Nudity, sex, dance (and a little psychology) combine in Boaz Yakin's unusual fim, AVIVA

If I can help it, I will never miss a film by Boaz Yakin. This fascinating, accomplished director and writer (not always within the same film) has given us a raft of good movies, with each of his directorial efforts in a different genre. What his films have in common, seems to me, is their placing an outsider at the center and having him/her eventually -- often at great, if not pyrrhic, cost -- win the day. His latest, AVIVA, as per usual, is not simply in another genre; it mashes up several into something that seems pretty much sui generis.

Mr. Yakin, shown at right (some years back), is always as interested in content as in visuals, but Aviva may be the most visual of all his films, even if not nearly his best.

There's a stunning shot of hands on mugs on a table early on followed by several of the kind of memorable images that, when you think of this film later on, you will probably call to mind -- one of which appears just below. (His cinematographer this time around is Arseni Khachaturan, with film editing by Holle Singer.)

For a good while during this film, thanks to everything from the very hot looking men and women, the copious amounts of nudity (often male and full-frontal, prudes be warned), the sex scenes, the openness to both hetero-and homosexuality and the enormous contribution of dance (much of it quite good) to the film, this seemed to TrustMovies to be the most fun he has had at the movies all year. Then, somewhere around the midway point, repetition begins to set in (along with the nagging sense that there is less here, content-wise, than meets the eye and mind), and Aviva comes subsequently only fitfully to life. Though when it does, it can still prove pretty magical, off and on.

The problem, to my mind, is that the movie's strengths and weaknesses go hand in hand with its director's own, because, I suspect, this film is giving us Yakin's own story and struggle. Although there are four actors credited with playing, sort of, two roles -- that of the titular Aviva (both the female and male versions) and Eden (again, the male and female) -- really, I think, these are all just sides of Yakin himself, who wrote and directed the piece and who is clearly struggling with identity, sexuality, commitment, growth and all the rest of it. (Who of us is not? Though some of us maybe don't realize this yet.)

The biggest problem here is that Yakin seems to identify most, and understandably so, with the male version of Eden (played by a most attractive and nicely hung actor/dancer named Tyler Phillips, above, who is making his movie debut) and who has to deal throughout with a kind of hang-dog attitude in which guilt, coupled to the inability to rise above this and grow up, leads to his growing tiresome and beginning to bore the bejesus out of us. He waffles and he wavers and he can't commit and he's pretty much of an asshole, overall.

While the female Eden, played by Bobbi Jene Smith (above, center left) rather echoes her male counterpart, Ms Smith at least supplied the choreography and some of the fine dancing, she also supplies a lot more energy and pizzazz than does Mr. Phillips, and so watching her is not such a drag. She, along with her companion and co-choreographer Or Schraiber (see below) also appeared together in the 2017 documentary, Bobbi Jene.

The title role, female version is essayed by an attractive and appealing Russian-born actress, Zina Zinchenko (above), while the male version is played by hottie, dancer and co-choreographer (the aforementioned Mr. Schraiber, below), who brings a vast quantity of sex appeal and dance knowledge to the proceedings. (Don't worry if all these sexes and characters seem confusing. Eventually they run together into a kind of sameness, some of which is no doubt intentional on the part of Yakin; the rest of it simply follows.)

Dance is just about everywhere here, and sex is, too. (To his great credit, the filmmaker does not stint on the homo over the supposedly more important role of the hetero, the point being that it is all one.) The production design is spectacular, with locations in Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the word love is tossed about so carelessly and often that you'll realize the filmmaker -- like so many of us -- is perhaps vamping, while he learns the meaning of the word.

And when, toward the end, a character screams out, "Please! We can't do this anymore," you'll probably agree. At a near two-hour running time, shorter would have been better. Particularly when that male version of Eden is, to use Bill Maher's description of Donald Trump, such a "whiny little bitch." Still, as with just about everything Yakin has given us, when it's good, it is so good, that I would watch it all over again.

From Outsider Pictures and Strand Releasing, Aviva, in all its too-long glory, will hit virtual theaters this coming Friday, June 12. Click here and then scroll down to find the virtual theaters across the country in which the film will play. (There will be a free live-stream Q&A on Saturday, June 13; Sunday June 14; and Saturday, June 20. Click here for more information.)

Blu-ray debut for the under-appreciated George Roy Hill/Stephen Geller adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE

Back in the 60s and 70s, when TrustMovies endured his late-coming-of-age period, Kurt Vonnegut was one -- maybe the --most favored novelist of those of us in or near the boomer generation. I think his work holds up pretty well, and so does the movie version of one of his most popular and enduring novels, SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, directed by George Roy Hill (shown below, an Oscar-winner for The Sting and a nominee for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), with a good screenplay that follows the book well yet not too slavishly from Stephen Geller.

What might seem missing from the movie -- this being but an adaptation rather than the original -- is the peculiar, particular Vonnegut tone. For instance, the refrain that echos through the novel, So it goes, is nowhere to be found in the film. Not literally, and yet Hill and Geller find their own right tone that carries through their movie so that So it goes -- which you can interpret as icy irony, a kind of capitulation, or perhaps an acceptance of things as they are rather than how you might like them to be -- is there in the film without ever having to be spoken aloud. Via the manner in which this movie builds and coalesces, this now famous phrase seems absolutely part and parcel.

Slaughterhouse-Five is a combination time-travel sci-fi/philosophical treatise novel, and it works equally well as both. One of the things that Hill and Geller get right and handle extremely well is the constant zipping back and forth from past to present. This is so quietly and subtly managed that audiences back in 1969 may have been unprepared for something this skillful. Even today, some 47 years later, it seems fresh.

The movie also brought to filmgoers' attention a new actor named Michael Sacks (above), who then and now seems a perfect fit for Vonnegut's based-upon-himself-as-a-young-man hero. Sacks never had a long nor hugely memorable career in films but his performance here in the role of Billy Pilgrim was about as good as could be.

The supporting cast includes the late Ron Liebman (above, center), nastily impressive as usual, and a luscious and sparkling Valerie Perrine (below), along with a host of fine character actors, all doing some of their best work.

Although I saw the film when it first came out, watching it again became a new experience. Yet as much as I was enjoying it, Slaughterhouse-Five seemed as though it lacked a certain depth and raison d'être as it moved along. Then, around three-quarters of the way through -- the point at which Billy's explanation of the philosophy of the time tripping Trafalmador coincides with the burning of the corpses found after the WWII fire-bombing of Dresden, for this viewer at least, the movie took on the profundity that the novel sometimes reached.

And from that point until the spectacular, moving, charming and funny finale, Slaughterhouse-Five did indeed seem wonderfully profound, finally serving up a philosophy by which one might profitably live. (That's fine character actor Eugene Roche, above, right, as Billy's mentor, protector and best friend during his time as an American POW in Germany.)

From Arrow Video (distributed here in the USA via MVD Visual/MVD Entertainment Group) and running a mere 104 minutes, the movie hit the street last week in a pretty good Blu-ray transfer -- for purchase (and, I hope, rental).

As usual with Arrow product, the Bonus Features are well worth watching. The best here is a lovely, smart, and very entertaining interview about/appreciation of the film with author/critic Kim Newman, as well as a interesting present-day interview about the filming and how he came to this film by Perry King (who plays Sacks' son in the film; in real life, the two actors were the same age, but the make-up department did a fine job in aging Mr. Sacks in surprisingly believable fashion, considering what was possible back in the 1970s).

From Venezuela, amidst the chaos, comes a based-on-life police procedural/bloodsucker movie, Carl Zitelmann's THE LAKE VAMPIRE

Back in the mid-1970s, in a healthier (compared only to the past few years) Venezuela, a serial killer by the name of Zacarías Ortega was narrowing down the population, body by body.

Ortega may be little more than a footnote in Venezuelan history today, but an industrious  filmmaker, Carl Zitelmann, in his full-length debut, has brought Ortega's tale -- sort of -- to the screen in the new film titled THE LAKE VAMPIRE (El vampiro del lago).

As director and writer, who adapted his screenplay from a novel by Norberto José Olivar, Señor Zitelmann (shown at right) has no doubt added some of his own "liberties" to those already taken by Olivar in telling this true-life tale via his novel, A Vampire in Maracaibo.

The result, TrustMovies opines, is a film that quickly engulfs us by offering up the news (but fortunately not the views) of decapitated corpses and severed heads -- often those of children -- and the simultaneous introduction of a novelist named Ernesto (Sócrates Serrano, below) trying awfully hard to find a subject for his second book. Oh-oh: Could he be on to something here?

Indeed, yes, and so Ernesto tracks down the police investigator, Jeremias (Miguel Ángel Landa, below), who handled that initial case back in the 70s -- one that these new killings would seem to imitate -- and together the two men begin to bond and then to investigate.

As Jeremias tells Ernesto the story of how he tracked down the earlier killer, we are given a number of scenes devoted to those distant days (Jeremias' younger self is played by Abilio Torres, below), even as we are also learning about the current spate of killings.

The filmmaker competently juggles his police procedural, serial killer and vampire genres, as well as his past and present time frames, though we do grow a little weary of things by the point the movie has reached its pretty-much foregone conclusion. The identity of one or two characters, past and present, may carry a surprise, though for fans for either the serial killer or vampire genres, the bigger "reveals" will have probably revealed themselves awhile back.

What saves the film is its visual style -- atmospheric and almost always compelling --  along with it's mostly excellent pacing, and the fine performances from its entire cast.

As good as everyone is, the top acting honors actually go to the actor who plays the three "vampire" roles in distant past, not-so-distant past and present day: Eduardo Gulino (shown above and below), who is by turns crazy scary, sublimely creepy, and quite classy.

One of the more interesting things about this film is how male-centric it consistently is. The single female character of any note (other than one of  the killer's victims, below) exists simply for the most prominent male to use for work and sex purposes; otherwise, it's all men all the time. And not particularly nice men, at that. By the time of the very downbeat finale, you may feel, well, fuck 'em all: They got what they deserved. (Even if the people of Venezuela, then and now, certainly have not.)

From Uncork’d Entertainment and Dark Star Pictures, The Lake Vampire will have its U.S. theatrical premiere tomorrow, Friday, September 27, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Glendale -- with a VOD release to follow later this fall.

A slasher art-film? Tamae Garateguy's bizarre SHE WOLF attempts this offbeat melding

What to make of SHE WOLF? This 2013 movie from Argentina is finally being released (on DVD and digital) this week via Omnibus Entertainment, the genre arm of Film Movement, so fans of would-be horror/slasher movies and/or very oddball art films will have the chance to view it and weigh in.

As directed by Tamae Garateguy (shown below), with a screenplay by Diego Fleischer

(from a story by Ms Garateguy) and shot in appealing black-and-white by cinematographer Pigu Gómez, She Wolf is a very uneasy mixture of the arty and the sleazy, with plenty of voracious sex, enough slashing to make blood-and-guts fans relatively happy, and just enough of a germ of a genuinely interesting idea to keep art-film aficionados on their toes.

Ms Garateguy's most interesting touch is to have three very different appearing actresses essay the leading role of the "she wolf," a woman who, from the first scene onwards, seems to enjoy killing men, particularly the kind who like to abuse women.

Fair enough (well, sort of) for these me2 times, I suppose, and the three actresses who play the leading lady are talented and attractive. Initially, it will seem as though there are three different characters here, but no, eventually you'll realize that they are differing aspects of the same woman. The first we see is played by Mónica Lairana, above, who appears to be the victim in a bondage sexual encounter. But not for long.

Then we get the blond version (above and below), played by Luján Ariza, and finally what is called in the end credits, the "young" version, the pretty and innocent-looking Guadalupe Docampo. The male roles are mostly throw-away, during which we see just enough to know that these guys like to hit on women and parade their macho credentials -- with two exceptions.

The first of these is a guy (Egardo Castro, below) who has "come on" to our mujer lobo on one of her subway rides (her favored pick-up spot) and annoyingly interrupted her flirting with another man. "He'll get his," we think, but back in his apartment he pulls a gun on our gal and she barely gets away. Turns out, he's a cop, to boot (making a point, I suppose, about Argentina's law enforcement and the kind of police/military control that goes back decades and decades in the history of this South American country).

The second, more-nuanced male character is the young man who helps our "heroine" escape from her gun-toting captor. As nicely played with charm and sex appeal by Nicolás Gold (aka Goldschmidt), this fellow gets a whole lot more than he bargained for -- especially when he enjoys a sexual rondelay with all three of these women at once. (Most often we see them only individually, but here, as below, they seem to appear in the flesh together.)

What does all this mean? Aside from the usual pro-feminist slant, along with perhaps a look at the appeal and danger of sex and men, it is difficult to say. At 92 minutes, the movie still outlasts its welcome by a few, at least. So sit back, enjoy the black-and-white cinematography, the decent performances, the usual genre tropes, and then try putting it all together into some meaningful whole. I wish you better luck than I had.

From Film Movement/Omnibus Entertainment, She Wolf hits DVD and digital tomorrow, Tuesday, March 19 -- for purchase and/or rental.

South Korean comedy, action & fried chicken: Byeong-heon Lee's genre-mash, EXTREME JOB

Of all movie genres, so they say, comedy has the most difficult time crossing cultures. TrustMovies thought about this old saw while viewing the new genre-jumper, EXTREME JOB from South Korea, which turns out to be a pretty odd mix of comedy and violent action.

As directed by Byeong-heon Lee (no writing credit is translated via English subtitles, nor does any writing credit appear on the film's IMDB site), the movie's first half is mostly comedy, while the second part is pretty much violent action scenes. Interestingly enough, the comedic portion works best, with the humor alternately broad and somewhat more subtle, abetted in both cases by noteworthy comedic performances.

Director Lee (shown at right) keeps the comedic action flowing smartly and amusingly, as our team of barely-heroes and a single heroine (above and below) foul up one maneuver after another, much to the dismay of their lawman boss.

There are competing cop teams here, with ours clearly the underdog, and fairly soon the boys and girl have set up shop watching the bad-guy drug-runners from the bizarre home base of a low-end, take-out, fried-chicken establishment.

Via the usual coincidental-if-manipulative plot machinations, the team ends up buying the restaurant and coming up with such a fabulous fried-chicken recipe that the place becomes a record-breaking crowd pleaser.

The five leading performers here are each good/funny enough to often surmount the silliness on view and make the movie at least watchable. But even their good work isn't quite enough to compensate for some really ridiculous plot devices that crop up during the second half.

By the time it is revealed -- with literally nothing to back this up -- that each member of our dumb-ass team is a crack martial arts fighter of one sort or another, you'll be scratching your head and murmuring, Huh?, even as they are taking out what amounts to a small army of villains. Ah, well, it's the movies, right?

Extreme Job goes on too long, too. By the time we reach the final fighting match between the hero and his nemesis, you'll be hoping someone cries "uncle" as soon as at all possible. Still, for those willing to suspend disbelief, logic and pretty much all else, the movie may just pass muster.

From CJ Entertainment and running 111 minutes, Extreme Job opened this past Friday in Los Angeles and Buena Park and will hit major cities all across the US and Canada this Friday, February 1. To locate a theater near you, click here, and then click on Find a Theater, then keep clicking on View More until you locate something near you.

SILENCIO: Lorena Villarreal's sci-fi fantasy proves heavy on manipulation and coincidence

Most science-fiction/fantasy combos have a certain manufactured quality, with some -- if not a lot of -- coincidence tossed into their mix. SILENCIO, a new Mexico/USA co-production written and directed by Lorena Villarreal, offers perhaps more than the normal amount of both. Ms Villarreal's movie takes a few "facts" about a desert area in Mexico -- famous for the myth that no radio signals can be received there and where, in actuality, a U.S. rocket launch crashed back in 1970, releasing in the process a small amount of radioactive cobalt 57 -- and runs with them.

The filmmaker, shown at left, initially seems to cleverly weave this scenario into her tale of of a meteorite with magical powers, radioactive time travel, a family tragedy, and a handsome young fellow who sees and hears ghosts who just happens to be a patient of the pretty young therapist who is the sole survivor of that family tragedy. And that's but the beginning of all the manipulation and coincidence on hand. And an awful lots of cliché, too -- like the young child in peril who of course has asthma. (Note to filmmakers: Can you please give this one a rest?!)

So, yes: What we have here is very coincidental and also sentimental (especially the musical score by Leoncio Lara), but overall relatively fun viewing, thanks to the plotting, cinematography (Mateo Londono), and decent performances, even under some rather trying circumstances. The latter is shown us during a would-be climax/action scene in which our seeming villain manages to shoot and kill two characters while our heroine, who has a shotgun pointed right at him, just can't seen to pull the trigger.

Yes, there's a good reason for this, but the scene is staged so poorly that you may not really care much. Still, the actors -- who include John Nobel (above, right) as the grandfather/scientist, Rupert Graves (below) as a little-too-helpful friend, as Melina Matthews (two photos above) as our feisty heroine -- do what they can.  The movie also include the best performance from a very large tortoise that I have seen in many a year.

The pacing is very up and down, with the post-climax, last-quarter-hour awfully slow. That said, the actual finale may draw a surprise tear from your eye, as it did from mine. The movie may finally remind you of an after-school special crossed with an endangered family film crossed with a time-travel scenario crossed with a shoot-'e-in-the-head blood bath. Yeah, it's weird. But it almost works. Sort of.

From Tulip Pictures and Barraca Producciones, Silencio opens in theaters nationwide this Friday, October 26. Click here to find the theater(s) nearest you.

Best film of the year (so far): Paul Weitz's beautiful, brilliant, moving BEL CANTO

What a surprise is BEL CANTO, the new movie directed by Paul Weitz (and which could hardly be farther away in subject, tone and skill from his first film, American Pie!), with a screenplay adapted by Anthony Weintraub and Weitz from the award-winning novel of the same name by Ann Patchett. Mr. Weitz, shown below, has now directed in so many different genres that he is can certainly not be pigeon-holed -- which is undoubted as he wants it. Still, I would in no way have expected to be this strongly engulfed by and then finally moved -- not to tears; at least, not right away -- to the kind of deep, profound sense of possibility, joy and then loss that the performing arts so rarely provide. (Several hours post-viewing those tears unexpectedly arrived; the movie sticks with me, even now, days after viewing it.)

When we finished the film, my spouse at once remarked how much it reminded him of Our Country's Good, that great play by Timberlake Wertenbaker that had a too-short Broadway run back in 1991. In Bel Canto, the humanizing force, rather than residing, as in the play, in the power of theater, is instead found in music, specifically opera. The result is the same: the bringing together of diverse people and ideas into the kind harmony that progressives so desire, and that those in power so often deliberately prevent.

What genre of a film is Bel Canto? Without giving away much of the wonderfully imagined and executed plot, the movie's a mash-up. Part love story(ies), thriller, social/political critique, art-about-art, terrorism (but by whom?) and lots more, the movie puts you in touch with characters who grow and change, finally becoming as memorable as any you're likely see this year (or for that matter last year or next).

Not having read the novel (which is probably better than the film because novels almost always are), I can only judge this movie. What Weitz and Weintraub especially excel at lies in their ability to create the illusion of time passing both artfully and believably so that everything we see here seems viable, given the circumstances and characters.

That sense of days and weeks passing is vital to the tale's credibility, and it is handled here as well as I've ever seen it. The film has been cast exquisitely, too. Though its lead actors -- Julianne Moore (above) as a world-famous opera singer (we hear Renée Fleming on the soundtrack doing the singing) and Ken Watanabe (at left on poster, top) as an uber-wealthy and successful businessman -- are maybe not the most memorable of the characters, Ms Moore smartly captures both this singer's entitlement and her humanity, while Watanabe's eastern reserve and inscrutability slowly, effectively crumble.

The film's most interesting character -- the likes of which movies so seldom bring to life this well -- belongs to the Japanese translator (beautifully played by Ryô Kase, shown above, center), fluent in several languages, who accompanies Watanabe and discovers so much new about himself during the "siege." Also in the fine international cast are Sebastian Koch (below) as a harried Red Cross worker and Christopher Lambert (in the penultimate photo, below) as a hostage who proves multi-talented.

The "terrorists" are almost equally memorable. There are quite a few of these, and each is brought to fine and specific life with a few smart brushstrokes by actors who make the most of every one of their moments. Especially strong are Tenoch Huerta (as the Commander) and Maria Mercedes Coray, shown at right in the photo at bottom (who plays the young female recruit named Carmen).

The film is full of little ironies, sometimes involving language and translation. One of the richest and funniest is what most unites the film's missing dictator with some of the terrorists in this Latin American country. Of course, it's a telenovela.

As it moves along, the movie takes on almost the quality of a long-hoped-for fantasy -- one into which, from it outset, we know that reality must finally intrude. Until then, a wondrous little society is created that may take a permanent place in your mind and heart. TrustMovies found Bel Canto the most beguiling, appealing and finally moving piece of cinema he's seen in a long while. No other film has made him think, feel and care this much about such a diverse set of characters living through such a singular event.

From Screen Media Films (by far the best movie I've yet seen from this particular distributor) and running just 102 minutes, Bel Canto opens this Friday, September 14, in New York City (at the Cinepolis Chelsea) and in Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Monica Film Center). Here in the Miami area, the film opens the following Friday, September 21, at the Bill Cosford Cinema and in the weeks to come will hit another 25 cities and theaters nationwide. To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and scroll down.