Just in time for the upcoming Oscars, shocking I know, several theatres here in the Twin Cities have decided to host some movie marathons of films nominated for this year’s Oscars, from Live Action and Animated short films, to Documentary to every Best Picture nominee, you can find them somewhere in the Cities this weekend and next.
Live Action and Animated Short Films The Lagoon Cinema
Animated – 2:50 & 7:15 (Daily)
Live Action – 5:10 & 9:30 (Daily)
Matinee $7 | General $9
Twin Cities Gold Film Festival Woodbury 10 Theatre
The Most Dangerous Man in America – Sat @ 7:00 (Twin Cities Premiere)
Food Inc – Fri @ 1:00 | Sat @ 5:00 | Sun @ 3:00
Burma VJ – Fri @ 3:00 & 9:00 | Sat @ 3:00 | Sun @ 1:00
Which Way Home – Fri @ 7:00 | Sat @ 9:00 | Sun @ 5:00 (Twin Cities Premiere)
The Cove – Fri @ 5:00 | Sat @ 1:00 | Sun @ 7:00
Tickets $6 | Festival Pass $25
Best Picture Marathon Day 1 (Feb 27th)
AMC Eden Prairie 18
10:30 – Avatar
1:45 – Up
3:45 – A Serious Man
6:30 – Precious
8:45 – District 9
AMC Arbor Lakes 16 & AMC Rosedale 14
10:30 – Avatar
1:45 – Up in the Air
4:00 – Precious
6:45 – The Blind Side
9:15 – Inglourious Basterds
Day 2 (March 6)
AMC Eden Prairie 18
10:30 – An Education
12:45 – The Hurt Locker
3:25 – Up in the Air
6:00 – The Blind Side
8:30 – Inglourious Basterds
AMC Arbor Lakes 16 & AMC Rosedale 14
10:30 – Up
12:45 – A Serious Man
2:45 – The Hurt Locker
6:00 – An Education
8:00 – District 9
Pretty much every movie related website on the Internet has come up with some sort of Best of the Decade list over the past month. But while the majority of them focused on straight up “Best of” lists featuring relatively well known films, I figured in the spirit of this website that I would instead focus on the lesser known films that have been made over the past ten years.
But one question I had to figure out was just how should I whittle down films as “Long Tail” films. Plenty of films started out as smaller films that eventually found their audience, while there is certainly a fair share of films that were initially given a wide release. So I decided I would use two different determining factors to help figure out which films would be considered part of the long tail.
The first is the amount of screens the film was released on during its theatrical run here in the US. I decided to go with a relatively small number of screens as the ceiling (100 at the films widest release) and that any film that broke that would simply be dismissed. This number essentially acts as the films initial chance to gain potential viewers. Films eliminated by this include The Proposition (158 screens), City of God (242 screens) and The Triplets of Bellville (463 screens).
Secondly I went off of reviews on IMDb.com. Once again I selected a fairly small number of reviews as the ceiling (no more than 10K). This number reflects the film’s total audience, as the films that are more popular with mainstream audiences, or those that have rabid fan followings, typically break that number quite easily. Film eliminated by this number include such seemingly smaller films like Oldboy (28 screens, 87016 votes), Dead Man’s Shoes (2 screens, 16286 votes) and Let the Right One In (53 screens, 45413 votes).
While still far from a perfect system, this seemed to work pretty well in eliminating a fairly large chunk of lesser known films, making it a far more manageable task for me to select some of my favorites from what remained. One interesting note, this process seemed to favor documentaries as twelve ended up making the list. So while the quality of documentaries has grown throughout the decade, it still seems like the form still has a ways to go to capture the public’s attention.
And without further ado, I give you this decades 30 Best Long Tail Films.
Shockingly uninteresting update for this week, as no new films are added. The most exciting update seems to be that two films, The Answer Man and Burning Plain, have been pushed to later release dates. Wheee!
Wait … scratch that. One new addition this week! That being the mockumentary Paper Heart, starring Michael Cera as Michael Cera and Michael Cera’s girlfriend as Michael Cera’s girlfriend. Nice to see he is not simply relying on playing the same character over and over again, but rather simply including others in on the fun.
One interesting thing to note is that we are now scheduled to open six, count ‘em (I know you won’t!) six new films on August 14th. While theoretically we will have the screen space I just don’t see how that will ever happen. That is a ridiculous amount of new movies to release on one weekend. My guess is a couple of them get pushed, though since three of those films have already been pushed once, don’t be surprised if they simply disappear into the ether. Its a shame really, though I know this is only interesting to those of us who rabidly follow these updates. By those I of course mean me and Daniel.
*** – Denotes recommended viewing
All dates subject to change
08/07 The Cove Uptown***
08/07 The End of the Line Lagoon
08/07 Paper Heart Lagoon (NEW)
08/14 Not Quite Hollywood Lagoon***
08/14 Adam Edina
08/14 Ponyo Edina ***
08/14 Spread Lagoon
08/14 Soul Power Lagoon
08/14 The Answer Man Edina (NEW DATE)
08/21 Inglorious Bastards Lagoon***
08/21 Lorna’s Silence Edina
08/28 Cold Souls Uptown ***
08/28 The World’s Greatest Dad Lagoon ***
08/28 Taking Woodstock Lagoon***
08/28 Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg Edina
08/29 The Adventures of Robin Hood Edina (One Night Only) ***
08/30 The Bride of Frankenstein Edina (One Night Only) ***
08/30 It Happened One Night Edina (One Night Only) ***
09/04 Thirst Lagoon ***
09/04 Afghan Star Lagoon
09/04 My One and Only Edina
09/09 9 Lagoon ***
09/11 The Baader Meinhof Complex Uptown
09/11 Captain Abu Raed Lagoon
09/11 Play the Game Edina
09/18 Bright Star Uptown
09/18 The Beaches of Agnes Edina
09/25 Somers Town Lagoon***
09/25 Paris Edina
09/25 Other Man Edina
09/25 Burning Plain Edina (NEW DATE)
10/02 A Serious Man Uptown***
10/02 No Impact Man Lagoon
10/02 The Boys are Back Edina
10/02 Amreeka Edina
10/09 Earth Days Lagoon
10/09 Damned United Lagoon
10/16 Still Walking Lagoon
10/16 New York, I Love You Lagoon
10/16 Coco Before Chanel Edina
10/23 An Education Uptown
10/23 The Horse Boy Lagoon
11/13 Crude Lagoon
12/04 William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe Lagoon
Just got back from a screening of The Cove and I have to admit I didn’t have very high hopes for the film going in. The film was being marketed pretty heavily as a blatant message movie, and I worried that it would be far too much message and not enough movie, and I am happy to report the film struck a an excellent balance.
Showing that it is following in the footsteps of Man On Wire, The Cove immediately sets itself up as a heist film with an opening scene that sets up the crimes the team must commit to simply get some video footage of the small cove where dolphins are being slaughtered in the small fishing town of Taijii, Japan. But rather then focus solely on this element, The Cove rather deftly alternates between explaining the backstory of how the world dolphin trade originated, currents efforts to curb it, and the activists planning their secret mission.
Eschewing the standard talking head format, The Cove also manages to educate as well as entertain through a series of interviews, clips and bureaucratic International conference meetings that should be boring, yet are both infuriating and captivating. Spliced in-between these are the carefully designed and carried out plans to secretly video tape The Cove.
And while all the evidence, data and angry activism makes for a compelling case, none compares to the video evidence that is eventually gathered that shows the actual dolphin herd being slaughtered for consumption. That a group of people must go to such lengths to record these events is not surprising, as the slaughter is stunningly brutal as it bathes the ocean in a sea of blood. But even more saddening then the slaughter, is that the meat is filled with such high levels of mercury that it is toxic to eat. Making Japan’s push to have the meat available to school children perhaps even a more heinous act then the killing itself.
The Cove is not an easy film to watch, and even more difficult to not be swayed by its compelling message. But without a doubt it is one of the best documentaries of the year.
Probably because this documentary film is about overfishing. That’s right, yet another documentary film this year telling us how awful we are for eating things. Though to be fair they aren’t angry that we eat animals, but rather how corporations abuse the animals and produce cheap, low quality food that they can net a high profit on. But honestly, I’m pretty damn sick of documentaries that focus on corporate greed. I think they’ve clubbed me over the head enough already with the subject. And releasing this the same week as The Cove? That seems less than bright. Granted I know these are message movies, and the people that rabidly follow these movies are a curious lot, but I can’t see them finishing up one of these movies then turning right around and running across the street to see another version.
All that considered, the one sheet for The End of the Line is flippin’ sweet.
Interest level: Sinking faster then the Titanic
The End of the Line opens at the Lagoon Theatre on July 31st.
Just in time for the upcoming Oscars, shocking I know, several theatres here in the Twin Cities have decided to host some movie marathons of films nominated for this year’s Oscars, from Live Action and Animated short films, to Documentary to every Best Picture nominee, you can find them somewhere in the Cities this weekend and next.
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