What do war, famine, disease and poverty have in common? They're four of the few things in life less funny than The Doorman, an excruciating, run-for-the-hills mockumentary about a famous international gatekeeper to ritzy nightclubs. Think Borat with 99 percent less ingenuity and humor. And, in fact, keep thinking about Sacha Baron Cohen's befuddled Kazakhstani journalist, or fluffy clouds on a warm summer day, or your first kiss, or anything else that makes you smile, as conjuring up memories of happier experiences gone by is the prime means of enduring such across-the-board ineptitude.

The dolt at the center of this fiasco is Trevor (Lucas Akoskin), a doofus with an ambiguous European accent, an ego the size of the Pacific Ocean, a taste for overblown threads, and a predilection for Yogi Berra-isms. "I know people. And more importantly, I know people who know me," is typical of Trevor's self-consciously dumb dialogue, though he's not alone in delivering leaden bon mots, as evidenced by one doltish woman's claim that "The Doorman is God, really." Which, I guess, makes me an unrepentant atheist.

I was just re-watching Eugene Jarecki's terrific documentary Why We Fight the other day and wondering, "man, how did this not win an Oscar?" Both its ineligibility and the strength of the 2006 feature documentary category aside, it's a really great visual essay on the problems of the U.S. military -- particularly the allowance for the military industrial complex to grow so large -- since the mid-20th century. If you've never seen it, you should. It'll bring you up to speed right up to the Iraq War (and feel free to make it an informative double feature by following it up with Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight).

For his next feature, Jarecki is sticking to the subject of war, though he's going back and focusing on Vietnam, specifically the evacuation of U.S. troops from Saigon in 1975 (maybe it can parallel an exit from Iraq? huh? maybe?). He and screenwriter Jesse Wigutow (It Runs in the Family) are basing the doc, titled Irreparable Harm, on former CIA agent Frank Snepp's book "Irreparable Harm: A Firsthand Account of How One Agent Took on the CIA in an Epic Battle Over Free Speech," which details the author's struggle with the federal government after he published his Saigon evacuation document, "Decent Interval."

Jarecki's film, which is being produced for HBO Films, will be more about Snepp than on the history, and hopefully that won't get him in trouble with the feds too. Also, here's hoping that Irreparable Harm at least makes Jarecki eligible to be nominated for the Oscar he deserves.

One thing you should know about the Julian Schnabel-directed concert documentary Lou Reed's Berlin is that Lou Reed has personally instructed theaters to play the film at concert-level volume. That means it's really, really loud. When I saw it (at NYC's Film Forum, which is following Reed's command throughout the film's limited engagement), an elder woman walked out. Of course, I can't be sure that it was due to the sound, though the exit was during one of the loudest songs.

The volume may seem excessive and unnecessary to some, but at a time when concert docs are shown in IMAX and/or in 3-D, it really helps a film like Lou Reed's Berlin compete for audiences seeking a filmic experience comparable to the real thing. And leaving the theater with your ears ringing will help you think that you were actually there when Reed performed his 1973 album Berlin live for the first (and second, third and fourth) time in Brooklyn, New York, December 14-17, 2006.

I concede that it's possible you might already have a film in mind to see this weekend. I understand that there's a highly anticipated major release hitting theaters today that's expected to draw huge crowds. But enough about Space Chimps. This is the Indie Spotlight, a weekly round-up of films opening in limited release that you can see now (if you live in the right city) or put on your list of Movies to Watch Out For.

So what's opening beyond the multiplexes today? These nine films: Before I Forget, The Doorman, Felon, Lou Reed's Berlin, Mad Detective, A Man Named Pearl, Take, Transsiberian, and A Very British Gangster. Here's the lowdown:

Transsiberian
What it is: A thriller about an American couple (Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer) who gets tangled up in murder, drugs, and intrigue while on a train from China to Moscow. Directed and co-writer by Brad Anderson (The Machinist).
What they're saying: Cinematical's Jeffrey M. Anderson raves about it here, and also interviewed the director and Mortimer. The consensus is pretty positive at Rotten Tomatoes, too. Looks like Brad Anderson has another winner.
Where it's playing: New York City's Angelika Film Center and Paris Theatre.
Official site: None.

Lou Reed's Berlin
What it is: A concert film, directed by Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), in which Lou Reed re-performs his 1973 album Berlin. Shot over five nights in 2006.
What they're saying: Cinematical's Christopher Campbell liked it overall, which just a few qualms about Schnabel's methods. At Rotten Tomatoes, about two-thirds of the reviews are positive. One suspects that, as usual with concert films, those with no interest in the music itself probably won't be converted by the movie.
Where it's playing: NYC's Film Forum; L.A.'s Nuart Theatre.
Official site: Berlin the Film.

It's been a tough year for documentaries at the box office. How do you market a critically-acclaimed film about five Indiana high school teens that just happens to be a doc?

The film is American Teen, and the hurrahs began at Sundance this year. James Rocchi described it as "an engaging, stylish and surprisingly smart piece of non-fiction entertainment." Paramount Vantage acquired distribution rights and then released a poster a couple of months later that intentionally reminded everyone of John Hughes' The Breakfast Club (note poster on the left, above).

The company changed tactics somewhat with their campaign inviting people to become "fans" of the real-life characters in the movie. You can see more about this at the film's official site. Filmmaker A. J. Schnack questioned the wisdom of selling documentary subjects as marketable commodities. A new poster took a different approach (see above, right), though the trailer is still selling the nostalgia element.

In the Los Angeles Times, Mark Olsen examines the marketing challenge in detail. Among other things, he quotes director Nanette Burstein as not wanting the Breakfast Club poster as anything more than a teaser. But Paramount Vantage exec Megan Colligan claims they are not "trying to hide the fact that it's a documentary ... One of the challenges of this movie is making people feel like this is a cinematic experience that will feel to them like a great teen comedy." American Teen opens in limited engagements on Friday, July 25.

Do you plan on seeing American Teen?

Fans of documentary film should be happy to hear that there's a new force on the block: SnagFilms has just opened their internet doors, and in the process they've brought (and bought) our good friends over at indieWIRE with them. Founded by three former top AOL executives (Ted Leonsis, Steve Case and Miles Gilburne), SnagFilms is a unique site in that it showcases entire documentary films for you watch online for free, but then also makes those same films available to snag like, say, YouTube does, and then embed the entire film anywhere you'd like. Check out the widget below ...



Pretty cool, huh? Fans of indieWIRE will still get to read all the same, great content, as well as a new blog called Docsider, which comes to us from iLine and indieWIRE co-founder, Mark Rabinowitz. To read more about the SnagFilms/indieWIRE deal, check out this letter to readers from Eugene Hernandez. Definitely head on over to play with the site a bit; with over 225 documentaries available now (and about 750 available by the end of 2008), I'm sure there's plenty of content to keep you busy for awhile. Let us know what you think!

Aw yeah, this is just about my own personal version of Christmas Eve. The first wave of titles for the Austin's lovely Fantastic Fest has splattered into my inbox, so instead of me rambling on about how great Austin is in late September, especially if you're a massive fan of films gory, scary, sexy, twisted and weird, I'll just direct you to a very handy FF press release.

But not before I say this: Of the flicks chosen already, I've seen precisely five: Let the Right One In, Donkey Punch, Spine Tingler, Terra, and Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer. A Swedish vampire coming-of-age story, a British thriller about boat-bound terror, an American documentary about a beloved schlock-slinger, a multi-national animated adventure story, and a scrappy little indie full of monsters that Rick Baker would adore. So from just one random sampling, this is one eclectic mixture of movies. Oh, and for the Hollywood fans: DJ Caruso's Eagle Eye will have its premiere at Fantastic Fest. By only a few days but damn cool anyway. Oh, and a screening of The Tingler? Beyond cool.

Click on in for the first full press release on Fantastic Fest 2008.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnny Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio...

All these years later, and I still know every damned word. Unfortunately, this doc for Billy Joel freaks won't just span the many years of history, but rather a few select shows. Variety reports that Spitfire Pictures is teaming up with Joel's Maritime Pictures for a feature documentary that will focus on his performances at Shea Stadium this week, before it gets demolished later this year.

Titled Last Play at Shea, the feature will mix Joel's songs with doc footage about his blue-collar life in Long Island and the Queens ballpark. Producer Steve Cohen says: "We wanted to approach this like a Ken Burns documentary, looking at Billy and Shea Stadium's place in the pantheon of New York." So there will be a little history, but how much will all depend on how many songs are chosen for the film.

Me, I'm going to wait and see and not expect a darned thing, because last time I did -- oh, the disappointment. It wasn't Joel's fault, but I was back in middle school, and there was a new project where the 8th graders would listen to a song that talked about the world and do projects on it. The year before, the kids got "We Didn't Start the Fire," which was playing in the classroom all the fricking time while the kids had a blast. When it was my class' turn, we got "From a Distance." Grr.

Two months ago, I brought word that Brazilian filmmaker José Padilha is moving on up to Hollywood, but now comes word that he has first squeezed in a new documentary. The film is titled Garapa, and like both his brilliant debut, Bus 174, and his recent Golden Bear-winning follow-up, Tropa de Elite, it deals with social problems affecting his homeland. This time, he traveled to the poverty-stricken northeast, where he documented three families struggling to feed themselves, despite the nation's current economic boom and seemingly successful welfare program. Garapa was also shot in black and white with hand-held cameras and features no music score, to keep things simple and straightforward. It can't be said, though, that Padilha went for a non-intrusive style, and he admits that during and since the shoot, he's been compelled to assist the families directly.

Considering Bus 174 is one of the boldest, most powerful documentaries of the past 10 years, it's good to see Padilha returning to the documentary genre. The controversially divisive Tropa de Elite (which Cinematical reviewed at Tribeca and which will receive a day-and-date release this September) was still non-fiction, but it was a dramatization. When it was announced that he had been wooed to make a studio-produced action film, I was as disappointed as I was excited. Fortunately, he's keeping the documentary thing going simultaneously, and he's even already working on his next doc, which will be about the Yanomami Indians, natives of the Amazon rainforest who were previously unappealingly fictionalized in the exploitation film Cannibal Holocaust.

French thriller Tell No One and American dope comedy The Wackness traded places at the top of the specialty chart in their second week of release, outearning all new indie releases at the US box office this weekend. According to estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo, Tell No One made $13,388 per screen as it expanded from eight to 18 theaters, while The Wackness took in $7,258 per screen in its slightly wider expansion from six to 31 theaters.

Tell No One expanded into Chicago, Northern California (Berkeley, Palo Alto, San Francisco, San Jose), Philadelphia, and Seattle. Music Box Films brings it next to Baltimore/Washington DC area, Denver, Detroit, San Diego, St. Louis, and a flock of theaters in greater New York this Friday. It has further expansions laid out for the following three weeks.

The Wackness moved beyond New York and Los Angeles into San Francisco, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston, San Diego, Chicago, and Seattle. Sony Pictures Classics will expand the run into four more markets this coming Friday, and then open much wider into 34 more markets on July 25.

Debuting releases August ($6,500 at one theater), Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired ($5,500 at one theater), and Harold ($3,433 per screen at three theaters) rounded out the Top 5. How did everybody else do?