Brokeback Mountain had the highest opening weekend per screen average in 2005, and it went from opening in only five theaters to playing wide all over the world by the end of its run. Then, when award season rolled around, it garnered all sorts of acclaim, getting awards for best picture from multiple outlets, Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, and it even got recognition from GLAAD for being the year’s most outstanding film. Pretty much it was embraced by everyone as being groundbreaking and important, and it saved Ang Lee’s butt after he pissed everyone off by making The Hulk. Weekend came out just this last September, but you might not remember it because not many people ended up checking it out. By the time it left theaters it had only made a domestic gross of  $484,592. Ouch. And while this movie also got some love from GLAAD, it was ignored by all of the mainstream awards shows like the Oscars and the Golden Globes. A cultural phenomenon it wasn’t.

Last week, as I watched Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber, I noticed that the trailers on the rental Blu-Ray were all of titles sharing space at the top of my queue: titles like Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins, Kim Ji-woon’s I Saw the Devil, and Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun. All, I quickly realized, had been released by the same studio, Magnet Releasing, whose label I recalled first noticing in front of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson. After some quick Internet searching, I quickly realized what I should have known initially, that Magnet was a subsidiary of indie distributor Magnolia Pictures. The practices of “indie” subsidiaries of studios has become commonplace. That majors like Universal and 20th Century Fox carry specialty labels Focus Features and Fox Searchlight which market to discerning audiences irrespective of whether or not the individual titles released are independently financed or studio-produced has become a defining practice for limited release titles and has, perhaps more than any other factor, obscured the meaning of the term “independent film” (Sony Pictures Classics, which only distributes existing films, is perhaps the only subsidiary arm of a major studio whose releases are actually independent of the system itself). This fact is simply one that has been accepted for quite some time in the narrative of small-scale American (or imported) filmmaking. Especially in the case of Fox Searchlight, whose opening banner distinguishes itself from the major in variation on name only, subsidiaries of the majors can hardly even be argued as “tricking” audiences into [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

The Criterion Collection debuted two great releases last week with Ang Lee’s Ride With The Devil, and Sidney Lumet’s The Fugitive Kind. We didn’t have a chance to check either of these titles out yet, but we think both are worth talking about.

It’s been a long time since we’ve heard any movement, but 3D and Ang Lee might have this one close to the greenlight.

This week, on a very special episode of Reject Radio, we invite Fat Guy Kevin Carr to give his opinion on a truly horrific weekend of bad releases. Also, we talk about the movies that came out.

Kevin Carr looks ahead to this week’s movie releases, effectively shredding The Final Destination, urging you to stay clear of Halloween 2 and Taking Woodstock to task.

‘Taking Woodstock’ is an unexpected detour into sunny territory for director Ang Lee but it’s so lightweight it’s almost insubstantial.

Neil staggers into the Magical Studio in the Sky after pulling an all-nighter and seeing more movies than Kevin has. The two commisserate about how the studios have refused to show them either of the horror movies opening this week, despite the fact that Kevin would love to see another 3D slasher.

Today we are pleased to share with you an awesome little giveaway in support of the upcoming Focus Features release Taking Woodstock, from director Ang Lee.

A little birdie left a bunch of cool images from Taking Woodstock on my doorstep, and then clumsily flew off into a nearby window.

Last night the first trailer for Taking Woodstock, the latest film from director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), premiered during the Comedy Central show Important Things with Demetri Martin. And since then, it has appeared online in a low resolution format. Lo-res or not though, we feel that it’s important that you get a look this morning.

Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi” was a huge bestseller in 2000 and the film rights were snapped up almost immediately.

You have to give Ang Lee credit for being a wily and unpredictable filmmaker. He has jumped from genre to genre throughout his careers. And his next jump will land him in a very strange place.

We decided to lock Cole Abaius and Rob Hunter, two of our most polarizing staff writers, in a room together and make them battle it out: one on the side of Ang Lee’s film being great, and the other on the side of it being a huge turd.

Recently I was at the movies in a packed house when they showed a trailer for the upcoming The Incredible Hulk. The resulting response from the audience was a collective “Huh?”

If you get a chance to see this near-masterpiece, please don’t let the NC-17 rating give you a second moment’s thought (unless you’re under 17 of course).