Dutch deadpan in Alex van Warmerdam's very dry hit-man comedy, SCHNEIDER VS BAX

Remember Borgman -- that dark, Dutch, sort-of-variation on Boudu Saved from Drowning (and other what-to-do-about-the-trashy-tramp movies)? Alex van Warmerdam, the writer/director of that strange, cunning little film is back again with another bizarre, deadpan, dark comedy-of-menace titled SCHNEIDER VS BAX. It arrives this coming week on DVD, and if your taste runs to this sort of thing, the movie is a good example of this sub-genre.

Mr. van Warmerdam (shown above, right, and at left) also co-stars in the film, as he did in Borgman, and his gruff, low-key, macho presence is quite right for both his role and the film. He handles the screenplay and dialog with ease, and his direction ropes his entire cast onto the same page and style, making the most of this kind of deadpan, at which you often don't know whether to laugh or wince. (You'll probably do both at once.) The filmmaker has created a cast of characters that you may find it hard to warm up to, but this is fine, since some of them will not survive the trip.

The tale here is of a pair of hit men, evidently quite good at their jobs, who -- for some reason which we never really learn -- have been pitted against each other by the fellow who gives them their assignments. Van Warmerdam plays Bax, and another actor from Borgman, Tom Dewispelaere  (below), plays Schneider. Neither character knows the other, and though they fairly quickly learn that their boss is playing them against each other, they still evidently feel they must kill that other in order to survive.

Bax gets a surprise visit from his grown daughter (Maria Kraakman, shown below and further below, who is very good in this role) and then from his father -- both of whom complicate his life and reactions -- while Schneider becomes involved with a pimp and whore who equally complicate his assignment. How this all works out managers to be very dark, often funny, and even surprising. You will imagine that you know what is going to happen here, but I can tell you with some certainty that you will be wrong -- in at least a couple of important instances.

Coincidence does occur, and certain scenes seem a tad incredible, and yet so bleak, bizarre and weirdly funny is it all that, somehow, credibility is maintained -- if barely. Simply for the scenes between Bax, his father and daughter, the movie manages to rivet you in its own, special, this-can't-be-happening-but-oh-my-goodness-it-is manner.

In its odd way Schneider vs Bax turns out to be a kind of very late coming-of-age tale -- and a pretty good one, at that -- even though it is not clear for quite some time just who it is that's doing the coming.

From Film Movement and running a fairly sleek 96 minutes, the movie arrives on DVD this Tuesday, October 25 -- for purchase or rental.

Tone conquers all in Geoffrey Fletcher's lighter-than-air hat trick, VIOLET & DAISY

 
TrustMovies is hazarding a guess here, but he'd say that in the annals of "filmdom" (especially film-dumb) there is little that's more difficult to manage than a movie about perky, adorable teen-age girls who earn their keep as paid assassins. Not that we've had all that many examples of this, of course. But movies featuring heroes and/or heroines with occupations generally loathed by society have some trouble reaching mainstream audiences. (This helps account for the fact that Arbitrage, extremely well-done and with an award-worthy performance from Richard Gere, did so little business theatrically: "Don't you dare make me sympathize with or understand a character like that!")

All of which brings us to the latest in a lengthy-though-very-irregularly-seen line of anti-hero movies, VIOLET & DAISY, that marks the film-making debut of Geoffrey Fletcher (who earlier adapted the screenplay for Precious, won an Oscar for his trouble, and here both writes and directs from his own original screenplay). Wisely, I think, Fletcher has set his tale of these kiddie killers in the slightly distant future, when humanity has given over almost entirely to "celebrity-hood," thus renouncing much of what makes it human. This helps somewhat bridge that large gap between watching horrendous deeds urfurl and having sympathy for the characters who are carrying them out.

What helps most in this regard, however, is the movie's tone. Mr. Fletcher has found a near-perfect one for the story at hand, and he has coupled it to performances that in all cases are spot-on in achieving an amazing balancing act. A little too much sweetness/cuteness (or conversely something so ugly that an audience cannot bear it) and everything can suddenly curdle. No worries: the filmmaker delivers delicious, sweet cream.

From one of his first images (above, of pizza-delivering nuns), we're in the la-la-land of someone with a fertile and charming imagination. Fletcher brings this imagination to bear upon just about everyone and everything in the film, which goes a long way toward making it not just palatable but damned enjoyable, too.

One wonders how the filmmaker got his cast on track with that special kind of performance that goes quite far but never over-the-top, offers up major cliches that manage not to bore us,  put its tongue in its cheek and still seems pretty real. It's an amazement, yet everyone -- smallest role to large -- comes through.

"Everyone" would include the two adorable leads, Alexis Bledel (the brunettes in the photos above) and Saoirse Ronan (the blond). Ms Ronan (of Hanna fame and lots else) has had some experience playing an assassin, but this is a first for Ms Bledel. Both young ladies take to it like killer pros. They're cute as buttons and utterly believable, too: alternately delighted, sad, frightened and surprised.

The object of their surprise is played by the wonderful James Gandolfini, who is -- surprise! -- wonderful again here, too. The movie is mostly a pas de trois between these characters, and no one misses a beat nor a step. They play so well together that you may want to see the film a second time simply to watch some terrific, moment-to-moment acting.

Also in the cast, and one of our favorite actors, is John Ventimiglia (above) as the head bad guy. He's as good as always, and his fine use of deadpan (and later just dead) helps the movie easily gloss over the bloody parts. (Ah, the internal-bleeding dance!) Fletcher's ability to give us these in bright red, while making us laugh at the same time, shows expert comic ability -- culminating in a bathtub full of corpses (below, and I think that's Ventimiglia, the second body down) that makes for a memorably goofy/ghastly image. There's a very funny little shower scene, as well (shown two photos below).

When it's time to forego the comedy and get more serious, Fletcher handles this expertly, too: lightly and without undo tear-jerking. He keeps his movie levitating in style, which he proves a natural at, and lets his ace cast members do the heavy lifting -- which they in turn make seem like an afternoon at Cirque du Soleil.

This kind of souffle is not easy to prepare, but Fletcher never lets the air out of his concoction. Violet & Daisy in an original, done with great style, feeling, strangeness and joy. Isn't it amazing -- all the ways in this world that you can find your family?

The movie, from Cinedigm and running just 88 minutes, opens this Friday, June 7, in 15 cities across the country. Consult the poster above for currently scheduled playdates.

On DVD/Blu-ray: Higgins' curdled criminals crow in Dominik's KILLING THEM SOFTLY

Could KILLING THEM SOFTLY, the new film (out this week on DVD & Blu-ray) from Andrew Dominik, based on a novel by the late George V. Higgins, possibly have been a hit? Doubtful -- even with its semi-starry cast that includes Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini. Unlike another Higgins' novel-to-film, The Friends of Eddie Coyle (which was not a hit in its day, either), this one tries to graft Higgins' fine and understated, yet pointed and realistic dialog onto a would-be, super-stylistic display of ultra-slo-mo bullets and light-show drug-trips. The result resembles the movie love-child of Tarantino and Mamet on a less-than-productive day.

The visual displays periodically provided by Mr. Dominik (who is shown at left) go so against the style of the dialog scenes -- close-up conversations done ultra-realistically -- that they seem like embar-rassing showing off on the part of the film-maker. (The visual style of his Jesse James/
Robert Ford movie, as boring as it grew to be over a very long running time, at least seemed consistent with the rest of the film.) But Dominik seems to have wanted to give us a "hit man" art film, and while certain directors (especially Melville) have done this sort of thing -- they used a lot less dialog, which often tends to fight with, rather than complement, the emphasis on composition and visuals.

You won't mind watching the good cast at work, however -- and boy, they are good! Most of the characters here are extremely stupid, so much so that they prove their own undoing. But they amuse while (un)doing it. Pitt (above) is mostly taciturn and slightly brighter than the rest, and he has a somewhat humane manner of killing, in which his victim often doesn't realize what is about to happen and so is spared undue fear.

Richard Jenkins is aces as the never-get-my-hands-dirty company man, and Gandolfini (above) is funniest of all as the way-past-his-prime hit man. Ray Liotta (below) shines as the guy who started this crime ball rolling well prior to the movie's opening. He garners much of any sympathy the film engenders, even though he, too, is as dumb as they come.

As the two low-level criminals assigned the job of robbing Liotta's illegal card game, Australia's Ben Mendelsohn (below, left, of Animal Kingdom) and Scoot McNairy (below, right), beautifully render these two obnoxious losers. McNairy, in particular (as good as I've seen him so far), manages to somehow make us care for his character. His demise is all the sadder for his complete inability to see it coming.

From The Weinstein Company in tandem with Anchor Bay Entertainment, the DVD and Blu-ray of Killing Them Softly (thankfully running only 98 minutes) hits the street this Tuesday, March 26.