Home Video debut for Josh Pierson's noirish and nutty WHERE SLEEPING DOGS LIE

Honor among thieves certainly has a long and storied history in literature and film, even if, in most cases, you could as easily call it dishonor among thieves. It's one thing when the thieves in question -- two brothers and their friend since childhood -- are relatively smart but quite another when they're dumb-as-they-come. Which is the case with the poorly-titled WHERE SLEEPING DOGS LIE. There are no sleeping dogs lying around anywhere in this movie, even metaphorically speaking, with almost every character about as hyped-up, noisy and attention-deficit-disordered as you could possibly want.

The first full-length feature (after half a dozen shorts) from writer/director Josh Pierson (shown at left), the movie's noticeably lax and lank storytelling and style make it something of an effort to sit through. The plot: Three idiotic, would-be criminals mis-execute a robbery with even worse-then-imaginable results.

Initially, the movie seems a bit promising because it is told piecemeal via scenes that go back and forth in time, but eventually the scenes begin to feel like filler -- in particular those set in a bar, below, in which one brother (Jesse Janzen, above, left) tells the other (Dustin Miller, right) about his big plan.

While some of this seems played for dark laughs, the humor quickly curdles due to the sheer ugliness and stupidity of what's going on. Too dumb to make a decent noir and peopled with characters that pretty much defy credibility, the film simply moves ever forward on its crazy death march.

The third wheel here is played by Tommy Koponen (above), who might garner more sympathy if the script didn't have him constantly whining and at odds with just about everything and everyone. Dialog moves from the expected and mediocre to downright bad, so the performers are hardly given much chance, except to over-emote like crazy. (Some of the speechifying sounds suspiciously like improvisation, in which one of the actors has just discovered the word fuck.) Female roles, as is often the case in these buddy-boy movies, are mere fodder for cliché.

The most impressive role, along with the performance of it, is taken by David J. Espinosa (above, left), as the initial victim of the robbery -- perhaps because his mouth is taped shut for much of the movie so he can't spout too much dialog. (I hope this actor got double pay for having had all that duct tape placed around and then removed from his head and mouth, over and over again!) And what the hell -- even the special-effects fire here looks fake.

From 1091 and running a too-lengthy 96 minutes, Where Sleeping Dogs Lie will hit home video this Tuesday, July 7 -- for purchase (and maybe?) rental. Your move...

Amazon Prime must-watch: Victor Levin's smart and hilarious DESTINATION WEDDING

What a treat it is to see two notable, long-time actors like Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder rip into dialog that's smart, sophisticated and most of all bracingly negative -- about everything -- and keep you smiling, chuckling and outright guffawing for an entire 90 minutes. How the succulent-if-nasty delights of DESTINATION WEDDING managed to elude so many of our supposed cultural guardians (only 42% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes,  though 63% of audiences liked it) surprises me, all right, but don't allow these goodies to bypass you. Grab this unusual movie while it streams via Amazon Prime, and let the luscious, hilarious mega-negativity wash over you. Really: You will not have heard dialog like this for, ummmm, quite some time. If ever.

The product of writer/director Victor Levin who, back in 2015, gave us the wonderfully smart, sophisticated, funny and moving love story, 5 to 7 (which remains among my favorites of all time), the movie and Mr. Levin (shown at left) have gone out on a limb and taken some really surprising chances.

First of all, the film is a two-hander. Oh, we see a bunch of other characters, but we never hear a word they say. Instead, all of the lip-smacking bile that constitutes the dialog here emanates only from the mouths of Frank (Mr. Reeves, below, left) and Lindsay (Ms Ryder, below, right), as they meet and almost immediately take a total dislike to each other.

How this comes about (in a tiny airport waiting area below) and continues through the rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself and even the after-party serve up a nonstop disgorging of some of the funniest and angriest logorrhea imaginable. But it is not simply unpleasant. These two people are smart, educated and very well-spoken, hence their ravings are usually as witty and on-point as they are angry and rude.

And, yes, it is clear before very long that the two are also hurt and frightened children who are of course destined for each other.  But the getting to that destination -- oh, my: the double meaning of the movie's title has only just occurred to me now -- is what provides all the fun.

That dialog also gives us some history and reams of exposition (as the two get to know each other, nastily) as well as a slow, bit-by-bit puncturing of some very well-armed defense systems. What a joy it is to see Ryder and especially Reeves tackling dialog this good and making the very most of it. Each actor also sees to it that his and her character's humanity never goes missing, no matter how bilious and accusatory are their rants.

Writer/director Levin is also wise enough not to allow sentimentality to mar things, even as our couple begins to grow bizarrely closer. Whether via surprise encounter with a wild animal or a hilarious fuck scene in which the dialog never stops, right through to the only somewhat hopeful finale, our protagonists keeping sparring and warring.

The arid, vast Paso Robles/San Luis Obispo California scenery (above) is enjoyable to see, and so are the nods/digs at all those things -- typical and atypical -- that make weddings such crazy, ridiculous fun. By the end of this oddball journey, if Reeves and Ryder and their unusual characters have not proven pretty close to indelible, I shall be very surprised.

Released in theaters last month via Regatta, the movie is now streaming on Amazon (and maybe elsewhere). Don't let this one get by you.

With BITCH, writer/director Marianna Palka gives Jason Ritter his most important role yet...

...and he runs with it like crazy. Mr. Ritter's is the best performance from an actor I've seen this year, and if the storied Academy members ever deigned to really look at small indie movies in the way they should, fit praise would be forthcoming around "Oscar" time. Don't get too hopeful; remember how they treated last year's best actress, Rebecca Hall in Christine. Meanwhile, take a chance on the unusual new movie entitled BITCH, written and directed by Marianna Palka, who also co-stars. Back in 2008 Ms Palka gave us the very fine Good Dick, also starring Mr. Ritter, and her new film is even better: stronger, original and hugely surprising.

Palka, above, plays a put-upon housewife named Jill Hart who is literally suicidal when we first meet her. At first we imagine this is due to her clueless and unfaithful hubby, Bill Hart (played by Ritter, below) and her four (count' em!) kids who we assume are the sort of impossible, narcissistic brats driving their mom 'round the bend. But things are not quite so simple. Note the dog outside their house who barks constantly, and with whom Jill may be identifying.

And, no, this is not a 21-Century update on that popular TV show, Hart to Hart. What happens here may be about as strange as American indie movies get, and yet on even a realistic level, Bitch never quite leaves the realm of the possible -- if the hugely unconventional and bizarrely, brazenly ugly. TrustMovies is not going to go into plot detail because viewers deserve to experience what happens here -- and then decide why it happens -- on their own. I'll just say that Ms Palka has been awfully brave and ballsy in her choices.

First off, she cedes the film's most important role to Ritter, who makes an absolute meal of it. From his early and very funny scenes as the self-involved, utterly clueless husband from hell to the movie's mid-section as his character falls screechingly apart (above) to the finale in which Bill begins to change, this is first-class movie-making in both conception and execution, as well as superior performing. Palka herself does a remarkable job as the titular bitch. This kind of performance is something you will not have previously seen, and yet it is also clearly a supporting role.

Also giving fine support are Jamie King, above, left, as Jill's sister, and Brighton Sharbino, Rio Mangini, Kingston Foster and Jayson Maybaum as her four children -- all of whom turn out to be more caring and helpful that we would have initially imagined. So what's the big problem? Sure, feminism rises to the surface here, but not at all in the manner we most often see it. The key lies in the relationship between husband and wife, and how this unfurls is near-miraculous in terms of original and surprising movie-making.

There is a speech given somewhat past the halfway mark that is so succinct and devastating in terms explaining the care and effort a woman brings to a marriage that hearing it should make many of us ex- and/or present husbands cringe in recognition and guilt.

Bitch is finally a love story, and considering what has come before, what occurs subsequently seems doubly moving, rich and profound. Yours truly was in unexpected tears toward the end. As much as anything he has seen in a long while, Palka's film raises and then gives a very possible answer to Freud's famous question, What does a woman want?

From Dark Sky Films and running 93 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, November 10, in New York City (at the Village East Cinema), in Chicago on Friday, November 17 (at the Facets Cinémathèque) and on November 24 in Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Music Hall 3), as well as in a number of other cities across the country this week and those following. Click here then scroll down to see (some of the) currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters (perhaps Dark Sky will want to update this list soon so that the Los Angeles opening is added).

Surprise! Ben Wheatley & Amy Jumps' chatty action movie, FREE FIRE, is good, nasty fun

First off, there's the ace cast. After their last abortive collaboration on High-Rise (which also sported a very good cast), this newest effort of the writing/directing team Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley -- FREE FIRE -- turns out to be the most downright entertaining of their work thus far. It's empty as hell, regarding any meaning that might be ascertained, but watching and listening to the actors assembled here strut their very impressive stuff is certainly worth the 90 minutes of screen time. You'll snicker (enjoyably) at much of the dialog, and keep your eyes wide open at the action/visuals.

Mr. Wheatley (shown at left) and Ms Jump enjoy combining humor (usually very dark) with violence (often rather ultra), but here -- perhaps because of their cast of criminal characters, a couple of these semi-classy, most of them not -- though much of the action, once it begins, is full of gunfire, the violence seems rather toned down, while the humor is dark, yet little more than you might expect from folk such as these.

The plot entails an illegal arms deal gone bad, first via some uncontrollable rage among the participants, then later from an out-and-out betrayal. Who is responsible for the latter remains a mystery for quite awhile, adding to our interest, which is already piqued by the smart ensemble cast.

The actors include a nice mix of British/Irish/Aussie/South African/American actors -- from the up-and-very-coming Jack Reynor (above, center) to Cillian Murphy (below, left),  Sharlto Copley, Noah Taylor (above, right), a bushy-bearded Armie Hammer (above, left) and Brie Larson -- plus a lot more, all of whom are first-rate.

Jump and Wheatley have jiggered their often quite comic dialog very nicely to fit each actor so that we learn what we need to -- both plot- and character-wise -- from the plentiful words that keeping sprouting like vinegar-laced popcorn from the actors on hand. We soon know who these people are and why literally none of them are to be trusted nor cared much about. Which of course makes what happens to them go down all the more easily.

Mr. Copley, above, left, does a bang-up job as a sleazebag overly concerned with his new suit, while Ms Larson, below, as the lone woman in the crew, runs the gamut from would-be romantic heroine to me-first moll who's better with gun-play than foreplay.

Actually, just about everyone here is a very lousy shot, and considering how much ammunition is expended in the course of the film (oodles, really), it takes an awfully long time to waste the game cast. But the wasting is relatively fun, overall. Who remains -- and how and why -- is usually tricky and enjoyable in this genre of film, and so it is here. I make no great claims for the movie, but for what it is, it certainly delivers the goods. (That's Sam Riley, below, as perhaps the dumbest and most problematic of a generally dim crew.)

From A24, Free Fire opens nationwide tomorrow, Friday, April 21. Here in South Florida you can find it at the following theaters: Aventura Mall 24, Aventura,; Miami Lakes 17, Miami Lakes,  Cobb Hialeah Grand 18, Hialeah; South Beach 18, Miami Beach; iPic, North Miami Beach; Intracoastal 8, North Miami Beach; Sunset Place 24, South Miami; Cinepolis Grove 15, Coconut Grove; Kendall Village Stadium 16, Miami; Southland Mall Stadium 16, Miami; CMX Brickell City Center 10, Miami; Oakwood 18, Hollywood; Coral Ridge 10, Ft. Lauderdale; Cypress Creek 16, Ft. Lauderdale; Sawgrass 23, Sunrise; Magnolia Place 16, Coral Springs; Pompano Beach 18, Pompano Beach; T-Bird Drive In, Fort Lauderdale; Silverspot Coconut Creek Cinemas, Coconut Creek; City Place 20, West Palm Beach; Royal Palm Beach 18, Royal Palm Beach; Cinepolis, Jupiter 14, Jupiter; Mizner Park 8, Theatres, Boca Raton, and the Cinemark Palace 20, Boca Raton. To find a theater near wherever you are, click here.

Streaming "must"--technology vs society in the slightly futuristic Brit TV series BLACK MIRROR

Comparison has been made between our own, ancient television series, The Twilight Zone, and BLACK MIRROR, the relatively new (2011-14) hour-long British television series from Channel 4 that tackles the idea of our new technology and how it is affecting society. It does this via a half dozen stand-alone episodes that involve different characters, their employment and relationships with friends and family. And although it is "futuristic," it is only just so -- the technology and situations we see here are but a few steps away from what we are already experiencing. Yet Black Mirror is as au courant and subtle as The Twilight Zone was (often, at least) well ahead of its time and ham-fisted in its telling.

The creation of a fellow named Charlie Brooker, shown at left, the series (from the four out of six episodes I've so far seen) is extremely bright in terms of its smart, fast dialog and minimal exposition, even as its subject matter is exceedingly dark. Brooker both created the series and wrote seven of its (so far) nine installments, and his touch is light but definitive. The series is satirical in its way and often darkly humorous -- but with a gasp just behind the laugh so that it remains a genuinely serious look at the way we (almost) live now.

These first four episodes involve everything from the British Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear, front row center, above) and his staff coming up against a kidnapping of a member of the royal family (in which the ransom is a deal-breaking doozy) to a future in which proles run on treadmills (are they perhaps producing energy) for their daily bread, while aspiring to appear on a TV talent show all too much like the schlock with which we're already saddled. (That's Rupert Everett, below, right, as the smarmiest of the three "talent judges.")

The situations in these first two episodes are so alternately mind-blowing and -numbing that we're carried away by the plot machinations of the first and the bizarre environment of the second. Even so, Brooker's fine use of irony throughout, together with the excellent casts he has garnered, make the experience continuously riveting.

The two runner/contestants we come to know and care most about in episode two are played very well by Daniel Kaluuya (above) and Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay (below). Despite the futuristic time table, how each of these decent and quirky characters ends up is filled with the same shame exhibited by our current society.

Episode three involves a technology just the other side of Google Glass, in which any past experience can be visually/audially saved and replayed at the whim of its owner. This leads to a story of infidelity and recrimination that engulfs our non-hero, played with increasing agitation and anger by a very good Toby Kebbell (below, and seen using that technology).

The fourth in the series may be its most haunting and moving, as we learn how society has found a way in which to handle the loss of a loved one. This hour calls to mind the recent movie Her, but goes its own way and discovers, as is Mr. Brooker's wont, as many negatives as positives to this new "technology." Actors Hayley Atwell (below, left) and Domhnall Gleeson (below, right) bring to life their two memorable characters with grace and grit.

I have two episodes remaining to watch (I hope that Netflix gets hold of Black Mirror's famous Christmas special with Jon Hamm very soon, as well as the rest of Season Three), but I am in no hurry. For one thing, I don't want this experience to come to an end. Secondly, as none of the episodes connect to another in any ongoing way, there's no need to binge.

Mostly though, I wait between episodes because television this good deserves to be pondered and bounced around a bit in one's brain before proceeding. You can see the first six episode of Black Mirror now via Netflix streaming. 

LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM is back! Now, stream Ken Russell's juiciest, naughtiest, campiest treat

It's been decades since TrustMovies first viewed this little horror treat, brought to the screen by no less than Ken Russell, and starring a very young Hugh Grant, a very sexy Amanda Donohoe, a younger-than-you'll remem-ber-but-funny-as-ever Peter Capaldi and chock full of just about everything Mr. Russell loved to rub in our faces: trans-gressive sex, Christianity trashing and paganism, here joined by a delectably sexy fanged female, a giant snake, and other fun tropes most often found in the horror genre. THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM, I believe, is the only one of Russell's films that was a "pure" (or maybe impure) genre piece, though many movie buffs found many Russell movies horrors of another sort.

I've always had a mixed response to this filmmaker's work. (Mr. Russell, who died in 2011 at the age of 84, is shown at left). My favorites are his black-and-white musical biographies made for British television and his very interesting artist bio Savage Messiah. Now that I've seen Lair/Worm again, I must add it to that list of favorites, too. Ken probably ought to have tackled even more genre pieces, because what these film require, along with what Russell clearly had in spades -- the knack for bringing to the horror genre his special kind of transgression -- apparently produced that rare match made in sleazy-movie heaven.

The filmmaker guides his oddly assembled cast (which also includes the likes of Catherine Oxenberg (above, left), that adorable little blond Sammi Davis, (above, right) and everyone's favorite British oddity Paul Brooke (below) to pile on everything from horror to comedy, romance to adult/teen sex (and then teen murder) arriving at a destination that can only be called Camp Wonderful.

Just viewing that old and fondly remembered Vestron Pictures/Vestron Video logo should jolt a number of viewers back to a certain low-end-but-lots-of-fun memory lane. But Lair/Worm is so all-over-the-place that, if you are anything like me, and have not seen the film in decades, then you will also probably have forgotten so much of it that it will seem new and funny and pretty special all over again.

Mr Russell is not particularly good on suspense or surprise, and the villain is rather obvious from the start. But the filmmaker is so good on doing what he loves best -- shocking us with some heavy-duty fantasy elements that combine religion and sex (remember The Devils?) along with pairing Jesus (above) with, well, you'll see -- that the movie almost immediately assumes pride of place in the hearts of the irreligious.

Plus, there's Ms Donohoe, one of whose first major roles this was, and -- boy, oh, boy -- does she impress. So much so, in fact, that I am not sure anything she did subsequently registered quite so strongly. The actress gives her all, whether it's in black boots, panties and negligee (above) or sporting a set of fangs (below) that would have Dracula himself running for the hills.

Mr. Grant (below, left) is almost the straight man in the piece, and so is rather wasted by not being able to show much of his usual charm. Mr. Capaldi (below, right) has more fun with his role and actually registers more strongly here. But we're not coming to a Ken Russell film for charm or romance, are we? So lean back, hold on (yes, it is rather a bumpy ride), and enjoy the utterly bizarre, creepy and funny goings-on.

You can now stream The Lair of the White Worm via Netflix (click here for the link) or via Amazon Instant Video and on DVD.

Teorema meets deadpan in Michiel ten Horn's oddball THE DEFLOWERING OF EVA VAN END

Remember Teorema? That was the 1968 film from Pier Paolo Pasolini (3P, as he is affectionately known to some of us) about a hot young visitor (Terence Stamp) to the home of a wealthy Italian family who sexually seduces every member of that family (mom, dad, sis, bro, even the maid!) in the process turning their lives upside down. We've got a new movie on the scene that does something similar -- THE DEFLOWERING OF EVA VAN END from young Dutch filmmaker Michiel ten Horn -- although the seductions here are not sexual (except in a single instance, the least believable in the movie, that rather oddly substitutes sleep-fucking for sleep-walking), while the film is handled in a style of near-complete deadpan.

Despite the déjà vu that the film may engender in some of us senior movie buffs, Deflowering proves a good deal of fun, thanks to Mr. ten Horn's (the filmmaker is shown at right) use of deadpan style and the fact that the "guest" in the house remains every bit as mysterious as that in Pasolini's movie. Here our invited intruder is a German exchange student named Veit (Rafael Garelsen, below), who arrives to the Netherlands home of the van End family as a kind of surprise. This is because the teenage daughter of the house, Eva, is never paid one bit of attention by anyone else in the family. Thus her announcement of the student's imminent arrival goes by unheard.

The movie is a kind of wake-up call, provided by ten Horn and his screenwriter Anne Barnhoorn, via their near angelic guest, Veit -- beautiful of visage, highly intelligent, innately kind with impeccable manners -- who intuits exactly what each member of this family needs and then helps them find it. If this sounds a tad heavily pre-planned, it is.

Yet because each family member (that's the group, above) is chock full of very definitive characteristics (most of them pretty bizarre) and the deadpan humor used to display this, along with the odd interaction (or lack of) the family shares with each other, you'll quickly see where things are going, but you'll still have some fun getting there.

Performances are as good as can be expected under this fairly tight film-making hand, with mom perhaps the most interesting and human of the bunch and the titular Eva (Vivan Dierickx, above, in her film debut) the least. Well, she's going through that tough teen-age time with no help from anyone except Veit, so what can we expect?

From cuddly bunnies to bruising beatings, competitive eating to inner peace, it's all here and all pretty low-key funny. Ten Horn's oddball family odyssey should prove one of the more bizarre films of your movie-going year and yet another in the library of endlessly interesting movies from Film Movement, Deflowering arrives on DVD this coming Tuesday, December 3 -- just in time for gift-giving... to the especially quirky among your friends and relations.