Every year, there a good number of
movies that go directly to cable or DVD.
At one time, these were seen as the failures; the ones who
couldn’t hack it for a theatrical campaign. But not
anymore.Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see movies, namely
documentaries, going directly to HBO for their premieres. Other
films are embracing the video-ondemand option of many cable
operators.
And then there are films like
"The Narrows," which toured the nation’s film
festivals and even racked up a special award at this year’s
Nashville Film Festival and yet failed to entice any film
distributors. (Given what happened at this year’s Toronto Film
Festival, where few offers were made to buy up new films, this
is becoming a far more common occurrence).
Aside from winning an award, "The Narrows" features a
cast of prominent actors, including names like Vincent D’Onofrio
and Michael Sirow.
But this past Tuesday, with little fanfare, "The
Narrows" started appearing on the shelves of area of DVD
stores. If you walked by it, you probably wouldn’t know
anything about it and surely not that it was being toured
through festivals aggressively over the past year, by producers
who were convinced that it could have a life at a Marcus Theater
near you.
The story at the center of it all involves a workingclass boy
from humble roots (Kevin Zegers) who has dreams of becoming a
photographer. But his father (D’Onofrio), who has lost his
wife and his job and is now living at home off disability and
earnings as a bookie, is too proud to let his boy Mike take a
university scholarship. So Mike instead goes to work for a local
hoodlum, running mysterious packages for a few quick bucks,
juggling his life as aspiring artists and experienced mafia
grunt.
While the film feels slightly conventional, hanging its hat on
familiar themes of disappointing families, lucrative sins and
wasted potential, "The Narrows" nevertheless sports
some top-notch performances, creating characters that are
genuinely torn as to how to lead a life well lived.
But the film’s fate is rather common nowadays. With fewer
films going to movie theaters, there are more and more
filmmakers looking for alternate distribution strategies. The
prominent filmmaker Wayne Wang decided to release a film via
YouTube last year.
Another great drama, "Medicine For Melancholy," went
the route of video-ondemand. Great documentaries, like "The
Recruiter," have gone straight from Sundance to HBO.
What I’m increasingly finding is that, aside from the Oriental
Theater, Downer Theater and Union Theatre in downtown Milwaukee,
the multiplex might no longer be the best place for the curious
moviegoer.
Maybe surfing the cable dial, or shelling out for HBO, or
roaming the DVD store in search of titles you’ve never heard
of before is the way to go. Even Roger Ebert has started
reviewing films that have gone nationwide via cable, rather than
movie theater.
Is "The Narrows" epic? No. It’s not great. But it’s
certainly entertaining, and better than many films that open
wide on 4,000 screens. Why haven’t we heard about it? Why was
it dumped straight to DVD without so much as an advertisement to
tell the rest of us about it?
E-mail: SnyderReviews@hotmail.com
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