Movie of the Year? Of the decade? David Robert Mitchell's UNDER THE SILVER LAKE

Thoroughly dividing critics and audiences alike (on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a score of 56% from the critics, 60% from the audience), UNDER THE SILVER LAKE has given TrustMovies his most all-out enjoyable cinema experience of the year so far. Now out on home video -- Bluray, DVD and digital -- this is a film I think you really must give a shot.

Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, shown at right, whose earlier efforts The Myth of the American Sleepover (one of the best and most graceful and surprising teen movies I've seen) and It Follows (a somewhat over-rated horror effort that proved at least original and had a very good first half), this one is Mitchell's best so far, and I wager that the 44-year-old filmmaker has a lot more to give us in his time ahead.

What makes Under the Silver Lake so special? A whole lot of things, starting with its Los Angeles/Silver Lake reservoir locale. I grew up around there and so know it well, and the movie made me feel simultaneously at home and as though, just like its hero, I'd fallen into a rabbit hole leading to wonderland.

Whether by choice or instinct, Mr. Mitchell consistently butts up the ordinary against the bizarre. Realistic details lead to anything but, while the fantastic ends up in something utterly mundane. (My favorite moment is the long, mysterious tunnel that leads our hero to a... nah: You gotta find out for yourself.) The effect is alternately alarming and delightful -- and consistently amusing. I had a smile on my face almost throughout.

Watching Under the Silver Lake is like discovering David Lynch on antidepressants and in a very good mood. Sure, this movie deals with everything from awful cults to a dog murderer on the loose, and still that smile refuses to leave your face. This also has to do with the wonderful young actor Mitchell has cast as his lead: Andrew Garfield (two photos up and below).

Since Boy A, back in 2007, I think I've seen every movie Garfield has made, and even when I thought the film mostly sucked (Silence), he never did. What a face this guy has. Those huge and immersive big-brown-eyes draw you in and hold you in thrall, and the actor is versatile enough to try all kinds of roles. His lean, lithe body, which we see just about all of in the course of the movie, is a big bonus, too. Mr. Garfield appears in, I believe, every scene of this movie, and -- to paraphrase one of his best films -- he never lets you go.

The actor plays Sam, a not particularly likeable, aging young man -- 33 and seeming to have not the least idea what to do with his, so far, pointless little life -- who spots a pretty blond named Sarah (Riley Keough, below) poolside in his apartment complex, and quickly gets to know -- and fuck -- her very briefly before, the next morning, she has disappeared, along with literally everything (almost) that was in her apartment the night before. Hmmmm... mystery.

The rest of the movie is devoted to Sam's relentless search for Sarah, which leads him into one bizarre situation after another. These grows loonier and tunier, finally culminating in a kind of wonderful closure during which Mitchell gives us his moral -- which could not be simpler nor more profound. This moral ends, if I am not mistaken, with the word "right?" and if I am also not mistaken, our hero hears this and actually considers it.
(We all should, by the way.)

Mitchell's denouement is as lovely and rich as what has come before, featuring sex, a parrot, and in the very last shot a quietly unobtrusive reference to another shot we've seen several times previous and which now suddenly resonates quite differently -- because it has happened to someone we care about. Mitchell doesn't spell any of this out, however. But it's there nonetheless (unless I am way off base in my conclusions, but I would prefer to think not).

For me this writer/director has made a marvelous kind of scavenger/Easter-egg hunt in which we -- and Sam-- really do find the prize. Other critics have suggested that there is no "there" there, but I think they are dead wrong. Were they asleep? But how could they be at a movie that is this much fun?

Along the way, there are so damned many visual and audio treats -- sets that zing, music that sings, fashions that will make you oooh, aaah and giggle -- that you'll probably want to see the whole thing again, just to be able to finally take it all in. (Janet Gaynor fans will plotz.)

For the many movie references alone -- from Pitfall and Land of the Pharaohs to Something's Got to Give -- film buffs will enjoy things, but if you're not inclined toward this sort of game-playing, don't worry. You can easily appreciate the movie for its delightful plot and satisfying resolution. Alone, for the gorgeous, frightening, knockout scene in which Sam and the character played by Callie Hernandez (above, left) actually go into/under Silver Lake, this movie is worth all of its two hours and 20 minutes.

Released by A24 and playing in theaters for a limited time this past April, Under the Silver Lake is now available in Blu-ray, DVD and digital streaming. You have no excuse for not giving it a try. (That's the funny, mysterious Grace van Patten with balloon, above.)

Charlotte Rampling gets another (semi) juicy role in Barnaby Southcombe's (semi) mystery thriller -- I, ANNA

It's usually an unalloyed pleasure to watch Charlotte Rampling work -- whether in an odd-but-revealing documentary like The Look, or giving a grand and probing performance in the recent 45 Years, or as here, in the made-in-2012-but-only-now-getting-a-video-release movie I, ANNA. Ms Rampling is often better than the films she's in (45 Years in an exception, but this one is not), although paired with that very capable actor Gabriel Byrne and surrounded by support that comes from Eddie Marsan, Hayley Atwell and Jodhi May, these actors bring enough luster to keep you interested and alert.

As directed and adapted (from the novel by Elsa Lewin) by Barnaby Southcombe (shown at left), who has worked in television for some fifteen years (this is his first full-length feature), the movie tracks the tale of an older woman named Anna (Ms Rampling), as she goes out for the first time to one of those "dating" evenings that take place in the meeting rooms of large hotels, and at which she uses the pseudonym, Allegra.

Just previous to this, we've seen her in a phone booth (no cell phone for this lady!) asking if she might join someone (lover? ex-husband?) on some sort of trip. We only see one side of the conversation, but the answer appears to be negative. Sure enough, Anna meets someone at the dating night, but  before you can say "Have fun, honey," our girl suddenly appears to come awake and rise from the floor next to her date -- who is now a very bloodied corpse.

What happened here -- and how -- is what the movie is mostly about. That, and the not-very-professional police work done by our "hero," the investigating detective played by Mr. Byrne (above), who meets our heroine in the building's elevator, where she has left her umbrella, and appears to fall in love at first sight (well, hell: the object of that love is Ms Rampling, so why not?).

Does our Anna (above) return that interest? Yes, sort of, but this lady, particularly as brought to life by the actress, is a rather complicated person. Divorced, she has a daughter and grandson with whom she lives and in whom (the daughter, at least, played with loving annoyance by Ms. Atwell) she confides.

Slowly and bit by bit (a little too slowly, in fact, and with too many of those bits), the filmmaker lets us have a closer look at what happened on that fateful night. Other possible suspects come to the fore -- the man's ex-wife (Ms May) and his son -- yet back and back we keep coming to the Rampling character. And the actress does not disappoint.

Unlike Dominique Sanda (whom we viewed only yesterday), Catherine Deneuve, Stefania Sandrelli, as well as other actress of this age range, Rampling has not grown matronly. She is as stunning and svelte as ever -- just older. And I think she is more able now than ever before to be expressive and deepen her performances.

Mr. Southcombe does have a major surprise in store for us, and the fun of this lies in how we suddenly see the ways in which we've been misled all along. For his finale, the filmmaker clearly has a choice of two directions. While I would have chosen the other one, the needs of today's marketplace surely predicated the unjustified and less-than-believable ending of I, Anna.

From The KimStim Collection and running 93 minutes, the movie is being distributed in the USA by Icarus Films Home Video, and will appear on DVD this Tuesday, June 21, for rental or purchase.

Dave Boyle's sun-kissed noir, MAN FROM RENO, shows us creativity put to dire and dreadful uses

What an odd one is MAN FROM RENO, the new film from Dave Boyle, and the first of his work that TrustMovies has seen. A sort of sun-dappled neo-noir in which our heroine, Aki, a Japanese writer of an internationally famous detective novel,  comes to San Francisco and gets embroiled in the kind of mystery that, initially at least, seems like an Asian example of a Nancy Drew tale (at one point  the California sheriff who's also investigating the case, refers to Aki as exactly that). The movie begins in one of those thick Frisco fogs, during which a car hits a pedestrian, and a mystery unravels.

In Boyle's movie, we begin by tracking both Aki (Ayako Fujitani, above) and that sheriff (Pepe Serna, below, right) as they work independently on things that will eventually flow into a single case that grows more bizarre (what's in the toilet) and deadly (after awhile the bodies start piling up).

There is also one hell of a major villain to contend with -- one who proves a complete sociopath without even a hint of caring or remorse.

One of Mr. Boyle's finest achievements (the filmmaker is shown at left) here may lie in making us imagine that all this is much more fun than it is dangerous, then pulling the rug out from under both his characters and us. He plays deftly and rather charmingly with movie conventions and characterizations until, somewhat in the same manner that effects our poor Aki, we're shocked, trapped and unable -- even unwilling -- to believe what just happened. And that's all I'm willing to say about plot machinations.

The filmmaker -- who both directed and co-wrote the film (with help from regular collaborators Joel Clark and Michael Lerman) -- evidently enjoys creating stories in films that make use of both American and Japanese actors in an American setting. More power to him -- especially if those films are as interesting and unusual as this one.

The performances are, to a man and woman, low-key and believable -- which helps create the ambience necessary for the quiet shock and awe that follows. Cinematography and editing are first-rate, as well. The movie probes the uses of creativity toward ends both good and evil, and in the process tackles the subject of plagiarism, as well.

It is great to see again Mr. Cerna (above), one of our favorites from back in the 1970s and 80s, and in a leading role, this time. Ms Fujitani is smart and lovely as Aki, and a special word must be said for Kazuki Kitamura (three photos above and just below), one gorgeous hunk who proves to be a lot more, too.

Man From Reno -- a certifiable original distributed by First Pond Entertainment and running a surprisingly fleet 111 minutes -- opens tomorrow, Friday, March 27, in New York City at the Regal E-Walk theater, and in the greater Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Playhouse 7 and Royal. In the weeks to come it will hit another dozen locations, on the dates, in the cities, and at the theaters listed below:

April 3 - Torrance, CA - AMC Rolling Hills 20 

April 3 - Irvine, CA - Edwards University Town Center 6 

April 10 - San Francisco, CA - Sundance Kabuki Theatre 

April 17 - Washington D.C. - Angelika Theatre 

April 17 - Chicago, IL - Facets  

April 17 - Portland, OR - Regal Fox Tower 10 

April 24 - Honolulu, HI - The Angelika 

April 24 - San Diego, CA - Digital Gym 

April 30 - Seattle, WA - Northwest Film Forum 

May 1 - Lowell, MA - The Luna Theatre  

May 8 -  Amherst, NY - The Screening Room 

May 22 - Columbus, OH - Gateway Film Center

Nifty/violent/old-fashioned/new-fangled fun: David Grovic's colorful neo-noir, THE BAG MAN

What fun is this -- a real movie-movie that fairly screams neo-noir, yet with a color palette never seen in any noir (at least since Leave Her to Heaven, and this one's much more day-glo-ish); has a tight 'n twisty plot involving trust, betrayal, and what's-in-that-bag; and features a cast to die for, including some first-class "known quantities" working at or near their best, along with some newer-and-not-so-known performers who shine as brightly as do those "stars." THE BAG MAN -- directed by David Grovic and co-written by him, along with Paul Conway, from an original screenplay by actor James Russo, all of whom I gather were inspired by a story called The Cat by Marie-Louise von Franz -- is absolutely as fast-moving and entertaining a movie as you could ask for.

Mr. Grovic, shown at left, breaks his film into three very clear sections. The first (the set-up) and the last (the denouement) are short and sweet. The very long middle section, which houses the twisty plot and climax, is full to the brim with surprise, shock and suspense, along with some dark comedy, a little irony, mega-violence and a high body count but not, thankfully, much undue blood and gore (we see what we have to, but the filmmaker doesn't revel in it, Tarantino-style). Instead, the creative staff does a kind of homage to that cool/hot style of Hollywood noir.

They must love those old movies, for they honor them well, while also using the current tricks-of-the-trade to make their movie move speedily and friskily. Just take a gander at the tacky, broken-down motel with its neon sign and garish, moody lighting, as our maybe-hero and maybe-heroine, stand around bickering and bantering. Yet the movie-makers are also smart enough to ensure that their plot thickens and quickens, delivering plenty of excitement and simmering sexuality to keep us on our marks -- and the characters on theirs.

Details of that plot are best left for you to peruse as the movie rolls along, but  I do have to recommend that you at the very least hang on until a certain scene unfurls -- an original if I've ever seen one. It takes place in and around a car, and although that car finally gets moving, this is not -- thankfully -- a car chase. Instead it's something original: swift, shocking, funny and riveting. Though there's plenty more good stuff, before and after, I must recommend The Bag Man for this singular, hold-your-breath scene alone.

Grovic has cast his film interestingly and well. In one of the lead roles is John Cusack (above, left), an actor who's been working a lot lately, turning in excellent performances, even in movies that were not always first-rate, as is this one. As his leading lady, we have an actress -- Rebecca Da Costa (above, right) -- who has made a few films so far, all unseen by me. I hope this movie sets Ms Da Costa on the fast track because she gives it her all, and that turns out to be quite a lot. Sexy, smart, devious and appealing, she's just about everything a neo-noir heroine/femme fatale should be. She and Cusack work together wonderfully well.

In the third role is an old friend of moviegoers, Robert De Niro (above), who has often been accused over the past decade or so, of phoning in certain performances. Well, the actor is so good here -- specific, resonant, charismatic -- that if you didn't already know who he was, you'd come out of this movie raving, "That guy's gonna be a star!"

In smaller roles, everyone shines -- from the always-fun Crispin Glover (wheelchair-bound, four photos up) as the motel manager to Dominic Purcell (above) as a local cop, Martin Klebba as a tiny-but-naughty henchman, and Sticky Fingaz -- the typing of whose ridiculous name makes my own fingers wince. (If it's going to Fingaz instead of fingers, oughtn't it also be Stickee instead of Sticky? Well, it's all too schticky.) In any case, Mr. Fingaz turns in a good performance, as well.

I may be over-rating this piece of toss-away entertainment. But, damn, The Bag Man is so entertaining (and so smart in so many ways) that it deserves an extra accolade. Consider the above exactly that.

The movie -- another good one from Cinedigm -- opens this Friday, February 28, at AMC theaters all around the country in fifteen cities. Here in NYC, it'll play at the AMC Empire 25. In Los Angeles, you'll find it at the Universal Citywalk Stadium 19. It will also play Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Tampa and Washington DC. Consult your local listings in those cities to find the particular AMC theater.

DEAD MAN DOWN: Niels Arden Oplev's American directing debut proves a winner

So who is Niels Arden Oplev? Remember The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo? No, no: the original version. That's right: this guy directed it. And very well, too. Not up to Fincher level, for sure, but profession-ally, intelligently and with a good eye for the visuals. Now, after polishing off a few episodes of the American TV show Unforgettable, he's back with his first real American movie, a nifty, twisty, neo-noir thriller fueled by the need for revenge -- and titled DEAD MAN DOWN.

In both these films (which are the only examples of his work that I've seen), Mr. Oplev, shown at left, combines a flair for action set-pieces, the kind of smart pacing that good thrillers need, strong visuals, crackerjack editing -- and a case for female empowerment. Immeasurably helping that last subject is the star of both movies, Noomi Rapace. This rather special Swedish actress (shown below), who combines beauty and vulnerability with a strong personality and the willingness to try very different roles, here plays a young woman named Beatrice, disfigured via an accident and its repercussions, who is now seeking out a little revenge on the drunk driver who caused it.

The instrument of that revenge is none other than Victor, played by another good actor, the oft-seen-of-late Colin Farrell (below), whose compact, muscular and very sexy little body, coupled to his ability to communicate sensitivity, provides the perfect complement to Rapace's buried beauty and angry vulnerability. These two make a wonderful couple, and the manner in which screenwriter J. H. Wyman and Oplev place them together and let them slowly fuss and fizz goes a long way toward bringing the audience into the movie in a humane and believable manner.

Victor, you see, is a kind of assassin who works for crime sub-kingpin (wouldn't that make him a princepin, or maybe a dukepin?) Terrence Howard, shown below. More than this you should not know going into the movie, for it is full of small surprises that entertain, even as they keep you on your toes.

Also in this mix is Victor's best friend, played by Dominic Cooper (below, left) and -- here's a surprise treat -- Isabelle Huppert as Beatrice's mom, who's a bit hard-of-hearing but enjoys cooking. Huppert adds some lovely class and a little humor to what is basically quite a noir-ish stew, the ingredients of which include family, loss, betrayal, revenge and love.

The movie works as well as it does, I think, due to its excellent construction, in which the initial scene -- an odd but very interesting one -- connects so thoroughly and emotionally with the film's through-line right up to and including its final scene. The morality here is complicated and difficult, and the situations of both hero and heroine are particularly sad.

Farrell and Rapace (above and below) bring genuine chemistry and emotional appeal to their roles, and the supporting cast, for the most part, are properly nasty so that we can watch them die without squirming overly much. Yet this is no Tarrantino kill-fest; Oplex never lingers over the ghastly or the gore. Instead this is a wonderfully satisfying crime-noir melodrama -- perhaps the best in the last decade since that unusually fine French film, Chaos.

From Film District and running a surprisingly lengthy but never overlong 110 minutes, Dead Man Down opens today, Friday, March 8, at theaters everywhere. To find those closest to you, simply click here, and then click on GET TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES.

BOY WONDER, Michael Morrissey's mixed bag, is available now via VOD and DVD

Responsibility for the interesting but flawed film BOY WONDER most definitely lies with its writer/director/
producer Michael Morrissey. In this, his first foray into writing and directing (he's acted as producer on a number of house-and/or-home-related TV series), Morrissey (shown below) cleverly conflates a few different genres, from neo-noir and vigilante thriller to women-in-jeopardy and the more recent, would-be super-hero film. His questionable "hero," Sean Donovan, long ago saw his mother murdered during a car-jacking gone wrong, and he's never forgiven the murderer -- nor himself. But hey, he was only a kid at the time.

Older now (he appears to be one of those typical "elderly" high school students we so often see in the movies), Sean (played by Caleb Steinmeyer, below) is determined to protect abused women everywhere (in the Brooklyn area, at least), and so here he is saving the ladies and killing the guys. His modus operandi is a bit strange, however: He first interferes, allows himself to be beaten up, and then pulls knife or gun and gets down to the real work at hand. From a psychological standpoint of guilt and self-punishment, this makes some sense, and if the first part of the film were not so full of questionable moments, it would be easier to go along with it all. But little (and not so) things begin to rankle.

First there's the quite unbelievable conversation that Detective Ames (Zulay Henao, below, right) has with an arch villain named Larry Childs (James Russo) -- right in the middle of a courtroom. Later Ames finds Sean alone in the police station at night and appears to accept everything he says at face value. And, boy, is Sean ever privy to an awful lot of woman/child abuse. Literally everywhere he looks, something bad is going on. Plus, some of the villains seem a bit more attuned to reality than is Sean: "You didn't save her; you made it worse," one of them tells the kid. Most damaging of all is the fact that we have a hero who's a one-note whack job, and would, in any real world, long ago have been committed to a hospital.

But then small parcels of further information get dropped in our laps, and as we learn more about the situation, it deepens and begins to interest us. Sean's dad, for instance, is not (or at least was not always) the fine, loving father we initially see. And what's with that odd chemical compound the kid's been looking up on the internet? Coincidences abound, and soon it begins to look like everything is connected. The ending moves from shocking to delicious to ironic and darkly funny.

Should you stick things out, you'll probably be glad you did, for that finale is indeed crackerjack. If you give up halfway along, however, no one would blame you, for the movie, finally, falls somewhere between the near-rave, three-and-one-half stars that Roger Ebert gave it, and the deadly pan that The New York Times reviewer Jeannette Catsoulis handed out.

Boy Wonder, from Inception Media Group, hit the streets this past November 8 on DVD, and has been available via VOD since late October. Further good news: Netflix starts renting it out this Tuesday, November 22.