Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Okay... here's one for you to ponder. How is it that a film struggles for nearly eight months to find a theatrical distributor, and when it does finally secure a limited release, it can still be seen as a crushing defeat?
When it's what just happened to Henry Bean's blistering THE BELIEVER, winner of this year's Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Let's take a quick look at what VARIETY had to say in their article this morning, shall we?
HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Fireworks Pictures has set an early 2002 theatrical release date for its Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner ``The Believer,'' which will premiere on Showtime in September.
``Believer,'' written and directed by Henry Bean, made waves at Sundance this year. The film is based on the true story of Danny Balint, a former Yeshiva student who becomes a neo-Nazi skinhead out of a twisted, erudite love-hate relationship with God.
The film will go out through Fireworks' New York-based joint distribution venture Independent Distribution Partnership, in which Fireworks is partnered with Samuel Goldwyn and Stratosphere.
"Made waves." I like that. This film infuriated some viewers. What's been happening behind the scenes in an effort to get this movie distributed has been reported to me by off-the-record sources, people genuinely nervous about talking about the film. Time after time, the accusation seemed to be that key figures in the Jewish community took a strong dislike to the picture, though, and called it "a how-to guide for anti-Semitism." That's a bit conspiracy-minded for my liking, but I kept hearing nearly identical reportage from different sources, even though I could never get anyone to give me something solid enough to print. Whatever the truth of the matter is, the film's been a political hot potato, and literally every distributor in town passed on it.
Then Showtime signed a deal for it to go straight to cable. It premieres next month. Only after it's been announced as a cable film does it get picked up finally for limited theatrical playdates, which means it's no longer able to qualify for any Academy Award consideration.
Horseshit. That's just plain stupid. If Showtime has any regard for the film whatsoever, they'll hold off and let Fireworks do a limited year-end run for the movie, just so it gets a fair shake. It's not like they'd have the money to run a major campaign anyway, but at least give the film a chance to part of the dialogue.
I saw this film at Sundance. It was outside this screening that John Robie and I finally met Roger Ebert and chatted with him. Walking out of this film, I felt like I'd just seen something that was going to be a valuable subject of much conversation and debate, a strong, smart, worthwhile film with a voice that dared to tackle something genuinely controversial, something we haven't seen a thousand times before. I was excited by the movie. I think it's got some flaws, but you can't fault Ryan Gosling for his amazing performance or Henry Bean for the sincerity with which he seems to have drawn this portrait of a young man wrestling with self-loathing. I never figured that the film was going to get marginalized, kneecapped before it even got started.
Do the right thing, Showtime. Remember how pissy everyone got the year of THE LAST SEDUCTION? Don't rob Henry Bean and Ryan Gosling of their chance to compete this year. Don't turn this into just another cable movie. It's too good, and now that there's a chance of it playing theaters, it deserves whatever shot it has without some stupid loophole disqualifying it because of poor timing.
"Moriarty" out.
