Limited Releases offer Little Relief

August 27, 2004

The transition from Summer Blockbuster Season to September Dumping Ground underway, there's an awkward mix of movies hitting arthouse theatres tonight. It's a little late in the summer for effective counter programming and its too early for award show hopefuls to come out. On the plus side, several other limited releases expand this weekend including Mean Creek, Garden State and Napoleon Dynamite

Bright Leaves - Reviews
A personal documentary about tobacco from a director with family roots in the business. The film is subtle and slow moving at times, but it is also an engaging look at the effect that this crop has on the people who grow it and who are addicted to it.

The Brown Bunny - Reviews
This film is getting amazingly high reviews, at least compared to what I thought it would get. When it was first shown at the Cannes film festival, many critics hated the film. Roger Ebert even went so far as to call the film, "the worst in the history of Cannes." This cause quite a verbal battle between Roger Ebert and Vincent Gallo, the writer / director / etc. of The Brown Bunny. A verbal battle which in many ways is more interesting than the movie itself. Note: This is the 90 recut version of the movie, and not the nearly 2 hour version shown at Cannes.

Chooch - Reviews
A limited release that is intended to appeal to a wider audience instead of the arthouse scene. It's going to need stronger word of mouth that the reviews so far would indicate if it's going to expand into more than the 3 theatres it's opening in tonight.


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Filed under: Limited Releases, Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State, Mean Creek