Blu-ray/DVDebut: Austin Stark's THE RUNNER showcases a low-key Nicolas Cage

BP's Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which has been the subject of a number of fine documen-taries (the best of which is here), now seems to be finding its way into narrative content, as well. HBO's The Newsroom used it in the opening segment and here it is again, as the would-be subject of THE RUNNER, written and directed by Austin Stark, shown below, who has produced a number of worthwhile movies but has now made the jump into writing and directing his first full-length film either a bit too soon or without nearly the talent to bring this kind of story to life.

Using the oil spill -- a dreadful event that continues to grow more so as time drags on and Gulf Coast fishing communities grow poorer -- as an excuse to build a movie around the political and romantic travails of its hero, Colin Pryce (played by perhaps the most ubiquitous leading-man currently on-screen, Nicolas Cage, below), seems somehow tacky and unimportant. And so throughout this generally lifeless film, they duke it out for our attention and concern: the poor, beleaguered people of the Gulf; the ever-present oil interests (personified by a suave and oily Bryan Batt); and a wad of tiresome, typical romantic and family problems. Unfortunately nobody wins, particularly the viewer.

"Romance" and "family" are handled by the likes of Connie Nielsen, Sarah Paulson and Peter Fonda, actors who are professional and alert but can do little with the by-the-numbers script they've been given. There is almost no depth of character here, just cliche's that pile up and block the narrative road. The lesson here is all about how politics works in America today, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has been around during these post-Millennium years, and whose response is likely to be, "Yes. And...?"

From its outset the movie seems heavily "set-up" to make its point, which it does: Nobody wins. Mr. Cage -- who starred in five films during 2011, three in 2013, four in 2014 and at least three so far this year, with four more planed for 2016 -- has got to be one of our hardest-working actors, even if many of his films end up as throwaways. He looks pretty terrible here (or maybe simply "real"), and his performance is unusually tamped-down and believable. But he, too, cannot surmount a script low on lifelike detail and coupled to only so-so direction.

The Runner (the title does triple duty for jogging, political campaigning, and, yes, running away from one's self) comes via Alchemy and lasts a thankfully short 90 minutes. It hits the streets this coming Tuesday, August 25, on Blu-ray (the transfer is quite good!) and DVD--for rental/purchase.

Kren & Hessler's BLOOD GLACIER: Oooh--wanna see some surprise side effects of climate change?

Really: How can any genuine genre aficionado resist a movie with a title like BLOOD GLACIER? I couldn't, anyway, because that title immediately brought expectations of everything from gore to global warming. When I checked into the resume of the film's director, Marvin Kren and discovered he'd also directed one of my favorite zombie movies of the new decade -- the swift, smart, subtle and stylish (if-no-budget) German film, Rammbock --
the deal was sealed.

Rammbock took a hugely overworked genre and raised it a notch or two. With Blood Glacier, Kren (shown at right) and his writer, Benjamin Hessler, are working in the mode of a genre we haven't seen so often of late: the "warning" film about the hugely destructive effect of mankind upon our world. (From the original Godzilla through Tarantula, Them, and onwards, a myriad of movies underscored this theme in the decade following our use of Atomic bombs on Japan.) In addition to being one of those "warning" films, Blood Glacier is, as were most of the rest, a monster movie. Or to be absolutely correct: a monsters movie, as there are quite a few species involved.

I wouldn't put a whole lot of faith in the "science" provided by the film as a basis on which to build the scenario, but so far as these scary tales go, this one is no more or less believable than many others. The scenario simply gives the moviemakers something on which to build their scares and suspense, and they do a pretty good job of it, overall.

The story: a group of scientists working in the Austrian Alps discover that a glacier seems to be oozing a red liquid, the effect of which does some rather nasty things to the local wildlife.  How the liquid is doing this is up for grabs but what it is doing appears to meld various species together.

Into this suddenly discovered mess arrives a government minister (nicely played with strength and sass by Brigitte Kren -- above, center: any relation to the director, I wonder?) and her entourage, which includes the former girlfriend (Edita Malovcic, below right) of the guy who comes closest to being to "hero" of the film (Gerhard Liebmann, below, left), just as the shit hits full-blast. Soon it is every man and woman for him/herself, with a number of those quickly lost to the "newcomers."

The special effects department must have had a field day creating some of these odd, derivative species, and the filmmaker uses them for maximum thrills and suspense. And if the suspense sometimes nearly topples into camp, that's OK, too, because that's part of the fun of films like this one.

Among the main characters, your favorite might be the sweet mascot dog at the campsite, whose role in the proceedings just keeps growing. The plotting may look by rote, but pay attention, seeds planted along the way bloom later, and the finale is a lollapalooza -- simultaneously heart-warming and horrific.

Performances are adequate to the matter at hand -- scaring the pants off you/making you giggle. Overall, there is enough fright, laughs, surprises and irony here to please a lot of genre fans. As to the climate change/global warming warning, what we see here should only happen to Republicans. And if the movie doesn't turn them into raging environmentalists, it will at least get them on board with abortion.

Blood Glacier -- distributed by IFC Films' Midnight division, running 98 minutes, and dubbed into English pretty well -- opens in theaters this Friday, May 2, simultaneously with its appearance on VOD. In New York City it'll open at the IFC Center. Elsewhere? Who knows -- but its VOD appearance ensures that genre fans across the country can take a look.

PLASTIC PLANET: Werner Boote's worth-while wake-up call about our environment

Oh, god, no -- something else to worry about. Forming the perfect trio of environ-mental fear films resulting, if we don't mind our P's & Q's, in an end-of-times scenario, comes Werner Boote's new PLASTIC PLANET, which joins the likes of Lucy Walker's nuclear armageddon Countdown to Zero and Davis Guggenheim's rising tempera-tures, An Inconvenient Truth (not to mention Ondi Timoner's more insightful Cool It!) to scare us shitless regarding the state of our world.  Unlike the devastations of nuclear war and global warming, however, the threat to humanity in Herr Boote's movie is... plastics. Wasn't that the industry that Dustin Hoffman's character was advised to get into by a well-wisher in the classic film, The Graduate?
Have times changed this much?

Indeed they have, as Boote (shown with bullhorn, at left) makes more than clear, roaming the world and talking to scientists and researchers, families, businessmen and corporate hucksters. It was his grandfather who first filled Boote's brain with the wonders of plastics. Only much later did the filmmaker -- and, I wager, the rest of us -- begin hearing about the downside of this modern miracle substance. Example? As plastic decays over time, molecules are set free that penetrate the food chain. Another? A single PVC diaper takes 200 years to decompose to its "rest" components.  During those two centuries, it releases its portion of dangerous materials into the environment. (But wait a minute: PVC diapers haven't even been around 200 years yet? Well, scientists extrapolate, I guess.)

Do you think the chemical industry -- the people who make plastics -- knows about this, Boote asks one of the scientists?  "Absolutely," he is told.  "They suppress it." By the end of this 97-minute movie, you may feel, as did I, that someday these "people" will be held in the same esteem as those in the cigarette industry who knowingly poisoned us for decades and then lied about it. But, then, under-standing the dangers while keeping them secret seems to be a staple of big industries, across the board.

The filmmaker shows the process by which crude oil is turned into plastic (some smart animation accompanies this and one other section, devoted to how the degrading plastic poisons our sys-tems). He goes into the secrecy of the manufacturing process (sure, companies want to protect their patents, but this seems to have to do with something a lot more covert and dangerous). Going out to sea with a marine researcher, we learn that the surface of our pla-net is now covered with plastic dust, and how fish are eating bits of plastic (they mistake it for plankton) until their bellies are full. This, an environmental toxicologist explains, is creating inter-sex fish.

It seems to be doing similar thing to animals and people. A cell-biologist/pharmacologist tells us that, once the lab's plastic cages began to disintegrate, at this same time the animals exhibited some very odd symptoms. By the time a reproductive biologist explains how certain toxic plastic degradatrion can change human cells and how this will affect at least three generations, you're ready to cry uncle -- and aunt, in case we're all growing transgendered. Another biologist links plastic to low sperm count. You've heard how the birth rate is falling, right? Well, sterile couples are now being tested for plastics in their blood. Worse, some couples may be only somewhat infertile: not enough to stop reproduction but just enough to sire abnormal babies.

If the oddest, darkly funniest scene arrives as we meet a modern mummifier (he "plasticizes bodies") and his card-playing group (above), the movie's most pointed moment comes with the simple view of a baby sucking on a plastic pacifier. First to last, Boote's film is eye-opening and thought-provoking.

We visit the supermarket, where food packaging (in plastic, 'natch) needs to be better labeled. The type of plastic does matter. We learn about bio-plastic containers that use natural materials and may help the situation. Toward the end of the film, Boote revisits a man he interviewed early on: John Taylor, head of Plastics Europe. Now, Taylor's earlier words seem patently false, and the guy avoids Boote as best he can. The filmmaker corners Taylor at a plastics convention (where he uses that bullhorn and begins to seem a little like Michael Moore, though not as heavy-set).

So how do we handle this danger from plastics? As a representative from the European Commission explains, little is being done now because of all the power and money that the plastics industry wields. Here in the USA, considering the manner in which most of our politicians are bought off by industry and lobbyists, we can't look to them for help. And with the Supreme Court favoring corporations over the individual, that route is closed for now, too. Consumers-saying-no looks to be about the only power we possess, puny and often unorganized as it is. Good luck.

Meanwhile, see this movie and consider the possibilities. From First Run Features -- and its second fine documentary in as many weeks -- Plastic Planet makes its debut tomorrow, Friday, January 14, at New York City's Cinema Village.

Further playdates can be found here (click and scroll down), and a DVD release is on the horizon, as well.