“Pet Shop Days,” the directorial debut from Hollywood scion Olmo Schnabel, has been acquired by Utopia for theatrical distribution in North America.
A Venice Film Festival premiere that just lit up SXSW, the provocative coming-of-age film stars stars Jack Irv, Dario Yazbek Bernal, Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard and Emmanuelle Seigner. Martin Scorsese, Jeremy O. Harris and Michel Franco (“New Order”) all serve as executive producers.
Bernal (Netflix’s “House of Flowers”) stars as Alejandro, the son of a Mexican crime lord on the run from his past in New York City. There he meets Jack (Irv), a 20-something living with his wealthy parents Francis (Dafoe) and Diana (Seigner) while working in a pet shop. In a haze of drugs and sex, Alejandro seduces Jack and drags him into the city’s criminal underbelly.
Shot on 35mm film by Hunter Zimny, the film generated buzz out of Venice for its daring lead performances.
A Venice Film Festival premiere that just lit up SXSW, the provocative coming-of-age film stars stars Jack Irv, Dario Yazbek Bernal, Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard and Emmanuelle Seigner. Martin Scorsese, Jeremy O. Harris and Michel Franco (“New Order”) all serve as executive producers.
Bernal (Netflix’s “House of Flowers”) stars as Alejandro, the son of a Mexican crime lord on the run from his past in New York City. There he meets Jack (Irv), a 20-something living with his wealthy parents Francis (Dafoe) and Diana (Seigner) while working in a pet shop. In a haze of drugs and sex, Alejandro seduces Jack and drags him into the city’s criminal underbelly.
Shot on 35mm film by Hunter Zimny, the film generated buzz out of Venice for its daring lead performances.
- 3/14/2024
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
“An interim agreement allows microbudget movies to see the light of day,” star-producer says.
Circle Collective’s independent anthology What Doesn’t Float has secured a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, paving the way for star-producer Pauline Chalamet (Sex Lives Of College Girls) to promote ahead of the imminent release in New York and Los Angeles.
Chalamet will do press next week to support the releases in New York on September 22 at Roxy Cinema and Los Angeles on October 6 at Brain Dead Studios. It is a timely boost for arthouse distributor Circle Collective, which has already virtually sold out the New York opening day.
Circle Collective’s independent anthology What Doesn’t Float has secured a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, paving the way for star-producer Pauline Chalamet (Sex Lives Of College Girls) to promote ahead of the imminent release in New York and Los Angeles.
Chalamet will do press next week to support the releases in New York on September 22 at Roxy Cinema and Los Angeles on October 6 at Brain Dead Studios. It is a timely boost for arthouse distributor Circle Collective, which has already virtually sold out the New York opening day.
- 9/9/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Arthouse distro Circle Collective has acquired worldwide rights to Luca Balser’s (Uncut Gems) NYC anthology film What Doesn’t Float, starring and produced by Pauline Chalamet (Sex Lives of College Girls), and shot by DPs Sean Price Williams (Good Time) and Hunter Zimny (Good Time).
The film is set to make its world premiere at the Lighthouse Film Festival this month and will be released theatrically in the U.S. from September with an international fest tour planned in the fall/winter.
What Doesn’t Float stars Chalamet, genre filmmaker and actor Larry Fessenden (Depraved), and Keith Poulson (Pvt Chat) as New Yorkers at their wit’s end. Script comes from Shauna Fitzgerald and Rachel Walden (Funny Pages) also produces.
The project is the first from NYC-based production company Gummy Films, headed by Chalamet, Balser and Walden who last month attended the Cannes Film Festival with their short film Lemon Tree...
The film is set to make its world premiere at the Lighthouse Film Festival this month and will be released theatrically in the U.S. from September with an international fest tour planned in the fall/winter.
What Doesn’t Float stars Chalamet, genre filmmaker and actor Larry Fessenden (Depraved), and Keith Poulson (Pvt Chat) as New Yorkers at their wit’s end. Script comes from Shauna Fitzgerald and Rachel Walden (Funny Pages) also produces.
The project is the first from NYC-based production company Gummy Films, headed by Chalamet, Balser and Walden who last month attended the Cannes Film Festival with their short film Lemon Tree...
- 6/6/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Owen Kline’s darkly hilarious directorial debut “Funny Pages” is a coming-of-age tale that finds the sublime in the grotesque, and the profound in an absurd search for meaning in the basement apartments and comic book shops of Trenton, New Jersey. Kline showcases a simultaneously provocative and poignant point-of-view and delivers an instant indie classic of lo-fi tri-state area cinema.
Kline’s “Funny Pages” is a delightfully disgusting and daring debut, featuring a breakout performance from “Eighth Grade”’s Daniel Zolghadri, as well as a host of New York’s most unique character actors. It also has notes of the Safdie Brothers’ “Uncut Gems” (the brothers serve as producers and Kline helped out on their shorts), a similar subject matter to “American Splendor” and just a soupçon of the gross-out sensibility of “The Greasy Strangler.”
Our protagonist, the young Robert (Zolghadri) is an aspiring comic artist in the tradition of R. Crumb,...
Kline’s “Funny Pages” is a delightfully disgusting and daring debut, featuring a breakout performance from “Eighth Grade”’s Daniel Zolghadri, as well as a host of New York’s most unique character actors. It also has notes of the Safdie Brothers’ “Uncut Gems” (the brothers serve as producers and Kline helped out on their shorts), a similar subject matter to “American Splendor” and just a soupçon of the gross-out sensibility of “The Greasy Strangler.”
Our protagonist, the young Robert (Zolghadri) is an aspiring comic artist in the tradition of R. Crumb,...
- 8/26/2022
- by Katie Walsh
- The Wrap
There’s something darkly funny about growing up.
“Funny Pages,” which debuted at 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, marks the feature directorial debut from Owen Kline (“The Squid and the Whale”), who also penned the script. Starring “Eighth Grade” and “Tales from the Loop” alum Daniel Zolghadri, “Funny Pages” tells the story of an aspiring teen cartoonist who shrugs off mundane suburban comforts and sets out to make it on his own in Trenton, New Jersey.
Maria Dizzia and Josh Pais star as the parents, who are trying to get their son to come home, while Stephen Adly Guirgis plays a high school art teacher. Matthew Maher portrays an older cartoonist who becomes a mentor to the lead.
“Funny Pages” is produced by Josh and Benny Safdie, and longtime Safdie Bros. cinematographer Sean Price Williams serves as director of photography for the film along with Hunter Zimny, using 16mm. “Funny Pages” premieres...
“Funny Pages,” which debuted at 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, marks the feature directorial debut from Owen Kline (“The Squid and the Whale”), who also penned the script. Starring “Eighth Grade” and “Tales from the Loop” alum Daniel Zolghadri, “Funny Pages” tells the story of an aspiring teen cartoonist who shrugs off mundane suburban comforts and sets out to make it on his own in Trenton, New Jersey.
Maria Dizzia and Josh Pais star as the parents, who are trying to get their son to come home, while Stephen Adly Guirgis plays a high school art teacher. Matthew Maher portrays an older cartoonist who becomes a mentor to the lead.
“Funny Pages” is produced by Josh and Benny Safdie, and longtime Safdie Bros. cinematographer Sean Price Williams serves as director of photography for the film along with Hunter Zimny, using 16mm. “Funny Pages” premieres...
- 7/20/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Michael Bilandic’s cinema has, over the course of four very small-scale features, staked out a distinct corner in indie film. Focusing on niche interests—be it the fledgling trance scene of 2009 or YouTube horrorcore rappers—the New York-based director’s films feel of the moment but never trend-chasing or too cool for the room. Simply put: a truly personal corpus.
His distinct style and interests are perfectly encapsulated in his newest work, Project Space 13, about Nate (Keith Poulson), a performance artist who sees his latest stunt involving bug-eating and other narcissistic, attention-grabbing shenanigans halted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Nate still has somewhat of an audience, though, as he’s protected by two assigned security guards at the performance space, one a young loose cannon (Hunter Zimny) and the other an older Covid-denier (Theodore Bouloukos). While outside riots escalate New York City into an apocalyptic state, the three men discuss their variety of differences.
His distinct style and interests are perfectly encapsulated in his newest work, Project Space 13, about Nate (Keith Poulson), a performance artist who sees his latest stunt involving bug-eating and other narcissistic, attention-grabbing shenanigans halted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Nate still has somewhat of an audience, though, as he’s protected by two assigned security guards at the performance space, one a young loose cannon (Hunter Zimny) and the other an older Covid-denier (Theodore Bouloukos). While outside riots escalate New York City into an apocalyptic state, the three men discuss their variety of differences.
- 12/2/2021
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
It’s now the final month of 2021 and, as is the case every year, one can see some of the theatrical offerings are a bit all over the place. Some of last month’s selections will be available to a wider audience this month (namely Licorice Pizza and The Power of the Dog), some below won’t actually get wider releases until next month, and others are getting one-week, awards-qualifying releases, making them 2021 films despite not receiving proper releases until 2022. Nonetheless, there’s still plenty to check out this month and you can see our top picks below.
15. The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova; Dec. 2 in theaters and Dec. 24 on VOD)
Well-timed to her current run in Succession, Dasha Nekrasova’s directorial debut The Scary of Sixty-First will arrive this month following a Berlinale premiere in February. Joshua Encinias said in his review, “Scary’s cinematographer Hunter Zimny makes visual...
15. The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova; Dec. 2 in theaters and Dec. 24 on VOD)
Well-timed to her current run in Succession, Dasha Nekrasova’s directorial debut The Scary of Sixty-First will arrive this month following a Berlinale premiere in February. Joshua Encinias said in his review, “Scary’s cinematographer Hunter Zimny makes visual...
- 12/1/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"What just happened? Guys, what just happened?" Circle Collective has unveiled the official trailer for an indie film titled Project Space 13, an experimental, artistic feature from filmmaker Michael M. Bilandic, of the cult comedies Jobe'z World, Hellaware and Happy Life previously. An emerging performance artist finally gets a coveted show at a Manhattan gallery But right as he begins his durational, provocative piece, the entire city shuts down for Covid-19. Unswayed, he locks himself in a white cube space to continue his performance for an audience of none. "Project Space 13 is an irreverent satire of upper class dilettantism, desperate institutions and rampant paranoia in hyper uncertain times." Apparently most of the film is about the conversations he has with the security guards. A bit strange and clearly experimental, but perhaps that's the point! Starring Keith Poulson as Nate, Hunter Zimny, Jason Grisell, Theodore Bouloukos, and Kyle Brown. Not sure if...
- 11/11/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: New York-based consulting and distribution agency Circle Collective, in partnership with Mubi, is set to release feature Project Space 13, a pandemic-inspired satirical comedy whose team includes DoP Sean Price Williams (Good Time).
The film is the fourth feature by Michael M. Bilandic reuniting cast members from his previous comedies Jobe’z World, Hellaware and Happy Life. Craig Butta (The Birthday Cake) and Daniel Weissbluth (Hellaware) produce.
The movie follows Nate, an emerging performance artist, who finally gets a coveted show at a Manhattan gallery, but right when he begins his provocative piece, the entire city shuts down for Covid-19. Unswayed, he locks himself in the white cube space to continue his performance for an audience of none. As tensions flare outside, the gallery hires private security to watch over him and his art. Over the course of one night, two armed guards and Nate argue about everything, reveal their darkest secrets,...
The film is the fourth feature by Michael M. Bilandic reuniting cast members from his previous comedies Jobe’z World, Hellaware and Happy Life. Craig Butta (The Birthday Cake) and Daniel Weissbluth (Hellaware) produce.
The movie follows Nate, an emerging performance artist, who finally gets a coveted show at a Manhattan gallery, but right when he begins his provocative piece, the entire city shuts down for Covid-19. Unswayed, he locks himself in the white cube space to continue his performance for an audience of none. As tensions flare outside, the gallery hires private security to watch over him and his art. Over the course of one night, two armed guards and Nate argue about everything, reveal their darkest secrets,...
- 10/27/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
“I think the Epstein stuff and all the details of it are so horrifying that it felt like a good fit, genre-wise, for a psychological horror,” Red Scare’s Dasha Nekrasova told us back in March as her directorial debut The Scary of Sixty-First debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival. Following the story of two women who move into a New York apartment once owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Utopia picked up the film for a December 17 release at NYC’s Quad Cinema in 35mm, followed by a digital release and theatrical expansion in 35mm beginning December 24. Ahead of the release, the trailer has now arrived for what looks to be ideal Christmas counter-programming,
Joshua Encinias said in his review, “Scary’s cinematographer Hunter Zimny makes visual references to Polanski’s The Tenant and Kubrick’s definitive “elites are sex monsters” classic Eyes Wide Shut, but even...
Joshua Encinias said in his review, “Scary’s cinematographer Hunter Zimny makes visual references to Polanski’s The Tenant and Kubrick’s definitive “elites are sex monsters” classic Eyes Wide Shut, but even...
- 10/12/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: AMC’s genre streamer Shudder and sales and distribution firm Utopia have picked up Dasha Nekrasova’s horror debut The Scary Of Sixty-First.
The film, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, sees two roommates’ lives upended after finding out that their new Manhattan apartment harbors a dark secret. The narrative takes a sinister turn after they discover it was once owned by the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Shudder has taken SVOD rights in North America, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, while Utopia has picked up remaining rights. Utopia will release the film in theaters and on digital later this year and the company’s Utopia’s Head of Sales David Betesh will be selling available international rights at the upcoming Cannes market.
The deal was negotiated by Digiacomo for Utopia and Emily Gotto for Shudder with UTA’s Independent Film Group.
Actor and podcaster Dasha Nekrasova,...
The film, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, sees two roommates’ lives upended after finding out that their new Manhattan apartment harbors a dark secret. The narrative takes a sinister turn after they discover it was once owned by the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Shudder has taken SVOD rights in North America, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, while Utopia has picked up remaining rights. Utopia will release the film in theaters and on digital later this year and the company’s Utopia’s Head of Sales David Betesh will be selling available international rights at the upcoming Cannes market.
The deal was negotiated by Digiacomo for Utopia and Emily Gotto for Shudder with UTA’s Independent Film Group.
Actor and podcaster Dasha Nekrasova,...
- 5/12/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
“She’s a very sick girl and she’s always been into, like, the UK,” says Noelle (Madeline Quinn) about her roommate Addie (Betsie Brown) to her new friend The Girl (Dasha Nekrasova). Sick fascinations are the instruments of demonic evil in Dasha Nekrasova’s debut feature The Scary of Sixty-First. Quinn co-wrote Scary with Nekrasova based on their shared feeling of futility in the aftermath of Jeffrey Epstein’s death. Unsatisfied with the story that Epstein committed suicide, in the summer of 2019 Nekrasova held “Epstein Truther MeetUps” to investigate his death with fellow skeptical New Yorkers. Her truther explorations became an idea for the film and Nekrasova’s Girl character could be a stand-in for the actress, but that isn’t too important. The real story with The Scary of Sixty-First is: if you speak of the devil, he shall appear.
While friends Noelle and Addie tour an apartment on the Upper East Side,...
While friends Noelle and Addie tour an apartment on the Upper East Side,...
- 3/15/2021
- by Joshua Encinias
- The Film Stage
There can be a fine line between a good idea and a terrible one followed through with utter conviction, and it’s along said line that “The Scary of Sixty-First” dances with heedless, wicked abandon. A brash, gutsy, morbidly funny first feature from actor-filmmaker-podcaster Dasha Nekrasova, it runs on a premise that could have been written as a dare, or a prank: Two female friends move into a freakishly affordable apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side that turns out to have been owned by the late pedophile mogul Jeffrey Epstein, and gradually find themselves consumed by its very bad vibes. Good taste, as you might well guess, is not on the agenda here. But underpinning the edgelord provocations and cheerfully cheap B-movie stylings of Nekrasova’s film is a dark, roiling rage that’s no joke: As a reflection on the abuse that powerful men mete out without due consequence,...
- 3/3/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
There’s alchemy at work in Dasha Nekrasova’s debut film “The Scary of Sixty-First,” the kind that can turn what’s old into what’s new. Equal parts ’70s-style paranoia thriller, Polanski-infused apartment horror, “Eyes Wide Shut” homage, and empathetic critical commentary on the conspiracy theories craze, this hallucinatory pastiche is even more than the sum of its cinematically riveting parts.
Addie (Betsey Brown) and Noelle (Madeline Quinn) are apartment-hunting in New York City. That alone is the stuff of horror. But in their case they find an ideal place right away — a shockingly cheap flat on the Upper East Side. They commit to it on the spot, despite an odd tarot card being left behind that suggests some ominous symbology. (Anyone who’s moved into a Manhattan pad and discovered a Pentagrama Esoterico sign on the wall and thought “What’s that about?” can relate.)
One day, an...
Addie (Betsey Brown) and Noelle (Madeline Quinn) are apartment-hunting in New York City. That alone is the stuff of horror. But in their case they find an ideal place right away — a shockingly cheap flat on the Upper East Side. They commit to it on the spot, despite an odd tarot card being left behind that suggests some ominous symbology. (Anyone who’s moved into a Manhattan pad and discovered a Pentagrama Esoterico sign on the wall and thought “What’s that about?” can relate.)
One day, an...
- 3/2/2021
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
The first thing you notice about Grear Patterson’s “Giants Being Lonely” is how unbelievably sharp it looks. Hunter Zimny’s cinematography is bright, and it’s crisp, and if you weren’t sitting in a theater you could swear that someone left the motion smoothing on. “Giants Being Lonely” may have the free-floating structure of a Terrence Malick joint, but it hasn’t been filmed through the fog of memory. It’s immediate and specific and painful and impressive.
Set in an unspecified rural alcove of the American South, “Giants Being Lonely” examines the lives in the orbit of a high school baseball team. Their team, the Giants, is talented and successful, thanks mostly to a star pitcher named Bobby (Jack Irving) and, perhaps, to their emotionally abusive Coach, whose overlooked son Adam is on the team too. Not that anyone would notice.
When he’s not pitching, Bobby...
Set in an unspecified rural alcove of the American South, “Giants Being Lonely” examines the lives in the orbit of a high school baseball team. Their team, the Giants, is talented and successful, thanks mostly to a star pitcher named Bobby (Jack Irving) and, perhaps, to their emotionally abusive Coach, whose overlooked son Adam is on the team too. Not that anyone would notice.
When he’s not pitching, Bobby...
- 9/1/2019
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
Michael Cera, Abbi Jacobson, Tavi Gevinson & More Survive New York in Trailer for ‘Person to Person’
Multiple New York stories come together in Dustin Guy Defa’s Person to Person, an ensemble piece that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. The film was shot on 16mm, which lead The Film Stage’s Dan Mecca to comment, “There is certainly — and commendably — a worn look to this version of New York City, thanks in large part to cinematographer Ashley Connor and her use of Super 16. If not for cell phones and other modern tech, we could be in the middle of a Woody Allen picture from the 1980s.”
Featuring a cast that includes Abbi Jacobson, Michael Cera, Tavi Gevinson, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., George Sample III, Olivia Luccardi, Hunter Zimny, Ben Rosenfield (here meeting a better fate than on Twin Peaks), and Philip Baker Hall. Watch the first trailer below.
During a single day in New York City, a variety of characters grapple with the mundane, the unexpected, and the larger questions permeating their lives. An investigative reporter struggles with her first day on the job, despite help from her misguided boss; a rebellious teen attempts to balance her feminist ideals with other desires; and a young man seeks to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend, even as her brother threatens revenge. Meanwhile, an avid music lover traverses the city in search of a rare record for his vinyl collection.
Person to Person opens in theaters and VOD on July 28.
Featuring a cast that includes Abbi Jacobson, Michael Cera, Tavi Gevinson, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., George Sample III, Olivia Luccardi, Hunter Zimny, Ben Rosenfield (here meeting a better fate than on Twin Peaks), and Philip Baker Hall. Watch the first trailer below.
During a single day in New York City, a variety of characters grapple with the mundane, the unexpected, and the larger questions permeating their lives. An investigative reporter struggles with her first day on the job, despite help from her misguided boss; a rebellious teen attempts to balance her feminist ideals with other desires; and a young man seeks to reconcile with his ex-girlfriend, even as her brother threatens revenge. Meanwhile, an avid music lover traverses the city in search of a rare record for his vinyl collection.
Person to Person opens in theaters and VOD on July 28.
- 6/22/2017
- by Chris Evangelista
- The Film Stage
There are plenty of characters and there is plenty of New York City in writer/director Dustin Guy Defa‘s Person To Person, but the whole thing meanders all over without ever really settling somewhere that matters. Amongst the pack, we’ve got rag newspaper reporter Phil (Michael Cera) and temp Claire (Abbi Jacobson) awkwardly getting to know each other while they follow up on a potential murder case, involving a rich widow (a criminally-wasted Michaela Watkins).
Meanwhile, a couple of old-timers (including Isiah Whitlock Jr.) hang out at a timepiece repair shop owned by Jimmy (Philip Baker Hall, understated and wonderful); a man named Bene (Bene Coopersmith) hunts down a rare Charlie Parker album while worrying about his new shirt while his best friend Ray (George Sample III) hides out at his apartment after posting nude photos online of his ex-girlfriend (Marsha Stephanie Blake); a quartet of teenagers (Tavi Gevinson,...
Meanwhile, a couple of old-timers (including Isiah Whitlock Jr.) hang out at a timepiece repair shop owned by Jimmy (Philip Baker Hall, understated and wonderful); a man named Bene (Bene Coopersmith) hunts down a rare Charlie Parker album while worrying about his new shirt while his best friend Ray (George Sample III) hides out at his apartment after posting nude photos online of his ex-girlfriend (Marsha Stephanie Blake); a quartet of teenagers (Tavi Gevinson,...
- 1/31/2017
- by Dan Mecca
- The Film Stage
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