Shades of Donald Trump! Penny Lane's NUTS is another great American story about fakery

What absolute, unencumbered, hoot-and-a-half fun is NUTS!, the new documentary directed by Penny Lane (of Our Nixon fame) and very cleverly written by Thom Stylinski. Combining with flair, humor and -- eventually -- not a little sadness, the film uses charming, stylish animation along with grand archival footage and a smart narration that probes America's past and still current (hence the headline reference to Donald Trump) inclination to make wealthy heroes out of lying trash.

The antagonist of Nuts! is one, John Romulus Brinkley, little known today but in his time -- the early 1900s -- one of the most famous men in these whole United States. But famous for what? For curing impotence by transplanting goat testicles into (or maybe onto: his methods, as you will see, are a tad unclear) the human male. Ms Lane, shown at right, tells the tale of this man (of whom TrustMovies and I wager most of his readers had never before heard) with such cleverness and gusto that she yanks us into the crazy story full on.

Brinkley, shown above (in animated form) and below in an old (and I suspect colorized) photo, was a practicing doctor in a small Kansas town who made his discovery in 1917, went on to become one of the country's major celebrities and wealthiest citizens, transplanted thousands of those goat testicles, ran for governor of Kansas (could he have been any worse than Kansas' current cretin, Sam Brownback?), introduced to Americans everything from the infomercial to junk mail, and created the world's most powerful radio station (broadcasting out of Mexico yet -- to circumvent laws that America's medical and broadcasting establishments had created to put him out of business). This guy was something else!

Something else indeed. Ms Lane's great notion here is to base much of her documentary on Brinkley's story, as told by the biography of the man written at the time of his rise. It's a whopper, in so many ways, but also a terrific tale. So we are put in the place of those adulatory fans who no doubt bought that book and drunk in every word. Sort of like Mr. Trump's followers have done with "the Donald's" own books, TV shows and ridiculous rhetoric from the podium.

During this delightful and rather short doc -- it lasts but 79 minutes -- we also meet Brinkey's bête noire, an American Medical Association-sanctioned fellow named Morris Fishbein (above, right), who dogs the good doctor's trail over years. My current gut feeling about the AMA and its sometimes abusive powers put me in mind to dislike Mr. Fishbein, but Ms Lane wisely allows a scenario to eventually emerge that is quite a bit different from that of the Brinkley "biography."

What we learn from all this is not just vastly entertaining but also salutary. It's always good to be reminded how easily charlatans can become powerful and how quickly a large portion of the general populace can be made to follow them. From the doctor's supposed first "goat gland" patient (above) to the woman he marries (well, one of them) and the son he fathers and helps raise (below), we move through a life that seems devoted to success and achievement but is actually all about something quite other. The manner in which Lane shows us (in animation) what happened to that son, juxtaposed against a recorded message from his father, is beautifully and artfully handled.

Nuts! brings to life and art so much of what passess, then and now, as the sort of American Dream that eventually turns into the American nightmare -- from which, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Fishbein, the USA managed to awake. But who will help us today, given the way in which corporate power and the media have embraced our latest example of egotism, narcissism and fraud? Maybe Ms Lane, even as I type, is preparing a look at this present-day subject. After all, she 's already covered I-am-not-a-crook Richard Nixon and I-cure-impotence-using-goat-glands Dr. Brinkley. Why not Mr. I-make-the-best-steaks-education-casinos-and-walls?

To get a rich and full look at the damage Mr. Trump can bring to a country, its citizens and environment via one of his "projects," try to view the sad and wonderful little documentary You've Been Trumped, but meanwhile, do see this exhilarating new doc, Nuts!, from Ms Lane and released via Cartuna. The movie opens tomorrow in its U.S. theatrical premiere at Film Forum in New York City for a two-week run.  Elsewhere? Definitely. The following week, you can see it in -- yes! -- Kansas City, Missouri. Then look for it to screen all across the country in the weeks and months to come. Click here and scroll down to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters. (Even Kansas itself -- one city, at least -- is going to get a look at this smart new film.) 

Tom McCarthy's SPOTLIGHT is as good as you've heard. Which is saying a whole lot.

Earlier this year New York magazine ran an article in which it noted that writer/director Tom McCarthy had managed to have both one of the year's best reviewed movies (SPOTLIGHT) and one of its worst-reviewed (The Cobbler*). That's some kind of weird record, to say the least. Having finally caught up with Spotlight this week, TrustMovies can vouch for how fine a film it is: one of the very few I've seen that delves into a particular workplace -- investigative reporting for a big-city daily newspaper (in this case The Boston Globe) -- and, according all the notices I've so far seen, together with what I myself know about investigative reporting, shows this workplace in a truthful and realistic manner.

The story it tells, based pretty closely on the facts, is of the pedophile-priests scandal that rocked the Boston area and The Catholic Church a decade or more ago, and that ought to have rocked both two decades earlier, when reports of the abuse were also coming in. Mr McCarthy, shown at left, has long been a wonderful filmmaker, talented, modest and reliably low-key. From The Station Agent, through The Visitor and Win Win, his talent has resulted in movies in which "reach" and "grasp" become one and the same. (The fellow is also a fine actor, with 38 acting credits to his name but only seven writing and five directing credits, according to the IMDB.)

Spotlight is the first time McCarthy has worked on anywhere this large a scale. Yet, along with his co-screenwriter, Josh Singer, he's been able to capture both the big picture (the network of power that had kept the scandal in tow for so long) and the small one (the step-by-step investigation procedures that finally result in the whole story). As per usual, the filmmaker manages this in such a modest, unshowy fashion that it might seem easy to overlook his excellent work come awards time.
I hope not.

One hallmark of McCarthy's films is their fine ensemble acting. Not only is Spotlight no exception, it features as good an ensemble performance as the filmmaker has managed so far. My spouse pointed out immediately after viewing the film that it seemed like these actors were real people rather than performers or characters. There is indeed a documentary feel which contributes mightily to the unusual sense of reality the film achieves.

"Spotlight" is the name of the small group of reporters who work on special projects for the Globe, often taking a very long time to bring their stories to fruition. Leading the group is Robbie (Michael Keaton, shown above, left, and three photos above, here as low-key and under-the-radar as he was over-the-top in last year's overblown Birdman). Robbie has a bevy of good reporters under his wing, including Matt (Brian d'Arcy James, at left, two photos above), Sacha (Rachel McAdams (above, right) and Mike (Mark Ruffalo, below, right, with Stanley Tucci, who plays the lawyer for many of the victims).

All of these characters (shown below) report to Ben Bradlee, Jr. (John Slattery, seen below, right), who in turn reports to the paper's new editor-in-chief (played by an extremely bright but buttoned-down Liev Schreiber, shown at bottom, second from left).

So cleverly and intelligently is laid out the investigation -- alternating between victims (with only an occasional look at a predator) and reporters, between those in the power structure, whether it be the Church or its minions who run the city and culture, who want to keep the story underwraps -- that the film allows us to fully understand what is going on without ever being banged atop the head with "meaning" or heavy-handed ironies. (The movie also never seems too slick; rather, it appears focused and pro-active -- adjectives that I'll bet describe the moviemaker, too.)

The film moves fast, too. Timing out at just over two hours, there's not a tired or treacly moment to be seen. Distributed by Open Road -- a company that, after releasing a number of very good but not all that big-at-the-boxoffice movies (from Hit and Run to End of Watch) has finally broken into the big-time with this excellent film -- Spotlight is playing across the country now. Click here to find the theater near you.

*After viewing Spotlight and taking into consideration 

McCarthy's entire oeuvre, we're planning to stream 

The Cobbler off Netflix tonight -- to see if maybe 

that critical drubbing was undeserved. 

We'll weigh in with our opinion a little later....

Teller's & Penn's & TIM'S VERMEER offer an eye-opening view of the technique of a beloved artist

What a small-scale joy is TIM'S VERMEER, the new documentary that was shortlisted for Best Documentary award but did not make the final cut. No matter. (Except maybe for its box-office take.) The film itself will thrill, surprise and entertain art-loving audiences across the globe, especially those who treasure the "inspired-by-light" paintings of the 17-Century Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. Inspired by light, indeed! More than we knew, evidently, as entrepreneur/inventor Tim Jension pretty much proves that, to create his amazing paintings, the artist used a kind of very early photographic technique.

Mr. Jenison (the face on the poster above) happens to be a pal of the famous Penn & Teller duo who, evidently, when the pair got wind of Jenison's interest in Vermeer and what he was doing about it -- setting out to somehow prove that the artist used a kind of photographic technique to create his famous photo-realist paintings that were done some 150 years prior to the invention of actual photography -- decided to film the fellow's "experiment. They succeeded quite well -- Teller, (shown below) directs, while Penn (shown at left) produces and also appears in and helps narrate the film. Jenison

succeeds very well, too, so far as I am concerned. He pretty much proves his point, without in the least discrediting the amazing work of this rightfully revered artist. Certain critics have lambasted the movie because, to them, it seems to revile instead of revere the famous artist. I am sorry, but this is nonsense. Mr Jenison, as well as Penn & Teller, seem to hold the artist in great esteem. The intent here is not to discredit or degrade Vermeer's work but rather to de-mystify it. For centuries, all one could do was marvel and wonder, How did Vermeer do it? Well, we can still wonder at the art and love it hugely, while finally understanding the "how" of the equation.

This relatively short documentary first fills us in on the character and life of our Tim Jenison (above and below), follows him as he explains his theory, then watches as he puts it into practice. He must procure and use only the kind of instruments that were available in Vermeer's day (the artist lived from 1632-1675). To create his own "Vermeer," Tim feels he must also create a replica of the actual room which Vemreer painted.

How he does this and the problems he encounters along the way make up the meat of the movie, all of which fascinates. I won't go into the details; that's part of the great fun of the film. But listen and watch carefully, for -- as I see it, at least -- the real proof is found more in a subtle, nearly un-noticeable mistake made by the artist that Jenison comes across while working on his re-creation.

Help along the way is provided by various art historians and artists -- such as David Hockney (above, left) -- and in the end, Tim does indeed create his own Vermeer, even if it is probably but a pale imitation of the real thing. I wish the filmmakers had given us a better look at Tim's work, and compared it more closely with a reproduction photo of the actual painting -- now owned by the current Queen Elizabeth of England. The difference, of course, is that our Tim is no artist, as he readily admits. Vermeer was a great one.

The point here is that now we know the answer to the question that has baffled humanity for centuries: What technique did this artist use to do things that have not been seen before or since? Thanks to Tim's Vermeer, now we know.

From Sony Pictures Classics and running a sleek 80 minutes, the movie opens this tomorrow, Friday, January 31, in New York City, at the Angeli-ka Film Center and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, and in Los Angeles at the Arclight Hollywood. In the coming weeks, it will open in cities all across the country. To view all currently scheduled playdates, simply click here.

The Rowley/Riker/Scahill documentary DIRTY WARS indicts America's covert, illegal actions

What a surprise and something of a joy it is -- despite the subject at hand -- to see some real investigative reporting hit the screen again. We've had plenty of decent documentaries of late that have tried to ferret out the truth on all sorts of subjects. But TrustMovies surmises that journalist Jeremy Scahill must come from a background of, and thus care deeply about, good solid reporting skills. Watching and listening to the movie DIRTY WARS (based on Scahill's book of  the same name), co-written by Scahill and David Riker and directed by Rick Rowley, is an invigorating experience because of the enormous ground it manages to cover in but 87 minutes, and how Scahill and his crew connect the dots, dot their i's and cross their t's, in the process allowing us discover, just as Scahill did, what is going on -- torture, murder, drone strikes that wipe out families by accident and are then "covered up" -- in places/nations with whom we, the United States of America, are supposedly not at war.

The film-making trio (Scahill is shown above, right, with Riker at left and Rowley, center) take us to various spots where these covert wars are occurring -- Afghanistan (weren't we finished there?), Yemen, Somalia -- during which we watch as our government targets an American citizen and kills him, and then later kills his teen-age son. Yes, this guy was a Muslim cleric who was saying some very anti-American things (hey, so do I, just in case this turns out to be my good-bye). But his teen-age son? Prior to the killing, the man's father tried suing our government to make it stop the "hit." Seeing the grandfather speak now with Scahill should make you not just sad but damned angry.

Scahill (above) understands how to delve. He uncovers evidence of our cover-ups, as well as evidence that wasn't ever bothered to be covered-up, so secure were the assassins in their sense of entitlement, as well as the fact that, well, nobody really cares.

We learn of a formerly secret and still all-powerful group called the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) along with the fellow who leads it. Scahill weaves this together particularly well, as the leader appears first here, then there, and finally... well, you'll see and understand. The film, were it not so filled with events that should make you thoroughly disgusted, has enough elements of a mystery thriller to hold you pretty much spellbound.

Viewing and hearing of some of the innocent families (above and below) who've been destroyed -- let's hope purely by accident -- it is quite easy to believe that, as one of the few family members left alive explains, with this behavior, the U.S. is simply breeding new terrorists. I would suggest that this seems to be what we want. We'll need plenty of new ones in order to justify our military/industrial complex's continued demand for constant war, stemming from our need to control ever more natural resources. President Eisenhower would be appalled, while offering an I told you so.

There is so much more to this fine and important film than I have begun to cover here. That's because I am currently away and working remotely and left all my notes from viewing Dirty Wars at home. Apologies. But I hope I've told you enough to entice you to view. It's so easy, too, as the film -- from Sundance Selects -- is now available via Netflix streaming (and elsewhere). If you don't have Netflix streaming, the documentary will be coming back to theaters for a week's run at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem, beginning Wednesday, November 20, through Thursday, November 26, each evening at 7:30. Click here for details.

Photos above are from the film itself, with the exception 

of that of the filmmakers, which is by Natalie Cass 

and comes courtesy of GettyImages.com

Danny Schechter goes after Wall Street in PLUNDER: THE CRIME OF OUR TIME

Anyone who saw investigative reporter Danny Schechter's documentaries Weapons of Mass Deception or In Debt We Trust will know that Mr. Schechter has a problem with our national media.  He finds it wanting: too easily misled by the powers that be (read government and money).  Many other of us, inclu-
ding TrustMovies, agree with him.

In his new documen-
tary PLUNDER: THE CRIME OF OUR TIME, Schechter again blames the collusion of media, government and money for the current crisis regarding Wall Street.

In fact, this filmmaker, as does many others, calls the place and its product criminal and wants the perpetrators brought to justice. From his 100-minute documentary -- full of interviews, talking heads, protests and more -- two themes emerge: that the current crisis (which just keeps growing, with more Goldman Sachs revelations daily) was indeed criminal, and that the media, in their usual, closed-ranks manner has approved the official and untrue line of something accidental happening and being then made worse by the happenstance of a "perfect storm" of problems.
Bullshit, says Schechter.

Further, he tell us, the national media has been much harder on the people who have defaulted on their loans than on the lenders who came up with the "crooked" deals.  One of Schechter's most salient points is that, our media is every bit as embedded with the financial industry (and its government counterpart) now as it was with the military (and its government counterpart) at the start of the Iraq & Afghanistan Wars.  In both cases, truth is the inevitable casualty.

There is plenty to make you angry here, although some of it has been seen else-
where (Leslie Cockburn's American Casino and Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, for instance).  Because Schechter (shown at right, with the golden calf -- whoops -- bull) is indicting Wall Street as criminal, it would have been good, I think, if he had stayed on-message a bit more and acted as a prosecutor might in piling up more and better evidence of criminality.  Instead he is all over the place -- from protesters out of work (and banks that will not honor their commitments) to homeowners evicted from their homes and Wall Street professionals talking about how they do their jobs.

Most of this will appeal to progressives, all right, and it's important that we hear it.  Particularly succulent are the filmmaker's points about our media -- which seem to be currently under attack from all sides, including the ever-strengthening internet -- being all too often in lockstep with power and money. Plunder is worth viewing, even if, on balance, you feel that Schechter might have put these 100 minutes to somewhat better use.

In his Q&A that followed the film's premier "theatrical" screening last Thursday, April 29, at the prestigious and lovably old-fashioned National Arts Club in Manhattan, the filmmaker reminded us that a major demonstration of thousands of protesters had taken place on Wall Street that very day. It will be interesting, he suggested, to see what the media makes of this.  TrustMovies could find nothing about this in the following days' edition of  The New York Times or The New York Post.  Maybe you had better luck.

Plunder: The Crime of Our Time is available now for purchase from its distributor, Disinformation Films, or via Amazon and elsewhere.  For rental, you can find it on Netflix (as of today: long wait) and Blockbuster (as of today: short wait) if not from your local video store (if that one's still around: We here in Jackson Heights just recently lost another). I believe the film is also available for download via iTunes.  In any case, you can click here to access the movie's official site and go from there....