Friday, 12 January 2001

Do you ever get the feeling that you’re dealing with a bit more doo than doggy?

Well, I have that feeling this weekend, even though I haven’t seen any of the three new wide releases: AntiTrust, Double Take, or Save the Last Dance. If I were forced at gunpoint to see one of these films, I would hope for the best with Orlando Jones and Eddie Griffin and Double Take. Between the other two, you have Julia Stiles vs. the formidable duo of Rachel Leigh Cook and Claire Forlani. It may make for a high school wet dream of a double feature, but I’ll hope to catch a moment here or there on cable some day.

If you want to do something worthwhile, this is big-expansion weekend for Finding Forrester, Thirteen Days, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? These films are likely to play quite differently for three very different audiences. Thirteen Days is a historical drama that really requires that you have an interest in history. Finding Forrester is an old-fashioned sentimental drama with a modern edge. And O Brother is a glorious trip outside the envelope from The Coen Bros., which will enthrall the fans who will go anywhere the boys take them and enrage those looking for the slightly hyperkinetic but clear narrative of Fargo.

Box Office Extra is here, after noon PST today.

THE GOOD: Sony Classics has heard your cries. I got a call from studio co-king Michael Barker earlier this week to discuss the future of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He was very encouraging. He insists that Sony Classics is after a Best Picture nod and will be appreciative of but not satisfied by a Best Foreign Language Film nomination or win. They want the big dog. And they should get it, given how people feel about this film. As for the ongoing battle for screens, Barker explained that they have expanded, repeatedly, the number of screens from their original plan and will try to go as high as 700 screens this weekend, after originally scheduling 400 screens and then reaching for 600. (You can get that screen count and all the others at Box Office Extra.)

But that won’t be the end of it. In a few weeks, the film looks to reach the 1,000 screen mark... that will be the big test. But for now, this is the big weekend. Interestingly, the film has not performed as wonderfully in every market right off the bat. But even in the rare markets that started slow, things picked up quickly. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a true international phenomenon. This weekend, Michelle Yeoh will appear at an Academy screening of the film, pressing the flesh and passing the word. Next week, Zhang Ziyi arrives to stump for CTHD and her other Sony Classics film, Zhang Yimou’s The Road Home, before starting work on Rush Hour 2. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is for real. And now we know that Sony Classics gets it, 100 percent.

THE BAD: This is actually kind of good/bad. On Wednesday night, I went to a Slamdance screening. I won’t name the movie because a) who cares?, and b) it might turn out to be great, and c) the team behind it is good folks. However, it was raining like Idi Amin out there when I made the trek to Santa Monica to catch this screening. For those of you who don’t live here in L.A., it is one of those true stereotypes that L.A. drivers have no idea how what to do in the rain, making commuting in a drizzle as dangerous here as driving in a blizzard in Colorado. Yet off I went. (Hail to the Ford Mustang, which has a convertible roof that never makes you think, "Damn, why did I buy a convertible that makes a lot of noise and leaks when it rains?")

It was a screening room that I’d never been to before, so it took me a while to figure out where it was, again driving in circles in this downpour. When I found it, the underground lot that was supposed to be available was full, and there were four cars waiting on line anyway, hoping someone would vacate. I vacated and went to a public lot, three blocks away. I had an umbrella. And that kept a few parts of me dry. With 10 minutes to spare, I went to the Coffee Bean to get something and watched this 17 year old pretty much spit out her vanilla coffee because, "I don’t like coffee drinks." Uh, wrong place to go.

When I arrived at the screening room three minutes before show time, people were in the hallway. So was the film. What was going on? No projectionist. Okay. Then the movie team arrived, confirming that there was no projectionist. Ten minutes later, we found out that the projectionist was stuck in a traffic jam. Thirty minutes later, he was still stuck. And 20 minutes after that, the effort to get a nearby theater to screen the movie for us had failed. The film’s team offered to buy everyone drinks at the restaurant next door (very nice) and the evening was effectively over. (A journalist friend and I went off to a restaurant and trashed everyone we knew to within an inch of our lives over seafood chowder. Fun.)

The point of this story is that Slamdance had come to Los Angeles a week early. Don’t get me wrong. Slamdance movies often start on time and people are huddling in the lobby of the Treasure Mountain Inn (this year, in the Silver Mine) trying to stay out of the snow. But there is an element of chaos throughout the week. And that’s a part of what makes Slamdance so fun. It’s not Sundance. It’s not quite as tightly organized. It is just good people trying to do something good. (Note: The Sundance people are also trying to do something good... but the bigger something gets, the more complex and the less simply human, although some of the best Sundance stories every year come from the folks manning the theaters, who are all passionate volunteers.)

Anyway, in some ways, this is a wet, bad story. But by the end, there was the glow of silliness that is the best part of the festivals. And so, it begins...

PAGE TWO: Blood At Warners, Thud Elsewhere, plus ROTDs