ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS: Michal Marczak's entry into the hybrid doc genre

Something akin to the recently reviewed All This Panic, which covers the life of adolescent American girls in New York City as they come to terms with the adulthood that lies ahead, the new Polish hybrid documentary ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS would appear to want to do the same using as protagonists a couple of young Polish men located in Warsaw. Both films, though said to be documentaries, are created with such visual immediacy and flair, using dialog that often seems written rather than spoken, that they more closely resemble narrative films.

Michal Marczak, the film's director and co-writer (along with Katarzyna Szczerba) uses a style that immediately immerses us in his protagonists and their world -- at least that part of their world that he chooses for us to experience. Mr. Marczak, shown at right, begins his film with an explanation of what he calls "The Reminiscence Bump": the tendency of human beings to hang onto memories of adolescence and young adulthood above all others.

And why not? Those are such formative and memorable years, after all. So gorgeously composed, shot and edited is the film that for some while it is easy to overlook the very sexist stance the movie adopts (and then runs with), as our two young men -- Krzysztof Baginski (above, right) and Michal Huszcza (above, left) -- talk to each other but then, when they interact with young women, talk at them. The ladies are objects to possess and play with, but god help the boys, particularly Krzys who becomes the main protagonist here, when some real intimacy is required.

The objectification continues via some full-frontal nudity, of  course featuring one of the young women, while our boys barely bother to take off more than a shirt. At one point, while playing their sex games, the girl mentions what an enormous cock Krzys possesses, but, while she can disrobe and show it all off, his body remains almost entirely off limits. Further, while a huge strain of homo-eroticism binds the two boys, this, too, is completely unexplored, save for some noticeable jealousy on the part of Michal.

All this builds up overtime, and because we learn almost nothing about the background of the two young men -- are they from wealth? Certainly neither seem to work nor even attend school -- the behavior of Krzys, in particular, grows tiresome and annoying. He takes self-involvement to new heights (or depths), even for an aging adolescent, and eventually we see him pretty much entirely as the rather typical male chauvinist prick. (Note the scene in which he walks through a traffic jam in which drivers have gotten out of their cars and are standing in the street to see what's going on. Krzys pays no attention to the one woman we see, nearly knocking into her door, while he carefully walks around all the men who are standing at the door of their cars.)

There's plenty -- too much, actually -- dancing and drugs along the way, which adds to the film's length while not giving us any more characterization. By the finale, I have the sense that the filmmaker wants us to feel happy and encouraged by the state of our "hero" who, looking rather drugged up, is now dancing in the midst of oncoming traffic. But as we've seen no real change or growth in our Krzys, we're just waiting for his next mini-meltdown.

Comparisons have been made between the style of this film and the French new wave. They may be apt, certainly in terms of how sexist were some of those earlier directors (Godard, anyone?). Visually, All These Sleepless Nights is indeed fun to view. And young Mr. Baginski (above) has a face the camera loves. But style, even when coupled to male beauty, can only go so far. From The Orchard and running a little-too-long at 104 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, April 7, in Los Angeles (at the Landmark NuArt) and San Francisco (at Landmark's Opera Plaza Cinema) and on April 14 in New York City (at the IFC Center). 

Get a grip, doc! Argyris Papadimitropoulos' Greek island movie, SUNTAN, hits theaters

Obsession in movies reaches a new high (maybe low) in the very poorly titled SUNTAN, a new film from Greek moviemaker, Argyris Papadimitropoulos, shown below. For a film that starts out as well as does this one, it's surprising that, by its finale, it has thoroughly degenerated into stuff and nonsense. Part of the problem is that Mr. Papadimitropoulos withholds almost all information about his leading character, a middle-aged doctor named Kostis, until the man's behavior has grown so over-the-top that his late-coming explanation to the leading lady -- "Forgive me: I've been an emotional wreck for the past few years" -- seems more ridiculous than appropriate.

Not that the young lady in question is herself any great catch. Granted she's cute, hot as hell and doesn't mind a little quick, fun sex. But she and her group of friends seem so entitled and full of themselves -- youth really is wasted on the young -- that their behavior proves mostly a turn-off (even if their copious full-frontal nudity is quite a turn-on).

It is around the time that one too many scenes of our "hero" dancing and drinking in an all-night local club occurs that you may begin wondering if the movie is going a bit off the track. It is -- and it continues as such throughout.

If the movie seems a cobbled-together combo of The Blue Angel and The Brown Bunny, its performances, however, are very good -- especially those of Makis Papadimitriou (above, here billed as Efthymis Papadimitriou and last seen on these shores in the much better film, Chevalier) as the island's new doctor, and newcomer Ellie Tringou (below), as his favorite patient, Anna.

The remainder of the young people seem to have been cast for their lithe bodies, small but curvy breasts, and big bouncing cocks, while the older folk -- from the town's helpful mayor to its drunken sleazeball -- get to possess a bit more character (well, they've grown into it!).

By the time someone notes, about our not-so-hot doc, "What an ass!" you are not likely to offer up much disagreement. And then near the conclusion, as we hear, after the young woman goes missing, the continued calls of "Anna! Anna!" you may be put in mind of a so-much-better movie called L'Avventura.

TrustMovies would guess that the main reason for the theatrical release of Suntan is all its sexplay and nudity. These are indeed pleasant to view, but if you are looking for something actually serious -- the press release for the film notes that "Suntan celebrates the beauty and strength of the youthful body, while simultaneously embracing its inevitable decay" but this is mostly hoo-hah -- do look elsewhere.

From Strand Releasing and running a little-too-long 104 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, March 10, in New York City at the Village East Cinema and in Los Angeles on Friday, March 24 at Laemmle's Royal. To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and then click on Screenings in the task bar midway down.

UPPER: The Upper Footage on VOD for the next 3 weeks--watch a midnight movie, only at 12AM!

Whew -- this is one oddball concoction! How you feel about it will greatly depend, I suspect, upon what you know about the film going in. I would suggest that you do a little web surfing prior to watching UPPER aka THE UPPER FOOTAGE so that you will come to it with more knowledge than TrustMovies possessed when he made use of the critics' Vimeo link to access and watch the film. He was a lamb to the slaughter, as it were, and when he came out of the experience, he was one angry lamb. On the other hand, as the film's producer, an energetic and enthusiastic young lady named Tiffany, suggested, it might be best that everyone have the kind of experience that TM had -- by going into the film blind and believing.

Shades of The Blair Witch Project hang over Upper, and yet this is an infinitely better job of movie-making than was that now nearly 15-year-old crap-fest. The differ-ence? Blair Witch had a mammoth and very smart advertising campaign via the then newly burgeoning internet. The campaign was great; the movie not, but by the time many audiences realized this, their ticket money had already been scooped up into the coffers of the dis-tributors. It was an event, however, and so, in its way, is Upper, the director of which is said to be a fellow named Justin Cole (shown, sort of, at left).

The film is said to have had a terribly difficult time reaching audiences because it is a "found footage" video that shows a very privileged young man and his cohorts bringing home a young girl (below, with he face obscured to protect her poor family), coking her up, watching her vomit and grow sick and finally drop dead -- and then covering up the whole disgusting mess.

Fun, huh? Oh, yes, and all of this has been videoed by one of the friends, after which the said video appears online, very briefly, and is used to blackmail the wealthy family of Blake Pennington, the entitled young snob at the center of all of this.

Does that Pennington name ring a bell with you? No? Then maybe the missing girl's will: Jackie Spearo. Not hers, either? That was pretty much my experience, too, but then I often do not follow the latest gossip, so I imagined that I had simply missed all references to this case. Not quite.

Yet so much that's shown here rings bells -- the wealthy 1 % bell, the teens on drugs and sex bell, the parents who enable bell. And so on. The young people shown on this "found footage" tape seems very real indeed. "If these kids are actors," I found myself murmuring, "then they're damned good ones."

The "documentary" divides pretty nicely into thirds: the set-up, the event, and the follow-up. If the first two thirds are prime, the last one levels off some and may have you questioning the veracity of the whole thing. Yet your own "take" on situations such as this will probably carry you along quite well. You'll either see these kids as the entitled assholes of America, or maybe, if you are very young and relatively brainless, you might see them as "cool."

However you look at them, I think you will look at them -- if not eagerly or angrily, then with sadness at the shocking waste of natural resources that modern-day America can so skillfully manage. Upper/The Upper Footage, with a running time of just under 90 minutes, opens tonight, Thursday, November 21, for a three week VOD run -- at midnights only. To purchase tickets, click here and then click on Buy Tickets on the menu line at top.