THE KING -- Eugene Jarecki’s fascinating doc about Elvis and America--opens in So. Florida

Not a great film but one that is consistently interesting and often thought-provoking, THE KING offers, on one level, an intellectual experience something akin to viewing a splatter artist’s painting for the first time and out of all that color and form discovering a lot of fascinating connections. On another level – and done in an unusual manner but very well -- the movie is a smart bio-pic of Elvis Presley, as it moves back and forth in time and place until it has given us a surprisingly cogent account of his character and career.

As written and directed by Eugene Jarecki (shown at left), who has given us some terrific and important earlier docs (Why We Fight, The House I Live In and a section of Freakonomics), this film seems to TrustMovies to be one of this filmmaker's most free-form and impressionistic works. It's alternately allusive and illusive.

At one point in the doc, the director himself  (who makes a now-and-then appearance) allows that he isn't even sure what's he's doing here. By the end of the film, however, he has put together a compelling enough array of connections to make a pretty fair case. Mr. Jarecki sees Elvis' life, his rise and fall, as a kind of stand-in for America itself -- certainly for that elusive but so often remarked upon "American Dream."

Both Elvis and our country seemed to stand for something important and unusual. The country has now imploded, sinking into its own worst features and fears. Elvis did, too, though even in one of his final appearances, he managed to sit down at the piano and play and sing Unchained Melody like the great performer he could be and often was.

Jarecki wisely and movingly ends his film with this song, set against an array of fast, vast, nearly subliminal visuals that hit and highlight American history. It's impressive, as has been much of the lengthy movie itself -- which travels, via Elvis' own Rolls Royce (shown above, and which breaks down occasionally) across the country, east to west, with stops including Tupelo (Elvis' home town in Mississippi), Memphis, Nashville and the armpit/cesspool of the USA, Las Vegas.

Along the way we meet and hear from celebrities such as Ethan Hawke, Alec Baldwin, Ashton Kutcher and Public Enemy's Chuck D (shown below) and just-plain-folk: one of Elvis' longtime best friends, an ex-girlfriend (above) and the housekeeper who was with him at the end. What the latter have to say seems very bit as interesting as that of the former, though Mr. Kutcher does make a statement of about fame and talent that shows he's "woke" -- regarding himself, at least.

Not everyone here agrees with Jarecki's "take" on things (chief among these is David Simon, noted TV writer of The Wire and other shows), but the filmmaker seems perfectly OK with disagreement. This is part of what makes his film all the more interesting and acceptable. The connections he makes, ranging from easily accessible to pretty far afield, are nearly always understandable, even if you may sometimes nay-say.

We're treated to some good music along the way (Elvis', of course, and that of some others, shown above and below). By film's end, you'll have been made privy to a theory/thesis that should keep you on your intellectual and emotional toes, as well as to a Elvis bio-pic that -- depending on what you already knew about the legendary performer -- will make you both appreciate and lament this "king" all over again.

From Oscilloscope Films and running a lengthy but never boring 109 minutes, the movie, after opening in major cities over the past month, hits the South Florida area tomorrow, Friday, August 3. In Miami, look for it at the Bill Cosford Cinema and the Miami Beach Cinematheque, and in Palm Beach County at the Living Room Theaters of Boca Raton, and the Movies of Delray and Movies of Lake Worth and at the Lake Worth Playhouse. Click here to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters across the country.

LIKE CRAZY: Paolo Virzi's latest comedy/ drama is his best ever (that's going some!)

The film of the year, so far, LIKE CRAZY (La pazza gioia, and not to be confused with the Anton Yelchin/Felicity Jones rom-com from 2011) arrives via that grand Italian master of the off-kilter family dram-com, Paolo Virzi, who has already given us a quintet of terrific movies: My Name Is Tonino, Caterina in the Big City, The First Beautiful Thing, Every Blessed Day, and Human Capital. His latest is his best. And that, movie lovers, is saying something.

Virzi's film (the director/co-writer is shown at right) follows the adventures of a pair of unusual women, both of whom are inmates of a highly progressive psychiatric clinic in a beautiful mountain region in Italy. How we meet them and how they meet each other and slowly bond make up the initial portion of the film. One day, after their work detail is finished but their bus back to the clinic has not arrived, the two board public transportation and then set off for some off-the-books fun.

The remainder of the movie tracks their movements -- and those of their care-takers -- as the women try to reconnect with their former lives, and we, via the very ingeniously inserted flashbacks, fantasies and delightful dialog, learn more and more about exactly who these two really are.

As played by two of Italy's finest actresses, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (above, right, and only recently seen in the dreadful Slack Bay) and Micaela Ramazzotti (above, left, of The First Beautiful Thing), these women will eventually become two of the most memorable characters you'll have cared for on screen. Ms Tedeschi is a whirlwind of motor-mouth amazement as the lady who may (or may not) have links to Italy's power crowd, while Ms Ramazzotti plays the poor, sad but resilient mother of a child who has been taken from her, for reasons we eventually discover.

How both stories and characters play out give these wonderful actresses the opportunity to demonstrate just how very good they are, and both come through with terrific, in-the-moment performances that are simply amazing in their depth, breadth and detail.

What Virzi and his co-writer, Francesca Archibugi, bring to the party is a splendid mix of liveliness and incident that never once flags. You'll have a hard time recalling another movie with as high an energy level as this one put to such smart and delicious use.

The amazing thing is, that amidst all this energy and humor and life being lived at the edge, the movie and its two characters keep deepening until, by the finale, we are moved something fierce. And while TrustMovies often pooh-poohs the use of coincidence in films, the very big one Virzi hands us in his penultimate scene at the beach seems so right and so somehow earned that you may shed those tears as copiously as you need without experiencing a trace of guilt.

Like Crazy -- a title that's ironic, just and true -- is one of those crowd-pleasers that will rope in critics and the art house crowd alike. It's a marvel of a movie that has already walked away with five David Di Donatello awards (Italy's Oscars) and, if that country has the good sense to submit it for our Best Foreign Language Film category, it may walk away with that prize, too.

In the recent British delight, Their Finest, one character explains that the big difference between life and movies is that life really has no purpose, while movies are able to take life and then give it that. Like Crazy, just like Their Finest, puts this theory into magical, meaningful practice.

From Strand Releasing, in Italian with English subtitles and running just under two hours, the film opens this Friday, May 5, in New York City (at the IFC Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas) and in Los Angeles on Friday, May 12, at Laemmle's Royal and Playhouse 7.

Here in South Florida it will open on Friday, May 19, all over the place: in Miami at the Coral Gables Art Cinema, in Fort Lauderdale at the Savor Cinema, at the Cinema Paradiso in Hollywood and at the Living Room Theater in Boca Raton. In the weeks to come Like Crazy will hit another eight or ten theaters across the country. Click here and then click on Screenings to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.