For Your Consideration - Catch-Up Edition

For Your Consideration is a weekly round-up of upcoming indie limited releases. The idea is to either expose you to or remind you of films that can't afford to plaster their posters on the sides of buildings or accompany your Happy Meal in toy form.

This week is a shame, because none of the disparate limited releases are intriguing enough to rise above their middling brethren, and you no doubt already know if you're interested in watching the umpteenth remake of Fame or the latest film in which Bruce Willis plays a cop challenging the system. With nothing worth recommending, we at FYC have decided to shine a spotlight on a release from last week that unfortunately fell on our vacation week.

THE INFORMANT!

What: The fourth feature from Steven Soderbergh since December 2008 (Traffic, Che, the Ocean trilogy), The Informant! tells the true story of Mark Whitacre, a VP of a giant agribusiness corporation turned informant, that decided to blow the whistle on a worldwide price-fixing racket.

Where: Wide release

Why: Soderbergh is the most under-appreciated director working today. I know that may seem an odd statement, especially considering he possesses an Oscar and numerous other acclimations, but his eclectic nature and lack of flashy visual signatures keeps him from achieving cult director status (see: Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, etc.) and the fact that he'd rather push the boundaries of cinema and tackle off-beat issues than make films that always function on a primal, thoughtless level means he'll never be part of the artistic faction of Hollywood directors (see: David Fincher, J.J. Abrams). After exploring the dichotomy between myth and reality with his Che diptych and dissection of relationships in The Girlfriend Experience, The Informant! finds Soderbergh seemingly approaching the populist realm of his Ocean franchise, and while The Informant! is by far one of the funniest films of the year, it also is a deft examination of the way in which an audience relates to a protagonist. I'll delve into all the spoilery details of what makes this film so brilliant later as part of the new Have You Seen Me series, but for now, I can only highly recommend a film that is both hilarious and deeply thoughtful. This film is a "must see"(TM)

Everything Else

THE BLUE TOOTH VIRGIN

COCO BEFORE CHANEL

THE BOYS ARE BACK


BLIND DATE


BRIEF INTERVIEWS WITH HIDEOUS MEN


SURROGATES


PANDORUM