Amateur night for satire and fun -- Kevin Willmott's DESTINATION: PLANET NEGRO!

There are enough clever ideas and saucy dialog in the new comedy from Kevin Willmott (Chi-Raq and CSA: The Confederate States of America) that one wishes the actual movie experience were better than it is. There is an amateurishness in DESTINATION: PLANET NEGRO! that goes beyond the fact that the film intends to spoof the old and often silly space-travel movies from the 1950s (do you recall Rocketship X-M?). Instead, there is something amateur in the entire execution of this film that keeps holding it back from being as all-out enjoyable and funny as it should be.

Mr. Willmott (shown at left), who wrote, produced and directed the film (and also turns in one of its better performances) is a smart fellow, all right, and his satire/spoof of how were were back in the day (the 1930s, when this black-and-white film begins) and our current decade (when it changes to "color," as someone so nicely puts it), has a lot of clever riffs on current and past people and events. What's missing is the kind of tonal consistency needed to make the satire zing and the performances sing. Some of the actors seem to be on different pages at the same time so that necessary connections, including performance style -- too broad, too laid-back -- are not being made. There is also a matter of the screenplay, which is awfully expository without being consistently funny or clever enough to compensate for this.

The film begins with a meeting of cream-of-the-crop black leaders in the 1930s (above) as they decide how the black race can better prosper, with an array of ideas being tossed about from back-to-Africa to revolution to finally leaving for a better place -- which turns out to be... Mars.

Yes! So the usual group of intrepid explorers man (and woman) up for the ride, which includes a rip-off of Robby the Robot (above, left), speaking in a voice and dialect that are more grating and less amusing than Willmott probably wanted. Where this group ends up is not quite the place it expected: It turns out to have time-traveled rather than space-traveled. But the return to earth some 80 years later gives Willmott the opportunity to talk about everything from politics and elections to music and fashion (the film's funniest line has to do with a theory of why the modern black man cannot keep his pants up around his waist).

Selling out and the venality of politics, then and now, comes into play, too, but interestingly enough, the film's most incisive and thoughtful points regard homosexuality and blacks, with a young actor named Trai Byers (above) the standout who gives the film a much-needed shot of professionalism and sex appeal with his several appearances.

It all comes out (mostly) all right, with a finale that is romantic, as well as a bit moving and charming and even history-changing -- usually a no-no in time-travel movies but evidently A-OK here. (That's Wes Studi, above, who adds the theme of additional "others" -- Mexican immigrants and Native Americans -- into the film.)

Made back in 2013 and having played a film festival or two in the intervening years, Destination: Planet Negro! is at last being distributed, via Candy Factory Films, beginning tomorrow, Friday, June 10, to VOD and Digital HD -- on all leading platforms.

Netflix streaming tip: German lollapalooza, LOOK WHO'S BACK, all about the return of...

...oh god, no. Not him. Yes, Hitler's back, and the Germans have got him (again) via this new movie based on a best-selling novel of a few years previous. Sure, the idea of this -- Adolf Hitler suddenly returns to earth just as he left it. But the world is a different place today, so how will he fit in? -- is certainly a crazy one. But before you say, "Oh, this is just stupid sensationalism trying to make a quick buck," remember that Donald Trump may be our next President. And even though this film was made well prior to his "candidacy," LOOK WHO'S BACK (Er ist wieder da is its original German title) speaks as much to us here in the USA as it does to Europe and specifically to Germany/Austria.

The filmmaker is David Wnendt (shown at right), the guy responsible for one of last year's most transgressive movies, Wetlands, and he's gone one (or maybe twenty) better with this new work which holds up a mirror not simply to the character of our Adolf but to the German populace today (and by extension Europe and all of Western society). It ain't a pretty sight, but it's a damned funny one: fresh and satirical and full of ironies big and small. And the further into the film we get, the funnier and more pointed it becomes.

As Hitler adapts to this new world, he quickly finds his footing once again, this time using the current (and all too willing) media to further his plans. And of course the German populace -- many of whom don't know enough history to realize who this guy is and what he represents -- prove to be all too adoring acolytes. Look Who's Back is satirical, hilarious, occasionally shocking and full of both the expected and plenty of surprise.

Hitler's come-down, along with the reason for it, is especially piquant and perfect, given what seems to move the general populace more than anything else these days.

The cast is exemplary, beginning with actor who plays Adolf: Oliver Masucci (above and below), who captures the look, sound, feel and just about everything needed to bring Hitler to funny/queasy life all over again. The other name most familiar to me is German actress Katja Riemann, who plays the head of the TV station on which our boy makes his modern-day debut.

I could go on ad nauseum, telling you why you must see this crazy miracle of a movie. But why ruin any more of its delights? So far as I know, the only place you can catch it currently is on Netflix. For this film alone, a subscription to the streaming arm of the service is, well, mandatory.

It's "pot" luck for PAULETTE, as Jérôme Enrico's French charmer hits Blu-ray and DVD

My goodness: two new-to-the-USA movies in as many weeks about marijuana used in homemade baked goods! The second of these -- after the recent Dough -- is the 2012 French film, PAULETTE, directed and co-written by Jérôme Enrico and starring one of the old-time treasures of French cinema, Bernadette Lafont (remember Chabrol's Les Bonnes Femmes and Truffaut's Such a Gorgeous Kid Like Me?). Ms Lafont, who died the year after this film was made, had certainly aged some over a career that spanned nearly 60 years and 190 credits, but she had lost none of her power to charm, surprise, move and entertain us. In fact, as this choice role proved, she could still pack European audiences into cinemas and give them a royal good-time.

If M. Enrico, shown at right, whose work is new to me, doesn't break any ground in the feel-good sub-genre of that-crazy/nasty-old-lady-who-turns-out-to-have-a-heart-of-gold, he also plays by the rules cleverly enough to turn out a very smart of piece of entertainment that is plenty easy to sit back on your couch and enjoy. The cinematography by the fine Bruno Privat looks terrific on Blu-ray; everything from the locations to the pastries appears lovely/yummy. And Ms Lafont -- shown on poster, top, below and further below -- charts her moves from harridan to honeybun with great skill and charm.

Paulette, the character, initially takes no prisoners, reducing everyone from the immigrants who took over her failed restaurant to her mixed-race grandson (the adorable Ismaël Dramé, above, right) and black son-in-law with disdain and anger.

How she and her three cohorts -- left to right, below:  Carmen Maura, Françoise Bertin and Dominique Lavanant -- get into the drug trade proves quite funny (and about as believable as these kinds of movie ever get), and how they then must move from selling drugs to baking the stuff proves ever funnier and equally smart.

The filmmaker lets more "reality" seep into things than is usual in the genre (note the beating that our heroine takes midway along) and Ms Lafont rises to each new challenge from screenwriter or character (or even the drug-sniffing dog, below) with her usual aplomb.

There is little chance that the movie will veer from its indicated course, so best to just tag along merrily and enjoy. Watch this fine actress move slowly and carefully from reprobate to regenerate is delight enough, and will probably have you scurrying to look up her resume and peruse again some of her wonderful early films.

Among the more pointed barbs the movie offers is its smart look at The French Catholic Church (Paulette's father confessor is played very well by Pascal N'Zonzi, above, left) and the sometimes tricky uses of "donations to the cause."

From Cohen Media Group, and running a sleek 87 minutes, Paulette is out now on DVD and Blu-ray, for sale and/or rental.

Time-waster worth a watch: Anthony Burns' hot-and-heavy family satire, HOME SWEET HELL

Garnering a lowly 6% on Rotten Tomatoes, this odd, dark, often bloody comedy satire on a particular wife and mother's need for a storybook life, HOME SWEET HELL -- out now on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD and digital platforms -- turns out to be a bit better than you've heard, mostly thanks to its good cast, and the surprise in finally seeing that odd actress Katherine Heigl in the kind of role she was evidently born to play. Too heavy of face and feature to fit neatly into the typical romantic comedy mode (in which she first came to our notice) and a bit too heavy-handed in her delivery to make those movies, which ought to have been more light-footed, work to their best advantage, here Heigl comes into her own.

The plot involves an uber-controlling wife (Heigl, above, left) whose hubby (the always interesting and versatile Patrick Wilson, above, center) is finally driven into the arms of that "other woman" (Jordana Brewster, below), who turns out to offer a good deal more than meets the eye. Mayhem ensues.

The leads are fine, and the film includes funny, loosey-goosey perfor-mances from the likes of Kevin McKidd, Jim Belushi and A.J. Buckley. The screenplay, credited to a trio of writers, gets its points across swiftly if a bit heavily, as does the direction by Anthony Burns (Skateland). But in an over-the-top movie like this one, that may be the better solution to bringing home the bacon economically and entertainingly.

Ms Heigl is a revelation, in any case -- beginning like a simply too-fired-up wife and mom and slowly morphing into something fierce, frightening and funny. The character loses us and then wins us back by virtue of the actress' all-stops-out performance. This movie -- from Sony/Stage 6 and running 97 minutes -- may be silly, but it won't bore you.

A CONVENIENT TRUTH: Dominick Bagnato's new mockumentary tackles energy and immigration

Obviously stepping off from that popular and Oscar-winning doc of nine years ago, An Inconvenient Truth (note not only its title but its poster art), this new, very hit-and-miss but sometimes surprising and funny mockumentary by first-time/full-length filmmaker Dominick Bagnato will soon have you questioning exactly what and who his film is actually satirizing. My guess is practically everyone and everything about our currently clueless and far-too-entitled nation. As the movie begins, we are introduced to a California congressman, Coleman Burleson, who has recently recanted his earlier campaign against the idea of global warming only to come up with a brand new "proposal" on this subject -- slowly unfurled -- that he insists will solve a number of current problems.

I am not going to tell you what this proposal is (not to worry, it's neither modest nor Swiftian) -- most of my peers will no doubt spoil it for you, anyway -- because much of the fun arrives precisely at the moment (and via the music) with which Mr. Bagnato, shown at left, unveils his idea. Unfortunately, this very idea has already been presented to us alert viewers who have seen the fine British TV series Black Mirror. There, it was handled in a dark and serious way. Here, it's mostly a hoot.

Because Congressman Burleson (Alan Berman, above and below, right) is from California, a state that has a certain amount of illegal aliens arriving consistently from Mexico, his idea not only impacts the environ-ment but also everything from immigration to energy, racism and obesity.

How all this is explained proves a little too catch-as-catch can. Some of the sections are funny and work well  -- the Congressman and his gosh-I-didn't-know-he-was-illegal gardener (Guy Wellman, above, left) and our politician's wife (Elise Rovinsky, below), ever helpful, hopeful and getting tipsier with each new glass and scene -- others fall a bit flat due to over-reaching and not enough clever ammunition.

But as the film lasts only 82 minutes, it passes relatively quickly and every time you grow a little tired of it -- boom -- you find yourself laughing again, whether it's from the scenes with America's new Minute Men (below)

or the just-folk interviews with various people, most of whom offer a happy, utterly naive attitude to just about everything in their world.
How American!

Though he occasionally nudges a bit hard, Bagnato's humor is more often of the quiet and subtle type, never more so than in the funny, clever moment on which he concludes his little film.

A Convenient Truth, from Living Daylights Pictures, opens this Friday, February 20, in New York City at the Quad Cinema.. Elsewhere? Don't know, but surely the film will be available on DVD and streaming soon.

NOTE: the following personal appearances for Q&A's at the Quad: 

 Fri., Feb. 20th - 7:30pm (Premiere screening w/cast and crew members) 

 Sat., Feb. 21st - 7:30pm (Lead actors - Alan Berman & Kevin Hauver) 

 Sun., Feb. 22nd - 3:30pm (Editor - Charlie Pinto) 

 Mon., Feb. 23rd - 7:30pm (Writer/Director Dominick Bagnato) 

 Tues., Feb. 24th - 7:30pm (Actors Joshua Ryan & Nick Magliocco) 

 Wed., Feb. 24th - 7:30pm (Writer/Director Dominick Bagnato) 

 Thurs., Feb. 25th - 7:30pm (Producers  Charlie Pinto & Patrick Steward)

WEDLOCK: Vimeo/FilmBuff's five-minute fun sessions by Ross Partridge and Josh Perilo

TrustMovies has so far devoted his time to movies of the foreign, independent and documentary type, with the occasional foray into cable TV (mostly of the foreign sort). And yet "content" -- that all-purpose word now used to refer to just about anything made to entertain, inform, move or amuse us -- has suddenly become so prevalent and all-over-the place (it's everywhere you look) that it behooves me to occasionally cover something different and perhaps more au courant. Today, because I am particularly taken with the three lead performers, I've just viewed WEDLOCK, a series of ten five-minute episodes about two people -- (Jennifer Lafleur and Mark Duplass) who visit a well-known and much-loved therapist (Rob Corddry) who is famous for his wonderful counseling involving couples.

Seemingly made for a quick watch on your mobile device when you need a few great laughs (and this series will provide them), Wedlock -- written by Josh Perilo and directed by Ross Partridge (shown at left) -- initially moves like a house afire, dropping its premise in your lap and leaving you gasping for air at the very effrontery of the concept, while amazed at the skill of the performers in bringing it to fine, funny life. Really, the first few tiny episodes should have you speeding right on to the next. And the next. Until...

OK: Things begin to go a bit downhill around the halfway point or just after. Nothing major bad, mind you. You'll still laugh pretty consistently, but some of the truly creative stuff that happens early on seems to have disappeared.

The first half of these episodes are so funny, odd and surprising -- dealing with everything from the initial premise (a hoot and a half) to cross-dressing, doll play, ex-girlfriends and a very special "home-made" manual (above) -- that the final ones break little new ground and instead seem to have been created more out of the simple need to fill the rest of the time slots than anything else.

Fortunately the cast is first-rate. Lafleur and Duplass (above, left to right) are fine actors and good comedians, too, and they keep things rolling along. Corddry (three photos up and below, center) is, as usual, an extraordinary delight and one of the funniest "straight men" ever. Also in the mix are Ed Begley, Jr. and Katie Aselton to provide even more laughs and fun.

So do take a chance on Wedlock -- a co-production of Vimeo-on-Demand and FilmBuff. I promise you enough laughs and creativity to make the short time and little money spent (approximately 40 cents per episode) worth your while. You can access the whole schmear by clicking here. (The price is a mere four bucks if you buy the entire series, but it's one buck each if you order à la carte.)

Streaming à la française: Dujardin's & Lellouche's crass, funny, smart THE PLAYERS (Les infidèles)

When I first heard about Les infidèles -- which I believe translates as The Unfaithful, but was instead titled THE PLAYERS for its American release -- I was excited at the prospect of seeing one of my favorite actors, Gilles Lellouche together with Jean Dujardin, whom I am always happy to view in any kind of "normal" role rather than his "stunt" performances in the OSS 117 series or his Oscar-winning The Artist. While The Players came and went from theaters in a blink-of-an-eye limited release this past April, here it is already on Netflix streaming.

The subject here is ostensibly infidelity, but it's really more about men, the male libido, and the many outlets for sex that modern times gives us guys. And while you could hardly find two more attractive and sexy males than Messieurs Lellouche and Dujardin, what this movie does best is hold today's male and his near-constant urges up to close scrutiny via a comedic and satirical approach. The characters played by these two French stars are paragons of just about nothing virtuous at all. They're generally crass, dumb and as self-satisfied as they are self-deluded.

The movie's style is to tackle its subject via nine (maybe ten: I think I lost count) stories that range from three or four minutes in length to maybe 15 or 20 directed by eight filmmakers (including Dujardin and Lellouche). Two of the three shortest segments (all directed by Alexandre Courtès) are also the funniest: the first, a breath-takingly vulgar and hilarious visual joke, the second (starring Guillaume Canet) a new "take" on the almost-found in-flagrante-delicto situation that builds to a fast, shocking and darkly funny visual punch line.

The longer segments are varied in both length and success, though there's not a one that doesn't deliver a few laughs and entertainment while provo-king some interesting thoughts. The first (directed by Fred Cavayé) and final segments (directed by Lellouche and Dujardin) deal with the same two friends who like to go out together (leaving their respective wife and girlfriend at home) to find some nice young ladies to fuck -- often together in the same hotel room. Notes one, as they clean up their private parts after the girls have left, "You know, a shrink might say that that guys like us who are Don Juan types are actually gay." Bullshit, insists the other.

The pair are seen again on a trip to Las Vegas, as they fight and make up and try to get laid and finally discover their "better natures."  This finale's a fitting tribute to all sorts of ideas... and celebrities. There's also an amusing Unfaithfuls Anonymous episode, in which the group leader is played by  none other than that crack French actress Sandrine Kiberlain (below) -- who is very funny.

Another long segment, directed by Michel Hazanavicius, goes on past its sell-by date but does provide a look at Dujardin as a woefully obtuse womanizer. Yet another episode (below), the most serious of the bunch and the only one directed by a woman (Emmanuelle Bercot), nails the idea of truth-telling and what this can do to a long-term relationship.

Perhaps the best of the bunch is the one (below) starring Lellouche as a "happily married" dentist involved with a teenager (Clara Ponsot, below) whose behavior and activities quickly begin to show him (and us) how over-his-head he is in his "relationship" with this youngster. As directed by Jan Kounen (Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinksky), this episode is both smart and sturdy.

As usual with European films vs the American model, many of us here in the good 'ol USA -- particularly those used to viewing mainstream blockbusters -- complain that the actors and actresses aren't good-looking enough. No. Instead of all of them being cut from the same cloth, European performers tend to look real. We're also not used to movies willing to serve up a dose of entertainment that nails the male to the wall.

So, those of you who can take it, "stream a little stream" of The Players and see how you well you survive. You can find it now on Netflix. And maybe elsewhere, too.

Open Roads 2013: Looking your best? Pappi Coriscato's THE FACE OF ANOTHER

Every year the Open Roads fest tends to bring us at least one mainstream comedy, often sporting a satiric bent. (Remember Whatsoeverly from 2011? If not, click above and scroll way down.) This year's entry is the face-lift-cum-excrement comedy THE FACE OF ANOTHER (Il volo di un'altra), and although shit does play a major part in the procee-dings, this is anything but a shitty movie. While it certainly could be sharper and more pointed, there is still plenty here to amuse, delight and cause a fright. The movie goes after Italy's and the western world's penchant for face- (and other) lifts, celebrity-sodden culture, and the need for fame at any cost.

The film's director and co-writer, Pappi Coriscato, shown above, is said to be a Neapolitan choreographer who once worked as an assistant to Pedro Almodóvar; I think you'll ferret out the connections pretty quickly. He and his co-writers have imagined a pseudo-elegant (but genuinely-expensive) spa/resort/surgery-center in the Italian Alps (below) where the moneyed go to get their wrinkles rearranged.

From the outset, as we eavesdrop on a group of maintenance men in the basement, where the inferior plumbing system is acting up again, we get a strong foreboding of what lies in store. (When it arrives, this poop apocalypse is something to see.)

Toilets, in fact, come into play throughout almost the entire film. One of them sets in motion the event that will require our anti-heroine (trust me, there are no heroes to be found in this movie!) to undergo some heavy-duty surgical stuff (above).

Our lady of the bandages is played by Laura Chiatti (above and further above, who can also be seen in this series' Piazza Fontana) as a popular television show hostess about to get the ax. Her hubby, who is doubles as head surgeon at the resort, is played by that super-handsome-and-just-slightly-sleazy-looking actor Alessandro Preziosi (of Loose Cannons), shown below. This couple is, as they say, made for each other.

Also on hand is a maintenance man harboring a notion of fame for his very bizarre singing act (whose performance, shown below, provides one of the funniest scenes in the film); a head nurse with a severe attitude problem; and countless odd patients, plastered up something fierce.

Once word of the TV hostess' "accident" and the surgery she'll need (the operation will be shown on TV, of course) gets out, the celebrity-prone hold a all-month vigil on the road to the resort, and the movie kicks into high (well, at least medium) gear.

There are some very funny scenes here, and the resort itself, with its Alps locations is plenty gorgeous. If we wish the movie were better -- tighter, funnier and more satiric -- we'll accept it as is for an evening of good, semi-solid, excremental fun (complete with some nifty dancing, below).

The Face of Another will play Saturday, June 8, at 6:15pm and Sunday, June 9, at 1:15pm. To view the entire Open Roads program, with showtimes, click here.