Big news in the world of Indie Film 2.0: digital entrepreneurs Ted Leonsis and Rick Allen have launched SnagFilms, a widget-based online documentary portal. They have a good selection of doc features available now. In addition, SnagFilms announced the acquisition of indieWIRE, the respected and important independent film news source (also home to this site). Congrats to all on this news! Meanwhile, Google will soon announce the acquisition of this blog, for an undisclosed eight-figure sum (it was not even disclosed to me). When SnagFilms tried to buy it back from the Silicon Valley billionaires, Google replied "Suck it! Five Albums Worth Your Dime is worth a lot of dimes, er, dollars!"

New media film journalist Scott Kirsner brought to my attention a series of panels he's coordinating for October 17 and 18 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. It's called The Conversation: Exploring the Future of the Entertainment Industry and, according to the Web site: "Our goal is for The Conversation to delve into all those issues — and more, with your ideas, help, and participation. The Conversation will focus exclusively on the new business and creative opportunities that are emerging in 2008."

I've said it before and will say again: I'm a BlackBerry guy. And, yeah, that's a tricky guy to be when iPhone mania sweeps the nation again this summer. The new iPhone (or, rather, the new set of applications) is cool... but I still love my trusty BlackBerry. Well, Katherine Boehret gives us BBers some comfort in this recent piece for The Wall Street Journal online:

If you're a BlackBerry user, you're probably getting tired of hearing about all the things Apple's iPhone can do. Rumor even has it that a more iPhone-like BlackBerry is in the works. But don't despond: Your current trusty emailing device has a few tricks up its sleeve that you may not know about.

This week, I gathered up some useful shortcuts that come built into most of the BlackBerrys, even older models, made by Research In Motion Ltd. but not many owners actually use or know about them. Ironically, most of these shortcuts are conducted using a BlackBerry feature that the iPhone lacks: its physical keyboard.

Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight isn't just a comic book movie and it isn't just a crime movie. It's a classic tragedy, epic in size. I caught the film in its IMAX incarnation (on 68th & Broadway) and while it wouldn't be required to appreciate the scope of the film, it does not hurt. However, for a major studio film with moments shot in 70mm, the good is in the details.

Nolan's vision of The Dark Knight places Gotham City and its citizens in a 1970s milieu: there's a disconnect between the municipal and the federal. The city is hell, the establishment is corrupt, and Batman is not as much a proactive hero, as he is a reactive source of hope. Except he's not entirely reliable nor entirely sacred. That would be Harvey Dent, the new District Attorney, and in many cases the true "dark knight" of the title. They face a fearless and insane opponent: the Joker, who operates with such abandon and insanity, that his very being defies the rules.

And that's kind of the point, and that's the strength of The Dark Knight. To properly tell a crime epic, you have to leave it all to chance. There can be no rules, and no trust. Loyalty is in the eye of the beholder. Motivations must never align, and they rarely do in this film. Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne have much in common (including the love of attorney Rachel Dawes), but their appetites are entirely opposed. Can the enemy of your enemy be your friend? That's an age-old morality question, and The Dark Knight is nothing if not a moral tale.

Which is why the Joker (portrayed masterfully by the late Heath Ledger) can only work if he's entirely unpredictable. There's no rhyme or reason to his madness. As he says, he's like "a dog chasing cars," with little regard for the outcome. Except, that he has a very real and brilliant scheme to turn even the brightest hope into the darkest adversary. Ledger is a pretty standard villain in the first half but then transforms into such a state of lunacy and freewheeling dementia, that he actually has a heart, as cold as it may be. The story might be Harvey Dent's arc, but it's the Joker's flood.

Pulling the film in every direction, Nolan must be commended for a superb job. Though, years from now, I'm confident that film schools will study the way picture editing and music score told this story. Lee Smith's pace of tone and cutting, is operatic. It's complemented by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard's minimalist score. There's no fanfare, no orchestrics, it's a subtle but fascinating musical bed. Almost as if Brian Eno and John Cage got hold of the chamber. And from the first, mesmerizing sequence, the editing and score keep you captivated. Hold on tight, because The Dark Night is 150 relentless minutes. Pure tension from beginning to end.

Ultimately, the film is about decisions people make between love and mission. It's a film about tension, in all forms. The Batman saga has always been about duality, but never has it been so fully developed or magnificent. There's one more Christian Bale commitment for a Batman film. I would agree with some by saying that I don't think we need it.

Austin-made indie Goliath, by David and Nathan Zellner, is now available in homes across the country. It's part of IFC's Festival Direct VOD program, and this is great news. The Zellners are good friends and I'm so happy to see their super-charming feature get a life after a successful festival run (which included SXSW 2008). Check it out, on your Movies on Demand cable channel.

So, for those of you have joined our Cinetic Rights Management Facebook group (and even for those who haven't yet), I wanted to point out that we aspire to make it more than just your typical Facebook group. In others, the main page will be a destination for you to find news links, video clips, discussion topics, and events information. So, feel free to check back on a regular basis. There will be news items and information that won't be on this blog, just so you know.

With this week's MLB All-Star game happening at Yankee Stadium, lots of attention has been brought to the fact that the fabled sports arena is joining fellow New York landmark Shea Stadium, down the path of renovation. The Yankees and the Mets are each getting a new stadium, to be ready in time for the 2009 baseball season. The closure of both staidums ends an era of entertainment as well as legendary sports. For Variety, Robert Schwartz looks back at some of the famous film productions that transpired at Yankee Stadium, and some of the great music concerts that happened at Shea:

Many of the film images that stick in the collective mind are ones that were not, in fact, shot at Yankee Stadium. Case in point: "Pride of the Yankees," arguably the most famous sports biopic.

Its famous scene of Gary Cooper as doomed slugger Lou Gehrig declaring himself "the luckiest man on the face of the Earth"? A soundstage.

"They did use establishing shots of the famous facade but that's really it," said Sam Goldwyn Jr., whose father produced the film. To save on travel costs, the final scene was lensed on the MGM backlot using "plates," an early version of the green screen. The old Wrigley Field in Los Angeles doubled as Yankee Stadium, perhaps karmically setting the stage for the Dodgers decampment from Brooklyn to Chavez Ravine.

Rock promoters will undoubtedly book the Mets new Citi Field for a concert in the coming years, but that stadium will have big shoes to fill in music circles.

The Beatles famously performed twice at Shea Stadium, once in 1965 and again in ’66. The August ’65 show was the first concert to be held at a major outdoor stadium and set records for attendance and revenue, proving an outdoor concert on a huge scale could be successful and profitable.

This is old. Like a month old which, in Internet days, is like one year old. It's "the New York Times already wrote about this guy" old which, in Internet days, is like 5 years old. But, who cares? I realized in a conversation tonight that there's a good chance that a lot of the people who read this blog (whomever that is) have not discovered this yet. So, take a look at "Where the Hell is Matt?"

The Rome Film Festival has announced that Oscar-winning director Michael Cimino will attend this year's event, slated for October 22-31. Really? The Deer Hunter director has been a mystery in recent years, He was spotted at Cannes in 2007, having made a short film for the Chacun son cinéma 60th anniversary program. Before that, however, he hadn't directed a film since the bomb Sunchaser in 1996. Before that? The Desperate Hours remake in 1990, which was also a flop. Of course no flop in the 1990s met the same kind of legendary status as his 1980 disaster opus, Heaven's Gate.

Cimino has stayed relatively quiet for a number of years, so in festival programming terms, his public appearance is a coup. In a Vanity Fair article earlier this year, writer Peter Biskind also documented the filmmaker's reclusive nature. While discussing the controversy around his 1978 Oscar-winner The Deer Hunter, Biskind writes:

Cimino, who has not directed a feature since 1996, and who has been the focus of gossip concerning his alleged desire to change his gender, could not be reached for comment. (His representatives said he was in China scouting locations for a new film.)

Based on an IMDB listing, this film appears to be Man's Fate, based on a novel by André Malraux. Hopefully we'll know more after this year's Rome Film Festival.

1. Albert Hammond Jr., Como Te Llama
(The Strokes' secret weapon unveils his second solo record. He keeps getting more assured as his day band gets less vital. This next round of indie pop adds textures that will impress.)

2. Beck, Modern Guilt
(The collage-rock troubadour used to work in cycles, alternating between rap records and folk records. His last few attempts to streamline have been mixed at best. Here, he works with Danger Mouse and manages to produce his most consistent output in years. Spacey folk with deep melodies.)

3. Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis, Two Men With the Blues
(A country legend and a jazz great, meet up for an inspired live recording. They trade exchanges, musicanship, and get to the bottom of what binds them: the origins of blues and rock.)

4. Abe Vigoda, Skeleton
(L.A. noise-rockers fall in line with fellow Left Coasters in No Age, for a tidal wave of feedback and guitar pop.)

5. James Pants, Welcome
(Washington-based one-man dance party unlocks the key ingredients for cosmic bounce. Smooth, soulful, and sexy... what every suburbanite hipster wishes they could be.)

What does it mean when you blog a YouTube video of yourself? Is that like a whole new level of ego? Well, whatever it is, here's an interview I did with Sara Pollack of YouTube (as part of the Los Angeles Film Festival) about digital rights for indie filmmakers:

Oh, and I keep looking to my left because we were in a store and folks kept walking in the door.

There's more than just Universal Pictures that unite Wanted and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. And, I guess, that's why I feel like including Wanted in my thoughts on the latter. Both films come from foreign-born auteurs who owe a great debt to American comic books and action films. Both films are themselves based on graphic novel properties, and exhibit appropriately dazzling visual prowess. And, sadly, neither film is able to fully capitalize on its potential.

If one succeeds more than the other, it's Hellboy II. Guillermo del Toro gets his hands on more money and more freedom, following his monster hit Pan's Labyrinth. And, he doesn't waste an ounce of budget or creative freedom. You can see his enthusiasm in every scene. However, the film doesn't quite live up to Terminator 2 expectations, as a fellow sequel where the filmmaker was able to turn the volume up. It's as if there are too many ideas in Hellboy II, almost too much mythology to connect. Meanwhile, Wanted is a visual effects feast, with very few ideas. Hellboy II gives audiences a lot of characters and worlds to chew on. It just lacks some consistency.

Ron Perlman, the man of 100 faces, slides comfortably into his lead role as Hellboy. The rest of the cast (Jeffrey Tambor, Doug Jones, Selma Blair, Seth MacFarlane) is also quite pleasant and entertaining. It just feels as though they're less substantive pieces of the production, and merely chess pieces for del Toro's elaborate game plan. As for the cast of Wanted, forget about it. James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie are talented and pretty to gaze upon, but their performances are hardly the main event. That would be director Timur Bekmambetov's no-holds barred visual approach, a sort of Woo-meets-Wachowski parade of bullets, stunts, and slo-mo. Plus, the mythology in Wanted is an empty barrel, a hodgepodge of cinematic cliches that may feel confident in graphic-novel form but come across as lazy in today's film landscape.

Mythology and universe is where Hellboy II has Wanted beat. Maybe he crafted a clever audition for his next directing gig (adapting Tolkien's The Hobbit), but del Toro's imagination cannot be contained. In Pan's Labyrinth, and even earlier films like Cronos or The Devil's Backbone, this was executed better. What those films injected, however, was a parallel story about society and history. In other words, monsters and humans were often hard to distinguish. The most human moment in Hellboy II (when our hero and his friend get drunk on Tecate and sing along to Barry Manilow) is too rare and too brief. All of this said, I would happily recommend Hellboy II to any fan of inventive fantasy or comic book cinema. It might even stick with you, after you leave the theater. You just may not find yourself storming back for a second round.

For Stream, Eric Kohn checks in with Purple Violets producer Aaron Lubin to get a sense of how he feels about the iTunes premiere of his (Edward Burns directed) film, almost one year later. At the time, the release made a lot of headlines as an interesting "experiment," but it means so much more now, especially as more films go the digital-premiere route. From their conversation:

Stream: Do you think it made more money than it would have if it premiered in theaters?

Lubin: It did make more money for us than it would have had in theaters. It probably made as much income as a decent art house release. If you do the math, I would say that we made more money than the average art house release from a studio. More people saw it than they would have in theaters if Fox Searchlight or Focus Features had released it.

Stream: Are you recommending this method to other filmmakers as a viable form of distribution?

Lubin: Yes. Mark Gill laid out everything we've been seeing for awhile [in a recent speech]. The marketplace is very limited and dwindling. It's extremely challenging for these smaller movies to get any release, much less a successful one. The only film of the last four months branded a success is The Visitor, and that's grossed eight million dollars. That means filmmakers need to find other ways to get their films to audiences and not think of theatrical as the only option. You're competing with cable television, videogames, and the internet. Those forms of competition didn't exist twenty years ago, when independent film was a much more viable alternative. It's only going to become a more familiar way for people to consume movies.

I really like this blog entry from Danny and Darren of the SXSW 2008 hit, Humboldt County. The boys are getting things ready for their film's release, courtesy of Magnolia and HDNet. In this post, they recall a recent press day with Mark Cuban and Peter Bogdanovich. (Thanks to the SXSW News Reel, for the link)

I'm undecided about whether or not I'm gonna make the trek to Coney Island for the Siren Music Festival next weekend. It's a great group of bands performing, but is it worth the journey? I'm tempted, to be sure, and this song from one of the festival's acts makes it harder to say no. Check out "Can't Say No" by The Helio Sequence.

The U.S. trailer for Alex Holdridge's In Search of a Midnight Kiss is now online. Check it out below. Alex's third feature will get a theatrical release on August 1, courtesy of IFC Films. It's a sweet and sarcastic romantic comedy, and further proves that Alex is a filmmaker to watch.

Documentary filmmaking couple David Redmon and Ashely Sabin (Mardi Gras: Made in China, Kamp Katrina, Intimidad) are launching their own DVD label. They're calling it Carnivalesque Films, named after their production company, and they are set to release more than just their own films. Mardi Gras: Made in China will be the first release, coming to retailers on July 29. Following that, Ry Russo-Young's acclaimed fiction feature Orphans, will have its DVD release on September 28. Stay tuned for more titles, and more details, to come.

Amazon Unbox has launched a very cool campaign around Hector Babenco's Oscar-winning 1985 feature, Kiss of the Spider Woman. The film's upcoming double-disc DVD set will be available on July 22, but between now and then, you can rent or purchase the film digitally. Nice. Click here to check it out. The film's a modern classic, unavailable to mass audiences for a long time. Here's an opportunity to re-introduce it to new eyes.

Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber's documentary, Full Battle Rattle, may seem like "just another Iraq war doc" but it's not. In fact, not a single frame of the film was shot in Iraq. The film instead follows the fascinating story of Medina Wasl, a war simulation village in the Mojave Desert. It's a community run by the U.S. military to train troops, using real soldiers and actual Iraqis in the simulation. The film, which won a Special Jury prize at SXSW 2008, just started a theatrical run with an opening at New York's Film Forum. Over at IFC, Aaron Hillis chats with Gerber and Moss about the harsh realities and falsehoods of this unknown place:

IFC: The military aren't exactly known for giving access. Were there ground rules while filming?

Tony Gerber: We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get permission to go there. We had to get clearance, first and foremost, from the office in Hollywood on Wilshire Boulevard that governs any representation of the Army in movies — whether it's a Michael Bay film or a Tony Gerber/Jesse Moss documentary, that office has to approve of you. Then we had to get permission from the National Training Center itself, and we had to clear [the film] with the [Public Affairs Officer] for the incoming brigade, the 4,000 men and women who would be training at the National Training Center. Surprisingly, we were able to enter this world and begin making this film with no limitations on our access. You would think there'd be a minefield of no's, but it didn't happen. Largely, I think it's because we were independent filmmakers and able to fly below the radar. We got in there, and they virtually forgot about us.

IFC: One soldier gets a verbal smackdown from a superior for dismissively insulting the Iraqi culture. Did you ever get a sense that people were playing nice for the camera?

Jesse Moss: I don't think so. They're playing by job description, that's what they do. They're used to being watched. I was living in the village of Medina Wasl with the Iraqi role-players and the soldiers who play the insurgents, and I wouldn't say that was the challenge. It was more just getting to know these people in a very compressed period of time. Everybody fronts, whether you're filming them in the simulation or outside. It's your job as a filmmaker to get around that and to [find out] who they really are.

I've attended Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival twice in my life, and will sadly miss out this year. But, my wallet will be there for a - hopefully - short time. Alamo Drafthouse owner and Fantastic Fest chief Tim League made a stop in Manhattan on his way to Montreal last night, and I happily offered him my meager sofa as a place for him to sleep. He did, it was good seeing him. Then, I get up this morning to a text message that says something along the lines of "Damn, I accidentally picked up your wallet when I left this morning and I'm already at JFK. Can I Fedex it?"

Granted, this is not the worst thing that could have happened to my wallet. I think it's pretty amusing, in that "no way!" kinda way. And, why do I bother blogging about it? Well, because I'd otherwise be at lunch right now... but I have no cash or credit cards.

The third annual BRITDOC Festival in Oxford, UK has announced its lineup of films and speakers/events. I'm attending this year for the second time since the festival's creation. I'm looking forward to seeing Keble College, enjoying some UK documentaries and meeting a bunch of filmmakers and industry. It's usually a very good time with a very doc-focused agenda that bridges North American and European interests with great ease.

Indie rock darlings The National have taken an obscure track ("Mr. November") from their 2005 album, and turned it into a joint promotional tool for them and Barack Obama:

How are comedy/rock duo Tenacious D (Jack Black and Kyle Gass) going to follow their failed 2006 feature film, Tenacious D in The Pick Of Destiny? Not even they know, apparently. Nor is it evident whether or not a follow-up will ever happen. I suppose it's hard to be Tenacious D in a Flight of the Conchords world. As Gass recently told Billboard:

"It's very challenging," Gass says, revealing that "we probably only have one to one and a half songs right now, and we probably need 12 to 15. It might take the rest of our lives, but I think it'll be worth waiting for."

Click that link for more on what Gass is up to this summer, as he not-so-shamelessly promotes General Motors.

It didn't take me long to realize that everyone in New York has their own system for getting where they need to go. There's myriad options, and everyone has their preference. Apparently, if you're going to a methodone clinic in New Jersey, then the free IKEA shuttles are your best bet.

I watched the premiere of Elvis Mitchell's new Turner Classic Movies show, Elvis Mitchell: Under the Influence. Elvis is a great interviewer, one of the best, especially in front of a live audience. It always feels like no film festival or conference would be complete without his skills as a moderator. He knows how to ease through a conversation with a wide array of film greats, and this skill has been captured in various incarnations, and on various networks. The show's premiere included a great conversation with the late Sydney Pollack. Future installments will include Bill Murray, Laurence Fishburne, and Quentin Tarantino. Book-ending the interviews, TCM will air classic films that inspired the week's guests. It looks like a strong combination.

Over the weekend, my old college pal Peter Debruge posted this summary for the "Thompson on Hollywood" blog, where he dissects and ranks his Top 10 DVD packages. The impetus for the piece was the impressive new box art for Criterion's release of Paul Schrader's Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. I have to agree, Criterion is known for making a pretty amazing package with each release. In fact, as DVD sales stall, I'm sure Criterion will always conquer. Their company's M.O. is all about prestine presentation, and Mishima is no exception. The other Criterion release on Peter's list is Truffaut's The Adventures of Antoine Doinel box set. I would also include recent Criterion releases for Two-Lane Blacktop and Dazed and Confused (mentioned in the comments, and both designed by Austin's Marc English). While I'm at it, the Criterion packages for Rohmer's Six Moral Tales and Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers are also pretty nifty.

But, back to Peter's list and rankings. He surveys a wide variety of releases, from Fight Club to Phantasm.

The new 3G iPhone won't be available until Friday, but some New Yorkers are already lined up at the Fifth Avenue Apple Store, according to Gothamist. Now, I don't wanna rain on anyone's parade (I'll let the forecast of showers this week handle that), but why are people lining up for a new generation of a device that has been on the market for a year? Consumers lined up and camped out for the first, because there was a sense of discovery. So, now what? The Star Wars fans camped out for the release of The Phantom Menace, but it's not like they did the same thing for Attack of the Clones. Partly because they knew what they were getting the second time around.