Weird, wild (and sometimes bloody) fun: Hadi Hajaig's nutty caper comedy, BLUE IGUANA

At the beginning of TrustMovies' viewing experience of BLUE IGUANA, the new humorous heist film from British writer/director Hadi Hajaig, he thought, Oh, god -- this is going to be just too cute, ridiculous and heavy-handed to even finish: a clashing combo of American and British accents and humor so off-the-wall, it's practically out the window. But then -- and faster than he would ever have expected -- the movie began to win him over. Completely. By the end he and his spouse were treasuring every moment. What a pleasure it can be when a film starts so "iffily" and then seduces you utterly.

If you appreciate bizarre and over-the-top performances, nicely completed by quieter, more grounding ones from the two romantic leads, along with a set design and "look" that are sometimes knock-your-socks-off spectacular, this may be the entertainment you crave. And on the big screen, too: art direction like this deserves to be seen in large proportion.

This kind of film is very difficult to pull off, but Mr. Hajaig (shown at left) has certainly managed it.  Here is crazy, gorgeous, blood-spattered hilarity -- with terrific performances from an entire cast.

Blue Iguana is the sort of movie in which, I kid you not, matricide will have never seemed so funny. Nor deserved.

The plot, which, to go too far into would simply confuse the reader, involves a couple of American pals -- Sam Rockwell and Ben Schwartz (above, right and left, respectively) recently released from prison, who are asked (in a kind of combo of plea and blackmail) by a prim and mousy little British girl (Phoebe Fox, below, in what - were this not a small indie film -- would be a breakout performance) to assist her in an illegal money-making project back in England.

They do and, in the process, get involved with an array of bizarre and very funny characters and situations, the likes of which neither they nor we have much seen. Even in crazy caper comedies like this one.

There is plenty of violence and bloodshed, but this is all done with such over-the-top humor and disarray, that you will most likely find your self laughing instead of averting your eyes. Really: you won't want to miss all the fun.

That fun includes a character actor I've often seen but until this

memorable role not really been able to recall: Peter Ferdinando (above), who plays a nutjob named Deacon Bradshaw, whose mother (a grand turn by Amanda Donohoe) proves even nuttier and nastier. Roles like this don't come around all that often for most actors, and Mr. Ferndinando gives it all that it deserves and then a bit more.

Lovely supporting turns come from everyone from Simon Callow to Frances Barber, Peter Polycarpou and Al Weaver, and the movie simply grows crazier and funnier as it moves along.

Ms Fox gets one of those ugly-duckling-to-swan moments that will give you a nice gasp, while Mr. Rockwell, in only his second screen appearance since his "Oscar" win, is reliably terrific. Using his intuitive knack for a combo of humor and gravitas, he keeps the film somehow grounded, while all around him (except the lovely Ms Fox) are going bananas.

Mr. Schwartz (above) turns weird into something kind of wonderful, and the movie's playful nods to so many other movies register as sweet fun instead of seeming merely aren't-we-clever. Mr. Hajaig's understanding of how nearly everyone wants to be, see or know an actor is put to delightful use, too, in a finale that could hardly be cuter or more on the nose.

 If I'm over-praising this little trifle, it's only because I had such a good time. Give Blue Iguana even half a chance, and I think you will, too.

From Screen Media Films and running 100 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, August 24, in New York City at the Village East Cinema and in Los Angeles at Laememle's Monica Film Center. To see all  currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and scroll down. Simultaneously with the theatrical release, the film will also hit VOD.

Bart Layton's AMERICAN ANIMALS: an original heist film w/charm, humor, suspense, sadness

When Bart Layton's The Imposter opened theatrically back in the summer of 2012, it caused a stir of sorts, mixing as it did both documentary and narrative tropes into a single very hybrid movie about identity theft, among other things. Despite a certain queasy-making factor, the movie mostly worked.

Now, six years later, Mr. Layton (shown below) is back again with another mix of narrative and documentary about a true-life tale -- the heist of some uber-valuable artwork/books by a quartet of naive-but-daring college kids. This one works even better.

AMERICAN ANIMALS (a name that doesn't really do full justice to the subject matter, while setting its audience up for something more violent/vicious than it should or could deliver) is a heist movie with heart, soul, sadness and lots of humor -- as well as the requisite amount of surprise and suspense. The ace up its (and Mr. Layton's) sleeve is that it very cleverly and successfully mixes the real people involved (a decade or more after the fact) with some very good actors who play these four kids in their college days.

The effect, rather than something startling or unbalancing, instead slowly gives additional credence to both the story and characters at hand. The fact that the real people here often contradict each other (sometimes even themselves) makes the story told seem somehow yet more truthful. (As we know by now, even eye-witnesses can get their facts wrong.) What the real people say, and how it jibes (or often doesn't) with what we see, adds welcome surprise and humor to the events, filling out these characters (the "acted" ones) with additional layers of reality and humanity.

Mr. Layton, as writer and director, also manages to include themes of class differences, economics and privilege into his scenario without ever belaboring his points. Overall, these add weight and sinew to characters and events so that we never lose sight of what's at stake, despite the ongoing fun and suspense of the heist itself.

There is also very little actual violence in the movie, and what there is is handled so well that it registers exceedingly strongly -- instead of hitting us like the repetitive and mindless violence-as-entertainment we're constantly confronted with via our super-hero and action movies. All this puts American Animals in a class by itself and makes it easy to forgive the film's occasional minor blunder -- such as placing a real character and his actor counterpart in a car together and then making so little or this that it seems merely a directorial stunt.

The cast of actors is first-rate -- Barry Keoghan (shown two and three photos above, of Dunkirk and The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Evan Peters (above, and the standout here), Jared Abrhamson (shown at bottom, center) and Blake Jenner (below) -- with each individual doing a fine job of bringing to immediate life his character, sometimes with only minimal but pungent dialog.

In the supporting cast, it is Ann Dowd who (as usual) shines brightest as the unfortunate woman in charge of what is being stolen: a cache of John James Audubon's originals! Also on view and always fun to see is Udo Kier (below, right) as a possible fence for the upcoming stolen goods.

What makes the movie especially memorable is the manner in which it captures the craziness of youth in all its dumb glory, even as it offers the adventure of a good (well, maybe bad) heist, along with the sadness involved in lives gone so wrong for such silly (but understandable) reasons. Ah, kids: They just want to be special!

From The Orchard and running a long but never boring 116 minutes, American Animals --after opening on the coasts and maybe elsewhere -- hits South Florida tomorrow, June 22. In the Miami area, look for it at MDC's Tower Theater, AMC's Aventura 24 and Sunset Place 24, CMX's Brickell City Centre, and the O Cinema, Miami Beach. In Broward Country it will play AMC's Pompano Beach 18, Fort Lauderdale's Classic Gateway Theatre, and the Regal Sawgrass. In Palm Beach Country, see it at the Living Room Theaters in Boca Raton, the Movies of Lake Worth, AMC's CityPlace 20, Cobb's Downtown at the Gardens, and AMC's Indian River 24. Wherever you live across the country, to find the theater(s) nearest you, simply click here.

Soderbergh's back -- with the smart, fast, funny but low-key frolic, LOGAN LUCKY

Steven Soderburgh (shown below) said goodbye to movies a few years back -- but not to cable TV, for which he'd already directed Behind the Candelabra and soon would oversee The Knick. Now, like Frank Sinatra and his many good-bye concerts and recordings, the filmmaker is back. And if his latest -- LOGAN LUCKY -- is any indication, he's simply gotten all that much better during his flirtation with those premium channels. Over the past couple of decades, TrustMovies has been up-and-down regarding Soderburgh's work. Some of his most successful -- those Oceans movies and especially Traffic (his mediocre remake of one of the best-ever British television series) and the more recent Magic Mike -- have been among my least favorites.

Logan Lucky, I think, is one of Soderburgh's best. Maybe the best. Among this filmmaker's biggest strengths is his ability to match his style (never a hugely showy thing) to the particular atmosphere and content to which he's currently involved. Thus we get the Oceans movies' gloss, The Underneath's noir-osity, The Good German's sense of time and place, Erin Brockovich's documentary feel, and Haywire's speedy, lo-calorie smarts. Though Logan Lucky is a heist movie (as were the Oceans), it is set in what we might fondly call the redneck territory of NASCAR racing, among the lower-, middle- and upper-classes of our nation's no-one-would-mistake-them-for-classy citizens. Hence, his film, which is supremely well-written (though it is credited to one, Rebecca Blunt, the IMDB says that this name is likely a pseudonym), has the slow-but-sure look, feel, sound and movement of that down-home place and people. The movie may take it sweet time to unfurl, but, boy, does it deliver 'dem goods!

It also gives Channing Tatum (above) another great role to inhabit, which he does in spades, playing the careful, caring dad who, like so many Americans these days, is having employment trouble. (That's the sweet young actress, Farrah Mackenzie, above, who plays his daughter.)

To solve our hero, Jimmy's, financial problems, he and his Iraq War-wounded brother, Clyde (another fine job in another unusual role by Adam Driver, above, left), conspire to rob the NASCAR racetrack vault. This is of course ridiculous, but so cleverly is the convoluted screenplay conceived and executed, with Soderburgh taking just enough time to explain what we need to know when we need to know it, that we're suckered in and then hooked from beginning through the very exciting heist itself, and on to the to the film's funny climax and quite fabulous, if quietly ironic, denouement.

Along for the ride is such a huge and mostly memorable cast that I don't begin to have time to list them all. But, in the movie's biggest hoot of a joke, the end credits herald the "introduction" of an actor by the name of Daniel Craig. Yes, that classy Brit-and-Bond-ish Daniel Craig, above, in a role the likes of which you will not have seen this very capable performer previously essay. Hillary Swank (below) makes a very late-in-the-game entrance, too, and she provides a good deal of quietly determined fun.

I hope this movie is a huge success, but I do have some doubts. Its heist plot is so complicated that I fear a mainstream American audience may not be able to easily or properly follow it. So concentrate, please. There are plenty of funny, exciting, clever moments along the way to keep you occupied, as well as all those name actors popping up and doing their smart thing smartly.

From Bleecker Street and Fingerprint Releasing (Soderbergh's own firm, which you can read more about by clinking the preceding link), Logan Lucky opens nationwide this Friday, August 18. Here in South Florida, you can see it all over the place: In the Miami area at the AMC Sunset Place 24 Theatres, AMC Hialeah 12, AMC Aventura Mall 24, AMC Tamiami 18, AMC Pompano Beach 18, Cobb Dolphin Cinema, Cobb Hialeah Grand 18, Cobb Miami Lakes 17, CMX Brickell City Center, Cineopolis Grove, Regal The Falls, Regal Oakwood, Regal Kendall Village 16, Regal Westfork, Regal Southland Mall, and Regal South Beach 18.

In Ft. Lauderdale it will play the AMC Coral Ridge 10 Theatres, Classic Gateway, Silverspot Coconut Creek, Cineapolis Deerfield, Cinemark Paradise 24, Thunderbird Drive-In, Paragon Ridge Plaza 8, Regal Magnolia Place, Regal Cypress Creek, Regal Broward 12, Regal Sawgrass.

In West Palm Beach/Boca/Delray and further north areas, look for it at the Living Room Theater, Regal Shadowood 16, Movies of Delray 5/Movies of Lake Worth, Cinemark Boynton Beach 14, AMC City Place 20, Cobb Downtown at the Mall Gardens, Paragon Wellington 10, Regal Royal Palm Beach 18, Regency Square 8, AMC St Lucie 14, AMC Indian River 24 , Palm 16, Regal Treasure Coast Mall 16, Majestic 11, Cinepolis Jupiter 14. Normally, I'd provide links for the all these many theaters, but I need to get to bed by midnight for an early day tomorrow....

Wherever you live across the USA, to locate a theater near you, click here. 

Straight-to-home-video: Eric Barbier's heist thriller and love story, THE LAST DIAMOND

One of the more inventive and complicated heists the movies have attempted in quite some time, that of the fabled and (so far as I know) completely fictional Florentin diamond -- a huge and super-valuable stone said to be cursed -- is the plot point around which pivots just about everything in THE LAST DIAMOND, a pretty good French thriller-cum-love-story that ought to have been a lot better. The heist itself, as well as the build-up to it, are very well done: smart and tricky but allowing us to remain just ahead of things by a whisker.

Unfortunately, that heist occurs a little beyond the one-hour point -- with another 40 minutes or so to go. It's as though we've started back at square one. This is an unfortunate construction for a movie that needs to sustain its momentum but goes noticeably slack instead.
We stick with it because it has held us well enough for that hour, and so we hope against hope that it will bounce back. Its director and co-writer, Eric Barbier (at left: this is the first of his four films since 1991 to receive any kind of release here in the USA) handles his plotting, pacing and action scenes well enough, and he's cast his film well, too -- with Yvan Attal and Bérénice Bejo (both shown below) in the leading roles.

The beautiful Ms Bejo (above, left, and below, right) has graced a number of good movies at this point (though I think my favorite of hers is the one in Populaire, in which she plays so beautifully an intelligent French housewife of the 1950s), while M. Attal (above, right, and below, left) seem best at playing those rough-veneer/soft-beneath no-nonsense guys, just as he does in this film.

The movie is packed (a bit too-packed) with incidental characters, many of whom are important to the plot and the heist and some of whom get a bit lost in the proceeding shuffle. The film also begins as a relatively light-hearted romp -- until a murder (unplanned but seemingly necessary) occurs, followed some time after by an all-out massacre. This darkens The Last Diamond a bit more heavily than it can pleasingly bear.

Yet it's certainly fun to watch the plot points unfurl -- including disguise (above), love, and betrayal -- and performances down the line are on the mark. Some viewers have complained about the lack of chemistry between Attal and Bejo. Hmmmph! There's a lot more chemistry here than in just about any movie starring Tom Cruise and whichever of his co-stars those complainers might care to name.

Meanwhile, you can view The Last Diamond -- from Cohen Media Group and running 108 minutes -- as it makes its home video debut on DVD this Tuesday, July 26 -- for purchase or rental.

Stephen S. Campanelli's knock-your-socks-off MOMENTUM offers exactly that -- in spades

Say hello to a nifty new action director, whose first film -- MOMENTUM -- proves an object lesson in how to make a first-class action film on maybe one-tenth of the budget of one of those Hollywould-be blockbusters that bore us to distraction with their not-so-special effects. The poster, right, may be one of the least interesting, design-wise, to be seen in many a day, but the movie it heralds is a case study is how to do things right. The filmmaker, shown below, is a fellow named Stephen S, Campanelli, whose resume boasts nearly one hundred credits in the camera and electrical department. Momentum is his first film as director, and TrustMovies would like to suggest that this upgrade in position become permanent.

With action films one tends to blame or praise the director for the visuals on view. In retrospect, after watching Momentum, I found myself also wondering how much the smart, tight screenplay by Adam Marcus and Debra Sullivan contributed to the film's success. Beginning with a voice telling us its intention to bring America back on course (uh-oh!), the movie returns to this voice and finally visage (yes, it's Morgan Freeman, playing quite against his usual type and taking us back to one of his earlier film roles). Marcus and Sullivan bring this character back briefly at various intervals and then hugely at their denouement -- which can only mean that a sequel is in store. I hope so; I'll be first in line to take a look.

The film's two stars turn out to be perfect choices for their roles. Olga Kurylenko (above) makes a swift and savvy, no-nonsense heroine, and she is matched well by James Purefoy (below) as her nemesis. Kurylenko is lithe and can handle, with some help from her body double, the action quite believably, while Purefoy -- a man whose demeanor and visage, even in repose, are enough to scare the pants off you -- makes his nasty villain a more-than-memorable one.

The movie's initial visual brilliantly combines a drum concert and a jewel heist by robbers in costumes that may make you imagine this to be some sci-fi film. You may also think the opening quite swell but wonder if the film can possibly match this segment down the road. Not to worry. It simply gets better and better.

It does this by giving us as much action -- hand-to-hand combat, foot and car chases -- as we could reasonably want while subverting many of the genre's cliches. You know the one about the auto speeding

toward the parking lot entrance in which those don't-drive-over spikes are protruding lethally? Just wait. And what about the mother and child in imminent danger from the bad guy? Again, there's something new here, too. Even the requisite "torture" scenes offer enough subtlety and difference to stand out from the pack.

Via suspense, action and surprise, Momentum keeps its momentum going full speed ahead. Only at the end does it suddenly seem a bit simple. And yet, that's the set-up for the sequel. Would we want to deny this tale that?

Don't think so. To watch Ms Kurylenko face off against Mr. Freeman and his henchmen ought to be, what? The bees' knees, the cat's pajamas, and the action lover's dream come true.

Momentum -- from Starz Digital and running 95 fast minutes -- opens tomorrow, Friday, October 16, in the dozen theaters/cities listed below, while simultaneously becoming availale for viewing via VOD.

New York, NY: Cinema Village

Los Angeles, CA: Arena Cinema

Atlanta, GA: Plaza Theater
Chicago, IL: Facets Cinematheque
Cleveland, OH: Tower City Cinema

Columbus, OH: Gateway Film Center 

Dallas, TX: Texas Theater
Detroit, MI: Cinema Detroit 

Houston, TX: AMC Gulf Point 30 

Miami, FL: AMC Aventura Mall 24 

San Francisco, CA: 4 Star Theatre
and Toronto, Canada at the
Magic Lantern Theatres' Carlton Cinema

Jay Martin's 7 MINUTES slices a heist into stylish, suspenseful, character-driven chapters

The heist movie is a cinema staple, but we haven't seen too many good ones of late. So even a pretty good one like 7 MINUTES, out on Blu-ray and DVD this coming week, may be be worth the time of those of you aficionados who appreciate this genre. Its writer/director Jay Martin, whom I think is shown below (Mr. Martin is hard one to find a photo of), has taken the heist theme, plunked it down amongst a group of real amateurs who imagine that it'll prove a piece of cake that takes only those titular seven minutes to accomplish, and then watches, dry-eyed, humanely and quite stylishly, as the whole thing goes very far south.

Style, in fact, is the saving grace of this fast-paced, 92-minute thriller in which the way the filmmaker chooses to tell his story is every bit as important as the story itself -- which is, of course, pretty typical of the genre. And while there is little doubt where the whole story is headed and how badly things will turn out, thanks to the fragmented storytelling skills of Mr. Martin, there is still plenty of surprise and suspense along the way. The filmmaker has divided his story into sections devoted to the various characters: a group of friends, acquaintances and relations who interact with each other and the event in question for both good and (mostly) bad. This fracturing allows us to see things from different perspectives and time periods until the entire picture finally comes together and makes sense.

The characters involved, as do so many in this genre, see a way out of their financial straits via robbery. They are not too bright, but they are also not evil. Unfortunately, others connected to them are.

The good cast includes  Luke Mitchell, Leven Rambin, Jason Ritter and Brandon Hardesty, with fine support from the likes of Kris Kristofferson and especially Kevin Gage (shown above, center).

It can be levelled against films of this sort that if the writer/director had told the story plainly and simply, start to finish, it would have been nothing special. Maybe. But Mr. Martin hasn't done this, and his fractured storytelling style, together with some good performances, has made all the difference. 7 Minutes, from Anchor Bay Entertainment, hits the streets on DVD and Blu-ray this coming Tuesday, September 1, for sale or rental.

For a VERY good time, stream Álex de la Iglesia's WITCHING & BITCHING

Feminism (in a pretty odd manner, I grant you), parenting, horror, comedy, and Spain's current economic crisis make wonderfully strange bedfellows in Álex de la Iglesia's newest genre jumper, the delightfully wicked and funny WITCHING & BITCHING. De la Iglesia, pictured below, has always been a kind of throwback -- to genres and decades past -- yet he does this with such enjoyment and full-out capacity to entertain that his movies are often near-irresistible because they are so much fun. This new one certainly is.

The filmmaker is in fine fettle as he tells the tale of a gold heist gone terribly, hilariously awry, and a "getaway" that takes our rather feeble-minded heroes into the home of a coven of witches who are planning a very big and well-attended bar-be-cue bash, with our boys providing the main dish. In that getaway car is our hero (hot guy, Hugo Silva, below, and yes he's dressed as Jesus Christ: costuming is part of the fun of the opening scene)-- separated from his wife and constantly bitching about her behavior (men against women is a very prominent theme here), with the director coming down on neither side -- who brings his little boy to the heist, in order to spend more quality time with the kid.

Also along for the ride is the hero's not-too-swift assistant, whom he barely knows and who spends his time complaining about his uber-sexy girlfriend and his having to perform sexual acts far too often; the driver whose cab the two robbers have hijacked; and that cab's poor passenger, who only wants to get to a nearby city because of a possible job opportunity. In Spain's current economy, your heart will go out to this terribly put-upon passenger.

The witches are a nasty, funny and -- in one case, Carolina Bang (above)-- gorgeous, and their leader is played by the fabulous Spanish actress Carmen Maura (center, left, below), who brings her usual vitality and crazy specificity to the role. The men here are often so misogynistic that the movie can't help but seem feminist with men this stupid, and yet de la Iglesias balances things out by having the witches brand of feminism so crudely anti-male and over-the-top (the movie's "monster" is indeed something to see) that it keeps you quite off balance.

The special effects are so bound into the story told here that they seem both amazing and old-fashioned, and the filmmaker's sense of fun and frolic manages to overwhelm everything in its path. Overall, in fact, at this point in their careers, I'd have to rate de la Iglesias slightly above Guillermo del Toro so far as genuinely effective, thought-provoking and entertaining movies are concerned. Witching & Bitching -- from IFC Midnight, running 113 minutes, and which was called Las brujas de Zugarramurdi in its original language -- became available to stream on Netflix only yesterday, October 14, so watch it soon and weigh in with your opinion.