Gallery Films

Down in Texas, Jim McIngvale is known as "Mattress Mack." But that doesn't mean he plans to keep his cash in one. After conquering the Houston furniture market with a series of zany commercials that inspire comparisons to Southern California auto dealer Cal Worthington, McIngvale has turned his attention to Hollywood. He is betting $16 million from his own bank account--about 40% of his net worth by his own accounting--on a single film, "Sidekicks."

First-time writer-director Eric Mendelsohn won the directing award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival for his eccentric black-and-white fable "Judy Berlin," starring a pre-"The Sopranos" Edie Falco and the late Madeline Kahn in her final film role. Like many Sundance entries, "Judy Berlin" attracted some studio nibbles, but none bit. Until now.

First-time writer-director Eric Mendelsohn won the directing award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival for his eccentric black-and-white fable "Judy Berlin," starring a pre-"The Sopranos" Edie Falco and the late Madeline Kahn in her final film role. Like many Sundance entries, "Judy Berlin" attracted some studio nibbles, but none bit. Until now.

Down in Texas, Jim McIngvale is known as "Mattress Mack." But that doesn't mean he plans to keep his cash in one. After conquering the Houston furniture market with a series of zany commercials that inspire comparisons to Southern California auto dealer Cal Worthington, McIngvale has turned his attention to Hollywood. He is betting $16 million from his own bank account--about 40% of his net worth by his own accounting--on a single film, "Sidekicks."

Proposing No. 1: "Indecent Proposal," the much-talked about movie from Paramount, is No. 1 at the box office yet again, with $7 million, according to early industry estimates. The film has grossed nearly $70 million in four weeks of release. Clumped behind the powerhouse movie were three films--Gallery Films' "Sidekicks," Touchstone's "Indian Summer" and MGM's "Benny & Joon"--that each brought in between $3.7 million and $3 million. 20th Century Fox's "The Sandlot" was in fifth place with $2.

That last year's Venice Film Festival turned down "Boogie Nights" in favor of "Niagara Niagara" should help American audiences get over any lingering inferiority complex they might have regarding European cinema, or aesthetics--although it won't allay anyone's concerns about American independent pictures. Robin Tunney ("The Craft") won a best actress award from the festival, playing a lovely loser with Tourette's syndrome (an honor that seems a classic example of "Rain Man" syndrome).

Perhaps it's a cinematic second childhood, but in the past few years, we seem to be witnessing a mass emigration of the action movie stars of the '80's back toward Cutesville and Kiddieland. Gone, to some degree, are the snarls, carnage and blood, the "Rambos" and "Raw Deals." Instead, there's Schwarzenegger in "Kindergarten Cop," Sylvester Stallone in "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot!" Just the other week, there was Burt Reynolds in "Cop and a Half."

Twentieth Century Fox recently restored the 1964 classic "Zorba the Greek," starring Anthony Quinn (pictured with Eleni Anousaki) in his Oscar-nominated performance, to its former glory. It'll make its debut as the opening-night presentation of the second annual Greek Film Festival, Wednesday at the Egyptian Theatre. The festival, running through June 29 mostly at the Linwood Dunn Theater, features a tribute to the late John Cassavetes with a reunion screening of "Faces," and such contemporary films as "Alter Ego" and "Little Greek Godfather," which closes the festival (lagreekfilmfestival.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is joining forces with the Shooting Gallery, a New York-based multimedia company that will finance and produce the remaining four installments of its beleaguered Filmharmonic series. The first should surface during the second half of next season, after music director Esa-Pekka Salonen returns from sabbatical. The project pairs A-list movie directors and composers in cinematic collaborations that the Philharmonic, providing live accompaniment, will premiere.

Elegant geometric paintings by Wassily Kandinsky in the same gallery as films of dancing geometric shapes, shot by Oscar Fischinger (who collaborated on "Fantasia")? Not every small museum has the resources to show such works side by side. But that's the kind of eclectic collection that the Long Beach Museum of Art owns, and the current exhibit, "Choice Encounters," (through Feb. 14) wisely takes full advantage of it.

The turbulent, strangely affecting animated films made by South African artist William Kentridge are driven by special effects. By that, I don't mean 3-D worlds conjured from the digital ether of computer pixels. In fact I mean just the opposite. Today, what goes by the name "special effects" in movies is anything but special. High-tech razzle-dazzle is instead routine, a conventional process of filmmaking fully anticipated by the audience. Occasionally it's effective; mostly it's inert.