Death done with humor, intelligence and sadness in Amy Jo Johnson/Joanne Sarazen's Canadian indie, TAMMY'S ALWAYS DYING

TrustMovies has long felt that films from Canada often get short shrifted by critics, not to mention audiences, here in the USA. Canadian movies tend to come at their subject more obliquely, and they don't hammer home their points in the usual "unmissable" fashion. They can also tackle darker subjects more fearlessly, if often more quietly. And so I rather sense that a new film from up north -- TAMMY'S ALWAYS DYING, written by Joanne Sarazen and directed by Amy Jo Johnson -- will end up as yet another example of this rather long-standing trend.

Ms Johnson and Ms Sarazen (shown, respectively, at right and left in the photo, right, at last year's Toronto International Film Festival) have collaborated quite well in terms of finding the correct tone for this oddball family film about an alcoholic, semi-suicidal mother and her sadly under-appreciated and consequently closed-off daughter and the precarious, though still precious bond that connects them.

The filmmakers find plenty of low-key humor in their characters' situation, but as the movie unfolds, the humor recedes and sadness takes over, as we learn more about this duo's history.

The leading performances -- from Felicity Huffman (above) as mom and Anatasia Phillips (below) as daughter -- are as fine as you could ask for: moment to moment real, with many of those moments filled with the kind of specificity of both writing and performance that helps make movies occasionally memorable. While I have long loved the versatile work of Ms Huffman (from TransAmerica to Trust Me and Rudderless), Ms Phillips is new to me, but her performance here is as rich and encompassing as you could want.

The supporting cast is strong, as well, with Clark Johnson (below, right) playing the kindly best friend of both mother and daughter, and Kristian Bruun especially good as a local bartender who's there for the daughter, too. Kindness, as I have often discovered in Canadian movies, is an odd constant, running maybe below the surface and sometimes unreciprocated. But simply there, maybe part of the national character, along with, yes, a lot of negative stuff, too. But you find kindness cropping up in things Canadian, again and again.

Capturing the lower-middle-class on film truthfully, without judgment or special pleading, is never easy, but this film manages it surprisingly well. The movie dawdles along the way, and some may find this annoying. Yet even the dawdling is full of humor and depth -- maybe the most marvelous moment comes as mom and child recall an earlier dance performance, but from very different angles --  leading to a conclusion that nears the transcendent, as well as the transgressive. Of course: It's Canadian. (This funny/sad moment is then, sort-of, given a reprise during the one-of-a-kind end credits.)

From Quiver Distribution and running 87 minutes, Tammy's Always Dying was to have opened theatrcially but, as with every just about every other movie these days, is making its debut digitally and via VOD instead. Check your favorite or usual source, and go to it!

Paul Middleditch/Chris Matheson's RAPTURE-PALOOZA: at last, a rapture movie for atheists!

TrustMovies is not absolutely sure why this funny, charming, raunchy-as-hell and irreverent (in the best way) movie about what happens after the rapture didn't get more notice when it arrived in a few theaters (June 2013, the same month as that other, bigger rapture movie, This Is the End, appeared). Perhaps because this is actually the better film. Unlike This Is the End -- which wants to have it both ways, making fun of The Rapture but of course believing in it, too, by having its characters try to get raptured themselves -- RAPTURE-PALOOZA, casts a dry eye on the whole Christian religion thing and comes up with its own smart, funny method of handling fundamentalism. I can understand why this film was undoubtedly not released in the USA's southern regions. Angry audiences might have burned down the theaters that dared to screen it.

But now -- because the film is available via Netflix streaming -- you can laugh your socks off, even as you are just a tad amazed at what the movie-makers get away with. Yikes! Writer Chris Matheson and director Paul Middleditch (shown at right) have done such clever stuff here -- some of it silly, foolish but awfully funny, other of it surprisingly flat-out raunchy -- that those of us who dearly wish that the great majority of the world's population did not insist on worshiping some wish-fulfillment deity can only bow our heads in gratitude to the smart and smart-assed pair.

The fun begins at once, as The Rapture, as seen here, uses the smallest of special effects, and manages to make all other movies on the subject seem like pikers (even with the vast special effects of This Is the End, what these two do beats all). The movie is narrated and stars one of Hollywood's quietest and least "showy" young actresses, Anna Kendrick, above, who doubles as a kind of stealth missle here. She has the aspect and affect of a valley girl, Seattle style, underneath which resides a depth of pure smarts.

Her antagonist in the film is played by Craig Robinson (yes, the same actor also starred in This Is the End: Careful, Craig, you're going to become the go-to guy for Rapture movies), who is hilarious holding up the raunchy end of the film. His piano/sex serenade to Ms Kendrick is one for the books. Robinson plays the AntiChrist come to big, Black life, and he is wonderful --funny, smarmy and double-dense in the role. People have cried racism here, but as Robinson also Executive-Produced the movie, I don't think so. "The Beast," the name that this character insists on calling himself, is a terrific role, and Robinson runs with it and scores big.

Ms Kendrick's boyfriend, Ben, is played by a fellow named John Francis Daley, above, right, who is fine, but the movie belongs to Kendrick and Robinson. In the supporting cast are the likes of Rob Corddry (at left, below) and Ana Gasteyer, playing parents of our hero and heroine, and both are their usually excellent selves. Ms Gasteyer, as a mother who was raptured and then sent back (finding out why provides yet another funny scene) is particularly hilarious.

You may think you'll know where the movie is going, so let me warn you: You don't.  It simply keeps growing more irreverent and funny, and when Kendrick finally announces, "No one is in charge, so let's act like adults," the irreligious among us will be whooping out a cheer.

Don't let this one get by you. You can view Rapture-Palooza -- from Lionsgate and running 85 minutes --  now via Netflix Streaming, Amazon Instant Video and on DVD.