The remarkable Beanie Feldstein anchors Coky Giedroyc/Caitlin Moran's HOW TO BUILD A GIRL

How remarkable is Beanie Feldstein? Well, she was aces doing that supporting role in Lady Bird, then grabbed the brass ring as one of the leads in Booksmart. Just the other day, some of us learned she could sing, too, during that wonderful 90th birthday celebration for Stephen Sondheim (watch it here). This week the Los Angeles born and raised actress opens as the star of HOW TO BUILD A GIRL, in which she plays the daughter of a very working class British family, with an acccent that seems -- to my ears, at least -- spot on. She also absolutely anchors this oddball little movie via her laser focus, boundless energy and ability to make us care, no matter how "offbeat" be some of her choices..

With a screenplay adapted from her own novel by Caitlin Moran (shown at left in the photo at right) and directed by Coky Giedroyc (at right), the presumably somewhat autobiographical novel-to-movie is so utterly and fully inhabited by Ms Feldstein that you could just about believe that she wrote and directed it, too.

This is not to take anything away from the talent and work of Ms Morgan and Ms Giedroyc; I am merely pointing out how perfect a kind of creative collaboration the combo of these three women provides. As odd as the tale is and further becomes, everything somehow works. And Ms Feldstein goes from a believable 16-year-old to so much more in the space of a mere hour and 42 minutes.

Morgan's theme, built right into her title, is how we become who we are and/or can be. All of us, men and women, have gone through this with varying results, and of course, we're still working on it. But most of us may not have started with quite the bizarre family situation that our hero Johanna has. Nor will we have taken the even more bizarre route that our heroine travels.

Our girl is clearly a writer from the outset. What to write about is the big question. Her journey takes her from a local televised poetry competition to penning reviews for a completely male-run music magazine to writing a feature rock-star profile, and finally to learning that, in this society, snark plays (and pays) better than praise.

Along the way, we spend time with her family: a music-besotted father (the always wonderful Paddy Considine) and kindly, caring, smart-ass brother (Laurie Kynaston, above, left), and finally and especially that particular rock star named John Kite, played with singular intelligence and delight by Alfie Allen, below. You can easily understand how Johanna could fall in love with this guy, as well as how he could be charmed to distraction by our girl.

How it all unravels and re-ravels proves increasingly joyous, if somewhat fraught, with a fine cameo from Emma Thompson (below, left) near the finale. As coming-of-age movie go, How to Build a Girl is singular and most welcome. I can't wait to see the result of Ms Feldstein's next role -- playing Mary in a movie version of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. Though if, as promised, director Richard Linklater takes as long on this one as he did on Boyhood, TrustMovies won't live long enough to see it. Damn!

From IFC Films and running 102 minutes, the movie opens in three actual theaters (hooray, but yes, they're drive-ins) in Glendale, Arizona; Sacramento, California; and Ocala, Florida) and on ditial and cable VOD this Friday, May 8 -- for purchase and/or rental. Go for it!

Coming-of-age in East Germany, 1956, in surprising, wrenching ways: Lars Kraume's marvelous THE SILENT REVOLUTION

Ah, kids, and the things they can up to! What those of THE SILENT REVOLUTION get up to during their final year of high school in East Germany back in 1956 begins as something of a lark, as well as a genuine and sympathetic feeling for those young people active in the protests taking place in Communist-controlled Hungary. The Berlin Wall hadn't even been built back then, so access between East and West Berlin was easier than it would be a few years hence.

What a couple of students see during the newsreel portion of the screening they have snuck into in a West Berlin movie house -- footage of the Hungarian Revolution they would never be allowed to view in their home country of East Berlin, now controlled by the USSR -- influences them to talk their classroom into staging a couple of minutes of silence to honor the Hungarian protesters.

That's all. Nothing special. No big deal.

Based on a real situation that arose in this particular classroom, the movie -- directed and adapted (from the book by Dietrich Garstka) by Lars Kraume, shown above -- turns out to be one of the more compelling, engrossing and moving films I've seen this year.

In fact, the film is right up there with Oscar-winner The Lives of Others in the detailed manner in which it captures life under Communist rule: when anyone -- say, those two boys who go to the movie theater (Theo, played by Leonard Scheicher, above, and Kurt (Tom Gramenz, below) -- proves foolish enough to, even slightly, question that rule.

As the kids' two minutes of "solidarity" slowly becomes "counter-revolution," once the higher-ups -- from teachers to principal to government flunkies and ugly high-level bureaucrats -- become involved, things turn simultaneously ridiculous and frightening, as entire families' lives begin to disintegrate.

The Silent Revolution is particularly good at demonstrating the ways in which this Communist/Fascist bureaucracy invades and threatens the individual, and as this threat increases and the kids are further worn down, your blood will start to boil.

Herr Kraume refuses to make the students simply good or bad; all of them are mixed bags, managing wrong and right as best they can and for reasons that are genuine but sometimes flawed. They try their best to present a united front, but their masters engage in lies and betrayal to break them.

The student for whom all this takes the greatest toll is Erik (dazzlingly portrayed by Jonas Dassler, above and below, left), whose journey from belief to belittlement is excruciating and surprisingly moving. Getting to the truth is one thing but getting any kind of justice is quite another

The film's Spartacus-like climax is just fine, but it's the very final moments that seal the deal. "I'm getting goosebumps," my spouse exclaimed, as The Silent Revolution came to its brilliant, beautiful, breathtaking end. I think you will remember these kids and their predicament for a good long time.

From Distrib Film US and released via Icarus Home Video, the movie -- in German with English subtitles and running 111 minutes -- hits the street on DVD and via VOD this Tuesday, October 1 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Blu-ray debut for Philip Ridley's 1990 cult classic, THE REFLECTING SKIN

Early in the excellent "making-of" bonus feature on the new Blu-ray of THE REFLECTING SKIN, writer/ director Philip Ridley (shown below) posits that some movies pull you in immediately and hold you because you are simply drawn to them, while with others, you need to actively reach out; inclusion won't be automatic. His film, Ridley maintains, is of the latter variety, and TrustMovies would definitely agree. I've seen the movie twice now, and while I can appreciate many things about it, I must admit that I am not a huge fan. For me, Ridley's 2010 film, Heartless, is much more memorable: original, hypnotic, mystifying and unforgettable.

The main reason for rejoicing at this new Blu-ray release is the transfer itself. Finally, The Reflecting Skin can be seen in all its gorgeous cinematic glory. The photography, by two-time Oscar nominee Dick Pope, is extraordinary. The opening scene alone -- a golden field of wheat  -- should produce a gasp and a need for sunglasses, so blindingly beautiful is it to view.

The writer/director also has a great eye for casting; in the three of Ridley's films I've seen, each character, along with the actor who plays him/her, seem indelible, memorable, and near-perfectly cast.

The three leads in The Reflecting Skin are played by Jeremy Cooper (above), as the central character, a mischievous young boy with a vivid imagination and too much time on his hands; Viggo Mortensen (below), as his older brother, just now returning from active duty in the armed forces during the time of the atom bomb testings in the Pacific;

and Lindsay Duncan (below, center) as the British widow who lives more or less next door, in this tiny, two-horse town on the prairie. The themes tossed around in the film -- the atom bomb, angels, the afterlife, love, sexuality, family, responsibility, serial killers in a black Cadillac and, yes, vampires -- are rather clunkily assembled so that, while we "get it," some of us are still not apt to care all that much. (Heartless weaves a much more bizarre, mysterious and entrancing tale with as many oddball themes but with much more artfulness, it seems to me.)

Still, the sheer beauty of the film, together with its fine cast, and the imagination and skill that Ridley brings to each of his projects (he also wrote the fine screenplay for The Krays) combine to make the movie a worthwhile watch -- even if you don't go away raving about its brilliance.

From Film Movement Classics, the Blu-ray and DVD -- complete with commentary and Bonus Features -- hit the street this coming Tuesday, August 13, for purchase and/or rental.

Coming of age in the most unusual of ways in Steve McLean's POSTCARDS FROM LONDON

I don't recall ever seeing Steve McLean's earlier film, Postcards from America, but it has been 24 years between that one and his latest work, POSTCARDS FROM LONDON.

The latter is an unusual movie indeed: heavily stylized but never abstruse, with content that tracks the oddball coming-of-age of the film's hero, Jim, who is itching to leave his suburban British home and make his way in the world via the bohemian haunts of Soho.

How he does this, who he meets, and the way in which fine art figures into the equation -- in so many ways --makes for a movie that does not compare with much else that TrustMovies has so far seen.

Mr. McLean, shown at right, clearly means his movie to be highly visual and lots of fun to look at. He has succeeded mightily at this, from his palette of day-glo, neon colors to his cast of handsome men, both young and older, and cinematography (by Annika Summerson) that has a consistent eye for composition, and editing (Stephen Boucher) that crisply and smartly weaves these 90 minutes into a generally enthralling whole.

As the movie's hero, British actor Harris Dickinson (below, of Beach Rats) proves himself capable of physically and facially carrying the load of oh-my-god-isn't-he-beautiful! baggage that the screenplay (also by McLean) has inflicted upon him.

While this might be difficult to live up to, Dickinson, via his innate liveliness and enthusiasm, not to mention his face (above) and body (below), easily carries it off. I do wonder why, since much is made during a photo shoot, of our hero's male endowment, McLean refuses to give us the full-frontal shot that seems both welcome and necessary (even if a body double were required here). It is not as though we're currently living in censorious times (the movie is being released un-rated, in any case).

The major part that art plays within the whole is also worth contemplating.

The movie opens with our boy at a London museum, where the sudden sight of a beautiful Titian painting makes him woozy-unto-fainting.

Yes, as we later learn, this is the famous Stendhal Syndrome, which figures into things more heavily as the film moves along and is used in a particularly clever manner (certainly better than Dario Argento managed it in his mostly silly, eponymously-named mystery movie).

We get some references to Francis Bacon but mostly we hear about (and even see) Caravaggio, during the fantasies that Jim experiences whilst under the influence.

The quartet of upscale rent boys (above) with whom Jim falls in are brought to pleasing life, as are the older clients Jim finds himself servicing -- in a decidedly unusual manner. Art comes into even this quite interestingly, too.

In all, Postcards from London proves a very pretty, charming and entertaining look at young man's unusual coming of age. It's not what you would call deep or particularly moving in any manner. Yet it offers up a very welcome look at gay life (that is not time period-specific), sexuality and the uses of art -- without guilt or shame.

From Strand Releasing, after a nice run of various GLBT film festivals, the film opens theatrically in New York City at the Quad Cinema this coming Friday, November 9, and it will hit Los Angeles on Friday, November 23, at Laemmle's Music Hall 3. I don't find other cities on the agenda as yet (click here, and then click on Screenings halfway down the screen, for the latest playdates/venues), but there will certainly be a DVD and/or digital streaming available eventually.

Niels Arden Oplev's marvelous SPEED WALKING: coming-of-age in 1970s Denmark

Who'd have imagined a movie about a death could be so full of life? Those Scandinavians who have read the novel, Kapgang, will already know this, of course. The rest of us will have to view the movie version to discover the delights of this tale of a 14-year-old boy whose mother has just died suddenly, and the loss and grief he and his family are thrown into, along with his also suddenly burgeoning sexuality which finds an object in both female and male classmates.

SPEED WALKING is alternately humorous, hot and heart-breaking, and the manner in which director Niels Arden Oplev (shown below) has brought all this together is quite splendid indeed.

Because the movie takes place in Denmark, the culture and attitudes we see will undoubtedly pull some American viewers up short. How can the adults on view be so cavalier about their own sexuality, let alone that of their children? That the movie takes place in the mid-1970s only points out how backward so much of America was then, and is perhaps even more so now.

Even though the Danes, not to mention the Swedes, were more open and embracing of sexuality, this does not mean that their society did not have its own problems, then or now. As shown here, there were still bullies and big-mouths at school, gossip was rife in the community, and the GLBT population were still seen to a large extent as outsiders.

As adapted for the screen by Bo Hr. Hansen from the novel by actor/writer Morten Kirkskov, the movie hops easily from scene to scene -- school and the speedwalking of the title to a funeral, religious confirmation, sexual exploration and more -- all tied nicely together by the director's skills (Oplev also made the original Girl With the Dragon Tatoo film) and the lead performance from a young newcomer named Villads Bøye (shown above and below, left), who it is difficult to imagine could have given a better performance.

Young master Bøye gets each moment right; he'll move you, surprise you and make you laugh -- sometimes simultaneously. As his best friend and possible lover, Kim, Frederik Winther Rasmussen (above, right, and below, left) is as blond, beautiful and handsome as you could want, while remaining just slightly out of reach -- except for an occasional hand job.

The adults are portrayed by some of Scandinavia's finest actors -- including Borgen's Sidse Babett Knudsen and Pilou Asbæk, David Dencik and Anders W. Berthelsen (shown at bottom).

The movie reveals how terribly "public" everything can be in a small-town environment at the same time as it shows us how kind and caring these townspeople can often be. Martin's journey toward adulthood, during which he must suddenly act as the only real adult in his family is a difficult one, but it is leavened with so much humor, incident and genuine feeling that I don't think that you'll regret, for even one moment, accompanying him on that journey.

From Breaking Glass Pictures and running a just-right 108 minutes, Speed Walking makes its home video debut this coming Tuesday, August 7, on DVD and VOD -- for purchase and/or rental.

MILLA: Valérie Massadian's exploration of young womanhood opens at NYC's AFA

The movie opens on a shot of a young couple seemingly covered in something like gauze. But then, when the camera captures the two from another angle, we see that they have been asleep inside an automobile, the windows of which have fogged up by their breath. This is the first instance of how, in MILLA, the new film from Valérie Massadian (Nana), what we see and hear turn out to be something more and different from what we might expect. And yet the surprises in Milla are small and quiet, as is the movie itself. It's very slow, too. Those of you who prefer action films, take note.

Ms Massadian, shown at right, intends a study -- of a character (our young heroine, Milla) and of a class of people -- the less educated, wealthy and entitled -- that we are not used to seeing, let alone entering the lives of in any real depth, in mainstream movies. She has succeeded, too.

Though her movie begins slowly and may have you thinking, "Oh, my: another vérité look at the life of the lower class," do hold on. Milla proves something more because it does not take for granted that the life here is anything less than genuine, important and even positive -- though certainly difficult, yes.

Massadian does not cram on the crap, as do some would-be realist filmmakers. Milla's life has ups and downs, with one major loss midway, but she copes as best she can. And in the starring role, newcomer Severine Jonckeere (above and below) proves a lovely and very moving addition to the canon of near-real characters caught on film. A collection of small scenes caught at various times and in differing place, each of which makes its simple point, Milla quietly and slowly builds to something major.

Though the film is slow-paced and rigorous, once you take its characters on their own terms, just as the filmmaker has done, you watch, learn and grow along with them. The cinematography involves mostly interiors -- that car, the couple's squatter residence, a bar, hotel, vegetable stand, and eventual apartment for Milla and her son -- but the exteriors, including the sea and the fishing vessel on which Milla's boyfriend finally finds employment, are beautifully handled, as well, often in the kind of middle distance that allows us to feel for and appreciate the characters via their surroundings.

Milla is a tale of slow growth, change and acceptance: of what life throws at you, of motherhood, of responsibility. The sparse dialog seem reflective of the characters and their circumscribed lives. Once Milla's son Ethan arrives, after but a brief time with him as suckling infant, we see him as a young child. Ethan Jonckeere (below), who I presume is the actual son of the leading actress, is certainly one of the most adorable child actors you'll have seen: completely natural, never posing for the camera, and totally involved and engaged in life.

The filmmaker includes everything from a musical number to some lovely poetry, a shipwreck unseen but experienced via a dirge, loneliness and coping, and a cat ("You don't want me to pet you," Milla observes, "but you're not leaving." How cat-like). The momentary imagined return of the dead boyfriend, played with quiet grace and caring by Luc Chessel, once to comfort a grieving Milla and again to observe his sleeping son, is handled with the same finesse as the rest of this unusual movie.

Above all else, the film is cautiously hopeful. These days, that's quite a lot. From Grasshopper Film and running a lengthy 128 minutes, Milla opens this Friday, August 3, in New York City at Anthology Film Archives, and in Los Angeles on August 15 (only at 8pm) at the Acropolis Cinema. That seems to be it theatrically, but we shall hope that DVD and digital will soon be in the works.

Daniel Peddle returns with a back-woods, southern-set tale entitled MOSS

TrustMovies was very impressed with young filmmaker Daniel Peddle's earlier narrative movie, Sunset Edge, and so was quite looking forward to seeing his latest -- a North Carolina seacoast-set, slice-of-life coming-of-age film titled eponymously with the name of its main character, MOSS.

Abloom with the area's flora and fauna -- marijuana to alligators -- the movie stars a young film newcomer, Mitchell Slaggert (shown at right), who possesses a nice face, a great body and just about enough charisma to hold an audience for the requisite 80-minute running time.

Mr. Peddle, shown at left, here concentrates much more heavily on a single character than he did in Sunset Edge, which was an ensemble piece, and his Moss is a young man with a lot of problems -- too many of which are laid out via rather clunky exposition.

In no time at all we've learned that today is Moss' birthday, that his mom died in childbirth and that he feels his dad blames him for this.

To escape the fraught father-son relationship, Moss says he is going to visit his kindlier grandmother but stops at his best friend's

houseboat to pick up some drugs and then gets waylaid en route by an attractive older woman (Christine Marzano, below), with whom he quickly bonds, gets high (using an apple as conduit!) and has sex -- all of which saddles the film was an element of male wish-fulfillment/fantasy.

This is handled reasonably well, however, so that if we wish to see it as fantasy, we certainly can. We can also view it as a Southern-set coming-of-age tale, a chance for some necessary parent/child bonding, and/or a warning about the consequences of being late to your grandmother's house.

The Southern atmosphere, fairly dripping with sloth and humidity, is captured well, and the performances are as good as the sparse but not nearly deep enough script will allow.

That we learn next to nothing about the woman or the best friend (Dorian Cobb, above) is perhaps acceptable, but concerning Moss and his dad (nicely played by Billy Ray Suggs, shown at bottom), we learn only enough to be able to ascertain, by film's end, that this has proven a break-through day for them both. Which smacks more of manufacture than of anything organic.

Still, young Slaggert (above, who has modeled for Calvin Klein) is a feast for the eyes. He, along with the ambience Peddle presents, just might constitute a movie worth watching.

From Breaking Glass Pictures and running just 80 minutes, Moss opens this Friday, July 6, in New York City (at the Cinema Village) and in Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Music Hall 3) before hitting home video the following Tuesday, July 10 -- for purchase and/or rental.