Strangeness reigns, as Bingham Bryant and Kyle Molzan's FOR THE PLASMA opens at AFA

If you're a sucker for movies that tease and provoke but barely fulfill, FOR THE PLASMA, a new head-scratcher from Bingham Bryant (writer, producer,co-director/co-editor) and Kyle Molzan (co-director, co-editor, sound recording) might just be your cup of sugar-free kool-aid. The situation: A young woman shows up, evidently invited, at the New England home of a friend she's not seen for some time, for a visit and to give that friend a little help with her work. What that work actually is becomes the mystery, MacGuffin and driving force of this bizarre-but-frustrating moviegoing experience.

The filmmakers (shown at left, with Mr. Bryant on the right) have set up a wonderfully peculiar situation in which the "work" done by one of the women we meet is so strange (and so very poorly defined by both the character, who explains it to her friend, and by the dialog itself) that any normal response would go something like, "Wait: Say that all again, and this time make some sense, please." Instead, the friend accepts it all with what amounts to a shrug, and we're off the races. And no, I don't mean the horse races; this is more like the turtle races.

Still, the situation is so bizarre that we stick around, if only to find out what the hell is actually going on. Before we do (which turns out to be mostly a "don't"), we're sucked into a scenario that encompasses everything from solitude and paranoia to friendship, employment, conspiracy, surveillance and New England nuttiness in extremis.

The movie, which was shot on 16mm film, looks very good, and the performances of the two leading ladies -- newcomer Anabelle LeMieux (above) and Rosalie Lowe (below, left) -- are kept as close to the vest as can be imagined. We learn very little about either character, and what we do learn seems more at the service of a screenplay that asks for far too much suspension of disbelief than one that wants to create full and actual characters.

That "work" that is being done in the woods near the house in which our two ladies live is certainly interesting, even if, after a lot of mumbo-jumbo that ranges from talk of spotting incipient fires to visual "mapping" (three photos above) to oddball Asians or maybe possible aliens on the loose (the title phrase is mentioned in passing but never elaborated upon), we are no closer to understanding it than we were at the film's beginning.

Meanwhile we meet a few townspeople, primarily a lighthouse keeper with what appears a very slight hold on reality (or anything else). The most interesting part of the movie are the visuals of that work project in the woods, in which nature is "framed" quite nicely, as below.

And the ending does have a kind of come-full-circle quality that may please. Otherwise, the film is for those who demand originality and mystery at the expense of a few other qualities -- sense and believabilty among them -- that make movie-watching pleasurable for some of us.

From Factory 25 and running too long even at 94 minutes, For the Plasma opens in New York City this Thursday, July 21, at Anthology Film Archives; on Friday, July 29, in Chicago at Facets Cinematheque; and will play Tuesday and Wednesday,  August 2 and 3, in Austin at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.

Photo, second from top, of the 

co-directors is by Robin Holland.

Erik Skjoldbjærg's PIONEER proves a would-be paranoid thriller that ends up dead in the water

The unreliable narrator has a deserved place in the history of cinema. But when everything he's surrounded by -- story, script, direction, performance -- seems equally unreliable, the viewer is in trouble. So it is with PIONEER, the new film from Erik Skjoldbjærg, the Norwegian director who earlier gave us Insomnia (the original) and Prozac Nation, two other films with unreliable narrators. In Pioneer, however, the subject is the 1980s Norwegian oil boom due to the discovery of the dark and greasy substance under the North Sea, America's rather odd and little-known involvement in this, and maybe murder-made-to-look-accidental in order to sway control over the project from a small Scandinavian country to that of a rather large super-power.

Director Skjoldbjærg -- shown here, who also co-wrote the film, along with a quartet of other screenwriters -- offers up a tale rife with weirdness right off the bat, as we see a pair of deep-sea-diving brothers, assured but competitive, jockey for position in both life and work. The latter involves diving for the joint American/ Norwegian project team, led by Stephen Lang, in which a surly American diver (Wes Bentley, below, left) makes his presence felt, along with one of those brothers (André Eriksen, below, right).

Bad things happen almost immediately, and a cover-up appears to have begun. At least that is the opinion of the other brother, the actual star of the film, Aksel Hennie (below), the Norwegian actor who was so good in the lead role in Headhunters, and has pretty much made a career out of playing jumpy, bizarre, sometimes violence-prone characters (from his early Uno to the recent Hercules, in which he played, and very well, the crazy "hero" Tydeus.

Mr. Hennie begins the movie a little "off" and continues growing even farther afield until everyone and everything around him seems ready to pounce. This makes for some thrills and oddities but mostly it guarantees confusion and finally out-and-out silliness.

Really,  who among intelligent, thoughtful folk would not by now imagine American the Beautiful capable of some of the worst atrocities and hypocrisy currently going? So it is no big step to suppose us as the villains here. Mr. Lang (above) can be impressively nasty, as can Mr. Bentley, whom the screenwriters have seen fit not to give a shred of real character besides his nastiness. Why waste an actor like this in such a dismal role?

So we get chases, and break-ins, and murder, and betrayal, and near-death, and much else. To no avail. The plotting jerks from arbitrary to nonsensical and back again. If the villains here really wanted to succeed, our would-be hero wouldn't stand a prayer. Instead, they miss their opportunities (or for some dumb reason refuse to take them to their logical conclusion) time after time after time.

Eventually, you'll shrug your shoulders, crunch down in your seat to nod off or maybe visit the refreshment stand for something to keep you awake. There are rumors afoot that an American remake of this film is planned. Unless it turns out one hell of a lot better than this one, you've got to ask, why? (That's Mexican actress Stephanie Sigman, below, playing one of the several characterless women who also dot the movie.)

From Magnolia Pictures, in English and Norwegian with English subtitles, and running a long 111 minutes, Pioneer opens this coming Friday, in New York City at the Cinema Village, in Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt, and then in Florida, San Francisco and San Diego in the weeks to come. (You can view all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters, by clicking here.) 

NSA, meet MI5! In CLOSED CIRCUIT, John Crowley offers a timely & unsettling thriller

You want timely? You couldn't ask for a movie more attuned to what the western world seems ever engaged in: Spying on its own citizens. CLOSED CIRCUIT -- the tight yet expansive British thriller directed by John Crowley and written by Steven Knight -- hits the proverbial nail smack on the head, and the explosion that follows is as much about the uninten-ded results of this spying as it is of the spying itself. Though it will put Americans who follow the important news immediately in mind of what the NSA is up to, being British, the film instead follows the exploits of MI5 and its minions who fancy themselves doing good work that must be done to protect their country, even as they blackmail, betray and murder innocents. Ah, but it's all in a day's work!

Mr. Crowley, shown at right, certainly has a versatile resume (Intermission, Boy A, Is Anybody There?), in which each film proves richer than its genre might initially indicate. This is true once again with Closed Circuit, a thriller that indeed has some thrills but offers as much food for thought as it does action, chase scenes and death. It's a "distanced" movie -- from the explosion that sets the off the plot to the relationships that hold that plot together (and then tears it apart). Packed with as solid a British cast as you could corral (with an Australian, an American, a German and a Slovak thrown in for good measure), the movie speeds from incident to incident, with the connections between them often left out so that we must fill in the blanks as the film quickly progresses. And, indeed, it does move fast.

After that initial explosion, there's a a terrorist plot of some sort in which the actual terrorist (Denis Moschitto, above) is quickly caught and must be defended, a funeral for a dead lawyer, his replacement, a Special Advocate to help with the defense, conspiracy, investigation and... well, lots more. Surprise is as important to this film as it was to last week's cracked comedy The World's End, so you'll get no more info on plot development here.

Rather, let's talk about the exceptional cast, led by Eric Bana, above, as the replacement lawyer, and Rebecca Hall (below), as that Special Advocate. The two have a history, it turns out, which is both a help and a hindrance to them.

Bana's friend and mentor, played by Ciarán Hinds (below, left) is on hand,

as is Jim Broadbent (below) as the very business-like-but-close-to-the-vest Attorney General.

On the distaff side, we have Julia Stiles, below, as a suspicious-for-good-reason reporter for The New York Times,

while MI5, the dears, are represented by Riz Ahmed, below,

and Anne-Marie Duff, below, whose straight-ahead, brook-no-deviation stance has consequences for all -- including its supposed friends and co-workers.

Perhaps the most chilling scene of the year involves Mr. Ahmed quietly, professionally taking care of business -- murder -- while destroying a family in the process.

Simply to keep abreast of things, you'll have to pay close attention at all times. The British justice system -- as you may have found watching the French one in action, via Spiral -- is different enough from our own to make for some confounding issues. This is nothing that you can't surmount by keeping your eyes on the screen and your mind alert. (You might also refer to the film's web site info on the British legal system by clicking here.)

The kick to Closed Circuit hits you during the film but also after the movie ends. The idea of the all-powerful, secret government is by now -- thanks to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many other whistle-blowers -- a fact we understand as present and continuing. Despite Barak Obama's promise of transparency, then lying through his teeth about the activities of the NSA, the movie is probably as much on the mark about America's secret government as it is about the British. Same shit, classier accent.

What whistle-blowers can expect, as we see here, is at best a stand-off -- after which and for how long they will remain safe is very much up for grabs.

Closed Circuit, from Focus Features and running a swift 96 minutes, opens Wednesday, August 28, nationwide. Click here, then enter your zip code and choice of movie ticket provider, to find a theater near you.

Netflix streaming tip: Cusack & Akerman in Barfoed/Frazier's THE NUMBERS STATION

As usual, out of seemingly nowhere, a whole bunch of new movies appear via Netflix's streaming capability, and you're left wondering, "Should I take a chance?" Where THE NUMBERS STATION is concerned, the answer is yes. TrustMovies thought that this film hadn't even received a theatrical release, but evidently, it had. How did he miss reading about it in The New York Times? What-ever: The film is now available via Netflix streaming.

Directed by Danish filmmaker Kasper Barfoed, with a screenplay from F. Scott Frazier, the movie -- one of those sort-of conspiracy thrillers in which a collusion of government-connected powerful is perfectly happy to murder any worker drones, as well as higher-levels underlings, should said person want to opt out of the organization, or should one of its secret projects goes amiss and therefore call for a kind of mini-mass murder to cover up everything. But it's all for the betterment of mankind, don'tcha know! The movie, a short 89 minutes, is fleet-footed and has two very good performance to ground it: John Cusack and Malin Ackerman, both of whom are working close to their capacity and so prove as good as they've been in some time.

Mr. Cusack, above, plays the higher level operative, a fellow who "offs" anyone who tries to "resign" from his department, while Ms. Ackerman (below) plays a young woman who is quite bright in the area of numbers and codes and so has been recruited for a job with this special "department."

When Cusack fails to murder the teenager daughter of one of his victims (and thus leave the slate totally clean), he is sent to what is clearly a kind of "Siberia" of these numbers stations, where he watches over the young woman who posts the "espionagy" sort of codes that emanate from that titular station. Supposedly these "numbers stations" do not exist. Our and other governments claim they have no part in them, but as so much of what our and other governments claim has been shown to be false, why not this, too?

Either way, the idea of the thing makes for a smart and bracing premise which Barfoed and Frazier pull off with enough aplomb to make it work for the short running time. In addition, the relationship between the characters played by Akerman and Cusack builds quite well into something believable and genuine, so that the movie's emotional pull equals its thrill bill.

If there's nothing novel or great here, there is also nothing of which to be ashamed, thriller-wise. The ambience, whether among co-workers or alone in the underground fortress, is creepy and unsettling; the pacing is tight and right; and as the body count rises, so does the suspense.

You can catch the film, from Image Entertainment, via Netflix Streaming and on DVD, and maybe elsewhere digitally, too.

Once again, children, what did the hungry rabbit do? Donaldson's SEEKING JUSTICE

The headline above -- part of it, anyway -- is a kind of code that lets you know you're among friends. Or maybe enemies. Its use is one of the more enjoyable aspects of SEEKING JUSTICE (terrible title!), the latest in the burgeoning mini-genre of disposable Nicolas Cage movies. We've just come off Ghost Rider 2 (disposable big-budget variety), and the end of last year gave us one his his worst, Trespass. (Well, Mr. Cage must get those debts paid down, so let's crank out another film!) This new one is infinitely more enjoyable than Trespass, for it has Roger Donaldson (below, of  The Bank Job) at the helm, rather than Joel Schumacher (of Twelve) -- even if its credibility factor is awfully low.

Seeking Justice is a conspiracy movie of the the vengeance-is-mine-sayeth-the-vigilante mode, in which, by the finale, everyone in New Orleans (the film's setting) including your second cousin's mother-in-law seems to be involved in said conspiracy. This sort of thing tends to dampen the "surprise" element, not to mention the suspension of disbelief. And yet, in its rambunctious, goofy way, the movie often works, keeping you interested in, if not glued to, what's going on on-screen. Donaldson achieves this via his usual combination of smart, tight action; growing suspense; and believable performances by all -- even if the plot surrounding those performances is anything but.

Mr Cage (above, left) proves quite fine as a school teacher, who -- after his wife (January Jones, above, right) is assaulted -- is approached by a rather mysterious fellow (Guy Pearce, below, left, doing his "strange" number to a fare-thee-well) who has a plan for taking revenge on  the culprit. If only Cage will consent to it. Oh yes, and then do Pearce one little favor.

As usual with this kind of movie, the build-up is much more interesting (not to mention credible) than the resolution. So be prepared to enjoy what you can: the occasional surprise along the way, some good action sequences, and Mad Men's Ms Jones, acquitting herself more gracefully here than she managed in last year's better film Unknown. Also doing good work are Harold Perrineau (as Cage's friend and school principal) and Xander Berkeley (as a questionably friendly police lieutenant).

Seeking Justice (from Anchor Bay Entertainment, 105 minutes), opens this Friday, March 16 in New York, L.A. and maybe elsewhere. In NYC, you can catch it at the AMC Empire 25, Loews' Kips Bay and 19th Street East, and the Village East Cinema. The film's web site promises to have SHOWTIMES -- with cities and theaters, one expects -- up soon. Once they are, click here to see them.