François Ozon is back with DOUBLE LOVER, a box of yummy poison candy for Valentine's Day

When, at the end of his career, the work of French filmmaker François Ozon, gets a going-over by movie buffs, I suspect there will be some gnashing of teeth regarding exactly what kind of films for which he was most noted. Were these the campy comedies (Sitcom, 8 Women) or the oddball/otherworldly (Ricky)? The dark and ugly (See the Sea, Criminal Lovers) or the period pieces (Angel, Potiche and Frantz), each as hugely different from the other two as possible? One thing nearly all his films have in common to one degree or other is Ozon's peculiar sense of camp, which infuses even his most serious pieces.

Ozon's kind of camp (the filmmaker is pictured at left), TrustMovies feels, transcends the merely gay and over-the-top stuff we're so used to seeing.

There is a sense of playfulness and fun to even his darkest work that keeps reminding us that, yes, this is just a movie, but still, movies can tell us special things and in a manner than almost nothing else can.

This makes for an odd combination, to say the least, keeping us often off-balance. But when Ozon makes it work, as in his best films -- In the House, Time to Leave and Under the Sand  -- it opens our eyes, mind and heart in a way that can only be described as Ozonian.

In his latest endeavor, DOUBLE LOVER, the filmmaker has adapted a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, Lives of the Twins, and made yet another movie about the effects of the convergence of psychology, trauma and sexuality on a human being. Similar in some ways to another of his recent films, The New Girlfriend, the movie is not among his best, but, as usual with Ozon, it is so much fun to view visually as it bumps along, you will not, I think, be at all bored. It helps, too, that he is using three very attractive and charismatic actors as his leads: Jérémie Renier and Marine Vacth (above, left and right), along with a still-gorgeous Jacqueline Bisset (below, left).

To talk at all about the plot here will mean that I am "lying" to you because viewers cannot always be sure that what they're seeing and hearing is even true. So let's just leave it that we're dealing with a quite beautiful young woman (Ms Vacth), who has some stomach problems that appear to be psychosomatic and so her physician recommends she consult a psychiatrist (M. Renier) to help solve them.

It is such a pleasure to view these two very attractive performers, whom we see here looking their absolute best, whether clothed or naked (imagine a therapy session like the one below!), that the increasingly convoluted plot -- with enough holes to remind you of a very large chunk of swiss cheese -- keeps threatening to spin completely out of control.

Yes, twins are involved here, which means we get a double dose of the glorious Ms. Renier, and if you're a cat lover, you'll get a couple of beautiful examples of this species, too. There's a nosy neighbor (Miriam Boyer), a gynecologist (Dominique Reymond) who seems oddly familiar later on in this movie, and finally Ms Bisset, who helps bring all the various puzzle pieces together.

Yeah, you'll probably find it a bunch of hooey, overall, but so cleverly put together is it, and so very beautiful is the lovely Ms Vacth from first scene to last (yes, Chekhov's gun makes its appearance, with the usual rule played out) that I suspect you'll have had a good enough time to make a viewing of Double Lover worthwhile.

The movie seems especially appropriate for Valentine's Day, given Ozon's sense of humor and his delight in offering us what one might see as a poisoned bon-bon wrapped up initially like a lovely dream that unfortunately proceeds into nightmare.

From Cohen Media Group, in French with English subtitles and running 107 minutes, Double Lover opens tomorrow, Wednesday, February 14, in New York City (at the Quad Cinema and AMC Empire 25), Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 and Royal), San Francisco (at the Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema) and Philadelphia (at the Landmark Ritz East). Elsewhere? I would hope that the film will play in other venues around the country over the weeks/months to come, but I could find no link to any list of playdates.

MANSFIELD 66/67: P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes' snarky ode to that blond bombshell

Part camp, part history, part gossip/rumor, part archival treasure trove, part animation, MANSFIELD 66/67 purports to give us the inside story of not-quite super-star Jayne Mansfield, her relatively short life, thirteen-year career and grizzly death. Certainly as much mockumentary as documentary, the movie joins the ever-growing ranks of what are now termed hybrid docs. Whatever you might have thought of Ms Mansfield -- if you're even old enough to remember her -- chances are you'll leave this semi-sleazy little movie feeling that the star somehow been cheated out of any kind of genuine bio-pic.

To be fair, the film's press release describes the doc as "a true story based on rumor and hearsay, where classic documentary interviews and archival materials are blended with dance numbers, performance art, and animation." That's an on-the-mark description, and the film's lengthy "disclaimer," which is the very first thing you'll see on screen, seems to underscore this idea.

As directed by P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes (shown above, with Ebersole on the right), the movie is almost consistently hit and miss, beginning with a post-disclaimer choral group singing a kind of ode of Ms Mansfield that's campy and cute. But when the group comes back again, below, as patrons of a hair salon, its routine is mostly obvious and unfunny.

Over and over during this mock/doc, you may find yourself asking, Why are they showing us this? And so damned much of it, too? Mostly, TrustMovies suspects, this is simply "filler," so that the film will last the requisite full-length running time.

Information-wise, the doc's ace-in-the-hole would seem to be Mansfield's relationship with Satanist Anton LaVey (above), but even this is babbled about for far too long without giving us much of anything ether definitive or all that important. The movie includes interviews with everyone from John Waters (in tackier mode than usual) to Kenneth Anger, Mary Woronov and gossip monger A.J. Benza, plus some would-be historians, culture mavens and assorted drag performers (one of whom is shown below).

The worst thing about the film is the blond would-be Mansfield look-alike (who looks almost nothing like the star, save for some blond tresses) and may be a female impersonator, in any case. This person takes up far too much screen time, dancing and carrying on and dragging out this too-long movie by maybe ten or fifteen minutes too many. Is she/he the director's girlfriend/boyfriend or son/daughter, perhaps? Who knows? Who cares -- except that s/he brings the movie down considerably.

The doc is not a dead loss. There are some fun and/or funny moments along the way, and recapping this sex goddess' career may spark some interest in her oeuvre from the younger set.

Overall, however, this is the case of a possibly good idea gone south or maybe just a bad one given a few good laughs before being done to death. Ms Mansfield, who made some fun films during her short stay, deserves better. And so perhaps does even the bizarre Mr. LaVey (above).

From filmbuff and running 84 minutes, the movie opens today, Friday, October 27, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Ahrya Fine Arts in conjunction with a couple of Ms Mansfield's better-known movies. You can check the theater's daily schedule here. Otherwise, the film will plays at a number of cities around the country. Click here to view them all.

Joe Begos (Almost Human) is back with a funnier/tighter/smarter/bloodier MIND'S EYE

Oh, yeah -- and it's a lot campier, too. TrustMovies was not much a fan of Joe Begos' earlier work, Almost Human, released in winter 2014 and dealing with an extraterrestrial kidnapping/returning that leads to a near-continuous slasher-movie massacre, so he is happy to report that he enjoyed Begos' latest film a lot more. THE MIND'S EYE involves telekinesis, which appears to be a subject that this writer/director (shown below) can have some fun with, while being a bit more creative and still get to those juicy/bloody/gory parts he clearly loves so much.

Our hero (this time, as last) is played by Graham Skipper (shown below, right), an actor of somewhat protuberant eyes, who pops them and bugs them almost consistently throughout the film. He undoubtedly was asked to do so by his director, as was his leading lady, Lauren Ashley Carter (below, left) because this eye-bugging is how all the telekinesis takes place. Time and again throughout the film, actors bug their eyes and pop their neck veins as their characters attempt to levitate and/or move everything from guns and furniture to hypodermic needles and a very nasty ax.

Trust me: you will not have seen so much eye-rolling and -popping since the last time you watched a silent movie -- and I think you'll agree that, even then, The Mind's Eye beats out those "silents" by a mile. And because it turns out that just about every character in the film is capable of this telekinesis, there is an awful lot of eye-popping going on.

Our hero (above), however, turns out to be almost the best of the bunch (think of him as a kind of hairy Carrie), although his girlfriend (below) nearly matches him by exploding a bad guy's head. Of course, all this take so much pain and intensity that you can expect to see lots of blood oozing from the telekinetics' various orifices.

Mr. Begos has managed to provide a more interesting screenplay, plot and even better dialog this time around, and so ropes us into his tale of a supposedly government-sponsored "home" for telekinetics run by a power-hungry nut case (John Speredakos, below) who goes from a cajoling nice-guy to a Freddy Krueger-style villain in no time flat. Also in the cast is the always-game Larry Fessenden, playing our hero's helpful police-officer father.

As the eyes pop and the blood flows, so, too, do the laughs grow louder and more frequent. I would like to think that this was part of Mr Begos' initial plan, and that he does not take himself or his movie all that seriously. The Mind's Eye is finally good, silly, noisy, campy fun. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

From RLJ Entertainment and running a blessedly short 87 minutes, the movie opens this coming Friday, August 5, simultaneously in theaters (a very limited release, I would assume), on iTunes and via VOD -- with a Blu-ray disc release scheduled for Tuesday, October 4, 

Schlock done right: PIRANHA 3DD--from Gulager/Dunstan/Melton/Soisson--on disc

Once in awhile, there is nothing like a piece of utter, irredeemable schlock to make the evening's Trader Joe's three-buck-chuck go down more smoothly. (That's our house wine these days, and, yes -- I know -- on the West Coast, it costs only $2.) So, the other night, over dinner, we watched PIRANHA 3DD, which a kindly PR rep had sent me to cover (it's out now on both DVD and Blu-ray), and we had 83 minutes of sleazy, silly, schlocky fun -- of which at least twelve of those minutes were devoted to credits, outtakes and further Piranha evolution (the next one looks to be even schlockier!). This proved exactly what the MD ordered.

There are boobs here aplenty -- most of them big, bountiful and utterly fake looking. What hath breast augmentation wrought, kiddies? It's ain't pretty, and it ain't natural, neither! (Most of the breasts on display look much more fake than the movie's special effects, which are creepy, goofy fun. And if the film seems to exist solely to outdo the first Piranha remake's use of Jerry O'Connell and his prosthetic penis, let it be said right now that this 3D sequel absolutely outdoes it. TrustMovies is not going to tell you how or why; you'll just have to see for yourself. But it's a lulu of bad taste (though the piranha does seem to be enjoying that taste), something of which Lloyd Kaufman might be proud.

Speaking of bad taste: In this movie -- along with its cast of cutie pies of both genders, with Danielle Panabaker and Chris Zylka (that morning hard-on from Kaboom) among the cutest of the cuties -- appears a certain David Hasselhoff (above) making what just might be the most embarrassing "playing himself" set of sequences ever put to film (or in this case, I am sure, digital). Mr Hasselhoff proves so extraordinary adept at walking that nearly nonexistent line between "Omigod, he thinks this is a real role!" and "Nah -- he's just making fun of his own image" that you will have to pinch yourself many times to make certain you haven't died and arrived in Schlock Heaven.

How does the film manage to levitate to the upper echelons of goofy bad movies? It must be the ever-careful crew of filmmakers, including director John Gulager, (who gave us the terrifically scary/smart Feast and its sequel), and writers Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (Feasties who also gave us The Collector and its upcoming sequel), along with Joel Soisson. Clearly these guys are all slumming here, making some money while having a good time. And so will you, I expect (the good time, not the money), if you're a fan of this very special kind of movie viewing.

Piranha 3DD, god love it, takes no prisoners: Not even little children are safe from these evil fish.  From Dimension Films, the movie is available now for sale or rental on DVD and Blu-ray (in quite the nice little transfer, too). Bon Appe-teat!

Open Roads: Alessandro Angelini's film RAISE YOUR HEAD makes its NYC debut

It had to happen, right?   After praising this year's FSLC festival of new Italian films as one without (yet) a single "miss" in the bunch, TrustMovies has finally seen a less-then-stellar movie: RAISE YOUR HEAD (starring popular actor Sergio Castellitto, above), the director and co-writer of which, Alessandro Angelini, was present to introduce the film and promised to appear post-movie for a Q&A.

To meet deadlines (and perhaps force himself not to ask any negative questions), TM beat a hasty retreat as the lights came up at the Walter Reade theater. Consequently, he does not have a precis of what Signore Angelini had to say to the questions asked. You can find my review of the film here (click and scroll down) -- in the one-time round-up of the entire Open Roads festival.