Netflix streaming must-see -- EXTINCTION gives the idea of the "other" a real workout

Gosh, do we need a movie like this one now. In our age of Trump-fueled hatred toward anyone who's different  -- Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, and whoever else is not white shite -- along comes EXTINCTION, a new film from director Ben Young and writers Spenser Cohen, Brad Caleb Kane, and perhaps Eric Heisserer (who. if so, now goes uncredited on the IMDB), that gives "the other" the kind of workout this subject has not had in quite some time.

Extinction effectively turns inside out our expectations and assumptions and in the process forces us as gently and completely as possible to embrace that other because we have already so firmly put ourselves in its place.  This is an accomplishment I can't recall another movie managing, and certainly not this well. This is due to the smart script and direction but also to the fine performances of its leading characters, a father and mother -- played by Michael Peña and Lizzy Caplan (above and below) -- of a family under siege from alien invaders.

Though the movie begins with our hero having dreams about the very thing that's about to happen -- which already sounds a bit been-there-done-that -- once reality has made it self clear, so many plot points are suddenly explained that don't simply make sense but also seem to be an especially clever manner in which to have conceived and executed the story.

How good it is to see Mr. Peña in a leading role as a smart, caring family man. He's a perfect "everyman," which is just what the role needs, and Ms Caplan adds her usual spunk and charm to the proceedings. The scene in which the two of them first meet is as graceful, lovely and warm as anything you'll have seen -- and twice that, given the context here.

The supporting cast is fine, too, with Israel Broussard a standout as the unusual character named Miles with whom our current President could never begin to understand or identify. I hope I have not said too much already to result in a spoiler. Just stick Extinction on your Netflix queue and watch it ASAP. You're in for a wild action ride, especially in the first half of the film, and then, in the latter half, oh, boy. 
Oooooooooh, boy.

Chris Peckover/Zach Kahn's BETTER WATCH OUT: a holiday babysitting movie for the ages

Yikes -- they just don't do this in movies! Well, now they do. In fact, there is maybe one film (I will not give away its name but it was made in 1956) with a similar theme in which some very bad things happen. Based upon a famous Broadway play, the Hollywood movie version, of course, had to futz around with the finale to make sure conventional justice was done. BETTER WATCH OUT, on the other hand, dispenses with just about all the rules of this particular game that you will have formerly viewed. And so well done is it that the movie becomes an instant classic among Christmas-themed, dark thrillers that also boast great comedic flair.

The conception of director/co-writer (with Zach Kahn) Chris Peckover, shown at right, the movie begins as your typical, if rather sexually interested babysitting movie featuring a fouler mouth than usual. (The film is R-rated, the reasons for which, as it moves further along, you will ever more fully understand.) This is a home invasion tale with a twist that, once it occurs, takes us into quite uncharted territory.

That's it for plot, folk. This one deserves utter no-spoiler respect, and I suspect its many fans will rightly refuse to disclose any secrets.

What I can say is that Better Watch Out has been cast to perfection, starting with that babysitter, the beautiful, poised and intelligent Australian actress, Olivia DeJonge (above and below) -- who is simply a knockout.

Her twelve-year-old charge is played by the angelic-looking young Aussie actor, Levi Miller (above, left, and below, right, who also played Peter in the ill-fated Pan), and Mr. Miller walks away with the movie. They don't give acting awards for films of this genre, but if they did, the kid would be a shoo-in. He is that extraordinary.

The rest of the cast is equally well chosen, from our hero's best friend, played by Ed Oxenbould (at left, above) to Aleks Mikic (below, right), who plays our heroine's current boyfriend, and Dacre Montgomery, who takes the role of her ex.

In the roles of our little sleepwalking cherub's parents are two more favorites: Patrick Warburton and Virginia Madsen (below, right). They're just fine, too. Everyone gets quite into the spirit of things here, and the result is a humdinger.

If you read some of the negative reviews, say, on the IMDB (critics were mostly bowled over by the film), you will find a sensibility that screams, "Wait! You just can't do something like this in a holiday/home-invasion movie!" (Unless you're Michael Haneke, of course.) But you can. And they have. And the result, as they say, is a lulu. Don't let this one get past you under any circumstance.

From WellGo Entertainment, and running a just-right 89 minutes, after a short but successful theatrical run, the movie hit DVD and Blu-ray this week -- for rental, purchase and, I believe VOD/streaming, as well. 

Dutch deadpan in Alex van Warmerdam's very dry hit-man comedy, SCHNEIDER VS BAX

Remember Borgman -- that dark, Dutch, sort-of-variation on Boudu Saved from Drowning (and other what-to-do-about-the-trashy-tramp movies)? Alex van Warmerdam, the writer/director of that strange, cunning little film is back again with another bizarre, deadpan, dark comedy-of-menace titled SCHNEIDER VS BAX. It arrives this coming week on DVD, and if your taste runs to this sort of thing, the movie is a good example of this sub-genre.

Mr. van Warmerdam (shown above, right, and at left) also co-stars in the film, as he did in Borgman, and his gruff, low-key, macho presence is quite right for both his role and the film. He handles the screenplay and dialog with ease, and his direction ropes his entire cast onto the same page and style, making the most of this kind of deadpan, at which you often don't know whether to laugh or wince. (You'll probably do both at once.) The filmmaker has created a cast of characters that you may find it hard to warm up to, but this is fine, since some of them will not survive the trip.

The tale here is of a pair of hit men, evidently quite good at their jobs, who -- for some reason which we never really learn -- have been pitted against each other by the fellow who gives them their assignments. Van Warmerdam plays Bax, and another actor from Borgman, Tom Dewispelaere  (below), plays Schneider. Neither character knows the other, and though they fairly quickly learn that their boss is playing them against each other, they still evidently feel they must kill that other in order to survive.

Bax gets a surprise visit from his grown daughter (Maria Kraakman, shown below and further below, who is very good in this role) and then from his father -- both of whom complicate his life and reactions -- while Schneider becomes involved with a pimp and whore who equally complicate his assignment. How this all works out managers to be very dark, often funny, and even surprising. You will imagine that you know what is going to happen here, but I can tell you with some certainty that you will be wrong -- in at least a couple of important instances.

Coincidence does occur, and certain scenes seem a tad incredible, and yet so bleak, bizarre and weirdly funny is it all that, somehow, credibility is maintained -- if barely. Simply for the scenes between Bax, his father and daughter, the movie manages to rivet you in its own, special, this-can't-be-happening-but-oh-my-goodness-it-is manner.

In its odd way Schneider vs Bax turns out to be a kind of very late coming-of-age tale -- and a pretty good one, at that -- even though it is not clear for quite some time just who it is that's doing the coming.

From Film Movement and running a fairly sleek 96 minutes, the movie arrives on DVD this Tuesday, October 25 -- for purchase or rental.

Video/streaming debut: Władysław Pasikowski's AFTERMATH ups the stakes in the "Europe's-most-anti-Semitic-country" competition

Just when you think you've seen the worst of it, along comes another entry in that ever-popular competition to determine which European country proved the most anti-Semitic during World War II. Of course it all began with Germany and Austria, so they're clearly never off the hook (with Italy not far behind). But, my, how Hungary managed to help the Nazis out, as well (see one of the finest Holocaust films, Fateless). France, too, has a lot to answer for (as the release of both Sarah's Key and La Rafle recently showed us). But, ah, Poland: There is nothing quite like that little country. I don't have time to list all the movies that implicate Poland. Even films like Agnieszka Holland's fine In Darkness -- which showed Polish Jews being rescued, albeit grudgingly, by a Christian Pole -- also allowed us to learn how his fellow Poles treated this guy, post-rescue. One wonders if Britain and/or the U.S. would have acted differently, had they, too, been conquered by the Nazis? Doubtful.

One of the latest in this ever-popular competition is AFTERMATH (Poklosie), a film written and directed by Władysław Pasikowski (shown at left) that, when it made its debut in its home country, had both adherents and naysayers aplenty. I missed it upon its theatrical release, but now its distributor Menemsha Films has made it available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital streaming, so there is little reason for you to miss it. Aftermath, said to be based on actual events, is among the most grueling and shocking of the post-Holocaust-guilt-and-shame movies that yours truly has yet encountered. In it, one brother, who left his native Poland for America years ago (Ireneusz Czop, below), suddenly returns there to find his younger brother up to his ears in odd behavior, with even worse stuff coming from his fellow townspeople, all devout, church-going Christians, doncha know!

What lies at the bottom of all this? It take the entire movie to find out, but as it moves along, Aftermath slowly divulges its information piecemeal, keeping us in the kind of suspense and on the sort of tenterhooks that a good thriller might provide. From the outset we notice the kind of anti-Semitism we're used to seeing and hearing in both narrative and documentary film from and about Poland, so we are more or less "prepped" for some of what is to come. But not nearly all.

Learning the entire story is something else again. While the older brother has his own anti-Jewish tales to tell about his America experience, we still learn things mostly through his eyes, though it becomes the younger brother (Maciej Stuhr, shown above and at bottom) with whom we most identify, particularly when we understand what he is trying to do and the odds against his achieving this.

The townspeople we meet range from marginally helpful to downright nasty, except for a pleasant young woman and a priest (below, left) whose parish is about to be taken over by younger, sleazier blood (above, center, right). What we and that older brother finally discover comes at us in bits and pieces, one more awful than the next. By the finale, this family, the town, and I'm afraid by extension the country itself are held up before us as a collective of ugly, bigoted horror.

Clearly, the filmmaker is after an indictment -- which he gets. But as good as his movie often is, I wish it had refrained from the occasional bit of melodrama that goes over the top. Though in all fairness, I must add that where this subject and the actions of certain so-called human beings are concerned, it is difficult to imagine what "over the top" might include.

Meanwhile, Aftermath, is available now on DVD and Blu-ray and via various digital streaming outlets such as Netflix. Tighten your seat belt and give it a whirl.

A streaming must-see: Charles Sturridge's adaptation of duMaurier's THE SCAPEGOAT

British filmmaker Charles Sturridge (shown below in younger days) has had an interesting career, though not one to which most Americans will have given much thought. Best known, I should think, for the Brideshead Revisited TV mini-series from 1981, he has also made three movies very much worth seeing: A Handful of Dust (from 1988), Where Angels Fear to Tread (1991) and Fairy Tale: A True Story (1997). His successes have been in the classic, what we might call Masterpiece Theater mode, yet his choice of projects (or perhaps what have landed in his lap) tend to be quirky and not as easy to pigeon-hole as some critics or audiences might like. A Handful of Dust, based on the Evelyn Waugh novel, was for its time almost like a deliberate smack in the face of folk who love "classy" Brit TV and film; Where Angels Fear to Tread, in which a lovely, sexual Helen Mirren comes (and goes) with shocking brevity, also rocked (a bit gently, based as it was on an E.M. Forster novel) family, tradition, class and the meaning of decency; while A Fairy Tale, in its strange and delightful way, combined the likes of Harry Houdini with Arthur Conan Doyle, Peter Pan, photography and, yes, fairies.

Now comes what may be one of Sturridge's best films -- THE SCAPEGOAT -- which he has adapted from one of the lesser-known novels of Daphne du Maurier, and from which another movie was adapted back in 1959, which starred Alec Guinness and Bette Davis. (TrustMovies saw that film when he was in his late teens but barely remembers it now. Next time it plays TCM, he'll have to grab it.) In the novel a Britisher visiting France runs into his doppelganger/
double, and soon finds himself impersonating this Frenchman and infiltrating the man's family and business. Sturridge has -- more interestingly and a little more believably, too -- set the scene in England, in the early 1950s at the time of the coronation of Elizabeth II.

The look-alikes here are played by Matthew Rhys (above), about whom differences of class and character are all. John Standing, at right, is a decent, if rather untested, school teacher, while Johnny Spence (at left) is a aristocratic cad, someone the Brits might call a "bounder." As the men meet almost at the film's beginning, we know but little about Standing (he has just been let go from his teaching job at a prestigious boy's school, below) but almost nothing about Spence.

What happens after this initial meeting, and from there onward in this fast-moving and often riveting combination thriller/family drama, is full of both the expected and the not-so. What is most surprising about this genuinely stirring movie is how it manages to subvert expectation to become a kind of lovely, moving thriller -- one that's charming and imaginative as it tosses us into someone else's world. Thrills, you see, can come in all kinds of packages, and Sturridge has once again chosen a work that offers him the opportunity to pull, but gently, the rug out from under the expectations of his audience.

The family into which Standing becomes a part is inhabited by some pretty caddish and unhappy sorts, including Johnny's mother, Lady Spence (Eileen Atkins, at right) who never seems to be able to rise from her bed...

...as well as a sister (the wonderful, as always, Jodhi May); a callow brother, played by Andrew Scott (at left, three photos below); a lovely, pliant wife (Alice Orr-Ewing), an ador-able, spirited daughter (Eloise Webb, at bottom, left), and a sexy conniving sister-in-law (Sheridan Smith, below, and lately of Hysteria) with whom Johnny has clearly been having an affair.

Around the periphery scurry other characters: the family's maid (a fine performane from Phoebe Nichols), its clergyman (Anton Lesser, below right), the take-charge chauffeur (Pip Torrens) and a young Frenchwoman (the great Sylvie Testud) who relocated to London during the war, it seems.

How John manages to take Johnny's place in the family members' minds and finally in their hearts provides the meat of the movie, and what a tasty, nourishing feast it does become. Ms du Maurier seldom wrote uninteresting plots, which is one reason so many of her evergreen works have been adapted into films -- Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel to Don't Look Now and The Birds, among many others.

This one proves so due to its doppelganger premise, which is always a good hook, even more so for what Sturridge does with it. His specific time period -- as Queen Elizabeth is about to be crowned and television is making its way into England -- proves just about perfect for the tale he tells. The movie begins with the arrival of this aristocratic family's first television and ends with the family watching the coronation on their new and oh-so-tiny set. Ms Nichols' final speech, about this event and how it applies to what's going on in the family, is a humdinger -- making beautifully clear the reason for the particular place, period, and doppelganger theme.

Midway to two-thirds' through the film, what must happen in these movies about "doubles" does occur. How the filmmaker handles this -- in an almost perfunctory fashion: it's the most typically thrilling but also least commanding part of the film -- indicates where his interest really lies: in character rather than event.

Who of all these characters figures out which man is which proves a large part of the exquisite fun here, while giving two of the performers in this crack ensemble cast the chance to really shine. The Scapegoat, first shown, I believe, on British television, is now available via Netflix streaming (you can add it to your NF queue, as well, then wait until the time, if and when, it becomes available here on DVD). This is such a wonderful, old-fashioned tale done so well that it qualifies as don't-miss entertainment.

INHALE: Iceland's Baltasar Kormákur tackles Mexico's thriving organ trade

With 101 Reykjavík (2000), The Sea (2002) and Jar City (2006), Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur proved that he could handle odd family dramedies and a dark thriller with equal aplomb. Transplanted to America, he has stuck with the dark thriller motif that always centers, as did all his home-base films, around family. 2005s A Little Trip to Heaven was set in Minnesota, a place sometimes cold enough to pass for Iceland. Now, with his new film INHALE, the locale has shifted to Mexico (New Mexico stands in for the real thing), but the change of climate does not seem to have slowed down the movie-maker to any great extent.

The writer/director, shown at left, has cast his movie with a nice array of international talent: Germany's Diane Kruger (two photos below), Switzerland's Vincent Perez and Spain's Jordi Mollà) join our own Dermot Mulroney, Sam Shepard and Rosanna Arquette in this tale of a husband and wife (Mulroney and Kruger) whose little girl has a disease that only a new set of lungs will cure. But, as usual, there's just not enough organs to go around. What to do? Psssst!  Ever heard of the third world?  So of to Mexico, where life is cheap and organs are plenteous, goes our intrepid hero, whose desperation to save his daughter at all costs is paramount to our buying into some of the less believable aspects of the plotting. You may do it ( I did), but barely. The onus of the movie's credibility is placed squarely on the broad shoulders of Mr. Mulroney, shown below, and the actor comes through in fine form. As the remaining days and hours disappear and his child's life grows more precarious, the character places himself in the kind of jeopardy that only a situation like this might call for.

Kormákur begins his story toward the end, and then flashes back and forth until we've arrived at that beginning again, moving on to its difficult conclusion. Mulroney's day job is as an upright, if not uptight, prosecutor for the state, and his ethical standards do seem, as they would need to be, rather high. This will figure heavily into the mix as the conclusion approaches.

Something else that figures into things is the movie's Mexican setting: Juarez, the city in which those many Mexican women have disappeared and/or been murdered. Missing women and the illicit trade in vital human organs: a connection, perhaps? The movie does not push this, yet its theme and location taken together are enough to start the ball rolling.

Before long desperate Dad is up against everyone from thuggish goons to the local police (headed by Mollà, above) and a clinic doctor who clearly looks down on Americans searching for illicit organs. He also comes into contact with a sexy and beautiful bar hostess who gives him more than he bargained for (in several ways), as well as a group of street kids (below), a couple of whom, if warily (and for money, of course), offer their help.

Making their mark via small but strong performances are Arquette, as the family physician who bends over backwards -- and then some -- to help out, and Shepard, below, as Mulroney's mentor with his own dirty secret. Kormákur has given us a thought-provoking movie about first-world entitlement using third-world resources. His ending revolves around choice. I'd have preferred Dad to make a different one, which I think, given the circumstance, would have been more believable. Either way he'll have to live with it,
and it ain't pretty.

Inhale, via IFC Films, opens in theaters this Friday, October 22 (here in NYC, it screens at the IFC Center), and is playing simultaneously from IFC On-Demand. Click here to access it.