On Demand Weekly

By Britt Bensen

 

MOD viewers also have access to a wealth of indie titles, a number of which premiere either the same day or before their theatrical release. These titles may not be widely available in local theaters. Highlights of this month’s indie movies include the comedy THE BABYMAKERS, the horror title [REC] 3: GENESIS, AND GOATS with David Duchovny and Vera Farmiga. They’ll also be able to catch Kirsten Dunst in the dark comedy BACHELORETTE, Blair Underwood in WOMAN THOU ART LOOSED: ON THE 7TH DAY, THE RAID: REDEMPTION which received wide critical acclaim and the Australian hit RED DOG. Also playing is this year’s Best Foreign film Academy Award winner A SEPARATION and the comedy BERNIE starring Jack Black. SIDE BY SIDE is a documentary produced and narrated by Keanu Reeves about movie-making’s transition to digital, featuring some of Hollywood’s greatest directors. The month winds down with DARLING COMPANION starring Diane Keaton and Kevin Kline.

 

 

And our Independent Movie On Demand (IMOD) Pick of the Month is SLEEPWALK WITH ME from the producers of NPR’s This American Life which won the Best of NEXT Audience award at Sundance 2012.

 

 

Enjoy On Demanding this month!


THE BABYMAKERS – Premieres August 3
R, Comedy
Paul Schneider, Olivia Munn

Same day as theatrical release


[REC] 3: GENESIS – Premieres August 3
R, Horror
Leticia Dolera, Diego Martín

Before theatrical release


SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE – Premieres August 3
R, Action
Christian Slater, Sean Bean

Same day as theatrical release


BLUE LIKE JAZZ – Premieres August 7
PG-13, Drama
Marshall Allman, Claire Holt

Same day as DVD


ABOUT CHERRY – Premieres August 9
TV-MA, Drama
James Franco, Heather Graham

Before theatrical release


BACHELORETTE – Premieres August 10
R, Comedy
Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher

Before theatrical release

 

You may have heard Mike Birbiglia tell his story on THIS AMERICAN LIFE on NPR; indeed TAL’s Ira Glass helped co-write and co-produce the film along with Birbiglia’s brother, Joe. You may also be a fan of Mike Birbiglia as a comedian; then you will also know the story because it’s the basis of his stand-up. He also did a one-man show Off-Broadway about it. This is The Ultimate Long Tail. Use it anyway you can. Webisodes, next?

 

If you’re the niche audience for this film, meaning if you’re a middle-class white guy and under 35 and kinda nerdy in that cute-nerdy kinda way, this is for you. I am not the niche audience, not at all, and even with some very wince-able moments, I found this charming, quirky plus it really made me consider that good indie filmmaking is not dead. Not by a long shot. And I prefer to most Hollywood films.

Actor-writer Seth Barrish co-directs with Mike B. For each, a virgin turn at the helm. This is a feel-good, fun guy-project that doesn’t diminish its female characters – they just come off smarter and more together than the guys (thanks, guys!) It’s not super slick with a huge budget, but it is genuine and actually funny. I am certain I’m not the only one who wished there were more movies like this out there. And when you come to think of it, I am surprised that more indies are not spun off stories from THIS AMERICAN LIFE.

The storyline’s not so simple, but is based on Birbiglia’s real life saga. Entering into his early 30’s and still pining to do stand-up professionally, Matt Pandamglio is a bartender who feels his life going nowhere. At his sister’s engagement party, he’s bombarded by family and friends with questions as to why he and Abby (Lauren Ambrose – SIX FEET UNDER, WANDERLUST, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE) his girlfriend of 8 years aren’t married. His parents (Carol Kane –DOG DAY AFTERNOON, HESTER STREET, TREES LOUNGE and James Rebhorn – most recently seen in HOMELAND, also MEET THE PARENTS, SCENT OF A WOMAN) are well-meaning but truly mis-guided in ways to support their late-bloomer son.

Then two things happen and along the way collide. 1- Matt begins to sleepwalk due to erratic, highly dramatic, mercurial dreaming (maybe the shock of potential marriage?!) and 2- a low-rent agent gets him an actual gig, a standup gig out of town, somewhere in the depths of upstate New York. Matt takes off, his career a bit more slowly, until he begins to deal with his own personal issues within his act; a form of self-therapy that proves to be hilarious to us, the audience but makes him realize that, well, there might be need changes ahead in his heretofore less-than-challenging life. In fact, he’s been an avoid-all-challenges type of guy. With the combination of sleepwalking and maybe a real-life dream, his career, about to come to realization, there’s no way to avoid or procrastinate any longer. As his career starts to zoom and he’s driving to one gig after the next, the dreams and sleepwalking get crazier and crazier. Hijinks ensue, as they say.

 

 

Then Matt P. aka Mike B. has to face his own life face on.

 

SLEEPWALK WITH ME (IFC Films)

 

 

On Demand Weekly (ODW): How did you and Ira Glass come together to make SLEEPWALK WITH ME?
Mike Birbiglia (MB): Ira basically played the original sleepwalking story on This American Life and then we started working on a bunch of different stories for his show—we did about 6 or 7. And so I was also working on this film and it just seemed like a logical thing to involve him in because he was such a big part of bringing the story into the mainstream and This American Life had been trying to produce films for a few years before that so it seemed like a logical fit.

 

ODW: You’ve been creative in enlisting fans to expand the film’s theatrircal run. Where did Friday’s (10/12/12) VOD Pizza Party idea come from?
MB: We had done these live Q&As around the country and those were really successful—we broke the record at the IFC Film Center in New York City and Ira broke the record at the Music Box in Chicago—so I think the reason this is happening is that primarily the people who see the film know our other work and they have questions!

 

 

So the VOD pizza parties was just an extension of that. We thought...

 

“So the movie is on demand,

how do we make that personal and fun and specific for people?”

And there’s a lot of pizza in the movie.

 

There’s a pizza pillow and my character eats pizza in bed. So we just thought we’d video into people’s parties and it ended up being really fun. And strange. And unique.

ODW: Two part question: favorite pizza toppings and favorite pizza restaurant?
MB: Favorite pizza topping: plain or pepperoni. I like to go really simple. The moment that a pizza has more than 2 or 3 toppings, I just don’t think that it’s pizza anymore. I think that it’s dominated by the topping. You might as well say, “This is a mushroom surrounded by pizza flavors.” And my favorite restaurant is Arturo’s. I used to live right by there on Houston Street. It’s coal oven, great ambiance, great live music, nice people. It’s just a classic New York institution. And it’s right in between the Angelika and IFC center so it’s a great place to go pre or post indie movie.

 

See the latest Independent Movie On Demand (IMOD) Trailers here...

ODW: You and Ira will video chat with SWM pizza party hosts? Will others be able to view your interactions or will each chat be private?
MB: We actually did them on this past Friday night. They were just private and we took photos and I think we did video a little bit of them with our phones. But in general it was just supposed to be very grassroots and just us video chatting into these people’s parties.

ODW: Are you worried you might be creating your own Chat Roulette situation?