Pablo D'Stair is back -- again -- this time with a genuine charmer titled M.r PICKPOCKET

Few things give TrustMovies more pleasure than, after disliking a filmmaker's movies one upon another, suddenly along comes a film that he loves. Finally, after covering two earlier movies by Pablo D'Stair (you can read those reviews here), I've found a film of this writer/director that seems to me a lovely, creative, charming and original work.

Titled M.r PICKPOCKET (and, yes, that misplaced punctuation is deliberate), this 55-minute movie tells the tale of two very young brothers determined to create a successful comic-book franchise based on their notion that their dad moonlights as a pickpocket on his off hours.

Unlike the two earlier films I've viewed via Mr. D'Stair (shown at left), this one is relatively short and very sweet. Because it features in the leading (and only) roles, D'Stair's two young sons, Lucien and Sebastien, you would be on the mark in calling it a family affair. Even better, the two kids are simply terrific in their roles, each one capturing a distinct character, along with that character's quirks, desires and attitude -- no small accomplishment for actors this young. The kids claim, in the film at least, to be "nearly" seven (Lucian) and nine (Sebastien).

What makes the movie work particularly well is D'Stair's clever dialog (get ready: It's often pretty profane), which posits that these two youngsters know so much about comic books -- their creation, distribution and marketing -- that they can somehow manage all this on their own. Much of the charm and humor arrives via this adult-level dialog coming out of the mouths of the kids -- and yet it is handled so well that it seems much more than mere stunt.

The two kids (that's Lucien, above, and Sebastien, below) seem to understand surprisingly well what they are saying, along with the feelings -- jealousy, paranoia, anger, frustration, hope and all the rest -- that lie behind the words. This is something that even a big-budget, kids-playing-adults movie like Bugsy Malone couldn't manage nearly as well. Those kids too often were "acting."  These two are more often "behaving."

The world of comic books is created skillfully, too. TrustMovies must admit he quit reading comics at a young age, and so no longer knows that much about this world (nor cares a hoot for something like Comic-Con). Yet listening to these kids ramble on, there seems to exist a lot of similarities here to the world of the fine art establishment, film-making and various other creative endeavors. It's like hearing folk from any of these fields talk about their life, work and art. So even if you are one of the comic-book-challenged, there will be plenty here to keep you interested.

Visually, too, the filmmaker is trying a few new tricks (thank god): He's using color now, and his camera even moves some. The constant, back-and-forth shots from one kid to the other do grow a bit tiresome, yet the filmmaker changes his angles and POV often enough to make things bounce and snap.

D'Stair has divided M.r Pickpocket into chapters with headings using a line of dialog devoted to a subject or theme under discussion. He has also divided the film by using audio from various sources: a Bob Dylan interview and scenes from an old film and TV series. There is undoubtedly a reason for this but I couldn't fathom it. And these "audios" do make the movie a bit longer than is needed. Still, this is only a mild distraction from the real meat here -- which is the nifty and constant dialog between the two brothers.

I liked M.r Pickpocket enough to watch it a second time and, given my tight viewing schedule, I think that's high praise. I hope the film garners D'Stair a lot more viewership. You can watch it free via Vimeo by clicking here for the full film (the password is said to be mrpickpocket, but I didn't seem to need it) or here to see the "teaser" credits trailer. You can also view the film via Amazon Digital here (Prime members can watch for free) or purchase it (on DVD) here.

Note: Because I wanted to catch all of the very funny and often incisive dialog, I turned on Vimeo's Closed Captioning option -- which worked great for maybe two-thirds of the film, and then suddenly ceased. But I'm told Vimeo is working on this. (Amazon gives you the English subtitles, too, and they work just fine.)

Morgan Spurlock is back--and less snarky--w/ COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE

Documentarian Morgan Spurlock is also a satirist. Of sorts. From Super Size Me and Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden to the more recent The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,  he's making fun of (some of) us and our popular culture and what this is doing to our country. But as Spurlock is growing older and perhaps wiser, he also appears to be growing a bit gentler. That, in any case, is how it seems with his endeavor, COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE, which takes on the famous (or maybe infamous, depending on how you view it) comic book convention that occurs annually in San Diego, California.

Spurlock, shown at right, travels there and gets some face time with a lot of different people concerned with the convention -- from its organizers, to the man who's been hawking comics there and/or elsewhere for decades, fans who've come from all over to be there (including one cute pair, the male of whom is planning to propose to the female on premises), a bunch of celebrities (from Harrison Ford to Kevin Smith) who are helping to hawk their latest wares, Marvel Comics' most famous name Stan Lee (and other hot artists) and some of the young would-be artists who've come here to try to interest the pros in their work.  Oh, yes, and one particular troupe of performers (below) who are planning to put on an act as part of the "costume" portion of the show.

The filmmaker is not unaware of how Comic-Con has grown and changed from a convention primarily interested in comic books into the major yearly hawker of new product (generally movies, video games, or TV shows) that are in some way related (fantasy, sci-fi, action and other popular genres) to those comics. And so money and marketing, once again, conquer all. This theme seems a major part of all of Spurlock's work and it is why TrustMovies, along with many others, values him and his films.

While his targets (from fast food to product placement) may often seem like sitting ducks, his view is more inclusive and his satire less scathing and more generous than may initially be apparent. With the Comic-Con film, this is particularly true, so that, though we might (I certainly did) initially laugh aloud at much of what we see here, once the filmmaker sticks with his subjects for a bit, each takes on a life of his or her own, and we find ourselves rooting for them all, no matter how nutty they might have first appeared.

I admit to being a little bored by the subject and, in fact, with the movie's content, over its first half hour, probably because I'll never attend Comic-Con nor will I feel I've missed anything (particularly now that I've seen this film). But I must also admit that, by the end of the movie, I was with it -- and its many odd characters -- one hundred percent.

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (from Wrekin Hill Entertainment, 88 minutes) opened last week in Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco -- and opens this week in New York City (at the Village East Cinema), Philadelphia and Boston. I also noticed it available via VUDU, which probably means it's  already viewable on VOD.

Michael Barnett's new documentary SUPERHEROES world-premieres on HBO

"Having superpowers does not necessarily make you a superhero," notes one of the self-titled breed featured in this bizarre (in so many ways) new documentary that premieres Monday night, August 8, on HBO. "Having super-motivation and doing super deeds: I think that's what makes you a superhero." To TrustMovies' mind, that word "necessarily" in  the above sentence rather immediately places this speaker into the mode of comic-book reality. So, then, some people do possess superpowers?  Say, Superman, Santa Claus, God and Rupert Murdoch? (Well, until the latter's staff began its "breaking-and-entering" phase.)

In SUPERHEROES, the new, yes, documentary(!) directed by first-time filmmaker Michael Barnett (shown below) and produced by Theodore James, we meet a bunch of would-be superheroes who dress in costume (that often disguises the face) and set about making our world a better place. But do they? That's up for grabs. The initial demonstration of this is exhibited via the speaker's words accompanied by animated frames that tell the story of how he protected a woman undergoing a terrible beating. I'll buy that. Or maybe not. The movie-makers do damn little investigation of whether or not anything their assembled "cast" says is verifiable.

Accompanying these people on their rounds produces no real confrontations, so we're left to listen to them ramble on, interrupted by a few other talking heads.  One is that of a policewoman, Lt. Brown, who expounds on how vigilante justice is problematic (good-ness knows, we've had movies telling us the same thing for years now). Then some kind of psychologist takes the other route, explaining and perhaps trying to justify these would-be mother's (and daddy's) helpers. The two viewpoints cancel each other out.

Which seems appropriate, as much of this movie appears to cancel itself out. So many of the folk whom we meet in this odd film -- Xtreme Justice League (and Mr. Xtreme, shown below); Zimmer, Lucid, Z and T.S.A.F. (the "T" is silent), from what they call The New York Initiative; Master Legend (who in one nutty moment, tells a paraplegic that he (Master Legend) has a pipeline to god: "He always listen to me!"); Zetaman; Dark Guardian; Thanatos (shown at bottom, from Canada!) and, as a corrective, I guess, Life (who services Manhattan's homeless) -- seem to have but a nodding acquaintance with what many of us would call reality.

Zimmer, quite waif-like for a superhero, wants to corral the bad guys who prey upon gays, but his modus operandi smacks, as the Lieutenant points out, of entrapment. "Never drink to drunkenness," Master Legend tells us as he downs a beer, though it looks he's halfway there already. Mr Xtreme -- overweight, with parents who make fun of him, no social life and few of the skills one would imagine a superhero needs (we see him in a fighting match, which he loses) -- seems simply sad.

Throughout this documentary, there's a queasy sense of mixing up life and fantasy, reality and dreams. And this is apparent not just in the cast of "superheroes" but within the film-making team itself. Its organization is all over the place, to the extent that we're not sure just what the aim is: to explain, help, hinder or make fun. It may be true, as a couple of the heroes point out, that "society just isn't working anymore," but will a costume and good intentions make it all better?

Well, among these heroes is one who manages a Toys-for-Kids project, while another provides the homeless with deodorant and toiletries. That's a plus. Finally, they all meet at -- yes -- Comic-Con in San Diego, which perhaps is where they really belong. As unsure as I am about the usefulness of these superheroes, I am equally flummoxed by the point of this documentary. However, if a bunch of rabid, tea-party Republicans can bring our nation to the point of breakdown over a phony debt crisis that no one really believes in (or why was the debt ceiling raised without quibble a dozen times under George W. Bush -- who spent three times what our current and rotten-to-the-core President has spent?), then I suppose it is perfectly OK to look to superheroes (or people who somehow think they are superheroes) to solve our problems. Holy shit -- it just hit me: This may be the perfect documentary for our end-of-times!

You can see Superheroes on HBO, starting Monday evening August 8 at 9 (Eastern and Pacific time). Check your local HBO schedule for further showings (click on the link, go to the bottom of the screen, at right, and click on Schedule). Eventually, I expect, there's be streaming and/or DVDs.

Why is Matthew Vaughn's KICK-ASS so god-damned liberating? Some thoughts...

Been thinking about KICK-ASS -- the would-be, not-quite, super-hero movie directed and co-written by Matthew Vaughn -- since my partner and I were thoroughly blown away by it a few weeks ago, after sticking the Blu-Ray into the machine and settling back for what we hoped would be, at least, a little fun. We knew that the film had been roundly fulminated against by many critics for its inappropriate violence (in the person of a pre-pubescent girl: goodness!) and that it had not set the box-office on fire, despite coming in first at the ticket-wickets when it made its theatrical debut last April. At the end of our nearly two-hour viewing (which seemed more like one quick sixty minutes), we turned to each other simultaneously, our eyes alight as though we had just seen -- super-hero-wise -- not simply the second coming, but the first.  We have not had this much fun at a mainstream movie in ages, and we felt, well... liberated.

How in hell (or heaven) did Mr. Vaughn, shown at right, achieve this?  And why, for goodness sake, were not more of the critical establishment and movie-going public plying his work with Hosannas? Vaughn's biggest accomplishment is capturing the right tone for the film and shepherding it through to the end. While I know nothing about the specific comic book series on which the film is said to be based, I do remember well the comics of my youth -- and also remember their panels of rather extreme violence during the 1950s and beyond (the subject of some U.S. Congressional hearings, as I recall). It's this very violence that Vaughn and his cast and crew tackle head-on, turn inside out and then, by some alchemy, give back to us in a manner that is actually liberating.

"Liberating?"  My own daughter, Laura, who happened to love the movie, too (the 30-something generation speaks!) was surprised, but thought about that word for a moment and then agreed.  "Yes," she said, "I can see what you mean."

The movie's chief alchemist in regards to this liberating violence is the young thirteen-year-old (twelve when the movie was filmed) actress Chloe Moretz. Ms Moretz, shown at left and below, is so perfect in this role -- in terms of age, acting ability, sense of humor, range of emotion and more -- that viewers cannot take their eyes off her for an instant. Nor would they want to.  (What a shame that the filmmakers of the American version of the Millenium trilogy could not have postponed filming a couple of years so that Moretz could play Lisbeth Salander.) The actress' purity, together with her character's sense of right & wrong, and Moretz/Vaughn's ability to put this to physical use, gives her actions an almost angelic "rightness" -- while the "wrongness" of those actions, on another level, offers a delectable, unique disparity .

This results in a movie-going experience that is original -- and then some. Consequently we don't just accept everything Chloe/Mindy/Hit-Girl does, we relish it -- and in about as guilt-free a fashion as possible.  (Not to mention that all her "victims" are murderers and/or creeps.)

If the other four characters who make up the bulk of the film are not quite up to Moertz's level (who could be?), they are excellent in their own right and limned with skill by some consummate actors -- young and older. Mark Strong (playing Frank D'Amico, about to be popped by Moretz, two photos above, and at right, just above) makes a fine and irredeemable villain. What adds interest to his role and character is that Frank has his own offspring, Chris, played by the delightfully daffy/savvy Christopher Mintz-Plass (above, left, of Superbad and Role Models), who gives his character a nice touch of mystery. Is he or isn't he as bad as his dad?

In the title role (above, and doubling as nerdy high-schooler Dave Lizewski, below, center) is Britisher Aaron Johnson, who, though he can do "nerd" with the best of them, is clearly drop-dead gorgeous and for whom I predict a very big career.  The actor, charming as hell, is able to play his would-be hero role to the hilt, while slowly leaving his nerdy self behind and growing into something more powerful and mature.  His rooftop scene with Moretz at the finale should give you pleasurable goosebumps.

Finally there is Nicolas Cage, below, an (over)actor I am usually happy to miss.  But here, in the role of Moretz's gone-crazy dad, everything that rubs me the wrong way about this performer is used so well that I'm ready to cry uncle.  Cage hasn't been this much fun -- or on-target -- in years.

In addition to providing wonderful fun, great action sequences and some genuine emotion, Vaughn includes one scene that should have audiences holding their collective breath.  It's a torture sequence being shown live over the internet and broadcast via TV that tightrope-walks its way into history. Creepy, funny, horrible, enjoyable and even shocking, it hits us just about everywhere -- and in every way -- that we live right now.

I hope I've said enough to send those of you (who imagined Kick-Ass to be some johnny-come-lately, super/action hero mistake) off to the video store or to Netflix to have a look.  As to the proposed sequel that is said to be in the offing, I'm of two minds.  Given how the movie ends, I want one. Desperately. On the other hand, how could it possibly be as much joyous, freeing fun?

Kick-Ass comes to us via the getting-ever-better, commercially-smarter-than-not, and currently our biggest independent studio: Lionsgate.  So stay the fuck away from the "gate," you sleazy Icahns!  (Perhaps a nasty father-son/corporate-raider team could be the villains of the sequel?)