Russia's mammoth Oscar-shortlisted, LEVIATHAN, and a small American documentary, MENTOR, have a lot in common. Filmmaker Q&A

Normally, TrustMovies wouldn't think of comparing a nearly two-and-one-half-hour shortlist nominee for Best Foreign Language Film from Russia with a tiny little 78-minute American documentary about a high school in the town of Mentor, Ohio. But since both films were caught by me in the same week, and both deal heavily with bullying -- LEVIATHAN by the powers-that-be in a Russian coastal town, MENTOR by the entitled students of an upper-middle-class Ohio high school, abetted by the school's administration and further up the line by the state itself -- I can't help but want to cover these two interesting movies together.

Though Leviathan arrives laden with laurels (and freighted with symbolism) -- from film festivals, Cannes to Munich, Seville to São Paulo -- and is certainly a worthwhile movie, it is Mentor that proves the more important film. Bullying, it seems, is the watchword of our times. And though most folk imagine it has all to do with school kids and their peers, bullying is a behavior which, when rewarded -- as our modern world more and more tends to do -- simply carries right through the bully's entire life, whether he be Barack Obama, going after inconvenient whistle-blowers or Vladimir Putin going after just about anyone who disagrees with him. Strength and numbers create schoolyard bullies, access to power and resources create the adult variety. Once either type is allowed to flourish, the bully grows more difficult  to control. These days -- as both these movies demonstrate -- almost no one even bothers to try.

Or when they do try, as, again, both films show us, they are doomed to fail. If co-writer (with Oleg Negin) and director Andrey Zvyagintsev (shown at right) had decided to make a documentary film rather than the narrative he's created in Leviathan (and I am certain he could have, as more than enough incidents worth documenting exist in today's Russia), he would probably be in prison or dead just now, rather than tub-thumping the Oscar and Golden Globe circuits. So he chose, rather sensibly, to create a fictional tale of some lovely seaside property, coveted by the Mayor of the town, who uses eminent domain and his many lackeys (he seems to be in league with just about everybody we meet, from judges to churchmen to police) to wrest control of said property from its rightful owner, while paying him a pittance rather than market value.

In Mentor, filmmaker Alix Lambert (shown at left) who earlier made the Independent Spirit Award-nominated The Mark of Cain, takes us to the town of Mentor, Ohio, chosen in both 2006 and 2010 as one of America's ten top cities in which to live, and does a superlative job of indicting Mentor High School for failing to stop the bullying that has led, over several years, to the suicide deaths of five students. Ms Lambert concentrates on two of these deaths, as we meet the Vidovic family, whose younger daughter, Sladjana, killed herself in 2008; and the Mohats, Jan and Bill, whose son Eric killed himself the year previous.

What makes this film and its documenting so appalling is that while the bullying was apparent to the student body and to many of the teachers and the administration, nothing -- and I do mean nothing -- was done by those in charge of the school to prevent it. Mentor, by the way, is a much stronger film than the more-talked-about but all-over-the-place Bully.

While the Mowats (pictured above) did not know about the bullying their son was going through because the boy chose to keep it from his family, the Vidovics (below) knew just about everything, as Sladjana would come home day after day with horror stories that drove the parents to visit the school often to plead for help. None was ever given.

There is a section of the film in which Ms Lambert chooses to simply show us, one after another after another, the daily printed records of visits to the school nurse because of physical bullying incidents. This section is shocking and finally devastating. The girl was once pushed down a flight of stairs by one of the school's top football players. The reason given has got to be among the most offensive and stupid I've ever heard.

Mentor, Ohio, evidently wanted to keep secure its reputation as one of America's top cities, which meant sweeping any untoward behavior under the proverbial carpet. The children of its upper middle class bourgeoisie feel entitled, and that entitlement has grown into a kind of class warfare between the entitled and the outsiders. Mentor has a fairly large Croatian population, too, of which the Vidovics are a part, who are considered "lesser" by their wealthier and/or less-speech-accented counterparts.

What happens to the law suits of the two families is indicative of the manner in which these suicides were handled right down the line. As usual, power makes its hold over the individual known, so that nothing can be addressed and no justice achieved. (The Mowats note that they were shunned by former friends, once they pursued their lawsuit.) Also, as usual, in documentaries of this sort, no school official or representative would agree to be interviewed by the filmmaker. If the film ends up one-sided, there was hardly much recourse. The side shown, in any case, is clearly pro-justice. (The photo below is of Eric Mowat.)

In addition to visiting at length with the two families, Ms Lambert also corrals three very intelligent and knowledgeable experts: Dorothy Espelage, Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, an expert on the study of Bullying; Kenneth D. Myers, the attorney who represented both families in their suits against the school; and Meghan Barr, a reporter for the Associated Press, who became interested in the story after reading about the Mentor suicides and then exploring further. The information and evidence that these three offer is more than conclusive. It would have been interesting, too, to know more about the other three suicides. But perhaps those families weren't talking. (You can read more about this in the Q&A at the bottom of this post.)

If the last few minutes of the film seems a bit repetitive and overly sentimental, Mentor will still leave you about as angry as a documentary can. You -- and certainly your children -- won't want to get within five hundred miles of this disgusting school and its surrounding community, unless, of course, you're one of those duly entitled who enjoy pushing girls down the stairs or get your jollies from appearing at her funeral and laughing aloud with your friends over the dress she's wearing in her casket. Yes, the bullies did that, too. (The photo above is of Sladjana Vidovic.)

Mentor -- from Garden Thieves Pictures and running 78 minutes -- was released to DVD last week, and can also now be seen via Amazon Instant Video, for sale or rental, and on SnagFilms and iTunes.

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Interestingly enough, if Leviathan were set here in the USA, its bullying mayor (acted by Roman Madyanov, shown above) might have played football for and then graduated from Mentor High School, taking with him a slew of his pals and gals to fill various slots on his town's payroll. But Leviathan takes place in a coastal corner of modern Russia, from which we expect little but corruption and drunkenness. The film delivers both --
in spades.

Filmmaker Zvyagintsev (Elena, The Return) understands how to weave corruption, bullying, love, infidelity, parenting, some deep psychological problems and a good dose of metaphor and symbolism into his mix and keep us glued to the screen. He refuses to explain everything, however, or even to allow us to know with any certainty what has happened at some major moments.

We accept all this, I think, because so bleak and unforgiving is what we are viewing that it really doesn't finally matter much what did occur: Might will overcome decency in every case, for this being Russia, it's all just business as usual. And, as good as Leviathan is, this is also its biggest problem: the sense of been there/done that that hovers over the movie in its entirety. Whether it's a throw-away American spin-off like A Good Day to Die Hard, an excellent documentary such as Khodorkovsky, or Leviathan, we've seen it and seen it and seen it all again.

You could hardly ask for better performances from the fine cast assembled here, however. They go a long way toward making the movie so watchable. Aleksey Serebryakov is terrific as our put-upon hero, with so many problems of his own (he's a hot-headed drunk) that he barely needs this additional one. Ditto Elena Lyadova as his spouse, a second wife unloved by the family's problemed son, a sad disturbed boy given unsettling resonance by young actor, Sergueï Pokhodaev.

The fly in the ointment, who initially looks more like the family's savior is Dimitri, Dad's best friend and even more to certain other family members. As played with understated strength and grace by a gorgeous hunk named Vladimir Vdovichenkov, "Dimi" proves a wild card in more ways than one. We meet this family's friends and co-workers, the religious crew, judges, police and more. And by the end of this often wonderful and always wearying movie, you may want to shrug and paraphrase those immortal, final words of the popular Polanski classic:
"Forget it, Jake. It's modern Russia."

Leviathan, from Sony Pictures Classics, in Russian with English subtitles, and running 140 minutes, opens tomorrow, December 25, in New York City at Film Forum and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema.  In the Los Angeles area, look for it on Wednesday, December 31, at Laemmle's Royal, and then on January 9 at the Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5. The movie will eventually play the limited release/arthouse circuit across the country.

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TrustMovies had a very quick telephone chat with filmmaker Alix Lambert, shown below, on Christmas Eve, just to ask a few question about her oh-so-necessary documentary, Mentor. My questions/comments appear in boldface, while Ms Lambert's answers are in standard type.

TM: I have to say that I liked your film even better than Bully, about which, only two years later, I can barely remember most of the specifics. Your film sticks so closely to the two families and what happened to them and builds its case against the school very well. 

Alix Lambert: Thank you.

TM: Why hasn’t this film been seen and covered more? 

AL: (she laughs) I would love to know the answer to that. When you make smaller independent films, you have a harder time because of funding. Making it is one thing, but getting it out there can be really frustrating. You finally finish it, you feel proud of it, and then it’s…. You just want to get it out to the world so that it can be used in a way that is educational.

TM: Did Ohio/Mentor try to sink it? 

AL: I don’t know about sinking the film. They certainly have been hostile toward me. I received a lot of threatening messages. But I have no reason to think that they are trying to sink it. On the other hand, I have also gotten a lot of emails from people who are really appreciative of the film but must remain anonymous because of their connections to the school or community.

TM: Your film mentions five suicides but you cover in depth only two of these. Did you try to reach or include the other families in your film? 

AL: I did contact other families but there were things that influenced my final decision to go with only the two. These were the two families that brought a lawsuit, so it was clear that they wanted their stories to be public and to be talked about. I always feel that one must err on the side of caution -- and not put someone through something when they’ve already been through something so horrible.

You want to make sure your people really want to participate. Also, the more you kind of spread things out among a lot of different people, you water them down. It's true that in The Mark of Cain you see many, many people. But in this one I am focusing on just two families. And because these other families were not sure they wanted to go public, I didn’t want to press them.

TM: Anything you want to say that you aren’t usually asked by journalists? 

AL: Hmmm... (She thinks) Well, just to say that what I would really like is to see people treat each other more kindly.
A little empathy can go a long way. 

Michel Gondry's THE WE AND THE I: beaucoup energy (from the performers), anger-and-joy combo (from the audience)

When TrustMovies recalls high-school movies during the time he has remaining, it will no longer be The Breakfast Club or Ferris Bueller, Andy Hardy or Project X that comes first to mind. Nope. THE WE AND THE I, the new amazement from Michel Gondry, has pretty much wiped that slate clean. What a wonderful film this is. And what an enormous surprise.

M. Gondry, shown above, appears to be a filmmaker, like Mr. Soderbergh, who wants to try everything. When he succeeds, as he so firmly does here, despite a few blips along the way -- some sentimentality, a little over-the-top behavior --  the filmmaker and his amazing and very game cast of young people (together with a few oldsters) finally allow you to see these kids whole. This is an opportunity rarely given and almost never as fully achieved as here.

The filmmaker's ace in the hole is his unique setting: a MTA bus here in New York (in the Bronx, I believe) which takes the kids from their last day of school (we see them leaving the school, and boarding that bus) to their various destinations. Along the route they interact with each other and the adult passengers, some of whom immediately leave the bus once the kids have boarded: smart move. (The filmmaker uses a tiny model of the bus in the opening credits, which are a delight.)

Were it not for the truly amazing energy level of these youngsters and the smart, realistic manner in which Gondry has captured them, I admit that I would probably not have finished the film. So rude and crude is some of their behavior toward the older people on the bus (they could be me!) that I found myself asking, "Where is Bernie Goetz when you really need him?" Other kids will laugh at this behavior, of course, but those of us to whom it is directed can only cringe.

And yet so vital and energetic are the performances of these youngsters (truly, they are amazing) that I found myself hooked, despite my anger at their behavior. And slowly, they and Gondry won me over completely.

The director has spiked his movie with tiny moments of fantasy, as well as flashbacks, in which, for instance, one of those old folk goes after her tormentor with a tree branch and sends him sprawling. At other times we see moments of the kids' own wish fulfillment, or their history. These are generally short and sweet (or sour) and help fill in the blanks of the characters nicely, without undue pushing.

Among the enormous cast are everyone from the school bullies, who commandeer the rear of the bus to a gay male couple who, rather than receiving the brick-a-bats you'd expect, seem to occupy a place as some sort of exotic species. Their heart-to-heart late in the movie is surprising and moving.

The young ladies are as varied and interesting as your could wish; ditto the nerds, the musicians, and the occasional single -- one of whom (above) comes into his own as the finale approaches, and another whom we see only in captured video moments, whose story comes full circle only at the end.

The movie is fictional, I am guessing, but documentary technique has certainly been used to make it pulsate so winningly. While the acting occasionally stumbles, the step is never long enough to do real damage. And often the acting is superb, so much so, that you begin to wonder if this is not a documentary.

As the bus ride continues and more passengers depart the vehicle, the film grow quieter and even stronger. If M. Gondry ever makes a better, more important movie than this one, we're should start polishing the crown. In its way, The We and the I (the title of which I suspect refers to the kids' behavior in a group, as opposed to that as an individual) is like nothing we've seen. In a time when the world as we know it appears to be about to undergo either huge and terrible changes, if not a full stop, how refreshing to see a film that imbues humanity with such hope.

Gondry's film opens in New York City this Friday, March 8, at the IFC Center and the Mist Harlem Cinema; in Los Angeles, it will open on March 22 at the Landmark NuArt, followed by other venues in cities across the country as the weeks go by.

THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER: Youth captured beautifully by D. R. Mitchell

David Robert Mitchell's THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN SLEEPOVER has the look, feel, sound and reality of found-footage of present-day high schoolers cobbled together into a kind of home movie. This is a compliment, by the way -- an enormous compli-ment. Captured here is the confusion of youth in all its crazy, delightful, upsetting variations: huge needs that seem all-important today but by next year will have melted into oblivion; the gnawing sense that things are expected from these kids, of which they barely have a clue; and maybe, if they're lucky, the dawning idea that not everything they've heard (or thought or even felt) may be true or end up serving them well.

Compared to what passes for "youth" movies from Hollywood, even the best of them, Mr. Mitchell's film is a revelation. Even compared to the something like this year's earlier and overpraised doc/narrative mash-up Putty Hill, Myth/Sleepover shines, for its filmmaker, shown at left, while taking his time (97 minutes), slowly builds his characters until we feel strongly for every last one of them -- some, of course, more than others. Yet no one, in the end seems short-shrifted -- thanks to the wealth of smart situations, well-chosen small moments with dialog as real as you could want, and a well-cast acting ensemble that delivers the goods. What an accomplishment this movie is!

Myth/Sleepover sneaks up on you. From the first scene at a swimming pool toward the end of summer, the goings-on seem like life for kids of this age: typical and a little boring. So real is it all that we go along, however, and then the little oddities start cropping up to delight us. A shy boy, with his mom, spots a gorgeous blond in the supermarket, with her mom, and attempts a connect (above). The way we learn how strongly he feels about her is as original and priceless as anything you'll have seen. As is what happens just-after, over the market's loud-speaker.

Another cute blond and her best friend (above) bike around town looking for, among other things, a love connection. What they find by film's end, and how they handle it, is as spectacular as it is small and pure, if muddied a bit by life. The new girl in town, below, a sophomore "looker" who's hooked up with a senior guy, is invited to the girls' sleepover and gets into some mischief. A lesser movie might cast her as the villain of the piece.  Not this one.

We even have a same-sex, male crush (below), handled so subtly and quietly -- as of course it would be in this particular venue -- that it might go right by you. (Unless I am unduly extrapolating, the filmmaker bears some resemblance to the character who carries that crush. In fact, I had to check the IMDB to make sure he hadn't cast himself in the role.)

In the tale (below) that proves the loveliest, richest and most psychologically astute (about the maturity of boys and girls at this age, and how strongly the latter already understand their needs and situation), the college-age brother of one of the girls at the sleepover fixates on a pair of twins, shown below. (The boys have their own sleepover, though it degenerates into all sorts of other things. "Do you guys call it a 'sleepover,' one of the girl's asks? "Yes," the crush boy replies, "but not in front of other people.") What happens between the young man and the twins you might call heartbreaking, except these kids have their whole lives ahead of them, so -- what the hell -- mistakes are allowed.

Even at his young age, Mr Mitchell seems to understand what's allowed but how hard it is for kids to figure this out. Loyalties move around, lips find new venues, and connections are made, though nothing (as befits such a trying and changing time) is set in stone. The filmmaker also captures middle-America today (the film is set in the Detroit area), where some things have definitely changed -- inter-racial couples, for one -- while others seem to stay forever as they are/were.

There is even a terrific scene featuring karaoke (with dancing replacing singing) for which a bottle of vodka is the prize. I am deliberately not mentioning the names of any of the actors in the remarkable ensemble cast.  They're all terrific, and on the basis of their work here, I would hope we'll be seeing them soon again. Time will tell how high it rises, but for me, The Myth of The American Sleepover immediately joins the ranks of America's great movies about high school kids.

The film, from Sundance Selects, begins its theatrical run tomorrow, Friday, July 22, at the Angelika Film Center in New York. Unlike some Sundance Selects titles, this one will be available via VOD, starting Wednesday July 27.

Will Gluck and Bert V. Royal's EASY A -- Zowie: a great teen movie has arrived!

What a week for movies!  Within two days of each other are opening the best narrative film (so far this year), the best documentary (so far this year) and now the best teen film -- not just of this year but several, maybe ten or more. Every decade, I suppose, deserves its special and popular teen hit. When TrustMovies was of that age-group, those films were Rebel Without a Cause and The Blackboard Jungle (both from 1955).

As the 50s turned into the 60s, we got A Summer Place,  Where the Boys Are and Splendor in the Grass.  Times changed, sexual taboos lessened, and popular teen movies turned more to comedy than drama (though Where the Boys Are had a nice mix of both) -- with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello filling theaters. Comedy continued to reign over the decades, with teen rebellion even more prominent during the crazy 70s (though the adults of that day seemed to be rebelling as much as were the kids). The 80s saw the rise of The Breakfast Club and other John Hughes films, the 90s gave us Clueless, and now at last comes a terrific teen movie for the new millennium. (It had to wait, one supposes, until the Republicans/Fundamentalists were out of power, as it dishes everything for which those two similar groups seem to stand.)

EASY A, with its wonderful nod (above) to Nathaniel Hawthorne and his famous Scarlet Letter, is as up-to-date as any Hughes movie was, but with a heroine so funny, bright and fast on the draw, she puts to shame much of what has come before. The actress who plays her, Emma Stone (shown at left and above), is a young lady to watch.  Terrific in everything from Superbad to Zombieland to the under-seen Paper Man (the DVD/Blu-ray release of which appears to have been   suddenly delayed. Too bad!), here she is finally THE STAR -- and oh, momma -- does the girl deliver! Radiating intelligence and wit, Stone strides through the movie like an adorable red-haired colossus laying waste to the crappy culture and bad behavior all around her.

A high-school virgin who's neither proud nor upset by that state of affairs, Ms Stone, as Olive (great choice of name), is badgered (and maybe bored) nearly to death by her lame best friend (Aly Michalka, at right, above) into finally lying about losing it to a college kid via a one-night stand. The high school rumor mill takes over, and Olive, her reputation in tatters, finds herself helping (intentionally or not) other students -- the gay boy, the fat boy, the Christian with Chlamydia -- burnish theirs. And of course Olive's English teacher has recently assigned the Hawthorne novel to his class, which leads to wonderful fun at the expense of poor Demi Moore. (It's OK: Ms Moore's back in form with The Joneses.)

As directed by Will Gluck (shown at right -- of the adequate Fired Up and a bunch of TV) and written by newcomer Bert V. Royal, the movie is amazingly literate -- about high school (its banter and behavior), about family (Olive's is a bizarre but loving bunch), even about literature (with a nod to Leslie Fielder and Huck Finn!).  Gluck's command of pacing and tone is absolutely on target; the movie never slows down yet neither does it tire us. Easy A may be the only film I can recall during which I did not once look at my watch (at the movies, I am an inveterate watch-watcher). Even the credits are a delight, laid out as they are all around the campus. And where the camera pans at the last moment of the end credits echoes the film's beginning in the loveliest way.

And the cast is wickedly on target -- full of terrific old-timers (Malcolm McDowell, as the school principal), top-class character actors (Patricia Clarkson (above, right) and Stanley Tucci as Olive's parents; Thomas Hayden Church and Lisa Kudrow as, respectively her English teacher and guidance counselor) and a younger set full of talent and looks (Amanda Bynes as the Christian from hell and Gossip Girl's Penn Badgley (shown below -- talk about going from the ridiculous to the sublime -- as the not-quite-yet love of Olive's life).  Every actor has been chosen well and offers up a fine performance. The music is fun, the dialog delightful, and the photography, editing, and other technical aspects everything they ought to be. And, as necessary for most comedies, if a moment here and there doesn't work, the next one will double the fun.

Most of all, the movie has something on its mind. Gluck, Royal and their cast deliver an idea that teens might take to heart: Gossip is crap, the turd jewel in the crown of current high school culture. In a juicy, smart, well written and delivered last statement, Olive tells us about her much bandied virginity (and what might happen to it) that's a real pleasure to hear. I hope that high schoolers across the country (across oceans, too: this movie should travel) will listen.

Easy A should be a huge hit with the young crowd.  If it isn't, it'll be because the movie's too damn intelligent for that audience.  In which case, it may become the adult's delight.  The film opens nationwide on Friday, September 17, from Sony's Screen Gems (it's one of the best I've seen from this affiliate). Click here then type in your zip code and date in the "ticketing widget" to learn where the movie will be playing near you.