A don't-miss sci-fi goes straight to DVD/Digital; Antonio Tublén's amazing LFO: THE MOVIE

How's this for irony: One of the best sci-fi movies in recent years -- LFO: The Movie, by Swedish filmmaker Antonio Tublén -- doesn't even get a theatrical release in its home country, let alone in America. Oh, it's played film festivals around the world (nearly two dozen of 'em) before finally making its DVD and digital debut here last month. I guess we can be grateful for that. But, still: One has to wonder at the obtuse nature of film distribution in these days when almost everything else hits theaters.

Film buffs will be grateful for what they're able to see -- in whatever format -- but what straight-to-DVD-and-digital means in this case is that a genuine "original" won't get the publicity necessary to put it on the map. Too bad, but consider this your alert -- LFO: The Movie is just too good to miss. Mr. Tublén, shown at right, has graced us with a sci-fi film that, if I am not mistaken, traffics in zero special effects. That's right. In this case, it's all about your mind. What you know, what you see, and what you hear -- and how you can piece all this together.

Don't get me wrong. LFO is not a difficult film to follow. It's rather simple, in fact. A nerdy, techie who specializes in sound (a wonderfully rich and expansive performance by Patrik Karlson, above and below) discovers how to control the minds of others via sound and begins to put this to use in his local neighborhood.  Now, I think this is done via sound waves. The science here may take some suspension of disbelief, but then that is true in almost all sci-fi movies, right? Once you accept the movie's premise, you're in for a shocking, funny, dirty, surprising and finally moving ride.

How our non-hero uses his new discovery/toy on his friends and neighbors is one thing; how the filmmaker delivers the guy's family -- wife and son -- is something else entirely, and this is handled, as is everything here, simply and spectacularly well.

Basically, the movie is a entertaining treatise on the uses of power -- first as our guy lords it over his attractive new neighbors, Lin and Simon (played nicely by Izabella Jo Tschig, above, right and Per Löfberg, above, left) and then any of the odd folk (police, insurance investigator, and another would-be scientist/competitor) who show up unwanted -- initially in ways rather minor but soon more and more widespread.

If at first this story seems small and housebound, wait. Eventually its reach will become huge, going places and dragging you along where you would never have expected, given the film's beginning and much of its continuation.

LFO also allows that a character can indeed change and grow, something one does not always get from sci-fi films these days. And if it is, to boot, a comedy, as is noted in the press materials, it's a very dark one. That, as much as anything else, is what probably scared off a theatrical release.

You can view LFO: The Movie -- from Dark Sky Films, in Swedish with English subtitles and running 94 minutes -- now on DVD digital and streaming. It is more than worth a watch.

The FSLC's FILM COMMENTS SELECTS series for 2013 gets underway this Monday

It's that time of year again, when, in New York City, a bunch of generally very-good movies from around the world that don't quite fit well-enough into any marketable niche (and thus have so far gone mostly undistributed and unseen here in the USA) get their day -- sometimes two! -- in the sun.

above and top, both from Miss Lovely (no U.S. distribution yet)

The event -- an annual series -- is called FILM COMMENT SELECTS and draws its title from the movie magazine FILM COMMENT, published by The Film Society of Lincoln Center, which also sponsors this series. This year the FCS series -- which begins this coming Monday, February 18 -- presents 21 films, 16 of them new, with five oldies-but-goodies filling out the program.

from Nights With Theodore (no U.S. distribution yet)

Already this year, five of the new films have been picked up, for U.S. distribution (which probably means eventually release via DVD, streaming and/or VOD, in addition to theatres), with more probably to come. So real film buffs might want to concentrate their efforts on seeing those films that do not have (and may never get) U.S. distribution.

from Motorway (no U.S. distribution yet)

As usual, too, these films come from all around the world -- Hong Kong to France, Britain to Japan, the U.S. to Bollywood -- and includes filmmaker just coming into their own, as well as newcomers and old-timers.

from Sightseers, from IFC Midnight

True this year, as almost every year, genre films make their appearance in this series, as does the occasional experimental oddity (we have two this time around), together with a movie by a storied filmmaker that for some reason (and rather embarrassingly, if you ask me) has not been picked up yet.

from Dormant Beauty (no U.S. distribution yet)

In that last category is the new and quite wonderful movie from Marco Bellocchio -- Dormant Beauty -- that explores his country's reaction to euthanasia and which was given quite the "dis" by Michael Mann at last year's Venice Film Fest. (Mr. Mann, I might add has not given us a film with any worthwhile content in more than a decade.) I'll have a review up of the new Bellocchio very soon. Meanwhile, put it on your list.

from White Epilepsy (no U.S. distribution yet)

Highly experimental movies this year include those by Philippe Grandrieux (whose films often make me want to yell, "Turn on the fucking light!")....

from Stemple Pass (no U.S. distribution yet)

...and James Benning (who gives us lengthy scenes of a certain house that belonged to a certain person of interest).

from The We and the I (via Paladin & 108 Media)

Art-film favorite Michel Gondry is back, too, with a film that appears to divide audience rather thoroughly, and which opens here soon. We shall see....

from Wish You Were Here (no U.S. distribution yet)

There is often that odd and excellent movie that seems to have slipped somehow between the cracks for no good reason. I'm wondering if Australia's Kieran Darcy-Smith has this year's example.

from Simon Killer (via IFC)

Antonio Campos, who gave us the strange, stirring and under-seen AfterSchool is back with his new one, too....

from 3 (not the recent German movie -- and no U.S. distribution yet)

Remember that lovely Uruguayan film Whisky? One of its two filmmakers is back this year with another film that sounds equally smart and small and real (and stylish).

from Call Girl (no U.S. distribution yet? You're kidding!)

What FCS series would be complete without that movie about a really sleazy subject, done stylishly and sexily? I suspect Mikael Marcimain's movie mixing politics, prostitution and a real-life Swedish scandal fills this bill.

from In the Fog (from Strand Releasing)

World War II? Present and accounted for in the new film from the acclaimed director of My Joy, Sergei Loznitsa.

from Penance (no U.S. distribution yet)

After a four-year hiatus, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with a five-part, made-for-Japanese-TV psychological drama/murder mystery that tests viewer endurance, and, promises the FSLC, "truly rewards it."

from Gebo and the Shadow (no U.S. distribution yet)

Another famous filmmaker, perhaps the oldest living one still working, Manoel De Oliveira, is here with his latest film.

from Here Comes Devil (via Magnet/Magnolia)

Lastly, Argentina's bizarre fright specialist Adrián García (the unique Penumbra) has another little scary movie at the ready -- which genre fans won't want to miss.  

You can see the entire schedule, order you tickets, and perhaps do all sort of other fun things by clicking here and then clicking on whatever movies and their links interest you.

On-Demand -- Hong Sang-soo's NIGHT AND DAY: a Korean in Paris (no dancing)

According to the final end-credit of NIGHT AND DAY (Bam gua nat), this movie is the eighth in the ongoing oeuvre of South Korean director Hong Sang-soo, shown below, who earlier gave us the much-
heralded, but for me over-rated, Woman Is the Future of Man, and the better, though less seen, Woman on the Beach. Night and Day falls somewhere in between Hong's earlier films in terms of interest and success. While I would not have missed it, I would also not necessarily recommend it to non-film buffs.  It's long (nearly two-and-one-half hours), not much happens (in any conven-
tional movie manner) and there is little character growth or change in our non-hero, Sung-nam, played by the very hunky-but-dumpy Kim Young-ho, who appears in literally every scene of the film.

What the movie actually performs is an unraveling of character, both in the sense of a man coming to the end of his rope and the writer/director making clear how feeble a fellow this is on whom we have just spent our 144 minutes. Initially Sung-nam seems rather lost and sweet; by the finale, his constant waffling, followed by the betrayal of one woman after another, have taken their toll on us -- if not him. He'll continue his bad behavior as long as he can get away with it, which -- given South Korean society's general deference to the male -- should probably be quite awhile.

One of the pleasures of a Hong film is that you learn so much about Korea, its populace and culture, via so little exposition.  Here, for instance, we see the immediate competition between the North and South Koreas, the place of religion, how male/female relationships work (or don't), and especially the importance of art -- in daily conversation, in a visit to a museum, and in one character's stealing ideas from another. At that museum, for instance, Sung-nam spots a certain painting (seen on the poster art above -- a poster, by the way, that you will certainly not see in any U.S. advertising for the film), which he and his lady friend discuss in terms of their reactions to it.  Art is seldom far from anyone's mind in this movie.  Except when sex raises its randy head.

Our non-hero, above, certainly wants sex, and the longer he's away from his Korean wife, the more he seems at the mercy of his libido.  But so incredibly self-involved is he (as he has evidently always been) that he does not even recognize an old girlfriend (Kim You-jin) -- a woman who had six abortions because of his preference for condom-less rutting -- when they pass each other on a Paris street.  He becomes involved again with this woman, and then with then a young art student (Park Eun-hye, shown at right, two photos above) who for awhile manages to give as good -- maybe even better -- than she gets.

Sung-nam has gone to Paris to escape possible ramifications from the arrest of a friend made at the party where the participants were smoking pot. What this rather extreme response to a minor problem says about Sung-nam's character is another tip-off -- or is South Korea possibly even more conservative than the USA regarding marijuana?  Beginning as what seems like a gentle comedy-romance, the movie gradually morphs into something darker and more problematic.  A clue to what is to come may be found as the camera catches a stream of water flowing, curbside, down a typically charming Parisian street.  Then the stream gently encircles a pile of dog-shit, carrying it off in a quick little swirl.

As usual in a Hong film, near volumes -- about desire, need and subservience -- can be seen in a single shot (above for instance, and below).  There are a number of these along the way and they comprise maybe the best recommendation I can make for why you might want to see this film.  Sung-nam is himself an artist, a painter of clouds: a subject as beautiful, amorphous, changeable and untouchable as they come, and more than a little like our slutty, self-deceiving "hero."

After a week's run last year at NYC's Anthology Film Archives, Night and Day, which, if I am not mistaken, contains barely a single scene set at night, is available now from IFC On Demand via many TV reception providers across the country. Check here, then scroll down just a bit, to discover if it's playing in your neck of the woods.