"Momma's Man" Opens; Will College Audience Catch On?

What the Success of “Precious” Means for Black Indie Cinema
Here’s my take in a new story on IFC.com. Serious African-American cinema scarcely exists. It arrives in fits and sputters, in the occasional legends (Melvin Van Peebles, Gordon Parks), outliers (Charles Burnett, Julie Dash) or mavericks (Spike Lee). But demanding cinema based around the black experience are largely absent from American screens, displaced by gangstas, guns and masquerading comedians in drag or fat suits (Tyler Perry, Eddie Murphy). Can Lee Daniels’ “Precious” change all that? A couple key quotes: “‘Precious’ is the sort of black film we’ve gotten used to seeing,” says Barry Jenkins, the San Francisco-based director of “Medicine…

Michael Ruppert on Oil, Energy and “Collapse”
Crusading investigative journalist or paranoid conspiracy theorist? Michael Ruppert, the subject of Chris Smith’s engrossing new documentary “Collapse” (which opens tomorrow) may be a little bit of both, which makes the movie so much more interesting. Environmentalists and sustainability folks will have a lot to talk about after the film, but for me, the most fascinating thing about the film is Ruppert, the character: He’s bubbling over with contradictions: brilliant but maybe a little nuts; and like a big dog with a ferocious bite who just wants to be pet. For the Wall Street Journal Online, I talked to Ruppert…

Why Are the 60s making a comeback?
“Do you take advantage of the new freedoms?” purrs sexy next-door neighbor Mrs. Samsky in the Coen brothers’ 1967-set “A Serious Man.” The question looms large over a number of this year’s award-season films, many of them set either on the cusp of that moment of revolutionary change in the ‘60s (“An Education,” “A Single Man”), during its heyday (“A Serious Man,” “Nine,” “Pirate Radio”) or as its gleam began to wear off and turn darker (“The Damned United,” “The Lovely Bones”). Read more in this Variety story... Focus Features exec James Schamus once again proves he may be the…

Miramax R.I.P.
The closing of Miramax—because that’s what has effectively happened by shutting its New York office and letting Daniel Battsek go—is appalling, sad, practically devastating from a historical view of American independent cinema, and not entirely surprising. As corporate powers see more profit in the culture of tentpoles, they’ve been fleeing from smaller-budget films across the board. But what about the brand? Speaking from a purely base commercial perspective, Miramax was one of the most recognizable film companies in the land. And if any entity should have been able to survive the current dip—because that’s what it is, a temporary shift,…

Could this be the year Oscar and Indiewood break up?
For Variety’s Oscar preview edition, I’ve penned a look at how industry changes may effect this year’s race, “Will downturn dim indies’ award hopes?”. The collapse of Indiewood has made room in the Oscar derby for players such as Summit and Apparition. But can they afford to compete with the majors? And do they have enough box-office and broad appeal to get the Academy’s attention? As publicist Tony Angelotti me, this year’s smaller contenders may ultimately encounter the same sort of resistance they’ve always faced. “In order to get their due with Oscar voters, these kinds of films need to…