Alix Delaporte's THE LAST HAMMER BLOW -- another winner screens at FIAF's CinéSalon

With a single exception so far, Burning Bright -- the new series from FIAF's CinéSalon that introduces the next generation of French auteurs -- is proving to be every bit as good as is that popular yearly series from the FSLC, Rendez-vous With French Cinema. This week's film is another little gem: THE LAST HAMMER BLOW from a filmmaker, Alix Delaporte (shown below), with whom TrustMovies is only now getting acquainted.

Ms Delaporte has written for French television and co-written and directed two movies, the latest of which is this 2014 film, which tackles the tale of an adolescent boy named Victor (played by a simply terrific newcomer, Romain Paul, above and below) in the French provinces finally coming into contact with his birth father, whom he has never met.

Dad  (played by Grégory Gadebois) is a fairly famous orchestra conductor, who may not even know he has a son. Victor's mom (the always fine Clotilde Hesme), who wants nothing to do with his dad, is recovering (well, we hope she is) from what looks like a bout with cancer of some sort, and when Victor learns that his father is guest conducting the local symphony in a performance of Mahler's Sixth, he determines to meet the man, come hell or high water.

That's the set-up, which sounds interesting enough but perhaps nothing we haven't seen previously. But how Ms Delaporte chooses to tell her story -- in swift, sharply observed scenes in which the exposition is mostly buried within the actions and behavior of the characters -- is something else.

This means we have to stay quite alert for fear of missing any telling moments, of which there are plenty. But the filmmaker makes this easy to do, via her casting of the three leads, each of whom shines, and all the subsidiary characters, as well. (That's Spanish actress Candela Peña, above, left, with Ms. Hesme; also in the cast is noted Spanish actor Tristán Ulloa.)

The lead performances -- that's M.Gadebois, above, and Ms Hesme, below -- are so immediate and real, without ever being "showy," that the film often appears to be something close to a documentary. (Gadebois rather resembles a French answer to our own Peter Sarsgaard, if a little heavier, and he gives a most interesting performance here.)

While her film unfurls in logical, first-this/then-that order -- no back-and-forth flashbacks or anything super-stylish here -- Ms Delaporte instead chooses to give us scenes that may seem almost random but are actually very well chosen to further her story and build her characters, while avoiding the typical and sentimental.

Characters grow and perhaps change, but only in small increments. All this makes what happens in the course of the film seem both believable and "earned." Consequently the joy we experience at the finale comes from a place much deeper and more genuine than often happens in stories like this one.

Young Monsieur Paul is quite a find. He has one of those wonderful faces that seem to want to hide feelings yet can't. They keep seeping through, as much as he tries for disguise. The IMDB does not show any further acting work for him post this film, but I do hope we'll see more of this young man as he grows up.

Gadebois and Hesme give performances of wonderful specificity and emotion. Though we never learn specifics about what happened between their characters, this seems yet another smart choice on the filmmaker's part. And the actors bring such depth to their roles -- they make their quite different situations seem understandable -- that we don't miss, even one tiny bit, the more standard exposition many moviemakers would offer. (The scene, above, in which Dad has his son come up and watch the orchestra from the conductor's standpoint is fascinating and rich. I've never seen anything quite like it in a film before.)

The way the movie handles music -- the love of it and the making of it -- seems to me exemplary. Combining Mahler, soccer, cancer and parenting, The Last Hammer Blow weaves all this together with such spirit and grace that we can only sit back and marvel. And care. And enjoy.

This film really ought to have been picked up for U.S. distribution, so FIAF's bringing it to us now can only be seen as a gift. It plays this coming Tuesday, July 5, at Florence Gould Hall in Manhattan, twice only at 4 and 7:30 PM. Click here to learn more and/or purchase tickets. And remember: FIAF members attend free of charge.

LAMB: Ross Partridge adapts, directs and stars in this doozy about trust and betrayal

Tragedy hangs over the new movie, LAMB, like a beautifully wafting shroud. One of its two stars, Ross Partridge, directed the film, as well as adapted it (from the novel by Bonnie Nadzam), and he has come up with something rather extraordinary: a kind of character study about characters who've gone missing -- in at least a couple of senses of that word. Mr. Partridge, shown on poster, right, and below, plays a fellow who appears to have no character. He's a kind of semi-benign sociopath who lies constantly: to his wife, boss, mistress and then, maybe to the other important character in the film, a young girl he meets and gloms onto, who, in the course of the movie, goes missing herself.

Or is this guy, called both David and Gary as the movie wends its ways along, really something else?  Maybe just a poor, addled, lonely, middle-aged man looking for some genuine connection. And what, finally, has he wrought -- does he wreak -- by movie's end upon that young girl, called both Tommie and Emily?  Has he helped or harmed her? The mystery, as well as much of the ferocity, of Lamb is that you will find potent arguments on both sides of these questions. Whatever your answer, you'll be forced to consider this unusual situation from a new perspective.

While Mr. Partridge excels in all three roles -- as adaptor, director and actor -- the real find is the young actress, Oona Laurence (above), who plays Tommie/Emily. Ms Laurence possesses a level of maturity and focus that even most adult actors never achieve. (She reminds us, in this regard, of the younger Saoirse Ronan.) The actress has the ability to look and act both her own age and that of a much older, wiser person -- without ever losing her grasp on the reality of the situation at hand. Her performance here also avoids, thank god, any hint of the "cute."

How these two characters meet and bond is of great help to the film's reality quotient. What happens then, while coming up against our current understanding of pedophilia and child abuse. turns the film into a kind of open-ended morality play, with plenty of ammunition provided for either side of the argument.

Lamb is mostly a two-hander, with the only other major role essayed by the fine Jess Weixler, who plays the mistress of David/Gary and whose character is intelligent enough to finally provide us a small "fix" on this guy's modus operandi. At one point she tells him, "You can't go around making the whole world angry, just so you'll know where you stand."

From its initial not-so-cute meet, the movie morphs into a kind of road trip and from there into an increasingly fraught situation in which love and need jockey for position with fear and pain. Through it all, Ms Laurence has us in thrall, while Mr. Partridge keeps us guessing -- and hoping.

Similar in certain ways to another odd-and-finite-relationship movie -- last year's Like Sunday Like Rain -- this pairing seems as wrong and unhelpful as the earlier film's twosome was beneficial and valuable. But that's my "take" on things. Partridge's film is definitely worth seeing, arguing over, and finally coming to your own conclusion about what our guy has done to or for our girl.

Distributed by The Orchard and running a just-about-perfect length at 97 minutes, Lamb opens this Friday, January 8, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3 and in New York City at the Cinema Village.

Jean-Paul Civeyrac's MY FRIEND VICTORIA offers class, race, friendship and love as we've seldom experienced them, movie-wise

A highly unusual film experience -- quiet, thoughtful, probing and emotional while not indulging us in a single melodramatic moment, MY FRIEND VICTORIA, adapted by screenwriter/director Jean-Paul Civeyrac from a story by Doris Lessing, takes us on the journey to adulthood and motherhood of a young black girl in France as she struggles to find her place in society and the world around her. The beauty, the gift of this extraordinary movie is that it allows us to inhabit its characters so well that we experience and understand things from all their viewpoints.

Filmmaker Civeyrac, shown at right, makes the relatively unusual choice of having much of his film narrated, but quite in the French style (it reminded me very much of Georges Franju's Thomas l'imposteur). This narration -- spoken by Fanny, the very good friend and almost-sister of our heroine, Victoria -- enables us to experience the latter's story sympathetically and with empathy, without the usual sentimentality clouding our vision. And the measured, lovely tone of Fanny's voice seems both intelligent and reassuring. It also elides some of the moments that, had they been shown, would have thrown the movie more toward the sentimental.

Instead, we experience Victoria's life from both a first-hand, visual sense, and almost simultaneously via the more distancing narration. This combination works wonderfully in holding our attention, while forcing us to better consider what we are seeing -- which begins with one of those odd-but-life-altering experiences a child can have that may seem unremarkable to the adults and older children around her but that somehow changes everything for the child (played quite beautifully and soulfully by newcomer Keylia Achie Beguie, above, left).

This experience, conveyed so that we take it in through the child's eyes, mind and heart, is a game-changer that she and we come back to again and again throughout the movie -- but not visually or physically. Instead, it has been expressed so thoroughly that it remains a constant with Victoria, and with us. M. Civeyrac is very good with the details, too, both visual and verbal, objects and ideas. As the film unfurls, we become aware of how childhood seeps into our adulthood, how what we did then stays with us, reflected in our later actions.

Victoria's experience of spending even that single afternoon, night and morning in the home of a well-to-do white family changes everything for the child. And what this movie makes us understand is how one's self-image becomes so much a part of the larger issues of race and class, sometimes to the point of hindering our own progress. Or maybe not. What seems like hindrance may actually be a kind of growth.

That the movie can address all this without ever lecturing or hectoring is among its great strengths. It allows us to ponder, in ways that most films don't come near, even as we're watching, hoping and struggling to understand our protagonist's stance.

My Friend Victoria also treats its white bourgeoisie characters with understanding and compassion. And in the cast are two stalwarts of French cinema:Catherine Mouchet (above, second from right) and Pascal Greggory (above, left), as the parents of the two sons who have such an effect on Victoria, as child and adult. The adult Victoria is played by a stunningly beautiful actress, Guslagie Mulanga (above, and below, right). in her film debut, and an equally effective actress, Nadia Moussa (below, left), also making her acting debut, as Fanny.

This movie is so unlike most of what opens these days, even on the foreign film/arthouse circuit, that I hesitate to praise it too highly. Best to say that, if you're an aware, open and sensate person, you will not leave the theater as quite the same person who entered it. From Zeitgeist Films, and running a mere 95 minutes, the movie opens in New York City exclusively at the IFC Center this Friday, December 4, and will hit several other cities in the weeks to come. Click here and scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

France's submission for the Oscar is... Turkish! Deniz Gamze Ergüven's exhilarating MUSTANG

What are the ways out of (or around) the forced marriage by her fundamentalist family of a young Muslim girl to a man she has no interest in or connection to? We learn a few of these in the new movie MUSTANG, and they are, for the most part, utterly crap alternatives -- one worse than the next. And considering that the film has, as its collective heroine, five sisters, all of marriageable age, Mustang proves a treasure trove of anti-fundamentalist messaging. It is also, despite its sometimes sorrowful events, an absolutely thrilling, exhilarating and often joyful experience.

Written and directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven (shown at left) -- a cosmopolitan young filmmaker born in Turkey and educated in France, South Africa and the USA -- the movie offers yet again a Turkish tale of the evils of fundamentalism and patriarchy, particularly where the female of the species is concerned. We've seen a number of these movies with Turkish settings, from Bliss and The Edge of Heaven to the BFLF Oscar entry, When We Leave and especially last year's surprise The WatchTower. None, however, has had quite the bracing effect of bringing its theme to life as does Ms  Ergüven's effort.

I suspect this is because the filmmaker concentrates as much on the vitality of her heroines as she does on their plight. Consequently, we are immediately charmed and continue to react to the girls' bravery and spunk, despite some of the awful things that will happen to them.

This becomes a fine balancing act, and Ergüven pulls it off rather spectacularly. She has terrific help from the young actress, Günes Sensoy, who in her film debut, proves remarkably gifted at creating a character named Lale (above), who turns out to be part "Annie" and part "Nancy Drew" but mostly just a decent and believable kid -- raised, as were her sisters, by her grandmother -- who suddenly sees her life turned upside down by an angry fundamentalist uncle with designs, I would guess, on the dowries these five attractive sisters will fetch.

The movie begins with a high-spirited scene at the beach as school lets out and the girls bid goodbye to a beloved teacher, after which the sisters and a few of the young boys go for a frolic in the sea. From there it's all down-hill, as the fundamentalism of the male elder and, yes, the enabling women of the family and town, crush our girls. Yet the spiral is leavened with near-constant push-back from the younger set. The form this takes ranges from talk-back humor to out-and-out disobedience.

There is a price to pay, of course, and it comes as one after another of the sisters is married off. To whom and how makes for fascinating viewing, as do the various ways in which the sisters do or don't avoid the worst. What actually is the worst becomes the movie's unsettling shock and surprise.

Toward the finale, Mustang (whose title is never spelled out, but you'll readily understand to what it refers) turns into a kind of thrilling life-and-death struggle: a thriller, a mystery, a chase-and-action movie -- all without lessening or slighting its theme and message.

The film is France's submission for Best Foreign Language Film this year, and despite its seeming much more Turkish than French, it is indeed a co-production of France, Turkey, Qatar and Germany. Under any label, it's a damned good film.

Mustang -- from the Cohen Media Group, in Turkish with English subtitles and running 97 minutes -- opens this Friday, November 20, in New York City at the IFC Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and in Los Angels at Laemmle's Royal. Over the weeks to come it will appear in another dozen cities (including, on January 15, the Living Room Theater and the Regal Shadowood here in Boca Raton and the Tower Theater and Miami Beach Cinematheque in Miami; the Cosford Cinema in Coral Gables; at the Regal Hollywood in Naples; the Regal Bell Tower in Ft. Myers; and the Regal Winter Park in Orlando. Click here and scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters around the country.

Blu-ray/DVDebut: David Burris' Appalachia-set clan saga, THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT

With a nod to the Hatfields and McCoys, the Civil War, and a little modern-day drug-dealing, the quietly engrossing movie THE WORLD MADE STRAIGHT -- based on the novel of the same name by Award winning Carolina writer Ron Rash (born in South C but raised in North C) -- turns out to be a very nice surprise. Yes, the movie could be better: a bit tighter with less repetition and not quite so heavy-handed at times. But there is an integrity about the entire undertaking, starting, I should guess, with the original novel by Mr. Rash, and proceeding from there through the screenplay (Shane Danielsen), dialog, direction (David Burris) and performances from the entire cast that finally makes this sad tale (of family ties that span generations, guilt, bad behavior and maybe some redemption) believable, resonant and even somewhat memorable.

Mr. Burris, shown at left, has more experience in the television field than with movies, yet his work here most definitely looks like a film. He handles his cast well, and serves the interests of both Mr. Rash and Mr. Danielsen. From the opening scene, which features a Civil War execution/ massacre of a family (this is handled, as is most of the movie's content, seriously, effectively and with minimum gore) into the more-or-less present-day events, the plot moves along quietly and with an ever-growing sense of dread that keeps building.

The film's biggest question is, Who, exactly, are these people to each other? By the end we have some answers, though these will have grown and changed somewhat from what we and certain characters imagined that we/they originally knew. This is especially true of Leonard (Noah Wyle, above), a sometimes drug dealer and native of the area, and Travis (Jeremy Irvine, below), the young man whom he meets in one fashion and begins to mentor in another.

It's clear than both these guys have a connection to the Civil War and to the family we saw at the beginning, but how, what and why is seriously clouded. Also on hand is Leonard's sometimes girl (Minka Kelly, below),

and a young nurse (played by Adelaide Clemens, below) who becomes attracted to Travis during his stay in the hospital. Death hangs over the movie heavily from the outset, yet nothing happens to our modern-day folk for quite a long while.

Via fast and occasional flashbacks, we piece together some of the backstory, all of which simply adds to the sense of foreboding that the movie handles so well. Basically a kind of coming-of-age tale featuring folk who may or may not live to come of that age, The World Made Straight does a commendable job of limning the lives of people so steeped in their own pain and envy, pride and stupidity that they can barely understand there might be another way of life.

Those who do must leave this barren-spirited place. One of them does (alive, too), and we have hopes that another couple of our characters will manage this, as well. It's very much to the movie's credit that anything positive that happens here seems absolutely earned. A word should also be said for the fine cinematography (by Tim Orr) in which the place -- North Carolina -- appears every bit as beautiful and spacious as the people seem drab, frightened, cornered or conflicted.

After an exceedingly limited theatrical release last month, the film -- from Alchemy and running two hours exactly -- will be available on Blu-ray and DVD this coming Tuesday, February 17. Streaming and VOD, I imagine, will be coming soon....

DVDebut: Sloan Copeland's WET BEHIND THE EARS tracks the young, naive and unemployed

WET BEHIND THE EARS, the new film from NYC-born Sloan Copeland addresses one of U.S. society's more pressing problems -- what to do with the current unemployed-college-graduate generation -- in a light-hearted but never silly fashion, turning it into a pleasant comedy of latter-day manners that also includes romance, criminality and coming-of-age. Certainly not a great film, it succeeds so well mostly due to its dialog and performan-ces, both of which have intelligence and charm to spare.

Mr. Copeland, shown at left, is responsible for both directing the movie and for writing some of that smart dialog, the rest of which is credited to his adorable and talented star, a young lady named Margaret Keane Williams (on poster, above, and below), who turns the leading lady, a recent college grad named Samantha Phelps, into a naive but endearing ball-of-tinder just waiting for the right match to light her up. The match arrives, all right, but not so quickly and from an unex-pected source that leads to further surprises.

One of the most pleasant of those surprises is the attitude the movie and its moviemakers take toward a certain criminal endeavor involving movies themselves. In hard times, all kinds of corners get cut for reasons of survival, and Wet Behind the Ears-- even if it is basically a coming-of-age rom-com -- is not afraid to recognize this. And to treat it as just another step on the road to adulthood.

With no real work experience, our Samantha is finally forced to take a job at an ice cream parlor, while living with her parents and taking flack from her smart-ass older brother (Michael Giese, above).

Working like this, in the small town where you grew up, means bumping into former high school friends (above) and feeling "put down," but Samantha perseveres and finally connects to an old friend named Dean (Doug Roland, below) now working in the "film business," who becomes a kind of mentor, corrupter, and possible romance.

Meanwhile, best friend Vicky (Jessica Piervicenti, below) -- with whom Samantha was supposed to share an apartment once she found a job -- is having major problems at home, finding a proper roommate...

...and at work with a bitchy boss (Angela Jeanneau, below) who likes to make Vicky miserable for the fun of it. All of this is stirred briskly into the plot's pot for some humor, suspense and general good effect.

Every last performance here is energetic and fun, and with a consistent level of decent writing and direction, the movie proves a very easy watch.

Look for Wet Behind the Ears -- from Cinema Libre Studio, running 88 minutes and an audience favorite at second- and third-tier film festivals -- arriving on DVD for sale or rental, this coming Tuesday, July 22. (In about one month, the film will also be available via streaming/VOD sources such as Amazon Instant Video, Hulu and Cinema Libre On Demand.)