Despite critical raves and cult word of mouth, the 2004 prankumentary The Yes Men stumbled to a disappointing $250,000 theatrical gross before shuffling off to DVD eternity. The duo's eco-centric follow-up, The Yes Men Fix the World, left this year's Sundance Film Festival with similar acclaim but no theatrical distribution deal. But for those eager to have a look sooner than later, HBO's Oscar ambitions might be your gain this weekend in Los Angeles and New York.
Fix, which features notorious jokers Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum crusading against corporate greed and malfeasance, is getting one of those relatively common (if ethically suspect) one-week qualifying runs this week at the Laemmle Town Center 5 in Encino and the Coliseum Cinemas in Washington Heights. This comes after winning the audience award at the Berlinale, drawing devoted crowds at SXSW and Hot Docs, and more than a month before its official New York debut at the Human Rights Watch fest. HBO will premiere it in July -- just like the network did last year with its previous acclaimed-but-undistributed Oscar hopeful Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which ThinkFilm ultimately wound up botching in limited release.
Again, this is kind of par for the course with such wack Oscar-qualifying rules on the books, but for anyone who either can't wait for the broadcast or simply wants to see the film on the big screen with an audience, this is your chance. Though you may have to take your friends for that latter privilege: The film has two matinees per day at both locations, none starting later than 3:20 p.m. The Sundance trailer is below.
Meanwhile, doc lovers, keep an eye on the line-ups for each of the above theaters in the weeks ahead; if last week and this week are any indication, you'll see more secret, fledgling Oscar fare coming up in the months ahead.