IFC Films / O'South
Samantha Morton as Marilyn Monroe and Diego Luna as Michael Jackson in "Mister Lonely."
With the great sea of pop culture parting before "Iron Man" and "Speed Racer," the indie industry goes into summer-scramble mode a little early this year, trying to pick up a few moviegoers flung out of the mainstream as if by centrifugal force. If that isn't enough mixed metaphors for a quick post on box-office news, it'll have to do.
Harmony Korine's bittersweet celebrity-impersonator love story "Mister Lonely" did terrific business this weekend at New York's IFC Center, according to this week's report from IndieWIRE. Only the film gods know whether the one-time prodigy still has a following beyond the Hudson River, but it wouldn't take much to make "Mister Lonely" his most successful work, since "Gummo" and "Julien Donkey-Boy" grossed barely $200,000 between them.
Garth Jennings' British coming-of-age film "Son of Rambow" and David Mamet's jiujitsu drama "Redbelt" opened almost as strongly in limited New York and Los Angeles runs, and both presumably have more crossover potential than Korine's film. (Neither of them is remotely as good, but that's completely irrelevant.) "Rambow" will reach 12 more cities on Friday, while "Redbelt" will open on at least 1,000 screens.