The poster declares the theme of the film to be “knowing when to say when,” which is as good a summation as any, and has just the right amount of vagueness. In this case the “when” applies to, well, I’m not entirely sure — on the surface it’s when to draw the line at casual flirting. Or when to break up with a partner who’s coasting through the relationship. Or when to grow up — a theme that’s driven far too many indie films.

That lack of understanding is probably my fault, but it may also be director Joe Swanberg’s intent. This is the same guy who made Silver Bullets, a film that made me want to abort fully developed children, mainly because it meandered through the running time with no direction, no story, and a mass of sickly dialogue that wanted to sound fresh and spontaneous but came off as fully self-aware.

He tries a similar approach in Drinking Buddies, but it works infinitely better here. The actors improvise their dialogue, with an outline of the major plots points to guide them. I think that works best whenever the characters have an uncomfortable pause, but aside from that there is an easiness to their interactions. Granted, it should be simple for anyone to sell an attraction to Olivia Wilde.

Reprising her role as Marion from 2007’s 2 Days in Paris, Julie Delpy directs, stars in, writes, edits, and possibly caters this sequel. Marion’s an artist living in New York with her partner Mingus (Chris Rock) and their two children from previous relationships.

Marion’s family, specifically her father Jeannot (played by Delpy’s actual father Albert), her sister Rose (Alexia Landeau), and Rose’s uninvited and unwelcome boyfriend Manu (Alexandre Nahon) come to visit for what quickly devolves into an endless weekend, made unbearable for Marion thanks to their numerous quirks.

Jeannot, for example, wanders about the big city like a child, keying cars, mistaking a massage for…something else, and getting held up at customs for attempting to smuggle 30 pounds of sausage. Rose cannot open her mouth without making a snide comment to or criticism of her sister, and Manu is simply the kind of person with no qualms about inviting a drug-dealer to Marion’s apartment for a quick score of weed.

Against the screwball antics of her family is the backdrop of Marion’s upcoming art show, where she plans to auction off her soul to the highest bidder. It’s casually referred to throughout the film but drives the final act, and I mention it here mainly because the joke of her soul not fetching much and the person buying it were my favorites.

I’m a Bob Marley fan, but I wasn’t ready for a two-and-a-half-hour documentary on the guy. I liked director Kevin MacDonald’s other stuff, particularly The Last King of Scotland and Life in a Day, but, again, two-and-a-half hours.

And while the time doesn’t fly by, it does hold your interest. There’s the standard talking heads you always see in a movie like this, but instead of each and every one endlessly talking about how much of an influence Marley was, MacDonald does the opposite and focuses more on the personal details and experiences that directly influenced Marley.

The film opens in Ghana, with a guide taking the camera through a tour of an old slave port. He stops at an ancient wooden door. “When the blacks passed through this door,” he says, “they knew they would never be coming back, that’s why it’s called ‘The Door of No Return.’” We’re then whisked to the shanty town of Nine Mile, Marley’s home town, and the story of his early life begins. Many of the details will come as a surprise—for example, I never knew his father was a white, English captain in the Royal Marines, nor did I know his father was 60 years old when he married Marley’s 18-year-old mother.

Interviews with Marley’s friends, cousins, band members, aunt, and mother reveal a man who struggled with his mixed race and saw music as his only way out of poverty. A lesser director would have several interviewees reiterating that point to drive it home, but here many of MacDonald’s interviews are conducted on location, so when we see one of Marley’s cousins leaning against an outside bar worked into a dilapidated shack, nursing his Guinness and puffing on half a cigarette while a stray dog runs by, we only need to hear it once, and the point has already been made by what we’ve seen.

It may be difficult for some to think of Seth Rogen as a romantic leading man. However, in this particular film, that’s okay because he’s actually the other guy. He’s the husband that hottie wife Michalle Williams is bored with and considers cheating on.

All of this happens in the upcoming film Take This Waltz. We’ve got a trailer for it to share wtih you today. Here’s more about the film from its official synopsis:

When Margot (Michelle Williams), 28, meets Daniel (Luke Kirby), their chemistry is intense and immediate. But Margot suppresses her sudden attraction; she is happily married to Lou (Seth Rogen), a cookbook writer. When she learns that Daniel lives across the street from them, the certainty about her domestic life shatters.

She and Daniel steal moments throughout the steaming Toronto summer, their eroticism heightened by their restraint. Swelteringly hot, bright and colorful like a bowl of fruit, TAKE THIS WALTZ leads us, laughing, through the familiar, but uncharted question of what long-term relationships do to love, sex, and our images of ourselves.

Take a look at the trailer after the break. Look for Take this Waltz to arrive in theaters on June 29.

Robert Pattinson is in an important turning point for his career. As the Twilight franchise goes away, he really needs to establish himself as a really actor, not just a sparkly pretty face. He is likely going to turn a few heads in David Cronenberg’s next film, and now he will get a chance to in a more mature affair.

The trailer for his new film Bel Ami has just been released, for those who are unfamiliar with the project here is the synopsis:

BEL AMI is the story of Georges Duroy, who travels through 1890s Paris, from cockroach ridden garrets to opulent salons, using his wits and powers of seduction to rise from poverty to wealth, from a prostitute’s embrace to passionate trysts with wealthy beauties, in a world where politics and media jostle for influence, where sex is power and celebrity an obsession.

This is exactly the kind of movie Pattinson should be doing right now, it allows him to capitalize on his ‘cinematic hearthrob’ status, but it clearly gives him a lot of character to play with. Plus any film that ends it’s top billed actors list with ‘and Colm Meaney’ immediately becomes worthwhile in my book.

Interestingly, the film is getting a VOD release May 4th, but doesn’t make it to the theaters until June 8th. Check out the trailer after the jump.

For those of you who are currently asking yourself “what every happened to that weird guy from the Police Academy movies?”, you’re missing out on quite a bit. Over the past few years, Bobcat Goldthwait has been taking the world of indie dark comedy by storm. Back in 2009, he wrote and directed the ultra dark comedy World’s Greatest Dad starring Robin Williams which opened the indie audience up to his “unique” style of storytelling.

Now, Bobcat is doing it again with Joel Murray in God Bless America. Here’s the synopsis for you to whet your beak.

Loveless, jobless and possibly terminally ill, Frank has had enough of the downward spiral of America. With nothing left to lose, Frank takes his gun and decides to off the stupidest, cruelest and most repellent members of society with an unusual accomplice: 16-year-old Roxy, who shares his sense of rage and disenfranchisement. From stand-up comedian and director Bobcat Goldthwait comes a scathing and hilarious attack on all that is sacred in the United States of America.

Basically, think of James Gunn’s Super meets Falling Down with a middle-American twist. Take a look at the über violent trailer after the jump, and catch the flick on VOD April 6 and theaters on May 11.

There’s just something about Takeshi Kitano’s films you’ve gotta love. Maybe it’s the amazing look of them, the unusual and often conflicted characters or the spectacular way he stages action. Whatever it is, he’s great at what he does so anytime he’s got a new film coming out, we’re going to take notice.

His latest film is Outrage and we’ve got a trailer for it to share with you today. Here’s some synopsis to peak your interest:

In a ruthless battle for power, several yakuza clans vie for the favor of their head family in the Japanese underworld. The rival bosses seek to rise through the ranks by scheming and making allegiances sworn over saké.

Long-time yakuza Otomo has seen his kind go from elaborate body tattoos and severed fingertips to becoming important players on the stock market. Theirs is a never-ending struggle to end up on top, or at least survive, in a corrupt world where there are no heroes but constant betrayal and vengeance.

Sounds good. We’re in. Outrage will be available On-Demand on October 28 and in theaters December 2. Check out the trailer after the jump.

I’m not the biggest fan of gospel music. Actually, I’m not really a fan at all, so I’m not the target audience for Rejoice and Shout, but you don’t have to be once you’ve heard the little black girl in the opening scene belt out a killer rendition of “Amazing Grace.” And I can’t stand “Amazing Grace.” Rejoice has its show-stopping moments—a 1902 recording from one of the first gospel groups, named “The Dinwiddie Colored Quartet”; a gospel-off between two groups; the sad history of Clara Ward and her domineering mother—but they’re too scarce to foster a sustained interest.

And that’s largely the movie. I can’t quite recommend it save for gospel fans, but I can’t really write it off either. Director Don McGlynn constructs something squarely aimed at fans but occasionally offers moments that will appeal to anyone.

It’s nice enough, and, in bits and pieces—the evolution of gospel is interesting, particularly when the interviewees discuss how the blend of African music with Christian hymnals created the genre, or some of the stories of the gospel singers themselves are intriguing, however the singular focus is on the music, and these are simply compelling asides. McGlynn also chooses to play many of the songs in their entirety, which, at five-to-seven-plus minutes in length, combined with 200+ years of history, is pleasant at first but drags after the first hour, and even more so when you realize that there’s another hour to go.

Page One: Inside the New York Times focuses on several facets of the paper itself—its day-to-day operations, the folks who write, edit, and run the paper, and its struggle to remain competitive in the age of the digital news, but it also provides a glimpse into the quickening change of newsmedia as well.

Director Andrew Rossi (Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven) was granted a year’s access inside one of the oldest papers in America to film, and from what must have been a warehouse of footage, he scaled it down to a mere 88 minutes that covers an exhaustive array of topics through the camera’s own eyes and those of The Times‘ colorful cadre of show-runners. Among the faces we meet and follow are the paper’s Executive Editor Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, the Managing Editor, Brian Stetler, the cherubish Media reporter, and, mostly, Media Columnist David Carr, the plain-talking, ex-cocaine addict.

Rossi does an excellent job of capturing the toils, trials, and tension of a daily newspaper with practically every shot. We see reporters and editors ensconced in their workspaces, surrounded on all sides by endless stacks of books, papers, and computer monitors. We see them plan a day’s paper and then go to work furiously, bicker amongst themselves, check their facts, chew out interviewees, and feel the tension as they wait for a call back from one source minutes before the deadline.

When you run a website like The Flickcast, you are often lucky enough to see movies in advance of their release to the general public. Or, in the case of the horror comedy Tucker & Dale Versus Evil, way in advance.

I first saw this movie last year during Austin’s South By Southwest Film Festival and reviewed it for the site. Now, over a year later, the film has finally found distribution through Magnolia Pictures Magnet Releasing arm.

To save you the trouble of reading my review I will tell you that at the time I didn’t fall madly in love with the movie. However, it was fun and leads Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk and Katrina Bowden are likeable and very watchable.

The film has problems, of course, as to many movies these days. I don’t really blame it for its problems, though, as it aspires to do a lot and is mostly limited by its extremely modest budget. I definitely give director Eli Craig points for at least trying to do something.

So, I’m happy more people will get a chance to experience Tucker & Dale Vs Evil. Plus, if the film does well we may be able to see what director Craig does with a larger budget.

Expect Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil to hit VOD on August 26th and then theaters on September 30th. For more info, click through for the full press release.