Blu-ray debut for Park Chan-wook's early South Korean hit, JSA--JOINT SECURITY AREA

What a treasure is this movie from 2000 -- a huge success in its home country of South Korea but not even seen in the USA until June of 2005 (in a very limited number of art houses, followed by a DVD release the next month). 

I first caught up with it on DVD maybe 15 years ago, when my knowledge of South Korea and its cinema was a great deal more limited. Seeing it again now is even further eye-, mind- and heart-opening. JSA--JOINT SECURITY AREA is certainly one of the most moving South Korean films so far, especially for anyone who cares about Korea's heritage as a single and probably-should-never-have-been-divided nation.

Directed and co-written (based on the novel DMZ by Park Sang-yeon) by noted Korean director Park Chan-wook (shown at left), the film takes off from an incident -- bullets whiz, bodies fall -- that happens in a North Korean military house located in that titular JSA, a kind of demilitarized zone that marks the border between the Koreas of the north and south. 

Exactly what happened, and more importantly why, form the meat of the movie, which takes us back in time to a point at which the main characters -- a couple of soldiers from North Korea meet one (Lee Byung-hun, below, left) and then two of their military "brothers" from the south.

In order to somehow "play fair" toward both north and south, special investigators -- one of whom is a Swiss woman born of a Korean father (Lee Yeong-ae, above, right) are called in to determine what happened, and this beautifully crafted (as are all of Mr. Park's films that TrustMovies has seen) piece of filmmaking then toggles between the current investigation and back to, piece by piece, what actually occurred in that bullet-ridden house. 

It is little wonder that the film took South Korea by storm, since for decades the north and the south had been considering each other as practically alien life forms. The bond that forms between these four soldiers, along with how this happens, is so believable and moving, filled with detail that both Koreans and outsiders can appreciate, that JSA takes its place among the great anti-war (and anti-division) films without even including any actual "war," save the one single shooting incident and its immediate aftermath.

Both Ms Lee and Mr. Lee (not related) are first-rate, but the third important actor in the film is also one of the best in the world right now: the great Song Kang-ho (shown center, above, and atop the poster image at the start of this post), who at this point in his career had yet to appear in Memories of Murder, The Host, Secret Sunshine, Snowpiercer and last year's Oscar champ, Parasite. Mr Song so nails his conflicted-but-caring character that he, as usual, walks away with the movie without even trying.

Among the Bonus Features is a splendid 35-minute assessment by writer/critic Jasper Sharp of JSA and the career of Mr. Park (which has these days been eclipsed by that of Bong Joon-ho's), while the Blu-ray transfer of this beautiful -- in so many ways -- film is quite good. If you have never seen JSA, now's your chance. After 21 years, it already has stood (and I believe it will continue to stand) the test of time quite well. Maybe even until the two Koreas are again united -- if the world lasts long enough.

From Arrow Video (distributed here in the USA via MVD Entertainment Group), in Korean and some English, with English subtitles, and running 109 minutes, JSA--Joint Security Area became available last week on Blu-ray -- for purchase and I hope also somewhere for rental, too. Click here for more information.

An all-time great? Very probably. Leo Hurwitz's amazing, ever-current doc, STRANGE VICTORY

It says things that were simply never spoken of on film at the time. Couple this with visuals of gorgeous, harrowing power and you have a documentary -- a hybrid way ahead of its time -- that appears as current today as it must have seemed shocking, unforgettable and (unfortunately for the filmmaker and his subsequent career) unforgivable when it first was shown back in 1948.  STRANGE VICTORY is a hybrid documentary film I had not even heard of until I received a press release from its Blu-ray distributor, Milestone Films. Now, having experienced the movie (and a number of fine Bonus Features on the disc), I can attest -- along with a bunch of other critics -- that this is one film I shall never forget.

Though initially receiving a good-to-magnificent reception from early screenings, once the "establishment" had weighed in on the film, its writer/director Leo Hurwitz (shown at right) found himself pretty much blacklisted from being able to work in either television (in its early stages) or film.

This was because he told the truth about prejudice and racism in America back at the near-mid-20th-Century, and the powers-that-be did not want to hear this. Nor did they want the American people to hear it. They still don't. And this fact makes the movie, if this is even possible, more timely than ever.

It is just post-World War II America, and the Allies have won. So why, Hurwitz asks, does the voice and message of Adolf Hitler still pursue us? He answers this in a number of different ways and using differing means: gloriously filmed black-and-white images -- some archival (below), others shot for this movie (his cinematographers were Peter Glushanok and George Jacobson) -- that resonate with both meaning and art, and a beautifully written narration narration by Hurwitz himself that quietly, steadily, sorrowfully implicates us all in the continual holding down and back of the "others."

These would be, of course, blacks, Jews, Asians, even Catholics. Anyone who was not White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. The narration sways and rolls, coming back again to prejudice in the film's most haunting sequence, taking place in a hospital room full of newborns, as our narrator explains to them what they can expect from life -- and why. This is such strong, powerful stuff that the fact that it was gifted to us 70 years ago and then not given the chance to be seen seems close to criminal. As you view the film, your realization of how little has changed in so many ways should be at least salutary, if not, finally, a call to action.

How and why Hitler was able to rise to power is also part of the narrative here. The message -- of demagogues, racism and the death of democracy -- is a vital one. But for the simply amazing visuals alone -- beautiful/ugly and resonating like crazy -- the film is a must-see. Talk about "telling it like it is." This is the documentary that first nailed it.

Strange Victory lasts only 64 minutes (on the IMDB, the doc's length is said to be 71 minutes, so I am assuming seven minutes were lost to this 2K new restoration/transfer from the original 1948 nitrate interpositive), which may also partially account as an excuse for why a theatrical run proved more difficult. But it is here now -- and really must be seen

From Milestone Films and The Milestone Cinematheque, the documentary hits the street on DVD and Blu-ray this coming Tuesday, August 14 -- for purchase and (I would hope) rental.

The disc's bonus features include the 2K restoration of Strange Victory from the original 35mm nitrate fine grain master; Leo Hurwitz’s surprising 1964 epilogue to the film, celebrating Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement; Leo Hurwitz speaking about Strange Victory, courtesy of Ingela Romare, from her 1992 film, On Time, Art, Love, and Trees: A Meeting with Leo T. Hurwitz; Barney Rosset (who produced the documentary) speaking about Strange Victory, courtesy of CUNY TV City Cinematheque and interviewer Jerry Carlson; plus six films from Hurwitz’s years as a member of the Worker’s Film and Photo League and Nykino, Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC: National Hunger March 1931, Bonus March 1932, Hunger March 1932, America Today, World in Review, and Pie in the Sky (a funny, cogent, "silent" film co-starring Elia Kazan, and made prior to his sell-out).

Netflix streaming must-see -- EXTINCTION gives the idea of the "other" a real workout

Gosh, do we need a movie like this one now. In our age of Trump-fueled hatred toward anyone who's different  -- Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, and whoever else is not white shite -- along comes EXTINCTION, a new film from director Ben Young and writers Spenser Cohen, Brad Caleb Kane, and perhaps Eric Heisserer (who. if so, now goes uncredited on the IMDB), that gives "the other" the kind of workout this subject has not had in quite some time.

Extinction effectively turns inside out our expectations and assumptions and in the process forces us as gently and completely as possible to embrace that other because we have already so firmly put ourselves in its place.  This is an accomplishment I can't recall another movie managing, and certainly not this well. This is due to the smart script and direction but also to the fine performances of its leading characters, a father and mother -- played by Michael Peña and Lizzy Caplan (above and below) -- of a family under siege from alien invaders.

Though the movie begins with our hero having dreams about the very thing that's about to happen -- which already sounds a bit been-there-done-that -- once reality has made it self clear, so many plot points are suddenly explained that don't simply make sense but also seem to be an especially clever manner in which to have conceived and executed the story.

How good it is to see Mr. Peña in a leading role as a smart, caring family man. He's a perfect "everyman," which is just what the role needs, and Ms Caplan adds her usual spunk and charm to the proceedings. The scene in which the two of them first meet is as graceful, lovely and warm as anything you'll have seen -- and twice that, given the context here.

The supporting cast is fine, too, with Israel Broussard a standout as the unusual character named Miles with whom our current President could never begin to understand or identify. I hope I have not said too much already to result in a spoiler. Just stick Extinction on your Netflix queue and watch it ASAP. You're in for a wild action ride, especially in the first half of the film, and then, in the latter half, oh, boy. 
Oooooooooh, boy.

Guillaume Gallienne's ME. MYSELF AND MUM returns to FIAF for its current comedy series

When the César-winning Best Film of the Year, ME. MYSELF AND MUM, first appeared at FIAF back in 2014, TrustMovies suggested a look-see at this stylish, funny and oddly ground-breaking-yet-cliched look at the perception of being gay in France today (or, at least, fairly recently). The multi-award-winning movie is back again this year as part of FIAF's  new CinéSalon series, Comedy on Film: What makes the French laugh?

If you did not take a gander at the film first time around (or if you did, you might just want to take another look), please do so, because it has probably aged well and may prove even better on repeated viewings. M. Gallienne (shown above), who not only directed the film and adapted it (with a couple of co-scribes) from his successful stage play, also stars in it, playing both himself (as everything from schoolboy, below, left, to adult, above) and his very bizarre mother (shown at bottom, left).

I covered the film at length when it made its FIAF debut three years ago, so I won't take up too much more space now (you can read that original review by clicking here). But what Gallienne accomplishes proves not just very funny but bracing and thought-provoking regarding how our perceptions, true or not, so often limit and/or change the lives of those around us.

Me, Myself and Mum (its much better French title is Les garçons et Guillaume, à table!) will play FIAF's CinéSalon this coming Tuesday, January 17, at both 4pm and 7:30, with pleasant conversation and free wine and beer after both screenings. To see about venue and/or ticket availability, click here.

Enriching, soulful, sorrowful: James Schamus' adaptation of Philip Roth's INDIGNATION

We're nowhere near the end the year, yet all these wonderful "year's bests" keep appearing. You'd think it was December -- or at least autumn -- already: The Innocents, Captain Fantastic, Homo Sapiens, Hell or High Water (which I won't be reviewing for a couple more weeks). And now appears a new --  and for my money best -- adaptation of a Philip Roth work to yet hit the screen.

It is the first full-length film to be directed by an icon of American independent cinema, James Schamus, and what a lovely job he has done! Granted, many of us movie lovers, who have such a soft spot in our hearts for Mr. Schamus as a groundbreaking producer over decades now, were no doubt hoping for something good. But this has exceeded all our -- mine, at least -- expectations. (And TrustMovies is not a huge fan of the work of Mr. Roth.) I have not read the particular Roth novel on which the film is based, but unless Mr Schamus has changed things rather drastically, this would appear to be one of the kindest and most caring of this author's works.

I don't believe that the filmmaker has sentimentalized things, either. INDIGNATION seems more a clear-eyed and honest -- if  quiet and unshowy -- look at 1950s America, in which to be at all "other" (whether Jewish, or atheist, or a sexually-active-and-happy-about-it young woman) is to court reprobation, if not outright shunning. Fit into the groove, please. Or keep silent. Or get out of town.

Our hero, Marcus -- played with a quiet strength and masculine beauty by Logan Lerman, (center, two photos above) in what is certainly his best role yet -- is both a Jew and an atheist who has come from New Jersey to attend a posh college in Ohio (where Jews have their very own dormitory -- and are expected to join it forthwith). Olivia, the young woman he meets and is very attracted to (the also beautiful Sarah Gadon, above, who comes across here as strongly as I've yet seen her on screen), is so sexually forward that she throws our young man for a loop. But, boy, does he try to figure all this out and make things "work." (Most young people will not have a clue what it was like to have lived though the uber-conforming, sexually rigid 1950s. This movie provides as good a foundation as any.)

At odds with Marcus -- even though they would want to think quite otherwise -- are the school's Dean (a splendid job by actor playwright Tracy Letts, above) and our boy's own mother (yes, this is Philip Roth novel, after all), brought to immense life and even greater strength by Linda Emond, below. (In a smaller role, Danny Burstein plays Marcus' father as a man sadly unravelling.)

Ms Emond has a scene toward the conclusion of the film that is as strong as any we've seen so far this year. She should be a shoo-in for a Best Supporting Actress nod. The scene involves her wringing a promise from her son that is perfectly understandable -- and yet you'll want to put your fist through her face for demanding it. (This is the second great "mother" scene this year, after Noémie Lvovsky's turn in the recent Summertime.)

Dialog is vital in this movie, and so well has Mr. Schamus coaxed his cast that you'll hang on every word. There's one scene midway along between Lerman and Letts that becomes an immediate classic of its kind. Visually, too, the director/screenwriter-adaptor has done some beautiful stuff -- especially the manner in which he ties beginning and end to all that has come in between. This is a quiet movie. And yet it is so full of life that, in its own way, it surges. I would not have missed it, and I can't wait to see it again, once it hits home video.

From Roadside Attractions, Indignation, after premiering in New York and Los Angeles last week, opens this Friday, August 5, here in South Florida (and elsewhere) -- in Miami at the AMC Aventura and Regal South Beach; in Ft. Lauderdale at The Classic Gateway Theatre; in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theatres and Regal Shadowood 16; and at the Movies of Delray in Delray Beach. The film will expand into even more theaters on August 12. 

François Ozon adapts Ruth Rendell in cross-dressing dram-com, THE NEW GIRLFRIEND

The first ten minutes of THE NEW GIRLFRIEND -- the latest in a long line of very interesting and mostly successful (to one degree or another) films by French auteur François Ozon -- are so witty, entertaining and compact that they give you something like the entire experience of Beaches done in delightful movie shorthand. These few minutes also features two stunningly beautiful young girls (M. Ozon, below, is very handy at discovering gorgeous young performers of either gender).

These young actresses -- Mayline Dubois and Anna Monedière -- morph into two beautiful and talented adult counterparts, Isild Le Besco (below, left) and Anaïs Demoustier (below, right). It's wonderful to see the former on screen again, while the latter is quickly garnering quite a lengthy resume of smart roles, well performed). The two play best friends since childhood, and the untimely death of one of them leaves the other, as well as the widower and his infant child, bereft. Normally, the result of all this would make for high drama or maybe middle-brow melodrama. But since the story comes from a Ruth Rendell novel adapted by Ozon, there clearly will be something different in store. And given what we know of Rendell's work, there may be some murder or crime involved.

Well, forget about that -- because Ozon himself evidently did. It's a red herring at best, and one of the critical quotes in the film's advertisement that references Hitchcock seems almost willfully wrongheaded. What we have instead is one of Rendell's journeys into the psyche of an odd and misplaced person -- this time a man whose greatest happiness comes from cross-dressing as a woman.

This does not, I should warn, have anything to do with homosexuality per se, as our gentleman still still prefers the ladies, nor does he appear to want to make any move toward transgendering. His cock, as we see in one particular scene, is still very much on active and pleasurable duty. What the film explores instead -- via its leading man Romain Duris, shown above and below, who gives another of his probing, insightful performances -- is the nature of cross-dressing: where it comes from, what it entails, and how the doer, as well as the world around him, must adapt to this new "stance."

All this is interesting -- alternately fun and unsettling -- for a time. Yet the movie begins to drag, as the back-and-forth situations and banter between David and his female side Virginia (M. Duris) and his late wife's best friend (Ms Demoustier) goes hot then cold, then hot again.

The performances are fine, as far as they are allowed to go, but because we also become a bit involved with the late woman's parents (Aurore Clément, above, right, plays her mom) and Demoustier's hubby (the gorgeous Raphaël Personnaz, shown below, and somewhat wasted in this role), we never get to spend the time necessary to probe David/Virginia deeply enough.

Still, the movie is never dull, even if coincidence plays a bit too large a role in all of it. And Ozon's explorations into the lives of the "other" and the perhaps thin line that separates what's normal from what's not -- here particularly noteworthy in a drag night club in which a thoughtful and poignant song is sung -- nearly always prove worth experiencing.

If this is one of the writer/director's lesser and more obvious efforts (for my taste In the House is by far his most mature and exceptional movie), it's still worth a viewing, especially for fans of this singular auteur.

The New Girlfriend -- from Cohen Media Group, in French with English subtitles, and running 108 minutes -- opens this Friday, September 18, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema , the Bow Tie Chelsea, and the Landmark Sunshine Cinema; in Los Angeles at The Landmark; and in San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Seattle -- with a limited national rollout across the country in the weeks to come. Click here and scroll down to see currently scheduled dates, cities & theaters.

Update: Cohen Media Group will release the Blu-ray 

and DVD of The New Girlfriend on January 26, 2016

Daniel Peddle's SUNSET EDGE: Don't let this precious narrative debut get lost in the shuffle

Another of those small, no-budget indie films likely to appear in theaters and then disappear before film buffs get the chance to view it, SUNSET EDGE -- the first narrative venture from Daniel Peddle, who has also made a couple of well-received-if-little-seen documentaries -- heralds the debut of someone I'd call a born filmmaker. Nowhere near perfect in terms of a story that attempts to fuse dream and reality, it nonetheless marks a writer/director (Peddle) and cameraman/editor (Karim López) cons-tantly alert to color & space, objects & mood, motion & stasis.

Because the movie Misters Peddle (shown at left) and López (shown below) have made is about a group of teenagers spending a day in an abandoned trailer park, and is also being publicized as a kind of thriller complete with Hitchcockian overtones, you might expect something quite different from what you get. Yet I think this difference ought to be apparent from the film's first few moments. While the initial shot -- full of promise and perhaps something more -- together with the first words we hear (one character telling another, "I don't think you should do it") indicate that

something may be (or go) wrong, because the teens we see and hear seem so real and actually rather likeable, and the camera-work so fluid and aware -- of nature, of humanity, of connection -- it is difficult to imagine some-thing too awful coming up. Anything can happen, of course, but given these kids and their decent and interesting behavior, would we want it to?

Our quartet (above) -- picnicking on the asphalt with Cheetos and a very weird drink -- kibbitz and carry on, with a bit of jealousy developing between boy and girl, then go their more-or-less separate ways for a time, which leads up to some problems: a missing cell phone, getting lost in the woods, and a possible interloper.

Then suddenly we're introduced to a whole new set of characters, which brings us to the "other" of this tale -- the interloper, or maybe the immigrant. Initially I imagined this character (richly brought to life by newcomer Gilberto Padilla, above) to be a Native American, but instead, it seems his roots are in Mexico. Set in North Carolina, from where I'm assuming the director hails, the film is so full of a sense of place you can practically touch and smell the locale.

Over the course of the movie we see youth and age, past and present and a good deal of memory-maybe-fantasy at work. The sound design and musical score -- both by Ian Hatton -- prove distinctive and lovely, adding immeasurably to the film's success.

As does the first-rate cast of novices chosen to act out the roles. Chief among these, and certainly the best (along with Padilla) of the actors is a lovely young woman named Haley Anne McKnight (two photos above). Her boyfriend is played by William Dickerson (above), and the remaining members of the quartet by Jacob Kristian Ingle (below)

and Blaine Edward Pugh (below). All of them are acquainted in real life, and they are able to bring this friendship to excellent and very believable ends on film -- or video, most likely, in this particular no-budget endeavor.

Also in the cast are three more impressive performers: Alex-Padilla-Maya as the younger version of our "other," Jack Horn (shown at bottom) as his father, and Lilianne Gillenwater (below) as the old woman we see in that transfixing opening shot, who proves to be all kinds of things to this movie.

Memory -- along with a bit of a ghost story -- plays at least as important a place in this film as does present-time action. The movie takes places in what seems like four distinct chapters, with the last connecting to the first in a way that makes dream and fantasy top reality. But whose dream is this? The characters'? Ours? Obviously, it is that of the filmmaker. The beauty and surprise of Sunset Edge reside in how remarkably he has instilled his dream into us. Mr. Peddle and his cast and crew are clearly a group from whom we'll expect more.

The movie, released by CAVU Pictures and running just 83 minutes, opens this Friday, May 29, in New York City (at the Cinema Village), in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Playhouse 7, and in Irvine at Regal's Westpark 8.