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Spring Preview: Anywhere But a Movie Theater
Film releases certainly aren't limited to theaters these days -- here's a rundown of titles...
April 14
“Fight Night”
Having picked up awards at regional film fests everywhere from southern California to Hamburg, Germany, the Kansas City-based production about an underground female boxer (Rebecca Neuenswander) whose career is jeopardized by her promoter (Kurt Hanover) is ending its long festival trek with a DVD release courtesy of Peace Arch.
“Inning By Inning: A Portrait of a Coach”
With a quiet airing on ESPN last summer, it was easy to miss Richard Linklater’s portrait of University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido, but the doc about the NCAA’s winningest manager arrives on DVD just in time for spring training.
“The Night Buffalo”
Premiering to mixed reviews at Sundance 2007, “Babel” scribe Guillermo Arriaga’s adaptation of his own novel stars Diego Luna as the friend of a paranoid schizophrenic whose girlfriend lands in his arms when the schizophrenic is committed. The Navarre Corporation, which is also putting out the 2006 romantic drama “The Last Gaze” on the same day, is handling the release of Jorge Hernandez Aldana’s directorial debut.
Other indies that played theaters, but you might have missed: Toby Wilkins’ parasitic thriller “Splinter”
April 22
“America Betrayed”
Longtime broadcast journalist Leslie Cardé follows the money with this doc about the misappropriation of government funds during the aftermath of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. Richard Dreyfuss narrates.
“Audience of One”
Winner of doc prizes at SXSW and Silverdocs in 2007, Michael Jacobs’ chronicle of a Pentecostal minister from San Francisco who sets out of make a $50 million biblical science fiction epic called “Gravity: The Shadow of Joseph.”
“The Burrowers”
“S&Man” director J.T. Petty goes the direct-to-DVD route again after another fruitful festival run with his latest, a horror film set in the Wild West with a group of pioneers (including Clancy Brown, William Mapother and Sean Patrick Thomas) who become the prey of some mysterious predatory underground creatures.
“Dante 01″
Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s former partner in crime Marc Caro directs this French sci-fi prison drama starring Lambert Wilson as a new inmate whose supernatural abilities threaten upheaval in the psychiatric ward of the prison ship he’s being held on.
“Laid to Rest”
For the few “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” fans out there, stars Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker topline this Anchor Bay horror film about an amnesiac who learns she had been abducted by a serial killer and has to stay alive to warn others.
“The Last Word”
A refugee of Sundance ’08, this dark romantic comedy features Wes Bentley as a man who writes suicide notes for a living before finding a potential girlfriend in the sister of one of his clients (Winona Ryder). Ray Romano commiserates with Bentley as a composer of hold music in the feature directorial debut of big-time steadicam operator Geoffrey Haley.
Other indies that played theaters, but you might have missed: The oil doc “Crude Impact,” The 2006 Maximillian Schell drama “House of the Sleeping Beauties,” the senior citizen comedy “How About You,” the 2007 doc about gay and transgendered Muslims, “A Jihad for Love”
April 28
“The Gray Man”
Retitled since premiering at the Montreal World Film Festival as “Wisteria: The Horrible Story of Albert Fish” in 2007, the film stars Patrick Bauchau as the 1920s serial killer and cannibal Fish, who abducted children with a grandfatherly act before he was put to death.
“Martyrs”
Before he directs a remake of “Hellraiser” for Dimension, the genre label is distributing Pascal Laugier’s shocking thriller that got him the gig. The story of two orphans who go on a bloody rampage of those who have wronged them actually initially earned +18 rating in France before being appealed, so it was unlikely to see a theatrical release here.
“One-Eyed Monster”
Liberation Entertainment is releasing this comedy about an alien invasion of a porn shoot, which should please “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fans who miss star Amber Benson or the chords of onetime “Slayer” composer-turned-director Adam Fields.
“S. Darko”
Probably only for the insatiably curious, Daveigh Chase returns to play young Samantha Darko in a Richard Kelly-unauthorized sequel to “Donnie Darko.” The visions that tormented Jake Gyllenhaal in the first film are now passed onto his little sis and her best friend (Briana Evigan) as they head to Hollywood in search of stardom.
“What Doesn’t Kill You”
A casualty of the Yari Film Group’s filing for bankruptcy, Brian Goodman’s autobiographical Boston-set crime thriller starring Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke as childhood pals who set out for one last score will finally get a release for the masses following its quiet Oscar qualifying run in December — on DVD and Blu-ray through Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Other indies that played theaters, but you might have missed: Alexsei Balabanov’s “Cargo 200,” “JCVD,” the Paul Newman-narrated sweets exposé “The Price of Sugar,” the 1972 Andes plane crash doc “Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains,” the Turkish-set drama “Waiting for the Clouds,” the Kim Basinger thriller “While She Was Out”
[Additional photos: "In the Electric Mist," Image Entertainment, 2009; "Extreme Movie," Dimension Extreme, 2008; "The Burning," Pathfinder Pictures, 2008; "The Gray Man," Monarch Home Video, 2008]
