Streaming a missed movie by Joe Swanberg: Jane Adams in ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY

He is prolific, that Joe Swanberg. Since the film under consideration here first appeared (2012), he has made three more full-lengthers, one short film and an episode for a series. All told, since his debut film just over a decade ago, he has directed (and often written) 16 full-length films, seven shorts, a couple of TV series episodes and a segment of the horror omnibus V/H/S. Some of these are even good films -- especially the last two: Drinking Buddies and Happy Christmas. Which now makes watching his slightly older work a bit of a strain/disappointment.

ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY, streamable now on Netflix, does have a couple of nice perks: the actors Jane Adams and Larry Fessenden. Ms Adams has long delighted us older NYC theatergoers, as well as adding immeasurably to certain not-so-hot movies (Little Children, for one). Mr. Fessenden, for his part, has long been a enjoyable actor in various genre films (I Sell the Dead), as well as a good writer/director (The Last Winter and his earlier work, Habit).

Both actors (shown above, with Larry on the left) acquit themselves well in this little trifle, but unfortunately the "script" often leaves them hanging out to dry. Swanberg (shown two photos up) is working once again in his most "mumblecorish" mode, with so little at stake or at risk that his actors are mostly stranded, having to create their "moments" practically out of whole cloth.

Adams (above, and below, right) plays a aging actress named, Marie, who is having trouble finding work. When her young niece (Sophia Takal, below, left) comes for a visit to her aunt's Malibu pad, also wanting to be an actress, the age thing bubbles up. That's about it. And it is all handled with about as much creativity and pizazz as my description above manages.

Fessenden plays Marie's Malibu neighbor who enjoys surfing with her. He may or may not be attracted to her. And that's about that, too. Marie meets a new fellow who might make a possible partner; her niece has some friends over and gets high. Conversations and a little sex ensue.

If you've sat through many of Swanberg's oeuvre, you'll know what you're in for, and there are a few good scenes here. But mostly it's same-old same old. His latest work shows infinitely more strength and power (not to mention humor and fun) -- in the scripts, situations and performances. So we'll hope that this continues apace.

Meanwhile, for fans of Adams and/or Fessenden, the movie is streamable here and probably elsewhere, too.

Mumblecore for (and with) seniors: Aaron Katz and Martha Stephens' LAND HO! hits theaters

In the elevator descending from the Sony building, just after one of the critics' screenings for LAND HO!, I glanced over at the young woman who was looking about as glum as I was feeling. "The thing about movies starring senior citizens," I suggested to her, "is that those seniors probably should have supporting, rather than leading, roles."  A smile came to her face, and she agreed -- at least about the film we had just seen. In a movie such as Philomena, Judi Dench easily commands the screen, as did the ensemble casts from feel-good schlock like RED and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

In the new film from mumblecore duo Aaron Katz (shown at left, whose Quiet City is my favorite of all the mumblecore movies I've seen) and Martha Stephens (shown below, who gave us the lovely Passenger Pigeons, a few years back), the two old men -- one, the other or both of whom are on-screen for the entire 95 minutes -- don't quite have the personalities to keep us en rapt. They're a little bit charming but a little

bit drab. Nor have Mr. Katz and Ms Stephens given them all that much interesting to say or to do.

Initially, it seems that the movie might take off, as it surprises us via a beginning that looks and sounds clever, professional, and even rather mainstream/ commercial. We meet our two protagonist brothers-in-law: Mitch (played by Earl Lynn Nelson, below, right) a elderly, overweight and overwrought (but still practicing) doctor, and the retired and considerably slighter and quieter Colin (played by Paul Eenhoorn, below, left).

These two are in some ways like oil and water, but there's a bond between them, made up perhaps of past history (they were married to two sisters, one of whom is now divorced and the other dead) that keeps them barely on track. Mitch has, without consulting Colin, purchased a pair of tickets for a trip to and tour of Iceland. Colin is clearly less well-off than Mitch and so is soon persuaded to tag along.

In Iceland they connect, coincidentally, with some younger female relatives of Mitch, of which little comes. And they have other small adventures, the very recapping of which is beginning to put me to sleep as I type this. They talk and spat and go places and do things of little consequence, and finally they connect with an attractive middle-aged women from Canada, to whom Colin is attracted and she to him. And that's it.

Some critics are over the moon about this little movie, but I had to pinch myself a few times to stay awake. The performances are as good as they can be, given the material, which is believable enough, but rather paltry. The same can be said for the characters of the two old men. I think we could learn a whole lot more about them than we do here.

I don't mean to imply that Land Ho! is a dead loss. There are funny bits scattered throughout. The two leads are pleasant enough, though Mr. Nelson wears out most of his welcome early on. There is little drive or propulsion to the movie, and though it is as "real" as you could want, it sometimes comes close to being as boring as hell.

The actress Alice Olivia Clarke (above) adds some much-needed oomph as that Canadian vacationer toward the end of the film. After awhile, though, watching the movie is like being made to sit through some very lengthy footage of someone else's vacation.

Land Ho! opens tomorrow, Friday, July 11, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal, and in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema. In the weeks to follow, it will open all across the country. Click here then scroll down to see currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters.

Co-writer-director Aaron Katz will be at the Royal in 

Los Angeles this weekend to participate in Q&A’s after 

the 7:40 PM screenings on Friday and Sunday, July 11 and 13.

Andrew Bujalski's COMPUTER CHESS provides the first mumblecore head trip

Mumblecore alone, perhaps, is not enough. That's one possible conclusion to which I came after watching COMPUTER CHESS, the very unusual new film from the said-to-be father of this post- millennium movie genre, Andrew Bujalski. From his 2002 debut, Funny Ha-Ha, through Mutual Appreciation, Beeswax, and now this latest creation, Mr. Bujalski offers up characters who do indeed mumble -- their words, along with their thoughts, actions, desires and needs. They seem to be among the least focused or energized people you may ever have encountered. And if this makes them kind of special (and I think it does) it also leaves them, after a time, well... boring.

From film to film, however, it seems to TrustMovies that Mr. Bujalski (shown at right) has upped -- just slightly at least -- the odds, the energy and the needs of some of his characters so that there is a bit more "drive" involved in each successive film. This is also true of Computer Chess, but here the filmmaker (who writes and directs all his work) has broken ground into some other new areas, too. First off, instead of setting his movie in the "now," he's given us some big-time nostalgia by placing the time frame in the long-gone 1980s' world of early computers and those chess matches that pitted man against machine. But then, as the film moves along, Bujalski turns that nostalgia trip into a very weird "head trip," thanks to pressure, lack of sleep, drugs, desire and -- perhaps most of all -- the genuinely weird personality of one of his characters. By its end, Computer Chess has turned into something like little you will have earlier encountered.

Like it or not, the filmmaker has managed all this without really departing much from his mumblecore roots. His characters are still uber-nerdy, if not uber-needy, and -- bright as they are (chess whizzes, for goodness sake!) -- they barely manage to put words together into full or understandable sentences. Their social skills are underdeveloped to the point of non-existence.

Fortunately, they are also funny and often fun to be around. The fact that an EST-like group, espousing finding oneself via sex and the other, has taken over half the hotel where the chess matches are going on just adds to the bizarre quality of the characters and events we see. When the two groups meet (or try to), ever more fun is amassed.

Bujalski works in his same sort of faux-documentary style as usual and does it quite well. Videoing mostly in black-and-white, he also makes a visit to the lab for some posterization and finally some bleached-out color (along with some off-track lip-synching). I don't know that the filmmaker has much of anything new to say about Artificial Intelligence or the military industrial complex -- both of which come up during the movie's 92-minute length, but the askew and conspiratorial views we get of these and other topics just increase our confusion and oddly-inspired pleasure.

All the elements for a humdinger of a thriller or drama or sci-fi or what have you are here, but Bujalski leaves it to us to make what we can of them in this, the first and someday-to-be-heralded-as the "original mumblecore head trip."

Computer Chess, from Kino Lorber, has its U.S. theatrical premiere this Wednesday, July 17, in New York City at Film Forum, and will then, in the weeks and months to come, open in some 20 cities and theaters around the country. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.

Want to talk about the movie with the moviemaker? 

Film Forum will host Computer Chess filmmaker 

Andrew Bujalski in person on Wednesday, July 17, and 

 Thursday, July 18 at the 7:30 and 8:20 shows.

Duplass brothers' short, smart DO-DECA-PENTATHLON brings mumblecore full circle

Like The Puffy Chair on steroids, the newest film from those ubiquitous Duplass brothers, Jay and Mark, seems in one sense to have brought their mumblecore experience full circle. In the decade since the arrival of m'core (and the few months since its critically-declared demise), these two brothers have gone on to make several more m'core movies and then bring their own distinctive brand of it to (or near) mainstream with films such as Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home. Not to mention the burgeoning acting career of Mark, who has graced a number of films of late -- from Darling Companion to Your Sister's Sister and Safety Not Guaranteed with perfor-mances good enough to indicate a possible second large career.

Now, with the advent of THE DO-DECA-PENTATHLON, the two film-making brothers -- shown above, with Mark on the left (and, look, there room for you to squeeze in between them!) -- are back at the mumblecore spring. And rather than showing it to be dry, they prove it's bubbling up a gusher of fresh water. Instead of the often passive protagonists found in so much of the m'core genre, these writers/directors give us a pair of brothers (nothing autobiographical here, I am sure), who, since childhood, have not stopped competing -- their most recent foray into the fray having led to an estrangement that has gone on for some time.

Now, during a birthday-centered family reunion (to which one brother has noticeably been uninvited but shows up anyway), this competition flares again -- with results that are funny, sad and, yes, sentimental, but, thank goodness, also short and sweet.

What makes this movie so much different from so much else in the m'core archive is its fraught situation (time is very limited) and the utter insistence of the two guys that they will/must finish this com-petition. All this gives the movie a forward thrust unlike any other m'core I can remember. (Even the in bro's would-be mystery thriller Baghead, there was quite a sense of dawdling to be observed.)

These filmmakers have clearly been learning on the job, for they now waste no time before pushing us into the midst of things and getting their very capable cast cracking with more than able performances. The roles of the brother are of course key here, and as Mark, the one who is now married and gone somewhat to seed (and fat), Steve Zissis, above, is a consistent delight.

As his also seedy, but a lot sexier, brother Jeremy, Mark Kelly (above) proves a perfect foil for Zissis, and together they make the film consistently enjoyable. Supporting roles are just that, but the rest of the cast does a bang-up job of providing that support -- especially Jennifer Lafleur (below, right) as the wife, Julie Vorus as the pair's mother, and newcomer Reid Williams (evidently not on the IMDB yet) as son and nephew to the bros.

As filmmakers, the Duplass brothers keep growing. Their choice of incident and how to frame same grows ever smarter (their Jeff, Who Lives at Home, is also terrific in this regard -- despite the additional task of having to keep several plot balls in the air simultaneously). They still feel the necessity to do that odd zoom-in thing, with the camera sort of hiccuping as it moves. This loony zoom is strange, calling undue attention to itself, but it's no deal-breaker. (Maybe they see this camera move as some kind of signature? Or perhaps it's just an accident?) If I ever get the chance to interview the pair, that'll be my first topic of discussion.

Meanwhile, The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, 78 minutes, from Red Flag Releasing and Fox Searchlight, opens this coming Friday, July 6, in New York City at the Quad Cinema, and in Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Pasadena Playhouse 7.

Lynn Shelton's YOUR SISTER'S SISTER: Mumblecore makes a major move forward

Lynn Shelton, last heard from in 2009 with her Humpday-- the charming but poorly premised two-straight-guys-decide-to-have-sex-with-each-other-as-an-"art-project" movie --is back this week with the equally charming, but deeper and more interesting, YOUR SISTER'S SISTER, which moves grace-fully from an opening party/memorial service featuring a large cast to a movie with only three characters, in scenes that often use but two of them.

Featuring a writer/director (Ms Shelton, shown at left) and one male cast member (Mark Duplass), both known best for mumblecore success, and two top actresses (Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt) noted for their professionalism, versatility and grace, the movie that results is often surprising, immensely entertaining and oddly believable, too. Most of all, maybe, the film is a wonderful poster child for the uses of improvisation. When I see the film again (and I will), one thing I want look for is just when that improvisation is most likely occurring (often, I'd say). According to the press materials, "vast swaths of the film are completely improvised," though it is also noted that the actors used a lot of Ms Shelton's original dialog, as well. The combination proves nearly seamless, and the three leading performers play off each other beautifully.

What makes Your Sister's Sister so beguiling and sometimes quite moving is the psychology behind these characters, together with the loss that they have all recently experienced. For two of them death is involved, for the other merely a broken relationship (of course, for the party that didn't break it, the word "merely" hardly cuts it).

There are surprises upon surprises in the course of this 90-minute chat-fest, and though these are indeed surprising, they're never shocking nor unbelievable because they all come from character-based reality. Ms Shelton has created a particular situation (which I can't go into because it's a spoiler) that in other, maybe less capable, hands would have led into territory outrageous and sitcom-y. Here, it's not. Given who these characters are, it comes off as funny, all right, but real, too.

The film is somehow slight, however; I doubt you'll be bowled over and remembering the movie for days/weeks/months after. Though it deals with some heavy-duty dilemmas, it remains perfectly enjoyable light entertainment put together by a group of professionals who hit their marks reliably and often. The biggest of these Marks is the one named Duplass (above, right), who -- after his terrific job in the so-so Darling Companion, holding his own in one of the starriest ensembles of the year -- does it again as the "sex object" (sort of) needed and wanted by the two sisters for quite different reasons. Like the movie itself, Duplass is funny and real and even pretty sexy -- in his slightly schlubby manner.

Ms Blunt, above, who is wonderful again and again (from My Summer of Love, Gideon's Daughter and The Devil Wears Prada to Wind Chill, The Great Buck Howard and Young Victoria), is, uh... wonderful again. There's an honesty about her performances, coupled to her beauty and energy, that make them quite individual and special. Ms DeWitt (below, right, from Mad Men, Rachel Getting Married, and the underseen Shut Up and Sing (aka The Wedding Weekend) brings her own special quality of tentativeness to play on everything and would walk away with the movie were her co-stars not both so solidly "there."

Your Sister's Sister, from IFC Films, opens this Friday, June 15, in New York City at the IFC Center and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center; in the Los Angeles area, look for it at the Arclight Hollywood and the Landmark Theater. (It will also open simultaneously in Chicago, DC, San Francisco and Seattle -- with a national rollout to follow.)

Zeina Durra takes Mumblecore international with THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE!

Is there a chic word, something in the mode of Eurotrash, for those wealthy folk descended upon New York City who hail from the middle east? Don't offer Terrorist-Trash: That's too easy, far too all-encompassing and not very nice. Still, terrorist chic is certainly a noticeable part of the theme, events and even the opening segment of Zeina Durra's new movie THE IMPERI-ALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE! -- in which mumblecore meets the international set.

"Let's be transgressive!" Ms Durra (shown at left) seems to be saying from her opening moments (and onwards) -- in which her ever-gorgeous and voluptuous star Elodie Bouchez sets up a photo shoot that features Muslim women, the veil and weaponry. Then we're off for drinks with friends, only to discover that one of those friend's fiancé has been whisked away on a "rendition" plane. Or has he?  Since the friend seems alternately drunk/paranoid, we're not so sure. But then our heroine may be a bit paranoid, too. As would any intelligent middle-easterner living in the USA today.

Ms Bouchez (above), charisma intact, pretty much holds the movie together, as she moves from place (photo studio) to place (swank bar) to place (second floor of a Chinese restaurant, below, where you can get -- just like Alice's -- anything you want). Ms Durra keeps the focus smartly on her star, who, as usual, delivers. Evidently a kind of stand-in for the director, Bouchez appears in every scene.

Along the way, she picks up a young grad student from Mexico (below, left) played by José María de Tavira, star of Tear This Heart Out); the two take to each other, so he sticks around. But he, like everyone else in the film, save Ms Bouchez, is simply sort of "there." Nobody here seems to have much of an agenda or interest. The dialog is "real," often deadly so (at this point in her career, writing is not Ms Durra's strong suit): not strong enough for satire, nor specific enough for genuine importance. Incidents pile up, the movie meanders and then simply ends.

A few points are scored along the way -- with an Arab cab driver in whose vehicle Bouchez rides, at the photo shoot that open the film. Do excessive money, privilege and time on one's hands make an "imperialist"? It would seem so from what we see here. I am not at all sure this is the lesson Ms Durra wants us to go home with, though I'm afraid we will. For we have seen the imperialist, and he is us (if we're of the mumblecore persuasion, that is).

The Imperialists Are Still Alive!, from Sundance Selects, opens this Friday, April 15, in New York City at the IFC Center. It has also been playing for the past six weeks via VOD from Sundance Selects.

At SXSW: In BAD FEVER mumblecore meets a striking, if creepy, central performance

TrustMovies doesn't get to travel much anymore and has never been, in any case, to the SxSW fest. So he was surprised to have the chance to view a new film that will have its world premiere there this week -- on the opening day of the fest. BAD FEVER, another in the ever-increasing mumble-core catalog, is the brainchild of one Dustin Guy Defa, who here acts as writer/director/
producer/editor and even actor, though not in the film's leading role. That task falls to another up-and-coming personage, Kentucker Audley, who has, as well, fooled around with film-making in all of the above areas, and for whom -- on the basis of what we see in Bad Fever -- acting may turn out to be his ace-in-the-hole.

It appears that I am more familiar with the work of Mr. Audley (shown at right) than I had previously thought. Not only did I view him in a subsidiary role in the film he directed, Open Five, I also saw him (without realizing that it was he) in one of the lead roles in a film -- Passenger Pigeons -- shown at  BAMciné-matek during the yearly BAMcinemaFEST. In both films Audley was perfectly acceptable, though in no way memorable -- yet the latter is exactly what he is in Bad Fever. In fact, he is riveting. Why this should be so got me to ruminating yet again on the glories/
doldrums of mumblecore. When I covered Open Five (that review is here), I suggested, regarding the m'core genre, that my readers try to imagine some of our late, great actresses -- Bette Davis, Susan Hayward, Joan Crawford (or even today, Meryl Streep) -- doing a mumblecore movie.  What might be the result?  Not m'core, for sure. Why not? Because those actresses command the screen. It's true, film fans: charisma and mumblecore don't seem to mix.

Which bring us to back to Audley's performance. In Passenger Pigeons and Open Five, he's "truthful" enough, but he often recedes into the background scenery. The actor is "being," but he's not "doing." Being is the hallmark of most m'core performers (except, sometimes, Greta Gerwig -- hence, I believe, her move into mainstream) because being, of course, is truthful and real and honest and all that. But it's pretty passive. Eventually we need, we demand, action from our actors. And I am not talking about chasing villains by car, foot or spaceship. I mean the kind of "action" that comes from the realization -- ours and the character's -- that he or she wants something. Fortunately, eventually, filmmaker Defa -- shown above -- allows us this. And actor Audley starts pulling out the stops. But here's the weird part: He does this so haltingly, strangely, that initially, we get this from his voice more than from anything else. Also, Defa delights in the old Gus Van Sant ploy: let's photograph our hero from the back of his head because, isn't the back of the head just so full of expression?! Well, no, it's not.

For the first maybe 20 minutes, that's mostly what we see, until we keep asking what does this strange guy, with his weird vocal mannerisms, look like. Then Defa shows us some profile, and finally full-on frontal, and we see Audley in all of his character's goofy glory. And by hook or crook he has created a character (Eddie, shown above). This poor young man, who apparently has been given little in life by either of his parents (we only see his no-great-shakes mom: Annette Wright, below), is determined to prove himself via stand-up comedy -- an occupation for which he appears to have almost no credentials or gift.

Eddie meets an equally odd, though a lot nastier, young woman named Irene (played by Eléonore Hendricks, below), whom he wants to maybe "date" (as much a Eddie might understand this concept) but who has other plans for her "men."  The scene, further below, in which she tries to undress our "hero" is a kind of creepy classic.

Mr. Audley seems to key everything about Eddie's desire into the young man's stammering vocal pattern (don't worry, this is nothing like The King's Speech). He makes us listen intently, while, at the same time, we're trying not to (it's so painful). The result is some-thing I have seldom encountered in a performance. But it works.

Mr. Defa takes quite a chance here, making his lead character so bizarre that were it not for Audley's ability to somehow hold us, we'd probably be elsewhere -- and fast. I asked myself rather often throughout whether someone like this could actually exist in today's world without already being in an institution. Perhaps.  Eddie does seems to possess certain skills, which might help him get by. It's when he opens his mouth that it all falls apart. Nor am I sure that the film's final scene, featuring a faux-Asian masseuse named Yoko (a rather delightful Allison Baar, below) is wish-fulfillment fantasy or the embodiment of that old saying that Granny told us to allay our fears of forever being alone: There's a cover for every pot. Either way, the scene makes a predictably odd ending to this short 'n sour (77-minute) movie that is, in its strange way, quite memorable.

Bad Fever will screen at SxSW on Friday, March 11, at 8:45 at the Alamo Lamar B; on Monday, March 14, at 4pm at the Alamo Ritz 2; and on Thursday, March 17, at 3pm at the Rollins Theatre. Click here for the complete SxSW film lineup.