Vampires are back -- and LIVING AMONG US -- in Brian A. Metcalf's new mockumentary

Don't even for a moment think of comparing LIVING AMONG US -- the new film that attempts to offer a faux documentary look at the home of a family of vampires in Los Angeles, once the bloodsuckers have been "outed" via their connection to and use of a local blood bank -- with that great New Zealand mockumentary from 2015, What We Do in the Shadows, which remains one of the best, as well as the funniest, vampire films of all time. No, this sad little undead wanna-be, which is fang-free (despite the very unreliable poster image above) is instead one of those supposedly "found footage" films purporting to show us what happens when an intrepid news crew sets up shop in the vampire home in order to show the world "the real thing."

After a short beginning that looks like it might be a relatively professional job of movie-making (giving us tons of exposition via the "breaking nightly news"), the writer/director Brian A. Metcalf (shown at left) begins pushing our don't-believe-this button over and over for his 87-minute running time. Even if you accept that these vampires would actually invite the news crew into their home as public relations stunt, you must then accept the fact that thee vampires hand out a list of ground rules (no crosses, holy water, wooden stakes, garlic, etc.), every last one of which the crew breaks -- without their hosts ever bothering to check the crew's luggage. Yes, it's that kind of dumb-ass movie.

It is also one of those films in which, although the characters being filmed ask repeatedly for the camera to be shut off, it never is. And they never notice this fact. Also, our news crew can manage to install camera equipment all around the house without its ever being detected. Wow. Yes, these must be the dumbest set of of bloodsuckers in the history of the genre. With that news crew not far behind.

The dialog occasionally rings interesting and pointed, which is a blessing, especially since some very good actors -- including William Sadler (above) and the late John Heard (below, to whom the film is dedicated) are doing what they can with the script.

The most energy and fun is provided by one of the younger vamps (Andrew Keegan, below) who gooses the movie into action whenever he appears. Otherwise, degeneration sets in early and continues throughout, until we get the de rigueur scene of running through a basement full of corpses while spouting some really awful dialog. Ah, well: I guess it's good to know that some things never change.

There is one particularly ugly scene (below) of a vampire ritual featuring a nearly nude and very voluptuous young woman (could they have found an actress with a larger set of fake tits? I don't think so) as the poor sacrificial victim. So be warned. For those of us still waiting for a good modern vampire tale, well, the wait grows ever longer....

From Red Compass Media, Living Among Us opens this Friday, February 2, at the Cinema Village, New York City; Laemmle's Music Hall 3, and other theaters across the country. Click here to view the full list of playdates, cities and venues. 

My FrenchFilmFest.com: Maïwenn's sweet-and-sour delight, LE BAL DES ACTRICES

Attention: film buffs-- particularly those who groove on French film and French actresses: A young actress and filmmaker with the one-word moniker of Maïwenn has made a movie that you will be sorry if you miss. It's showing now through January 29, as part of MyFrenchFilm
Festival.com, the online film fest you can download off the web for just a bit more than $2.50 per film, a bargain in this day and age. If you're a serious foreign-film buff, for about  $19 you can down load the entire package: eleven full-length movies and another ten short films.

The film in question is called LE BAL DES ACTRICES (All About Actresses is the English title) and it is one for the books. Posing as a documentary being made by Maïwenn (shown at right) about the state of being an actress in France today (even as such, it's pretty damn good), the movie begins with a "musical number, in which all the "stars" take part -- they play themselves throughout the film (or perhaps they're playing/parroting the way in which the French public perceives them) -- and continues with time spent with each star, as she tries to figure out her next career move. Each of these chapters has its own musical number that comments, in its way, on what we've just seen, on the actress, and on her desires. Finally, there's a "screening" of the finished documentary for the actresses to critique. Through all of this, the film is non-stop, thought-provoking fun that is also on-target satire that is sometimes quite moving.

 
The actresses include Jeanne Balibar (above, in black leather!), Romane Bohringer, Julie Depardieu, Mélanie Doutey, Marina Foïs, Estelle Lefébure, Maïwenn herself (her full name is Maïwenn Le Besco, and she's the sister of Isild), Linh Dan Pham (below, with her "movie" mom & dad), Charlotte Rampling, Muriel Robin, Karole Rocher and Karin Viard. If at least some of those names don't get your heart racing, you're not the Francophile you thought you were.

Representing the male set are Joey Starr, who plays Maïwenn's main squeeze, Nicolas Briançon as her producer -- and the likes of Yvan Atal, Jacques Weber, Pascal Greggory and Bertrand Blier, all playing themselves in director mode.

The film moves from ditsy and silly to frank and funny to rich and moving -- often on a dime. From Viard's cow-milking sequence on a farm (under Blier's helm) to Foïs (above, center) fooling around with Botox, from the actress as parent (in both birth and adoption modes) to the actress aging (Bohringer's section is simply amazing: Is this the reason why we haven't seen that much of this fine actress -- shown below, left -- of late?), the cast and crew take us inside each actress' head, heart and ego. It's an alternately beautiful, crazy and not-so-pretty place to be.

The filmmaker makes fine use of the fantasy element in movies -- in her musical numbers, as well as in the way in which these women sometimes perceive their world. Maïwenn colludes with them in their view, even as that view collides with realty as most of us know it. She's part of the game; she knows it; and she's smart enough to make this clear--never more so than in her finale, which bring all the women together and lets the filmmaker have her cake and eat it, too. Dare I suggest that you'll be wolfing it down, as well.

Le Bal des Actrices will play in MyFrenchFilmFestivasl.com through January 29.  You can access it here. (You can also vote for your favorite film in the festival -- something I've neglected to mention until now.)