On Demand Weekly

Time-Shifting and On Demand TV use continue to rise according to Comcast's annual TV Pulse Survey (8/17/10).

PRESS RELEASE

COMCAST’S ANNUAL “TV PULSE SURVEY” SHOWS THE DRAMA GENRE AND NEW HAWAII FIVE-O ARE THE MOST-ANTICIPATED ‘WHAT TO WATCH’ THIS FALL TV SEASON

Time-Shifted Technology Usage Up More Than 60% from a Year Ago and 80% from Three Years Ago

"Time-shifting has hit the mainstream and is changing the way people watch TV,” said Diana Kerekes, Vice President of Entertainment Services for Comcast. “The results of our ‘TV Pulse Survey’ underscore more consumers are watching their favorite shows when and how they want to watch them."

Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced nominations for the 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards. Three of the five nominees for Best Feature (Greenberg, The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone), as well as many of the most nominated films, are already available to watch On Demand.

(Eva Mendes, Jeremy Renner)

Selected from 220 submissions, this year’s winners will be announced at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 26, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. on the beach in Santa Monica. The 26th annual awards show will be hosted by Joel McHale ("The Soup," "Community") and air exclusively that night on IFC at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT.

On Demand Weekly has noted which films are available now On Demand so you can catch up at home on the independent films everyone is talking about this week. Enjoy!

FILM TITLE (# OF NOMINATIONS)
Winter’s Bone - Roadside Attraction (7) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
The Kids Are All Right - Focus Features (5) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
Black Swan - Fox Searchlight (4)
Greenberg - Focus Features (4) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
Rabbit Hole - Lionsgate (4)
127 Hours - Fox Searchlight (3)
Jack Goes Boating - Overture Films (3)
Tiny Furniture - IFC Films (3) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
Daddy Longlegs - IFC Films (2) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
Life During Wartime - IFC Films (2) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
Exit Through the Gift Shop - Producers Distribution Agency / FilmBuff (1) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
Lovers of Hate - IFC Films (1) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
Night Catches Us - Magnolia Pictures (1) AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND

2011 SPIRIT AWARD NOMINATIONS

On Demand Weekly provides new movie reviews of hot movies on demand from the POV of watching from the comfort of your home. I AM.

I AM
Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem
By Kris Scheifele

The 'I am' in this film's title is not a twist on the Cartesian cogito ergo sum. I AM gets its name from a response to a question posed to G.K. Chesterton, a British writer who died in 1936. The London Times asked him to write an essay in response to the question, "What is wrong with the world?" Chesterton's essay was brief; he wrote, "I am." This documentary asks the same question, and the one that logically follows, "What can we do about it?" By posing these questions, Tom Shadyac, I AM's director, enters the conversation about competition, material excess, and separation. He also finds what's right with the world — cooperative community, conservation, and compassion.

This is Shadyac's debut as a documentarian, but you may know him from a few little ditties like ACE VENTURA: PET DETECTIVE and THE NUTTY PROFESSOR. Some years back, Shadyac's blind feasting on comedy gold's robust bounty was interrupted by an accident which left him with post-concussion syndrome. The months of physical and emotional suffering made him notice some things outside his Hollywood bubble. Recuperating at home he says, "I saw AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH again. I see more news about the war in Iraq and I see poverty and I keep thinking that these are not the problems, there's a poison underneath." Shadyac also noticed that all his achievements and monetary success had not brought him happiness. (What's that? Money can't buy happiness?) The way he describes it, his illness forever shifted his priorities and the role he wanted to play in life.

It's hard to be critical of a film with high-minded aims, especially when it's blessed by Oprah. However, despite Shadyac's claim that the film is his story, it really isn't. It's another doc dealing in generalities, albeit noble ones. The story of Shadyac's transformation bookends the film: we get a brief glimpse of the conditions which inspired the film, and at the end, we find out that he traded in his mansion and all his high-end crap for modest digs in a mobile home community and biking to work.