S**t. P**s. F**k. C**t. M*********r. C********r. T**s.

That pretty much sums up my feelings (such as the Globe will allow me to, ironically) on the matter of the great Carlin's passing. The stand-up comedian who made good on Lenny Bruce's promise -- you can make people question everything if you can swear creatively enough -- managed to make the transition from squeaky-clean 60s one-liners (see below) to brilliant hippie arias of scatalogical filth in the 1970s (see above) to an unexpected late-inning career as our generation's Wise Old Crank (follow this YouTube link, please).

Because I was 15 when his seminal album "AM/FM" came out and scorched the ears off my adolescent head, I have entire Carlin monologues encoded in my DNA. Better, I and millions of others have that nasal, singing voice forever sowing doubt about the dominant culture and its all-encompassing blandness. At his worst, Carlin promoted cynicism, but at his best he made you truly, thoughtfully angry, and between his razor-sharp wit and his genuine love of language, he always made you laugh.

Oh, and points for taking on the Supreme Court and, in the long run, winning.

The people have spoken: Steve Carell as Maxwell Smart beats Mike Myers as Guru Pitka. Not that it wasn't much of a contest. Reviews for "Get Smart" (including my own) were mixed to pretty good, whereas the fumes of overripe cheese gone fungoid emanating from the trailer for "The Love Guru" extended to the critics and audiences. "Get Smart" pulled in a very tidy $39 million at nearly 4,000 theaters (for a healthy $10,000 per-theater-average). Compare that with "Guru," which came in fourth -- behind "Kung Fu Panda" and "The Incredible Hulk" in their third and second weekends respectively -- with $14 million at 3,000 theaters (for a paltry $4,600 PTA -- not much "want to see" there).

Message: Give the people what they want (a serviceable bit of retooled nostalgia), not what Mike Myers wants (a chance to work his way back into our good graces with copulating elephants).

In other B.O. news, "The Happening" no longer is happening: Down two-thirds from its opening weekend. Why? This may be best illustrated by the following word-of-mouth anecdote. Scene: The men's room of the AMC Boston Common. Time: Last Thursday night. The personnel: Guys doing their business, irate moviegoer. Irate Moviegoer:"Everybody, I just saw 'The Happening,' and I've taken it as my personal mission to warn you. Do. Not. See. This. Movie."

Way down the box office charts there was a limited five-theater release of "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl," the Abigail Breslin period movie that means nothing to you if you don't have daughters who've read all the "American Girl" books and collected the absurdly expensive dolls and accessories (I have some experience here). The total take was just over $200,000, but the real story is in the per-theater-average: a whopping $44,600 that bodes well for the film's wide release next Friday. As with "Sex in the City," another hint of the underserved female audience, no matter what age we're talking about. Also, along with good returns for the expanded "Mongol" ($8,000 PTA at 94 theaters), "Kit Kittredge" is a sign that releasing company Picturehouse maybe shouldn't get absorbed by parent company Warner Bros.

More number twiddling at Box Office Mojo and Movie City News.

Filed under: Documentary, Independent, Deals, ThinkFilm, Celebrities and Controversy, Distribution, Newsstand, Movie Marketing, Cinematical Indie

Last week, indieWIRE ran a provocative piece by Anthony Kaufman about the financial woes of THINKfilm, one of my favorite indie distributors. Kaufman detailed the cash flow problems at THINKfilm, which were causing acrimony between the distrib and many of its filmmakers, who were alleging that the distributor hadn't paid what it owed to them, as well as to advertising companies charged with marketing films under THINKfilm's banner.

Now indieWIRE has a follow-up piece up by Eugene Hernandez, which says that director/producer Alex Gibney, whose film Taxi to the Darkside won the best documentary Oscar this year and was supposed to receive a major theatrical push by THINKfilm following its win, is seeking more than $1 million in damages from the ailing distributor.

While THINKfilm did pay the film's producers the minimums guaranteed by their contract on May 5, Gibney's complaint alleges that THINKfilm failed to disclose that it did not have the financial resources to support the film's theatrical push following its Oscar win, and "jeopardized the success of the film by failing to abide by the terms of contracts it entered into with public relations firms and advisers and failed to pay such firms for work done and expenses incurred."

Continue reading Discuss: Should Filmmakers Give THINKfilm a Break?

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