VOD debut: Melissa Dowler's service dog documentary, ADELE AND EVERYTHING AFTER

I can't imagine any animal-lover or viewer interested in service dogs not lining up to see a new documentary that has been quite a hit on the festival circuit and makes its VOD debut this coming Tuesday, January 30. ADELE AND EVERYTHING AFTER, directed by Melissa Dowler (shown below), is the story of a young woman named Marty who has had since childhood an unusual kind of heart disease that can cause her to suddenly faint at any time and any place, sometimes leaving her bruised, bloody and concussed.

As her condition worsens with age, affecting not only herself but her young child, and with no cure on the medical horizon, Marty turns to the idea of service dogs and what help this might render. As the documentary points out, she was the first person ever to use a service dog for this affliction, and while it does take some time for her to understand the dog's "signals," once she does, the fainting never happens again. Although Ms Dowler's movie has an odd arc (its emotional climax occurs maybe halfway along), the tale told here is so unusual and will so strongly appeal to animal lovers (of service dogs in particular) that recommending this movie as a "must" goes without saying. (But for god's sake, keep a box of tissues handy; you'll need them.)

Marty's history is provided via archival footage and some enacted re-creations, but the heart of the film is given over to this woman and the two dogs who most help her: the titular Adele (above, with Marty), the first of the two, and Hector (below), the second.

The wonderful organization, Canine Partners for Life, who supplies Marty's animals, is given a lot of screen time, too, and it is fully deserved. We watch, as the new owners learn to train their dogs and come to understand their "language," and how the dogs eventually respond with such full-out help that it's sheer amazement. How do these dogs manage it? It's not all that clear as yet, but what is clear is that they do it.

And they do this constantly: in the pool, on the walk, at home, at work. Amazing. Once Marty, and we, get over the upcoming loss of Adele and the change-over to Hector, you'll use less of those tissues. For me, the most upsetting part of the film was wondering and not knowing how Adele herself felt about the loss of her "patient." Of course, that's anthropomorphizing, isn't it? But this proves difficult not to do, when the animal figure is as important as here.

As Marty and her husband both tell us, because of what Adele and Hector do for Marty, they are closer to her than even her husband. This situation -- the bond between the service animal and the owner whose life the dog saves over and over -- will prove to be something new and different for most of us to consider, and this documentary does a very good job of bringing us up-close-and-personal with many of the details of the situation.

After viewing the doc, so impressed was I with the organization, Canine Partners for Life, that I am sending it a donation forthwith. Once you've seen this remarkable film, I suspect you may be moved to do so, too.

From Gravitas Ventures and Long Haul Films, Adele and Everything After hits VOD this coming Tuesday, January 30, and will be available on most major streaming platforms -- for purchase and/or rental. 

NYFF50 offers a fine opener in Ang Lee's and David Magee's adaptation, LIFE OF PI

What an unusual film -- lovely, rich and nipping at the heel of profundity -- has been chosen to open the New York Film Festival at its half-century mark. LIFE OF PI, written by David Magee and directed by Ang Lee, from the internationally award-winning novel by Yann Martel, proves a genuine "family film": intelligent, thought-provoking, mysterious, emotionally resonant, and likely to leave both and adults and older children fulfilled on certain levels, even as they question and attempt to understand and appreciate it more fully on others. The movie's reach exceeds its grasp to perhaps just the extent necessary to make it miss greatness but achieve wonder. This is, as they say, no small potatoes.

Mr. Lee is working once again in a genre different from anything he's formerly tried -- a fantasy adventure pillared upon precepts both religious and rational -- and he is surprisingly successful at this, just as he has been at very nearly every genre he has attempted (though there is that Hulk problem). TrustMovies has not read the original Pi novel, but he suspects that Lee hews pretty closely to it in terms of both the letter and the spirit because this director has done so in all his other adaptations, as far as I can recall. He's a humanist intent on making us better understand and accept our humanity, and his films, one after another, achieve this in different ways, depending on the particular genre. If the film's characters don't always manage the necessary understanding and acceptance, we viewers thankfully can.

In telling this story of a young Indian lad and his family from Pondicherry, the zoo they manage, and what happens when they and their menagerie set sail for North America, Lee and Magee (and Martel) dissect storytelling itself as their tale unfolds in present time and past, with a narrator who is both his younger self and the wiser, more mature man he becomes. Along the way, we're treated to some spectacular visuals that somehow stay grounded in reality, even as they soar into fantasy. (The night scene above, complete with jellyfish, recalls Bright Future times 10,000.)

I am guessing that Lee was influenced somewhat by Michael Powell's The Thief of Bagdad. His leading man, at least -- played quite nicely by newcomer Suraj Sharma (above and on poster, top) -- though taller and longer-limbed, will put some of us in mind of Sabu.

The film has been shot in as glorious an example of 3D as we've yet seen, outdoing I think, even Hugo and Pina. (The photography, not in the least "too dark," as are so many of this latest batch of 3D, is by Chilean cinematographer Claudio Miranda.) The use of this process for depth in the ocean and the vast seascapes seems near-miraculous, while the occasional in-your-face effects -- a school of flying fish and, of course, that tiger -- are exciting and fun. And the relationship of the animal kingdom vis a vis humanity is brought home with wonderful courage and understanding. If only Grizzly Man had had our hero's father to educate him! And how understandable and moving is the scene in which the young man must kill for the first time.

I'll have more to say when Life of Pi, from 20th Century Fox and which played but twice last night at the NYFF, opens for its theatrical run on November 21.

The Fierlingers' MY DOG TULIP brings J.R. Ackerley to the screen -- and some new-fangled touches to old-fashioned animation

The Queen and her Corgis, Churchill and his bulldog, J.R. Ackerley and Tulip.  If that last one doesn't ring the bell, no matter: a gong may sound in perpetuity, once you've seen the new animated film MY DOG TULIP.  A gift  from the husband-wife filmmaking team of Paul and Sandra Fierlinger (the pair is pictured below), the movie is about to have its world theatrical premiere here at Film Forum. Mr. Ackerley, a British literary editor and writer, had his book of the same title (a reminiscence about the relationship between him and his dog) published in 1956 in England and later here in America. Reissued by New York Review Books in its Classic Series, "Tulip" is currently that series' best-seller.

While all this may sound a bit like the Brit version of Marley and Me, be assured that it is not.  For one thing, "Tulip" is not a film for children. One of the first things to greet us on-screen are Mr. Ackerley's words: "Unable to love each other, the English turn to dogs."  Sad, ironic, rather nastily funny -- and definitely not for kids. The story that unfolds thereafter tells of a quiet, highly intelligent and lonely man who has never had a committed relationship with another person.  Into his life comes the dog Tulip.

Much of what we see hereafter could easily be interpreted as the usual dog-bonds-with-owner shtick. It is, and yet it isn't. Being a British story, by an intelligent man given to self-analysis and a keen consideration of the world around him, each event casts its own odd spell: the visit to an old military buddy, the trip(s) to the vet, dealing with the dog's urge to mate, procreate and -- the more oft-encountered necessity to defecate.

This last gives the film its oddest cast.  There were no "pooper-scoopers" a half century ago, let alone any "laws" demanding the clean-up of animal excrement, so all must rely on the the British sense of propriety and reserve. English "class" distinctions also present themselves in one scene involving Ackerley, Tulip poop, and a pair of angry shopkeepers.  The lengthy scenes given to finding an acceptable mate for Tulip provide some of the funnier, sadder and darker segments of the film, as Ackerley faces handling a situation for his pet that he has never (it would seem, at least) managed to do for himself.

The choice of using animation to bring Tulips's story to life was a wise one on several counts. The sexual and excremental aspects of the tale can be -- and are -- told candidly but with flair and a humor that never seems gross.  The animation itself is hand-drawn and relatively simple-looking by companion to most of the animation we see these days.  (I don't imply that this was "simple" work, by any means.  According to the filmmakers, some 60,000 drawings make up the 83-minute movie.)

The Fierlingers use several styles, as well --  the most graphic and colorful of which seems to stand for the "realistic" moments. (Even these are not so terribly graphic and colorful: Instead they fit nicely into the sense of "British reserve.") At other times -- memories and imaginings, for instance -- the palette is drained of most color. But the oddest and, in their way, most endearing are the sort of doodling drawings that, for me, represent Ackerley's imaginings concerning subjects such as sex and other, perhaps troubling, matters. Within this seemingly simple, hand-drawn movie, there's a wealth of thought and originality.

Particularly funny and pointed is Ackerley's comparison of Tulip's canine suitors to the paparazzi that buzz about celebrities  (Having recently viewed that Ron Gallela movie, I find the comparison most apt.) At the finale, the Fierlingers quote generously from Mr. Ackerley, and hearing such intelligent, vibrant and profound thoughts (beautifully spoken by Christopher Plummer) is such a treat that I should think this splendid little film will send many viewers back to the source. After seeing so many films that attempt either far too little, or whose objectives are nowhere matched by the necessary skills of execution, what a pleasure it is to view a movie whose reach and grasp are firmly at one.

My Dog Tulip, the first release from the newly reanimated New Yorker Films (Welcome back, oh venerated one!) opens Wednesday, September 1, in New York City at Film Forum for a two-week run. Attention, animation aficionados: The filmmaking team, Paul and Sandra Fierlinger, will appear at Film Forum in-person, at the 8 pm shows on Wednesday, September 1 & Thursday, September 2. Click here for Film Forum showtimes and ticket information, and click here to see where else the film will be playing throughout the upcoming fall season.