Sam Elliott proves heroic in Brett Haley's pretty-good aging-actor drama, THE HERO

When isn't Sam Elliott good? Just about never, so far as TrustMovies can recall. This guy reliably turns in a relaxed, believable performance -- from the old days of Lifeguard and Mask to the new ones of I'll See You in My Dreams, Netflix's Grace and Frankie and the movie now opening around the country, THE HERO. Elliott may not be particularly versatile nor able/willing (or ever given the chance) to tackle heavy-duty dramatic roles, yet he is always a pleasure to view and listen to, given that deep, dark, delicious, can't-get-enough-of-it voice. In the new film from director and co-writer (with Marc Basch), Brett Haley -- the duo also collaborated on the above "Dreams" -- Mr. Elliott gets perhaps the role of his career so far: that of an aging actor facing the end of the road, career-wise and, considering his recent diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, living-wise, as well.

Haley (pictured at right) and Elliott (shown above and below, right) make good, smart fun of that voice, too -- from the opening scene as the actor does vocal take after unnecessary vocal take for a barbecue-sauce commercial right through to the finale. And yet, this role also allows the actor to stretch in new and unusual ways. Note the wonderful scene in which he and his drug-dealer/ex-actor pal, played with all sorts of fond, funny/sad notes by Nick Offerman (shown below, left) run lines for our hero's upcoming audition. You'll suddenly see, hear and be amazed at what that voice can actually achieve.

The movie itself, though perfectly entertaining and reasonably moving, is not quite up to the level of I'll See You in My Dreams, however. It bites off more than it can properly chew within its short time frame. The Hero gives Elliott's characters not just an ex-wife (Katherine Ross) and a new girlfriend (Laura Prepon, shown below, left) to deal with, as well as his dimming career and his newly discovered death sentence, but it also saddles him with an estranged daughter (played by the always capable Krysten Ritter). This last bit of baggage is simply too much.

The daughter character manages to get simultaneously too much time in the film and yet not enough to bring the character and situation to anything approaching real, non-clichéd importance. This is too bad because, with a little less, the movie might have been much more. (Another misstep is the manner in which Prepon's character excuses herself for using Elliott as fodder for her stand-up comedy routine: The use itself is certainly believable, but its too-easy aftermath is awfully "iffy.")

Still, along the way there are plenty of small but very juicy bits that build Elliott's character into someone real and troubled and certainly worth empathizing with. The actor inhabits this role with such easy-going relish and authority that he doesn't miss a trick. Nor is he -- not for a single moment -- unbelievable.

The filmmakers' use of the internet as a smart plot device works well, too, as does the character Mr. Offerman portrays. Despite some missteps, in all The Hero offers us intelligent entertainment while giving Mr. Elliott a role and a character, the likes of which he and we may not see soon, maybe ever, again.

From The Orchard and running just 96 minutes, after opening on both coasts last week the film will hit other markets this Friday, June 23. Here in South Florida, look for it to screen in Miami/Ft. Lauderdale at Regal's South Beach 18, CMX Brickell City Centre and the Cinepolis Grove 14 (with AMC's Aventura 24 and Sunset Place adding on the following Friday, June 30); in Broward County it will play The Classic Gateway on 6/23, with with Regal's Oakwood 18 adding on June 30; in Palm Beach County on 6/23 at the Regal Shadowood, Cinemark Palace 20 and Cinepolis Jupiter 14, with AMC's CityPlace 20, Movies of Delray, Movies of Lake Worth, Regal Royal Palm, Indian River 24 and Regal Treasure Coast Mall 16 adding on June 30. Wherever you live throughout the USA, to find the theater nearest you, simply click here.

Streaming a missed movie by Joe Swanberg: Jane Adams in ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY

He is prolific, that Joe Swanberg. Since the film under consideration here first appeared (2012), he has made three more full-lengthers, one short film and an episode for a series. All told, since his debut film just over a decade ago, he has directed (and often written) 16 full-length films, seven shorts, a couple of TV series episodes and a segment of the horror omnibus V/H/S. Some of these are even good films -- especially the last two: Drinking Buddies and Happy Christmas. Which now makes watching his slightly older work a bit of a strain/disappointment.

ALL THE LIGHT IN THE SKY, streamable now on Netflix, does have a couple of nice perks: the actors Jane Adams and Larry Fessenden. Ms Adams has long delighted us older NYC theatergoers, as well as adding immeasurably to certain not-so-hot movies (Little Children, for one). Mr. Fessenden, for his part, has long been a enjoyable actor in various genre films (I Sell the Dead), as well as a good writer/director (The Last Winter and his earlier work, Habit).

Both actors (shown above, with Larry on the left) acquit themselves well in this little trifle, but unfortunately the "script" often leaves them hanging out to dry. Swanberg (shown two photos up) is working once again in his most "mumblecorish" mode, with so little at stake or at risk that his actors are mostly stranded, having to create their "moments" practically out of whole cloth.

Adams (above, and below, right) plays a aging actress named, Marie, who is having trouble finding work. When her young niece (Sophia Takal, below, left) comes for a visit to her aunt's Malibu pad, also wanting to be an actress, the age thing bubbles up. That's about it. And it is all handled with about as much creativity and pizazz as my description above manages.

Fessenden plays Marie's Malibu neighbor who enjoys surfing with her. He may or may not be attracted to her. And that's about that, too. Marie meets a new fellow who might make a possible partner; her niece has some friends over and gets high. Conversations and a little sex ensue.

If you've sat through many of Swanberg's oeuvre, you'll know what you're in for, and there are a few good scenes here. But mostly it's same-old same old. His latest work shows infinitely more strength and power (not to mention humor and fun) -- in the scripts, situations and performances. So we'll hope that this continues apace.

Meanwhile, for fans of Adams and/or Fessenden, the movie is streamable here and probably elsewhere, too.

Michael Maren's A SHORT HISTORY OF DECAY: an American indie film that spins cliché into gold

A quietly elegant little movie (because it refuses to push anything) about family and the finale of the older generation, A SHORT HISTORY OF DECAY, written and directed by first-timer Michael Maren, is a beautifully rendered piece of Americana as it exists today, mid economic (and most every other kind of) decline. And yet this movie is not actually depressing. Oddly enough, it is simply too plain and too real for that. It accepts what is and must be (even if its characters have some difficulty doing so) and therefore liberates us, the audience, to look upon reality and understand it.

Mr. Maren, shown at left, is no spring chicken; his career and interests prior to filmmaking seem to have groomed him to look at life and people and events with a dry, incisive eye. Along the way in this movie, and without making any big thing of it, he quietly nails odd moments of family behavior, sibling (and spousal) rivalry, right through to that instant in which our near-hero sees an attractive woman on the beach and a moment later we realize that it's his aging mother -- mistook or maybe remembered from a much earlier time. You don't get this kind of stuff in most American independent movies, and certainly not served up as well and in such unshowy fashion.

We begin in the ever more gentrified Brooklyn, in which our slacker leading man, Nathan (the first-rate Bryan Greenberg, above), less a failed writer than one who has simply never finished anything, begins a morning dispute with his significant other, Erika (Emmanuelle Chriqui, below), a high-powered woman with a first novel about be published. How this scene ends is both funny and surprising.

An unexpected phone call regarding his parents sends Nathan down to Florida, to mom (Linda Lavin, below, right), dad (Harris Yulin, below, left) and -- eventually -- older brother (Benjamin King), where, of course, family history, along with past and present problems bubble up and spill over. Aging, Alzheimer's, stroke, money problems, love and lust jockey for position, but Maren never lets any one thing take the lead for long. He juggles character and events with consummate skill, balancing the comedy of life with its inevitable tragedy -- and shows us a lot of the interesting moments in between.

You might call the film a kind of comedy, but it's so quiet and unforced that you'll smile more readily than laugh out loud. The drama is certainly there, yet it's so unforced that it never for a moment becomes melodrama. Characters are written and acted very well by the entire ensemble cast -- which includes a lovely, radiant and savvy Kathleen Rose Perkins (below) as mom's manicurist; a hot, svelte Rebecca Dayan as the young lady Nathan meets at a local bar/restaurant; and Barbara Weetman as the smart, if slightly pushy bartender.

What is especially remarkable here is how clever are the performers, together with their writer/director, in never going too far. They behave, rather than "act." Less is more has rarely proven so enjoyable or so on-the-mark.

A Short History of Decay -- from Paladin and running a just-about perfect-for-its-content 93 minutes -- arrives in theaters this Friday, May 16. In New York City look for it at the Village East Cinema, and elsewhere soon, I hope. 

Sebastián Silva/Pedro Peirano's OLD CATS opens in NYC--3 years late but still welcome --plus a Q&A with the filmmakers

Good movies will out. Some of 'em, at least. OLD CATS, the follow-up film by Sebastián Silva (co-written and co-directed by Pedro Peirano) to his wonderful The Maid, was first seen here in New York City at the 48th New York Film Festival in 2010, with a supposed U.S. theatrical release to follow that winter. We're still waiting. Or we were -- until today, when the film finally opened for a week-long run as part of MoMA's film program.

In assessing these two films, as well as his follow-up to Old Cats -- Crystal Fairy, which already opened here last month to good reviews and pretty good box-office -- it is now clear to those of us who appreciate this filmmaker's work that he has maybe never created a movie character he didn't like (at least to some extent). Look for a villain in his films and you'll come a cropper. These are all folk on the road to learning, and if that sounds preachy or tiresome, it's not. The films of Silva (above, right) and Peirano (above, left) offer too much fun and are far too interesting to be mistaken for sermons.

In Old Cats, which really is a lovely movie, the filmmakers shows us yet another dysfunctional family: an older couple, Isadora and Enrique (Bélgica Castro and Alejandro Sieveking, with those titular cats), well into their 80s, when their building's elevator breaks down, leaving Isadora, who is now coping with the onset of dementia, a kind of prisoner, ten flights up.

This is also the day that Isadora's daughter Rosario (Claudia Celedón, above, right) and her butch lover who likes to be called Hugo (the wonderful Catalina Saavedro, above, left, who starred in The Maid) arrive on the scene with a plan (yet another cockamamie scheme, it would seem) that will supposedly make everyone rich.

What happens is both expected and then not. The filmmakers observe their characters well and discover flawed folk who keep trying to make things work but fail as often as they win. Silva and Peirano do not judge, but they do see clearly and allow us to do the same. We come out of their film happy, sad and chastened. Things are never easy, particularly as age and its ravages overcome us.

Much of the film takes place, by necessity, in the older couple's apartment. But smartly -- both plot-wise and visually, for a wonderfully enjoy-able and sometimes frightening outing -- the characters and we take to the streets. There, Silva and Peirano prove just as knowing and sly, with the same fine understanding of human nature, as they are when boxed into the apartment. There's an epiphany of sorts, but nothing major. Silva's too subtle for that.

As I mentioned earlier, the movie opens today, Tuesday, August 20, for a week's run at MoMA. So for all you Silva completists out there, don't let this one go by unseen. I would hope there will be a DVD release eventually. More on that when I get some answers from the distributor...

****************

At the Q&A back in October of 2010, following the NYFF screening of Old Cats, both Sebastián Silva (below, right) and Pedro Peirano (below, left) were present and happy to answer a number of questions from various viewers. Below is what I have now, three years later, been able to retain from my scribbled notes taken during the pair's Q&A....

Your film deals with the claustrophobia of family. What draws you to this subject? 

SS: I have a huge family (Editor's note: See The Maid for verification of this.) Relationships are strong and sometimes terrifying. And there are no boundaries. For me family relationships are so universal, and they mirror that of the whole society.

PP: I come from a small family. All women. It's a horrible situation! (Everyone laughs.) Part of my idea here was to use a kind of "thriller" format for this movie.

Can you talk a bit about your collaboration?

SS: Pedro is very experienced in collaborating. He does amazing writing, and he always knows every detail. I'm dyslexic, and so maybe more daring and not afraid to make mistakes. But he always knows what's right and wrong!

PP: The main things is always how to get the characters into trouble. In terms of writing, Sebastián always creates the problems for the characters that I must then come and save.

I have two questions: You have three strong and famous women playing these characters. How was that to deal with?  And also, since the one couple is lesbian, how it is for homosexuals in your country?

PP: The three are actually very good and very old friends, so that made it easier. What was really interesting here is that we had three generations and thus three different styles of acting.

SS: For instance, Bélgica Castro who plays Isadora is 92 years old and has never improvised on film, so this was very difficult for her. She'd suddenly stop and say, "Just give me the line!"

PP: Regarding the question of homosexuality, things are changing. Discussions are taking place, on top of the remains of older discussions.

SS: In any case, our film is not categorized on the web as a gay film. No! That's only a part of it.

You do old age so well. Was this due to the script or to the actress?

SS: When you're 92, like Bélgica, you know old age. We were actually worried about this, so we researched, too, about the portrayal of mental illness.

PP: I also am upset by the theme of age and I liked the opportunity to work on this. Our older actors who play the couple are actually married -- they're 92 and 87 -- and the film was shot in their apart-ment in which they've lived for 30 years, so in a sense we got a lot of research from that alone. A lot of real data: all the pills and the dynamics of how they lived. How they wake up in the morning and what they do each day. We invaded their house and learned a lot!

What about the animals?

SS: Oh, boy. We had no experience directing animals. When we wanted the cats to move, we had to use these cans of air, which we had to squirt at them. Then they moved.

PP: And when the elevator broke, we had to carry everything downstairs.

SS: The Maid was shot in my father's house, and now this film was shot in the actors' apartment. From now on, I want to find locations that are lived in!

PP: The hardest part, in a way, was that the apartment was real and so were the actors who lived in it. But the characters were not. They were so different from the actors, and that made it very odd.

Is this part of a new wave of Chilean cinema?

SS: I don't believe in this. Now it is all more individual, random. In Mexico, yes; Uruguay, yes. But in Chile there us no new wave yet. Small films are being made, with not much support from audiences. But fortunately, because of video, movies are cheaper to make!

Cam Archer's SHIT YEAR gives Ellen Barkin quite a workout. Which she aces like a pro.

As one of those not overly impressed with the Wild Tigers that filmmaker Cam Archer has known, back when his debut feature of a similar name was released in 2006,  TrustMovies came to SHIT YEAR with no particular expectations.  (He does think the this is great title, however, and a great poster, too -- one he can imagine adorning dorm rooms from coast to coast, not to mention the walls of film buffs everywhere.)

Mr. Archer, pictured at right, has shot his new film in a kind of high-contrast black-and-white, and the fine cinematography (by Aaron Platt) goes a long way toward making the film as pleasurable to view as it often is. The rest of the way is provided by its star Ellen Barkin, who alternates from the fun to the bizarre to the sad throughout. The actress gives the film what focus it has, and if you find her -- and/or the character she is playing here -- as interesting as do I, you'll probably be hooked enough to continue for the movie's sometimes rather heavy-going 95 minutes.

Ms Barkin plays an actress named Colleen West, who, we learn has recently played in a piece of legitimate theater opposite an actor named Harvey West (a lean, lanky, very pretty and big-basketed Luke Grimes, shown below, right), with whom she has a goes-nowhere affair.

With a career on the skids, she gives a "good-bye" interview (below: Is this radio? TV?) and then retires to a very nice two-story "cabin" in the country.

There she meets an overly-friendly, doll-making neighbor, played with sweet and ditzy charm by Melora Walters, all the while having fantasies about her ex-paramour that involve (I think) having him cloned (below) -- or something approaching that -- by a group of sci-fi-like people (led by Theresa Randle) who evidently cater to this sort of thing.

Later in the film, her brother (an interesting Bob Einstein) shows up to hang out some neither dirty nor clean laundry that gives us a peek into her family history. Now, none of this is especially riveting. Nor is it boring. It's all quite watchable, hanging together (barely) thanks to Ms Barkin's commanding creation of character and the often beautiful and artistic photography (above and below).

Clearly, Mr. Archer means this to be a dramatic look at an actress trying to come to terms with age, obsession, identity and the like. We see that, but this sort of thing has been done much better elsewhere (Persona, for one example; Opening Night for another), and while this particular story is interesting enough and certainly different, it never involves us on any emotional level and -- except for that provided by the acting choices of Ms Barkin -- is very nearly bereft of any genuine humor. Not that we have to laugh, mind you. But there is something about the "fraughtness" of all this that is a bit of a drag.

Shit Year opened yesterday in Manhattan at IFC Center.  A run at the Texas Theater in Dallas will follow on September 30, and then the film will begin a limited national rollout.

Cam Archer's portrait, seven photos above, 
is by Cristina Grosan, shot for NisiMazine, 
the 2010 Cannes issue.  TrustMovies regrets 
not listing this credit sooner.