In Lana Wilson's THE DEPARTURE we meet a one-man suicide prevention center who also makes house calls

The documentary begins in what looks like a club where our hero is dancing up a storm. Then we see him on a motorbike heading out to the countryside and... home. His? Whose? Now he's praying and writing and dressing like... a monk? Yes. Or maybe a teacher. Or both. Soon he is saying to a group of students, "Welcome to The Departure," and training the class regarding what it is like to die. This exercise is a marvelous one, at the end of which, "This is death," he tells the class. Then he's farming (rice, maybe?), after which he's back home with his... wife, child and mother?

All the above questions or surmises will be answered or borne out in the course of an 87-minute documentary titled THE DEPARTURE, directed and co-written (with David Teague) by Lana Wilson (of After Tiller), shown at right. Ittetsu Nemoto, we soon learn, has gone from being a Japanese punk rocker leading a band to near-death to a fellow who, when his mother notices a want-ad for a priest (yes!), she encourages him to apply. He does, and the rest, as they say, is both history and a little mystery. Nemoto turns out to be a one-man suicide prevention center, and he also makes house calls!

For all the good that our guy may be doing in terms of his students (this, it seems to me, is called into question, perhaps unintentionally, by the film as it goes along), it is soon clear that Mr. Nemoto, below, has not at all left behind the self-destructive habits that almost killed him in late adolescence.

"There has to be a meaning in life," someone -- I think it was one of those students -- notes during the course of this doc. As a response, "The river has no meaning," Nemoto reminds them. Yeah? Tell that to the fish who live it in or the folk who drink from it. And while our priest's help and advice to his would-be suicides does appear of some encouragement to those disciples (below), it also seems awfully generalized and non-specific. And even when it is specific -- "Think what your suicide would do to your children!" -- at most this seems ultra-obvious, standard stuff. But then, I may be approaching all this from a westernized standpoint; my understanding of eastern cultures is clearly limited.

Still, I do find it odd that a documentary that begins so well, with so much surprise and seeming importance, would dwindle down to a meandering, "whatever" kind of journey of would-be profundity that eventually simply stops rather than actually concluding. One wonders, given Nemoto's doctor's prognosis (which we are privy to in the course of the film), if this unusual Buddhist priest/monk is even still alive today.

From Matson Films, The Departure opens this Friday, October 13, in New York City at the Metrograph theater, and on Friday, October 20 in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center. In the weeks to come, the documentary will open in another 20 cities across the country. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates and theaters.

Johanna Demetrakas' CRAZY WISDOM offers up Chogyam Trungpa, warts and all

According to the press materials for CRAZY WISDOM, the film tells the true story of a "brilliant Tibetan monk" who escaped the Communist invasion of Tibet and then broke "all the rules in order to bring Buddhism to the West." Hmmm... If this is Buddhism, as we see it lived by Chogyam Trungpa (the subject of the film), I'll eat my hat. (And as TrustMovies no longer possesses any hats, he's off the hook -- a sleazy bit of irony of which Chogyam Trungpa himself would no doubt approve.) At the very least, the guy was one of those "Do as I say, not as I do" spiritual guides.

This new documentary, directed by Johanna Demetrakas (pictured at right), combines history with sermon in detailing the life of yet another two-bit guru -- a very smart charlatan who loved his cigars, liquor and sex. Or was he something more? Goodness knows, the disciples we hear from during this 89-minute movie, both men and women, still seem in love with the guy nearly a quarter century after his death (one fellow breaks down in tears recalling the man he loved). Was there a sexual component to this love? Yes, among some of the women we see, certainly, and maybe the men, too.  CT, as we'll call him from here onwards, was quite the little cocksman, it would seem.

Listen carefully to this fellow, shown above and below, and what you hear in his philosophy easily doubles as a kind of excuse for his behavior -- what it is, was, or might become in the next moment. Smart! Just ask the 16-year-old young lady who spent 24 hours in his bed and then decided to marry the guy. "There is no certainty," as someone else points out. "And he could have a sense of humor about that." Well, why not, as this "lack of certainty" left him off the hook for just about everything.

Among his many acolytes, friends and co-gurus were folk like Allen Ginsberg (pictured above, left, with CT) and Ram Das (pictured below, left). Early on the Tibetan's mission appeared to be leading the world out of its unhealthy materialism, but once our guru landed in the west, he spent the rest of his life indulging in that materialism to the max.

Ms Demetrakas' movie manages to have its cake and, well, you know the rest of that particular diet. In spite -- no, because -- of its dualism or maybe duplicity, Crazy Wisdom offers up quite a good time. We shake our heads in wonder at this odd fellow and the love and devotion he inspired -- probably as much by his behavior as by his teachings (which we really don't get much of here -- but then, the behavior is so much more fun.)

When he died in 1987 (almost 2 years shy of age 50) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, nearly 3,000 people gathered for his subsequent funeral service in Vermont. End credits inform us that "Tibetan Buddhism lives on in the west," CT's books "now sell in the mil-lions, and 214 medita-tion centers carry on the vision of an enlightened society. Can it ever be?" Not if this fun, funny and very bizarre film is any indication. I don't see how you can miss it -- though I very much doubt you'll convert.

Crazy Wisdom begins its limited run this Friday, November 25, in New York City at the Rubin Museum, and then moves to the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex on Friday, December. 2. You can check for any further screenings, as well as its lengthy list of past screenings and festivals, by clicking here.