Brian Horiuchi's unsettling end-of-the-world tale, PARTS PER BILLION, goes straight to Blu-ray

There are pretty much two kinds of end-of-the-world movies. One type is faux, since the world contin-ues, as in the worthwhile Deep Impact or the piss-poor Armageddon. The other version is not afraid to give us the real thing, though this kind of film doesn't come along all that often -- and is never of the blockbuster variety (the hoi polloi demands feel-good). The best of the actual end-of-the-world lot would be Don Mc Kellar's Last Night from 1998, but 2012 brought us another fine example in David Mackenzie's Perfect Sense. Now there's a new one to add to this brief list: PARTS PER BILLION by Brian Horiuchi (below), his first film as writer/director.

While not nearly up to the level of the other two films on my short list, Parts Per Billion is good enough to qualify as a quality product. It's well written, directed and especially acted by the eight excellent performers who play the three couples, the sister and the best friend who comprise the fine ensemble. Mr. Horiuchi, shown at right, takes our current and ever widening revolutions, wars and general anarchy in the mid-east and leaps off from the chemical warfare supposedly used of late by Syria, and from this sort of behavior extrapolates a new kind of pathogen released into the air via chemical warfare. Airborne, it is soon wiping out entire populations. Once it crosses the Atlantic, goodbye USA.

Parts Per Billion concentrates on just three couples, one very young (Teresa Palmer and Penn Badgley, above, right); one approaching middle age (Rosario Dawson and Josh Hartnett, above, center), and one old (Gena Rowlands and Frank Langella, above, left); the Badgley's character's sister (Alexis Bledel, below, who doubles as nurse to Langella and Rowlands); and the Hartnett's character's best friend (the excellent Hill Harper).

Horiuchi tends to bury his exposition well enough so that it tends to pop out only when his characters might actually be talking about that particular subject. He also uses flashbacks judiciously to fill us in on how these people come to be in the position they now find themselves.

The three couples are deeply in love, though not, it seems without having had some bumps along the way. The true beauty of this film is how we come to share their love and believe in it. "What are the important things?" one character asks during the course of the film. Parts Per Billion forces this question upon us time and again in scenes that include Hartnett, a young boy and the boy's father in the park; Badgley and Palmer in a truly lovely proposal scene; and Langella facing down his past behavior and terrible decisions with grit and grace.

Horiuchi's writing is better than this genre usually offers: smart but unshowy and always about things. "This is how wars start," notes one character, " because of the different ways people keep stuff in their cupboards!" When you actually see this moment, that line seems both amusing and sensible.

The filmmaker does not back away from the darkest side of things, either. He spares us the blood and gore but takes us to the brink, allowing us to view (or hear) as some of the characters meet their demise. There's also humour along the way, as well as music, lovemaking and food. As we see our civilization closing down via these eight characters, it becomes clear that Mr Horiuchi has given us an end-of-the-world movie that can actually bear the weight of its subject.

Parts Per Billion -- from Millennium Entertainment and running 102 minutes -- hits the street on DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, Tuesday June 3 -- for sale or rental. Apparently Netflix hasn't even ordered the film yet (you can "save" it to your queue), but Amazon has it on disc and streaming, the latter via its Instant Video.

SCN Highlight: a serene and gorgeous day-of-reckoning hits in Torregrossa's THE END

Of all the apocalypse films that TrustMovies has seen, his favorites have been Last Night and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Add to these now the new Spanish film THE END (Fin) from the award-winning television stalwart Jorge Torregrossa, pictured below. For me this has been the sleeper of the current Spanish Cinema Now series, which comes to a close this Sunday. (I've seen but only half of the 20 films included, so if we're lucky, there may be more surprises to come.)

The End begins with a peculiarly creepy, seaside scene involving an artist and his dark work, and then a chance (or maybe not) encounter at a subway station. Then we're off with one of the two men in that encounter and his "girlfriend" to a charming house in a glorious mountain setting for a two-decades-later reunion of eight high school friends. Oh, yes -- and some kind of meteor shower is expected that same evening. This scenario proves the perfect match: the reunion brings out buried feelings that lead to the exposing of character -- which keeps us rooting for (or against some of) these people, while that meteor shower sets off the event that carries us through the rest of a truly amazing movie that may make a "believer" of you, after all.

For all of Life of Pi's nonsense regarding its story "making you believe in god" (Pi has much to recommend it, otherwise, however), it's The End that may send you out of the theater struggling with that "higher power" theory once again. (To the movie's endless credit, no overt mention is even made of this.)

I'm a don't-give-away-the-plot fanatic at all times; with this film, I feel even stronger about it. So please content yourself with just a few words about style, cast, themes and moments. Filmmaker Torregrossa has won a couple of awards for his short films and done a lot of Spanish television. Now, here he is bringing to movie life the novel by David Monteagudo, with the help of adapters Sergio G. Sánchez and Jorge Guerricaechevarría -- both of whom have been responsible for screenwriting on several of the most successful Spanish films of recent years, from Cell 211 to The Orphanage. The combination proves just about perfect.

A splendid cast, including the ubiquitous Maribel Verdú (above, center: This is her third film so far in this series!), Daniel Grao (at right, above and two photos above) and Clara Lago (below) tackle their roles with intelligence and power (Ms Verdú is the most powerful); everyone, even those who leave us rather quickly, prove aces: specific, moving, funny, annoying and what have you.

The spare dialog alludes rather than punches, the pace is exactly what it needs to be at any point along the way (a couple of scenes involving animals, one of which is shown below, are especially suspenseful and frightening), and the special effects -- from a stream of light in the sky to a shadow on the wall are small but extremely telling. Best of all, as the film proceeds, and an idea -- perhaps a plan -- is planted, the filmmakers let you figure this out on your own without any undue pushing.

The creative team here insists upon its audience becoming involved in the drama of what is going on at about the same pace as the protagonists figure things out. Their movie, I think, will appeal particularly to people who value other people and who respond most strongly to the fear of loss -- of love and companionship, of both the other and themselves.

This leads to a finale that is as profound and moving in its quiet way as anything I've seen this year. The final credits, by the way, are simple and simply beautiful: The lettering, elegant and precise, brings an end to The End that is damned near perfect.

The film has played its two performances at this year's Spanish Cinema Now, but surely some wise and caring distributor will step forward and allow U.S. audiences the chance to see this unique, startling and compassionate "genre" movie.

Please.

WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON: fundamentalist nut jobs on the march

If ever a movie screamed "religious nuts" at the top of its lungs, that would be WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON, the absolutely straight-forward documentary from Kate Davis, (below, center) David Heilbroner (below, right) and Franco Sacchi (below, left). And yet this film barely raises its voice. It is content to let speak for itself that branch of the Christian-fundamen-
talist-right that is waiting for, praying for and perhaps helping to bring about a kind of Armageddon or, as they prefer to call it, The Rapture -- in which the world and everyone in it dies. Except, of course, for those who believe in Jesus. "Who wouldn't want the world to be over?" asks one believer. "Who wouldn't want to meet Jesus?" Talk about hubris. Talk about pyrrhic victories. Yikes.

The worst part of all, for this viewer, at least, is that some of these "believers" -- one sweet young, bring-it-on couple -- have jobs cre-
ating our missiles for U.S. warfare and defense. (With all the down-
sizing currently going on, couldn't we perhaps apply it where it does some good?) While the mother and father of another family insist that all things point to the Big A coming soon, two of their children -- teenage daughters -- indicate their belief that it will come, but maybe, uh... not too soon. These poor girls want a life that includes love, marriage and children. And who can blame them?

But, no -- for these folk, any nincompoop quote from The Bible turns every crazy belief, no matter how destructive, into fact. How happy faith can make you! Too bad that faith rarely seems to provide some kind of recognition of all the things we humans share and need in common. No: It has to be instead this consistently divisive, my-way-or-the-highway thinking. And when the movie, briefly, gives a us a quick look at some of the Christian fundamentalist politicians now (or recently) in power, the effect is a stunner.

One on-screen idiot talks about having the best seat in the house to watch the coming destruction of planet earth. Oh, the glee! And then we travel to Israel, where Christians want to get a look at Jerusalem before god has his way with it. It turns out that millions of dollars are raised by the fundamentalist Christian community and given to Israel for its protection against Islam -- which of course Israel happily accepts. We hear from Christians, Jews and Muslims -- each with the same rationale for possessing Jerusalem. They can't all be right, but it seems to occur to no one that they could all be wrong. Perhaps the most dispiriting information we learn is that any peace plan for the middle east is perceived by these people as a plot of the AntiChrist. Maybe they'll stumble upon Lars von Trier's film, have a much-needed epiphany, and go after each other with scissors and shovel! Ooops -- that wasn't very Christian of me, was it. Actually, if you're basing your actions on this fundamentalist version of Jesus' teachings, it pretty much is.

Listening to the stupid drivel spouted by Rapture-believers grows grueling after awhile. And though rational people (a few of which are heard from in the film) can easily dispel these faith-based theories, it is daunting to realize that millions of Americans are guided by this hogwash. One of the more rational speakers in the film explains cogently that the Bible's more apocalyptic books -- Revelations and Daniel, for instance -- were never meant to be scripts for those in power. "That's where the danger arises and the books become a self-fulfilling prophecy of violence and destruction."

Waiting for Armageddon, from First Run Features, debuts today, January 8, in New York at the Cinema Village. Further play dates around the country can be found here.

All photos are courtesy of First Run Features
and are -- with the exception of the ones
of the filmmakers -- from the film itself.