I need to say one thing about yesterday’s Natasha VC Gawker piece about supposed directorial paycheck movies having “ruined” or seriously compromised the reps of David Fincher, Curtis Hanson, Jonathan Demme, Ang Lee and Steven Soderbergh.

As lame and ill-informed as the article is, it at least starts out with a fair and accurate assessment of the motives of certain directors at certain stages in their lives, which is that sometimes they direct certain films because they need to bolster the bank account.

Shocking as this may sound to the likes of David Poland and Karina Longworth, it’s true. Not every film is embarked upon because the director (along with his/her creative enablers) has a burning obsession to present some intensely personal vision or statement on a grand canvas. This doesn’t mean directors don’t apply their filmmaking acumen in every way possible in order to make the paycheck movie play well and reflect, at the very least, solid craftsmanship. This doesn’t mean they aren’t at least somewhat into the story or theme to some (perhaps even a significant) degree.

But sometimes making a movie — gasp! — is just about doing the work because you need to stay on the treadmill. Because you can’t paint the Mona Lisa every time you pick up a brush. Because there’s a certain honor and dignity in doing a job well, even if the film is essentially crap. Because you love your children and some universities are ridiculously expensive.

I have another shocker to throw out. Sometimes actors do this also. They star, yes, in crappy movies in order to earn money, knowing full well that artistic fulfillment is out of the question. Sometimes screenwriters hold their nose while they’re tapping out an adaptation or a rewrite. Sometimes editors whore themselves out because they need to cover the cost of a vacation house. I know — it’s stunning to consider this. But it does happen from time to time.

The Gawker piece was inspired by a Quentin Tarantino quote that appears in an Alex Pappademas-authored GQ interview, to wit: “When you gotta go out and make a movie to pay for the kids’ private school and for the three ex-wives, don’t talk to me about your artistry. It’s their job. I don’t want to have to watch the movie I made to pay for my pool.”

Except sometimes paycheck movies can turn out pretty well. My understanding from some recent Francis Coppola statements is that he didn’t want to direct The Godfather Part II because he didn’t want to make a film that was just about trying to cash in on the popularity of The Godfather. Well, look what happened. And then take a look at Tetro, which Coppola wrote and directed from a place of pure enthusiasm and movie love. I rest my case.

I saw The Cove last night at a special celebrity-attended screening, and I’m now officially and emotionally among the ranks of the persuaded and the blown-away. It’s easily one of the best films I’ve seen this year, and without question my choice for the best documentary of 2009 so far. It’s this year’s Man on Wire — almost certain to keep playing and gathering steam all through the year and into Oscar season.

You don’t come out of The Cove simply saying “really good movie!” (although you do). You come out The Cove wanting to fly the next day to Taiji, Japan, in order to kick some Japanese dolphin-slaughtering ass. You come out furious and moved and converted and dug in.

No one should get the idea that The Cove is primarily a classroom-lecture piece and an eco-activist movie, although it is obviously those things in a political undertow sense. Because it’s first and foremost a very well-made, thoroughly watchable murder-mystery — a gripping and entertaining sit by any standard. (Unless you happen to be, you know, an idiot.) That’s right — murder. As in seawater turning pink and then blood red.

Anyone who’s ever watched the various Flipper entertainments (the two early ’60s movies, the ‘ mid ’60s TV series, the 1996 feature with Elijah Wood) or has visited any kind of Sea World amusement park needs to see it especially. And no wimping out (or allowing the girlfriend/wife to steer you away from it). Stand up, man up and buy a ticket when it opens on 7.31.

The Cove is essentially about the exploring and exposing of a grisly annual slaughter of 2500 dolphins that happens each September in Taiji. It’s also a kind of love sonnet about dolphins — their immense intelligence, friendliness to humans, spiritual and physical beauty, etc.

It follows that it’s also a movie about infuriating bureaucratic stupidity and mass mercury poisoning, since dolphin meat (which the Taiji slaughterers covertly sell to the world) is especially heavy with the stuff.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Richard O’Barry during last night’s post-screening q & a

Fisher Stevens, Kennedy.

And it’s finally and fundamentally a portrait of an obstinate hero and an extremely guilty-feeling older guy named Richard O’Barry, a former Flipper trainer-turned-activist.

O’Barry acknowledges time and again that he bears responsibility for the popularity of dolphins and their forced-labor imprisonment at various sea parks worldwide, since he was the guy who caught and trained the five dolphins who played Flipper on the famed TV series that ran from ’64 to ’68.

The Cove‘s central though-line is an effort by O’Barry and a team of activists to covertly film/tape the annual slaughter, which Taiji locals naturally don’t want anyone to see much less know about. Prior to The Cove‘s debut showing at last January’s Sundance Film Festival, I’m not aware that anyone outside of marine activists knew anything about it, including Japanese citizens.

The film is basically reiterates the truism that all ugly and ghastly things are caused by greed, denial and stupidity.

It’s really quite impossible to watch the finale — the footage of the mass harpooning of hundreds of dolphins that O’Barry and friends have endeavored to capture — and not clench your teeth and fists.

Team behind shooting of The Cove.

Plus the mislabelling of dolphin meat is appalling and sickening given the widespread mercury poisoning that consuming it has caused. And the continued refusal of the International Whaling Commission to classify dolphins as cetaceans (which would help to protect them from being murdered) as they grovel and kowtow before Japanese economic interests is nothing short of disgusting.

Technically The Cove is as sharply shot, cut and assembled as a piece like this could possibly be. You get a sense immediately that this is no run-of-the-mill documentary but a first-rate edge-of-the-seater, procedural and hide-and-seek paranoid thriller.

The Cove was directed by Louie Psihoyos. The exec producer is multimillionaire Jim Clark. The excellent editing is by Geoffrey Richman. The writing is by Mark Monroe. And the film was basically shepherded and sharpened into shape by Fisher Stevens.

The attendees at last night’s screening included Ben Stiller, Salt director Phillip Noyce, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Stevens, Clark, O’Barry, Griffin Dunne, Famke Janssen, Matthew Modine, Jerry Stiller and Christine Taylor.

A q & a panel happened after the screening with Clark, Stevens, Kennedy and O’Barry speaking and taking questions. Ben Stiller, who flipped for The Cove after seeing it recently at the Nantucket Film Festival, introduced the film at the very beginning. The after-party at Rouge Tomate was thrown by Peggy Siegal.

Here‘s that Dolphin Lady/Gini Kopecky-Wallace review that ran two or three weeks ago. My favorite line from her piece: “Watch crazy-brave people doing crazy-brave things and there’s no telling what other people will decide they can do.”

And here’s a link to a “get involved and do what you can” site sister site affiliated with The Cove. And here’s an ’07 story about what Hayden Panettierre did 18 months ago to try to bring attention to the Taiji slaughter.

This looks like the same Nine trailer that the Weinstein Co. showed journalists in Cannes last May, but I could be mistaken.

FilmBuff, a video-on-demand channel for connoisseurs of high-quality, indie-level cinema as well as classics from all studios and realms, began to appear today on a couple of dozen cable systems, including Verizon’s FiOS and Charter. Cinetic Rights Management’s John Sloss and Matt Dentler, who told me about their new operation earlier today, said FilmBuff would be available on all the cable systems within two months time (i.e., by mid September).

Half of the films shown will be brand-new, unseen features or newish features that haven’t received the theatrical exposure their backers or fans felt was appropriate or deserved. The other half will be unseen gems from the not-too-distant past that have either been unreleased or hard to find on DVD. The films would be available for limited periods of three months or thereabouts.

“We’re excited about bringing more films to audiences around the country, both on broadband VOD and now cable VOD,” said Dentler, Cinetic’s head of programming “There’s a disconnect between movie audiences and quality films, both new and old. We’re trying to end that today.”

As one of the biggest sales-agent players in the indiewood scene, Cinetic is obviously in a good position to snag a wide array of films in both categories from various distributors and rights holders. Sloss and Dentler have relationships with everyone. And there isn’t a lot of competition right now in the VOD indie field except for IFilm and Magnolia, and they’re pushing their own product as opposed to Film Buff’s across-the-board offerings.

At present each download would cost the FilmBuff subscriber roughly $3.99 to $6.99, depending on the particulars of each title and deal. No flat monthly subscriber fees or discounted fees for subscribers are being contemplated for now.

My ears naturally perked up when I heard about FilmBuff making oldies-but-goldies available. This would mean possible deals to show all the older films I’d like to see but can’t due to various titles being unloved or unwanted by their rights holders.

John Sloss

Like Ken Russell‘s The Devils, for example, or James Bridges‘ Mike’s Murder. Or Mike Nichols‘ The Fortune, Jack Webb‘s -30-, David Jones‘ Betrayal, Frank Perry‘s Play It As It Lays, John Flynn‘s The Outfit, Paul Mazursky‘s Alex in Wonderland, Robert Aldrich‘s The Legend of Lylah Clare, Robert Altman‘s That Cold Day in the Park, Mark Rydell ‘s The Fox and Carol Reed‘s Outcast of the Islands. And that’s just for starters.

Current titles in the launch package are Richard Linklater‘s classic Slacker and Rob Epstein‘s The Times of Harvey Milk, as well as new films like Michael Almereyda‘s New Orleans Mon Amour (starring Christopher Eccleston and Elisabeth) and the Tribeca 2008 hit comedy The Auteur.

FilmBuff is part of Cinetic Rights Management (CRM), which is an arm of Cinetic Media. Whereas Cinetic Media is a sales agent for traditional media, CRM is a VOD distributor, and a separate company with different staffing.

I’ll have more information about FilmBuff as the days and weeks progress, but this seems like something I’d definitely want to have as a viewing option.

It sure is wonderful news that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince made close to $20 million last night. Friends in high states of excitation have been calling for the last hour or so. We’re all getting together this evening to celebrate over drinks.

An HE reader wrote this morning that he’s just “finished the script for Jason Reitman‘s Up In The Air, the George Clooney vehicle. It’s a hell of a piece. Clooney should kill in the role. The style is very reminiscent of Thank You For Smoking.”

I’ve just realized I’ve had a copy of this script in my script folder for months and I haven’t even skimmed it. Lazy ass. I’m presuming DreamWorks will open it sometime this fall and that it may show up at the Toronto Film Festival. But there’s no specific projected release date that I can find.

The IMDB plot summary: “Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams.”

Carey Mulligan‘s “this is what I really think and feel and want” scene with Emma Thompson (starting at 3:22) will, trust me, be used again and again in video pieces about Mulligan’s work in An Education, starting in September. For obvious reasons. Update: The YouTube clip I found and posted earlier this morning had to be taken down. But I’m keeping the item up for the comments.

The greatest sensual pleasure to be had from coffee beans is putting your nose into a bag of freshly ground beans and having an aroma orgasm meltdown. Nothing else in the coffee world approaches that. Because every time you get high from that great aroma you think “Aahh, what a great cup of coffee will come from this!” And of course, the coffee never tastes as good as the aroma promises. No matter how well prepared, the sip always falls short.

Ground coffee-bean aroma is right up there in the top-ten pantheon, which also includes (a) the smell of burning leaves on an early October evening on a suburban street in New Jersey, (b) the aroma of the seats and carpeting in a brand-new BMW or Mercedes or Range Rover while the car sits inside a dealership, (c) the scent of White Musk oil (i.e., purchasable at the Body Shop) that’s been recently applied to the neck of a freshly showered lady in her mid 30s, (d) the smell of downtown Manhattan streets after a heavy evening rainshower in mid July, (e) the scent of damp agricultural soil near crops in California’s Imperial Valley after another nighttime rainshower, and (f) the smell of soaked beach sand in the early evening after a rainshower.

I’m basically saying that people everywhere buy coffee because of the sizzle rather than the steak.

Here‘s President Obama doing ten minutes of play-by-play commentary with Chicago White Sox announcers Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. “I don’t hate the Cubs. I just don’t root for them, that’s all.”