Classified, Starring Aaron Eckhart

This is why its not a bad idea to go into the office at least a few days a week. Evan Shaw thought he was doing jobs for an ultra-double-secret division of the CIA. He was recruited by an old trusted colleague, but it turns out he has been under new management for several years. Upon learning the truth, Shaw decides to file a grievance in Roel Reine’s Classified, which is now available on VOD.

Shaw almost left the assassination business, but his old friend Kevin Angler lured him back. He was ready to walk away and spend the rest of his life with Monica Walker, but after her accidental death (which are usually suspicious in his secretive world), Shaw doubled down on the lone wolf lifestyle. Now, Shaw travels from one port-of-call to another, picking up his coded instructions from newspaper classified ads. However, in recent years, his targets changed from cartel bosses and warlords to corporate tycoons and scientists. Yet, he needed a maverick MI6 agent like Kacey to put the pieces together for him.

Of course, he initially refuses to believe, until he starts verifying much of her intel, including Angler’s obituary. Soon, they are off to Malta, where the Shaw was originally recruited. Unfortunately, the super-stealthy assassin never realized his duplicitous employers GPS-chipped him, so they know he is coming.

Frankly, Malta is the perfect setting for Classified, given it was recently governed by PM Jospeh Muscat, whose government was found “collectively responsible” for the political assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Carauna Galizia. If there is a capitol of corruption, it would be Malta.

The tiny EU nation also apparently hands out production tax-credits like candy, while allowing films crews to stage all kinds of pyrotechnics around the islands most picturesque tourist attractions. One thing Classified has going for it is scenic locales—and it is pretty much the only thing.

To be fair, Aaron Eckhart is reliably grizzled as Shaw. However, it is glaringly obvious Abigail Breslin had zero firearms training. Her one-handed grips with absolutely no recoil would even raise the eyebrows of Amish pacifists. Breslin’s rapport with Eckhart isn’t great, but it is horrible either, but it hardly matters in a film like this.

Miranda’s Victim: The Crime Behind the Landmark Ruling

There is a reason you have not seen dozens of earnest documentaries and melodramatic TV movies about the case that gave rise to the Miranda Warning. The real-life events did not fit the preferred media “narrative.” The titular Ernesto Miranda was not found innocent of kidnapping and raping the woman referred to as “Trish Weir” in this film. The Supreme Court only annulled his trial, allowing Arizona to re-try him without the excluded confession. Of course, reliving the trial experience was a painful ordeal for his victim. Director Michelle Danner finally presents the Miranda case from her perspective in Michelle Danner’s Miranda’s Victim, which releases today in theaters and on-demand.

As viewers will see only too clearly, in 1963, the horror of a rape continued for victims when they tried reporting it to a doctor and the police. That is why Weir’s mother Zeola keeps telling her to forget it and move on with her life. Although never explicitly established, it is implied Mother Zeola endured something similar earlier in life, but her maternal instincts are still clearly flawed. Regardless, Weir gets crucial support from her sister and brother.

The latter even gets a partial plate number for a car matching Weir’s description, returning to the scene of the crime. With that, Det. Carroll Cooley tracked down Miranda. For the era, Cooley was reasonably respectful of Weir. He was also relatively restrained in his interrogation of Miranda, but he obviously did not Mirandize him.

Unfortunately, Miranda was the perfect test case for the ACLU and hotshot attorney John J. Flynn. In a scene guaranteed to cause consternation, Maricopa County prosecutor Lawrence Turoff reaches out to Flynn, hoping he will reconsider the Miranda case, asking “What about Miranda’s victim.” In the film, Flynn replies: “Lawrence, I really don’t care.”

Of course, Weir will have to endure another grilling from Flynn when Turoff re-tries Miranda. Danner and screenwriters George Kolber, Richard Lasser, and J. Craig Stiles are more interested in giving a voice to sexual assault victims than re-litigating the Miranda Warning ruling. Yet, it is hard to think of a sexual assault victim more silenced and marginalized than her, considering the ruling that bears her assailant’s name is regularly celebrated as a progressive victory.

This story will be new to a lot of viewers, but despite some unnecessary flashbacks, Kolber and company do a nice job explaining the circumstances of the investigation and subsequent court cases. Throughout it all, they squarely focus on Weir and the ways she was repeatedly victimized by this case. Danner’s approach as a filmmaker is always sensitive and respectful, but also conventional and decidedly not flashy, which was probably for the best.

Abigail Breslin is incredible as Weir. It is an emotionally devastating performance that is never cliched. She ought to have a place in the awards chatter, but she won’t. Mireille Enos ultimately makes her mother a very sad figure. Luke Wilson and Enrique Murciano are solid as Weir’s allies, Turoff and Cooley, but they are nowhere near Breslin’s level.

Tribeca ’15: Maggie

The zombie apocalypse has come, but the everyday mundane rituals of life continue. For instance, NPR is still broadcasting (and providing exposition), which is about as dull and trivial as life gets. The cities are like demilitarized zones, but those who reside in the countryside continue on relatively undisturbed—unless one of their family members is infected. A rugged Iowa farmer with an Austrian accent must deal with his daughter’s painful transition, ominously known as “the turn,” in Henry Hobson’s Maggie (trailer here), opening this Friday in New York, following its world premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.

Like many infected teens, Maggie Vogel ran off to the big city rather than putting her family through the pain of her turn. Checking into one of the nightmarish government field hospitals is not an option, but unfortunately that is where she is forcibly detained until her father finds her. While she is still lucid, she will have time to make her goodbyes to family and friends, but it clearly will not be easy.

Maggie always adored her twin step-brother and step-sister and got on reasonably well with her step-mother. However, Caroline Vogel’s top priority is clearly protecting the twins, which creates friction with Wade. The local sheriff and his jerkweed deputy are also anxious to whisk Maggie back into custody, but it is hard argue with a man the size of Wade Vogel, who is holding a shotgun. Vogel obviously intends to cling to every last hope and does not care what some county employee thinks about it. However, Maggie Vogel is only too aware of the reality of her situation, because she can see it in the mirror.

There have already been a number of anti-genre deconstructions of the zombie film, such as BBC America’s post-zombie cure series In the Flesh and the Canadian feature The Returned, so Maggie’s focus on the intimate human drama of the zombie uprising is not so unusual anymore. Still, Hobson (the title design for The Walking Dead) and screenwriter John Scott 3 carve out a small niche, where zombies are contained (more or less), but not cured. Still, what makes Maggie work so well is the first rate cast.

Believe it or not, that starts with Arnold Schwarzenegger. This is finally the sort of film he should be pursuing for his post-politics return to the big screen. Let’s face it, he was a disappointing governor who just continued all the fiscal problems he promised to stop, but he still has an awful lot of accrued good will with movie fans. Up until Last Action Hero he was batting nearly one thousand, if we make allowances for Red Sonja. He has a reassuring screen presence that gives comfort and inspires confidence. As Vogel, he is able to build on that reservoir of good feeling, creating a surprisingly tender portrait of a father facing the unthinkable.

As the titular Maggie, Abigail Breslin gives a refreshingly smart and subtle performance, conveying a powerful sense of how quickly she has grown up as she faces her fate. Although she is likely to be overlooked, Joely Richardson is also terrific as the step-mother trying her best, despite her very human failings. In fact, it is the intelligent, heartfelt rendering of the Vogel family dynamics that really elevates Maggie.

Yes, Wade Vogel kills a handful of zombies, but the film is highly likely to disappoint fans expecting a vintage 1980s Schwarzenegger film. However, it suggests he might be able to pull off a third act comeback, after all. Appropriately moody and shockingly touching, Maggie is highly recommended for sophisticated genre fans when it opens this Friday (5/8) in select theaters, following its premiere screenings at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.

Perfect Sisters: The “Bathtub Girls” Kill their Mom

If you sue your parents in court, you will be vilified in the press, but if you drown your mother in a bathtub, movies and TV shows just might invite sympathy on your behalf. That certainly seems to be the case with a new film inspired by the murder of Linda Andersen. To be fair, she comes across as a really, really bad mom, so viewers will not be too terribly disappointed when she expires before the third act of Stanley M. Brooks’ Perfect Sisters (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Sandra and Beth Andersen try to look out for their little half-brother as best they can, because their shared mother is a train wreck. She is an unemployable binge drinker with a nasty habit of getting involved with abusive men. The family typically spends a month or two in each new apartment, because that is how long it takes to order an eviction. The only exceptions are when Andersen latches onto a sketchy sugar daddy. She finds a real beaut when she takes up with a lawyer named Bowman.

Frankly, it hardly fazes the sisters anymore when he starts abusing their mother. Likewise, Beth the goth thinks she can handle it when he starts pressuring her for sex. However, when he starts hitting their brother, they reach their breaking point. Oddly though, it is their mother that they decide to kill, only partly because they are the beneficiaries on her life insurance policy. To plan the murder, they enlist the help of Beth’s boyfriend and Sandra’s social rival. They also solicit advice from the school via online chatrooms. Everyone is duly impressed when they follow through, but the stress does not wear well on Sandra.

Yes, crowd-sourcing your murder plans is just a fundamentally bad idea. In general, killing a parent is low percentage play. The Andersen sisters probably should have taken a more responsible course of action, like running away with the circus. Still, co-leads Abigail Breslin (from Ender’s Game) and Narnia’s Georgie Henley are fearlessly intense as the so-called “Bathtub Girls.” Indeed, it is truly quite compelling to watch Breslin’s Sandra Andersen become more and more like her problematic mother.

Frankly, Perfect Sisters kind of works when it strives for high tragedy, but it is rather flat as a true crime thriller. Unfortunately, it is far from a smooth ride. Brooks’ herky-jerky transitions and the sisters’ awkward flights of fantasy do not serve the narrative flow or instill a consistency of tone.

Brooks (the former California Film Commission Chair under Schwarzenegger) is a veteran producer of cable true crime programming, so it is surprising he did not punch up the lurid details. His restraint is admirable, but not necessarily fun to watch. The film has its merits (primarily the cast and the alarmingly credible portrayal of a soul-deadened generation), but it never comes together as a cohesive whole. Mostly just recommended for diehard fans of the youthful thesps, Perfect Sisters opens tomorrow (4/11) in New York at the AMC Empire.

Haunter: One of the Scary Season’s Best

Imagine watching the same episode of Murder She Wrote over and over again.  If that isn’t Hell, it is probably close enough.  Maybe a Columbo wouldn’t be so bad, but Lisa Johnson’s parents have pretty vanilla tastes.  Do not judge them too harshly for being stuck in the 1980’s, because they are sort of dead. Recovering awareness of their eternally looping existence, Johnson will reach out to other girls like her in hopes of breaking a pernicious supernatural cycle of terror in Vincenzo Natali’s Haunter (trailer here), which opens this Friday at the IFC Center.

The Johnson family was murdered in 1986.  Every day since, they relive that fateful Sunday, unaware of their paranormal condition.  At least they still have a cool president.  Somehow, their daughter has awakened to some extent.  Cognizant of the wicked déjà vu happening, she starts having what might be described as ghostly experiences.  Soon she suspects other families are trapped in a similar stasis within the house, but in different time periods.  Eventually, she will make contact with teen-aged girls in both the past and the future, but her consciousness does not go unnoticed.

Haunter is easily one of the best horror films of this Halloween season.  Natali maintains an overwhelming vibe of creeping dread, while Brian King’s screenplay ranges into surreal, mind-bending territory.  The closest comparison film would probably the metaphysical horror of H.P. Mendoza’s ambitious indie I Am a Ghost, but Haunter has a more mainstream Nightmare on Elm Street dimension to it.

Regardless, Haunter is the freshest horror outing since probably Mendoza’s film.  It delivers about a half dozen game-changing twists and they each work surprisingly well. There is no padding in King’s script.  Everything happens for a purpose.  Perhaps most importantly, it keeps viewers on edge from start to finish.

As Johnson, Abigail Breslin is on-screen front-and-center more or less the entire time, so the film largely depends on her.  Fortunately she is convincingly smart, resilient, and increasingly freaked out as the young protagonist.  Stephen McHattie also brings a fittingly severe presence as the mysterious figure simply billed as the “Pale Man.”  However, if there is one misstep in Haunter it comes in showing too much of him.  More mystery is always better.

Frankly, this is a perfect example of the direction more indie genre films ought to take.  There is hardly any gore or special effects to speak of in Haunter, yet it completely gets under your skin.  Smart and tightly focused, Haunter is easily the horror movie pick of the month.  Highly recommended for fans, it opens Friday (10/18) at New York’s IFC Center.