Wow, at least I know I am not the only one struggling to figure out what to write about as the online world is currently at a standstill with the Sundance Film Festival offering up very little in the way of movies to talk about with An Education coming out as the only film with any amount of real praise and films such as The Informers getting bad buzz and now the Polish brothers’ latest effort Manure receiving an all’s mum Q&A report.
From the Los Angeles Times comes a report from Jevon Phillips who was at the premiere of Manure, which stars Billy Bob Thornton and Téa Leoni, both of which were on hand along with Mark and Michael Polish as well as others for a post-screening Q&A session. However, as Phillips reports:
The film, about 1960s manure salesmen trying to cope with a struggling company and shiny new competition (that parachutes in?), was held in one of the largest screening area’s Park City has to offer, which only served to magnify the fact that no one had a question.
It seems things went so bad, Thornton posed a question to himself to get things started and addressed his answer to a man who hadn’t asked a question. It’s then reported Leoni said, “Let’s just get out of here,” as the moderator and a Polish brother continued asking if there were any more questions.
To be fair, this happens, sometimes there just isn’t anything to say, but it sounds like the film didn’t really hit home with the Park City audience as the Polish brothers’ follow-up to The Astronaut Farmer may actually fair worse than did that 2007, $11 million Warner Bros. release.
Continuing the stream of online silence Sasha Stone at Awards Daily takes note as well pointing out how “it’s mighty strange that most of the self-proclaimed Oscar bloggers are being quiet right about now?” She does give RopeofSilicon a nice shout as I do my best to keep things moderately lively around here with a smattering of stories, but I am anxious to see the results of their pre-vs-post-Oscar nomination box-office results.
The Dark Knight heads back into theaters this weekend following Oscar nominations and if you look at their charts from last year the nominations certainly didn’t hurt the likes of Juno (which enjoyed a well orchestrated slow roll-out) or Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men.
However, while that is keeping the cerebral readers alert some have resorted to such inane stories as Barbie dolls based on Star Trek characters as news. Seriously, I can’t make this up. If you were ever wondering why online movie sites weren’t taken all that seriously you no longer need ask.
Then again, things can’t be much better for the print/online organization “Variety” as one of their film critics has reportedly punched a producer as a result of a disagreement over the political doc Dirt, which was screening at Sundance. Sure, online journos may report about Barbie dolls but we don’t punch folks, we just get punched by them. I mean, we have some scruples.
Turns out “Variety” critic vs. producer battle royale went down as follows:
Opinions fly at the Sundance Film Fest but so did fists Wednesday morning when critic John Anderson, who was covering the 8:30 screening of the agit-prop political doc DIRT for Variety at the Holiday Cinemas, told producer’s rep Jeff “The Dude” Dowd that the movie “was poor, too simplistic, too redundant,” says Dowd, who accompanied him over to the nearby Yarrow. When they arrived, Anderson told him their conversation on the movie was “over.” The debate that followed got so heated that Anderson punched Dowd twice, once on the lip. I’ve spoken to both guys, and to Variety chief critic Todd McCarthy, who immediately relieved Anderson of the assignment to review the film. The Yarrow management called the police, who took information from witnesses–Anderson had gone to another screening–but Dowd did not press assault charges.
Sheesh, things are rough in Park City! Gotta admit though, don’t you wanna see the movie that caused the rumble?
So here we are, about 12 hours away from the Oscar nominations and with little else to talk about. However, I guess I can tell you I added another clip from Underworld: Rise of the Lycans to the trailer homepage and as always we have a new viral video, this time courtesy of the ever-present Watchmen. See you soon!
