THE SEQUEL covers the work of British writer/ historian/economist/ecologist David Fleming

The impossibility of consistent, increasing economic growth -- that growth is one of the tenets of Capitalism, now coming home to roost in globalism's henhouse of horror -- was, not coincidentally, one of the tenets of a forward-thinking fellow named David Fleming (on poster, right), who died in 2010 and is now receiving some of the credit due him for his progressive ideas.

The hour-long presentation, THE SEQUEL, just out on DVD and co-written and directed by Peter Armstrong tries with some success to give us the basic ideas of Fleming, while simultaneously demonstrating how they can be applied to what's happening worldwide today.

The approach of Mr. Armstrong (I think that is he, shown at left) and that of Shaun Chamberlin (shown below) -- the latter served as co-writer and executive producer of the film and for whom Fleming was a teacher and mentor -- is a bit scattershot.

There's a little history, a little biography, and a lot of contemporary application of Fleming's ideas -- after which and eventually some of this coalesces into both a philosophy and a kind of primer on what's coming to this world we inhabit, and how we might best deal with that future.

Mr. Chamberlin, who managed to bring Fleming's long-gestating oeuvre to posthumous publication as Lean Logic: A Dictionary for the Future and How  to Survive It, clearly had a very loving relationship with his mentor, and that love can be felt throughout this short film.

During the course of the documentary we see a number of ways in which human beings can learn to rely on what Fleming called the "informal economy" rather than on the market economy; feeding our selves locally, rather than using supermarkets (which are here referred to as scams); making use of local shops (as below) devoted to fixing broken things rather than discarding them and buying new ones; and overall letting go of our current culture, civilization and all the rest of it.

Of course this takes some heavy-duty discipline, or as in the case of the country of Greece, below -- shown here as a kind of hallmark of the new world, thanks to its utterly failed market economy -- which was instead forced into having to learn new ways of adapting, particularly where health care is concerned. There are lots of talking heads throughout the film, and what most of them have to say makes a certain amount of sense.

You may, as did I, bridle at the section devoted to "encounter" (in this case with a muntjac deer, below), in which we are meant to empathize so strongly with an animal that we can somehow fully understand and "feel" it. As much as some of us might love, appreciate and want to protect animals and their environment, at this point in the film, you may start rolling your eyes and muttering, "Don't fuck things up with this nonsense!"

Otherwise, however, The Sequel has a lot to offer. If, in its positive-thinking manner, it chooses to mostly ignore mankind's history and proclivity toward power, greed and slavery (which certainly fuel Capitalism and the market economy as much as does anything else), it at least offers a partial roadmap for traveling the continuing downturn of that economy.

From Bullfrog Films (distributed by Icarus Home Video) and running just 61 minutes, the film hit DVD last month and is available now for purchase (and, I hope somewhere soon, for rental, too). At the very least this short film should have viewers eager and willing to go back to its source.

Must-see documentary: Patricia Marcoccia's look at a vitally important academic/author in THE RISE OF JORDAN PETERSON

Why isn't Jordan Peterson -- clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto -- better known here in the USA? Sure, he may be beloved by certain members of the alt-right (until he tweeted that, if confirmed, Brett Kavanaugh should step down), and although he speaks out against political correctness, so does Bill Maher, and look where that has gotten him. Peterson is a hugely best-selling author, so one might imagine that he would have been invited onto the likes of an Oprah-type TV show or perhaps The View.

The main reason, TrustMovies suggests, is that Mr. Peterson is not simply controversial, he is also... from Canada. As we know (or actually don't know, since this is seldom mentioned in polite society), most things Canadian -- especially those having to do with culture -- are often ignored or found wanting by our cultural guardians here in the USA.

In her new documentary, THE RISE OF JORDAN PETERSON, filmmaker Patricia Marcoccia (shown at left) explores this very interesting fellow, his ideas, history, family, friends (and some no-longer-friends) and has pieced together a believable and (it seems to me) relatively trustworthy account of Peterson's life and times. (You might also want to read the worthwhile article Ms Marcoccia has written about why she made this film.)

As popular and successful as Peterson (seated, above) certainly was, what made him so suddenly controversial was his huge and angry objection to Canada’s gender identity rights Bill C-16, and a certain section of it that appeared to criminalize behavior, whether than behavior was intentional or not, along with the forced use of new pronouns (below) when referring to the transgendered.

This was taken to heart by many in the trans community as something anti-trans -- rather than merely anti-unnecessary politically correct speech. And thus was born yet another "Let-see-how-much-more-divisive-we-can-be!" pro vs con campaign. TrustMovies thinks of himself as thoroughly pro-trans, but he suspects that he will never be able to refer to a single individual as a "them." Grammar just doesn't permit such a stupid lapse, the use of which, by the way, does trans folk no favors, in any case. Rather, it singles them out for further attention as "oddities" rather than helping them fit into society at large. This constant concentration on what we say -- the "n" word or the use of a "correct" pronoun -- comes at the expense of and takes attention away from what we do -- murdering blacks and the transgendered. This is political correctness at its most stupid and useless.

Ms Marcoccia, who spent a lot of time with her subject, clearly finds him a worthwhile one, but she gives noticeable weight to his naysayers, too, without, I think, tipping the balance toward them. From what we see and hear here, Peterson himself is rather quick to question his own motives and ideas, trying to keep himself on track despite the siren calls of fame, adulation, and all the selfies taken with and by his many fans.

Helping him with that task is his seemingly close-knit family -- wife (above) and kids, along with his still-living mom (below, left) and dad. We also discover all the art Peterson has accrued, some of it redolent of the Marxist/Lenin/Stalin era (see four photos up), a time and a politics which the man clearly loathes yet simultaneously finds fascinating.

If a person is to be judged by the amount of alt-right followers he has attracted, then Peterson is surely guilty of something. Yet seeing him interacting with fans who look and act anything but alt-right, and hearing him speak about how to take charge of one's own life in ways intelligent and certainly possible would seem to contradict that.

When the film was shown in Canada last year, it's full title was Shut Him Down: The Rise of Jordan Peterson. This probably makes more sense up north where the man was and is a household name. It also brings to the fore how angry and unsettled his very identity makes so many people -- not, perhaps, as much because of what he thinks and says as because of what certain people make out of what he thinks and says.

Yes, this is something of a conundrum, yet Ms Marcoccia has done a sterling job of marshalling the evidence, pro and con, and bringing it all together into a thoughtful, entertaining whole. I want to know more about Jordan Peterson and his ideas, and after seeing this fine documentary, I suspect you will, too.

From Gravitas Ventures and running 91 minutes, The Rise of Jordan Peterson will play a few venues around the country in day/weeks to come --click here to see all current and past playdates, cities and theaters -- and will be available On Demand tomorrow, Tuesday, October 29, for purchase and/or rental.

I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS: Radu Jude's film hits screens

That statement in the headline above, which doubles as the title of this new Romanian movie, are the words of Marshal Ion Antonescu (shown on the TV screen in photo, bottom), Romania’s military dictator, to the Council of Ministers during the summer of 1941 that is said to have begun the ethnic cleansing on the Nazi's Eastern Front during World War II.

The movie itself tracks the fictional planning and execution of a particular outdoor theatrical celebratory event to take place in present-day Romania that is being put together by a certain talented, intelligent, and very driven young woman.

I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS is the creation of the very real and also very talented Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude (shown at left, of Aferim! & Scarred Hearts), who again shows us how unusually creative he can be while simultaneously breaking some cinematic rules that many of us probably hold quite dear. His long (two hours and 20 minutes) but never boring (for thoughtful audiences, at least) movie is jam-packed with discussions -- political, philosophical, biblical, historical -- by that young woman and her associates, her married boyfriend and especially the evidently high-level muckety-muck who formerly OKed her project but is now having second thoughts about the wisdom of it all.

If these discussions were not enough of a problem (come on, come on: where's the car chase?), the movie assumes an interest in Romanian history, of which we get quite a lot. By virtue of the fact that Romanian history is so very like so much of European history -- especially concerning the round-up, persecution and murder of the Jewish population -- that assumption turns out to be dead-on.

Our heroine is given such a fine and feisty performance by Ioana Iacob (shown above, center, and below, right) that we are almost immediately in her clutches. She's not simply smart and talented; she also cares about what she is doing to the extent that she'll risk her career, such as it is, to make sure her intentions -- showing her country its unvarnished past, genocides and all (Romania is said to have gladly exterminated more Jews than any other European country save Nazi Germany, together with Hitler's own homeland, Austria).

The movie is full of irony (atop and inside other ironies) so that even when dealing with the most awful portions of Romanian history, dark humor proliferates. And Jude films his provocative discussions in every possible place, including bedside, with his heroine and her boyfriend nude and full-frontal, even as they argue.

How the final event plays out -- we see it in all its detailed "glory" --  is also awash in irony. I won't go into specifics but will say that the movie in one big way disappoints because, if it was obvious to me (and probably will be to you) how things will turn out, this makes the expectations of both the heroine and her main detractor seem rather naive and ridiculous. If we so readily know, how could they not?

Still, I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians proves a rich, ripe history lesson as well as a morality tale about why a country needs to know and confront its own history, including the worst of it. God knows America still has this lesson to learn, as do more and more of the world's other homelands -- even as a sleazy, stupid nationalism continues to overwhelm their thinking populaces via jingoistic demagogues.

From Big World Pictures, in Romanian with English subtitles, the movie opens this Friday, July 19, in New York City at the IFC Center, and the following Friday, July 26, in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center. Another five cities have theatrical screenings in the weeks to come. Click here (then scroll down) to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Fabrizio Terranova's smart romp of a doc, DONNA HARAWAY: STORY TELLING FOR EARTHLY SURVIVAL

I'd never heard of Donna Haraway before receiving the publicity information on the new film about her from Icarus Home Video. But after sitting down and viewing this very interesting and surprisingly inventive documentary, TrustMovies was taken time and again by how much Ms Haraway reminded me of the subject of another recent doc, the late Lynn Margulis, as seen in Symbiotic Earth. Both were/are professors/teachers. Ms Margulis was much more of a scientist, while Ms Haraway now calls herself a "story teller," albeit one possessing quite a set of credentials, though the film at hand -- DONNA HARAWAY: STORY TELLING FOR EARTHLY SURVIVAL -- never pushes these.

Its director, Fabrizio Terranova (gorgeous name!), shown at right, seems determined -- perhaps because the subject of his film considers herself to be foremost a storyteller -- to become a something of a fabulist himself. He is certainly not content to simply place his camera in front of Haraway and let her proclaim, though it may seem at first that this is exactly what he is doing. And Ms Haraway does proclaim very well. She proves provocative, intelligent and lots of fun. But as the film moves ahead, you may notice some odd things about the window behind Haraway, in which the view will suddenly change, not naturally but more via special effect. By the time a jellyfish is swimming in the air above and around his subject, and she herself is playing with objects that clearly seem to be out of, say, Marvel's Doctor Strange, you'll understand that you not watching your everyday documentary.

All this is in spite of -- and also because of -- the leading lady. Haraway (above and below) is an original, dedicated to everything from feminism to the environment, science fiction to progressive relationships, and history to the upending of what we might call "common sense." The woman talks about all of these and more (including orthodontia!), in the process making us think and smile and think again.

We learn about her own history: family (birth and chosen), relationships (both loving and sexual), and especially her canine companion, a beautiful Australian shepherd, now in decline, whom we also see during his earlier and impressive training feats. Slowly and very interestingly, an entire life and philosophy come together before us. As a younger woman she once heard her own mother refer to her as perhaps "not marriageable."  Gosh, somehow she has managed quite well.

Along the way, we see some funny, appropriate animation, hear from a few other folk in the equation, and by the time we arrive at the film's conclusion -- during which Haraway finally tells us one of her stories -- Terranova actually makes the screen go dark for awhile, so that we can simply listen and better process what we're hearing. Earlier in the film, she has told us that "Some of the best thinking is done as story telling," and now we see/hear an example -- one that seems to contain so much that this woman has already placed as highly important in our mind.

Haraway may not be a scientist but she certainly is smart. And so is the man who made this charming, very interesting documentary. From Icarus Home Video, Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival becomes available this Tuesday, March 5 -- on DVD and streaming (via Amazon, Vimeo and iTunes), for both purchase and rental.

MOYNIHAN: Joseph Dorman and Toby Perl Freilich's documentary is year's best (so far)

Boy, could we use him now. 

In our current age of utter divisiveness and lack of appreciation of truth and/or facts, the figure and memory of Daniel Patrick Moynihan stands maybe medium-to-tall. It should stand a lot taller. For those of us old enough to recall this four-term Senator from New York who also served four administrations, both Democratic and Republican, and was responsible for some of the most ground-breaking and important work in trying to bring about equality for our country's Black population, phrases such as The Moynihan Report and "benign neglect" may come to mind to somewhat tarnish the reputation. Younger audiences may simply shrug and ask, Who?

The beauty and importance of the new documentary MOYNIHAN, from filmmakers Joseph Dorman and Toby Perl Freilich (shown above, with Ms Freilich on the right), lies in its ability to show both young and old generations who this singular man was and what he was able to accomplish via his intelligence and perseverance, as well as his understanding and appreciation of the human condition in so many of its seemingly contradictory forms. Consequently, he was able to convince a right-wing President such as Richard Nixon to actually pursue the much-needed goal of equality for all perhaps even more than the supposedly left-wing President, Lyndon Johnson.

As in his astonishingly fine documentary, Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness, as well as in his difficult and hugely challenging doc, Colliding Dreams, (co-directed by Oren Rudavsky), Mr. Dorman, together with Ms Freilich (Inventing Our Life: The Kibbutz Experiment) weave together history (personal, political, national) with philosophy and talking-head interviews that together create a rich and deep portrait of a man -- shown above in his earlier years, below in a later decade -- who arguably contributed as much as, probably more, than anyone else toward bringing the USA closer to its original commitment to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness because he understood something that seems to have eluded much of America today: Freedom without equality is not worth very much.

Even more (much more, in fact) that this year's earlier and popular doc on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, RBG, Moynihan is chock full of the kind of intelligence, fact and detail that will keep you glued to the screen and savoring every word. The film is dense but accessible, challenging but entertaining. And, as we've come to expect from Dorman, it never unduly pushes a particular theory or connection. It does, however, connect.

Take Moynihan's famous "report," which raised an alarm about the high number of black families in which the father was not present and what this had done to the family and its fortunes. From this documentary we learn that Moynihan himself was the product of a family in which Dad went missing fairly early on. While no underscoring or psychological second-guessing are given here, the connection between Moynihan's life and his report will surely not go unnoticed by viewers.

Again, though no cheap-jack psychology is offered here, the documentary manages to build not only an adept history of the man -- his labors, beliefs and goals -- but also a quietly appropriate psychological profile, as well. We hear from his wife, Elizabeth (above) and one of his children (Moynihan himself died in 2003), as well as from co-workers, politicians, journalists (Ta-Nehisi Coates, below) and employees, and the combined result is a portrait teeming with life, ideas and ideals.

Though some liberals labeled the man a neo-conservative, while the right-wing called him everything from Socialist to Communist, the actual Moynihan was, as he preferred, adverse to any easy label. And though he sometimes appeared to contradict even himself, this was usually because he made certain he had the proper statistics and facts in front of him prior to coming to a conclusion. Would that more Americans had -- and exercised -- this ability. In one scene, while he was Ambassador to the United Nations (below), he gives a rousing and angry defense of the state of Israel. (I would like to think that, were he alive today, he might find that little state's current actions much less worthy of praise or defense.)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan had a fine sense of humor, too, along with the ability to "perform" -- the movie's end credits display him giving a delightful lesson on a particular out-of-style skill -- and this seems to have helped keep the man and his ideas on track, just as it does the film itself. The world would be lucky to see his like again. Meanwhile, we have this terrific documentary as both a wonderful lesson and lasting memory.

Moynihan, -- running 104 minutes and distributed by First Run Features -- opens this Wednesday, October 3, for its U.S. theatrical premiere in New York City at Film Forum; on October 11 at Time and Space Limited in Hudson, New York; on October 12 in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3; and in on October 19 at the AFI Silver Theater.

Elsewhere? I sure hope so. This movie deserves to play every major city in the USA. Perhaps, once word get out, it will.

Meanwhile, click here to view updated playdates, cities and  theaters.

MUSEO: Alonso Ruizpalacios' follow-up to Güeros hits South Florida theaters today

When Güeros, the first-full-length film from Mexican writer-director Alonso Ruizpalacios reached U.S. theaters back in 2014, it looked as if a stunning new talent was upon us via this tale of disaffected Mexican youth told in a fresh and exemplary manner.

Ruiz Palacios (shown below) is back in 2018, with a new movie entitled MUSEO, which is again about disaffected youth. But here, that youth is lingering well into middle age.

Our "hero," Juan (also known derisively as "Shorty"), is a spoiled, entitled product of the Mexican bourgeoisie circa the mid 1980s.

As played with his usual sexy charm, coupled this time to more negative aspects of his character, by Gael García Bernal (below), Juan is quite the little asshole, as he and his partner-in-crime, Benjamin (Leonardo Ortizgris, two photos below) plan and then execute a whopping burglary (based on a real incident) involving a number of priceless artifacts located in a Mexican museum.

Folk who saw the recent hybrid documentary/narrative film, American Animals, should immediately note the similarities between the two. in which a heist of museum artifacts is attempted by some hugely unprofessional thieves. American Animals was pretty amazing: smart, beautifully acted, directed and written, with a wonderful combination of narrative characters and their actual counterparts in reality. It was thrilling, funny and bizarre, with a style that turned it into an art film without its even trying.

Museo, however, clearly wants to be an "art film," and so announces its intentions, as well as its themes and concerns, with a little too heavy a hand. It is certainly an interesting exploration of the Mexican culture of its time, along with the everlasting Hispanic ability to spoil its male children rotten, even as its makes clear (a little too clear) that we can rarely be sure of a person's true motives, including those we think we know best.

Ruizpalacios gives us a combo of history, philosophy, psychology, and a kind of heist thriller that would be much more thrilling had it been shortened by 20-to-30 minutes. Instead the movie just goes on and one and on, giving us an entire section devoted to a supposed "contact," a night club, and an over-the-hill performer (nicely played by Leticia Brédice) -- clearly someone on whom Juan has had a major crush -- that may be interesting but drains the suspense and pace rather crushingly.

Better is the scene with Simon Russell Beale (above, left) playing an international "fence" who must apprise our boys of the stupidity of their actions and expectations.

Clearly, Ruizpalacios had a much larger budget this time around (the credit sequence alone looks quite ravishing), but the spirit, freshness and life -- not to mention the ability to offer up so many ideas and themes so offhandedly yet strongly -- that inhabited Güeros has mostly gone missing. Well... next time!

From Vitagraph Films and running two hours and eight minutes, Museo opened today, Friday, September 21, here in South Florida -- in Miami at the AMC Aventura 24 and the Coral Gables Art Cinema, in Fort Lauderdale at the Cinema Paradiso-Hollywood, and in West Palm Beach at the Lake Worth Playhouse.  Click here and scroll down to find all the currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

At NYC's Film Forum, Rüdiger Suchsland's treasure-trove of seldom-seen movies -- HITLER'S HOLLYWOOD: GERMAN CINEMA IN THE AGE OF PROPAGANDA: 1933 - 1945

History buffs, particularly film history aficionados, will likely revel in the new documentary opening at New York City's Film Forum this Wednesday, for it will opens the doors to what (for most of us non-Germans, at least) we have only heard of fleetingly and certainly never seen: those movies -- more than a thousand of them! -- produced by Nazi Germany during the Third Reich. Thanks also to Film Forum, we've seen a couple of documentaries over recent years that showed us some of the especially antisemitic movies the Nazis produced (two fine docs by Felix Moeller: Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss and Forbidden Films: The Hidden Legacy of Nazi Film), but this new one is like a deep dive -- psychologically and historically -- into a particular German cinema that, while plenty antisemitic, is also romantic, crazy, bizarrely funny and really quite sad. And sick.

Written and directed by Rüdiger Suchsland (shown at left), HITLER'S HOLLYWOOD: GERMAN CINEMA IN THE AGE OF PROPAGANDA, 1933 - 1945 proves an unveiling of the past that few of us (even, I suspect, younger generation Germans) will not have seen. Out of the hundreds of movies made under the Third Reich (many of which probably never survived) Herr Suchsland has chosen snippets from a very interesting array to tantalize us, as well as put forth some pretty compelling theories regarding what and why.  What did Nazi Germany dream about?" the director asks early on. Death is the answer. These movies are full of self-sacrifice and an almost mythical, mystical yearning for death.

But, golly, so many of these deaths were somehow "happy" ones -- at least in Nazi cinema. The movie never states this, but I could not help but wonder if Hitler and his closest crew -- Goebbels, Himmler and even Leni Reifenstahl -- somehow knew (and on some weird level even wanted this) that their whole enterprise was doomed from the start. When you dedicate everything to death, rather than life, what the hell are you actually asking for?

One of the many little jolts of recognition that arrive regularly throughout the film comes as Suchsland explains how almost completely devoid of irony and how full of "forced cheerfulness" Nazi movies are. You may remember at that point how often German cinema of the 40s, 50s and 60s was accused of having little sense of humor. Thankfully, that's no longer true (see Look Who's Back and Not My Day, for two very funny recent examples.)

Another example: As we watch those "amazing" parades of German youth dressed in military garb, Suchsland sums it all up: "Modern Synchronized movement. And future cannon fodder." Yes, death again.  There's even more "happy death," as we examine briefly Hitler's Euthanasia movement. And did you know that the German version of Titanic, while banned in its home country, was still allowed to be seen in the "occupied" territories?

Among the enormous number of directors, actors, and actresses who parade before us, several stand out, one of whom is described by Suchsland as "a Janus-headed artist stuck between collaboration and resistance," the work of whom Goebbels despised but Himmler loved. According to the filmmaker, one late-in-the-game movie -- Großstadtmelodie -- seems to actually defend the right to privacy and even happiness in the here and now! So take that, death-lovers!

How the filmmaking changed as Germany became ever-more Nazi, went to world war and then began to lose that war is captured via the parade of films we see. And while, along the way, you may wonder about some of Suchsland's conclusions, it is clear that this filmmaker knows a hell of a lot more about German filmmaking during this period that any of us, so it will be difficult to disagree with many of his conceptions. He makes a generally fine guide to a period of filmmaking in a specific place that many of us may imagine we know but until now, at least, have mostly been flying blind.

Hannah Arendt and her ideas make a helpful, thoughtful appearance or two, helping to stress Suchsland's major point: that a country's people can indeed become -- at least in their own mind and imagination -- the movies that they see. Hitler's Hollywood proves quite the  revelation; for anyone interested in the filmmaking of this time and place, it is not to be missed.

From Kino Lorber and running 105 minutes, the documentary opens in its U.S. theatrical premiere at New York City's Film Forum this Wednesday, April 11, for but a one-week-only engagement. It is also scheduled to be seen in Baltimore at the Parkway Theater, beginning April 27, and in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center on May 11. Click here and scroll down to keep abreast of any further playdates, cities and theaters.