Investigating ambient sounds while creating some ravishing visuals: Michael Tyburski and Ben Nabors' THE SOUND OF SILENCE

I think a warning is in order here: If you insist on your movies being tidy and never open-ended, then perhaps move on to your next film of interest. THE SOUND OF SILENCE, a new American independent from co-writer (with Ben Nabors) and director Michael Tyburski is so small, quiet (even in its loud-sound moments) and unassuming that many folk will probably pass it right by. For those of us, however, who want something different that can engage our minds -- and even, dare I say it, our souls -- this oddball little movie is quite something else.

Misters Tyburski (shown at right) and Nabors have contrived a tale of a fellow named Peter (played by the inestimable Peter Sarsgaard, on poster above and in the final two photos, below) who is enamored of sounds -- together with the ways in which they form patterns that help contain and/or control our lives. He makes his living helping folk in need. In fact, he is, as his invoice puts it, a "house tuner" who discovers what, in various apartments and homes, is amiss and depriving his clients of sleep, energy, or general well-being.

Peter has been so successful, in fact, that no less than The New Yorker has profiled the guy. Yet regarding his latest client, Ellen Chasen (Rashida Jones, two photos down, giving another of her lovely, understated performances), something has gone amiss, and Peter seems unable to help her much.

Along with all this comes our protagonist's own need for some kind of acceptance from his peers and the scientific community; instead, it is only the marketing community that seems keen on using him and his work.

As Peter negotiates everything from a very personal kind of industrial espionage to his relationship with Ellen, the movie moves slowly yet entrancingly along, as viewers become immersed in this fellow's world of sound -- and the filmmaker's world of visuals which, it seems to TrustMovies, echoes in its own way that special sound experience.

Tyburski and his cinematographer (Eric Lin) show us a universe of patterns of every sort, in the design of both architecture and nature, and these take us with Peter on his journey, while consistently giving us something unusual, beautiful and a just a bit confounding to view as we listen.

Fuss has been made about the film's refusal to guide us definitely toward an understanding of things -- of whether Peter is brilliant or simply befuddled, whether his ideas are right or wrong, whether he and Ellen will get together, whether his scientific peers are on base or off, whether or not that marketing concern has ripped him off. So what?

If everything's up in the air, still, it surely does sound good -- and look even better. The fine supporting cast includes the likes of Austin Pendleton and Tony Revolori, both of whom add their own special, on-the-nose talents to this unusual mix.

From IFC Films and running just 87 minutes, the movie opened this past Friday, September 13, in New York City at the IFC Center and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. Simultaneously it will be available nationwide via VOD.

KÉKSZAKÁLLÚ opens: Gastón Solnicki's gorgeous look at Argentine young ladies

The word Kékszakállú is evidently the Hungarian term for Bluebeard, and the movie KÉKSZAKÁLLÚ, from Argentine filmmaker Gastón Solnicki, is said by the writer/director to have been inspired in part by the one-act opera Bluebeard's Castle by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. None of this was in the least evident to me, while watching this very interesting film, though I'm told that selections from that opera are to be found in the movie's musical score. I don't think any of this really matters, however, in terms of one's enjoyment or even understanding of the motion picture.

If you've an appreciation of the visual -- color, composition, camera movement and the like, I don't see how you can not find yourself enrapt, eye-wise at least, by Solnicki's work (the filmmaker is shown at right). Understanding it is another matter.

Since viewing the film, I've read some other writings about it, which purport to explain Solnicki's intentions but to me seem something less than compelling. I won't explain them here because I believe you ought to approach this movie on your own as a pretty much blank slate.

Afterward, sure, go ahead and look up various criticisms and make of them what you will. Meanwhile, just watch and listen and enjoy the really amazing visual sense this filmmaker possesses. We're somewhere in South America, it seems. I noticed references to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina (since I believe the letter to be the filmmaker's home), though the characters here do seem to move around some.

Initially we see a lot of very good looking young bodies on display, in and out of pools, sun-bathing and the like. Clearly we're among the leisure class, with one exception it would seem. However this young woman, below, though she initially appears to be working class, comes from a somewhat wealthy family, too. It is her story the filmmaker seems to connect with most of all.

When I say "story," I am using the term about as loosely as a narrative film can manage. There certainly is no plot here, and the characters are defined by snippets of such minimal dialog that we can only conclude that they are wondering somewhat about their future and what it holds. One young woman does try to imagine herself in various work situations, with not much luck. (And she's a piss-poor driver, to boot.)

There is a heavy sense here of ennui in the present and trepidation of the future. And yet there is almost no indication from any of these young women (the young men are around mostly for decoration -- which they certainly provide) of anything in the larger world that might exist outside their immediate lives and desires. To call them shallow is to accord them a little too much depth.

What we see of the workplace, pristine and sterile, is equally minor -- used mostly, once again, for some great visuals. (One set actually resembles some outre Rube Goldberg invention.) Almost all the living interiors are beautiful and swank, while nature and the outdoors is green and lush. (One character, the hunky young man below, does seem to have come down with a case of maybe poison ivy, however.)

The ending, too, can be taken in alternate ways: positive, toward a new future, or negative, heading into darkness with no map or direction in sight. Still, I'd watch the film all over again (it lasts only 72 minutes), just for the wonderful visuals. The stunning cinematography (from Fernando Lockett and Diego Poleri) is sharp, clear and full of content that continually pleases the eye.

Distributed by Cinema Tropical in partnership with Cinema Slate, the film opens in New York City at the Film Society of Lincoln Center this Friday, July 21, and will expand, one hopes, elsewhere over the weeks to come.

Non-stop humor, energy and delight in Alex de la Iglesia's latest fun-fest, MY BIG NIGHT

Is there a more energetic moviemaker than Alex de la Iglesia? I kind of doubt it. Amazingly, the guy just gets more so with age -- at the same time that his films grow alternately richer and stronger (The Last Circus, As Luck Would Have It) and more lunatic fun (Witching and Bitching and now MY BIG NIGHT). His new film begins with an incident similar to the one that sets off As Luck Would Have It, but this time it is used for pure farce rather than an occasion for satire and sadness about the way we live now. (The satire is still here, but the movie is so crazy and funny that you'll barely have time to breath between laughs, shocks, surprise.)

Señor de la Iglesias, shown at left, whisks us immediately into his location -- the taping of one of those ridiculous TV Specials celebrating the New Year -- in which at least a half dozen delicious and very crazy plots immediately begin unfurling, each involving characters who are hosting, presenting or entertaining on-stage, as well as some other characters who are in the "hired" audience, being paid to watch all this.

We get singing, dancing, dating, fighting (that's Hugo Silva and Carolina Bang as married co-hosts, below), an assassination attempt, a blow-job, semen-stealing (via the attractive duo shown at bottom), and some simply terrific musical numbers, along with an utterly sweet budding love story, a mother-and son reunion, possible patricide, and a whole lot more -- all performed by some of Spain's top-notch talent, many of whom have worked with Iglesias before and undoubtedly can't wait to do it again.

To go into the plot(s) would overtax my feeble brain, but the very fact that the filmmaker (who co-wrote this mischievous delight with Jorge Guerricaechevarría) is able to keep all his balls in the air and allow us to follow the crazy plotting without letting the energy flag is a mark of farcical filmmaking skill we've seen far too little of lately.

Alex's knock-out visual sense remains unparalleled, and how he and his cast, editors, production crew and effects people manage it all provides the kind of comedy accomplishment that would win every award in the book -- if only comedy were given its due. Among the wonderful cast, just about everyone stands out. But I have to mention Blanca Suárez's lovely turn (she's at right, above) as a lady whose fellows tend to meet accidental fates, Pepón Nieto as her newest paramour, Mario Casas (the blond, below) as the rock-star-cum-fireman whose semen starts the ball rolling, and the ever-amazing Carlos Areces (prone, on the poster at top) as the neglected son with daddy problems.

I suppose there will be those for whom a film like this is simply not their glass of sangria. But for anyone who wants to laugh, even as s/he is trying to keep up with all the intersecting plot lines, this is the movie to see. Iglesias is firing on all cylinders here, and if there's a funnier, more inventive, energetic and enjoyable piece of cinema this year, then we'll be doubly blessed.

From Breaking Glass Pictures and running 97 minutes, My Big Night opens tomorrow, Friday, April 15, in a dozen cities: at New York City's AMC Empire 25; in Miami at the Tower Theater, Coral Gables Art Cinema, and O-Cinema Miami Beach; in San Francisco at The Roxie; in Philadelphia at The Roxy Theater; in Houston at the Alamo Drafthouse; in Vintage Park, Lubbock, Texas, at the Alamo Drafthouse; in Santa Fe at the Jean Cocteau Cinema; in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3 and Playhouse 7; Hollywood, Florida, at the Cinema Paradiso; in Chicago, (at a theater yet to be determined); in Dallas at the Texas Theater; in San Diego at the Digital Gym; and in Seattle at a theater also yet to be determined.

3D/Blu-ray/DVD debut: Juan Solanas' silly, but visually breathtaking, UPSIDE DOWN

Sometimes just watching a beauti-fully produced set of visuals -- unique, colorful, strange -- is enough to capture you. For awhile, at least. So it is with UPSIDE DOWN, just out tomorrow on Blu-ray, DVD and in 3D (for the few who now own 3D TVs). Given a limited release here in the USA this past March, the movie is quite lovely to look at and utterly nonsensical, even once you are told -- via a hunk of exposition at the film's beginning -- the story of the dual societies inhabiting the same universe that gives the film its understandable title and immediately brings to mind, of course, class, cultural and economic differences.

Writer/director Juan Solanas (shown at right) deserves a hunk of credit for coming up with a creation this visually enticing, but then should get maybe a sharp slap for filling his canvas with such a trite little love story. Fortunately, he has cast his film with some very appealing actors: Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst in the lead roles and Timothy Spall shining in the good supporting cast. Sturgess, hugely likable as always, does a lot toward holding us on his side. That's he, below, defying gravity in the "other" world, in a scene that may have you fondly remembering John Carter (a fun film you really should see, despite its quite undeserved reputation).

Ms. Dunst, below, also acquits herself sweetly as the other half of the romantic equation. But not nearly enough thought has gone into the "story" -- how these two meet, are torn apart and then meet again -- to make the movie work as well as it ought.

You'll probably stick with it, however, due to those ace visuals (which look marvelous in Blu-ray, and maybe pretty nice in 3D, too), and to the story, dumb as it is, which at least sticks to its guns regarding its theme of not just Romeo & Juliet lovers but Romeo & Juliet societies, longing, without maybe realizing it, to be made whole. The ending hints at this possibility rather nicely, so despite my caveats, I was glad I stuck with Upside Down. Given the importance of interesting visuals, coupled to your own political philosophy, you might, too.

From Millennium Entertainment (and some others companies), the movie (plus 70 minutes of bonus material) hits the street Tuesday, June 25 in several formats: DVD, Blu-Ray, 3D/2D Blu-Ray, 3D/2D Blu-Ray + DVD, and even via VOD and/or DVD & Blu-Ray rentals. Consult your favorite movie outlet and pick your choice.