THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER doubles as the unmasking of a certain Greek filmmaker

Ah, those Greeks, and their heroes, myths and family troubles: Agamemnon and his brood, Medea and hers, Oedipus and his. Watching the earlier films of Yorgos Lanthimos -- Dogtooth, Alps and The Lobster -- myth, if not heroes, might have popped briefly into one's mind and then out again, as one searched, first, for any possible meaning in what one was viewing, and then of course what that meaning might possibly have to do with the life one was actually experiencing. The films were all puzzles, and one possible answer seemed about as good or bad, fitting or not so, as any other you might attach. (Alps is probably his most immediately understandable, if-still-unconventional movie.)

Now, we have Mr. Lanthimos' latest (the filmmaker is pictured at left), THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER, in which the relationship to myth is right up front in the actual title. Even if we never see that killing take place or hear anyone mention it in passing, once that deed is done, buddy, you are in deep trouble.

Our "buddy," in this case, is none other than Lobster star Colin Farrell (below), here playing a very successful surgeon named Stephen, who a while back operated on a patient who then died. At the time, Stephen was under-the-influence, though he has never admitted nor taken responsibility for this.

Stephen has a very pretty and successful wife, Anna (played by Nicole Kidman, below), two cute kids, and a rather odd and under-age friend named Martin (Barry Keoghan, two photos below and at bottom, left). Who is this strange young man, and what does he want? The answer proves the motor that drives the movie, but I shall not explain that motor here because, should you decide to venture into Sacred Deer territory (and actually last out this patently ridiculous film), you deserve at least a surprise plot twist or two for your trouble.

I suspect that the major problem with the movie (as it was with The Lobster) is that a filmmaker whose native tongue is not English is working in that language anyway. All of which makes the dialog sound at very least "canned" when it isn't actually corny and/or thoroughly unbelievable.

Further, most of the performances are utterly robotic, which is something the filmmaker must have intended because you don't cast actors as good as Farrell, Kidman, and Keoghan and then cramp their style to the point where they are not allowed to act or even "behave" in ways that approach normal fashion. Interestingly enough the actors who play the couple's kids (Raffey Cassidy, shown below, left, with Keoghan, and Sunny Suljic) are permitted -- or maybe just did it on their own -- to behave more realistically.

Is Lanthimos doing this due to the film's myth-like subject matter, which he feels needs this extra non-oomph? Hell, I've seen plenty of staged Greek tragedies that featured genuine, realistic and hugely moving acting, so if this is his rationale, it sucks. If he's doing it to increase the mystery and suspense, that fails, too: The movie's a nonstop slough.

In any case, tragedy is supposed to give us characters who, no matter their flaws, are important. These people never rise to that state. Perhaps that's Lanthimos' point, but it's a tricky premise around which to base a slow-moving, two-hour movie.

The finale, which ought at least to inspire fear and dread comes closer to yawns and annoyance, particularly at Stephen's decision about how to handle his special problem -- which completely bypasses the one answer that would have solved the whole thing. But of course Stephen, unable to take any responsibility, would never manage to see it, let alone act on it.

From A24, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, after opening on the coasts, hits South Florida today, Friday, November 10. In the Miami Dade and Broward areas, it plays the AMC Aventura Mall 24, O Cinema Wynwood, Regal's South Beach 18 and AMC Sunset Place 24, Cinepolis Grove 15, CMX Brickell City Center 10, and the Cinemark Paradise 24. In the Palm Beach and Boca Raton areas, looks for it at the AMC City Place 20, Cinepolis Jupiter 14, Cinemark Palace 20 and Regal's Shadowood 16. To check showtimes at any of the above theaters, or -- wherever you live across the country -- to find a theater near you, simply click here.

A country and a family on the road to ruin in Syllas Tzoumerkas' Greek drama, A BLAST

What was it like to have been a citizen of Greece back in 2014, when the film under consideration here -- A BLAST -- was first released? In it, we watch, semi-hypnotized by the behavior -- crazy, highly sexual, and not very loving -- of the family members we encounter. Even when they appear to be trying to approximate kindness, most of their actions comes out as either passive-aggressive or full out angry. And why not, since their country is headed for, if not already completely mired in financial ruin. As the whipping boy for the IMF and World Bank, Greece's employment rate was running at around 28 per cent, with the youth unemployment rate nearly double that. The family's personal lives and financial situation, we soon discover, are even worse.

As written and directed by Syllas Tzoumerkas (shown at left, and more recently the co-writer of that self-destructive doctor movie, Suntan), A Blast begins in media res, as we see a car racing through a forest near the sea, even as we hear a news report of a fire seemingly caused by arson. Tzoumerkas then flashes back to (sort of) happier days, and we see a pair of adults siblings playing/fighting at the beach, as exposition is dropped fairly speedily and well, prior to our meeting these young ladies' parents: mom, confined to a wheelchair but still apparently ruling the roost, along with a rather weak-willed dad.

Our star and heroine, Maria, is played by the oft-seen Greek actress Angeliki Papoulia (above and below, from Dogtooth, Alps and The Lobster), a beautiful woman who possesses a good body, expressive face and a fine array of acting chops. In this particular film however, Ms Papoulia proves mostly sex-crazed.

In one bizarre scene (above), she goes into a computer room full of men at work, turns on her computer to a porn site and proceeds to watch and listen, even as the poor guys around her find it, well, hard to concentrate on their own screen.

Her need for sex would seem to stem, at least in part, from the unavailability of her extremely handsome and hunky husband, Yannis (newcomer Vassilis Doganis, above and below), a Greek marine who's off at sea for much of the time. Yannis himself seems to be getting plenty of sex, even if his wife is not: We see him with a pretty black woman at one point (perhaps a prostitute), and then, having a very hot encounter with a male shipmate. Filmmaker Tzoumerkas makes certain we get, early on, a full-frame, full-frontal of his actor in the nude, and then intercuts often pieces of a soft-core sex scene (below) into his film's flashbacks. Thus we get plenty of the physicality of this rather amazing performer, whose first film this was, and who, according to the IMDB, has not been heard of since. Not to worry, what we see of him in A Blast should make Mr. Doganis a rather permanent fixture in some of our sexual memory banks.

As the family's fortunes wane further, and mom's misdeeds (that's Themis Bazaka in the role, below) become apparent, daughter Maria grows crazier and crazier. While Ms Papoulia does a bang-up job of creating this woman's disintegration, Mr. Tzoumerkas has not given us quite enough depth in his screenplay to make the movie into the tragedy that this kind of story probably deserves.

The family seems simply too crazy too soon, and so, even as more weird incidents pile up, our sympathy fails to be engaged past a certain surface point. The situation -- Greece's and the family's -- is certainly fraught and vitally important. Yet the handling of it all, while perhaps enough for the Greek audience that has by now lived through so much pain, austerity and other major crap, may not prove quite enough for those of us internationally who have yet to feel the ever-tightening vise of globalization and wealth inequality as wielded by the world's most powerful at their most damaging.

Perhaps a little less sex and a little more specificity regarding Greek life, family and otherwise, might have made this movie -- if less marketable internationally -- more meaningful and important.

From IndiePix Films and running a just-about-right 80 minutes, A Blast makes its U.S. DVD debut this coming Tuesday, August 22 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Get a grip, doc! Argyris Papadimitropoulos' Greek island movie, SUNTAN, hits theaters

Obsession in movies reaches a new high (maybe low) in the very poorly titled SUNTAN, a new film from Greek moviemaker, Argyris Papadimitropoulos, shown below. For a film that starts out as well as does this one, it's surprising that, by its finale, it has thoroughly degenerated into stuff and nonsense. Part of the problem is that Mr. Papadimitropoulos withholds almost all information about his leading character, a middle-aged doctor named Kostis, until the man's behavior has grown so over-the-top that his late-coming explanation to the leading lady -- "Forgive me: I've been an emotional wreck for the past few years" -- seems more ridiculous than appropriate.

Not that the young lady in question is herself any great catch. Granted she's cute, hot as hell and doesn't mind a little quick, fun sex. But she and her group of friends seem so entitled and full of themselves -- youth really is wasted on the young -- that their behavior proves mostly a turn-off (even if their copious full-frontal nudity is quite a turn-on).

It is around the time that one too many scenes of our "hero" dancing and drinking in an all-night local club occurs that you may begin wondering if the movie is going a bit off the track. It is -- and it continues as such throughout.

If the movie seems a cobbled-together combo of The Blue Angel and The Brown Bunny, its performances, however, are very good -- especially those of Makis Papadimitriou (above, here billed as Efthymis Papadimitriou and last seen on these shores in the much better film, Chevalier) as the island's new doctor, and newcomer Ellie Tringou (below), as his favorite patient, Anna.

The remainder of the young people seem to have been cast for their lithe bodies, small but curvy breasts, and big bouncing cocks, while the older folk -- from the town's helpful mayor to its drunken sleazeball -- get to possess a bit more character (well, they've grown into it!).

By the time someone notes, about our not-so-hot doc, "What an ass!" you are not likely to offer up much disagreement. And then near the conclusion, as we hear, after the young woman goes missing, the continued calls of "Anna! Anna!" you may be put in mind of a so-much-better movie called L'Avventura.

TrustMovies would guess that the main reason for the theatrical release of Suntan is all its sexplay and nudity. These are indeed pleasant to view, but if you are looking for something actually serious -- the press release for the film notes that "Suntan celebrates the beauty and strength of the youthful body, while simultaneously embracing its inevitable decay" but this is mostly hoo-hah -- do look elsewhere.

From Strand Releasing and running a little-too-long 104 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, March 10, in New York City at the Village East Cinema and in Los Angeles on Friday, March 24 at Laemmle's Royal. To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and then click on Screenings in the task bar midway down.

The games men play -- with each other -- as Athina Rachel Tsangari skewers the male prerogative, Greek-style, in CHEVALIER

There is no overt mention made of Greece's ongoing and horrendous economic situation in the film, CHEVALIER, but this low-key but often quite hilarious new satire of the macho stance among Greek males does make one wonder. Was it this kind of attitude -- hubristic, resentful, lying, scheming and, unfortunately, pretty stupid, too, among the Greek government, financial players and powers-that-were -- that brought the country to its collective knees? Of course one can't draw a straight line that connects this movie to that reality, but -- boy -- as one views this enticing rondelay of really bad male behavior, one certainly cannot help but wonder.....

The product of producer, writer, director and actress, Athina Rachel Tsangari, whom you saw (but may not have realized it) in Richard Linklater's wonderful Before Midnight, Chevalier describes, among other things, a signet ring and a game devised to "test the mettle" of males to determine who is the "best at everything." What it does not describe is the actual definition of chevalier: a chivalrous man or a member of certain orders of honor or merit. Ms Tsangari, who co-wrote (with Efthymus Filippou) and directed the movie, uses her title ironically.

She allows us to meet and get acquainted with her half-dozen men who, under the "leadership" of a well-known and successful doctor, are spending a weekend deep-sea-diving off a glamorous yacht. (We also get to know a few of the crew members, who act as a kind of Greek chorus to the shenanigans taking place around them.)

The five-man fellowship the doctor has invited to join him include his son-in-law, the son-in-law's rather borderline brother (both are shown above), the doctor's hale-and-hearty assitant at work (below) and two other friends who appear to have enjoyed watching each other have sex and possibly have enjoyed each other sexually, too.

If at first it may seem difficult to tell certain characters apart (with the exception of the portly and clearly out-of-his-league brother), not to worry. Ms Tsangari and her well-chosen and talented cast soon bring these guys to life so well that there is no problem of differentiation. Character builds (or, as the case may be, disintegrates) carefully and rather quickly.

Once someone suggests the game in which each man vies for distinction in myriad ways -- they'll have to clean, they'll have to build, and yes, eventually they'll have to compare penis size (erect, yet) -- the film builds to its funniest scene involving the man who can't get it up, and when he finally and suddenly does, can't find anyone to corroborate his massive splendor (hey, it is pretty impressive).

Turns out, as we might suspect -- but the filmmaker keeps all this at bay quite nicely -- there is more going on here than initially meets the eye. What this is simply adds to the sense of nastiness and betrayal that hovers over the film.  And yet, by its troubling and thoughtful finale, surprise does await. How and why are as original/believable as all that has gone before.

Intelligent and well-paced, Chevalier is less bizarre but more pertinent than Tsangari's earlier film, Attenberg. It's a fine step onward and upward. And it's a lot of fun, too. Skewering us guys so often is.

From Strand Releasing, the movie opens this Friday in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the IFC Center; in Los Angeles it will open on Friday, June 3 at the Landmark NuArt and then on June 10 at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena. Here in South Florida it also opens June 10 at the Bill Cosford Cinema in Coral Gables, the Miami Beach Cinematheque in Miami and the Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale. Elsewhere? Absolutely. Click here then scroll down and click on Screenings to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Greek VFX artist Konstantinos Koutsoliotas' debut feature, THE WINTER, arrives on DVD and via IndiePix's new streaming service

Considering that Greek film-maker Konstantinos Koutsoliotas (shown below) is best known for his visual effects work on blockbusters like 300 and Guardians of the Galaxy, his debut feature film is relatively light on VFX. What's there is quite good, however, but it does more to clue viewers in to the character of the film's protagonist, Niko (played by soulful, if one-note newcomer, Theo Albanis), than to create the excitement and action that most special effects bring us.

This is all to the good, for awhile, at least, as we slowly identify with Niko and his plight. He's a writer who evidently can't -- or won't or doesn't want to -- write. And he's also in heavy financial trouble (well, he's Greek!), so he arranges for a good friend in London to take care of his pet plant and hightails it back to Greece to his former home in the hills of Siatista. So far, so good, particularly since the movie is gorgeously filmed, with stunning visuals filled with images that resonate and compositions and framing that bring them to fine life. In fact, the opening scene -- in which a man sits somberly at a work table and then slowly disappears -- is simultaneously beautiful, sad and strangely riveting.

The actor that plays this man (our protagonist's late father) is noted Greek thespian, Vangelis Mourikis, shown above, and he has a face -- baggy-eyed and haunting -- that you will not easily forget. Albanis, too, as his son (below) is blessed in the "interesting face" department.

When special effects are called for -- in fantasy animation, below, or in that key scene used on the box art (at top) and shown more completely two photos down -- the filmmaker finds symbolic images that alternately sparkle and darkly resonate.

If visuals were all, the film would be top notch. But theme and execution are important, too. And while THE WINTER offers some ideas -- home and what it means, family and how that apple never falls far from the tree, religion and what it has to offer society (very little) -- there is finally not enough content in this 105-minute movie to warrant its length or our time. And Niko is simply not that interesting a character to keep us concerned about him. He begins the movie in an irresponsible and fraught state and goes downhill from there.

Along the way he meets some of the town's children, a pretty pharmacist, the pompous and tiresome priest, and a kindly neighbor -- any of whom prove more interesting than our protagonist, who begins the film crazy and ends it crazier. As journey's go, this is not much of one. In a way, the film becomes a kind of a character study that is missing its character.

However so many of Koutsoliotas' visuals are so damned beautiful that I would view the film for these alone. But I also wish it were a better movie.

From IndiePix Films, The Winter hits the street in DVD format this coming Tuesday, March 29. In addition to making its U.S. home enter-tainment debut on disc, the film will also be available though IndiePix’s new signature streaming subscription service, IndiePix Unlimited. For more information on this new service, click the preceding link.

The Greece situation comes to partial life in Theopi Skarlatos & Paul Mason's hour-long documentary, ThisIsACoup

For those of us who followed, news-wise over the past years, the horrific "austerity" situation in Greece and (to a lesser extent) Spain, along with the behavior of the European Union in the case of Greece, which has appeared profoundly anti-Democratic and unnecessarily, even torturously punishing. The election in both countries of leftist, popular governments seemed to indicate a rise of the kind of Democracy that might put the people in power, rather than, as ever, the banking interests, the wealthy and the already powerful. Instead, the flame-out of Greece's radical left party, Syriza, seems to have left the country and its populace with one less alternative to even more ridiculous and harmful (to anyone except the wealthy) belt-tightening austerity.

What happened and why is the subject of a new four-part -- each part lasting around 15 minutes -- documentary titled #THISISACOUP, being released by Field of Vision, the new "film unit" created by Laura Poitras and others, in collaboration with The Intercept/First Look Media. Directed by Theopi Skarlatos and produced by Paul Mason, the series may prove somewhat eye-opening for anyone who did not follow the story as it was breaking and continuing. But for those of us who read the coverage in, say, The Nation, or The New York Times, the hour proves a distinct disappointment.

The idea that one could cover the whole thing in four fifteen minute episodes seems odd to begin with. Add to this the fact that the series seems to skirt along the surface, interviewing the same few people, including an actress/protester and a dock worker, over and over again. What? Among the protesters, nobody else had anything interesting to say? We also never get underneath the situation to discover what plan -- if any -- Alexis Tsipras (above), leader of the supposedly "radical left" party, Syriza, and the country's eventual Prime Minister, and his head of finance, Yanis Varoufakis (below, left), had ready (or even imagined in their minds) to put into place. No hard questions are asked of either man.

Instead, over the four segments, it seems that just about everyone (everyone we see here, at least) imagined that simply having the people vote against austerity would be enough to change the behavior of the European Union. Yeah, right. For whatever reason, the doc doesn't go into the possibility of dropping out of the European Union, leaving the Euro to return to the Drachma. (Sure there would be a huge "run" on the banks. But, hell, Syriza achieved that "run" anyway by doing little to nothing.)

In Part One, we are promised the Greek story from the inside, and indeed the filmmakers seem to have gotten great access to and support from Tsipras and Varoufakis. We see that, yes, we're all connected. But some, as usual, are connected a bit better than others.

Part Two tells us that most of the bailout money went to the banks, who were in large part responsible for the country's melt-down (does this sound familiar, Americans?), with only eleven per cent of the money going to the people themselves. (I don't think our country even managed that much for the American people, but then we were not nearly in the dire straits of the Greeks.) Syriza then passes a law to give food and electricity to the poor, and Europe responds by trying to stop this. The country's money is running out, and the populace has taken to the streets, demonstrating with placards the likes of "Jesus: Please Save Greece."

That populace becomes bitterly divided by Part Three, during which Tsipras, receiving no help from the EU, calls for a plebiscite. It happens, and the anti-austerity forces win (again). But in Part Four we see that this vote has no effect at all, except bringing the EU to force the Greek PM into even further concessions to austerity, after which Syriza's MPs resign and Tsipras, though still PM, is finished so far as any effective governing and positive change are concerned.

The documentary's most perspicacious sections deal with Zoe Konstantopoulou, a human rights lawyer and Syriza's most senior female MP, who has plenty to say. One wonders how she might have handled things differently from Tsipras. The point of the film seems to be that Greece tried Democracy, but that this did not matter to those in power at the EU. (Jesus seems not to have come through, either.) The IMF, by the way, has since halted its austerity stance, but the EU is still bent on policies that punish. So, now, as the doc points out, who knows to whom the Greek people will turn next? (The threat of the populace voting into power an ever-nasty, right-wing government is here implied.)

What the film accomplishes best is to ask that old question, once again: What kind of real change is possible without a definite plan and at least some power to back up that plan? Cuba, and to a lesser extent Venezuela, are accused of being dictatorships, and indeed they are/were. But they were also successful in many ways: They had a plan and the power to back it up. Evidently, Greece had only the chance to vote against something -- with nothing at all ready or able to replace that something.

We here in America (including me) voted for Obama, who despite his promises, proved to be thoroughly in bed with Wall Street and the banks, offering an administration about as transparent as a brick wall. (Let's not even try to go after the criminals in the Bush administration or on Wall Street. No, let's prosecute whistle-blowers instead!) In far too many so-called Western democracies, voting gets you a change of sleazy politicians, not a change of policies. Revolution, for all its attendant problems, brings real change -- for the better and the worse.

If you know little about Greece's current situation, then by all means, watch #ThisIsACoup. Just don't expect depth or even much common sense or political acuity from the people-in-charge, in front of or behind the camera. The program makes its debut on the Field of Vision site, this coming Tuesday, December 15, with a new episode added each day for the following three days. And, so far as I can determine, the viewing is free of charge. Click here for more information, and here to see the trailer for the first episode.