Many of you will remember the days when Chad Hartigan was our reliably astute and highly discriminating box office analyst back at the old In Contention site — we miss him still. But that was then and this is now, and Chad’s been making waves on the festival circuit this year with his thoughtful, penetrating second feature “This is Martin Bonner.”  “‘Decency’ isn’t much of a buzzword in the current, irony-fuelled indie realm,” I wrote in my Edinburgh Film Festival review of the two-hander character study, “but ‘Martin Bonner’ possesses a pure, palpable strain of it from first cleanly composed frame to last.”

It’s a genuinely special piece of work, colored by quietly marvelous performances — some of you may have noticed Kris singling out Richmond Arquette in yesterday’s plea for indie Oscar consideration, while Paul Eenhoorn is every bit as good in the title role. Lest our coverage of it here at IC come over as some form of blog-related nepotism, that’s hardly an isolated view: the film won an Audience Award at Sundance, where it debuted, and has since picked up prizes at the Boston, Nashville, Florida and Sarasota fests.

And while the film has geen travelling the fest circuit both the States and Europe, it’s slowly been making its way to US theaters. Next week, however, is the big moment, as “This is Martin Bonner” finally goes on release in the key art house markets of New York and Los Angeles. I’ll be running my interview with Chad next week to mark the occasion, so look out for that.

Meanwhile, the film’s teaser trailer has also just been posted on Apple. Check it out there, or in the embed below, and tell us what you think. Perhaps you’ve even seen the film already? 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrLlYqX5MkA&w=640&h=360]