HRWFF ’13: Going Up the Stairs

Any women creating art in today’s Iran could be classified as an “Outsider Artist,” because you just cannot get anymore “outside” than a woman trying to express herself artistically in the Islamist state.  The devout Akram Sartakhti apparently has no interest in political subject matter, but she still must navigate the institutionalized misogyny.  Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami documents her work and complicated domestic life in Going Up the Stairs: a Portrait of an Unlikely Iranian Artist (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

At the age of nine, Sartakhti was married off the Heider Rahimi, a colleague of her father’s, who was seventeen years her senior.  When the Shah was scheduled to visit her school, Sartkhti and her classmates were told to leave their headscarves at home.  Instead, she dropped out before learning how to read.  For years, she lived in fear of her domineering husband, but as they advanced in age, her comparative youth somewhat turned the tables.  Late in life, she turned the second floor of their townhouse into a studio.

However, Iranian law grants husbands ironclad control over their wives.  Throughout Stairs, Sartakhti is worried Rahimi will refuse her permission to travel to Paris, where her grown children have organized an exhibition of her work, as an arbitrary means of asserting his power.

Sartakhti’s paintings clearly fit within the Outsider rubric.  While nowhere near as polished or sophisticated as Iran Darroudi’s surreal landscapes, her surprisingly large canvasses show an intriguing sense of composition and a striking use of color.  They are worth seeing, but of course public exhibition will always be a tricky proposition for any woman artist under the current regime.

Serving as her own camera crew, Maghami obviously earned the trust of the artist and her husband.  Still, one wonders what happens after she left.  Frankly, there is often a pronounced disconnect between the on-screen calm captured on film and the bitter stories Sartakhti tells of the early years of her arranged marriage.  Many people will take Stairs as proof arranged spouses can always grow to love each other, but at what cost?  Maghami’s doc is rather ambiguous on this question.

Nevertheless, the fifty-one minute Stairs pretty clearly establishes the mandated gender inequalities of today’s Iran and how they severely hinder even a staunchly traditional woman like Sartakhti.  An interesting portrait of an artist marginalized simply because she is a woman, Going Up the Stairs is one of the stronger selections of this year’s Human Rights Watch Fest.  It screens on a double bill with Camera/Woman this coming Sunday (6/16) at the IFC Center and the following Tuesday (6/18) at the Francesca Beale Theater.

The Stroller Strategy: A Baby Not Having a Baby

What could be more attractive than accidental fatherhood?  Do not fret.  This mostly unemployed freelance artist is not really a new father.  He is just trying to take advantage of an unlikely set of circumstances to win back his former girlfriend in Clément Michel’s The Stroller Strategy (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Marie Deville fell for Thomas Platz when he crashed her birthday party.  However, his immaturity and reluctance to even consider a family slowly taxes her patience.  The sad sack is totally blind-sided when she summarily dumps him, rather inconveniently on her same birth date.  He does not deal with her rejection in a productive manner.  Yet, when he finds himself caring for a hospitalized neighbor’s infant, Platz recognizes an opportunity.  Since the break-up, Deville quit her nursing job, opening an upscale infant education and recreational center.  Guess who shows up as a prospective client.

While Strategy revisits well worn territory, Michel’s execution is mostly harmless.  As Platz and Deville, Raphaël Personnaz and Charlotte Le Bon develop some pleasant chemistry.  The latter has a genuinely luminous screen presence, making it rather challenging to believe the two could ever be a couple, even with their nice bantering rhythms.

Unfortunately, every joke you expect eventually turns up in Strategy, mostly garnering eye-rolls.  As a notable exception, Julie Ferrier is wickedly funny as Platz’s cougarish classmate, Valérie. Conversely, the gags involving Platz’s friend and stroller strategy advocate, Paul Bordinot, border on the creepy, while Jérôme Commandeur’s shticky performance does little to rehabilitate them.

There are few surprises in Strategy, which will be reassuring for some viewers.  Admirably, it suggests fatherhood, commitment, honesty, and steady employment are all very good things.  Still, it is funniest when Ferrier is on-screen, but alas, her supporting role is relatively small.  At best a middling trifle viewers will be hard pressed to remember a week later, The Stroller Strategy opens this Friday (6/14) in New York at the Angelika Film Center.

Loznitsa’s In the Fog

Some people are born to curry favor with successive regimes, regardless of changing ideologies.  There are also those who are constitutionally incapable of ingratiating themselves with the powers that be.  Sushenya is definitely the latter sort, but through a cruel twist, he finds himself suspected of collaboration in Sergei Loznitsa’s WWII drama, In the Fog (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

When Burov knocks on his door late one night, Sushenya knows the partisan has come to execute him.  Burov would have done the deed right there and then, were it not for the presence of the condemned man’s son.  Instead, he and his squirrely comrade Voitek march Sushenya out into the Belorussian forest.  However, German patrols are out in force this particular night, drastically altering the course of Burov’s score-settling mission.

For the three main characters, backstory is truly destiny.  Through extended flashbacks, Loznitsa shows the audience the ironic events that inevitably led the trio into the fateful forest.  There is an inescapably absurdist character to In the Fog, as its characters doggedly tramp through the woods, evading the Germans as best they can, despite the awkward circumstances that brought them together.

Yet, In the Fog is also closely akin to Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows.  Loznitsa’s adaptation of Vasil Bykov’s novel hardly idolizes the Communist partisans.  Frankly, it suggests they are more interested in suspected turncoats like Sushenya than taking the war to Germans.  Neither Sushenya nor Burov are Party people, so to speak.  Voitek is not exactly a true believer either, but his craven nature is more compatible with his fellow comrades.  Indeed, during Sushenya’s flashback, one of his railroad co-workers observes how their former Communist tormentor had so quickly aligned himself with the new National Socialist occupiers.

Vladimir Svirskiy looks profoundly miserable as Sushenya.  It is a performance of striking physicality, perfectly suited to Loznitsa’s taciturn film.  As Voitek, Sergei Kolesov also taps into just about every unedifying aspect of human nature, without overplaying any of them.  Even with his dramatic origin story, Vladislav Abashin’s Burov remains something of a cipher, but Vlad Ivanov (the abortionist in 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days) casts a long shadow over the film as the deceitful German officer, Grossmeier.

Yes, once night breaks, there will be plenty of fog to represent to moral murkiness facing the film’s characters.  There will be no heroics in the wartime USSR, no matter who holds Sushenya’s village.  Loznitsa offers viewers little consolation and his purposeful pacing will be problematic for antsy viewers.  Yet, his long tracking shots are quite striking (especially the opening hanging sequence).  Impressively bracing, In the Fog is recommended rather highly for adult attention spans when it opens this Friday (6/14) in New York at the Village East.

KCS Korean Movie Night: Architecture 101

Does anything say “I love you” better than a high-maintenance low-profile commission?  It will be a heck of a house, but whether the architect and his client will rekindle their lost love is far less certain in Lee Yong-ju’s Architecture 101 (trailer here), which screens Tuesday night as part of the Korean Cultural Service’s free Korean Movie Night in New York.

The rough around the edges Lee Seung-min is his firm’s best architect, but his boss is far better dealing with clients.  At least, he is now somewhat less socially awkward than he was as an undergraduate architecture major.  Needless to say, he is quite surprised when Yang Seo-yeon, the girl who broke his heart freshman year, hires him to rebuild her family home on Jeju Island.  Despite her hotness and his geekiness, they had partnered together for their intro to architecture class project, which gave them the opportunity to take many long picturesque walks together through Seoul and also thereby providing the film with its title.

Initially reluctant to accept the commission, his work brings back all the painful memories he feared, as the audience sees in flashbacks.  Of course, the end of their chaste pseudo-courtship was considerably more complicated than he realized at the time.  It sure would make things neat and tidy if Lee and Yang could just pick up where they left off, but he has sort of moved on since freshman year.

Okay, you probably mostly know the score from here.  Director Lee delivers most of the anticipated melodramatic goods, flashing forwards and backwards between the pair of star-crossed couples, erecting barriers to their unspoken love in each time period.  Still, 101 is notable as a major departure from his previous film, the religiously themed horror movie Possessed.  There are no spinning heads here.  In fact, Lee exercises admirable restraint, by genre standards, largely trusting the circumstances of the central relationship to carry the film without a lot of added heart-string pulling.

Uhm Tae-woong is actually rather grounded and reasonably manly as the adult architect Lee, whereas his younger analog can be difficult to watch mope about.  Still, it is not hard to understand why he fell for Bae Suzy’s ethereal coed.  Han Ga-in also portrays Yang’s grown-up disappointments for affecting honesty and charisma.

Yes, there are all kinds of manipulation going on in 101, particularly with regards to the song that never quite became “their song.”  However, the house that Lee builds is quite striking.  Architectural Digest readers look for a weepy love story should inhale this film.  While the exact structure was not built to last, the café “Seo-yeon’s House” now stands in its place, remodeled in a style reminiscent of the on-screen domicile.

As a film, 101 never transcends its genre, but viewers in the mood for a sad romance will find it competently done and likely pretty satisfying.  Not classic, but better than the cynical might expect, Architecture 101 screens for free, courtesy of the Korean Cultural Service, this Tuesday (6/11) at the Tribeca Cinemas in New York.

DWF ’13: House of Good and Evil

It is a remote fixer-upper with no power or phone lines.  The spacious duplex sounds perfect for a young couple hoping to heal their troubled relationship.  They will take it, once the realtor duly shows them the remnant of the Indian burial ground and the stake where they used to burn the witches.  It is cheap, and best of all, the second unit already has tenants: the wildly anti-social, old Mr. and Mrs. Anderson.  Unfortunately, their new surroundings do not have the desired effect in David Mun’s House of Good and Evil (trailer here), which screens tomorrow as part of this year’s Dances With Films.

Chris Conley has trouble with booze and his temper.  When his wife Maggie miscarries, it is his fault.  To make it up to her, he buys her a new house in the middle of nowhere.  Cell service is spotty out there and the lines go down so often the utilities quit repairing them.  However, there is a lovely generator out back. Immediately after moving in, she starts hearing a phone ringing from the Andersons’ side of the house.  Of course, her husband just assumes she is being a hysterical woman and promptly disappears for his forest firefighter training.

Strange things start to happen to around the creaky old house, but it is the sound of the ringing phone and Mrs. Anderson’s weird conversations (that sound a lot like the old “Shut Up Little Man” recordings) that really get to her.  Eventually, she becomes rather preoccupied with her unseen neighbors.

What really distinguishes House from the indie horror pack is the mournful vibe Mun achieves.  One gets a powerful sense things would not be right between the Conleys even if they had moved into a “House of Just Plain Good.”  Sensitively lensed by Jared Noe and nicely enhanced by Mickey Ray’s detailed sets, House has an unusually strong sense of mise-en-scène compared to the genre standard.  The problem is the screenplay.  Anyone with a few midnight movies under their belts will predict the third act Shyamalan well before it drops.

Still, Rachel Marie Lewis soldiers on quite compellingly as Maggie Conley and Saved by the Bell refugee Christian Oliver is actually not bad as her frustrated and frustrating husband.  Some of their scenes together have real bite.  Unfortunately, we know where it is all going, even if they do not.

House should work well as a show reel for Mun, his co-leads, and his technical collaborators.  Audiences will recognize considerable talent went into it, even though the sum of its parts is greater than its whole.  A passable outing for genre diehards looking for something that has not been talked to death on fan sites, House of Good and Evil screens tomorrow night (6/9), concluding the 16^th Dances With Films.

DWF ’13: Steve Chong Finds Out

Why is Steve Chong so depressed?  Maybe it is due to feelings of inadequate facial hair.  If so, he probably picked the wrong friends.  Nevertheless, the bearded slackers will do their best to prevent their buddy from taking the final exit in Charlie LaVoy’s Steve Chong Finds Out that Suicide is a Bad Idea (trailer here), which screens today as part of Dances With Films at the TCL Chinese Theatres (where they should have a long enough marquee to fit that title).

Chong was never really suited to his job as a sushi chef, but getting fired hardly helps his mental outlook.  When his extreme shyness sabotages what might have been his last best shot with Alice, the waitress he has long carried a torch for, Chong is pretty much ready to cash in his chips.  However, he will first invite over his goofball friends for a weekend at his parents’ lake house.  Unable to hold his booze like they can, the stink-faced Chong lets his plans slip during a drinking game.  The next morning, he does not seem to remember the episode, but his friends do.

Frankly, some of the cleverest bits of SCFOTSIABI involve their attempts to child-proof the lake house.  LaVoy and screenwriter-co-star Owen Hornstein III probably could have mined the suicide prevention efforts for more dark physical humor.  One cannot help wondering what Jacques Tati’s evil twin could have done with this premise.  Rather, LaVoy and his cast of filmmaking collaborators are more interested with exploring themes of friendship and loyalty.  That is all very nice, but it could have been funnier.

Still, there is no question SCFOTSIABI connects with the economic anxiety that has plagued the country (especially recent college graduates) for the last six years or so.  Chong may yet to find out about suicide, but he understands the reality of a “soft recovery” all too well.  Wisely, the film never overplays its hand with fleetingly topical references, focusing instead on perennials bummers, like crummy jobs, difficult bosses, and estranged friends.

Stanley Wong (who also edited SCFOTSIABI) is appropriately awkward and tightly wound as Chong and develops some convincing chemistry with the grizzly trio.  Viewers will believe they all have some long, complicated history together.  While Hornstein and Tyler Russell’s constant feuding gets a bit tiresome, standout Joe Sökmen has some memorable moments of honesty as John, who passes for the mature one in this Rat Pack.

Speaking of lake houses, if Chong had recently seen the Keanu Reeves-Sandra Bullock remake, it would also explain his suicidal impulses.  To the credit of the co-producing cast, they largely avoid such sentimental excesses.  While seemingly tailor made for Hangover comparisons, SCFOTSIABI is really more about avoiding a truly awful morning after.  A nice, intermittently amusing film about friendship, Steve Chong Finds Out that Suicide is a Bad Idea screens this afternoon (6/7) as part of the “Sweet Sixteen” Dances With Films in Hollywood.

Whedonized Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing

Shall we compare Shakespeare to a superhero?  His work transcends time and space, after all.  No less an authority than Joss Whedon, the director of The Avengers, proves the point once again with his modernized yet still satisfying Much Ado About Nothing (trailer here), which opens today in New York.

As you really ought to know, Ado is a comic tale involving sibling rivalry, mistaken identity, and of course, love.  Don Pedro has just routed an insurrection led by his deceitful brother, Don John.  To enjoy the afterglow of victory, Don Pedro and his trusted lieutenants, the roguish Benedick and the earnest young Claudio, accept the hospitality of Leonato, the governor of Messina.   Don John also arrives with his brother.  They have supposedly buried the hatchet, but their truce is decidedly frosty.

In contrast, Benedick brashly presses his longstanding “merry war” with Beatrice, Leonato’s tart tongued niece. To mix Shakespearean quotations, Leonato and Don Pedro decide the sarcastic couple “doth protest too much” and secretly contrive to bring them together, like practical jokester cupids.  Benedick and Beatrice get all the play’s best lines, but the above-board romance between Claudio and Leonato’s daughter Hero supplies all the plot points.  As he instructs his remaining retainers, Don John would be quite pleased to see their happy union sabotaged, for the sake of his revenge and general mean spiritedness.

Shot during the twelve days in-between the filming and post-production of Whedon’s Marvel blockbuster, Ado is certainly a laid back affair, but it is still strikingly cinematic.  There might have been limited time for pre-production, but Whedon was fortunate to have a pretty polished script from William Shakespeare.  Maybe he found it on the “Black List.” Set entirely within Whedon’s real life home, designed by his architect wife and co-producer Kai Cole, this Ado updates the costumes and trappings to modern times, but wisely retains the Bard’s original language.  Essentially, Leonato and the Dons are politicians or gangsters.  Is there any difference between the two?  Either way, the wardrobe largely consists of dark suits, sun glasses, and ear pieces.

While Whedon’s modernization is a bit eccentric, Jay Hunter’s stylish black-and-white cinematography really helps sell it.  Frankly, Much Ado is one of Shakespeare’s most bullet-proof comedies, probably ranking just below Twelfth Night.  Nonetheless, Whedon’s game cast does not merely get by.  They have a genuine flair for the Shakespearean language.  Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker make a terrific Benedick and Beatrice. The audience will find themselves laughing at their zingers, which speaks volumes for their zesty delivery. 

Clark Gregg (the soon to be reincarnated SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson) also makes a solid Leonato, nicely conveying his mischievous and mature sides, while providing a familiar face for Whedon’s Marvel fans to latch onto.  Poor Hero is always the problematic part, but newcomer Jillian Morgese (an extra on The Avengers) gives her a bit of pluck and substance this time around.  As for good old Dogberry (here reinvented as the captain of the gated community’s rent-a-cops), Nathan Fillion truly hams it up, but that is exactly what he is supposed to do.

This is a genuinely entertaining movie that withstands comparison to Kenneth Branagh’s wonderfully elegant adaptation.  It is a different take, but the time-tested characters and text are the same, so it all works out quite swimmingly.  Recommended without reservation for fans of Shakespeare and Whedon, Much Ado About Nothing opens today (6/7) in New York at the Landmark Sunshine.

DWF ’13: Forever’s End

Is it the end of the world, or is it just Ohio?  Sarah White might be the last girl on Earth and the last man might have found his way to her doorstep.  Yet, that does not necessarily mean what you probably think in J.C. Schroder’s Forever’s End (trailer here), which screens tomorrow as part of Dances With Films.

White apparently survived a violent attack when the apocalypse broke out.  For the last six years, she has lived completely isolated in her family’s farmhouse, convinced she is Armageddon’s sole survivor.  When several stragglers mysteriously arrive in rapid succession, she is confused, frightened, and perhaps a little hopeful.  However, deciding who she should trust is difficult for the traumatized young woman.

Serious cult cinema connoisseurs will have a general idea where Forever is heading, but Schroder still keeps viewers wondering just how exactly the pieces will finally fit together.  The writer-director-editor-cinematographer establishes an eerie vibe that keeps viewers off-balance, getting a key assist from his Ohio and Kentucky locations, where the apocalypse could happen tomorrow, but you’d never notice. (FYI, I joke because I attended a Lutheran liberal arts college not far from where the film was shot.)

Charity Farrell’s Sarah White is convincingly vulnerable and emotionally troubled, but in an engaging rather than showy kind of way.  Lili Reinhart has the perfect look for her sisterly protector, projecting all kinds of menace and resentment.  Conversely, Warren Bryson’s understatement helps sell his character’s revelations.

A strange hybrid of apocalyptic cinema and the psychological thriller, Forever’s End is a fine example of how an evocative mood and rich mise-en-scène can fortify an inconsistent narrative.  Despite its challenging budget constraints, Forever’s End is an impressive looking production.  A promising first feature, it is worth checking out when it screens tomorrow (6/7) as part of the “Sweet Sixteen” Dances With Films, in Hollywood, California.

1 Mile Above: Tibet on Two Wheels

Tibet is not merely a destination, it is an experience.  Still, cycling across the country is taking matters to the extreme.  Taiwanese Zhang Shuhao is not the man to do it.  Yet, he has very personal reasons for biking from Lijiang to Lhasa in Du Jiayi’s 1 Mile Above (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Zhang’s elder brother was the cyclist.  He is an amateur.  However, he resolves to make the trek his recently deceased brother had been training for.  Originally conceived as a tribute, it becomes a purification ritual and a struggle to survive.  Although some of the local guides try to take advantage of the fish out of water, he has the good fortune to fall in with Chuan.  The gruff mainlander is an experienced cyclist, who has made the grueling journey twice before.  He also has a keen appreciation of Tibetan culture, especially the cuisine.

Indeed, Mile is at its best when it celebrates the Tibetan people and culture, most definitely including Tibetan Buddhism.  As a narrative, Zhang Jialu & Cheng Hsiao-tse’s adaptation of Xie Wanglin’s memoir is fairly standard wilderness survival fare, even when circumstances force Zhang to carry on by himself.  Yet, there are a number a genuinely beautiful moments to be found along the way.  The scenes with a young Tibetan widow (sensitively portrayed by Li Tao) and her son are so honest and pure, they are guaranteed to choke viewers up.  Likewise, an encounter with a silent pilgrim on the road to Lhasa is unusually moving, because it expresses so much without words.

Du and cinematographer Du Jie find all the rough hewn beauty in the faces of hardscrabble Tibetans, while also duly basking in the grandeur of the Himalayas.  While the film glosses over many of the contemporary political and cultural challenges Tibetans face, it is still rather forthright regarding the region’s poverty.  Frankly, Mile would be a good candidate for the Rubin Museum’s first rate film program.

As Zhang, Bryan Chang is convincing enough in his physical scenes of exhaustion, dehydration, and desperation.  However, it is Li Xiaochaun who limns out the most fully developed character, with specific (but not excessively quirky) foibles.  Yet, it is Li Tao and several of her fellow Tibetan actors who will truly haunt audiences in a bittersweet kind of way.

1 Mile Above runs far deeper than its arresting scenery (which is spectacular, nonetheless).  This film will make viewers want to visit Tibet (unfortunately a rather tricky proposition)—and not to simply stare at mountain peaks.  Recommended quite highly for those who appreciate spiritually in-the-moment cinema, 1 Mile Above opens tomorrow (6/7) in New York, courtesy of Asia Releasing.

DWF ’13: The Advocate

Ray Shekar is no idealist.  He is a lawyer.  He defends guilty monsters all the time, as long as they pay the piper.  His new client can afford his services, but he has trouble reading the Widow Daugherty.  The attorney-client relationship will be pushed and pulled all out of shape in Tamas Harangi’s The Advocate (trailer here), which screens as part of the 2013 edition of Dances with Films in Hollywood, USA.

Considering Shekar’s one hundred percent acquittal rate and the unsavory nature of his customers, he is not likely to be popular with the police.  Nursing a particularly personal grudge, Det. Perkins senses an opportunity for payback when the mouthpiece’s most recent client disappears under mysterious circumstances.  A similar fate seems to have befallen Daugherty’s husband.  When she woke up on their yacht, all that was left of him was a massive pool of blood.

Shekar will pound on the missing body issue, but the constant dribble of embarrassing revelations will complicate his case.  Motivation will not be a problem though.  He is dangerously attracted the Daugherty.  However, he cannot determine to his own satisfaction whether she is guilty or not.

Boy, The Advocate sure loves its flashback sequences, but in fairness, there is a method to their madness.  Granted, the reverse Jagged Edge concept is well worn territory, but at least Harangi revisits it with conviction.  Essentially, Advocate is a lot like the sort of scandal-driven thrillers that often turn up on late night pay cable, except it is surprisingly demur.  Even without a lot of naughty bits, the film still pulls viewers in, almost in spite of our better judgment.

In truth, it is rather good fun to watch Harangi drop one shoe after another.  Nevertheless, there are head-scratchers strewn throughout, starting with the obvious fact Shekar’s Della Street is considerably more attractive than his femme fatale.  Man, that’s just weird. Also, the whole working-out-of-his-house-while-the-office-is-remodeled thing would not inspire a lot of confidence in the real world.  Of course, it is probably easier to get a presentable but not palatial pad with a view on the cheap, rather than an L.A Law office suite.

While not wildly charismatic, Sachin Mehta’s Shekar is convincingly smart and driven, which is certainly a good start.  As his associate and on-the-wagon investigator, Steffinnie Phromanny and Marc Cardiff, respectively, flesh out the film nicely, adding character and credibility.  Unfortunately, the uninspired and uninspiring Kristina Klebe is a conspicuously weak link as Daugherty.

Harangi deserves credit for scrupulously establishing each twist and turn he throws at viewers.  Individually, none is especially shocking, but collectively they are rather impressive.  The multi-ethnic composition of the cast is also aesthetically appealing, as is the lack of fuss the film makes over it.  Oddly entertaining in a B-movie kind of way, The Advocate screens this Saturday (6/8) during Dances with Films ’13 at the Chinese 6 on storied Hollywood Boulevard.

Violet and Daisy: Killer Style

These two could probably use a serious talking to from Dr. Drew.  Despite their very adult job killing people, Violet and her latest teenaged protégé seem stuck in a permanent state of arrested development.  However, their latest assignment might lead to a bit of growing-up in Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

When not whacking gangsters, Daisy and her mentor try to live a Spice World lifestyle.  Although slightly burned out, they accept another assignment from the hardboiled Russ, because their favorite pop idol has just released a new line of dresses. It will be a strange gig.  For one reason, their sad sack target seems relieved when they arrive locked-and-loaded.

Suspicious of Michael’s resignation, the girls do not immediately kill him.  Of course, the more they get to know him, the harder it will be to get the job done, especially for Daisy.  A rival hit squad and the boss’s sniper-minder further complicate matters.  Loyalties will fray and bullets will fly, as V&D coyly subverts gangster genre expectations.

Fletcher was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay adaptation of Precious, etc, etc, but do not hold that against V&D.  This film builds up quite a body count, but it is also rather clever and has some real heart.  Somehow, he maintains a fable-like vibe, despite the gritty backdrop and not infrequent on-screen violence.  Intriguingly, it can be seen as another dark modern fairy tale starring Saoirse Ronan as the little lost princess, somewhat paralleling Neil Jordan’s accomplished Byzantium and the highly problematic Hanna.

Much like Fletcher, Ronan deftly walks a fine line, portraying Daisy’s wide-eyed innocence, without becoming cloying or saccharine.  She also develops some nice chemistry with her co-stars, Alexis Bledel and James Gandolfini.  The latter has some particularly fine moments as the world weary but still protective Michael, whereas the former comes across a bit affected at times, looking far less at ease with Fletcher’s genre defying tone.  For added seasoning, first rate character actors Danny Trejo and Marianne Jean-Baptiste show up in brief but colorful supporting parts.

V&D is a small film, but for cult cinema fans, it is a pleasant palate cleanser.  Frankly, it sounds like a terrible concept in every way, but Fletcher largely pulls it off.  Simultaneously violent, wistful, and amusing, Violet and Daisy is recommended for fans of Ronan, Gandolfini, and hitman comedies when it opens this Friday (6/7) in New York at the AMC Empire.

Free China: Falun Gong Courage in the Face of Persecution

Odds are excellent you have many products lying about the house that were assembled by Falun Gong practitioners.  The Chinese Communist Party forces millions of religious and political prisoners to serve as outright slave laborers.  Many victims of the so-called Laogai work camps are in fact Falun Gong practitioners.  Two such Laogai survivors tell their harrowing stories in Michael Perlman’s exposé, Free China: the Courage to Believe (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Based on traditional Chinese Taoist and Buddhist beliefs, Falun Gong was not always prohibited by the Party.  In the movement’s early days, many Party mouthpieces even hailed practitioners’ healthy lifestyle.  However, despite the lack of an organized bureaucracy, when the estimated number of practitioners exceeded total CCP membership, the Party freaked.  Despite growing adherents within the military, the government responded much in the same fashion as it did at Tiananmen Square—with extreme brutality.

Jennifer Zeng was a Party member.  Dr. Charles Lee was an American citizen.  Both assumed their statuses would provide some protection, yet both were condemned to the Laogai system.  Soon after international activists secured his hard fought release, Dr. Lee found the very Homer Simpson slippers his work camp had manufactured in an American retailer.

While Perlman’s primarily focuses on the Falun Gong experience, he necessarily touches on human rights abuses that apply to all faiths and prisoners of conscience oppressed by the Party, including the Tiananmen crackdown, allegations of prison organ harvesting, and the notorious internet firewall.  Frankly, one would have liked to see Perlman pull a Michael Moore on Cisco executives, whose Chinese division regarded the intrusive Communist internet policing to be a swell business opportunity.

The testimony of Zeng and Lee is simply harrowing, encompassing tremendous physical and emotional torment.  Perlman also incorporates expert commentary from Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), probably the most principled human rights advocate in the U.S. Congress, and former Canadian MP David Kilgour, who left both the Conservative and Liberal Parties for reasons of principle.

Free China wants to end on an optimistic note, but it sadly feels like a bit of a stretch.  Yes, dissident Falun Gong supporters now have the means to report to the world the human rights abuses inside China, having founded NTD TV and the Epoch Times (which I proudly contribute to, in full disclosure).  Yet, the Party’s oppression continues unabated.  Since the current administration has essentially mortgaged our economic future to China, those like Rep. Smith who strive to alter the Party’s abhorrent behavior will have limited leverage for the foreseeable future.

Regardless, Free China is right on target diagnosing the problem.  Indeed, it does so with commendable economy, clocking-in at just a whisker over an hour.  A timely wake-up call, it should be seen by everyone who values the right to think and worship freely.  Recommended especially for younger New Yorkers, who must learn to appreciate these values, Free China: the Courage to Believe opens this Friday (6/7) in New York at the Quad Cinema.

The Prey: The French Fugitive

Franck Adrien is not exactly a touchy feely kind of guy, but he’s still a better father than Will Smith in After Earth, even if he is behind bars.  However, he must break out of prison to protect his family from the serial killer who recently shared his cell in Eric Valette’s The Prey (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Adrien took the fall for his last heist, but not before he squirreled away the loot.  He will not say where, not even when his wife Anna asks.  His accomplices ask too, but not so nicely.  Of course, Adrien can handle a prison beatdown.  Unfortunately, he is incapable of walking away from a fight.  When the guards allow a gang of toughs to administer some frontier justice to Adrien’s cellmate, he intercedes in spite of himself.  This leads to a mistaken bonding moment.  Unfortunately, Adrien realizes just how bad Jean-Louis Maurel truly is soon after he is released on a technicality.

Even though his sentence is nearly up, Adrien must escape for his family’s sake.  Already a fugitive, Maurel raises the stakes for his Adrien by framing him for some of his past murders.  The detective charged with apprehending him, the ambitious Claire Linné, has a sense something is wrong with the picture, but all her colleagues are idiots.  Adrien finds only one ally, Carrega, the obsessive ex-cop who could never make a case stick against Maurel.

As Adrien, Albert Dupontel gives one of the most hard-nosed, unabashedly masculine performances of the decade.  His work has a visceral physicality that allows almost no room for verbalizing.  Indeed, his character cannot even seem to growl “I didn’t do it, flic” at Linné.  It’s actually quite impressive to behold.  This film could never be remade with Robert Pattinson or Leonardo DiCaprio, though Heaven help him, Martin Scorsese might try anyway.

Alice Taglioni’s Linné looks pretty credible in her action sequences too, which is a cool bit of fair play.  She also invests her character with refreshing intelligence and professionalism.  You want her on the case, but not so much Zinedine Soualem as her dumb copper boss.  Sergi López adds some nicely rumpled world weariness as Carrega.  As a bonus, there is also Zen’s Caterina Murino in the rather thankless role of Anna Adrien.

Valette stages some nifty fight scenes (Adrien’s prison escape is a particular dozy) and capitalizes on some picturesque backdrops.  Tightly paced, The Prey delivers gritty action with an art house luster and a distinctly French sensibility.  It should well please genre fans and Francophiles alike when it opens this Friday (6/7) in New York at the AMC Empire.

You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet: Resnais Multiply Adapts Anouilh

Can a play from the 1940’s, based on classical mythology, still speak to contemporary audiences?  Alain Resnais will answer in the affirmative.  As a consummate cinematic game-player, he naturally stacks the deck, casting a who’s who of French thespians in his meta-adaptation of Jean Anouilh’s Eurydice.  Regardless, the star-crossed love still resonates in You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Orpheus and Eurydice supply the back bone of YASNY, but the framing device incorporates Anouilh’s Cher Antoine ou l’amour Rate.  Playing themselves, the leading lights of French stage and screen are summoned to a memorial for their dear departed friend, playwright Antoine d’Anthac.  As part of the ceremony, they are to watch a video of his/Anouilh’s Eurydice, to determine whether the avant-garde revival is worth staging.  It is a work they are all familiar with, having each appeared in previous productions.  Watching the screen, they get caught up in the story and their own memories and begin to act out Eurydice in concert with the recorded rehearsal.

Cast members overlap and echo each other, but Resnais always maintains the integrity of Eurydice’s storyline.  It all sounds very post-modern, but it is really a case of the narrative overpowering its meta-conceits rather than being defined by them.

Of course, it is hard to go wrong with YASNY’s cast.  While Resnais has three sets of Orpheus and Eurydice at his disposal, he clearly favors Pierre Arditi and Sabine Azéma (two of his longtime collaborators), with good reason.  Watching this couple on the late side of middle age portraying the doomed young lovers is eerily moving.  Their experienced faces seem to amplify the tragedy rather than distract from it.  Nonetheless, Anne Consigny’s Eurydice is exquisitely brittle and dignified, overshadowing the aloof Lambert Wilson.

Former Bond villain Mathieu Amalric exudes a deliciously Mephistophelean vibe while maintaining the moral ambiguity of Monsieur Henri, death’s avatar, a role he mostly has to himself.  Michel Piccoli nicely anchors the film with his warm gravitas, ostensibly revisiting the role of Orpheus’s father, while leading the cheering section within the elite audience.  In addition to playing d’Anthac with eccentric flair, Denis Podalydès (from the Comédie Française) was recruited to direct the hipster Eurydice video segments, further complicating notions of what the film is and who is its author.  It is Anouilh’s Eurydice, as well as d’Anthac’s, but it is also partially Cher Antoine, mostly reconceived by Resnais, but also shaped by Podalydès.

The key point is it is all good.  With its cast members handing off their batons like relay runners, YASNY’s affection for the theater’s passion and artifice becomes infectious.  Featuring music by X-Files composer Mark Snow and Eric Gautier’s richly noir-ish cinematography, it is an unusually elegant film.  Cerebral yet strangely poignant, the highly recommended You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet opens this Friday (6/7) in New York at the Quad Cinema.

In the Flesh: Welcome Back to the Land of the Partially Living

Here’s the good news: the zombie apocalypse is over and humanity won.  Gracious in victory, we have developed something of a Marshall Plan for the undead.  The proper term is now “Partially Deceased Syndrome.”  With proper treatment, those afflicted can regain their consciousness and eventually be reintegrated into society.  At least that is the theory.  Reality is a lot trickier for one PDS teenager in series writer-creator Dominic Mitchell’s three part In the Flesh (promo here), which premieres this Thursday on BBC America.

The small town of Roarton suffered heavy losses during what is now called “the Rising.”  The Human Volunteer Force (HVF) militias were first founded here and Roarton’s unit has yet to disband.  It is the worst place a rehabilitated zombie to re-enter society, but it is where Kieren Walker’s family lives.  His parents are walking on eggshells, determined to keep his homecoming a secret, but nonetheless overjoyed to have their son back.  His younger sister Jem is a different story.  Active in the local HVF, she now considers their militant leader Bill Macy a mentor.  Kieren Walker already has some complicated history with the Macy family and it will soon get even thornier.

Following the lead of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, Flesh employs zombies as a vehicle for social commentary.  However, this approach is always limited by the nature of the genre.  We see through Walker’s flashbacks the terrors he wreaked in his feral state.  It was not his fault according to his doctors, but it still isn’t pretty.  With rumors swirling of rehabbed PDS cases deliberately going off their meds, it is hard to blame the good citizens of Roarton for being slightly on edge.  Nonetheless, Mitchell stacks the deck against them, casting the fire-and-brimstone Vicar and the unhinged Macy as paranoid demagogues.

Flesh works considerably better on the micro level when it focuses on Walker’s guilt for both his zombie atrocities and the circumstances that led to his initial death.  There is also an interesting relationship that develops between him and Amy Dyer, a more free-spirited PDS teen.

Luke Newberry is adequately morose as Walker, but he is frequently upstaged by other Walker family members.  Harriet Cains shows potential star power as the forceful Jem, but Steve Cooper really gets to lower the emotional boom as Kieren’s still reeling father.  Unfortunately, Steve Evets (so engaging in Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric) and Kenneth Cranham largely portray Macy and the Vicar as crude caricatures.  In contrast, lefty comic Ricky Tomlinson nicely humanizes anti-PDS activist Ken Burton, while Emily Bevan adds some energy to the dour milieu as Dyer.

Already renewed for a second season in the UK, In the Flesh ends its first outing with some intriguing avenues open for further exploration.  Yet, it faces an obvious dilemma.  To satisfy genre fans, eventually the show must produce the shuffling hordes, but to do so would undercut their peace and tolerance soap-boxing.  Notable as an original premise, imperfectly executed but showing promise for future development, the first season of In the Flesh airs this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (6/6-6/8) on BBC America.

BFF ’13: A Wife Alone

Maybe internet dating isn’t such a bad idea after all.  An investment banker met his new wife the old fashioned way—in a bar.  However, she might not be exactly who he thinks she is in Justin Reichman’s A Wife Alone (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Not so long ago, Jane was a prostitute, who had a disastrous gig with Steve.  She therefore ought to be shocked when her dopey new husband Park brings her to spend the day with his godfather-business partner, the very same Steve, and the older man’s highly strung wife, Holly.  Jane seems to take it all in stride though.  With Steve openly leering at Jane and Park quietly nursing his investment-related resentments with his mentor, it should be quite a fun outing for all involved.

Clocking-in just under seventy minutes, Wife is a little oddball of a feature.  Reichman creates an effective hothouse atmosphere, strongly abetted by Tal Lazar’s moody cinematography.  The film’s resulting vibe evokes some of the indie-forerunning studio films of the 1970’s, which is definitely cool.  Unfortunately, the narrative is not nearly as clever as everyone evidently thought it was.  Audience members will constantly find themselves way ahead of the film, waiting for it to catch up to them.  Needless to say, it works better the other way around.

The cast is also a rather strange assembly of character actors.  Sean Patrick Reilly is terrific as the sleazy Steve (bringing to mind Steve Dallas from the old Bloom County comic strip).  Genevieve Hudson-Price’s Jane is much more problematic, lacking a comparable femme fatale presence.  In contrast, Alesandra Assante (daughter of Armand) lights up the screen as Jane’s close lesbian “associate” Barbs.  Frankly, Wife might have worked better if they had exchanged roles.

If nothing else, A Wife Alone surpasses Derek Cianfrance’s wildly overrated The Place Beyond the Pines as the definitive Upstate New York movie.  Some nice film-crafting went into it, but the uneven script remains an issue.  For the intrigued and those interested in seeing their New York State tax credits at work, A Wife Alone screens this Thursday (6/6) at Windmill Studios and Sunday (6/8) and indieScreen as part of the “Magnetic” edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival.

BFF ’13: Forbidden Voices

For all practical purposes, the act of blogging (something I do every day) is illegal in China, Cuba, and Iran.  Despite violent state harassment, three women representing each country have become superstars of citizen journalism.  Barbara Miller profiles this brave trio of bloggers in Forbidden Voices (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Probably the best known of the three, Yoani Sánchez blogs at: www.desdecuba.com/generationy.  Her reports on Cuban political prisoners and their mothers, wives, and daughters, dubbed the “Ladies in White,” have been picked up around the world.  Like many of the peaceful protestors she covers, she has been savagely beaten by Castro’s thugs.  Ironically, her international reputation provides her a measure of protection, but there is no mistaking the real and present danger she lives with constantly.  For example, during the course of Forbidden, Sánchez reports the suspicious prison death of Orlando Zapata Tamaya and struggles to save the life of hunger-striking Guillermo Fariñas.

As brutal as the Castro regime might be, Zeng Jinyan probably faces an even more perilous situation in China.  A human rights activist who blogs at: www.zengjinyan.wordpress.com, Zeng was crudely blocked from leaving her apartment by Party enforcers, well before she was officially sentenced to house arrest.  With her fellow activist husband Hu Jia incarcerated, Zeng deals with the challenge of raising her young daughter by herself, in her state of captivity.

Farnaz Seifi now lives in the safety of exile, but her blog has long been terminated by Iran’s special internet secret police. She tries to support activists within the Islamist state by publicizing their plight as best she can, but she fears the reprisals her family might consequently suffer.

Evidently, it is relatively easy to smuggle hidden cameras into Cuba, because Voices includes more coverage of Sánchez than her blogging colleagues.  Yet, the images of Zeng are probably the most dramatic, including a brief interview with the confined woman, shouting down from her window.  This is not meant to short change Seifi.  She has seen the inside of interrogation chambers and her concerns for her family, friends, and country are genuine and genuinely moving.

Indeed, all three women are truly heroic, pure and simple.  By shining a spotlight on Sánchez and Zeng, Miller makes it more difficult for their oppressors to make them conveniently disappear.  When watching Voices, viewers will start to understand conditions are far worse in each country than even the most steadfast critics of Communism and Islamist Fundamentalism most likely realized.  This is truly an often shocking but extremely timely and compelling expose.  Frankly, it is hard to conceivably imagine how the upcoming Human Rights Watch Film Festival could proceed without it, but give BFF all due credit for selecting it.

Forbidden Voices is a case of cinematic journalism at its finest.  These are stories that need to be told.  Miller also pays tribute to the blogging ideal, rather elegantly celebrating the powerful and surprisingly poetic quality of their words.  As a result, it is also quite rewarding when judged as a film on strictly formalistic criteria.  Very highly recommended, Forbidden Voices screens this Wednesday (6/5) at Windmill Studios and Saturday (6/8) at IndieScreen as part of the “Magnetic” edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival.

DWF ’13: Channeling

In the very near future, about five minutes from now, people will become even more exhibitionistic.  Personal internet reality shows are the thing, made possible by special contact lens cameras.  Channelers broadcast themselves snowboarding, booty calling, and navel gazing.  Some also broadcast criminal activity, such as an Army sergeant’s estranged brother.  When the punk winds up dead, his avenging sibling assumes control of his channel in Drew Thomas’s Channeling, which screens tomorrow during the 2013 edition of Dances With Films.

The Maddox family was always pretty dysfunctional.  The death of Wyatt, the Fast & Furious wannabe, does not help much.  Returning on a bereavement leave, Jonah soon starts nosing around with the help of Tara, his brother’s on-camera co-host, sidekick, or whatever.  Essentially, this leaves all the responsible stuff to his younger sister, Ashleigh.  She broadcasts her life too, in hopes of finding validation from voyeuristic netizens.  That is really the wrong place to be looking.

It is always pretty obvious who the bad guys are, but it is never clear why they had it in for the Brothers Maddox.  Wyatt’s ratings were always pretty good by channeling standards, unlike the late Howard Beale in Network.  Regardless, it offers Jonah an excuse to boost some fast cars.

Channeling is a serviceable enough b-movie, but it pales in comparison to Bertrand Tavernier’s thematically similar Death Watch, which remains an eerily prescient critique of the media-driven society over thirty years after its initial release.  It is also hard to compete with Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton, and Romy Schneider.

Regardless, as a leading man, Dominic De Vore seems to have graduated from the Caspar Van Dien school of acting.  He is adequately square-jawed in the action scenes, but that’s about what you get.  However, Kate French (probably best known from The L Word and One Tree Hill) lends the film some style and presence riding shotgun as Tara, while Taylor Handley does a presentable James Dean impression as the ill-fated Wyatt.

Thomas and cinematographer Andrew Huebscher keep things looking slick and cool throughout.  Cars will be wrecked and thugs will get their beatdowns.  It is a cut above SyFy Channel original movies, but those primarily intrigued by the premise should checkout Tavernier’s underappreciated gem instead.  For French’s fans, Channeling screens tomorrow night (6/2) as part of this year’s Dances With Films in Hollywood, CA.