DVDebut for Jessica Gorter's doc, 900 DAYS: Myth & Reality of the Siege of Leningrad

Says the old man to the old woman, after turning off their TV set: "It's better to watch an empty screen than to watch this comedy." The "comedy" to which he's referring is the current (well, current when this 2011 documentary was filmed, at least) Russian television coverage "honoring" those "heroes" of the famous Siege of Leningrad by the Nazi Germans during World War II.

Why this fellow, himself a siege survivor, is so angry and caustic will be revealed, again and again, during the course of the 77-minute documentary, 900 DAYS: MYTH & REALITY OF THE SIEGE OF LENINGRAD, from Netherlands-born filmmaker Jessica Gorter.

Though made much before the current and seemingly worldwide siege of idiot nationalism had taken such firm hold, Ms Gorter's movie (the filmmaker is shown, left) offers a fine tonic of anti-nationalism -- from wherever state that foolish form of patriotism comes.

In this case, it's Russia, with its pompous rhetoric, ego-driven oligarchs, and stupid military parades full of medal-laden men marching in what might as well be goose-step -- for all the difference there is between Nazism and whatever fascism tickles your fancy. (The fellow below, as you'll learn, wears his own medals with a certain irony.)

Most of the folk we meet in Gorter's documentary are pretty old -- who but the very elderly survivors would remain alive well into the 21st Century? -- but they are still remarkably cogent and fiesty. The man below, together with his wife, has plenty to say in his quiet, serious manner (she's more open and talkative, but no less intelligent),

while the sad woman below seems still to be reeling from those early-life events that changed everything for her. Though remaining a major cat-lover throughout her life, as you'll soon see, she also tells us the story behind that strange painting of a cat and a pair of killers, shown to the left of her, that TrustMovies suspects you will not easily forget.

Gorter's film is full of -- besides these aged talking heads -- archival footage of the Stalingrad Siege that ought to give a pretty fair picture of what went on there, from the corpses in the streets (as below) to the relentless Russian propaganda (still going on today) that cast the citizens of the doomed metropolis as heroes rather than the victims they clearly were. And victims not only of the Nazis but of their own despicable government.

You'll hear about everything from cannibalism (complete with statistics of the time regrading the large percentage of cannibals that were not members of the Communist Party!) to the eating of one's own household pets, and you'll witness some very interesting conflicts among these survivors concerning the good deeds of old Joe Stalin. In one bizarre scene, shot during a tour being given to school children regarding this famous siege, one young fellow faints dead away as a particular visual is shown on the effects of dystrophy.

You should come away from this relatively short but piercing and absolutely necessary documentary with a new-found appreciation of what the people of Leningrad endured -- along with disgust at how their own government let them die back then and continues, in its quest toward absolute nationalism, to betray them even today.

From Icarus Home Video, in Dutch and Russian with English subtitles, 900 Days: Myth & Reality of the Siege of Leningrad will make its U.S. debut on home video (DVD and VOD) this coming Tuesday, October 15 -- for purchase and/or rental.

RED SPARROW: The Lawrences' (Francis and Jennifer) silly-but-fun, professional nonsense

It'll pass the time and, though the first half proves rather slow, it's at least never uninteresting -- filled as it is with sex, sin, ballet, bloodshed and double-agent spies run amok.

RED SPARROW, which casts Jennifer Lawrence in one of her better (certainly one of her showier) roles, is one of those glossy Hollywood entertainments that, except for its R rating, might have starred Lana Turner or Liz Taylor back in the old days, when this sort of silliness was at its cold-war peak.

Francis Lawrence (shown at right) -- who directed from a screenplay adapted by Justin Haythe from a book by Jason Matthews -- has done a better job of it than I would have imagined, given much of his earlier work. Despite the staid pacing, broken by violence every now and then, Lawrence keeps us alert and enjoying the gloss and giddiness of this oh-those-nasty-Russkies tale, as our heroine, Ms Lawrence (below with famous dancer Sergei Polunin), goes from being a "busted" ballerina to first-class sex-worker/spy for her glorious country, all the while caring for her poor, sickly, sainted mother. Oy.

But most of this does prove foolish fun, especially when actors the likes of Jeremy Irons (below, as spy-master-in-chief),

Charlotte Rampling (at right below, as the iron matron who trains these youthful and quite hunky and/or gorgeous spies),

and Matthias Schoenaerts (below) as our heroine's awfully naughty uncle. All three actors are better than their roles deserve, and they help quite handily in bringing the movie home.

The film's romantic interest is played by Joel Edgerton, shown below, who is always a pleasure to see, and here at least gets to use less of the faux-Russian accent employed by the rest of the cast. They do it pretty well and pretty consistently, however, which rather adds to the old-fashioned fun of the film.

I guess it's time -- what with all of Russia's U.S. election meddling and the recent murdering (in Britain) of its own ex-spies -- for the Soviets to become the world's villains once again. So, yes, we can certainly count on Hollywood to go for it full-throttle and deliver the usual goods.

Red Sparrow, from 20th Century Fox and running a lengthy two hours and 20 minutes, opened wide all over the place a couple of weeks ago. Click here to find a theater near you.

In Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj's POLINA, a young dancer must find her identity

Art, creativity, dance, choreography, and finally finding oneself: all of these themes shimmer and glow, wax and wane in the course of the new and unusual movie, POLINA. A French film with Russian roots, it is co-directed by Valérie Müller and her husband, French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj. This pairing of filmmaker and choreographer results in one of the better examples of a movie that tackles art and creativity and actually allows its audience to discover in a believable and dramatic fashion exactly how these things come into being.

There is still a mystery at the movie's core. There must be where creativity is concerned. But the filmmakers (shown above, with Mr. Preljocaj on the right) manage to get so much right -- from a youth spent in the service of one's parents' desires for their children's future to the awakening of a classical ballet dancer to the surprise and joy to be found in modern dance -- that Polina, both the character and her film, seems by virtue of how she blooms and evolves, to be quite an original creation.

As played by two actresses (Veronika Zhovnytska, above, center, is the young schoolgirl, while Anastasia Shevtsova, below, with Niels Schneider, portrays the more mature version), Polina is fascinating figure who never reveals herself fully. This makes the movie even richer, I suspect. She's very talented, smart and caring, and her love for dance -- ballet, modern and finally choreography itself -- is clearly and beautifully demonstrated by both the actresses and the filmmakers.

Director Müller has made two documentaries previously (this is her second feature-length film) but Preljocaj is both a filmmaker and a rather famous choreographer. This film collaboration seems an inspired one, especially in its use of choreography, which is first-class throughout. In fact, TrustMovies does not recall another narrative film (except maybe The Red Shoes and some of Gene Kelly's work) in which choreography proved this vital and important to the tale being told.

From Polina's ballet training to her sudden but full-out revelation of the beauty of modern dance to her first experience with improvisation and finally to her incipient choreography, each step, and its accompanying dancing, seems wonderfully on-the-mark, giving us access not only to the dance itself, but to Polina's experience of it. The film's finale offers one of the most beautiful, moving, and glorious dance duets I can recall -- giving us Polina, her partner (Paris Opera star Jérémie Bélingard, above, a knock-out) and Preljocaj at the top of their game.

Along the path of Polina's education, she is introduced to modern dance via the choreography and person of the head of dance company, played with enormous heat, heart and understanding by the great Juliette Binoche, above. (Is there nothing Ms Binoche cannot do, I wonder? Except play comedy, when the director is as graceless as Bruno Dumont.) This section is as fascinating and full as the rest of the film, and marks yet another change of direction for our troubled heroine.

Ms Müller allows Polina to work out her pathway and life without resorting to melodramatic flourishes. Thus the movie is relatively quiet, despite the fact of her father's involvement with what looks like the Russian mafia. Without even a mention of it, the film is absolutely feminist, and it also offers life lessons without unduly pushing them upon us. Polina is a positive, engaging surprise in just about every way. (That's Alexsey Guskov, below, who plays Polina's smart, stern and caring ballet instructor with just the right degree of rectitude and sentiment.)

From Oscilloscope Films and running 109 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, August 25 in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema. On September 1, it opens in Los Angeles (at the Landmark NuArt) and Washignton DC (at the Landmark E Street), with a limited nationwide rollout to follow. Here in South Florida it opens on Friday, September 15, in Miami at the Bill Cosford Cinema, in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theater, at The Movies of Delray and Lake Worth, and maybe elsewhere, too. Click here then scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Religion rides again in Kirill Serebrennikov's Russian cautionary tale, THE STUDENT

But this time, praise whoever, it's Russian fundamentalist-style Christianity (rather than the Muslim religion) that's front and center, as a very hot-looking young student makes it clear to his peers, his teachers, the school administration and his mom how the world around them is going to hell in that proverbial handbasket. But if you are expecting something akin to the fine German film The Wave, in which crazy political ideas take the place of religious ones, stop right there.
This is all about one young man's perception of god and what that big guy really wants.

In THE STUDENT, the interesting and provocative new film from Russian screenwriter and director Kirill Serebrennikov, shown at right (which he adapted from the play by Marius von Mayenburg), the young and clearly all-too-impressionable high schooler named Venia (from Veniamin) has somehow got it in his head that the world he lives in is no damned good. From the outset the movie makes clear against what Venia -- played with remarkable reality and charisma by the young, sexy Pyotr Skvortsov (on poster, top. and bellow) -- is railing: the Russia pictured here looks like a teenage Sodom & Gomorrah, with beaucoup nudity, full-frontal male and female, and plenty of sex. Golly, what would Vladimir Putain -- oops, sorry: Putin -- whose picture we note on the wall of the school principal's office, have to say about all this?

The Church is certainly no help here. As Venia notes, the local priest has himself been thoroughly co-opted: His sage advice to Venia's weak-willed mom goes something like, "People who pray live longer. It's been proven!"

Venia's best friend, Grisha the cripple (Aleksandr Gorchilin, above) has the hots for our sloe-eyed, thick-lipped anti-hero, but since, according to Venia, god hates faggots, this relationship is not going to end well.

His peers makes fun of Venia, all except for Lidiya (Alekandra Revenko), who tries to seduce him, while the school principal, a relic of older times, seems almost willing to cave in to the kid's religious nonsense, suggesting, or maybe pleading, to his instructor, "Why can't you teach both theories -- evolution and religion?"

That instructor, very well acted by Viktoriya Isakova (above, right), is your textbook progressive: smart, forward-thinking and caring. But she's no match for a guy with god on his side.

How all this plays out is alternately shocking and ugly, obvious and unexpected. It asks the question, Just what constitutes fertile ground for the seed of religious fanaticism? Its answer is a populace that combines religious faith with fear and stupidity (This sounds something like Trump's America, no?), with the result, as one character in the film reminds us, leading to totalitarianism.

The Student, a hugely entertaining and hot little movie, does not end in any nice, neat, wrapped-and-ready bundle. Which is all the better. It is worth checking out, particularly if you want yet another incisive and scary look at the modern Russian state.

From Under the Milky Way, the movie opens tomorrow, Friday, April 21, in San Francisco at the Four Star Theater, and on April 28 in Chicago at Facets Cinematheque. A nationwide limited release will follow.

It's WAR AND PEACE for dummies -- as that mediocre TWC/BBC cable series hits video

Well, TV reduces so much else to garbage, why not Tolstoi, too? It takes only a few minutes of running time before the shock of the dumb that is this new rendition of the stalwart classic, WAR AND PEACE, makes itself plain. (The latest version uses an ampersand in place of "and." That, along with its utter mediocrity, distinguishes it from its predecessors.)

We're in one of those vast ballrooms favored by movie-makers, where stands much of the cast of this current endeavor pretending to be "period" but looking -- from the women's hairdos to their make-up -- clunky and fake and sounding, thanks to the expository and leaden dialog, even worse. Of the three leads, only Paul Dano, above center, even begins to brings his character of Pierre to something that rises above cliche and a pretty face.

Even acting stalwarts like Gillian Anderson and Stephen Rea (above) are reduced to pushy embarrassment by these proceedings. The less said about the two other leads -- Lilly James (below) and James Norton (shown at bottom)-- the better. Cast evidently for their "beauty," which is but so-so (especially when compared to others who've essayed these roles), the two barely register on the talent front. (Ms James was much better as the recent Cinderella.)

TrustMovies must admit that he lasted only two out of six episodes (which totaled 90 minutes) before giving up entirely. Life -- particularly at his age -- is too short to waste with ersatz twaddle like this. (That's right: It's not even genuine twaddle.) But, yes, it is pretty to look at. For awhile.

At least the producers had the sense to hire an actual Frenchman, Mathieu Kassovitz (above), to portray Napoleon. Congrats, guys. And whenever the proceedings threaten to lag a bit, they toss in a sex scene. How very Tolstoi.

A co-production of The Weinstein Company and (oh, the shame of it) the BBC, War & Peace will be available this coming Tuesday, May 10, on Blu-ray ad DVD -- for purchase and/or rental -- via Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Mark Hendrickson's COLOSSUS? Well, it's colossally long -- and thuddingly obvious

Don't know about you, but if TrustMovies had to pick a genre of film in which it's really difficult to get things right, that would be the mockumentary. Yes, This Is Spinal Tap did it early on and relatively well (though not nearly as well as its reputation might imply), and Christopher Guest has made some very funny examples (hit and miss, I grant you, but much more of the former than the latter). Even a clever, unusual and relatively classy moc-doc like the recent Battle of Pussy Willow Creek still proved a little too long for its content and humor.

Now comes COLOSSUS, which begins with a newscast announcing the death -- shot by multiple gunmen -- of a major entrepreneur named Clark Larson, who has long operated out of Russia but who may be from the United Kingdom, since he speaks with a British accent. As played, and pretty well, by the film's writer/director Mark Hendrickson, this guy appears an impressive, if rather obvious, scam artist. His latest scam, which apparently has led to his untimely demise, is creating an "artificial rock band," whatever the hell that is. (No one here seems to know.) That accent, we soon learn, is as phony as everything else about Larson, for we see him alert his current crew to the fact he's really an American. He then bounces back and forth between Brit and non-Brit accents, depending on with whom he is conversing, for the remainder of the movie. This is sort of impressive, but also sort of "so what?".

From the start right through to the film's final shot, we see Larson scamming, and in the most predictable ways.  He's married and has a child (seen above), and has a former wife or mistress (below), with whom has had another kid, and he quickly cons his current and very young "squeeze" out of her apartment so he can use it for the film he is making about this artificial band.

Larson scams crew members, musicians, everyone with whom he comes into contact, in his own especially crass and pushy manner. Are we surprised by anything we see or hear here? Not in the least. One wonders if Hendrickson is new to the movie game? Oh, this is indeed his first film (according to the IMDB), but what I am asking is, has the guy ever seen any other movies? If so, does he not realize that his film is about as been-there-done-that as possible, given all that's come before?

Well, maybe it is I who have simply seen too many movies at this point. Because I had almost zero patience for anything I encountered in Colossus, having already encountered it time and time again. Worse, the mockumentary goes on (and on) for two hours and fifteen minutes. This is unconscionable -- particularly as most audiences will be able to see everything coming well before it clunks its way onto the screen. (That's the would-be, drug-addled songwriter,above)

Hendrickson's film nods to politics and history but in the most simple-minded manner. According to the IMDB, the budget here is estimated at $1,300,000. One wonders if this money came from current Mother Russia, as exemplified by her sleazy son Putin and his gang, since the film finally exemplifies everything that today's Russia stands for: money, power and nothing else. (Which is pretty much what the U.S. now stands for, too, but of course we haven't yet grown the balls to admit it.) But is the film satirizing this state of affairs -- or honoring it?  Hard to say.

In terms of "style," Colossus is competently enough handled most of the time, though Hendrickson's use of split screen when deals are made or arguments fester (above) is simultaneously clunky and not particularly revealing.

When everything's a scam -- wives, kids, girl friends, musicians, deals, the filmmaker, his accent -- we quickly lose interest and have no reason to remain involved. People talk and talk and talk some more, but we don't care or finally even listen. And we certainly don't laugh much: This is failed comedy, too. Even the music, which is purported to be real, proves only so-so. Unless you are very new to film itself, Colossus may come close to the most tiresome two-and-one-quarter hours in your movie history.

Hendrickson's opus opens in New York City this coming Friday, July 19, exclusively at the Quad Cinema, after opening in Russia last month at The Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Center in Saint Petersburg. Further playdates? Don't know, for I could not find mention of any future screenings on the movie's website.

In person at The Quad!  Filmmaker Mark Hendrickson 

is said to be appearing daily after each screening of his film. 

So, if you have questions, show up and ask. 

But I would check the Quad's schedule closer to 

the performance you plan to attend, just to make sure.  

DVD/Blu-ray debut: John Moore's A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD -- mediocre dumb fun

And the shits just keep on comin'! The latest is the most recent in the quarter-century-old Die Hard series that began with a smart and entertaining hit before devolving into that other category. How this latest in the series managed to open in Russia, where it takes place and a bit of it was even filmed (most of it was shot in Hungary), given that every Russian we meet in the movie proves to be the scum-of-the-earth (except for one cab driver, shown at bottom, who fancies himself a singer), is certainly a more interesting mystery that what lies at the core of this chase thriller involving politicians, prisoners, arms dealers and the CIA.

Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney play father & son spy types, the latter of whom is arrested and soon to be put on trial in Moscow. He's angry at papa, but Willis heads out to rescue the kid anyway. What a dad! Directed by John Moore and written by Skip Woods, the movie's first and best action sequence involves a courthouse break (as in prison break) and road chase that goes on and on and on, growing crazier and more demented by the minute. Nothing tops this in the upcoming 96 minutes, though it's not for want of trying. There a shootout in a deserted ballroom (with a helicopter gunning for our twosome through the windows and walls, and later a long, somewhat lax sequence in Chernobyl to wrap things up.

Mostly, though, A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD is a cynical (though mostly irony-free) attempt to give us a good time by overdoing everything, including the never more than so-so repartee between father and son. The two take beating together that would kill us ordinary guys, then rise from the floor to go on and beat the shit out of everyone else. Now, we don't expect anything approaching reality in these kinds of movies. Even so, this kick-in-the-head/gut/stomach/crotch scene with the "dancer" is one for the nitwit record books.

There is also, of course, the completely-unnecessary-but-who's-complaining bit of disrobing by the femme fatale (above). If you want to have some additional fun with the film, TrustMovies suggests you go to a site where there's a smart and amusing infographic on the entire Die Hard series created by Alex Hillsberg, with special attention given to this latest addition. The infographic's clever and fun, and you might learn a few things, too.

Otherwise, the movie itself, from 20th Century Fox is out now on DVD and Blu-ray for your delectation and giggles/sniggers.