If you’re not interested in watching what the theaters have to offer this weekend, or you’re maxed-out on your home video options and tired of the endless Michael Jackson coverage, here are some Cinetic films to rent or buy online:
Bob Odenkirk’s comedy Melvin Goes To Dinner, which is truly one of the most beloved fest hits in the last 10 years. And yes, that is the woman from those Progressive Insurance TV commercials.
Seen Food Inc.? (You should) Now, get more food facts from the documentary The Future of Food.
Alan Kirschen’s acclaimed drama, Mona, which comes to you directly from a successful festival run.
The documentary Home is worth catching, and it’s a sweet and contemplative look at the experience of modern day immigrants coming to Manhattan.
Get to know more about Italian horror films, from this comprehensive documentary Hanging Shadows.
A family bonds during the hysteria of the Cold War, in the great drama Falling Angels (starring Miranda Richardson).
Marlo Poras’ crowd-pleasing documentary, Run Granny Run, is a humorous and powerful look at elections today.
Sit back and get in the summer mood with the landmark concert film, Jazz On A Summer’s Day, featuring performances from Thelonious Monk and Anita O’Day.
It’s a moment many have been waiting for: Hulu in Europe. Starting with the U.K., Hulu will travel across the Atlantic this September, according to Variety. This would apply to many Cinetic titles, but obviously not all of the studio and TV network shows that Americans have come to expect:
While premium fare like “The Simpsons” and “Heroes” are unlikely to be available to British users of Hulu, some 3,000 hours of other U.S. shows are expected to be featured once rights issues are resolved. The launch of Hulu U.K. is being watched with keen interest by British webheads, who so far have been frustrated by regulators in their attempts to launch a commercial online video offering.
The success of the BBC iPlayer suggests there is a potential goldmine waiting for the first to successfully tap this market. Earlier this year the proposed online service Kangaroo, backed by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, was ambushed by the Competition Commission. Now another online video offering, Canvas, bankrolled by ITV, the BBC and telco British Telecom, is waiting to be greenlit by the BBC Trust.
Earlier this week, Five topper Dawn Airey warned that unless the Brits get their act together on online video and act collaboratively, a U.S. outfit would strike first.
There’s some heavy buzz and excitement brewing for the August release of District 9, Neill Blomkamp’s long-awaited feature debut. The film’s got no recognizable actors, but does have the seal-of-approval from Peter Jackson (who served as a producer). Blomkamp was at originally slated to direct the big-screen adaptation of (popular video game) Halo, but after that project fizzled, District 9 became the next task. Now, rather than adapt the work of others, Blomkamp’s District 9 is an adaptation from his own short film, Alive in Joburg.
This 2005 short film was an underground hit at festivals, depicting South Africa as a land at war with extraterrestrials. Johannesburg native Blomkamp does more than allude to topics such as his country’s ugly history with apartheid. It’s a brilliant blend of the future used as social commentary, the kind of blend seen in some of the best sci-fi work out there. Alive in Joburg is hardly six minutes long, so you should check it out whether or not you plan on seeing District 9 in theaters (you can also see why he was the logical choice for a Halo film). Click here to download a hi-res version of the short. Or, you can stream it here:
Shorts filmmaker Matthew Lessner (who is in the midst of his first feature) is a true talent. So is Brooklyn-based indie art-rock collective Dirty Projectors. I’m excited they could join forces for this unusual (wolves? llamas? a mountain?) but appealing (wolves! llamas! a mountain!) video for the band’s single “Stillness Is The Move,” off their acclaimed new album Bitte Orca:
I adore Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. I was 10 years old when it opened in theaters, so I didn’t see it until the subsequent VHS release (I remember my mother shielding my eyes from the Rosie Perez nude scene). I’ve watched the film countless times since then. Three summers ago, I had a housewarming party, and just played the film with the sound off as an odd summertime ambience thing. Yeah, weird, I guess. But I always found the film to be like a jazz album: hot and cold, moody and explosive.
This summer is the film’s 20th anniversary, marked with a screening this week at the DGA Theater in New York. For indieWIRE, Anthony Kaufman chats with various industry folks about the history and legacy of Lee’s monumental achievement. From his piece:
With its infamously provocatively climax—Lee’s pizza-delivery character Mookie throws a trash can through his employer’s window—“Do the Right Thing” was also brazenly political in a way that few American films were at the time. Notably, Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July” was also released in 1989, but that film focused on long-digested 1970s traumas.
Lee, on the other hand, was capturing the present, inspired by recent incidents of racial injustice in New York, such as the police killing of Eleanor Bumpurs, a black woman being evicted from her home, and the murder of an African American man in Howard Beach by local teenagers. The film’s level of social impact, along with accusations that it would incite civil unrest, came as a surprise to executives at Universal. “We thought it was going to be something powerful,” recalls Daniel, “but that was outrageous.”
Industry insiders agree that the Lee had tapped into something vibrant and current. “Whether it was Spike or Michael Moore or the other young filmmakers,” says Kilik, “there was a greater urgency and ability to more quickly reflect what was happening.”
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