News for
The Minus Man (1999) More at IMDbPro »

2 articles from 2009

26 June 2009 1:28 PM, PDT | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

They should be called leaders.

We know them as trailers, but they don't trail anything; they play before the movie, not after it. The name dates to their earliest incarnation, when they actually did follow the feature. The documentary "Coming Attractions" dates the very first trailer to a 1912 Edison serial entitled "What Happened to Mary?" After each installment, a black card with white text would appear to inform audiences "The next incident in the series of 'What Happened to Mary' will be shown a week from now." Not exactly "In a world..." but it did the trick back in 1912.

What happened to Mary wasn't nearly as important as what happened to trailers, which have grown into one of the most popular forms of advertising in the world. Some think they spoil the movies -- Gene Siskel famously hated them so much he wouldn't enter a theater while they were playing »

- IFC

23 February 2009 | Collider.com | See recent Collider.com news »

I teach screenplay and film analysis to college-level film students. Since they are among the most voracious moviegoers in the world, my weekly challenge is to choose films for class study that many of them are unlikely to have already seen. The result is a tour through cinema past and present that, I hope, introduces work that may have slipped through the cracks, but is nonetheless remarkable for a variety of reasons. It is in this spirit that I offer this ongoing second look at some intriguing and worthwhile films well worth renting. This Week: The Minus Man (1999) Released the same year as American Beauty and with a far more subtle and unsettling indictment of suburban angst at its core, Hampton Fancher’s The Minus Man is one of those miracle movies that the conventional wisdom says should not have been allowed to happen. »

2 articles from 2009