Mary Elizabeth Winstead knocks it out of the park in Eva Vives' bracing ALL ABOUT NINA

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Let's face it: Mary Elizabeth Winstead is one of the great-yet-underrated talents of our time. And regarding this compelling and versatile actress, the usual "rule" -- oh, well, she hasn't starred in a successful blockbuster yet, so that's why she's not on the map -- doesn't quire apply. She did indeed star in 10 Cloverfield Lane, which came reasonably close to blockbuster status. No matter. She'll be remembered for the "little" movies she made in which her performances proved indelible: from Smashed to Faults (probably the most underseen, close-to-perfect film of the millenium) to Alex of Venice and now ALL ABOUT NINA. A certain Mrs Maisel, not to mention Hannah Gadsby, may be the female comedians of the moment, but once you've met Nina Geld, you will have to make room for one more.

In this new film, written and directed by Eva Vives (shown at right), Ms Winstead, in the poster above and photo below, plays an ought-to-be-very-successful-but-isn't comedian who keeps shooting herself in the foot. (Or, as Nina's own fouled-mouth feminist repertoire might put it, "in the cunt.")

Our girl is about as self-destructive as they come: missing appointments, screwing up auditions, and ruining every possible decent relationship with a male that comes her way, while always opting for the very worst of the bunch.

But, oh, boy, she is funny -- as the bits and pieces of her act that we hear throughout the film will prove. Winstead keeps her character's guard up very cleverly, turning her bile on men and women alike, deserved or not. Her take-down early on of a fellow comedian played by Jay Mohr is priceless. When, later in the game, she gives him what he wants, you will note how far she has sunk.

The new man in Nina's life turns out to be played by Common (shown above, left), that actor with the one-word moniker whom I wish would change his name to Uncommon; he's that good. Seen only last week in the not-so-hot A Happening of Monumental Proportions (which his performance made a bit better), here his good work helps a very smart film take flight. How his character (Rafe) and Nina meet, bond and try to work things out proves both believable and sweetly compelling.

In the supporting cast are some other fine actors -- Camryn Manheim (above) as Nina's mom, Chace Crawford (below, left) as her sleazy ex, and Kate del Castillo as the very new-age Southern Californian woman with who Nina's agent (Angelique Cabral) has set up to care for her client while she is visiting the west coast. Everyone comes through just fine, but it is, top-to-bottom, Nina's movie. And Ms Winstead could hardly be better.

She has always been the kind of actress able to offer a huge range without the viewer even realizing the distance that has been travelled. She is not simply "realistic"; she inhabits each moment, each thought and feeling, so fully and completely that there no room to cavil. Oh, sure: We may wonder why she does some of the stuff she does. But we never question the fact that she has done it.

Ms Vives doesn't always or fully "explain" the why. There's no need. Winstead's performance proves good enough to easily carry us and the film along. I do wish that the movie's resolution did not seem quite so pat, however. Not that Vives ties it all up with a bright red bow. But it will take more than merely this to turn Nina into a better functioning adult professional. Still, the film is often wonderful. And Winstead is simply great -- as always. Few actresses ever get a role this good, let alone do it full justice, as here.

From The Orchard and running a swift 97 minutes, All About Nina opens this Friday, September 28, in New York (at the AMC Empire 25 and Regal Union Square 14) and in Los Angeles (at the AMC Sunset 5 and AMC Burbank Town Center 8). Elsewhere. Hope so. But as The Orchard has not seen fit to even list the film on its web site as of today, who knows?

Lisa D'Apolito's documentary LOVE, GILDA tracks the career of a popular 1970s comedian

Gilda Radner was a very big name during the 1970s and 80s, appearing  regularly on Saturday Night Live (SNL) from 1975-80, doing her own one-woman show on Broadway, and finally appearing in some flop movies toward the end of her career. For fans of this popular comedian -- and there are many now in or approaching their senior years -- LOVE, GILDA, the new bio-documentary directed by Lisa D'Apolito, will probably be a "must."

Although Radner herself wrote a memoir, It's Always Something, which was published almost immediately after her untimely death from ovarian cancer in 1989, this new documentary should provide further insight ont and enjoyment from this funny, goofy gal.

Ms D'Apolito, shown at right, weaves a nice tapestry of archival photos and film/video, interviews with other comedians (often of the SNL ilk), friends and relatives who, together with the information gleaned from Gilda herself (she was quite prone to writing/diary-keeping) that provides a pretty decent look into the life and career of a special performer.

As to whether the movie will provide non-fans or younger generations unfamiliar with Radner (shown above and below) an understanding of what made the comic special, TrustMovies is not sure.

The snippets we see of her performing are so brief and all-over-the-place that those who don't know and love her various "characters" -- all or most from her SNL days -- may miss that special appeal. They are likely to come away from the film with more of a sense of how "problemed" she was rather than how funny she could be.

We learn about her various relationships (mostly failed) culminating in the one -- with actor/comedian Gene Wilder (above, right) -- that proved the best for her in terms of love, companionship and caring, if not perhaps creativity or artistry.

Among the celebrities interviewed are Melissa McCarthy (above), Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Chevy Chase and Lorne Michaels (below), each of whose remarks add to the sense of (mostly deserved) hagiography that consistently builds here.

Radner's life, at least as shown here -- plagued by eating disorders and the kind of low-self-esteem that she found it easiest to make fun of first, before others beat her to the punch (the kind of self-deprecating humor that current popular comedian Hannah Gadsby claims to have sworn off for good) -- was more sad than funny, something to be surmounted, rather than enjoyed.

From Magnolia Pictures and running 88 minutes, the documentary opens this Friday nationwide in a limited rollout. Here in South Florida, you can see it at the Lake Worth Playhouse, the Living Room Theater in Boca Raton, and the O Cinema, Miami Beach. Wherever you live, click here to locate the theaters nearest you.

VODebut--The high-end low-down on plastic surgery: Joan Kron's TAKE MY NOSE... PLEASE!

A fast-moving, hugely-enjoyable, surprisingly thought-provoking romp about a subject awfully dear to (but generally unspoken about) women and some men: plastic surgery, of the kind that will render the person undergoing it either younger- or more beautiful-looking. So, yes, we're talking "vanity" here. Now, really, you may be thinking: Could there possibly be anything more to consider, feel or say about a subject that is, as the phrase used to go, of so little redeeming social value?  Well, yes, since just last fall we saw yet another media kerfluffle regarding this surgery via that useless Jane Fonda/Megyn Kelly interchange. And if your guide to this subject is a woman named Joan Kron, who has covered the plastic surgery scene for decades and probably knows it as well as any journalist (or filmmaker) alive today, you're in the very best of hands.

Ms. Kron, pictured at left, has not only covered the scene, she's undergone it, too (multiple times, I think), and her movie, TAKE MY NOSE... PLEASE!, stresses a point made countless times already: that women's place in our society demands that they constantly look their best, as this is the route to their well-being and survival.

What makes Kron's film different and also allows it to resonate more strongly, is that the women she follows here are all comedians. They make us laugh, yes, but they also make us understand their very mixed and complicated feelings about undergoing "the knife."

Chief among Kron's funny ladies is, for my money, the most talented, funny and transgressive comedian I've ever seen, Jackie Hoffman, pictured above (and below, on stage), who talks openly and often hilariously about her appearance, life, work, career, upcoming surgery and even her very supportive and cute-as-a-button hubby. Hoffman is a delight, as usual, and her honesty, wit and willingness to confront-the-difficult are among the movie's great treasures.

We also spend a great deal of time with a lesser light named Emily Askin, below, who hails from Pittsburgh and works with an all-girl improv group called Bombardo. Emily is pretty and talented and has a fiance who feels absolutely no need for her to get that nose job (she's got a very small bump on her proboscis), but she is determined anyway, and so he stands by whatever she wants.

Interwoven with these stories are those of a number of other comedians -- Lisa Lampanelli, Judy Gold and Julie Halston (in the penultimate photo, below) among them -- as well as archival footage of the late and famous, such as Totie Fields (below), Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers (shown at bottom). Their stories (or parts of them) add to the pros and cons we're given regarding this surgery.

We meet a few of the better-known practitioners of the "art" (such as Sherrell J. Aston, at left, below), and watch them as they advise their clients on some do's and don'ts, and, as this 99-minute documentary comes to its close, we realize that -- well, I did, anyway -- some of our heavy-duty prejudices against the whole idea of this surgery have been at very least called into question.

We can certainly better understand how the women we see here -- who must continue to work, eat, live and maybe raise a family -- have to do what's best for their career (and, yes, maybe their vanity, too).

OK: When set against documentaries about our current takeover by the rich and corporate or those concerning global warming, this one is small potatoes indeed. But those potatoes are funny, entertaining, even thought-provoking.

From The Orchard -- the distributor which, surprising to me, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year -- the film, after opening to good reviews theatrically last year, will hit all digital and on-demand platforms this Tuesday, January 9. 

Borscht Belt beginnings--Ron Frank/Mevlut Akkaya: WHEN COMEDY WENT TO SCHOOL

Here's a statistic TrustMovies didn't know: In a 1970's survey, it was found that although Jews represented approximately 3% of the total U.S. population, they accounted for 80% of professional comedians. Wow. (I suspect that if that survey were taken today, the percentage of Jewish comedians would be less -- while still remaining far out of proportion to their number in the general population.) The how and why of this statistic can be found in the relatively low-key but quite entertaining, even endearing new documentary, WHEN COMEDY WENT TO SCHOOL, directed by Ron Frank and Mevlut Akkaya, the latter of whom is shown below.

Many of us non-Jews may have known something about the Catskill Mountains (a.k.a. the Borscht Belt) -- former home to the many resorts at which these budding comics honed their skills. Even so, this new doc provides a wealth of history, humor and nostalgia as it looks into everything from the coming of Jews to America, the Catskills and the rise of their resorts, the comedians themselves, their humor, and how all of this has changed down the decades.

There's a raft of famous funnymen shown here (with Joan Rivers, representing the gals), both now, in their senior years, and earlier, in their prime: Sid Caesar (at right) and Jerry Lewis (two photos below) to Jerry Stiller and the late Danny Kaye (shown below, right, even prior to his spec-tacular heyday. Robert Klein (in the penultimate photo) does a fine job of narration, and we see a lot of one of my favorite comedians, Mort Sahl (shown at bottom), who clearly still possesses his dry and rapier-like wit.

There's a plethora of fine archival photos and footage, as well, taking us back to the early part of the 20th Century and those middle post-war years, when Jews would never have considered taking a vacation to the Europe from which they recently escaped. Instead they went only to the Catskills.

In a documentary about comedy and humor, we'd expect plenty of just that, and while some of it is as old as the hills, most of it still proves pretty funny. Some jokes -- "take my wife" -- really are evergreen. And misogynistic.

So why did those famous Catskill resorts mostly disappear? Times changed, as the movie demonstrates, and so did audien-ces. During the 1960s, protest was hot, and comedians like Dick Gregory, at left, reached out to a different clientele. (We get just one joke from this guy, but it's terrific.) In one of the most telling moments, we learn that, during this time, breakfast at Grossinger's changed from seven kinds of herring -- to... granola!

Perhaps the most surprising revelation is handed us by Larry King, not officially a stand-up comedian, who tells of his assignations with a married woman while he was a bus boy/waiter at a Catskills resort, and the time he spilled hot soup on her husband as he was serving them dinner.

Musically, the movie brings back some fun melodies, among them of course, "Make 'em Laugh!" and, in an unusual usage, "Send in the Clowns," Sondheim's rueful love song, here heard as a kind of mournful dirge for comedians everywhere.

When Comedy Went to School -- from International Film Circuit, running just 76 minutes, and a shoo-in for Jews, seniors, comedy lovers and nostalgia buffs -- opens tomorrow, July 31, in New York City at the IFC Center and the JCC, and in the Los Angeles area on August 16 at Laemmle's Town Center 5 and Music Hall 3.  To view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here.

The surprising and gut-bustingly hilarious JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK

My biggest question before viewing JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK was why filmmakers Ricki Stern (below, left) and Anne Sundberg (below, right) would collaborate on this subject, after previously giving us the likes of The Devil Came on Horseback (about the genocide in Darfur) and The Trials of Darryl Hunt (tackling the [il]legal system in our own country). Both films manage to be extraordinarily depressing and finally uplifting because of the way in which they force us to confront what would otherwise seem very difficult to bear. Now that I've seen their new film, no further explanation is needed. If their new documentary is necessarily lighter in weight, it bears the same hallmarks as their earlier films -- including getting close enough to the person-in-charge so that the documentary becomes, necessarily, both about and for its subject.

Under Stern & Sundberg's microscope, Ms Rivers proves a fascinating object that the twosome is able to probe with a combination of clarity, honesty and humor (much of it provided by their subject) -- if perhaps with something less than full candor. Post viewing, I did begin to wonder just how much control the subject exercised over the finished product. Did gaining this kind of access to a celebrity mean that Rivers called at least a few of the shots? Although in the press materials the filmmakers note that they were given for fourteen months unlimited access to "meetings, rehearsals, hiring and firings, dress fittings, birthdays, dog training and holidays" -- whew -- one can still wonder about the editing process: What made the cut, what did not, and why?

Still, the movie offers a surprisingly rich, warts-and-jewelry look at a life dedicated to being funny by making people laugh, wince and think -- as our best comedians have always done. If that life if also a sad one (obsessive and blinkered to a large extent) that has taken a toll on its owner and those closest to her, well: You get what you ask for, and you pay for it, too. As I am sure Ms. Rivers would be the first to admit.

As usual, I will not go into much about "what" you are going to see. Granted, there's no "narrative plot" to spoil in most documentaries. But there are enough juicy tidbits and chunks of surprising information that it would be stupid and graceless to give them away here. I will say one thing, however, in way of a warning. If you read, as I did ( literally within an hour of seeing the documentary) the piece by Jonathan Van Meter that appeared on Ms. Rivers in New York magazine's end-of-May issue, you may find yourself shocked by the amount of duplication between the article and movie.  Juicy tidbit after juicy tidbit is repeated until I found myself thinking, "Someone should sue." (And TrustMovies doesn't even like lawyers.)

Even if you did read the New York article, there's some discovery to be made and fun to be had as the filmmakers cover everything from Rivers' new theater piece (performed to success at the Edinburgh Festival but not so much in London) and her history on and with Johnny Carson to her recent appearance on -- oh, god -- Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice.  (How desperate is she? As she tells us early in in the doc, "I was playing the Bronx at 4:30 in the afternoon!")  By the finale of this very amusing, sometimes sad, occasionally creepy documentary,  you may view this "piece of work" in a way that adapts that famous line about travel:  "She's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there."

After being featured at various film fests across the country this year -- and just finishing its stint as Centerpiece presentation at NEWFEST here in New York City -- Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work opens Friday, June 11, on three screens at the IFC Center, as well as Lincoln Plaza Cinema, Cinemas 1, 2, 3 and the Chelsea Clearview.