THE CANYONS. The material is classic BEE. Character driven, dialogue driven, explicit in word if not action. Two visual poles are emerging in the low budget world: on one side, Wong Kar Wai’s Fallen Angeles [sic]. On the other Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats. Both styles mix approaches, use hand held, work economically. Both are composed as opposed to faux verite. You could distinquish them by saying Fallen Angels aspires to the characters’ POV, Heartbeat to the director’s. A third path? Better examples from the micro budget world? Paul S.

From what we gather from what he’s saying, these days it’s easier to make compositionally accomplished movies on a dime, particularly with continually decreasing costs of shooting digital (which he plans to do on “The Canyons”), and it seems he’s looking to fill his Netflix queue with movies to watch to help get inspired. But the subject matter of his picture will likely also inform what kind tactic he takes behind the camera. Penned by Bret Easton Ellis, the film will follow a small group of Los Angeles twenty-somethings — Christian, Ryan Tara, Gina and Lindsay — trying to make it in the Hollywood biz. Needless to say, power, sex and ambition all collide as the stories unfold.