Peter Tolan feature directorial debut Finding Amanda has found a home, distribution-wise, with Magnolia Pictures, an enterprise of Mark Cuban’s HDNet. The highly buzzed-about film had its world premiere at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival this week.
Matthew Broderick stars, with a cast rounded out by Maura Tierney (“ER”) and Brittany Snow (“Prom Night”) in this extremely dark comedy about Taylor Peters, a gambling alcoholic TV producer who, at his estranged wife’s insistence, moseys to Las Vegas to rein in his (exotic) dancing niece and ship her off to rehab (the Cirque Lodge, no doubt).
This downtrodden character seems a misstep for Broderick, mostly known for happy-go-lucky portrayals of innocent but charming know-it-alls like Ferris Bueller and Leo Bloom. Broderick’s got range, but not much. His addiction-addled character struggles in Las Vegas, the town with every addiction, and tries to be a knight in shining armor to his wild niece. With “old friends”, like a sleazy pit boss, played by Steve Coogan (“Hot Fuzz”) to catch up with, Peters definitely needs whatever happened in Vegas to stay in Vegas.
Magnolia Pictures’ parent company, HDNet, operates a Video On Demand feature, a program designed to play films in homes before they hit the theatres. VOD wants to release “Finding Amanda” to costumers in mid-June with a theatrical run later in the summer.
Star power from Broderick, Tierney and Snow catapulted the film into HDNet’s grip, with Magnolia exec Eamonn Bowles saying that “Films that have some name value or a genre hook that’s easier to encapsulate and summarize will fare better reading off a TV (listing) menu than theatrically”.
While reading the schedules to select my own picks for Tribeca, I passed on “Finding Amanda”. Broderick playing an alcoholic TV producer with a taste for redemption who tries to get his niece into rehab? And this is supposed to be a dark comedy? Try, very dark.
But, if insomnia hits, I won’t hesitate to tune in to HDNet’s VOD.
