Mafia brought him down, was the talk of Cannes last year and nominated for the Palme D’Or before eventually winning the Prix du Jury. It was called a “masterpiece” by both the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, but both had concerns that the film would never have a far reach outside of Italy. Let’s hope that changes and consider this part of the official campaign.
Release Date: None, TBD.
“Three Monkeys” – No Distributor Yet – Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
What You Need To Know: 9 out of 10 times a foreign film that makes the Oscar Foreign nomination shortlist is worth watching. So having just been selected for that prestigious group of nine, we’re interested. But this Turkish film about a family that deals with their issues by playing blind, deaf and dumb to problems that should in all logic split them apart, was on our radar last May when Ceylan won the Award for Best Director at the 2008 Cannes film festival.
Release Date: Last year’s 2007 Oscar winner didn’t hit stateside until early 2008, so we may have to wait a while.
“Revanche” – Janus – Götz Spielmann
What You Need To Know: This Austrian red-light district story about prostitutes and their secret romances has two major things going for it. 1) Again, it’s been shortlisted by the Academy for the Foreign Oscar nomination and Janus Films and its sister company the Criterion Collection loved the film so much when they saw it at Telluride, they picked it up for immediate distribution, a move even they called “unusual.” They must really love it, so we’re sold.
Release Date: March
“Four Nights With Anna” – TBA – Jerzy Skolimowski
This Kieślowski-an look at creepy obsessiveness by Polish auteur Jerzy Skolimowski (the Russian uncle in Cronenberg’s “Eastern Promises,” the cult film, “The Shout,”) is his first feature in 17 years and currently has no U.S. Distribution so we hope we didn’t miss our only chance to see it when it played at the New York Film Festival in the Fall of ’08. People seemed to love it at Cannes.
Release Date: There’s a decent chance this will never come out in the U.S. which would be a shame. Change that now.
“The Rest is Silence” – No Distributor Yet – Nicolae Caranfil
What You Need To Know: In 1912, the Romanian filmmaker Grigore Brezianu and a well-known financial tycoon made a 2 hour (long for back then), faithful as possible adaptation of the countries real-life independent war. And this comedic drama is a loose and half-fictionalized story of its making. It’s noteworthy at least for being the biggest budgeted movie ever made in Romanian film history. Let’s not forget that Romanian filmmaking is in the middle of a renaissance and on a roll.
Release Date: TBD
“O’Horten” – No Distributor Yet – Bent Hamer
What You Need To Know: The story about a habitual train conductor on the eve of retirement was Norway’s official Oscar selection and while it didn’t make the shortlist, notable filmmaker Hamer (“Factotum” with Matt Dillon) and his film were selected for last year’s Un Certain Regard section of Cannes.
Release Date: TBD
“Everlasting Moments” – IFC Films – Dir. Jan Troell
What You Need To Know: This Swedish film earned itself semi-notoriety this week when Internet dorks with too much time on their hands cursed it up and down on the countries behalf for having the nerve to be the film selected above the Swedish vampire film, “Let The Right One In” as its nations Oscar contender. It turns out ‘Right One’ is eligible for Oscar contention next year, but that didn’t stop the nerd herd from ripping apart on the Internet shit-talking like, ” ‘Everlasting Moments? What the fuck is that? A bloody hallmark card or credit card commercial? Fuck this, let’s slash the seats!” Either way, this true story about a young working class woman in the early 1900s, who wins a camera in a lottery, and goes on to become a photographer, has earned itself lots of international praise and sounds definitely worth seeing.
Release Date: March
“Summer Hours” – IFC Films- Oliver Assayas
The intimate-sounding ‘Summer’ — about a family obliged to honor the wishes of their deceased parents — sounds like it could be his first real personal film for the sometimes detached Assayas (Though “Boarding Gate” used that odd gaze to amazing effect). It doesn’t hurt that Juliette Binoche stars. She is lovely and immensely talented.
Release Date: May
“Adoration” – Sony Pictures Classics – Atom Egoyan
What You Need To Know: Atom Egoyan’s heady Internet drama stars Scott Speedman, Rachel Blanchard (HBO’s “Flight of The Conchords”), his wife Arsinee Khanjian, (natch) and newcomer Devon Bostick. “Adoration” is said to be cerebral and potentially challenging, and Egoyan’s been on a losing streak for years, but he is the man that directed the amazing, “The Sweet Hereafter,” so we hold out hope.
Release Date: May 8
“Bronson” – No Dist. yet – Dir. – Nicholas Winding Refn
Synopsis: Based on a true story, Tom Hardy plays Mickey Peterson, a British prisoner who turns into the psychopathic prison celebrity, Charles Bronson.
What You Need To Know: A few eerie similarities exist between 2000’s “Chopper” and ‘Bronson’ – both involve actors that underwent physical transformations to play hyper-violent, real-life criminals that rose to infamy. This U.K. Sundance selection, if picked up for distribution will likely find its way to the very same audiences that “Chopper” found nearly 9 years ago. If you like non-torture porn ultra-violence, this should be right up your alley.
Release Date: None yet (pending distribution deal)
“Rudo Y Cursi” – Sony Pictures Classics – Carlos Cuaron
What You Need To Know: “Rudo Y Cursi,” the new comedy teaming up old “Y Tu Mama Tambien” pals Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal as directed by Carlos Cuaron (Alfonso Cuaron’s younger brother and the ‘Tambien’ writer) is about two dimwitted soccer playing friends recruited to play for rival teams. The soundtrack looks good and features Juana Molina, Devendra Banhart, Nortec Collective and many others (Bernal and Banhart are bff). Sony Pictures classics snatched it up before it even had a chance to premiere at Sundance this week, so that bodes well.
Release Date: TBD, fall?
“I Knew It Was You” – TBD – Richard Shepard
What You Need To Know: Shepard’s documentary focuses deep on the vastly under-appreciated ’70s actor John Cazale, who’s short-lived career included the amazing resume of “The Conversation,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” ‘Godfathers’ I and II’ and “The Deer Hunter.” Meryl Streep was the mutual love of his life and he died of lung cancer shortly after the filming of Michael Cimino’s ‘Hunter,’
Release Date: TBD, but it’s a safe bet this one gets picked up quick, but then again, it’s only 40 minutes long. HBO?
Plus there’s plenty more good indies at Sundance too. Consider those part of this too, but we didn’t want to double up ourselves too much.
