Blu-ray debut for Richard Kelly's ever-more-pertinent cult classic, SOUTHLAND TALES

Fifteen years have passed since SOUTHLAND TALES, the follow-up film to Richard Kelly's now cult classic Donnie Darko, made its theatrical debut. 

Back in 2006, TrustMovies found the film alternately bewildering and fun. As I recall, the movie also marked the passing of the name of one of its stars, The Rock, into the more mainstream moniker of Dwayne Johnson (his co-stars were the then-very-hot Sarah Michelle Gellar and Seann William Scott). 

Mr. Kelly, meanwhile, has written and directed only one other movie since then, The Box (from 2009). This seems to me a great waste, as all three of his films may be flawed, but they are also fascinating. Southland Tales, in fact, holds up much better now, I believe, than it seemed to upon release. Times have, unfortunately, caught up with the movie, and it turns out that Kelly (shown at right) was either prescient or remarkably ahead of his time.

His plot, if you can even quite call it that, both sci-fi-ish and political, has to do with travel between dimensions and the fight between right-wing fascists and left-wing neo-Marxists for the power and soul of the USA. Very big deals, right? Yet Kelly seems more amused by it all than overly worked up. And while his sympathies may lie more with the left than the right, he makes fun of both their methodologies, while making the most of his very game cast -- the supporting roles of which are played by some of our crème de la crème of comic actors (then and now).

Kelly also makes the most of the sex appeal (as well as the general appeal) of his three stars. Johnson (above, left) and Scott (at right) shine brightest here, though Gellar (below), in a lesser role, is certainly good enough. 

The filmmaker's tone is remarkably consistent in its goofiness, and this is where those supporting actors prove most important. Crazy as things get -- do they ever -- performers such as Nora Dunn (below), Jon Lovitz, Amy Poehler, John Larroquette and Beth Grant keep things humming and on track throughout. 

Wallace Shawn and Bai Ling (below, left and right) are used delightfully, too, as is the late Zelda Rubinstein (further below). Even as the "plot" keeps spinning off grid, the enjoyment of watching these actors strut their stuff keeps us happily bouncing along. 

From the outset Southland Tales is apocalyptic (think climate change, even if the movie puts it elsewhere), while the behavior of its generally crazy characters is often violent and close-to-scary. Timely, right?  

Further, the willingness of most of the characters -- politicians, military, police -- to embrace this terrible scenario also proves a little too close for comfort. If Kelly and his script is serious about anything, that would be our back-then-current -- and fuck-it-all, still current -- mid-east wars. 

The film's narrator (and perhaps the actual main character), a wounded vet played by Justin Timberlake (above) gets a kind of musical number for himself and his hot-girl chorus that is both wonderful and downright depressing.

Finally, though, it's the charisma, charm and sheer sex appeal of the three stars that bring the movie home. When one woman places a gun to her head and tells the character played by Johnson that if she can't suck his dick, she's going to pull the trigger, I suspect you'll know exactly how she feels. Then, once satisfied, what the hell, we'll be ready for that apocalypse.

From Arrow Video (distributed here in the USA via MVD Entertainment Group) and running 158 minutes (in the Cannes Festival cut) and 145 minutes (the theatrical cut) -- both are included on this two-disc 2K restoration set, approved by director Kelly and director of photography Stephen Poster, which also includes some nice Bonus features -- Southland Tales hit the street for purchase this past January. My copy, however, did not arrive until last week. Hence the late reporting. Click here for more information on the release.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: Matthew Rankin's skewed-up romp of Canadian history arrives

There really was a Mackenzie King (actually named William Lyon Mackenzie King), and once I'd seen the truly bizarre new "spoof," THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, a Canadian film written and directed by Matthew Rankin, my fingers raced across the keyboard and onto Wikipedia to find out more. That "more" bears little resemblance to anything I saw in Rankin's movie -- except perhaps the most important lesson the world seems to have to relearn with every new administration elected to office: Politicians are mostly sleazebag pieces of shit. 

Mr. Rankin, shown at left, has been compared to another Canadian filmmaker, Guy Maddin, and that comparison seems to TrustMovies both apt and inapt. 

Rankin and Maddin love to tell fanciful tales using all sorts of stylistic devices, but I'd call Maddin's work -- well, there is much more of it to explore; this is Rankin's first full-lengther, after a slew of shorts -- both deeper and wider ranging. I wish I knew more about Canada and Canadian history, in any case, because I am sure that would only increase the pleasure I found from watching the film.

A bizarre compilation of live action, animated sets, and wonderfully politically-incorrect  moments -- the movie begins with a scene taking place in a "Home for Defective Children" -- Rankin proceeds from tuberculosis and sudden love to an orgasmic cactus, beaucoup gay references, class, cross-dressing, onanism, and a heavy-duty foot fetish. Have I left something out? Very probably.

Rankin has assembled a fine cast (none of whom I immediately recognized) to bring to, well, "life" is not quite the right word, his oddball tale of how Mackenzie King rose to prominence and finally to Minister-ship, with a wonderfully devious and utter-twat-like performance by Dan Beirne (above, enjoying one of his character's greatest pleasures) in the leading role. You'll keep rooting for this guy to finally come through as simply a terribly flawed human being, but Mr. Beirne's performance manages to smartly elude even that. 

Supporting roles -- from Kee Chan (above) as a "yellow peril" doctor to Louis Negin as King's scenery-chewing mother -- are all handled with proper if oddball elan, and if Rankin's dialog is often rather flat, his visual and stylistic choices carry things along. (Yes, many of the female roles are played by men and the male ones by women. It's that kind of film)

In its way, the movie may be awfully anti-Canada (as Rankin perceives it, at least). Early on, one of the in-charge personages offers this prayer: "May disappointments keep us safe from unreasonable longings and foolish aspirations." Soon after we hear: "Do more than is your duty. Expect less than is your right." Hmmm... Words that more and more western countries seem to be living by, Canadian and otherwise. (Or, more probably, have always lived by.) 

In any case, The Twentieth Century manages to be foolish-but-pointed, thoughtful-while-ridiculous and always a lot of fun, especially for those of a sexual/gender-bending mind-set that revels in making fun of everything from heterosexual patriarchy to -- my, oh, my -- French-Canadian separatism.

From Oscilloscope Films and running just 90 minutes, the movie opened this past weekend and is currently playing across the country -- either virtually or via actual walk-in venues. Click here then scroll down to see all current playdates, cities and theaters.

The remarkable Beanie Feldstein anchors Coky Giedroyc/Caitlin Moran's HOW TO BUILD A GIRL

How remarkable is Beanie Feldstein? Well, she was aces doing that supporting role in Lady Bird, then grabbed the brass ring as one of the leads in Booksmart. Just the other day, some of us learned she could sing, too, during that wonderful 90th birthday celebration for Stephen Sondheim (watch it here). This week the Los Angeles born and raised actress opens as the star of HOW TO BUILD A GIRL, in which she plays the daughter of a very working class British family, with an acccent that seems -- to my ears, at least -- spot on. She also absolutely anchors this oddball little movie via her laser focus, boundless energy and ability to make us care, no matter how "offbeat" be some of her choices..

With a screenplay adapted from her own novel by Caitlin Moran (shown at left in the photo at right) and directed by Coky Giedroyc (at right), the presumably somewhat autobiographical novel-to-movie is so utterly and fully inhabited by Ms Feldstein that you could just about believe that she wrote and directed it, too.

This is not to take anything away from the talent and work of Ms Morgan and Ms Giedroyc; I am merely pointing out how perfect a kind of creative collaboration the combo of these three women provides. As odd as the tale is and further becomes, everything somehow works. And Ms Feldstein goes from a believable 16-year-old to so much more in the space of a mere hour and 42 minutes.

Morgan's theme, built right into her title, is how we become who we are and/or can be. All of us, men and women, have gone through this with varying results, and of course, we're still working on it. But most of us may not have started with quite the bizarre family situation that our hero Johanna has. Nor will we have taken the even more bizarre route that our heroine travels.

Our girl is clearly a writer from the outset. What to write about is the big question. Her journey takes her from a local televised poetry competition to penning reviews for a completely male-run music magazine to writing a feature rock-star profile, and finally to learning that, in this society, snark plays (and pays) better than praise.

Along the way, we spend time with her family: a music-besotted father (the always wonderful Paddy Considine) and kindly, caring, smart-ass brother (Laurie Kynaston, above, left), and finally and especially that particular rock star named John Kite, played with singular intelligence and delight by Alfie Allen, below. You can easily understand how Johanna could fall in love with this guy, as well as how he could be charmed to distraction by our girl.

How it all unravels and re-ravels proves increasingly joyous, if somewhat fraught, with a fine cameo from Emma Thompson (below, left) near the finale. As coming-of-age movie go, How to Build a Girl is singular and most welcome. I can't wait to see the result of Ms Feldstein's next role -- playing Mary in a movie version of Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along. Though if, as promised, director Richard Linklater takes as long on this one as he did on Boyhood, TrustMovies won't live long enough to see it. Damn!

From IFC Films and running 102 minutes, the movie opens in three actual theaters (hooray, but yes, they're drive-ins) in Glendale, Arizona; Sacramento, California; and Ocala, Florida) and on ditial and cable VOD this Friday, May 8 -- for purchase and/or rental. Go for it!

Investigating ambient sounds while creating some ravishing visuals: Michael Tyburski and Ben Nabors' THE SOUND OF SILENCE

I think a warning is in order here: If you insist on your movies being tidy and never open-ended, then perhaps move on to your next film of interest. THE SOUND OF SILENCE, a new American independent from co-writer (with Ben Nabors) and director Michael Tyburski is so small, quiet (even in its loud-sound moments) and unassuming that many folk will probably pass it right by. For those of us, however, who want something different that can engage our minds -- and even, dare I say it, our souls -- this oddball little movie is quite something else.

Misters Tyburski (shown at right) and Nabors have contrived a tale of a fellow named Peter (played by the inestimable Peter Sarsgaard, on poster above and in the final two photos, below) who is enamored of sounds -- together with the ways in which they form patterns that help contain and/or control our lives. He makes his living helping folk in need. In fact, he is, as his invoice puts it, a "house tuner" who discovers what, in various apartments and homes, is amiss and depriving his clients of sleep, energy, or general well-being.

Peter has been so successful, in fact, that no less than The New Yorker has profiled the guy. Yet regarding his latest client, Ellen Chasen (Rashida Jones, two photos down, giving another of her lovely, understated performances), something has gone amiss, and Peter seems unable to help her much.

Along with all this comes our protagonist's own need for some kind of acceptance from his peers and the scientific community; instead, it is only the marketing community that seems keen on using him and his work.

As Peter negotiates everything from a very personal kind of industrial espionage to his relationship with Ellen, the movie moves slowly yet entrancingly along, as viewers become immersed in this fellow's world of sound -- and the filmmaker's world of visuals which, it seems to TrustMovies, echoes in its own way that special sound experience.

Tyburski and his cinematographer (Eric Lin) show us a universe of patterns of every sort, in the design of both architecture and nature, and these take us with Peter on his journey, while consistently giving us something unusual, beautiful and a just a bit confounding to view as we listen.

Fuss has been made about the film's refusal to guide us definitely toward an understanding of things -- of whether Peter is brilliant or simply befuddled, whether his ideas are right or wrong, whether he and Ellen will get together, whether his scientific peers are on base or off, whether or not that marketing concern has ripped him off. So what?

If everything's up in the air, still, it surely does sound good -- and look even better. The fine supporting cast includes the likes of Austin Pendleton and Tony Revolori, both of whom add their own special, on-the-nose talents to this unusual mix.

From IFC Films and running just 87 minutes, the movie opened this past Friday, September 13, in New York City at the IFC Center and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. Simultaneously it will be available nationwide via VOD.

Victimization/self-victimization in Matthew Wollin's puzzle movie, THE SKIN OF THE TEETH

The most interesting and weighty dialog exchange in THE SKIN OF THE TEETH, a new what-the-fuck's-going-on-here movie from writer/director Matthew Wollin, occurs when a would-be police officer refers to her charge as "you people." What do you mean by that? he responds: Gays, Blacks, or what? "I mean 'suspects'," she answers. And all of a sudden this very oddball movie is about victimhood. Or maybe self-victimization, since our non-hero, a black man by the name of Josef, seems to have pretty much brought this trauma upon himself.

Mr. Wollin, shown at left, is intent on mystifying us as much as he mystifies poor Josef, a fellow who goes on a Grindr-like date, immediately combs the bathroom of said date for possible drugs, finds some upstairs and takes a dose (even though he has no idea what it might contain) and then, after experiencing some woozy-making side effects, takes another dose for good measure.

He gets a whole lot more than he bargained for.

Josef is played by Pascal Arquimedes (above, left, on poster and below), while his seemingly wealthy/ gourmet chef/spying-on-his-neighbors-with-their-consent hook-up is essayed by Donal Brophy, who is shown at bottom, right.

The movie is being compared to a combination of Get Out and the aforementioned Grindr, neither of which really computes. Get Out was more entertaining and even, oddly enough, more believable. Grinder usually results in some sex, while this film has no nudity, let alone a sex scene.

What it does have is puzzlement, a certain amount of which is enticing and fun. One character will become another, simply by wearing a mask (as above), or by being played by an entirely different actor, as though maybe no one will notice. In this sense, the movie is more in-your-face transgressive than anything else.

But what is it really about? You got me. It's short enough (79 minutes) that you may go along for the ride in any case, especially if you're given to films that prove intentional puzzles with no easy (or even difficult) answer.

TrustMovies enjoys a good puzzle, and while he doesn't always require answers, he does expect a bit more actual content than this movie -- which seems mostly interested in provoking us (and Josef) -- provides. And please, people: don't think for a moment that you are getting here a remake of that great Thornton Wilder play, The Skin of Our Teeth. That will result in major disappointment.

From TLA Releasing, The Skin of the Teeth opens theatrically in New York City this Friday, May 10, at the Cinema Village. Elsewhere? Don't know of any other playdates, but the DVD for the film will be available come next Tuesday, May 14.

Scenes from a marriage, French-style, in Nicolas Bedos/Doria Tillier's funny/moving/ surprising MONSIEUR & MADAME ADELMAN

The remarkable -- and remarkably entertaining -- French film from 2017, MONSIEUR ET MADAME ADELMAN, seems to me all the more so for never getting a theatrical release here in the USA. Instead it is arriving straight-to-DVD via Icarus Home Video and Distrib Films US and is very much worth seeking out.

What's more, it bears quite a noticeable comparison to another recent film that I shall not name here, for fear for giving away a major spoiler. It is also better by leaps and bounds than that not-to-be-mentioned movie, which, if you've seen it, by the end of Monsieur et Madame Adelman, you will probably cry its name aloud. A creation of the film's director, co-writer and leading actor, shown at far left, Nicolas Bedos (son of Guy Bedos), and co-writer and leading actress, Doria Tillier, shown near left, the movie tracks, over two very solid hours, the four-decades-plus relationship of this eventual husband and wife, with all the ups and down one might expect -- plus quite a lot more that one might not.

The film begins at the end, as our heroine sits down for an interview with a journalist regarding her life with her late husband, a famous Prix Goncourt-winning writer, of whom she was probably his fiercest critic. From the almost schoolgirlish crush she has on the guy, through a very oddball sort of seduction via, first, his best friend and then his older brother, Sarah Adelman achieves just about all she sets her sights on, along with other things she'd perhaps have preferred not to.

Her man and budding writer, Victor (how he comes by her last name proves one of the many delights of this film), is actually nowhere near as interesting as his wife, which, by the end of this unusual movie, becomes one of the more pertinent points of discussion about M. & Mme. Adelman.

Oh, he is plenty interesting enough, as portrayed by Bedos fils, yet this movie makes clear that he is also, somehow, a kind of creation of Sarah who, from the very first, refuses to see him as he is but rather as the person she wants him to be. But then don't so many of us, when "falling in love," see someone quite other than the person standing right in front of us? We're just not maybe so single-minded and insistent as Sarah.

While the film takes the usual course -- respective families, work, success (above), parenting (below), middle age and beyond -- how all these play out is not so much the expected. (The couple's first-born child: whew!) And being a French film, we're also given a tad more philosophizing and food-for-thought that an American counterpart might offer.

The movie's awash with humor, often of the dark variety. It is also a grand romance -- in its oddball way. And a "history" of sorts. Psychiatry/therapy play into things, as well, with the gifted Denis Podalydès in the role of Victor's shrink. (The film's "take" on Judaism is unusual, too -- a welcome change from so much else we've seen.)

Where M. & Mme. Adelman is going and how it gets there is as surprising as is most else about this film. It will leave you, I think, with very mixed feelings. Which, TrustMovies suspects, is exactly how these talented filmmakers would want you to feel.

From Distrib Films US via Icarus Home Video and running 120 minutes, the movie hits the street on DVD this coming Tuesday, March 12 -- for purchase and/or rental.  Do check this one out!

LOS REYES: Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff's canine treat is a doggone winner

The Miami Film Festival opens today and continues through March 10 (you can find out all about it by clicking the above link), and though TrustMovies has seen only a single film in the huge array, it was both good and unusual enough to merit a visit to this annual local cinema event.

I should think that dyed-in-the-wool dog lovers will cream their jeans over LOS  REYES, the new film from Bettina Perut (below, left) and Iván Osnovikoff (below, right). Los reyes translates to the kings and is the name of the oldest skate park in Santiago, Chile. Viewers of this new documentary, however, may rightfully imagine that the name applies to the two stars of the film: Fútbol (above, left) and Chola (above, right), the two stray dogs who have made their permanent home in the park.

The canines seems to have worked out a kind of peace with the many skateboarders who zip and zag around them in the park, and the two animals are the major subjects of this rather amazing movie. The filmmaking team shows the dogs but tells us nothing about them, and this refusal to anthropomorphize the pair in any way is welcome and smart.

Other than ambient sounds, the only dialog we hear is that of the young people who frequent the park and chat to each other about their lives. We barely see these humans but we do hear their oddball and sometimes sad stories of families in disarray, discord and drugs -- into which everything from class, economics and personal responsibility come into play.

All the while the cameras focus on the dogs -- at rest and play, barking, jumping, chasing, panting, even occasionally humping (we see a few other dogs throughout the film, but the focus is almost constantly on Chola and the increasingly aging Fútbol).

And -- oh, boy -- do our filmmakers love unusual close-ups and camera angles. I suspect you will not have seen the doggie sights anywhere else that you will see here (an insect resting on our canine's canine). We view their faces, yes, but also their paws, eyes and snouts. These are "mug shots" like no other.

The juxtapositioning of visuals and dialog makes a very strange combination, one that differentiates the animal world from the human in ways you won't previously have experienced. And this separation seems somehow necessary -- and salutary.

The park itself is at one point repainted and made ready for some kind of event. Along the way we get the sense that the young park goers we hear are somehow growing up a bit. And that the older dog, Fútbol, is declining. The shots we see of insect symbiosis with the older dog is near-shocking but very strange and even oddly moving. Nature in the raw.

Without, I hope, doing too much anthropomorphizing here, it seems to me that the filmmakers allow us to experience loss and grief via the remaining Chola. And this short scene may be enough to break the heart of even the toughest of dog lovers.  Los Reyes is something to see and experience.

The documentary, a co-production of Chile and Germany running just 77 minutes, will play during the Miami Film festival this Sunday, March 3, at 6:45pm at the Silverspot Cinema. I don't think the film has U.S. distribution as yet, but perhaps the recent showing during the FSLC's Film Comment Selects series, coupled to the current one at this Florida film festival, will help induce an intrepid distributor to come aboard.