Short Take: Blu-ray/DVDebut for David Gordon Green and Paul Logan's poetic MANGLEHORN

More than anything else, the movie MANGLEHORN -- directed by David Gordon Green, written by Paul Logan and starring Al Pacino -- is a heavy-duty character study. Not much happens, which will keep away those Pacino fans who demand action and bloodshed, via the kind of Al they know and love from Scarface. Instead, the film is super quiet, slow-paced, and nicely poetic in its conception and execution. Pacino plays a small-town Texas locksmith who's been pining over a lost love for so long that he can't seem to break the spell of despair that hangs over him.

His fast-track, semi-sleazy "investment" type son (a fine Chris Messina, above) and his maybe/sort of might-be girlfriend who works at the local bank (Holly Hunter, below) make up most of the rest of the cast.

Pacino brings his savvy elder self to the proceedings, and he is, as usual these days (The Humbling, Danny Collins) very, very good. There is an "arc" here (you might even call it finally-feel-good), but it's a slow one. Recommended for Pacino/Hunter/Messina and Green fans who appreciate "character" and small-town tales of real, "problemed" people, Manglehorn is a lot closer to arthouse than to mainstream.

From IFC Films and running 97 minutes, Manglehorn hits the streets on DVD and Blu-ray, today, Tuesday, October 6 -- for purchase or rental.

DVDebut: In STOP THE POUNDING HEART, Roberto Minervini quietly explores the collision of adolescence, family and faith

Despite its evocative and beautiful title, hearts don't exactly pound in the strange and quiet blending of documentary and narrative called STOP THE POUNDING HEART. Written, directed and co-produced by Italian filmmaker Roberto Minervini, who also did the art direction and acted as camera operator (the cinema-tography was by Diego Romero), the movie is set in Texas and stars local performers who use their actual names and, from what I can gather, do and say the things that might occur in their everyday lives.

And yet: This is not really a documentary because Signore Minervini, shown at left, has written his screen-play in such as way that a "plot" slowly develops, even if, in the end, it is little more that a few incidents wrapped together so that what is going on is mostly shown through the mind and spirit of our prota-gonist, a teenager, Sara (on poster above and below), who is one of twelve siblings in a heavy-duty Christian family that earns its living via goat farming. Sara, shy to the point of barely speaking, comes in contact with a similar-age fellow named Colby.

Colby is played by Colby Trichell (below), while Sara (above) is brought to life by Sara Carlson: All the characters appear to be playing themselves. Colby wants to be a bull rider, and clearly has eyes for Sara. To this end he interests Sara's younger brothers in his "art," which gives them a chance to practice it now and then, while offering Colby the opportunity to see more of this girl.

That's pretty much it, plot-wise, and yet the movie rarely seems slow-moving. As with both narrative and documentary films, details count for much, and we get plenty of them here: about work -- from milking those goats to making cheese and building a secure fence -- and play (wrestling for the older boys, all sorts of mischief for the younger, and for the girls mostly sharing thoughts about love and life and marriage).

Dialog is kept to a minimum, which seems fine since we have a little trouble hearing some of it, in any case. The marvelous ambient sound (which pretty much stands in for any musical score) come through much more strongly that does the dialog. In any case, connections here are made less through speaking than via one character's presence in another character's space.

Visually, the movie is a treat, with cinematography, composition and color all beautifully rendered. There is almost zero exposition. We learn by seeing the family in action, or through what outsider characters learn about this family. For the Carlsons, their Christian faith trumps just about everything else. In another kind of movie, this fact might annoy me, but as shown by Minervini, this absolute faith makes for some troubling times for our heroine.

Parents might very well want to see the film for its "take" on dating, commitment, trust and love. The talk that Sara's mother (beautifully and patiently played by her own mom, LeeAnn Carlson) gives her daughter on these subjects is a very good one, despite its being (like so much else in this family's life) tied too heavily to religion. You can see, as the film meanders along, how Sara struggles to both justify and figure out a woman's place in this patriarchal, religious world. Later, there is one of the more amazing childbirth scenes I've witnessed, seemingly as quick and relatively easy as any on film.

One nighttime scene features a burning cross on a deserted field. No explanation is given, but one immediately is put in mind of the Ku Klux Klan. (The family does appear to have one dark-skinned in-law, but there are certainly not many black faces on view.)  But Minervini never judges; he simply shows and leaves everything else to us. Depending on your viewpoint, you can experience the film as a statement of how religion soothes and keeps us safe, or how it sucks us in by proclaiming "love," while reminding us of our far too prescribed "duty."

While there is little drama -- at least, in the manner that most of us know it (action-lovers might want to stay away) -- there is plenty personal crisis and questioning going on. And the final scene is splendid: simple, beautiful and rich -- without resolution, yet promising that resolution, in some manner, will indeed come.

Stop the Pounding Heart -- a USA/Italy/Belgium co-production released to DVD via Big World Pictures and running 101 minutes -- hits the street this coming Tuesday in a fine DVD transfer. In fact, it very nearly looks as good as a Blu-ray disc. You can also view the movie via iTunes.

Jim Mickle's COLD IN JULY: It's a nasty, macho world we live in, boys and girls. Also a tad fake.

With COLD IN JULY, the  team of Jim Mickle (writing & directing, shown below) and Nick Damici (writing) continues its simultaneous ascent/descent. The budget grows larger and the cast starrier, while the movie's credibility level continues to sink. From Stake Land -- among the best modern zombie movies and a genuinely scary and involving one, rather than the often livelier quasi- ([Rec] 3) or full-out (Stalled) comedic versions -- through their remake of the original and better Mexican cannibal tale, We Are What We Are, we now arrive at this new film, opening today, which you must take a very large leap of faith to buy into some of its ridiculous coincidences and unbelievable actions.

This is too bad, because much of the initial story seems gripping and relatively original for this revenge/thriller/
family-in-jeopardy genre. Further, where it goes is exactly not where you'd imagine, which makes it all the more fun. Rather than give away most of the plot -- which many of our reviewers have already so helpfully managed to do -- let me just point out that when our hero (a nicely befuddled and frustrated Michael C. Hall, below), an utter novice at what he has decided to do, is tailing, rather obviously, a carload of dirty cops, they don't seem to notice. Hall's car get awfully close to the cop's car (at some point there's no other traffic around. Still nobody notices).

Further, when those cops leave a living, breathing man drugged out and spread across the railroad tracks in front of a soon-to-be oncoming train, they don't bother to wait the minute or two for that train to arrive to make sure their dirty deed is completed. If you buy into this kind of nonsense, you'll accept most anything a movie-maker cares to throw your way. (The film does take place in Texas, where the citizens sometimes seem dumber than many of us are used to, if that's any excuse.)

OK. So this is indeed fake, but that first-rate cast -- in addition to Mr. Hall, we have Sam Shepard (above, left) at his quietly menacing best and Don Johnson, making the kind of movie-stealing comeback that should give his career a permanent kick in the pants -- may keep you somewhat enthralled, as will the plot twists and turns while the movie goes from one sub-genre to another and another and another until we come upon, yes, snuff film-making in one of the ugliest scenes I've witnessed on screen in my life (we're spared the gore, but the set-up is so awful and complete that there's no need for the bloodshed).

We're mostly in darkest film-noir/macho-man territory here, and though the movie tries to make a bit of fun out of this, it also manages to go ridiculously macho-sentimental at its conclusion, handing us yet another if-you-believe-this-you'll-buy-anything scene that ought to be short, swift, angry and ugly but instead drags on in its manipulative and stupid way until you want to scream, "Get this the fuck over with!" Well, it at least allows us men to feel all choked up over one of the three guys. Those of us, that is, who are not by then rolling our eyes.

Cold in July, which has been adapted by Mickle and Damici from the novel by Joe R. Lansdale, is one of those casually unthinking misogynist movies in which women exist to natter and annoy (like the Hall character's wife, played by Vinessa Shaw) or are around to provide sex or to be tortured and killed. Otherwise, it's all tight-lipped macho stuff, all the time. Well-photographed and edited, the film looks good and gets the surface exactly right. Below, where it counts, there's way too much bullshit.

The movie, from IFC Films and running 109 minutes, opened today in New York City at the IFC Center and in Los Angeles at the Sundance Sunset Cinemas. Simultaneously, it's available via VOD. 

Another so-so zom-com hits DVD and Blu-ray: Matthew Albrecht and Tyler Glodt's BUCK WILD

To get right to it: The best thing about the new zombie comedy BUCK WILD is probably its tag line, which reads, if you can't quite make it out on the poster at left, "Friends don't let friends turn zombie." In fact, that's initially what got me to request a review copy of this fairly tired and derivative exercise in would-be laughs and gore. The biggest problem here may be that in trying to fill a film with both Texas rednecks and zombies, the movie-makers hit the over-load button way too soon. Really: How can you tell the two apart?

Actually, the funniest moment in the movie comes when a pack of zombies slo-moes its way into a diner, and the waitress, without missing a beat, looks up and asks, "Smoking or non?" Otherwise, this is simply way too standard a zom-com, stealing from just about every one of the many like-minded films that have come before it, and doing so with only mediocre credibility in the acting, writing and directing departments. Director and co-writer Tyler Glotz is also one of the actors, as is co-writer Matthew Albrecht (above).

The story has three friends and one of their crazy cousins going off on a deer hunting weekend and encountering one, then many, "turned" zombies, even as it becomes clear that the leader's girlfriend has been getting it on with his best friend (Issac Harrison, above), who himself is zombie-ized rather quickly.

Otherwise, the movie is notable for a performer who, here at least, looks an awfully lot like one of those Franco fellows but with an even better body (Dru Lockwood, shown at right). Fortunately he is eventually reduced to his skivvies for a good deal of the running time and so provides plenty of eye candy to help take your mind off the blood, gore and lack of funny-enough laughs.

If you're in the market for a really good zom-com, certainly the best since Shawn of the Dead, stream Stalled, a low-budget British delight.

Meanwhile, Buck Wild -- via Millennium and running 96 too-long minutes -- arrives this coming Tuesday, March 18, on Blu-ray and DVD. Go wild. Or, maybe, head north instead.

Hannah Fidell's A TEACHER tracks the affair between a high school teacher and her student. Sexy? Shocking? Moving? Boring.

In the race for the most unnecessary movie of the year -- I know: at this point we're only two-third's of the way through -- it will be hard to top A TEACHER. This utterly pointless exercise in taking a taboo, fraught and terribly important situation and then doing absolutely nothing with it is, well, shocking in a whole new way. The writer and director of this 77-minute film, Hannah Fidell (below), clearly wants to do and say something -- create a character study, according to the press notes -- but at this point in her maturation and career, she doesn't seem to have a clue that doing a character study means that you have to first create a character.

Instead, Ms Fidell simply throws us into the middle of it all -- the affair has already started, so we get no sense of  how it began or why the teacher would risk this (the student of course is horny, as guys that age are, and there's really little risk involved to him) -- then gives us some sex, an argument, a scene or two in class and then a sublimely dumb confrontation. "Characterization" demands specifics, details. Here we get practically none. Who is this woman? No clue. In class, all we see is her telling the kids to take a test. The sex is hot but ordinary (as much as I enjoy them, most sex scenes are not noted for deepening character). The teacher's life away from school? She jogs. And jogs again. And jogs some more. Come on, young filmmakers -- if you are going to take even 77 minutes of our time, you can do better!

This lack of character places enormous burden on the two actors who play the leads, especially on Lindsey Burge (above) in the title role, who is left with little to do but give us emotions. And since these are not much pegged to specific character, they come out relatively generic. 

The same is true of her co-star, Will Brittain (above, right), who looks a little old for the role, but we expect that, particularly in movies about high-schoolers having forbidden sex. We know the kid comes from a wealthy family, so there's some sense of entitlement. And that's about it. Otherwise, he's just a horny guy getting his rocks off with a good-looking teacher. What red-blooded American boy would say no to that? But it might have been nice to be able to see how he had been seduced. Or maybe he was the seducer? Who knows? So who cares? 

Stylistically, Ms Fidell does some of that popular-amongst-newcomers, show-us-the-back-of-the-head routine, another fab way to express character. She shoots in wide-screen, though I believe an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 would have been just as appropriate, considering what we're shown. Or not shown.

From Oscilloscope, a distributor whose output does not usually include movies of this little value, A Teacher (even the title is generic) opens Friday, September 6, in New York (AMC Loews Village VII) and L.A. (Laemmle's Royal), and then spreads across another dozen U.S. cities (plus Montreal) as the month unfolds. Click here and scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates.

Dark, dirty 'n deep: David Lowery's ten- fest darling AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS

Just why do Ruth and Bob, the two lovers at the heart of AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, break the law? And what exactly have they done that broke it? "We're just doin' what you taught us," Ruth (Rooney Mara) says to a fellow named Skerritt (Keith Caradine), who may be her father, stepfather, friend or mentor. We don't know much about this, either. In fact, we don't know or even learn much about anything that's going on in this very odd but increasingly hypnotic and enticing movie. Except that Bob (Casey Affleck) is taken off to prison, while Ruth, pregnant, remains behind.

In this, the third full-length film from a writer/
director (and sometimes, though not here, editor and cinematograp-her) David Lowery (shown at left), who has made a passel of shorts, the filmmaker seems bent on exploring and finding a truly different way to tell a story. His movie is tough-going and asks a lot of the audience because it gives us so little of the kind of exposition and explanation we're used to. Yet if you stick with it, the film grows in power. And, yes, there is indeed quite a payoff.

We're back in Texas again, but not the generally benign place we saw in Bernie or Tales from Dell City). No -- this is the land of louts and the like, where the social contract can most often and quickly be found at the end of a gun. Bodies/Saints is also, and most peculiarly, a love story. It begins with a declaration of love, above (which must then be proven throughout the remainder of the film) and a simultaneous arrest.

This it is is one of the reasons Mr. Lowery's film is so powerful. The style is dark -- sometimes even dank -- impressionistic and frac-tured. At times you'll wonder if this is really a tale of love, or instead obsession, maybe insanity. Perhaps all of the above, as some kinds of love embrace a world beyond mere hugs and kisses.

Lowery has cast his three leads very well. Mr Affleck (two photos above) uses his pretty, boyish face as well as he did in both The Assassination of Jesse James... and The Killer Inside Me, but to a very different purpose, while Ms Mara (above and below) uses her ability to make "quiet" seem remarkably rich and foreboding to create a character whom is actually quite simple. We keep trying to give her more reasons and/or abilities, but no -- her Ruth is as single-minded and obsessive as is her man. These characters don't seem to be particularly bright, but they sure are focused.

The third wheel is the police officer (Ben Foster, below) who has been there all the while, since that initial arrest, biding his time, pining unrequitedly for Ruth and finally, providing everything a man can -- except the sex -- to no avail. Mr. Foster, in an unusually passive role, is fine but doesn't register as strongly as he often does. No one can complete nor outdo these two lovers in the movie's imagination.

The film is often shot so darkly that many of the subsidiary characters -- the gunmen who come after Bob, for instance -- don't register as more than villainous blips on the radar. If Bob's friend Sweetie (Nate Parker) shines brighter than the rest, that may be because he has a little light shed on him now and then.

The film is heavy going for awhile, but as I say, if you stick with it even to the halfway point, it will probably hook you, and from there drag you -- kicking and screaming but also marveling at how strong a love story this is -- all the way home.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints, from IFC Films and running maybe just a little long at 105 minutes, opens this Friday, August 16, in New York City at the IFC Center and the Walter Reade in Los Angeles at The Landmark Elsewhere? Yes, in around 25 cities over the next few weeks. In any case, it begins its VOD run in just one week on Friday, August 23.

William Friedkin's back in business with the garish, ghastly -- and goofy -- KILLER JOE

After the bust that was BUG, the earlier collaboration between film director William Friedkin and adapter/writer Tracy Letts, it's nice to see this once-fabled filmmaker -- Exorcist, French Connection -- bounce back via another, much better collaboration with the award-winning screenwriter and
playwright of August: Osage County. Though almost identi-cal lengths, Bug was an overlong cornuco-pia of often crappy visual effects meant to mimic the losing of a mind, while KILLER JOE proves a slick and stripped-down machine fueled by plot and character and brought to staggering immediacy by Friedkin's crisp, no-nonsense direction; Lett's savvy, streamlined dialog; and a cast of pros who bring things to shocking life (and an awful lot of death). After viewing this movie, you'll never nibble another fried-chicken drumstick in quite the same way.

Mr. Friedkin, shown at left, begins things with combination of thunder, lightning, rain, fire, a barking dog, a black cat, and then a man -- knocking, banging, screaming for someone to open the door. (The exactly-what-is-needed cinematography is provided by -- surprise! -- Caleb Deschanel.) When someone finally does open that door, we're faced with -- ooooh, whoopie! (The full frontal in Killer Joe belongs to the ladies; the guys manage to keep things just under wraps.) From this rather delightful view, we're whisked into a plot that involves murder for hire, an insurance policy, and a family full of freakishly anti-social creeps held together, it seems, only by their anger and stupidity. Into this mix comes the contact killer of the title, whose day job is that of a local policeman. And if you didn't already know that this movie is set in a seedy, dirty-dealing Texas, would I have to tell you?

That contract killer is played by Matthew McConaughey (above), who -- after his work here and in Bernie and Magic Mike -- now seems destined for a whole new middle-aged character-actor career. He's riveting.

The family members, above, are played by -- in no particularly order, as everyone is so damned good -- Thomas Haden Church (as the father, center right) and Gina Gershon (as the stepmom (center left). Ms Gershon can, at this point, do the sleazy slut in her sleep, but this is no by-rote performance. She is, how to put this... immaculately sordid. Church is, as usual, a wonder and a delight: a big, dumb, lumbering lunk, all the sexier for his lack of brainpower, and all the sadder because it is clear that he somehow realizes it.

The film's conniving siblings are portrayed by Emile Hirch (above, left) and Britain's Juno Temple, of Dirty Girl (above, right), both of whom seem to be in their element. Hirch has never played more of a whiny, male twat (this is an accomplishment, performance-wise) while Temple, as the sweetie with maybe a few missing marbles, is aces. She's holds back just a bit (which, trust me, nobody else connected to this movie is doing) and so makes her character somehow pivotal.

It would be a crime to go into any of the many twists and turns the movie takes, but I will say that its last line is a mind-bending, flip-flopping amazement. Not that we haven't heard these exact words many times before, but, as we're often told -- where drama and comedy, tragedy and farce are concerned (and especially when they meet, as here, head-on) -- context is all.

Killer Joe, from LD Entertainment with a running time of 103 minutes, opens this Friday, July 27, in New York City at AMC'c Loews Lincoln Square and Empire 25, and at Landmark's Sunshine Cinema and in Los Angeles at The Landmark. In the weeks to come, the film will broaden its run nationwide. You can see all currently scheduled playdates by clicking here.