With GUY, French actor/writer/director Alex Lutz has created a marvel of a mockumentary

Before viewing GUY (or Guy Jamet, the full name of the character shown on the poster above), TrustMovies had never heard of Alex Lutz, an award-winning French actor, comedian, writer and director. Post-viewing, however, he will remember this man and his one-of-a-kind work for, well, in perpetuity, he hopes.

Guy Jamet, I must tell you right off the bat, does not exist. Nor does the music he sings, the people he interacts with, nor really anything we see and learn about this aging pop idol. Yet Guy and the entire world around him has been imagined and researched so beautifully and then brought to life so remarkably well in this supposed-to-be-a-documentary movie about him that, even though you know -- from the press materials and too-much-information coverage of the film -- that what you're seeing is "fake," so real, so complete does it seem that you're likely to be amused, delighted and greatly moved by it nonetheless. (That's Mr. Lutz, above, shown pretty much as he is now, and on the poster, top, and below, playing the role of the 72-year-old aging pop star. The performer, by the way, won this year's coveted César Award for Best Actor in this role.)

So, yes, Guy is what is most often called a mockumentary. Yet mockumentaries are supposed to mock. But this one, while almost always witty and sometimes satiric, is so rich, warm, and human, full of emotion and sadness at the passing of time, missing of opportunities and the knowledge of our own inability to head off our worst impulses that it leaves you with more of a sense of reality and worth than do many of the actual documentaries and narrative bio-pics I've seen over the years.

Further, I haven't even gotten into the amazing skills with which, Mr. Lutz manages to create and inhabit the elder self (he also plays the younger version, though it is mostly that 72-year-old with whom we're spending our time). Everything -- from his movements to the superlative aging make-up and/or prosthetics applied -- seems nothing short of perfection. Mr. Lutz is quite something.

And when, along the way, we see, intercut with each other, the younger and older versions of Guy and one of his "loves," (above, with Élodie Bouchez, and below, with French icon Dani), the effect is mesmerising and moving in equal measure. Here, an entire cultural history opens up before us, and while the events and characters, the times and the songs may seem initially rather ordinary, something happens as they wash over you. Eventually it all gather the importance and feel of real life.

About the music: While it seemed to me captured to near perfection, "Isn't this sort of mediocre?" my spouse asked, mid-way along. And, yes, the songs here are absolutely of their time and place. Yet by the point at which the end credits rolled, "Boy, this song has really grown on me," spouse noted. I felt quite the same.

The movie is organized around the idea of a young filmmaker named Gauthier -- Tom Dingler, above -- getting Guy to agree to making this film about him by, among other things, telling him what a huge fan of his was Gauthier's mom. In reality, his late mother has informed Gauthier via letter than Guy is actually the young man's birth father. So the film is fraught with unspoken father/son issues throughout, some of them funny, others more telling. Probably the most emotional-yet-reticent scene of all involves Guy's lunch with the son he knows of and has recognized, shot by Gauthier at a discrete distance so that neither we nor he can hear what is being said by the father and his recognized son, even as the unrecognized one films it all.

While I am certain that many of the movie's more subtle and satiric barbs were lost on this American viewer, what remains was still so special, unconventional, surprising and alternately amusing and moving that Guy takes it place for me as one of this year's best films. It's an original -- and then some. (Above, right, is Nicole Calfan, very good as our hero's publicist; below, right, is Pascale Arbillot, playing his current squeeze.)

Without a theatrical release, all the more thanks is due Icarus Home Video and Distrib Films USA for making this gem available to us. Guy hits the street on DVD (digital will eventually arrive) this Tuesday, June 4 -- for purchase and (I hope) rental. Do find a way to see this one.

Margot Robbie and Allison Janney score in Craig Gillespie's bizarre bio-pic -- I, TONYA

Not exactly a mockumentary and certainly not a documentary; not a comedy, though it's sometimes fall-down funny; often hugely dramatic without coming close to what you'd call a drama; I, TONYA -- director Craig Gillespie's and screenwriter Steven Rogers' oddball telling of the tale of Olympic-worthy ice-skating star, Tonya Harding, with special emphasis, of course, on her maybe take-down of competing skater Nancy Kerrigan -- is an instant genre-masher to write home about.

Mr. Gillespie, shown at right, and Mr. Rogers have contrived a style of film in which the participants often break the fourth wall and address us in the audience in order to make something clear, right a perceived wrong, or simply change their story.

From the start, and intentionally so, we're unsure of just whom to believe, though it at last comes clear that the filmmakers probably find Ms Harding -- brought to fine and invigorating life by Margot Robbie (above and below, who co-produced the film) -- the most convincing of this bizarre crew.

Most bizarre of all, and giving another of the "performances of her life" is the great Allison Janney (below), playing Tonya's inexplicably evil and crazy mother. Ms Janney is so good at whatever she does that we simply buy it -- lock, stock and barrel -- and here the actress, with the help of Mr. Rogers, just keeps surprising us with over-the-top behavior until we say, "Well, it can't get any worse." And then it does.

The film has been pilloried in some circles for the way in which it is said to treat its "white trash" characters. But since they often behave in a trashy manner and are Caucasian, this doesn't exactly seem inappropriate. And at least they are usually fun and funny, too -- except, of course, when they're beating the shit out of each other. The primary beater would be Tonya's boyfriend-and-finally-husband, Jeff, played appropriately by Sebastian Stan, below.

Also on tap for much dumb fun is Jeff's side-kick, Shawn, played to idiot perfection by the delightful Paul Walter Hauser (above, left, in the blurry background). How these guys and their cohorts go about their sleazy business provides much of the film's increasing enjoyment, even as poor Ms Kerrigan gets clobbered. (The character who is the classiest and kindest in the entire movie is Tonya's coach/mentor, played with distance, depth and feeling by Julianne Nicholson, below, left.)

While I can imagine this movie being executed in various ways that would maybe honor the story and characters in a better, more truthful, or at least quite different manner, it is supremely difficult to imagine it being anymore fun than in this genre-mashing style that Gillespie and Rogers contrive.

From that relatively new distributor, NEON and running a long but not-for-a-minute-boring two full hours, I, Tonya, opens here in South Florida tomorrow, Friday, January 5 -- in the Miami area at Regal's South Beach 18, the O Cinema Wynwood, the Tower Theater, the Cinépolis Cocnut Grove, the Landmark Merrick Park, and the AMC Aventura; in Fort Lauderdale at the Classic Gateway 4; in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theater, the Movies of Delray, and the Cinépolis Luxury Cienmas in Jupiter. The film is also playing all around the country: Click here to find the theater(s) nearest you.

This year's WTF doc arrives: Maíra Bühler & Matias Mariani's I TOUCHED ALL YOUR STUFF

Or is this film actually a cleverly put-together narrative posing as a documentary? TrustMovies went into I TOUCHED ALL YOUR STUFF having paid little attention to the press release (these sometimes give away the store) and so imagined that it was indeed a new doc. But after watching the 90-odd (increasingly odd) minutes, if you told me almost any crazy thing about this movie, I'd have to consider it as at least a possibility. It's that bizarre.

There is probably an entirely other movie to be made about how the two filmmakers -- Maíra Bühler and Matias Mariani, shown above -- came into contact with their prime subject and managed to put this wayward and way-weird movie together (I think they'd call it "The Making of I Touched All Your Stuff"). But what we have here seems to be a "true" shaggy dog story all about immense injustice (to whom and because of what actually changes during the course of the storytelling), a naive dweeb, a mystery woman, Pinocchio, and the hippopotami of Colombian drug lord, Juan Carlos Ortiz Escobar. And that's just for starters.

As the movie progresses (if that's quite the right word) via talking-head interviews, especially with our "hero," one Christopher Kirk (shown at top and above), who appears to be... in prison, along with re-creations, computer files, travel footage and especially Mr. Kirk's constant narration, it takes at least a half hour for us to figure out that we're maybe seeing the all-time dumbest sucker-in-love (above) coupled to the most over-the-top femme fatale (below) in movie history. What a combo! But wait.

The movie moves along via chapter headings that seem alternately funny and weird (not unlike the movie itself). For a time we imagine we're getting a dose of culture clash of a very unsettling order. Then suddenly we're in Lapeer, Michigan (below), visiting the all-American family of our strange hero. All told, we bounce around from Columbia to Brazil to Washington State, California, Michigan and back again.

Among the things we learn from this educational movie is that when the lover muses about his beloved, "Maybe there's a one per cent chance that this could work," he is in big trouble. We also learn not to trust anyone whose password is "mentir" (that's Spanish for "to lie"). Or maybe the lesson here is not to trust anyone at all. Talk about your unreliable narrators!

The documentary that I Touched All Your Stuff most reminded me of is that early be-careful-of-the-Internet demonstration, Catflish, which was more "of its specific time." Love and trust stories are generally timeless, though this one does make use of our current fascination with technology and hacking.

In any case, the doc/narrative/whatever proves non-stop fun that should leave you in the relatively healthy state of questioning just about everything you see and/or hear. From Cinema Slate and running 92 minutes, the movie opens at the following theaters on the dates shown below:

August 28, 2015 – New York City (Cinema Village) 

August 28, 2015 – Los Angeles, CA (Arena Cinema) 

September 4, 2015 – Columbus, OH (Gateway Film Center) 

September 4, 2015 – Chicago, IL (Facets Cinemateque) 

with more playdates, we're told, coming soon. 

Click here for further information,

Sebastián Cordero's EUROPA REPORT-- yet another found-footage space movie

First the good stuff: EUROPA REPORT, the new film from Sebastián Cordero (Rage and Chronicles), boasts a classy cast, a compact running time, and looks very good -- with a technical sheen and prowess that made this particular civilian sit up and take notice. Once notice was taken, however, a kind of boredom soon set in and TrustMovies had to pinch himself occasionally in order to stay awake. This is yet another in the found-footage, space-travel, would-be-documentary genre -- of which Apollo 18 may have been the most recent (and, in fact, a bit better) example.

Those of you old enough to recall George Pal's Destination Moon, another technically astute (for its time) sci-fi movie, may understand what I'm getting at here. We don't have to have monsters in our mission-to-Mars, Jupiter or the moon movies, but golly, they do help ward off the sleepies that sometimes arise from an emphasis on the technical. And -- spoiler ahead -- Europa Report even includes its own "creature," though Señor Cordero (shown at right, in black) and his screenwriter Philip Gelatt make us wait until the final few minutes to even get a glimpse of it.

Europa Report is certainly classier overall that any other "found footage" movie in any genre that I have seen, and its emphasis on sacrifice and the love for their chosen field that at least some of the crew (above, with Daniel Wu shown center), as well as those in charge back home on earth (Embeth Davidtz, below) exhibit goes a certain distance in making the movie a bit more moving than others in this genre. (Though it doesn't come close to the emotion that Brian De Palma managed to wring from the ending of his under-rated Mission to Mars.)

We do get this deeper sense of purpose from characters such as Dr. Petrovna (played by Karolina Wydra, below).

We might also get something deeper, if we knew more about him, from the slightly distur-bed Andrei Blok, played by Michael Nyqvist, shown at left, the very good Swedish actor best known as the journalist from the original Dragon Tattoo series, who is now cropping up in American films of the good variety (Disconnect), the so-so (Abduction) and the way over-blown (Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol).

Then there are the other crew members like the two guys (Christian Camargo, above, and Sharlto Copley, below), whose distinguishing features are "family" and "jokiness." When the crew begins, one by one, to leave us, we'd like to be able to feel something more than the usual, Who's next? This is difficult when we know so little about them.

The crew member we most identify with is probably the pilot (that fine Romanian actress Anamaria Marinca, below, of 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Storm) who sticks to her guns and by virtue of sheer specificity and strength (we know no more about her than we do anyone else) impresses us. Granted, it is difficult in only 90 minutes to render anything approaching depth-of-character in a space/sci-fi movie, but this task would seem not to have been important on the agenda of the filmmakers.

Consequently, the film ends up a relatively smart mix of talking heads, would-be found-footage and sci-fi mockumentary -- without a lick of humor. It could have been a lot worse, but with real artists in command, it also might have been thrilling, meaningful, moving.

Oh, yes -- something should be said about the heavy-duty, ramped-up musical score. Found-footage now comes with its own musical score? Hmmm. Well, some audiences will fall for just about anything.

Europa Report, from Magnet Releasing, opens this Friday, August 2, in New York (Cinema Village), Washington DC (E Street Cinema) ad Hollywood (Sundance Sunset Cinemas). You can see all of the currently scheduled 15-cities opening by clicking here.

Say hello to the hybrid mockumentary: Victor Quinaz's BREAKUP AT A WEDDING

We've seen documentaries, we've seen mockumentaries, we've seen hybrid documentaries, and now it's time, I guess, to welcome the hybrid mock-umentary BREAKUP AT A WEDDING, the new whatzit from filmmaker Victor Quinaz. Just what is a hybrid mockumentary? Damned if I know, but this movie just seems a bit different from your Christopher Guest model, or last week's overblown version, Colossus, or any other kind of "mock" I can easily recall. Blatantly a fiction film, it still appears to be a documentary posing as as reality while clearly being unable to reach that precious plateau -- even as a fake "reality" movie.

Mr. Quinaz, shown at right -- who acts as director, co-writer, one of the film's producers and even has an acting role in the movie -- is handing us the notion that he's been hired to capture a couple's wedding on video (by now we know this routine very well, though the film that does it best, oddly enough, is the terrifically frisky, funny zombie movie [REC] 3), even though the twosome has decided (due to the bride, not the groom, who is nicely played by the filmmaker's brother, Philip Quinaz, below, left) that it is not actually getting married but will instead "fake it" for the relatives and guests.

How they do this and what ensues makes up most of the movie, which is relatively funny and sometimes charming but more often proves just a little bit off both base and key.

If you notice the photos above and below (this isn't fair, of course, but they are all I've found to use), you may detect a bit of a strained quality in the expressions on hand (particularly that of the bride, played by Alison Fyhrie, above and below). There's a sense here of trying too hard, and it seems to infect everything from writing to direction to performance.

Sometimes things come off well enough, at least, to allow us to sit back and enjoy. But more often that "pushing" sense occurs and we tighten up in expectation of, well, too much. This is not the best way, I think, to enjoy a comedy. But here, we must take to so-so with the good.

Comedy itself is one of the more difficult genres to get anything approaching agreement from audiences. One man's laugh is another man's lack of. I suspect there will be enough of the former to make this movie at least an OK experience. The "wedding" takes place on one of those multi-venue propositions at which several couples can marry at the same time on their own turf. My favorite section had to do with how to steal your liquor from an adjoining festivity (and if that festivity offers a "Star Wars" theme, all the better).

Breakup at a Wedding, from Oscilloscope Films and running, even at only 85 minutes, a bit too long, opens this coming Friday, August 2, at Brooklyn's IndieScreen theater, with one of the most famous of its producers -- Zachary Quinto -- appearing at select screenings for Q&As. The film was also released onto VOD and digital channels earlier this summer (and may still be playing there, if you're couch potato-inclined).