Guns & Moses: A Rabbi Stands Up to Corruption

In Chinatown and The Two Jakes, it is water and oil that fuel corruption. Now, money from green energy greases palms and fills dirty pockets. Except, maybe it isn’t all that green. When a solar energy magnate is assassinated, the cops assume it is an antisemitic hate crime, but his rabbi suspects government land use and energy regulation might be the true motivations for Alan Rosner’s murder in Salvador Litvak’s Guns & Moses, which releases Friday in theaters.

Rabbi Mo Zaltzman lacks a proper Temple, but he has thriving community in the southern California town of High Desert. Rosner pledged to fund a permanent home for the High Desert congregation, but he will be quickly cut down by an assassin’s bullet.

Suspicion quickly and conveniently falls on Clay Gibbons, a young, troubled skinhead, who had menaced the Rabbi’s storefront community center. It all looks pretty done and dusted to the cops but Rabbi Zaltzman really believed he was starting to reach Gibbons, so he starts digging. He finds the deceased was deeply enmeshed in schemes involving environmental impacts statements (both phony and legit), as well as contested scrub land possibly needed by the state’s eternally under-construction light rail.

Rabbi Zaltzman turns out to be a very appealing amateur sleuth and Rosner’s solar-panel farm shines as a cinematic location. However, Litvak and co-screenwriter (and wife) Nina Litvak cannot match the clever plotting of Harry Kemelman’s Rabbi David Small novels. The character is strongly drawn and relatable, but the mystery/thriller business is about as complex as an episode of a 1970s network TV detective show.

Nevertheless, the Litvaks and company make some serious points that are very much oof our current moment. Indeed,it is quite significant to watch Rabbi Zaltzman reluctantly agree to arm himself. Yet, this is a very real-life experience for many Jewish Americans, especially in light of recent attacks in DC and Boulder. The title is no joke.

In fact, Litvak stages several highly satisfying shootouts. The action is nicely realized, but the cast really lands the film. Mark Feuerstein quite charmingly portrays the Rabbi’s fatherly corniness, as well as his earnest and devout faith. He wears well over the course of the film and maybe even warrants a follow-up. He also develops nice chemistry with Alona Tal, as Hindy Zaltzman.

The Last Rodeo, from Angel Studios

There is probably no more annoying expression than “this isn’t my first rodeo,” because most of the people who say it have never even been to a rodeo. This is definitely not Joe Wainwright’s first rodeo, but considering the state of his beat-up, broken-down fifty-years-plus body, it could very well be his final hurrah—period. However, he is not doing it for glory or vanity. He risks life and limb for family in Jon Avnet’s The Last Rodeo, which release tomorrow in theaters, from Angel Studios.

Wainwright is a former three-time bull-riding champion. Unfortunately, he did not walk away from his last ride. He was carried. In many ways, Wainwright’s life is like a country song. His beloved wife died, leading him to recklessly drink and bull-ride, which nearly killed him. However, his devoted grown daughter Sally helped patch him back together. In the years since, he has been sober and a model grandfather. Consequently, when young Cody is diagnosed with a rare and precariously positioned brain tumor, he takes it as hard as his daughter.

Their insurance will not cover the entire cost of the surgery (which quickly turns into surgeries), but the national bull-riding championship is scheduled for the coming weekend. Technically, all past champions are invited to appear. Of course, nobody expects them to compete and Wainwright never bothered to reply, but he can’t think of any better options. So, Wainwright convinces his old friend, trusted “bull-fighter,” and fellow Afghanistan vet Charlie Williams to help him mount his sudden comeback.

Sure, The Last Rodeo probably sounds predictable, but the same can be said for most films. Regardless, this is definitely a character study. Avnet and his co-screenwriter star, Neal McDonough show viewers what it is like for cowboys when age catches up with them. Rugged masculinity faces a tough challenge when faced with mortality. However, Avnet and McDonough still celebrate Wainwright for fighting the good fight.

In fact, Last Rodeo is notable and laudable for spotlighting three recognizable character actors in prime feature spots. McDonough has always been a reliably steely or flamboyantly villainous supporting player, but Angel has given him well-deserved opportunities as a leading man (following-up on Homestead). This could be his career-best performance, powerfully embodying Wainwright’s physical toughness and the painful feelings he has trouble expressing.

Homestead: Preppers from Angel Studios

In William Forstchen’s One Second After, it was an electro-magnetic pulse that unleashed havoc across America. It was a slightly more conventional nuclear bomb in Jason Ross & Jeff Kirkham’s Black Autumn novels. This film (and the forthcoming streaming series it sets up) adapts the latter, but fans of the former will surely feel at home during Ben Smallbone’s Homestead, from Angel Studios, which opens this Friday in theaters.

Like the survivors, viewers have a very incomplete picture of the Armageddon that transpired, but apparently a boat loaded with nuke’s detonated off the California coast, right before a cyber-attack (reportedly from Russia) brought down the power grid along the Atlantic coast. As a result, panic swept the country, overwhelming governments at every level. However, Ian Ross was prepared.

The wealthy prepper had converted his Rocky Mountain “Homestead” ranch into a doomsday compound with farmland, vineyards, and extensive stores of supplies, including, of course, guns. He also hired a security team of former special ops to keep them safe from marauders.

Jeff Ericksson is very good at his job, maintaining a secure perimeter. However, Ross’s wife Jenna argues in favor of letting more survivors into Homestead. Some of Ericksson’s men adamantly oppose, with a vehemence that is a bit alarming. Ross is somewhere in the middle, mindful of his limited resources, but also recognizing their human plight. As for Ericksson, he general agrees with his men, but he also has his family at Homestead, including his wife Tara and three children, so he worries about what kind of community they might grow up amidst.

So far, his oldest son Abe has taken to Homestead quite well, but it is mainly due to Ross’s home-schooled daughter Claire. It most respects, the teenaged Ericksson remains just as snippy and churlish towards his father as ever. Before long, legit bad guys also try to gate-crash, including a government bureaucrat (very much in the mold of Ghostbusters’ Walter Peck) who thinks he has the right and authority to commandeer Homestead’s supplies.

Frankly, it makes sense Homestead is set in the Rockies, because the mountainous region would likely have a very high survival rate. The population density is low, the rate of gun ownership is high, and Mormons on the Utah side would have three months off food on hand, as per Church teachings. Without question, it depicts prepping and survivalism with much more intelligence than the recent Year 10, but it is not as cerebrally speculative as Earth Abides.

It is also nice to see Neal McDonough playing a good guy, like Ross, who is much more reflective of his values than the villains he often plays. In fact, he is perfectly cast as the steely rancher, who accurately predicted the physical needs of survival, but had less foresight when it came to the human element.

DC Showcase: Green Arrow

Technically, he is a superhero without superhuman powers. Yet, he has a whole “Verse” half-named for him. Regardless of powers, a princess in jeopardy will be grateful for his bow in Joaquim Dos Santos’s animated DC Showcase: Green Arrow, which is very much worth catching up with on his reported in-world birthday (12/9).

Oliver Queen (a.k.a. Green Arrow) promised to pick up his girlfriend, Dinah Laurel Lance, from the airport. If you do not already know her secret identity, you will at the end of the animated short. Unfortunately, traffic is brutal, because of young Princess Perdita, who is making her first official state visit on behalf of the troubled Eastern European kingdom of Vlatava—at least was the Princess. By the time she lands, Perdita is the Queen. Presumably, that is why assassins target her, including Green Arrow’s old nemesis, Merlyn, a.k.a. the Dark Archer.

Queen immediately springs into action defending the Queen, even though he knows he will have some explaining to do to Lance. Thus launches a very cool series of animated action set pieces, across the tarmac and through the baggage handling system. Frankly, this installment of DC Showcase could hang One More Shot, the Scott Adkins beatdown set entirely within an airport—and the two would pair up nicely.

Mario Van Peebles’ Outlaw Posse

There is a relatively new trope in revisionist Westerns, in which a grizzled gunslinger blows into a town founded by freedmen that exudes contemporary values of tolerance and diversity. Of course, he comes to respect their ways, even though he must revert to his bad old habits to defend their dreams. You definitely find this template in the Django series, the Refuge graphic novel, and now again in this film. At least the hard-bitten “Chief” will do his best to keep his shootouts out-of-town in Mario Van Peebles’ Outlaw Posse, which opens in select theaters this Friday.

Shortly after the Civil War, Chief and Angel hijacked a shipment of gold intended to pay reparations to former slaves. They had the usual falling out, resulting in Angel losing both his share of the gold and one hand. Shrewdly, Chief stashed the loot on reservation land, where most white outlaws fear to tread. However, Angel remains determined to re-appropriate the gold and sever one of Chief’s mitts in retribution. For leverage, he abducts Malindy, the wife of Chief’s estranged son, Decker.

To save her, Decker must ingratiate himself into Chief’s gang, now consisting of the fatherly Carson, the young Southpaw (both of whom are white), the knife-wielding femme fatale Queeny, and the minstrel-performer, Spooky. Chief is due to reclaim the gold at the time he and the actual tribal chief agreed upon, but to get there, they must travel through the freedmen’s community led by his former riding mate, Horatio, who isn’t as dead as Chief had heard (that is a common phenomenon in Outlaw Posse).

Weirdly, one of the most entertaining things about Outlaw Posse is the wealth of colorful character actor cameos, like Neal McDonough and the truly great M. Emmet Walsh, who appear in the prologue (which could stand alone as separate short) and then only reappear briefly in a dream sequence. Regardless, they are both perfectly cast. There is also Edward James Olmos popping up as a general store proprietor and Joseph Culp (Corman’s Dr. Doom) as a crooked sheriff. Plus, Cedric the Entertainer plays it relatively straight as newly enlightened Horatio.

Outlaw Posse does not appear to be linked to Van Peebles’ Posse from 1993, but he clearly remembered his way around horses and six-shooters. Frankly, there is no “posse” in Outlaw Posse, so the title seems deliberately misleading. Regardless, as Chief, he is definitely cool, in a steely, world weary kind of way. He can still carry a movie.

The Shift, from Angel Studios

Maybe we aren’t trapped in a digital matrix. Maybe the Devil “shifts” people between alternate parallel realities instead. The Mephistophelean character never exactly calls himself that, but the so-called “Benefactor” definitely sees himself as a rival to the Man Upstairs. It turns out faith-based science fiction finds a way to give dystopian and multiversal themes a new twist in director-screenwriter Brock Heasley’s The Shift, produced by Angel Studios (the Sound of Freedom distributor), which opens Friday in theaters.

Kevin Garner was finance shark who found redemption when his future wife, Molly, approached him on a dare. Thanks to her influence, he went back to church and started acting like a good husband and father. However, the death of their young son sent him spiraling down again. That is when Satan/The Benefactor approaches Garner.

It turns out, Garner has been his go-to guy in every other dimension, becoming his Faustian enforcer, to enjoy all the hedonistic perks that position entails. He can’t “shift” anyone though. Only the Benefactor’s secret “shifter” operatives, with their special shifting bracelets, can slip innocent victims into an alternation reality.

 

Much to the Benefactor’s surprise, this Garner turns him down, because he still has faith.  As punishment, the Satanic overlord shifts Garner to his grimmest, most dystopian reality, where his evil powers are openly recognized and feared. Forced to live underground, Garner clings to the hope that he can reunite with Molly in another reality.

The conclusion is a little clunky, but the guts of The Shift have some surprisingly fresh multiversal science fiction elements, especially the way the dystopian characters relate to their alternate selves. Heasley’s Job-riffing script definitely reflects an Evangelical Christian perspective, but it goes for long extended periods without appealing to faith. Of course, the Devil is evil and nasty all the way through, but the same could be said for plenty of secular horror movies.

There are No Saints, Written by Paul Schrader

The Jesuits aren’t what they used to be. These days, they are largely aligned with Liberation Theology. Neto Niente’s nickname “The Jesuit” refers to their hard-charging Seventeenth Century glory years. The gang enforcer could definitely get Medieval on his targets, but he has been cooling his heels in prison for years. When he finally gets released, there’s sure to be Hell to pay in Alfonso Pined Ulloa’s There are No Saints, written by Paul Schrader, which opens today in New York.

Ironically, Niente did not commit the murder he was convicted of, so when the cop who planted the evidence recanted on his deathbed, his lawyer, Carl Abrahams had him released, free and clear. Of course, there are plenty of angry cops who still want a piece of him. Niente would clear out, but he is worried about his son, Julio. His wife Nadia has since married gun-running gangster Vincent Rice, to help provide him a respectable cover. Even though it is not a real marriage, Rice is still abusive—and lethally jealous when Nadia and the Jesuit have an assignation for old times’ sake.

After Rice murders Nadia, abducts Julio, and tries to kill Niente, but the Jesuit is more resourceful than he anticipates. As we fully expect, Niente will chase Rice down into Mexico, leaving a trail of dead associates in his wake. However, Schrader’s grungy payback script is darker than you would expect. Arguably, this is a familiar template for him. Basically, he does for the border town milieu what Hardcore did for the underground LA porn scene and The Yakuza did for the Japanese underworld. Yet, it still works okay, in an unfussy, down-and-dirty kind of way.

The Unspoken: A Creepy House for a Creepy Kid

If you think the spirit possession was scary, you should see the capital losses people take on this problematic property. Seventeen years ago, the Anderson family vanished under mysterious circumstances, only leaving behind a shell-shocked sheriff’s deputy as a witness. Unaware of the property’s history, a single mother and her emotionally stunted little boy have moved in, hoping the mountain air will be healing. Their young nanny knows better, but she keeps coming to work because the “recovery” was particularly soft in those parts. You largely know where things are going from here, but screenwriter-director Sheldon Wilson adds elements of the home invasion thriller for extra added menace in The Unspoken (trailer here), which opens today in New York.

Poor Angela’s life kind of bites. Her mother also perished under dubious circumstances around the same time, leaving her with her structurally-unemployed father. She is pseudo-romantically involved with the closeted Pandy, who constantly spurns her to keep up appearances with her meth dealing friends. To help make ends meet, Angela takes a job minding the charmlessly sullen Adrian, who hasn’t talked since his father died.

Of course, things start going supernaturally haywire, but Adrian’s mother Jeanie is never around to see it. Perhaps even more ominously, Pandy’s townie pusher pals are rather put out by the prospect of losing the old Anderson place as a stash for their drugs, especially since they did not have the chance yet to retrieve their latest and biggest shipment. They intend to break in and settle things Wait Until Dark-style.

Oddly, Unspoken works better as home invasion horror rather than a haunted house movie. Yet, all the (admittedly limited) payoff relates to the uncanny storyline. Frankly, the big twist follows very much in the tradition of Alistair Legrand’s The Diabolical, but the Ali Larter vehicle was superior in every way.

Even though many of the conventions Wilson recycles feel stale, the performances are surprisingly fresh. Whether it was the plan or not, Jodelle Ferland (Twilight, Silent Hill, The Tall Man) is carving out quite a niche as a modest and reserved scream queen, which continues with her work as Angela. Frankly, it is impossible to resist taking a strong rooting interest in her. Once again Neal McDonough and his authority figure presence inspire plenty of confidence, but he just doesn’t get enough screen time as Sheriff Bower. Anthony Konechny, Jonathan Whitesell, and Jake Croker are suitably creepy and destabilizing as Pandy’s drug-pushing pals. However, the less said about the young boy, the better.

There is no question the scariest scene of Unspoken is the prologue. It is nice that it is so well executed, but it inevitably puts the rest of the film on a downward slope. A mixed bag really just recommended for horror genre diehards, Unspoken opens today (10/28) in New York, at the Cinema Village.