Something's Bugging Me...

That's right, Ashley. Gouge that ugly Chuck film out of your neglected arm...

I was once told that my being a British non-professional reviewer personage (I gave that statement extra qualification after remembering Mainly Movies) gives me uniqueness in this particular solar system of the blogosphere, and so it is with that backing me that I go into major rant mode.

Months ago, I instructed all you Americans to go and see what is still the best film of the year, Bug. I saw it over a year ago now at the 2006 London Film Festival (2007's Fest has just finished- I didn't go this year). In the just-linked post I mentioned that it, at that point, still had no release date for Britain. This was still true until about a week ago. And then, a few days ago, I discover that it is being released. Today.

All very well, you say. Reviews have popped up- not particularly jubilant ones, but I never expected everyone to like it. (Mark Kermode is a fellow championer, the Good Doctor that he is. He flatly refused to give another film of the week despite... well, I'll get to that.) The thing is, it seems to be being "released", as far as I can see, in about two cinemas. Both in London. There has been, as you might expect having only been shoved into the release schedule a week ago, no publicity. It's like they don't want anyone to see it.

Well, I do. I WANT TO SEE IT. But you don't care about me, do you, you stupid LionsGate people? No, you can give the entire country crap like Good Luck Chuck (and yes, it IS, by astonishing non-coincidence, also distributed by LionsGate), but only twenty people who live in London can see a masterpiece like Bug.

Stupid. F**king. Idiots.

The Downside of Oscar

I'd like to talk to you, readers, about the elusive film that is The Upside of Anger. What's that, readers? You've forgotten it already? Well, that's understandable. It has been released everywhere. Except here. Yes, that's right, dear readers. Britian still hasn't been deigned worthy of recieving The Upside of Anger. The 11th of March will mark two years since it was first released in the USA, and yet, still, it hasn't turned up in Britain. I went to New York exactly a year ago and I held the DVD in my hands. I could've bought it. I wish I'd bought it. I could have watched it, enjoyed it, and moved on. But that's in the past. Unfortunately the film persists to live in the future. I first noticed that it was scheduled for released in December 2006, though I don't know if it was scheduled for a released previously. Then it moved to the end of January. January came, went, and no Upside was enjoyed. February 16th, you say? Nope. Perhaps the 23rd? No. Next month? No. According to the website of my local cinema (hardly a reputable source, but still) it will now be released on the 5th of May. I hold out little hope. Will I ever learn exactly what the upside of anger is? Because at the moment I am only experiencing it's downsides.

I don't pretend to know why the film is having these distribution problems. But I tend to think that it might have a little something to do with the lack of that little golden man. There was uproar when the gorgeous Joan Allen wasn't nominated at the Oscars for her performance in Upside, and I'd bet a lot of money that if she had got one, they would have released Upside in a flash. All but Felicity Huffman's Transamerica had been released in the UK by the time of the Oscars, and they promptly popped that one out on March 24th. Would a little film starring a TV star have been so quickly released had she not been Oscar-nominated? Maybe. I don't know, I'm not a distributor. But Oscar can mean a lot, and Joan Allen's lack of it meant her film got stuffed in a drawer and forgotten about. I doubt there's many besides me clamouring for it's release so long after it was the talk of the town, but my god, why can't they just put it quietly out there and let me sate myself? Why do they persist in pushing it away? And why, why can't this anger have an upside?