Steve Coogan excels in Michael Winterbottom's funny, angry, compelling broadside, GREED

OK: It wears its heart on its sleeve, as message movies from Brit director and sometimes writer, Michael Winterbottom often do. But since that message is an important and timely one, only the very wealthy, along with some of us more persnickety critics, will probably mind much. If GREED is neither as funny nor as incisive as it might have been, what's there is certainly smart and entertaining enough to pass muster as a worthwhile trip to the movies. Plus there's its star, Steve Coogan (at right), giving yet another of his knockout performances as Sir Richard McCreadie (rhymes with greedy), a supposedly uber-successful British retailer who seems to combine the nasty savvy of a Murdoch with the utter incompetence of Donald Trump.

Mr. Winterbottom, shown at left, gives us a little history of Sir Richard (even as a child, this guy was a major ass-wipe) then shows us how, as an adult, the man has taken over various companies, only to destroy them, while making himself and his family even wealthier. Most important are the sections set on the sub-continent where poorly-paid labor in the factories that supply McCreadie with his products are worked literally to death to make this man even richer. We also see Mr. Greedy making quite a show when called before a government inquiry into his dealings (below), during which Coogan brings forth his exquisite combo of smarminess and "hurt hauteur," as he defends himself and we learn even more of his misdeeds.

Throughout all this, comedy mixes with ugliness in roughly 50-50 fashion, and while we laugh at the antics, all of it comes at the price of our near-constant realization that this is Capitalism writ large and lousy: the ongoing destruction of current western civilization -- not to mention most of the rest of the world.

What saves the movie as entertainment is its central "event," a 60th in-costume birthday party for McCreadie that we watch being organized on a picturesque Greek island then brought to very creepy fruition, as family and fake-friends gather to celebrate this supposedly successful entrepreneur.

We meet his ex-wife (Isla Fisher, above, right), his mother (Shirley Henderson, below, left: an enabler par excellence), and especially his on-the-cusp-of-adulthood son (Asa Butterfield, below, right), who discovers a delightful and appropriate -- if ghastly -- way to work out his Oedipal issues.

As usual with Winterbottom, the camera is constantly on the move, with humor, insult, ugliness and message flying in from all directions. Thanks to the generally up-to-snuff dialog, and to the skill of Coogan and the rest of the cast, Greed never loses its momentum.

Look for a number of other famous performers (like Stephen Fry, above, left) to make appearances here, too. If the film doesn't offer state-of-the-art humor, satire and finger-pointing consistently, it hits its marks often enough to keep you alternately angry and entertained.

From Sony Pictures Classics and running 104 minutes, the film opened last week on the coasts and will hit theaters nationwide this Friday, March 6. Here in South Florida, you can find it at the following theaters: in the Miami area at the AMC Aventura Mall,  CMX Brickell City Center,  Silverspot Miami, Regal South Beach, and AMC Sunset Place; in Broward county at the Cinemark Paradise in Davie and Regal Magnolia Place in Coral Springs; in the Palm Beach county at the Movies Delray and Movies of Lake Worth, AMC Indian River,  Majestic 11, Regency Cinema 8 in Stuart, Regal Royal Palm, Cobb's Downtown at The Gardens in Palm Beach Gardens, and in Boca Raton at the Regal Shadowood and Cinemark Palace. Elsewhere? Click here to find a theater near you.

A sequel full of food, fun, scenery & impressions: Michael Winterbottom's THE TRIP TO ITALY

If you loved (or hated or fell anywhere in between) Michael Winterbottom's earlier The Trip, his new lark, THE TRIP TO ITALY should keep you pretty much in that same frame of mind. If anything, this one's even a bit easier to enjoy because the scenery is a lot better -- not to mention the hotels and food (if only we could taste it!). The earlier movie had our enterprising duo Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon playing themselves and touring Britain's finest restaurants. This new film does the same -- but in Italy. 'Nuff said?

Yes, we get the same constant wordplay, humor, impersonations and competitiveness that Coogan and Brydon (above, right and left, respectively) produce when they rub up against each other. Though, this time, all of it is tempered with some other interesting stuff: family (some of whom join the pair en route), and -- gosh, can it really be so? -- a little empathy from the guys  toward each other.

Filmmaker Winter-bottom, shown at left, is master of versatility. He rarely does the same thing twice. Perhaps, due to the surprise success of The (first) Trip, he's repeating himself for once. And we can be grateful for it. This fellow, who more often than not dabbles in very dark places -- from his first film, Butterfly Kiss, onwards through I Want You, Wonderland, The Claim, The Road to Guantanamo, The Killer Inside Me and Trishna -- might also have been delighted to tackle some out-and-out comedy again.

For their part Coogan and Brydon are as delightful as ever, whether giving us more of their Michael Caine interpretations, or Pacino or De Niro and on and on. Or finally, bonding a bit with wife or offspring and trying provide some husbandly/fatherly advice and/or affection.

Movies like this tend to be rather short. Interestingly, Winterbottom and his boys see to it that the humor and interest don't flag for the entire 108-minute running time (the initial Trip lasted 107). Well, that gorgeous scenery does change, as do the cities, hotels and food.  As someone once demanded, "What's not to like?"

The Trip to Italy, from IFC Films, opens this Friday, August 15, in New York City at the IFC Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema; it is said to be opening in Los Angeles this coming Friday, as well, but I have not been able to determine at which theaters.  (The following Fridays, Aug 22 and 29, it will open at various Laemmle theaters around the L.A. area.)

Michael Winterbottom's India-set, Hardy-inspired TRISHNA gives Pinto a plum role

Best not to make too much of the fact that TRISHNA -- the latest endeavor from British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom -- is based on the Thomas Hardy novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles. It's been more than fifty years since I've read that book (as a high-school student, I read it too soon) and over two decades since seeing the earlier filmed version from Polanski. Because that version ran over three hours, it was able to be more faithful (but not nearly enough) to Hardy's work; it would take an eight-hour miniseries, done well, to do the novel justice (this four-hour version starring Gemma Arterton and Eddie Redmayne may come closer to the mark).

No matter: Hardy's theme -- how class, together with the place of women in society, affects our lives -- travels, it turns out, quite well to the sub-continent. (Just as England was going through major economic and social change at the end of the 19th Century, India is going through its own version currently.) Who better than a Brit to explore all this in a country his own country colonized, to the former's detriment on many levels. (And betterment on a few? Surely the effects of this colonization cannot have been entirely negative?) Class struggle and the genuine empowerment of women were and are still necessary in England, just as they remain needed pretty much all over the globe, and Winterbottom (shown above) grabs and runs with this idea, weaving it into his story with strong threads. Thomas Hardy himself is the only writer credited to the film on its IMDB site, but this seems disingenuous; this long-dead titan certainly did not write the dialog we hear, which according to an interview/review in the Village Voice, the actors often improvised from a draft that Winterbottom himself had written.

For me, Trishna (the character and the movie itself) succeeds mightily in its endeavor to bring these themes artfully to life. And it does so on the back (and the gorgeous face) of the beautiful and graceful actress, Freida Pinto, who here has her best role so far. After her debut in the over-rated Slumdog Millionaire; her lovely, brief stint in You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger; her work-to-no-avail in (and as) the tiresome Miral; a pointless role in the tiresome-in-another-manner Immortals; and despite even her satisfactory work as the necessary woman in the terrific but practically all-male blockbuster Rise of the Planet of the Apes -- finally, a filmmaker has made glorious use of this extraordinarily delicate and subdued performer, shown above and below.

Ms Pinto is rather a passive actress, whose great beauty never needs pushing. In the role of Trishna, an Indian country girl of poor parents who attracts the eye of the wealthy British-educated son (Riz Ahmed, below) of an Indian entrepreneur (Roshan Seth), with Winterbottom's help, she uses this passivity to remarkable effect. It becomes, finally, a kind of passionate strength.

Ahmed, after a few turns ranging from startling to impressive in films like The Road to Guantanamo, Rage, Four Lions and Centurion, also has a role that should goose him further into leading man status. He has buffed up some in the interim and proves very sexy here. Initially, he appears to care for Trishna, yet his character, as much as hers, is trapped in India's own cultural/societal class-conscious slavery. Because he has never had to work, to test himself, to actually fend for himself, he's weak in a manner than Trishna could never be. And yet, she knows her place, just as he knows his.

What eventually happens is as shocking as it is believable, and Ms Pinto rises to the awful occasion in a manner that's just about perfect: still somehow passive, even in an act that seems anything but. Having cast his film so well, using both professionals and real people who simply play the roles they do in their day job, Winter-bottom also allows them to improvise some of their dialog. The result, whether it's in the posh hotel where Trishna begins her "career" or the Bollywood dance class she joins and proves good at, carries a sense of reality that something like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel can't come near (and probably wouldn't want to).

Trishna, 108 minutes, from IFC FIlms, opens today, Friday, July 13, in New York City at the IFC Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema.  It will open in the Los Angeles area later this month at several of the Laemmle locations. For couch potatoes, it begins its IFC VOD run next week on Friday, July 20.

Winterbottom's THE TRIP: major laughs from Coogan, Brydon and... Michael Caine

Michael Caine? Not really. Caine comes out of the two stars of Michael Winterbottom's very funny new movie THE  TRIP.  (A director not known for humor, Winterbottom has made, out of more than 20 films in 20 years, only two that you could call comedies.) His stars in this film, however, are Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, and both do such fab impressions of this great British actor that you'd swear he was there. (Caine, who loves movies, will certainly see this one, and I would expect that he'll be laughing right along with the rest of the audience.)

Mr. Winterbottom (shown at right) is taking, I should think, some sort of vacation with his new movie, which is itself a kind of vacation in which two buddies (I use that last word loosely) tour the Brit hinterlands reviewing restaurants and one-upping each other regarding their superlative impressions of various movie people. Competition and the male ego have rarely been shown to such disadvantage (for the owners) and such amusement (for the audience). These two "mates" are also, more often than not, unemployed actors -- with (as in real life, one suspects) Coogan the more oft-employed and Brydon, the not-quite-there-yet.

Does anyone preen as nastily -- at the same time pretending not to -- as Coogan (above, right)? Doubtful. This guy excels at playing pigs of major proportions. And Brydon, above, left, as the lap dog trying desperately to be the Great Dane, proves the perfect foil.

While the film makes great fun of haute cuisine, foodies and cell-phone unavail-ability (left), it is mostly an insider's movie. From its Ben Stiller fantasy to Coogan's agent to those near- constant impressions (there are some very good ones of Woody Allen), the movie's so chock-a-block with sophistica-ted and/or work-related references that non-film-buffs had best stay away, for they'll probably sit in stony silence wondering what all the laughter is about. 

We also get some crackerjack scenery, The Winner Takes It All, and more impressions. At 107 minutes, the movie's too long. It could easily lose 15 of these, but I suspect everyone was having too good a time to yell "cut!" What about later, in the editing room? My theory is that perhaps there was still so much laughter that, well, they kept in damn near everything.

Still, you really do get the sense that these two guys enjoy each other's company immensely. And we enjoy theirs. Just maybe not quite so much of them. The Trip, from IFC Films, opens this Friday. June 10, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the IFC Center. It'll play elsewhere, I am sure, and then on June 22, as happens with so many IFC movies, you can get it via VOD.