Michael Cross' SECOND NATURE provides some fairy-tale gender-bending that's frisky fun

Its always a pleasure to receive, out of the blue, a new indie movie of which one has never heard (likewise its filmmaker and cast) but that turns out to offer enough surprise and fun to make the watch worthwhile. So it is with SECOND NATURE, the very good-natured, charming, silly little movie that tackles the subject of a sudden switch of genders in an amusing and interesting manner.

We've seen enough "magical" body-switching movies by now that another one, even if it's done gender-wise, might not impress. But filmmaker Michael Cross (shown below) has the better idea to leave his two lead antagonists alone, while flipping the entire environment around them.

This "flip" makes his movie not only a nice surprise but an increasingly funny one, too, as we discover a Hooters-type restaurant switched to "Peckers," in which the scantily-clad waiters are ogled and their "packages" squeezed by the female diners to a world in which men must protest their right to equal pay, paternity leave, and especially their "choice" to get a vasectomy.

Sure, this is all kind of obvious and by the book, and some of the jokes land more deftly than others. Yet by and large, most of this works, and the movie's basic idea smartly carries the day.

Mr. Cross is helped considerably by the talent and charm of his able cast, in particular its two leading actors --- Collette Wolfe and Sam Huntington (shown above, left and right, respectively) -- who play small-town antagonists both running for the office of mayor.

Their game performances and their ability to fill out their characters with traits both good and bad (well, he's mostly the entitled bad guy, but Mr. Huntington manages this with enough humor to make it work) help the movie reach its foregone conclusion with wit and charm.

The plot revolves around the Wolfe's characters grandmother (Carolyn Cox, above, left) and a certain powerful mirror she has buried. Once unleashed, that power must be curtailed within a certain time frame or it will remain in place forever.

Yes, this is fairy-tale stuff, but director and co-writer Cross has paced his film well enough (and made it short enough: 80 minutes) that it doesn't drag and we're smiling and sometimes outright laughing along the way. Special effects are minor but effective, and supporting performances range from OK to just fine.

Overall, Second Nature should provide enough fun for those who discover it to make that discovery worthwhile. It arrives on VOD this coming Tuesday, September 19, on most major platforms, while extending its theatrical run in Seattle (the movie takes place and was made in Washington State) at the Ark Lodge Cinemas through September 21. Click here to find out more about how and where to see it.

In the dark, delicious fairy TALE OF TALES, Matteo Garrone comes through once again

Are you a fan of the kind of fairy tales that don't have a Disney happy ending but rather explore the darker recesses of human nature, along with the results that go with those recesses? If so, you won't want to miss a major surprise from Italian filmmaker Matteo Garrone (shown below), who earlier gave us Gomorrah, Reality, First Love and The Embalmer. Maybe I oughtn't call TALE OF TALES (Il racconto dei racconti) a surprise, since it is every bit as dark -- spirited, imaginative and thrilling -- as the rest of Garrone's oeuvre. But who'd have thought the filmmaker would decide to explore fairy tales?

TrustMovies will be eternally grateful that he did, however, for his addition to the genre proves as good as, and very likely better than just about anything else you can name. As sumptuous and beautiful as a fairy tale demands, the movie also manages to look both "period" and "real" (something that, say, the recent Disney Cinderella, despite being quite lightly enjoyable, never managed). Tale of Tales is consistently eye-popping, and this makes it seems utterly exotic when compared to others in its genre. The movie has everything: terrific stories, amazing beauty, a tricky but genuine morality, and some really great monsters, too. This must be the biggest budget Garrone has yet had to play with and, by god, he makes the most of it. The movie is lavish, all right, yet it never seems wasteful.

Among the many Italians on view (yes, Alba Rohrwacher's here!), the movie sports an international cast to die for: Mexico's Salma Hayek (above), France's Vincent Cassel (below, center, with Stacy Martin) and Britain's Toby Jones (two photos below) --  all playing the kind of entitled royalty that hasn't a clue how to care for anyone other than themselves, including, unfortunately, treasured family members.

These "royalty" stories, while separate, are entwined via the theme of justice served (one way or another), as Garrone bounces back and forth between the tales with high energy and great elan. His stories are taken from the work of the 16th-Century Italian, Giambattista Basile, who did for Italian fairy tales what Charles Perrault did for French and the Grimm Brothers for German -- but Basile did it first. And the fact that we are nowhere near as familiar with Basile's tales as we are with the Grimms' or Perrault's makes them seem all the more entrancing and special.

We don't know the outcomes here, and there are a number of surprises along the way, each of them dished up rather spectacularly. The "special effects" are as good as you could imagine, while the "monsters" are especially creative -- particularly the rather adorable "giant flea."

All the tales are dark, cunning, amazing and often funny, but the best probably belongs to the daughter (a fine performance by Bebe Cave, above, right) of the king played by Mr. Jones, who, thanks to that flea and her father's selfishness, finds herself wedded to an ogre (Guillaume Delaunay, above, left). Their final scene together is sad, stern and rigorously unsentimental -- something that can be said about all of Garrone's work, it seems to me.

So, should you take the kids to see Tale of Tales (it's in English; there are no subtitles to rankle)? That depends on how willing you'll be to discuss the movie afterwards. (There'll be a lot to talk about.) If those kids are thoughtful, intelligent and aged maybe 8 or 10 or beyond, I'd say, sure. It's a film that they -- you, too -- are likely to remember and even think about for quite some time. (That's John C. Reilly, below, left, playing the one member of royalty who does the right thing -- and pays for it. There's always a price to be paid, as one character points out early on.)

From Sundance Selects/IFC Films and running 133 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, April 22, in New York City at the IFC Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and on Friday, April 29, in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center. Elsewhere? Sure hope so. A film this spectacular and special deserves to be seen on the big screen. But if you don't live near any major cultural capital, be assured that Tale of Tales will appear on VOD simultaneously with its theatrical release.

Unearthing a smart and unusual little "lost" movie: Jeff Winner's SATELLITE from 2006

It's rare -- among the thousand or more small independent movies that have been made and even released in some form during any given year of our new millennium -- that any one of these will suddenly resurface years later to be offered a kind of "second chance." Now, one of these little oddities, SATELLITE, written and directed by Jeff Winner (shown below), has that been given that chance. TrustMovies is happy about this, as I am sure Mr Winner is, too, for the movie in question is a good one: small, tight, and headed for the sort of conclusion that you could not possibly imagine, no matter how many rom-com you may have already seen.

First released in the summer of 2006, the film is now available on DVD and for sale or rental via digital download streaming. It is definitely worth a look, as it details the coming together of a very odd duo: a young man (Karl Geary) and the young woman (Stephanie Szostak) who seems to be stalking him. And yet, from their very first conversation -- a dialog that is as wonderfully written as it is performed -- it is clear that these two are real and precisely-drawn characters worth listening to and maybe rooting for. Very soon we're doing just that. Despite some weird twists and turns along the way, Mr. Winner and his talented duo keep us hooked and hoping against hope that not only love -- but kindness, caring, and the kind of innate goodness and courage that can trump fear -- will conquer all.

Satellite goes into some very odd places, yet manages to hold us fast along the way. The movie takes one of the oldest saws of modern love stories -- giving up all else for love -- and turns it into something scary and fierce but credible, as well. Mr. Geary, sexy and sensitive, and Ms Szostak, cute as a button and a little frightening, too, make a terrific pair of protagonists. They are pretty much the entire movie, and its success rests as much on their ability to keep us caring and believing, as to Winner's skill at writing and directing (he's maybe a bit more skilled in the former than the latter, but able enough to bring his movie home).

As I noted above, you can't know where the movie is finally headed, but once it arrives, things fall beautifully into place without seeming unduly schematic. Satellite may be a kind of fairy tale, but it is one with dark borders and a void at its center than must be filled. That Winner, Szostak and Geary do this with such intelligence and emotion is commendable.

The movie -- from Indiepix Films and running 100 minutes -- is available now, for sale and/or rental. Just click here and proceed to your choice.  

Israel Horovitz's MY OLD LADY gives plum roles to three great actors in one sweet film

Say what you will about Israel Horovitz's feel-good rom-com-dramedy MY OLD LADY -- and I suspect that when the film opens this Friday, there will some very vociferous nay-sayers: The early ads for the film have taken to quoting critics such as yours truly, so clearly, they didn't have any famous "print" names to bandy about -- in this film, Mr. Horovitz's first major work as a director (he's best known as a playwright), he has brought together a well-nigh perfect cast and given it three plum roles to act in a tale that is almost sure to delight no end the forty-year-old-and beyond audience. The trials and tribulations going on here -- real estate and wills, parenting and parentage -- will be of no account to youngsters but prove catnip to most adults, particularly, I think, the senior crowd.

Horovitz, pictured at right, began this project using one of his plays, but as a movie director he has opened the play out so thoroughly and so well that anyone not knowing this guy's métier would never imagine that the tale began as a stage play. Horovitz has also set his contraption in Paris and made pretty good use of that fabulous place so that, visually, the movie is a constant treat. Even without the City of Light, with a cast this sterling -- which is used here spectacularly well -- you won't want to take your eyes off these marvelous performers for even a moment.

Of course, we're used to Maggie Smith (above), Kevin Kline (below) and Kristin Scott Thomas (further below), each offering first-class performances, but seldom are they given roles this plumb and then used in a manner both this obvious and this well. Watching the three play off each other is an absolute delight.

The story involves Mr. Kline as an American in Paris who has inherited from his estranged and now-dead father a rather large Parisian estate. What he finds when he arrives constitutes surprise after surprise after surprise.

Yet the plot is really rather simple, once the set-up is in place. But again, the performances breathe life and art into all they touch. The situation here is not an uncommon one where real estate in concerned. In fact, a good friend of mine found herself with a similar "cross to bear" some years back. But that was here in New York City. The French evidently have even more encompassing laws that protect the rights of those who find themselves in the situation occupied by the character played by Ms Smith.

In addition to this storied threesome, Horovitz (did he use a French casting director? I can find none credited on the IMDB) has cast some terrific French and Belgian actors -- including Dominique Pinon (below, left) as a local real estate agent, Noémie Lvovsky as the family doctor, and Stéphane De Groodt as the initial (and incorrect) love interest for Ms Scott Thomas -- all of whom shine.

As a film director Horovitz shows surprising promise late in his career. Scene after scene bubbles with enthusiasm and smarts, as he places his performers at precisely the right spot and then films them at their best. He is also subtler than I would have expected, and this is never better expressed than in his final scene. Here, in the far background, we catch sight of someone who remains in the far background and yet is so very present that we can rejoice in how beautifully and quietly the filmmaker has made perfect use of her, first to last.

OK: This film is a fairy tale of sorts. But fairy tales done well are among the very legitimate reasons so many of us still flock to cinema. These days, in particular (ISIS, anyone?).

From Cohen Media Group and running 104 lovely minutes, My Old Lady opens this Wednesday in New York (at the AMC Lincoln Square, Angelika, Bowtie Chelsea and Cinema 123) and  in Los Angeles (at The Landmark and the Arclight, Hollywood). Over the coming weeks it will open in cities across the country. You can find all currently scheduled playdates by clicking here and scrolling down a bit.

You little deer! Mythic Korean folk tale turns urban in Lee Isaac Chung's ABIGAIL HARM

It's almost always a pleasure to see Amanda Plummer at work, though how much enjoyment you derive from her new movie, ABIGAIL HARM, will depend, I think, on your tolerance for somewhat heavy-handed whimsy (we need a new word for this sort of thing: maybe whamsy). This new film from Korean-American filmmaker, Lee Isaac Chung (shown below), is said to be based on a Korean folk tale, The Woodcutter and the Nymph, though here the sexes seem to have been transposed, for Ms Plummer plays an odd middle-aged woman, evidently in no particular need of money, who reads aloud to the blind and has no compunctions about what she reads or says. With her first client, she is asked to describe some naughty pictures and seems to thoroughly enjoy doing it, just as the client enjoys hearing it. (Her second client is played by Burt Young, who has so little to do or say that the sole reason for the character's being here would seem to be the fact that he is played by Mr. Young.)

Abigail appears a very private person, who herself tries her best to keep from being seen by others. She lives in a surprisingly deserted area, somewhere in New York City's five boroughs, and keeps to herself in what appears a nearly unoccupied apartment building. Not quite unoccupied, however, as suddenly we see a large deer ambling up the hallway. The deer then (I think --all this is very fable-like with little connecting tissue) turns into Will Patton, an actor who is always interesting to watch and who gives our gal helpful hints on how to land a love interest -- and keep him. Before you can say bibbity-bobbity-boo, Abigail is more or less following his instructions, looking quite lovely and vulnerable against flaking paint (below) and, sure enough, finding her significant other.

He, who was most likely also a deer just a tad earlier in the game, sheds his magical cloak and takes a bath (Mr. Patton has a bathing scene, too, by the way), and then, just as predicted, moseys along home with Abigail. The two bond slowly, as she introduces her guy (played by a sweet and lovely-looking Tetsuo Kuramochi, below, left) to life, lunch and finally lovemaking. He's adept at maybe two out of three.

But, ah, can Abigail keep him, trust him, and form a real bond with her new friend? Perhaps. Abigail Harm is a parable about love -- how to get it, how to keep it, how to lose it and how to play with it a little -- the moral being , I  am guessing: If you love it, let it go. Chung's film does have a fairy-tale/myth-like quality, but it's not accessible enough or specific enough on any level to make a great deal of sense or hold our attention. For awhile, you may find yourself wishing for more dialog. But then, around 50 minutes in, when Abigail starts talking more, you realize that this does not help the movie at all.

Visually, there are some nice touches, lovely compositions (see above) and so forth. These, together with the dreamy, urban myth-like quality, may be enough to hold you. They didn't hold me. The combination of the barely-told story, together with the overly-bizarre title character, proves too much. Abigail Harm, more so, I suspect, than are most movies, is very much a matter of taste.

The movie -- from Almond Tree Films and running 80 minutes -- after a number of festival plays, opens this Friday, August 30, in New York City at the Quad Cinema for a week's run.

Personal Appearances: Director Lee Isaac Chung (and select crew members) will appear for a Q&A after the 7pm & 9:20pm shows on Friday 8/30 and Saturday 8/31. Star/Lead actress Amanda Plummer and Director Lee Isaac Chung will appear for a Q&A after the 7pm screenings on Sunday 9/1 and Tuesday 9/3.

Raama Mosley's THE BRASS TEAPOT is a little fable that'll charm the pants off you

Adorable, quirky, smart, sweet, funny and just a little frightening, THE BRASS TEAPOT -- the new movie from first-time/full-length filmmaker Raama Mosley -- is surprisingly original, given its age-old provenance: that evergreen fable about an exotic object that possesses magical powers. What the object is will be no mystery (it's that titular teapot, of course), but its special "power," along with how that power is conjured (one of several surprises the movie has up its sleeve), is something else. And that should remain one of the mysteries you'll only find out by seeing this little gem of a film.

I hope other critics don't give away our teapot's secret because it's such a tasty one, offering all kinds of interesting ramifications about the way we live now. Ms Mosley, shown at right, finds exactly the right tone to set her little fable off and running: a fairy-tale-like take on these current economic-and-unemployed times. Her Jack and Jill are an adorable couple named John and Alice. In these roles, the filmmaker has cast two of our best young performers -- Michael Angarano and Juno Temple -- both working at the top of their talented-and-still-growing abilities.

As newly married and so-in-love youngsters -- in bed, above, and off to work, below -- these two could hardly be more delightful, and part of the filmmaker's challenge is to make them grow and change into not so lovely people who still command our attention, caring and respect.

As in any fable worth its salt, our heroes must learn something about life. And so they do. But Mosley makes the journey so much fun and with so many odd highways and byways that we never grow bored, even if we rather expect what, at last, must happen.

Most enjoyable of all, as often as we see the teapot doing its thing, that operation never grows tiresome due to the increasingly fraught situations this demands. Angarano, above, has a role that suits his "everyman/boy" personality to a tee. (He also possesses one of the cutest asses to be seen on screen in a long while.)

Ms. Temple, above, continues her run of good work in good films -- from Dirty Girl through Killer Joe -- here showing off both her ability and versatility to excellent effect.

Also in the cast are Alia Shawkat, Alexis Bledel, Bobby Moynihan and current hunk-of-hunks Billy Magnussen (shown below, with his director). Everyone does just what is needed to keep the story rolling along, with Mr. Magnussen particularly appealing (to view), nasty (toward our sweet couple) and funny as hell to watch.

The Brass Teapot, from Magnolia Pictures and running 101 minutes, arrives in theaters this Friday, April 5, in New York City at the Cinema Village and West Hollywood at the Sundance Sunset Cinema, having been packing in the couch potatoes during its VOD play over the past month or so. Click here to see any further scheduled playdates and theaters.

Pablo Berger's Snow White bull fight opens: BLANCANIEVES proves a real Spainish silent film, and TM has a short Q&A with Berger

TrustMovies has seen BLANCANIEVES twice already (a third watch is not out of the question), so he stands by his earlier assessment of this rich-in-so-many-ways movie. The below is an extended version of what he published when the film opened last year's Spanish Cinema Now series from the FSLC. What we have here is a much more genuine "silent film" (if that's what you're looking for) than last year's Oscar-winning Best Picture.

In fact, Spain's entry into the Best Foreign Language Film "Oscar" race is the real thing, all right, succeeding both as an homage to "silents" and -- because of its ambition and insight, not to mention what movies are capable of technically these days -- a truly new creation all its own. (The fact that Blancanieves was not even short-listed for the "Oscar" says less about its quality than about the inability of the Academy to distinguish art from enjoyable, if self-reverential, kitsch -- particularly where certain other "silent films" are concerned.)

Retelling the Snow White fairy-tale while giving it a decidedly Spanish spin, writer/
director Pablo Berger (who, nearly a decade ago offered up his only other full-length feature,
the great Torremolinos 73), combines the customs of Spain (bullfighting, anyone?) with the story's own identifying objects (a wicked stepmother gloriously played by Maribel Verdú, above, who seems even better on that second viewing) into a Grimm stew of dark and delightful variations on the original (and already dark) fairy tale's themes.

Senor Berger, shown at right, has stocked his film with so many ideas, all at the service of his story, that his film -- if it were more in-your-face and he were not such a sleight-of-hand director -- becomes, if not exactly a critique then more a gentle reminder of things like Capitalism, child abuse, the Spanish heritage of everything from dance to bullfighting, the power of media and the utter gullibility of the populace, among its many subjects. The filmmaker also gives us "the other" in the form of those famous dwarfs, below, who here appear as a coalition/family of mini bullfighters. The way that Berger weaves together themes from the old story, along with those that are new and distinctly Spanish, is a treat.

By the way, you can indeed take the kids to see this film -- so long as they can read the subtitles. While the movie occasionally goes into "adult" areas (Wicked Stepmom's into S&M!), it does so fleetingly and "tastefully," as becomes a silent movie. And it is consistently suggestive rather than coarse in its visuals (the gorgeous black-and-white cinematography is by Kiko de la Rica of The Last Circus) -- never more so than in its amazingly beautiful, sad and mysterious final scene.

Here, Berger takes a magnificent leap, and what has heretofore been a lovely retelling of an old tale transforms into... oh, god, so many possibilities that I must see the film again to re-discover. (That's what I said before I saw the film a second time. Now that I have, damned if even more possibilities haven't opened up  -- which I ask the writer/director about in the Q&A below.)  You're going to have to open up a discussion with your kids about this final scene and what it means. But it'll be worth it. You'll all learn and grow and be made aware again (maybe for the first time for those kids) of what movies are only very occasionally capable.

Blancanieves, from Cohen Media Group and running 104 minutes, opens this Friday, March 29, in new York (and the Angelika Film Center and the Paris Theatre) and in the Los Angeles area (at Laemmle's Royal and Sundance Sunset Cinema. I believe there will be a further rollout, but these are the only playdates I could find, as of now....

*************

TM's recent talk with Blancanieves' writer/director Pablo Berger (shown just right of center, above) took place at the offices of Cohen Media Group, when the filmmaker was in town. Berger seems a very gentle and intelligent family man (he's married with kids -- I think he told me two), whose prematurely grey hair offsets his quite youthful and unlined face. In addition to being a filmmaker who doesn't film that often (two full-length movies and one short in 25 years!), he has a Ph.D. and has taught here in NYC as a professor of management, as well as having successive careers in a publicist and music producer. A kind of Spanish Renaissance man, he could undoubtedly handle a number of other jobs, too. But we're glad he's made his movies. If you're unfamiliar with his sensational Torremolinos 73, stick it on your must-see list for an amazingly funny, real, surprising look at Spain toward the end of the Franco regime. (The link above is to my talk with actor Javier Cámara about the film)

In person, Berger is gracious and accessible, and this little round-up would be longer than it is, had TM not forgotten, in one of his increasing senior moments, to bring his pocket recorder with him. So, instead, he scribbles away as Berger speaks. TM first explains to the filmmaker how much he loves Blancanieves, and particularly the way in which it sort of leaves, at the finale, the more regular world of storytelling, to becomes something quite else. He then tells Berger that he has watched the film twice and is still wondering about/musing on that strange ending. (I have taken the liberty of quoting as best as my notes would let me, below, even though I did not have my recorder. In the short conversation that follows, TM appears in boldface and Berger in standard type. )

Your ending seemed to includes ideas on everything from capitalism -- That sleazy character of the bullfight manager (played by José María Pou, above) to whom our heroine signs away her life, so why would not someone as famous as this lady bullfighter end up as an attraction in a carny show -- as a kind of Lola Montès? Boy, I wish Andrew Sarris could have seen this movie! -- to feminism: Does that tear indicate that the girl is saddened not to have found her prince, or sad because the prince turns out to be only the most handsome of the dwarfs? Or maybe she is realizing that this carny show, and only this, will be here new role/career in life?)

(Berger smiles.) You have understood things. But the meaning here is open to interpretation. It's up to you. To each viewer.

Hmmm...  Some viewers, I think -- and I am sometimes among them, though not so much here, with your film -- want more guidance.

I always feel that, in addition to everything else in the movie, there must be something mysterious to make it special: some sort of surprise. To me, movies are an act of love. A kind of time travel.  They include a thick layer of emotion, plus humor and surprise. They are like your children.

That's how many artists feel about their creations.

Really: I believe they are like your children because they have the same DNA!

(We laugh.)  Well put. I can hardly think of two films more dissimilar than Toremolinos 73 -- which shows us a slice of Spain toward the end of the Franco regime, in which you used, in addition to Javier Cámara and Candela Peña, that great actor Mads Mikkelsen -- 

He is a fine actor. And so very versatile.

-- and now Blancanieves. How did you come to this one?

I always loved fairy tales as a kid, so that led naturally to this film. My father was a ship's captain, and he was a great story-teller. He always told us stories that would begin in reality but then he always added his own fictional elements to them. All this inspired me.

Yes, and now you have inspired us. This may be a little soon to ask, since you don't make movies all that often: Do you have any idea -- movie-wise -- what you might do next?

Well, I have now two different scripts ready to go ahead.

What are they about, and which do you think you'll do first?

I don't want to go into detail about either of them, as everything is so uncertain at this point. But for me, the test always is this: Would you be happy if this one were your final film?

Wow. That notion certainly separates the men from the boys.

(We get the word from the publicist that our brief time is up, 
and so I thank Señor Berger for his time -- and his 
two very different and very fine films.)