Andrew Neel's & Mike Roberts' KING KELLY -- shot on phone camera -- hits NYC & VOD

Narcissism unbound! If you've ever wondered just where the current trend toward "me-to-the-infinite-power" might lead us, look no farther than the bracing new film from Andrew Neel (shown below, of Darkon and Alice Neel, among other movies), KING KELLY, about a high school student and her various friends -- and fans. Fans? Yes: She's the number-one attraction on an internet porn site and is about to have her very own site make its debut.

Shot completely on phone-camera (several of them), the movie is about as low-budget/
down-and-dirty as you can technically get, and yet, compared to a number of multi-million-dollar mainstream movies currently playing theaters or on DVD, it's got twice the life and maybe ten times the pizzazz. TrustMovies admits that when he heard this film was shot on phone-camera, the idea didn't thrill him. But the genuinely clever tale that the filmmaker spins (his co-writer is Mike Roberts), the first-class performances he draws from his fine cast, together with his more-than-adept use of editing and sound turn the experience into something of a triumph on every level.

Why "King" Kelly, rather than "Queen"? Is this some high-school nod to feminism? Doubtful, as our leading lady (played with the kind of utter, self-absorbed conviction by Louisa Krause, above, that is by turns shocking and finally hilarious) is simply a character too overall dumb to have considered anything so far outside her immediate needs.

How she treats her family, above, and her best friend, Jordan, (a fine, subdued and finally drugged-out Libby Woodbridge below), is no better than she's treated her boyfriends, current or ex. If those around her also seem unduly selfish, she's the Queen Bee of conceited egomaniacs -- and a wonder to behold.

The plot, once kicked in motion after a very few minutes, rampages onwards like the crazed characters who are creating it. Pretty soon we're up to our ears in everything from porn sites to drug trafficking, car wrecks, state troopers and some heavy-duty sex and violence -- the latter served up so speedily and surprisingly that we're tempted to laugh at it, too.

Underneath it all, but never explicitly stated, is a call to alarm about -- oh, god, don't say it -- the younger generation, social media and personal responsibility -- and how all this has simply spun out of the control of the supposed guardians of today's youth. We parents and/or grandparents need to be as proficient technically as are the kids; instead, we're losing ground and losing touch.

Meanwhile, enjoy this trash-fest, which one character likens to Jerry Springer (but it's way more radical than that). With mini-budget and maxi-smarts, Mr. Neel outdoes even the rare, mainstream attempt at anarchy like the generally delightful Project X. He's used his smart phone as a mirror on youth and in the process has entertained, alarmed and informed us rather spectacularly.

King Kelly arrived theatrically yesterday in New York City at the Cinema Village, and will make its VOD debut this coming Tuesday, December 4.

Sibling sex: DANIEL & ANA from Michel Franco, makes NYC debut at Quad Cinema

Breaking a taboo is one thing. Being forced to break it -- at gunpoint with your and your family's lives threatened --  is quite another, the result of which we see played out in DANIEL & ANA, the Cannes' Directors Fortnight selection now making its theatrical debut. Written and directed by Michel Franco (shown below: a Mexican movie-maker whose first full-length film this is) this short work (only 90 minutes including rather lengthy end credits) is disturbing, all right. How could it not be, given the central event, which is, we are told, based on a true story in which only the names have been changed?

Mexico, certainly one of the kidnap capitals of the world, plays host to this story and its lead characters: the contented and close-knit brother and sister of the title.  Daniel's a high school student, on the cusp of young manhood, while Ana is several years older and about to be married.  Their family is part of Mexico's haute bourgeiosie -- those "haves" who have the most -- and Ana is about to marry into more of the same. Señor Franco lays all this out non-judgmentally. In fact, the siblings' kidnappers, shown below, don't look too shabby, either, and so the rather enormous "class differences" we often see and hear about in Mexico are certainly not being hammered home in undue fashion. What happens here is all just "business," dontcha know.

TrustMovies apologizes for giving away more of the plot than he usually profers. All of the above, in any case, is on view within the first 20 minutes. And while the signal event of the film is certainly vital, how the characters react to it -- and why -- is key to our coming to terms with the movie. It's here that Franco stumbles rather severely.

The filmmaker allows us to watch the entire sex scene, which is handled about as chastely as possible, considering the nature of the "crime."  (Perhaps a little too chastely, where our pivotal view of Daniel is concerned.)   You won't accuse Franco of pandering, necessarily, but then you wait -- post-sex, and then post-release of the victims -- for that all-important scene of their pair's first connection/conversation after the fact.  It never happens.  So very much would spring from the way in which the older of the two handles (or is unable to handle) her younger brother in this terribly fraught time that the audience deserves to be a part of this. But Franco, being I guess a very untutored filmmaker, doesn't bother with this pivotal scene at all.

Sure, we see later reactions -- from the siblings, her fiancé, his girlfriend, their parents -- but everything from here on in, even a surprise or two, seems a little too rote because the most important moments in the movie have been left out. (Even if no communication happened immediately post-release, we need to see that in order to better understand.)

The performances are as good as the script and direction allow. Marimar Vega (shown above, with Chema Torre, who plays her soon-to-be husband) exhibits poise and the necessary maturity to handle not only the event itself, but its terrible follow-up, while Darío Yazbek Bernal (shown below, who is Gabriel Garcia's half-brother), bearing more than a passing resemblance to a younger James Franco, is a basket case of depession and fear as the younger participant who cannot get out from under his guilt. (Does he realize that what happened might be, on some level, exactly what he wanted?)

There are other problems with the film. The music, with its beautiful, dirge-like score, begins to be quite unhelpful -- used, as it is, in place of more fitting dialog or better visuals in order to up the movie's sadness quotient. Someone must have realized that this was not working properly, however, because after the first few uses, music pretty much disappears for the remainder of the film.

I can't write off the movie completely, though. There is enough strength in the situation and performances to make it worth the time of anyone who has in any way been connected to this vile experience or who is concerned with the sale of forced pornography (the end title cards give some information on this), or for therapists who may end up treating those who've been involved in this kind of situation.

Daniel & Ana, from Strand Releasing, opens Friday, August 27, at New York City's Quad Cinema.