The games men play -- with each other -- as Athina Rachel Tsangari skewers the male prerogative, Greek-style, in CHEVALIER

There is no overt mention made of Greece's ongoing and horrendous economic situation in the film, CHEVALIER, but this low-key but often quite hilarious new satire of the macho stance among Greek males does make one wonder. Was it this kind of attitude -- hubristic, resentful, lying, scheming and, unfortunately, pretty stupid, too, among the Greek government, financial players and powers-that-were -- that brought the country to its collective knees? Of course one can't draw a straight line that connects this movie to that reality, but -- boy -- as one views this enticing rondelay of really bad male behavior, one certainly cannot help but wonder.....

The product of producer, writer, director and actress, Athina Rachel Tsangari, whom you saw (but may not have realized it) in Richard Linklater's wonderful Before Midnight, Chevalier describes, among other things, a signet ring and a game devised to "test the mettle" of males to determine who is the "best at everything." What it does not describe is the actual definition of chevalier: a chivalrous man or a member of certain orders of honor or merit. Ms Tsangari, who co-wrote (with Efthymus Filippou) and directed the movie, uses her title ironically.

She allows us to meet and get acquainted with her half-dozen men who, under the "leadership" of a well-known and successful doctor, are spending a weekend deep-sea-diving off a glamorous yacht. (We also get to know a few of the crew members, who act as a kind of Greek chorus to the shenanigans taking place around them.)

The five-man fellowship the doctor has invited to join him include his son-in-law, the son-in-law's rather borderline brother (both are shown above), the doctor's hale-and-hearty assitant at work (below) and two other friends who appear to have enjoyed watching each other have sex and possibly have enjoyed each other sexually, too.

If at first it may seem difficult to tell certain characters apart (with the exception of the portly and clearly out-of-his-league brother), not to worry. Ms Tsangari and her well-chosen and talented cast soon bring these guys to life so well that there is no problem of differentiation. Character builds (or, as the case may be, disintegrates) carefully and rather quickly.

Once someone suggests the game in which each man vies for distinction in myriad ways -- they'll have to clean, they'll have to build, and yes, eventually they'll have to compare penis size (erect, yet) -- the film builds to its funniest scene involving the man who can't get it up, and when he finally and suddenly does, can't find anyone to corroborate his massive splendor (hey, it is pretty impressive).

Turns out, as we might suspect -- but the filmmaker keeps all this at bay quite nicely -- there is more going on here than initially meets the eye. What this is simply adds to the sense of nastiness and betrayal that hovers over the film.  And yet, by its troubling and thoughtful finale, surprise does await. How and why are as original/believable as all that has gone before.

Intelligent and well-paced, Chevalier is less bizarre but more pertinent than Tsangari's earlier film, Attenberg. It's a fine step onward and upward. And it's a lot of fun, too. Skewering us guys so often is.

From Strand Releasing, the movie opens this Friday in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center; in Los Angeles it will open on Friday, June 3 at the Landmark NuArt and then on June 10 at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena. Here in South Florida it also opens June 10 at the Bill Cosford Cinema in Coral Gables, the Miami Beach Cinematheque in Miami and the Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale. Elsewhere? Absolutely. Click here then scroll down and click on Screenings to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

The Greek "Oscar" submission, Athina Rachel Tsangari's ATTENBERG, opens

From what we might assume -- considering the movies that this country has lately submitted for Best Foreign-Language Film consideration -- Dogtooth last year (which managed, incredibly, to reach final nomination status) and this year ATTENBERG, which, though better than its predecessor, didn't even make the shortlist -- Greece is a country desperately in need of help. And not simply economic help, which we know from daily newspaper headlines, but psychological, social, and sexual, too. Please: Give this country a life coach. I jest, of course, but not entirely. I mean, don't you sometimes wonder: How did they get from Homer to here? There is something so irredeemably creepy and constrained about these two films, as well as others I've seen from Greece over the past decade or two, that I can only mourn all the more the passing this year of the great Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos.

Written and directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari (shown at left, who also helped produce Dogtooth), Attenberg, takes its name from the mispronunciation of the name Attenborough, as in David, whose British wildlife documentaries appear to be the only staple of TV viewing for our heroine and her dying dad (mom's long gone). This attractive young woman, Marina, is brought to life in believable fashion (which is no small compliment considering how nearly unbelievable the character usually appears) by Ariane Labed (below, right, learning to French kiss) in her film debut. She is greatly in need of help. How she has managed to reach the late teens while remaining clueless-to-the-max is one for the books.

But she has, and so we must accept this or give up on the film entirely. And as there are some very interesting scenes to come, let's not. Her best friend and chief competitor, Bella (Evangelia Randou, above, left), seems to have a bit of a thing for that sickly dad (Vangelis Mourikis, whose performance helps immensely to ground the film), and later on, Marina attempts to connect the two sexually -- more as a gift to dad than to Bella.

Marina, who makes some income driving engineers from hotel to work site (above), takes up with one of these (below) -- which makes for some of the movie's more amusing, if again, barely believable, scenes. This kissing and sex business, not to mention the reactions from the body of the male, are so new to her that she finds it necessary to verbally describe everything she's doing and going through (below) to the recipient.

She and Bella also love to walk, march and dance in tandem, sometimes quite suggestively, which they do periodically (below and on the poster, top). All this is fun for awhile, but even at only 95 minutes, the movie is too long. My first note taken during its screening was "could use some editing" and by the end of the movie I had scribbled this several times. Yet the story itself is compelling and would be more so, were it not simply too bizarre. And almost willfully so. (Though, for "bizarrosity," there is not much from any country that beats out Dogtooth.)

From Strand Releasing, the movie opens in New York City tomor-row, March 9, at the IFC Center, and in Los Angeles on Friday, April 6th, at Laemmle’s Monica 4-Plex and Pasadena Playhouse 7 -- followed by a limited national rollout.