Either that, or it's just that you're addicted to imagining yourself as a studio executive who feverishly looks for the first numbers every weekend. Will your film be in the Top 5 at the box office? Will its PTA be gigantic? Whether you prefer Michael Bay or Takeshi Kitano does not make a difference. If you don't know much about those tiny independent features though, then I'll be glad to shed some light on them. Or "it," since the July 4th weekend, aka the "Will Smith weekend" will see just one small film released besides Hancock. So, first things first. After that, well, I'll tell you about about a foreign film that needs to have some buzz right away.

Some words or expressions are not listed in dictionaries. Jonathan Levine chose one as a title for his second film, The Wackness (July 3) (thank God I watch enough American movies on my own to have understood by now what "wack," "wacky" or "wackness" mean). And as the main independent feature (the only in Fantasy Moguls) opening on the famous July 4th weekend opposite the new Will Smith blockbuster, it seems there is some space for The Wackness to leave an impression, even if only on the arthouse circuit.

Let's go back in time, however, for a few minutes. It's now September 2006, and Jonathan Levine's first feature, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, a small horror indie written by Jacob Forman, quickly acquires a great reputation after debuting at the Toronto Film Festival. Mandy Lane is especially popular among genre aficionados, and though many think the fanboy love will allow the film to find a distributor easily, and "carve out" a nice niche in American theaters, months pass by and ... nothing. The film travels from festival to festival, with each showing adding something to its overall buzz, but still fails to line up U.S. distribution.

While he's waiting, Levine goes back behind the camera to shoot a second feature which he wrote himself, about the wacky friendship between a high school weed dealer and his shrink, set against the backdrop of 1994 New York City, when hip hop ruled the streets. The Wackness. The film premieres at Sundance in January 2008 with great success. Not a "a few good reviews" success, but rather a "lots of terrific reviews, standing ovations and an audience award at the end" kind of success. Yes, the kind that makes you and your film the hottest subject in Park City. After the festival ends, many cinephiles are eager to have a look and find out what's been grabbing all of that attention.

Sony Pictures Classics acquired the R-rated Wackness for distribution, and plans to open it first in Los Angeles and New York City. In addition to its solid word of mouth, the film has an eclectic cast, mixing respected thespians (Ben Kingsley, Famke Janssen) with TV actors (Josh Peck from Drake & Josh), rappers (Method Man) and, yes, the biggest surprise of all, one half of the Olsen twins (Mary-Kate for all of you fans ... although I hope there aren't too many of those types hanging around this site). Such a diversity will probably help the film grab more spectators, but the word of mouth alone should make it a must-see for many.

Although I find it safer to bet on well-reviewed foreign language films to generate Fantasy Moguls points (as Mongol proved very recently), The Wackness is very enticing in terms of price tag vs. profit prospects. Available for the reasonable cost of $6 in Ultimate Movie Moguls leagues, it could grab anywhere between 4 and 7 PTA points in the course of its career. And if the movie clicks with larger audiences the way it did with festivalgoers, then The Wackness could, as Fantasy Moguls predicts, snare a few million dollars at the box office. Probably not enough to be worthy of a Box Office Moguls buy, but in Ultimate leagues, I can't imagine it damaging your slates. The User Rating should maintain around 7.

(Oh, and about that Mandy Lane. German firm Senator Entertainment has the U.S. distribution rights, and there's a tentative date of August 2008 listed at IMDb. Stay tuned.)

The second half of June and first half of July clearly is not a prolific time for arthouse releasing. Independent films are rare during these weeks, leading to thinner columns from yours truly. Let's not stop at this one lonely arthouse release, however, let's look ahead. Way ahead in fact, as the film I'm about to discuss has no release date in the U.S., or even a distributor. I'm pretty sure, though, that some of you are already eagerly anticipating it, after reading about it on some Web sites. Today, I intend to keep the buzz growing.

Okay let's cut the introduction. JCVD. You may recognize the initials, and, soon, I hope, you'll see the film. That's right, JCVD as in Jean-Claude Van Damme. Now, Van Damme, I'm pretty sure you know the guy. Probably the most famous Belgian on the planet. A former karate champ who left his native land for Hollywood in the '80s, hoping to make it big under the Californian sun despite not speaking English very well. Against all odds, the man made it, and between the end of the '80s and the mid-'90s, Van Damme was one of the biggest action stars in the world. Kids grew up with posters of him on their walls, trying to reenact his famous kicks after school.

And then it all fell apart. Cocaine, immodesty, divorce, failures at the box office — for the last 10 years, Van Damme's career has consisted of low-budget, poorly written action movies shot in Eastern Europe, pretty much released exclusively on DVD. At the same time, in Europe, and France in particular, the man has been constantly mocked for his very personal way of expressing himself in interviews, mixing French and English while developing a philosophy of his own.

It's around this time that a couple of French journalists, fellows who knew that there was more to Van Damme than just what the audience saw of him, had an idea. Why not make a film for Van Damme in which he would play ... himself, a washed-up action star who gets tangled up in a bank heist and has to show he's more than just an actor. The film ended up at Gaumont, one of France's big studios, which liked the idea very much, and offered it to a young filmmaker named Mabrouk El-Mechri, who had only directed one feature before. As it turned out, El-Mechri was one of those kids who grew up in the 80's with a poster of Van Damme up on his bedroom wall. But the script did not satifsy him completely. He wanted to make a film that would be more than an action film with Van Damme. He wanted it to be more ambitious, more surprising, more experimental.

Gaumont let him do as he wished, because if Van Damme was a bit reluctant at the project at first, the passion and the ideas of El-Mechri convinced him that this film could be a new step in his career. The result? Well, it turns out Van Damme was right to trust El-Mechri. JCVD is not a perfect film — far from it. But it is nothing we could have expected. Not script-wise, not direction-wise ... If you expected an action film with Van Damme, it is not. If you expected a comedy mocking Van Damme, it is not.

If the film still centers on a bank robbery, and Van Damme himself being caught up in the middle of it inadvertently, the heart and soul of the film is somewhere else. It is in Van Damme himself. It IS Van Damme. I'll be the first to confess that there was a time I often laughed at Van Damme. And I had never considered him a good actor (how could we, with the films he's done those past 20 years?). And yet, here he is, on the big screen, displaying a charisma, exposing a presence, communicating an emotion that probably no one, even his biggest fans, could have imagined possible.

This column is dedicated to arthouse features, so discussing Jean-Claude Van Damme for so long might seem like a departure from the norm. But as crazy as it may seem, Van Damme is the acting revelation of 2008. Acting may be too strong a word, but his charisma makes up for whatever else is lacking. JCVD the film is most interesting and fascinating when it does not focus on the action, on the bank robbery, but instead dives into the soul of Van Damme — lets the actor occupy the screen, tries to understand who he is, ruminates about fame and its negative aspects, and considers redemption against all odds.

While promoting the film in France, you could sense in Van Damme's attitude and words that this film made him a different actor. That he is ready for a second career. Reviews have been excellent for the film, and more specifically for Van Damme himself, but audiences have not followed the trend, and the box-office has been disappointing in France. Let's hope that the film will find success abroad, let's hope the buzz will grow everywhere. So that producers in France give Van Damme another chance to prove that under good direction, in his native language, he can be a hell of a good actor.

Well who could have foreseen that I would dedicate half of a "Dances with the Arthouse" column to Jean-Claude Van Damme's latest film? The man may have brought John Woo, Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam to Hollywood, but still ... (Actually, all three of them make better films in Hong Kong!) Next week, I'll rehabilitate Chuck Norris's career by examining ... eh, who am I kidding, there are boundaries! Jean-Claude will be the only one. And I certainly hope I'll be able to mention JCVD again, on this site. Until then, we'll keep rolling on to the next arthouse releases.

Maybe Indie Jones had a Double Team poster on his bedroom wall when he was a wee lad, and maybe he didn't. Who wants to know? Transmit all memories of your own favorite "Wham! Bam! Van Damme!" moments to danceswiththearthouse@gmail.com.