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.

In DISCONNECT Andrew Stern/Henry Alex Rubin connect with the way we live now

The kind of movie that the Oscar-winning Crash might have been (had it been a good film and not so bang-your-head obvious), DISCONNECT is one of those people-are-connected movies in which the connections are made relatively intelligently and believably, while the behavior of the people involved stays centered and on-course, even as events escalate enormously and precipitously. Writer Andrew Stern and director Henry Alex Rubin get a lot of things right in their telling of these interconnected tales -- both the little details (mistakes in typing while texting) and the larger picture (how a TV news story blossoms into a career-changing thing for the reporter/newscaster, even as it threatens the life of its subject).

The filmmakers (that's director Rubin, shown at right) also manage to hit dead center three major problems society is having to deal with currently, due to the rise in the use and importance of the internet -- online porn and sex for sale, bullying in school via photos and information that can reach a huge audience almost instantly, and identity theft and credit-card/bank-account heists via emails and surreptitiously embedded malware -- together with other problems that have been around for a good long time: parent-child lack of communication and how ambition can color and upend our sense of right and wrong.

The four stories that intertwine barely or forcefully include those of a family of four played by Jason Bateman (above, center) and Hope Davis (above, left--who's a brunette!) as the parents and Jonah Bobo and Haley Ramm (above, right) as their kids; ex-Marine (Alexander Skarsgård, below, left), his wife (Paula Patton, below, right) and her internet pal (Michael Nyqvist);

and ex-policeman dad (a particularly good performance from Frank Grillo) and his technically-savvy but initially empathy-challenged son (Colin Ford); and that TV reporter and the very young man she connects with online who is selling sex. In the role of the newscas-ter/journalist, British actress Andrea Riseborough (below, left, and just seen a week or so back in Welcome to the Punch) does a terrific job, not just of convincing us that she works on American TV but also that she would cut corners morally and journalistically to get this particular story that involves the gorgeous and hunky young man played by Max Thieriot (below, right).

Make no mistake, Disconnnect is a melodrama. But melodrama done well is no mean feat, and Stern and Rubin manage to avoid excess, even though they do go right up to that point but always stop short of toppling into the abyss. Their fine ensemble cast is a big help here. These actors make you feel their pain (and there'a a lot of that -- psychically, emotionally and finally physically) but they're also smart enough to let you feel their humor and enjoyment of the moment, as well. (Intuitive actors always know it can't always be sturm und drang.)

In a sweet touch during the end credits, we see that the film has a dedication to the late Andrew Sarris, a fine and sorely missed film lover and critic, who I would like to think would have appreciated the very good things about this new film. Disconnect -- from LD Entertainment and running 115 minutes -- opens Friday, April 12, in New York City at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square and the Regal Union Square Stadium 14, and in the L.A. area at the AMC Century City 15. And maybe elsewhere, too -- now or eventually -- thought I cannot find any listing of nationwide playdates on any web site....