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]

Arriving with the loud crash of silence, the MTV Movie Awards seem to have been taken over by the Disney Corporation this year. Most of the awards seem fair, but Best High School Musical Movie seems to be a loaded category. Complete winners inside!

Today’s Early Edition may not be as early as it normally is, but it is still morning in California — and since much of our readership is out there on the West Coast, I’m not ready to title-swap to “Not-So-Early Edition” just yet.

Once again we’re playing catchup with The Blu-ray Report, but unlike previous week’s I am happy to go back and take a look at 8 new Blu-ray releases — some from this week and some from last week — that are currently all rocking my world to some extent.

Brian Gibson loves to buy DVDs. Come with him on his weekly journey into the depths of credit card debt as he tells you what to buy, rent and avoid.

It’s the week of Watchmen here at the Reject Report! That’s right, the most highly-anticipated movie of 2009 — at least, among the comic-book geeks — is finally upon us with Watchmen, based on the celebrated limited series comic book of the same name.

The fine folks over at Fox Home Entertainment have dropped some awesome little bits of knowledge on us this afternoon regarding the release of the Best Picture winning film Slumdog Millionaire.

Well, once again I look dumb here at the Reject Report, and it’s all because of the Jonas Brothers. You know that Jonas Brothers movie that I had picked to win the weekend? Turned out it was Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail that won the weekend with $16.5 million dollars.

Well, it’s all about the Jonas Brothers this weekend, both at 3-D movie houses and here at the Reject Report. I mean, really, that’s the only excitement in store at the box office — unless you count Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li, which is the other new release this weekend.

So here we are in the official Hollywood hangover week. Hugh Jackman was praised for doing less than anyone else had in the past. We have only two non-reviewed movies releasing this weekend. And Tyler Perry in a fat suit is box office gold.

Besides the mandatory Defensive Driving Class I had to take, The Oscars was the most educational experience of my year so far. Hopefully, you caught the same things I did. Or we’ll have to fight back behind the playground later.

If you missed our live blog during the Academy Awards, fear not – Robert Fure saved you some RAGE.

For those of you not paying attention, there appears to be one little film that is tearing its way through awards season — and it isn’t that big Batman movie or that curious case. It is this little rags-to-riches tale from the slums of Mumbai in India, envisioned by a brilliant British director and adapted by a now red hot screenwriter.

Profanity is no longer a problem in today’s society. Instead of the censors clipping around real swear words, they’re on the look-out for the new seven dirty words, the heavy seven that will infect your soul, curve your spine and keep the country from winning the war on terror.

Over the course of the last few months we’ve received somewhere in the vicinity of 9 million emails from activists groups complaining about the casting of M. Night Shyamalan’s live-action adaptation of the hit Nickelodeon cartoon The Last Airbender. They want more Asian castmembers. Well now Dev Patel has been cast… is that good enough?

Suffice it to say that Our Long National Nightmare is Over. Paul Blart: Mall Cop has been taken down at the box office by, well, Taken.

Congratulations are in order for Danny Boyle. Consolation prizes are in order for Ron Howard and David Fincher.

Oscar nominated screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, whose work on the 2008 sensation Slumdog Millionaire, has reportedly been tapped by Spuglass entertainment to write Leap Year, a romantic comedy vehicle for the lovely Amy Adams.

The SAG Awards took place last night and gave us a few things to think about as we enter the home stretch for the Oscars.

Gosh darn it, man! Can’t the Academy at least throw a bone to audiences and recognize movies that people actually bothered to go and watch? Like The Dark Knight, or WALL-E? Or Gran Torino?