An Indonesian cinema artifact: Mouly Surya's pretty, silly, would-be feminist fable, MARLINA THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS

OK: TrustMovies admits that he's hardly any kind of expert on Indonesian film, or for that matter Indonesian culture in general. Given that, he's at a loss to find much more than very pretty cinematography and a weird kind of ersatz feminism in the just-released-here-theatrically road trip/slasher movie from Indonesia, MARLINA THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS. Directed and co-written by a filmmaker new to me named Mouly Surya (shown below), the cinematography is sometimes ravishingly beautiful, both interior

and ex, while the film's titular leading lady, played by an actress named Marsha Timothy (shown above and below), who is also very attractive but keeps her performance so close to the vest that, whether by design or talent level, very few emotions are allowed to be seen. In the film's beginning a man arrives on motorcycle to the little shack and farm owned by our heroine to inform her that six of his pals will soon be arriving on scene to steal all her livestock and then rape her. But she should not feel at all bad about this because: Imagine the fun and delight of begin able to have sex with seven different guys!

They arrive, Marlina is asked to prepare chicken soup for dinner, two of the younger men leave with the livestock, and the rest remain to dine on the soup and Marlina. Only one of them -- the gang's leader -- gets to have sex, however, for reasons you will soon observe.

From there the movie and Marlina hit the road to go to the local police station (quite far away) and report all this. Ms Surya's film is divided, as its title explains, into four acts: The Robbery, The Journey, The Confession and The Birth.

Yes, one of Marlina's friends (above), whom she meets along the way, is pregnant, and this allows us to partake of some interesting-if-oddball cultural assumptions about things like breech birth and adultery. To a fault, the males pictured here -- from the gang of robbers to a nasty husband to the single policeman (below) whom we meet -- are stupid, entitled assholes, reflecting, I 'm sure, Indonesia's brand of patriarchy as observed by the filmmaker.

But Ms Surya's attempt at plot machinations -- involving everything from beheadings to a psychologically-inspired ghost to a sweet little girl who misses her mother -- seem so alternately grotesque or sentimental that the movie hardly registers as much more than a silly-but-pretty little fable. 

Still, when it's pretty, it is quite something, so your eye will not mind the lovely scenery; nor, if you're a slasher fan, will you tire of the slice-and-dice swordplay. For me, however, the molasses-like pacing made the movie's 93 minutes seem like three full hours. The moral, I guess: Choose something other than chicken soup off the menu of a woman you're about to rob. Oh, and by the way, whatever happened to all that stolen livestock? Doesn't Marlina need it back in order for her farm to survive? Oh, well: I am probably just being picky....

An Icarus Films and KimStim release, in Indonesian with English subtitles, the movie opens today, Friday, June 22, in New York City at the IFC Center and on Friday, July 6, in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center. It is also said to be coming during a couple of days in August to Brooklyn's Nighthawk Cinema.

Further 'enemies of the people' explored in Joshua Oppenheimer's The ACT of KILLING

Back in 2010, we covered a small but piercing documentary entitled Enemies of the People (that review can be found here) about Cambodia, in which its filmmakers record the words and actions of, among other "murderers," one of the top Khmer Rouge officials under Pol Pot, responsible for countless deaths of his countrymen, as he and others confess, right in front of us, on-screen. The film was grueling, informative, moving and hugely effective -- unlike anything that I had seen previously. Now, with THE ACT OF KILLING -- a new documentary that explores similar behavior in a very different country, Indonesia -- filmmakers Joshua Oppenheimer (below, left), Christine Cynn (below, right) and Anonymous (who, if s/he were identified, might risk death to him/herself and family) take this confession of genocide even further into the realm of, dare we say it, art.

Despite the similarity in subject matter, the extreme differences between these two films can be placed on the doorstep of both the countries in question and the people making the two movies. Indonesia has a squalid and disgusting history of genocidal dictatorship, death, torture and a populace most likely by now inured to this kind of slavery and lack of change. Cambodia's is otherwise. I am no expert here, but I believe that the revolutionary, horrific and relatively short

reign of the Khmer Rouge was a one-off thing for a people who had, like so many others, endured colonization and unfair rule, but whose religion of Buddhism, inflected with Hinduism, had endowed it with a certain inner peace (OK: I'm being a little simple-minded here, but culture, history and even -- gasp! -- religion do matter. Indonesia, by the way is almost entirely Muslim: over 87 percent, according to the 2010 census.) And while the filmmakers of Enemies -- Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath (the latter's family was killed by the Khmer Rouge) -- took a simpler, more direct and personal approach that resulted in a purer look at people and events, Killing's crew have seen fit to quite heighten their film's rather surprising entertainment value.

Among other enticements, Oppenheimer et al. give us a "film" within the film (above) meant to somehow obscure the events; family celebrations; rehearsals and recreations of murder, mayhem and wives and children pleading for their loved ones' lives; tepid choreography amidst nature's grandeur (also above), accompanied by the famous pop song, "Born Free," which will never have been heard quite so full of irony; and a whole lot more.

Yes, this gussies up the film (it also lengthens it: 122 minutes against Enemies' 93), while making us better under-stand why two famous doc-makers -- Werner Herzog and Errol Morris, who also employ the art of gussying -- are credited with "presenting" this film. If The Act of Killing ends up entertaining us a tad shallowly against our better judgment, it also enriches, making us explore from different angles, while alerting us all over again to how human beings seem best built for killing, hypocrisy and denial.

The two main men we meet in the film, and who would have to be considered its stars, are one who calls himself Anwar Congo and another named Adi Zulkadry. Both -- shown in "make-up," above, with Anwar on the right -- are mass murderers. But the way they've handled this, down the decades, is quite different. Anwar is the more outgoing of the two, a real "family" man (shown below with his grandkids), but he's also the one who appears to be having trouble putting the past to rest. (Though I'm not quite sure I believed in his nightmares and "guilt." In the end scene, he seems to be wretching badly, but no vomit ever comes up. He may simply be the supreme "actor.")

Adi has a much better handle on it all. More direct and initially "honest," it turns out he believes in putting everything behind him and just leaving it there. Supposedly, because of the statute of limitations, the men can no longer be charged. But this has more to do with the current-and-as-ever political situation in Indonesia, where criminals, whether politicians or gangsters like these two guys, rule entirely. (The term "gangster," we're told again and again by the murderes on view, actually means "free man," which is yet more bullshit, just like much else spouted by Anwar and Adi.)

This movie, often disgusting and stomach-churning, will make you about as angry as any documentary you've experien-ced. (The Indonesian TV talk show, below, provides just one of these moments.) And then, as it goes along, you may find yourself beginning to identify with these two men. Just a little. But enough to possibly admit to the humanity we share. Oh, you'll still want them dead -- and maybe tortured a lot beforehand -- to somehow make up for every last one of those poor Communists, Chinese, or any other of the "other" deemed worthy of killing, whom they ushered into oblivion.

This is never broached in the film, but watching Anwar, I couldn't help but wonder if he isn't gay. I mean he looks, acts and dresses that way. But then, as we're in a Muslim country, this must of course go totally unexplored. At one point, early on, I think it was Anwar who explains, "We have to show who we are so that, in the end, people will remember." Uh... Yes, indeed, honey. And you and Adi -- along with Oppenheimer, Ms Cynn and Anonymous (the end credits here, unlike those of any motion picture I've seen, are chock full of this word) -- have done exactly that.

The Act of Killing, from Drafthouse Films, opens this Friday, July 19, exclusively in New York City at Landmark's Sunshine Cinema, where director Joshua Oppenheimer will appear in person on 7/19 at the 7:30pm showing and on 7/20 at both the 4:50 and 7:30pm showings. In the following weeks, the movie will roll out across the country in most major cities. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Action! In THE RAID: REDEMPTION Gareth Evans offers the stuff in nearly pure form

One hundred minutes of practically nonstop whop!-smack!-chop!-whack! action is an interesting, if risky, concept to hang a movie around. When the action is as well-done -- fast, furious, and relatively "believable" (as this sort of martial-arts-madness goes) -- as that found in THE RAID: REDEMPTION, fans of this genre had best get ready for a trip to heaven. For the rest of us, however, a few questions -- none of them deal-breakers -- may remain.

A filmmaker new to me, Gareth Huw Evans (pictured at left), has written, edited and directed The Raid, so it is to him that all queries should certainly be directed. My first is "What's this 'Redemption' thing at the end of the title?" Was there an earlier Raid: Damnation or Raid: Retribution that we missed, to which this one's a sequel? I don't think so. Then why not simply call your movie The Raid and leave it at that, since the plot -- simplicity itself -- entails nothing more than a raid upon a housing complex in which a notorious crime lord and his henchmen are holed up? Well, maybe this is all just a marketing ploy, as redemption is big these days -- even though it more often comes out like redumbtion.

Evans' film also calls into question the meaning of the term "action movie." Is this a work, like the recent, tip-top French thriller Point Blank, which starts with a bang and then races around the city, hospital, corporate headquarters, police station and deserted warehouse as it develops its tightly-wound plot and very interesting characters into a fine piece of genre cinema that is certainly full of action? Or is it something like the relatively recent duo of District B-13 and its sequel, that, while highlighting the action art of parkour, also tackles racism, class-ism and the haves and have-nots with humor, irony and quite a bit of charm? Or maybe what is meant by an action film today is simply an extension of the Bruce Lee/Robert Clouse 1970s movie Enter the Dragon, in which, for its time, the newly discovered (in the west, at least) martial arts were given front-and-center, on-screen demonstration.

The Raid comes closest to the last of the above three films, as the lion's share of its time is devoted to showing us the Indonesian martial art of Pencat Silat, as demonstrated by its stars Iko Uwais (shirtless, two photos above, and above, with firearm) and Joe Taslim, below with mouth agape -- and practically all of the rest of the film's huge cast, every last one of whom seem to know how to fight like crazy. In terms of martial arts combat, The Raid may contain the best (it certainly contains the most) I've ever seen.

I expect the camera has been sped-up somewhat, so that the rat-tat-tat of hands against hands (and other body parts) is near-constant, while the combination of these super-athletic, super-strong, super-agile performers and Evans' editing skills is often breath-taking. I suppose a martial arts expert might be able to find fault here, but I certainly could not.

The film is tight (for awhile), frightening and bloody (the first victim is a mere child, even if he is part of the villain's operation), and when the fighting starts, it is fast, super-violent and -- sight and sound-wise -- full of shocking effects. One of the filmmaker's favorite is picking up a fellow by the legs, swinging him around and breaking his head againts a cement wall. You should have heard the sounds emanating from the excited male critics at the screening I attended. Zowie! The females seemed a tad less taken with the proceedings.

However, at one hour and forty minutes, the movie is -- for any audience not terribly attuned to martial arts -- maybe 15 to 20 minutes too long. The plot, as I noted, is quite simple: Find the gang-leader and arrest him. And since the building he's in has maybe 16 floors (the ad says 30, but there are not), this will obviously take some time. Two surprises occur along the way, both of which have been telegraphed a bit strongly, and the final showdown fights last so very long that all but the most die-hard martial-arts fans will probably be wishing our heroes could grab a gun instead of their fists and end this thing fast.

Don't get me wrong: I'm impressed with The Raid, so far as it goes. But for an action flick that includes more than (very, very good) fighting, I'll take the likes of Point Blank and the District B-13 duo. In Indonesian with English subtitles (don't worry: this is not a dialog-heavy film), the movie, from Sony Pictures Classics (yes, I'm shocked, too, but I guess, as we near the end of times, this storied distributor of art-house cinema must have decided to widen its scope and grab a larger audience) opens this Friday in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, DC and San Francisco. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.