With FANNY'S JOURNEY, Lou Doillon delivers a worthwhile Holocaust movie for young adults

Holocaust-lite is a tricky sub-genre, producing everything from execrable schlock like Life Is Beautiful to more thoughtful, reasonable work like the new film, FANNY'S JOURNEY (Le voyage de Fanny), which opens this week. Basically, a movie for young adults, it treats the Holocaust in France seriously, not letting its audience view the horrors its victims endured but instead centering on the based-on-a-true story of one young girl, a thirteen-year-old named Fanny, who luckily managed to survive the ordeal, thanks to a number of decent folk who took care of her and other children, once their own families were no longer able.

As directed and co-adapted (with Anne Peyrègne) by Lola Doillon (shown at left), from the novel by Fanny Ben-Ami, the movie plays out like a very good escape thriller, but one that is made for an age range similar to that of the Fanny character and/or her older cohorts. Fanny's Journey is beautifully filmed (on some stunningly verdant locations in the French countryside) with period costumes, cars and the like all taking us back to the days of World War II Europe. The writing may be directed to the teen-age level, but it's a smart level -- with enough sass and wit to make the movie an easy watch for adults.

The story takes Fanny (newcomer Léonie Souchaud, above, center, who is excellent in the role!) and the other children, for whom she reluctantly becomes the necessary caretaker, almost immediately from one ersatz home to a new one, in which the stern by loving woman in charge (the wonderful Cécile de France, below) teaches Fanny some important lessons in strength, courage and endurance, which she will of course put to use later on.

Via some plot twists and turns, Fanny eventually has the responsibility of leading this group of children -- most younger than she but one several years older -- to safety. How all this occurs, along with how the children themselves work into the mix, sometimes helping, sometimes hindering, makes for an always engaging, often pretty thrilling experience.

As a filmmaker, Ms Doillon keeps the pacing swift and full of incident, and each of the actors brings his/her role to life well enough to create characters that are easily differentiated, one from the other, as well as memorable enough for this sort of genre. Train travel turns to walking and hiking, with a stop or two along the way, while trying to avoid the German soldiers and/or the not-so helpful French police.

Because the film is based on Fanny's own memoir/novel, we can rest assured that our girl remains alive and kicking. The film provides a good entryway into the Holocaust for newcomers and younger children who, as they grow, can enter the darker side via great adult works of art on the subject such as Lajos Koltai's amazing, one-of-a-kind Fateless.

Meanwhile, Fanny's Journey -- from Menemsha Films, in French with English subtitles and running just 94 minutes -- makes its U.S. theatrical debut here in South Florida this coming Friday, February 17 at The Movies of Delray and Lake Worth, The Last Picture Show in Tamarac, and in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theaters and the Regal Shadowood.  The 86-year-old Fanny Bel-Ami will be making personal appearances over the weekend at all these theaters. Click here and scroll down to view time and place. Will the film play elsewhere across the country? Hope so. Click here periodically to see if new playdates have been added.

In Jon Watts' COP CAR, a pair of updated Hardy Boys encounter some very bad things

The Hardy Boys, for all you youngsters out there, was a popular series of books first published back in the late 1920s about a pair of young boys who investigate all sorts of mysteri-ous happenings (think of them as a male version of Nancy Drew times two, though they actually preceded Nancy by three years). I bring this all up because those Hardy Boys came to mind as I watched the new film COP CAR, which is about to make its Blu-ray/DVD/digital HD debut this coming week.

The Hardys, however, never encountered anything quite like what our two ten-year-olds get up to in this very-necessarily R-rated movie. Another critic has compared what happens to something out of a Coen Brothers film, though Cop Car has little of the Coens' style or sense of humor (it's funny and semi-stylish in its own manner), though the brothers' love of violence is indeed on hand, if only as a threat until very late in the proceedings. As co-written (with Christopher D. Ford) and directed byJon Watts (at right), the film is funny and intriguing from its opening scenes and holds you in thrall right up until its 87 minutes have concluded.

Though its above-the-title star is the oft-seen Kevin Bacon (on poster, top, and in the penultimate photo below), the movie rests solidly on the small shoulders of Bacon's co-stars -- James Freedson-Jackson (shown above) and Hays Wellford (below, left) -- the former a neophyte, the latter with a few roles already under his belt.

These kids (and the actors who plays them) are fabulous: funny and real and full of that anxiety that hits at the onset of puberty and doesn't let go until -- if you're lucky -- adulthood. The first 15 minutes of the film, in fact, belong to these kids alone, and they make the most of it as, apparently running away from home along a wide stretch of barely populated Colorado plains, they come across what appears to be an abandoned police car in a secluded, slightly wooded area.

The writers/director contrive to show us this first charming, funny scene, then go back a bit in time and then forward again, surprising us and making us more than a little concerned for the safety of these two boys.

The tale takes place within a single day -- a few hours, really -- which gives it a goose of extra reality and suspense, as event piles on event until things grow much darker and we're not at all sure where they will lead or what the outcome might be. In addition to Mr. Bacon and the boys, the cast includes only two other major roles (unless you count that of Kyra Sedgwyck, who plays the voice of  the police dispatcher): Camryn Manheim (above) and Shea Whiigham (below).

The movie is so cleverly plotted, exciting and fun that it surprises me it was not more widely seen. In fact, it's that rare more-or-less-mainstream film that we critics enjoyed (79% on Rotten Tomatoes) more than the audience (54% on RT). So, if you're in a mood for a movie than goes from sunny, light and carefree to awfully dark and unsettling, take a ride in this Cop Car.

The movie is an object lesson -- for all the characters involved -- in the myriad ways in which our actions can have unintended consequences. It's particularly sad that our under-aged heroes, with so little experience to fall back on, must suddenly learn this, too.

Cop Car, from Focus Features, hits the street on Blu-ray/Digital HD and DVD this coming Tuesday, September 29, for purchase or rental. 

Woooo-eeee! Let's hear it for Israel -- as the Keshales/Papushado BIG BAD WOLVES opens...

Hey, Quentin Tarantino thinks it's the Best Film of the Year. (That'll send some cinephiles, particularly those who love uber-violence, to the theater.) But I wonder what the Israeli powers-that-be, cultural and otherwise, have to say about the new movie BIG BAD WOLVES, which, of all the films to come out of Israel that I have so far seen, including Rabies (Kalevet), paints by far the nastiest picture of the place. Granted, this is a genre movie, of the type which, if we are to believe the very good article by John Anderson that appeared in the The New York Times of January 10, those cultural/political powers-that-be would prefer not be made by talented Israeli filmmakers.

As much as I found Big Bad Wolves to be mostly a crock of ugly and very smelly faux shit, the men who made it are without doubt quite talented. The film-making team here is comprised of Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado (shown above, with Mr. Papushado on the right), who also gave us the crazily enjoyable, if awfully bloody, 2009 Rabies. Their new one is so much more accomplished in most ways that I am guessing their budget may have doubled (or better).

The film's opening, which offers in gorgeous slo-mo three kids playing hide-and-seek, in which the camera covers so much so beautifully that when, soon after, we see a pair of shoes emptied of their owner, our heart skips a beat. What happens to the little girl who was wearing these we see only sidelong, in bits and pieces, but it's horrible enough. Soon after we're treated to a point-by-point, blow by blow description of her torture, mutilation and demise. This isn't simply strong stuff: Because Big Bad Wolves is, first and foremost, an entertainment, it is also disgusting stuff. You'll want to stop the film to bathe or maybe wash the filmmakers' mouths out with soap, or their eyes with acid.

Well, hey, this sort of torture/mutilation/murder of children does go on. Even, I expect, in Israel. Further, Big Bad Wolves, turns out to be a (very) black comedy of sorts. Really. Occasionally, you'll imagine it's the blackest you've seen. And, yes, I did guffaw a few times. The give-and-take between the fellow with the shovel, above, and his mother is choice indeed, as is what happens to and with a certain birthday cake.

After this beginning, the movie is mostly then devoted to the capture and torture of a young man (Rotem Keinan, above) whom someone sort of suspects of doing this horrible deed, without -- from what I could tell -- having more than the very slightest circumstantial evidence with which to convict him. Involved in all this is a policeman (the fine Lior Ashkenazi, below, right) and his underlings; his boss (Menashe Noy, below, left); the father of the child victim (himself a former military man) played by Tzahi Grad, two photos above and in the penultimate one; and finally the father's own father. All the men in the movie turn out to be thugs of one sort or another (hence the title) -- except perhaps for our poor, put-upon victim, who teaches in a religious school (oh, yes: and an Arab who rides by on a horse from time to time).

Though it makes more sense on the surface than did Rabies, the movie has some rather gaping holes. Israeli cities have always struck me as rather heavily inhabited places, yet Big Bad Wolves exists in the kind of movie la-la-land in which a man can be chased in broad daylight down a perfectly respectable middle-to-upper-class street, then tasered and dragged back a block or two to a car and then kidnapped -- with absolute-ly nobody around to notice any of this. Yet, earlier, when the police are illegally interrogating their suspect in what is supposedly a totally deserted and abandoned building (below), all this is conveniently videotaped by a school-kid and then streamed out to YouTube-style to Israel and the world. (I can understand and sympathize with budgetary restrictions, but surely someone could have sprung for a few extras now and then, not to mention a little more logic?!)

If you can buy into crap like the above, then I am guessing that you'll buy most anything in order to get your rocks off via some super violence. Along the way the movie says a mouthful, if is to be believed, about the grossly incompetent Israeli police force and the mindset of the military. And while it is difficult not to see these scarily macho males and what they do as mirroring what Israel is doing to its in-state, Arab neighbors (and has been ever since the new state was first created), we'd best not go there. (After all, those god-damned Arabs have plenty to answer for, too!) In any case, this film can be viewed from all sorts of aspects -- social, political, or Dada-esque.

While I will not give even a hint as to what happens in the end, I will say this: Because the filmmakers clearly want to make this the darkest of dark comedy/horror/torture films (it really does achieve the level of torture porn, by the way), I simply suggest that, before it's all over, you try to imagine the very darkest outcome that you can. Depending on your own capacity for ugliness, you'll either be near correct or right-on.

Big Bad Wolves, from Magnet Releasing and running a too-long 110 minutes, opens today in New York City at the Cinema Village and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center. Simultanesouly it will open in Chicago at the Music Box, and across Canada in Ottawa, Toronto and Victoria. In the weeks to come, look for it to open in another 20 cities (click here to see all playdates) across the USA, though oddly enough I don't see Los Angeles or Hollywood listed among them. I wonder why?

The photos of the two filmmakers, second from top, 

is by Rina Castelnuovo and comes courtesy 

of the The New York Times

Don't just stand there: DO something! Lee Hirsch's BULLY arrives on DVD & Blu-ray

If nothing else, the much-talked-about documentary, BULLY, which arrives this week on Blu-ray and DVD will make grateful those of us who grew up far outside small-town America. Not that we weren't bullied (I sure as hell was) but being from a big city like Los Angeles, where I lived in the Silver Lake area back in the 1950s, both my junior-high and high schools offered, even then, a diverse enough population that I could find at least a small group of kids with whom I fit in. In the America shown in Bully -- shot in Georgia, Oklahoma, Iowa and Mississippi -- the small minds and large bodies we see and hear are often enough to make you want to run screaming from the room.

Whether it's the bullying students, their parents, police officials or school administrators, most of these people appear as witless cretins who don't have a clue to what's going on -- or worse, have many, many clues and simply don't give a damn. The film's director and co-writer Lee Hirsch, shown at right, must have either appeared as a fly on the wall or ingratiated himself something fierce to let these people allow him to film what he did. Or maybe they're simply too stupid to understand how they come across. This movie's shocks come not so much from the bullying itself, which has always gone on, but from the uncaring attitudes of so many of the adults. Yes, there are some genuinely caring folks shown here -- at community meetings, and among the parents of the bullied kids, but much of what we see will have you wanting to toss tomatoes, if not hand grenades, at your TV screen and the crass sample of humanity displayed.

Sympathy-wise, it's the bullied kids themselves who register most strongly, the first of whom we see, Tyler, can no longer be helped, as he ended his life before the film began. The others -- Alex, Ja'Meya, Kelby, Devon and a couple more -- come to us and at us like the good kids they are, enduring the kind of pressure and abuse that, I think, can finally cause total flip-outs and school massacres. Alex in particular (above), with his gorgeous Angelina Jolie-like lips (don't give up, Alex: you're gonna be a heart-breaker in a few years!) will break your heart for more immediate reasons, as you watch him endure the kind of bullying on the school bus (even when this footage is shown to the school administrators, little seems to change) that no kid should have to countenance.

On the bus, in the hallways, classrooms, the school grounds in general, we see it happening, and the babble from the adults in charge is non-stop appalling. If Ja'Meya (shown above, with her mom) gets a little less bullying time that the others, the fact that she decides to do something about this on her own makes her behavior seem less criminal than a means of self-preservation. Of all the kids on view, it's Kelby (below) who, despite everything, seems to have the inner strength to somehow persevere. Watching this young lady think, communicate, or just "be" proves inspiring.

Instead of building, Mr Hirsch allows his film to deflate somewhat by the finale, trailing off into the feel-good story of groups springing up around the country dedicated to preventing bullying. Good luck; everything helps. Though attracting enormous media coverage for all sorts of reasons prior to its theatrical release (a hallmark of the fabled Weinstein ability to garner PR), the film did not come near setting the box-office on fire. It should be seen, however. Perhaps home viewing, where families can stop in the middle when necessary to discuss what they're watching, in an ideal venue for this hot-button subject.

Bully (not to be confused with the Larry Clark film of a decade back) from The Weinstein Company and running 98 minutes, hits the street on DVD and Blu-ray today -- Tuesday, February 12 -- for rental and sale.

Netflix streaming tip: Jessica Biel shines in Pascal Laugier's surprising THE TALL MAN

Something else entirely is THE TALL MAN, the new film from Pascal Laugier, who, a few years back, gave us the ghoulish, grizzly and very dark Martyrs. To talk much at all about his newest work is to spoil the several surprises that turn the movie from one thing into another. As both writer and director of the film M. Laugier is extremely deft in how he handles the progression.

Children are disappearing from the depressed, ex-mining town of Cold Rock, and rumors attribute their disappearance to the work of a frightening figure known as the Tall Man. Jessica Biel, shown at bottom, portrays the town nurse who find herself in the midst of the latest disappearance.

Writer/director Laugier, at left, is adept at building suspense in the early scenes, which work quite wonderfully in their slightly off-kilter way. While we seem to be dealing with a number of cliches of the genre here, even as cliche, these scenes meld together speedily and smartly so that we're not troubled with too much déjà vu. And then, slowly, the very core of what we think we know is shaken, and from there we move onward.

There is at this film's base a strong element of elitism at work, which I can't go into further without spilling too many beans, so I'll just say that when watched by a group of intelligent adults, the post-movie conversation surrounding The Tall Man should be plentiful and keen.

Often, movies of almost any genre seem content to try to give us what is expected in that genre, either as well and as interestingly as possible, or just in standard format that most viewers seem perfectly willing to tolerate. Some of us, of course, keep crying out for something other than the usual cliches. Yet when a movie comes along that upends all these, it is too often under-appreciated in its initial foray. Only later, when enough outliers have been able to see and judge the film, does its reputation begin to rise.

So it will be with The Tall Man, I predict. It opened only a month or so ago, here in New York City, so the fact that you can view it now, in high definition, via Netflix streaming, is in itself reason enough to get that monthly service. (You can also rent or purchase the movie on DVD or Blu-ray.)

On DVD: David Schwimmer's TRUST is worth seeing despite its surprising flaws

Among his other credits for acting, directing and producing, ex-Friend David Schwimmer, directed one of the funniest, darkest and most insightful of high-school reunion movies, Since You've Been Gone back in 1998. Since then he has directed for TV and cable, given us the so-so theatrical release,  Run, Fatboy, Run, and now he's back with an unusual and semi-dark drama called TRUST, about a teenage girl and the online relation-ship in which she becomes involved, what happens because of this, and how she, her family and friends react to it all.

This proves very tricky territory, but Schwimmer (at left), his writers (Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger) and his cast negotiate much of it quite well -- showing us how this relationship grows, what it means to the young girl (a standout performance from relative newcomer Liana Liberato, below and further below), and how the importance of the film's title plays into the innocence of our heroine, allowing her to be taken advantage of in grueling ways that do not immediately become apparent to her, those around her -- or to us.

Trust is, first of all, a family movie -- a movie about family, though not necessarily one that you'd want the entire family to see. Although, I think it might be wise to have any family member old enough to be using the computer and the internet view the film, so long as family discussion between the adults and the kids follows the viewing.

There will be plenty of pros and cons about the behavior of the parents, as well as that of the girl, Annie, and why she acts as she does -- both before and after the central event that the movie posits. Thanks to the skills of writers, director and actress, this works surprisingly well, keeping us ever in the mind and the heart of Annie.

What works less well are mom and dad -- as played by the usually fine Catherine Keener (below, center, and wasted here in a fairly rote role) and the always sturdy/studly Clive Owen, above, who is given the kind of near-ridiculous behavior to portray that no amount of "acting" can surmount. Coming from a fellow who initially appears to love his daughter, his conduct is simply a no-go -- making the film's feel-good finale faintly annoying, rather than the moving moment for which the filmmakers clearly hoped.

Besides the wonderful Ms Liberato, the film's other "ace" is to be found in the creation of the character of Charlie (which is imagined nearly as well as that of Annie) and the performance of Chris Henry Coffey in the role (he is shown below, with Ms Liberato). We only see Charlie in two scenes in the film, but both are pivotal, and the final one is quietly and doubly revealing.

I wish Trust were a better film, but it is still an important one -- with a message for kids and families that really needs to be seen/heard. It's available now on DVD for sale or rental.