In PORTO, Gabe Klinger gives us a compelling tale of young, passionate, but one-sided love

The end credits begin with a dedication -- to Anton -- which is both justified and due, since the film's star is the late and hugely lamented Anton Yelchin, an actor whose fine performances have graced so many movies and TV shows since the turn into this new century that his loss is only beginning to be felt. (He also possessed one of the most distinctive voices in recent cinema.) The actor should have lived, worked and grown for decades longer. Yelchin turns in another memorable performance in Gabe Klinger's deeply experienced and probably very personal love story, PORTO, which takes place in that eponymous Portuguese city and details the very brief affair between a young man and an only slightly older woman -- the knockout Lucie Lucas -- over a very short time.

In order to get at the feelings of its two protagonists more deeply and also, I think, to make those feeling seem more spontaneous and honest, Mr. Klinger, shown at left, takes an oddly circuitous route, coming back and back again to the same moment but filling it in each time with more detail and sometimes a different POV. This forces us to think about the differences we see and hear and also to question their meaning(s). Eventually -- rather soon, in fact -- it becomes clear that this brief but very passionate affair has meant much more to the man, Jake, than to the woman, Marti, and that Jake, after all, is the movie's main character. (To call Jake a stand-in for Klinger seems almost obvious: The two possess such a similar look and physical build.)

As we bounce back and forth in time and place, we get know our two people, at least as much as they get to know each other in this relatively short span. Basically a two-hander -- with minor appearances by her older boyfriend-and-then-husband and their child -- the movie, as co-written (with Larry Gross) and directed by Klinger, manages to get inside the glamour/trauma of initial love and lust and make these very nearly as appealing, sexy, and frustrating as the actual event.

Yelchin, above, as Jake, looks surprisingly dark and drawn here, opening up and coming to life only in his physical/emotional connections to Ms Lucas, below, who plays Mati and offers him (and us) the kind of facial beauty and knockout physique that may put you in mind of the young Monica Bellucci -- yes, she is that stunning -- with a body that is on prominent, full-frontal display here. The sex is not skimped upon; instead it is a major part of the couple's equation.

Yet it is the emotional connection, felt so much more strongly by Jake than by Mati, that is the strongest and saddest element of the film, one that leaves Jake lost and adrift, for how long we cannot know. Yelchin captures all this, the disbelief that turn to enormous disappointment, with such strength and depth that we are with him all the way.

How the couple meets, the places they go, the things they talk about -- all of it seems simultaneously expected yet fresh. And since the movie lasts but 76 minutes, it nowhere near outstays its welcome. Just as did not Mr. Yelchin. What a loss this was. For those not so strongly acquainted with the actor's work -- aside from his best-known performances in the most recent set of Star Trek movies and the critically acclaimed but under-seen Like Crazy -- I would recommend Charlie Bartlett, Odd Thomas, Rudderless, and that great first-love story 5 to 7 for a crash course in Anton.

Meanwhile, Porto, also recommended and from Kino Lorber, opens this Friday, November 17, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and on Friday, November 24, in Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt. Elsewhere? Nothing scheduled yet, so far as I know, but surely this movie will eventually make its way to home video.

Anna Biller's THE LOVE WITCH: a bizarre original that takes us back a half-century

What an amazing "look" has the new indie pic, THE LOVE WITCH, written, directed and just-about-everything-elsed by Anna Biller. From the first frame onwards, we're transported back into the 1960s and 70s via the appearance of the men and women here -- their hair styles, make-up, beards, cars, clothing and more -- it is all so redolent of that creamy, voluptuous time period, right down to the copious full-frontal on display. The acting especially, seems to come right out of of the glossy, soft-core porn films of the day. Radley Metzger would plotz, then kvell!

Over the past couple of decades, Ms Biller (shown at right) has been building a reputation, though this is the first of her films that TrustMovies has actually seen. It's bizarre but also, in its way, memorable, so it may be a good place to begin. Set a half-century ago, it details the connivings of a young woman who doubles as a "witch" (this sort of thing was a tad more de rigeur back in that day) and is moving from one California town to another, after the demise of her unfaithful hubby. Our gal, it seems, has major love problems.

From the movie's outset, as its "heroine," Elaine (a knockout non-performance from the gorgeous Samantha Robinson, above), unveils to us via voiceover her recent love history, this character comes across as somewhat narcissistic and irresponsible. You think so? Just wait. The dialog, plotting and performances all seem equally strange and "off," and yet so often drop-dead-gorgeous is the movie -- that Victorian era tea room (shown above) is just one of the visual wonders here -- that any real film buff won't want to look away.

From man (Jeffrey Vincent Parisse, above) to man (a very funny Robert Seeley) to man (the fellow who seems to be most perfect, played by Gian Keys, shown below, leading that horse), our Elaine hypnotizes, seduces and then disposes of the poor guys who cross her path and always fail to deliver on her expectations. How and why this keeps happening provide the meat of the movie.

The film is full of philosophizing, and if most of the philosophy here struck me as second-hand, at best, it is often accompanied by visuals that are either ravishing or hilarious. This is most apparent in a scene in a burlesque night club in which a warlock and his witches, below, sit at a table having a "deep" discussion about men and their needs, as the burlesque dancer simultaneous struts her stuff, serving the men in the audience with their immediate needs. My spouse and I have not laughed this hard or this long in some time.

The movie takes us back to a time of modern-day apothecaries and Renaissance Fairs and to a world of unhappy husbands and wives and police departments in which cops get into fist fights over a snide remark about a girlfriend. Everyone plays it absolutely straight, with no hint of camp or condescension. Which of course turns the whole thing into a kind of wonderfully high-toned camp.

The movie runs two full hours and yet -- shockingly enough -- it does not seems a minute too long. It is too much oddball fun: If, that is, you can manage to get onto its wave-length.

I do have one big quibble. Toward the end of the film, we're see a cell phone in use, and then suddenly a modern-day automobile. This cannot be an unintentional continuity problem, as Ms Biller has exercised way too much control over everything for that to happen. Is the filmmaker trying to bring us into the present day in order to show us that nothing much has changed over time? If so, this was probably not the best way to do it.

Otherwise, The Love Witch is an unusual treat for those of us old enough to remember the good old movie-going days -- or young enough to want to know what they might have been like. After viewing the movie, I went to the press kit provided and eagerly perused it all. Turns out that Ms Biller really did have a huge amount of control, extending to everything from writing and direction to performances, sets, costumes and more. She tells us that she worked with her lead actress for a full year to nail down character and such.

This surely has to do with the unusual performance given by Ms Robinson, which may remind you, in its almost complete lack of anything approaching real "behavior," of the films of Robert Bresson. Here -- and in certain other performances, too -- behavior seems to have been trounced in favor of the kind of non-acting that will better get across the points Biller want to make. This ends up being something of a trade-off, really. But it does result in a movie that rather stands alone. Think of it as Besson meets Metzger.

The Love Witch, from Oscilloscope Films, opens this Friday, November 11, in California (in Los Angeles you can see it at Landmark's NuArt and elsewhere around the state) and in Texas (at the Drafthouse in Austin). Next Friday, October 18, it will expand all around the country. In New York, see it at the new Drafthouse in Brooklyn; here in South Florida it will play the Bill Cosford Cinema in Miami. Click here and scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.