Amazon/Paramount's TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN series proves the best of the bunch

I thought I'd never want to see another iteration of Jack Ryan -- that Tom Clancy character who has already "graced" (I use the word very loosely) a plethora of middling films, from The Hunt for Red October through Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Sum of All Fears (better than middling) and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

And then comes along an entire cable TV series featuring this character back in action and -- what-do-you-know? -- it is, by a long shot, the best of the lot.

TOM CLANCY'S JACK RYAN, now streaming via Amazon Prime, is a remarkably smart, beautifully-paced eight-episode series that will take you a little over six hours to finish. It is more than worth the time spent. Although the subject is (as usual with Clancy) espionage, war and terrorism (this time Islamic style), what we get here, thanks to showrunners Carlton Cuse and Graham Roland, is a much more nuanced look at Islam, terrorism and its participants -- both the willing and the unwilling -- as well as an extremely exciting, suspenseful and well-written, -directed, acted- and (especially) -plotted tale.

One of the many important things that distinguishes this Jack Ryan offering is the way in which it allows us to see and begin to feel from the perspective of all the participants -- the various governments, police, terrorists and their families -- in short, all the actors on both sides of events. When a particular family (or part of it) is finally rescued from within a huge array of refugees about to take their chance on "boating" across the Mediterranean to possible safety or death, it lingers long and hard on all those refugees left behind, forcing us to at least consider their fate, before moving on to more "adventure."

It also observes important differences between the terrorists and how they treat humanity at large and in particular. While the series comes down, of course, on the side of America and against the terrorists, it does not shy away from letting us see how and why these terrorists evolved. Series star John Krasinski (shown at top and above, left) also makes the best Jack Ryan yet, using his goofy face and sexy body to charm us, even as he helps turn his character into something as finely nuanced as is the series itself.

Wendell Pierce (above) provides his usual sterling support as Ryan's new boss; Abbie Cornish (below) is fine as his maybe girlfriend; Ali Suliman (bottom, right) makes a worthy and sometimes extremely frightening and real villain; and Dina Shihabi (bottom, left) is alternately delicate and iron-spined as the wife who must makes a sudden and permanent life choice.

Best of all is how speedy and smart are the many fine action scenes. The directors, who include Patricia Riggen and Daniel Sackheim, and the writers (six of them) don't waste our time but instead cut to what's important, over and over again. There is barely any scene here that is overlong. The series left me extremely satisfied and ready for more. Which we'll get eventually via Season Two.

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan streams now via Amazon Video, where it is free to Prime members.

At FIAF's CinéSalon in September and October: BEYOND THE INGENUE as girls become women

What looks like yet another in FIAF's continuing stream of extremely interesting and well-curated (by Charlotte Garson and Delphine Selles-Alvarez) CinéSalon series of terrific Tuesday afternoon-and-evening movie sessions -- Beyond the Ingenue -- made its debut this past Tuesday with a film by and starring one of France's current cinema treasures, Noémie Lvovsky (most recently stealing the show in Summertime). Next Tuesday (September 20) will see the Pialat classic, À nos amours, then Céline Sciamma's Water Lilies on September 27, followed by that ever-watchable classic, Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach on October 4. You can view the entire series schedule by clicking here.

What has piqued TrustMovies' interest most, however, is the double bill of short films that has its U.S. Premiere on Tuesday, October 11 at 4 and 7:30pm: HARAMISTE (which I believe translates roughly as "forbidden to Muslims"), a shockingly delightful 40 minutes directed and co-written by Antoine Desrosières (shown at left), which will be shown in tandem with the 1994 made-for-French television film U.S. GO HOME, directed and co-written by Claire Denis. Both movies tackle the sexuality of adolescent girls on the verge of womanhood, but the twenty-year difference between the times in which these films were made speaks volumes, both about what is currently "permissible" -- even in France, forever the amour capital of the western world -- and how France (and everywhere else) has changed due to the results of immigration.

Further, the fact that Haramiste is inhabited by two young Muslim girls -- older and younger sisters -- makes what happens here just about jaw-dropping for those of us trained to think of Muslim females who cover their heads as somehow more "religious" and/or demure and sedate than their western counterparts.

And yet because these girls have lived in France for maybe their entire (or close to that) lives, aside from covering their heads, they seem, well, quite French. And quite teenage. And quite sexual. And quite verbal. The film's first scene takes place at a bus stop where the two are awaiting their mother, as they are accosted by a group of boys. They hold their own, while seeming both "interested" and properly staid and retiring. Yet, as soon as the boys leave and the girls open up to each other, all bets are off.

The bus stop scene, however, is nothing compare to what we get in the second scene, which takes place in the girls' bedroom. Yikes. This is so revelatory, and so funny, and so disarming, and so, well, scandalous, that I am somewhat surprised that a fatwa has not been taken out against the filmmaker and his cast. (Golly, maybe one has been.) In any case, Haramiste should turn topsy-turvy a lot of your pre-conceived notions and (hopefully) make you laugh your head off in the process.

Desrosières' cast -- Souad Archane (above, left) and Inas Chanti (above, right) --  could hardly be better (both girls contributed to the dialog and screenplay, as did Anne-Sophie Nanki), and the technical aspects of the film are just fine. But it's the very idea of the film, as well as its execution, that seals the deal.

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Ms Denis' movie, U.S. GO HOME (the filmmaker is shown above), though now twenty-two years old, is actually set back some fifty years -- during a time when the Vietnam War raged and the French (who had their own previous bad experience over there) were having none of it. Here, two young girls of the day (played by Alice Houri, below, left, and Jessica Tharaud, right) engage in their own sexual awakenings and experiences, helped (more like hindered) along by one of them's brother (a young and hugely charismatic Grégoire Colin, shown two photos below, who would go on, five years later, to star in Denis' Beau Travail).

Budding sexuality competes with political, social and economic concerns, all of this very nicely enmeshed by Denis. As is her wont, the filmmaker offers up behavior above all, and we watch, fascinated, as these two girls -- friends, but probably not for much longer -- pursue their own course with men, women, and each other.

Along the way, we encounter an American soldier (played by Vincent Gallo, below, right, with Ms Houri) who will appear again later, and quietly, rather sweetly (for Mr. Gallo) connect with Ms Houri's character. In one sense, not much happens here; in another, everything does. The night turns into morning and a new day in so many ways.

Made for French television in 1994, U.S. Go Home has, over the years, assumed a place in the canon (television-wise, at least) -- and rightfully so. Full of life and the fabulous music of the time, the 68-minute movie shows off these fine actors, at least three of whom would move on to other challenging and effective performances (Ms Tharaud appears to have stopped acting after Denis' Nenette and Boni, in which she, Houri and Colin also starred.)

I would call this double bill a must-see, and since it most likely will not be opening in theaters anytime soon, I suggest, for those of you in the tri-state area, heading for FIAF on Tuesday, October 11 -- and getting your tickets soon. Click here to see the entire Beyond the Ingenue series, and here to get tickets for the Denis/Desrosière double bill.

Black & Muslim & Gay & Under FBI surveillance -- whew! Jay Dockendorf's NAZ & MAALIK

Yet another of those movies said to be inspired by "true events," NAZ & MAALIK, the new Brooklyn-set film written and directed by Jay Dockendorf (shown below), certainly gives its two eponymous heroes plenty to contend with. Yet, instead of treating this rather full plate -- race, religion, sexuality and law enforcement harassment -- as something full of drama and/or melodrama, the filmmaker instead offers it up (with the rather embarrassing exception of  how he handles the FBI surveillance) in a realistic, if somewhat romantic, documentary style.

On the one hand, it's refreshing to see black, gay Muslims treated with the kind of honesty and respect we might see in other movies featuring straight, white Christians or Jews. Plus, the lovely performances by the two leads -- Curtiss Cook, Jr. (below, left, as Maalik) and Kerwin Johnson, Jr. (below, right, as Naz) -- gives the movie what little juice it has, bringing us over to the side of these two young men and keeping us there, for awhile, at least. The movie begins with some promise: a blackmailing sister, its Bed-Sty background, and a probably mildly-illegal trade by the two boys who re-sell Lotto tickets on the street. One can appreciate Dockendorf's wish to engulf some realism, but he spends so much time with repetitive and finally not-so-enlightening Lotto-tickets episodes that we soon long to go elsewhere.

We do manage to get into a local mosque, only briefly, and into the homes of the kids, but we don't learn nearly as much as we could from all this (the dialog, while often sounding "real" is also alternately expository and a little tiresome). Mostly we spend time with the two boys, watching Maalik push for more physical intimacy, as Naz backs away.

Many of the scenes smack of too much overt exposition, and once the FBI gets involved they smack of amateur hour, as well. I don't question that an agent might possibly pull a gun on the suspects while questioning them on the street, but as shown here, this scene is unreal and embarrassing.

The biggest problem is that the movie has no momentum; it simply wanders. When some momentum finally comes, it is provided by, of all things, a chicken. The reason for the chicken and way the final scenes add up also seem more problematic and "managed" than they are believable. And while this lack of momentum does help the movie resist melodrama, unfortunately it resists any real drama, too. And then, instead of ending, it simply stops.

I applaud the moviemaker's tackling of themes this weighty and the performances of his two lead actors. This is Dockendorf's first full-length film, so perhaps we'll see more and better in time to come.

From Wolfe Releasing and running 86 minutes, after a successful LGBT film festival exposure, the movie has its theatrical debut in New York City at the Cinema Village this Friday, January 22, with a DVD and digital release from Wolfe Video fast following on Tuesday, January 26.