Digital/VODebut--Alice Winocour's PROXIMA: Let's train for Mars while trashing protocol

Few films have impressed me so much at their outset (and well beyond) before collapsing into utter stupidity by their finale as does PROXIMA, the latest from Alice Winocour, the talented woman responsible for writing Mustang and writing and directing Disorder and Augustine. 

Perhaps the international space program (or what passes for this in the movie) is set up differently from other space programs -- or any rigorous government program that depends on carefully adhering to high standards in order to achieve difficult results -- because what the movie's heroine Sarah (played very well by that always interesting actress Eva Green) is allowed to get away with here proves downright dumb. As this movie continues, deal-breaker follows deal-breaker until the last ridiculous event, which trumps them all.

Ms Winocour, pictured at right, tells the tale of Sarah, her "ex" Thomas, and their daughter Stella, who is both precocious and dyslexic. Sarah is in training for space travel to Mars, and as the movie opens, she's just learned she has been chosen as part of the crew. Thomas is pleased for her and happy to have charge of Stella while Sarah is gone. 

Stella (an excellent Zélie Boulant, below) is frightened of losing her mom, for good reason of course, and Sarah is, we perceive more fully as the movie moves along, wracked with guilt about leaving her daughter. How this guilt plays out, simultaneous with the training for space travel Sarah is undergoing, forms the meat of the movie 

Winocour captures well the parent-child bond (of both parents) and shows how differently this plays out when the woman has one of those give-it-everything careers, as does Sarah, in which the needs of motherhood seem in direct conflict with that career.

There is the usual male entitlement number to endure (Matt Dillon, at right, above, plays the head of Sarah's space crew), but then come those occasions when Sarah simply breaks protocol so that she can have it both ways: motherhood and space travel. Breaking this is one thing, but then we wait for the penalty for this -- which never comes. This is ludicrous, since it becomes more and more clear that having Sarah as a crew member is likely to endanger that crew.

But, hey, there must be some kind of feminist wish-fulfillment going on because it seems you actually can have it all. There are audiences out there who will buy into this sort of very weird reasoning, but TrustMovies is not among them. I am saddened because the performances are first-rate, and much of the dialog and situations are well-handled, too. 

Back in the 1960s/70s there was a movement known as "logical consequences,"in which an action has its consequence that follows logically. (Used as a parenting tool, as I recall, it may still be in vogue, although clearly it has never been activated nor even thought about by Donald Trump and his minions.)  Any sort of logical consequence for Sarah's actions is what's missing from this movie, and that lack turns a very good film into a very bad one.

From Vertical Entertainment and running 107 minutes, Proxima hits digtial streaming and VOD this Friday,. November 6. Your move. (It might help if Vertical Entertainment listed the film on its web site -- at least in the Coming Soon section.)

Family, food, art and renovation fuel a sweet/ sad story in James D'Arcy's MADE IN ITALY

One of those feel-good movies that boasts a beautiful location (Tuscany), a big star (Liam Neeson) surrounded by excellent supporting players, and an estranged father/son story (with a deceased mother right out of the Disney cannon).

If you can't quickly figure out where MADE IN ITALY is going, you are probably somewhat new to the notion of the motion picture experience.

On the other, more productive hand, if you'd be interested in something to take you away from the threat of Covid-19, the idiocy of Donald Trump, and wherever the next big hurricane/tropical storm might be headed, this just might be the best medicine currently available.

As written and directed by noted actor James D'Arcy (shown at right, this is his first full-length film), Made in Italy  proves consistently lovely to look at, with dialog that -- if it doesn't exactly sparkle -- has at least enough intelligence and wit to keep your ears open and willing to continue, and it offers enough back story, incident and momentum to bring its tale home with a few mini-surprises that hold boredom at bay.

If all of the above sounds like "damning with faint praise," it is not. The experience of watching Made in Italy is probably as close as one can come these days to taking a gorgeous, enjoyable and safe vacation.

D'Arcy's plot has to do with the fractured relationship between Robert, a blocked-artist father (Neeson, above), and his son Jack (Micheál Richardson, shown below), who runs a London art gallery which is about to be sold out from under his control. The two still own a villa in Italy that, were they to fix it up and then sell it, could help Jack buy that gallery. Complications ensue.

Along the way to fixing up what is indeed a gorgeous villa in dire need of repair, dad and son encounter a couple of local women who prove invaluable to them and to the story. Lindsay Duncan (below, right) plays her usual strong, smart, classy character as the local real estate agent who helps the pair ready the house for sale,

while the beautiful Italian actress Valeria Bilello (below, from Honey and Sense8) takes the plum role of the local chef and restaurateur who provides some good food, romance and design suggestions for our boys.

It's all, if not quite paint-by-numbers, close enough for you to figure out most of it. But as you'll be sitting there enjoying the scenery and fine performances, TrustMovies suspects you won't mind much at all. Neeson is, as ever, very good, and it is particularly nice to see him in something other than an action film again. The whole shebang proves a thoroughly professional job, so I'll look forward to the next movie that Mr. D'Arcy writes and/or directs.

From IFC Films, running 93 minutes and in mostly English (with a few lines of English-subtitled Italian now and again), Made in Italy opens in theaters and via VOD this Friday, August 7 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Karin Viard stuns in Lucie Borleteau's based-on-real-life, parents'-worst-nightmare tale, THE PERFECT NANNY

Over her nearly 35-years as an actress, French-born Karin Viard (shown at right and below) has taken on almost 100 roles at this point in her prolific, multi-César-winning career. If this star is not that well-known to American audiences, it's only because she's not Catherine Deneuve or Juliette Binoche. (Regarding foreign-born actresses, we tend to stick solely with the biggest names.) TrustMovies barely noticed her in her earliest films, Tatie Danielle and Delicatessen (those films far overpowered their supporting performances), but as the star of the small, funny, incisive movie The New Eve, Ms Viard certainly came into her own, and she has remained there ever since, gracing such films as Time Out, The Role of Her Life, Polisse and My Piece of the Pie with her versatility and expertise.

Now with the new (to the USA, at least) film, THE PERFECT NANNY (Chanson douce), Viard gets one of of those roles so good -- simultaneously horrible, entrancing and powerful -- that this actress simply takes hold of and runs off with the movie. And she does it without benefit of the script giving her the usual psychologically explanatory back-story. What we learn of that, in any case, may be completely fabricated. Instead, Viard -- by virtue of her ability to draw us in to the mystery of what she may be thinking and feeling and still keep us guessing (and hoping) -- is able to create a full-bodied, hugely imposing character who is strange, sad, funny, almost hopeful, even sexy (her full-frontal nude scenes are among the most special and appealing/disturbing I've scene in a long while).

As directed and co-written and adapted (with Jérémie Elkaïm, from the novel by Leïla Slimani) by Lucie Borleteau, shown at right, the movie gives leading lady Viard the wherewithal to create her amazing character, the nanny Louise, out of perhaps the least obvious of tools. Instead of the usual information-filled and often heavy-handed backstory, it is the details we get of the day-to-day interaction Louise has with the two children she cares for, their parents -- well-played by Leïla Bekhti and Antoine Reinartz, shown left and center, respectively, below -- as well as the few other characters, mostly nannies and shopkeepers, the film allows us to meet.

Some of these people, in fact, are as impressed with Louise and how she relates to her two charges (shown below), as are the parents and we in the audience. If only the US distributor had kept something closer to the film's original title (which translates into English as either Sweet Song or Lullaby), rather than The Perfect Nanny, which will alert any vaguely intelligent adult that, hey, this nanny is going to be anything but perfect. Oh, well. Considering how dumbed-down so many audiences seem currently to be, I guess you've got to spell out fucking everything. Thank goodness the movie itself refuses to do this.

The other quite special thing about this film is how slow-burn/quiet-build it proves to be. Folk more used to the standard and probably expected approaching-horror-movie style will get antsy, of course, but those who appreciate character over fast-paced plotting will rejoice, as the film consistently gives its characters room to breathe, if not, unfortunately, the ability to grow.

Finally, if objections are raised such as "How could those parents relegate the care of their kids to this woman?", well, come on now: Working parents, which more and more people must be these days (or, as in this case, choose to be), have to use child care-givers, and the movie, the novel on which it is based, and in fact the true-life tale that began the ball rolling brings to life every working parent's worst nightmare. How the film so naturally, cleverly and effectively taps into this is a huge part of its strength. That, and the marvelous Ms Viard. The monster she creates here is as memorable as any you'll have seen.

From Distrib Films US and distributed via Icarus Home Video, in French with English subtitles and running just 99 minutes, The Perfect Nanny makes its American DVD debut today, Tuesday, June 23 -- for purchase (and eventually, I'm sure, for rental).

Unhealthy obsession dominates Yuval Hadadi's Israeli mid-life-crisis-themed 15 YEARS

Dani is obsessed with Yoav, his lover of the titular 15 YEARS, and so is Alma, Yoav's best friend since childhood. Yoav is obsessed, too. With himself. And TrustMovies' best guess is that Yuval Hadadi (shown below), the writer/director of this new Israeli film, is also obsessed -- with the middle-aged but extremely hot-looking actor, Oded Leopold, who plays Yoav and who bears a rather striking resemblance in face, body and age,  to the filmmaker himself.

Mr. Leopold, shown below and further below, appears in nearly every scene of this film and is also prominent in every single publicity still I could find for this movie. Thankfully, he's a decent enough actor and is a consistent pleasure to look at, clothed or nude, throughout.

Because of all this, one might be tempted to imagine that 15 Years is possibly auto-biographical, but since I know nothing about Mr. Hadadi, I'll bring the subject up then leave it alone and concentrate on the movie itself.

15 Years is worth seeing for its extremely attractive cast, its look at haut-bourgeois gay life in Tel Aviv, and its often quite beautiful visuals: There's one composition featuring a plate of green apples and bright oranges that you'll want to immediately capture on canvas (its the image seen to the right of the screen through a window, not the later, less interesting image where the plate is centered). The expert, often gorgeous cinematography here is via Yaniv Linton.

The movie's plot, such as it is, concerns the sudden announcement regarding the pregnancy of Alma (Rute Asarsai, below, left) and how this affects the relationship between Dani, who might want a child of his own, and Yoav, who definitely does not. The idea of becoming a parent unleashes all sorts of negativity in Yoav.

Along the way we learn -- via a dying father whom Yoav does not want to visit and a scrapbook/wall of photographs -- about this fellow's problematic childhood. While no details are offered, we are meant to conclude that "family" is not a particularly positive part of Yoav's history. And this is the film's major problem: No details are offered about much of anything.

Late in the game Dani (Udi Persi, below, right) has an angry speech in which he lets Yoav know that their relationship has been mostly bad -- for Dani, at least. But we've seen little of this. Likewise, the bond between Alma and Yoav must be taken on faith. The performance are as good as they can be, given that character-creation does not appear an important part of the filmmaker's plan. The movie simply sets out its characters and situations and then does not go deep enough.

There are a couple of good sex scenes along the way, one of which -- simultaneously hot and creepy -- brings to the fore Yoav's capability for dominance and pain, even as his sex object seem to revel in the possibility of his own demise.

For all of the filmmaker's obsessing over Yoav, this too-loosely-drawn character seems far too narcissistic and egotistical to be worth this much attention (from the other characters or from us viewers) -- despite Mr. Leopold's enormous sexual charisma, which is on view consistently.

The film's most intelligent and upbeat character, a possible love interest for Dani (played with a graceful charm by Tamir Ginsberg), gives the movie a much-needed lift, but then we're back again with Yoav and his dire, dour problems. Sorry, but obsessions -- unless they're handled with the kind of skill Hitchcock could manage -- are more often than not difficult for an audience to fully share.

From Breaking Glass Pictures, in Hebrew with English subtitles and running 89 minutes, 15 Years hits DVD and VOD this coming Tuesday, April 28 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Home Video debut for Jean-François Richet's remake of Claude Berri's ONE WILD MOMENT

When Claude Berri's 1977 film Un moment d'égarement was first released in the USA (not until 1981), as TrustMovies recalls, it was not met with much enthusiasm from our cultural guardians. Its theme of inter-generational sex (as well as caring and connection) between an older man and the daughter of his best friend proved too much for our hypocritical taboos.

Now Jean-François Richet (of the Mesrine movies, Blood Father) and the remake of Assault on Precinct 13) has remade the original (which he's dedicated to M. Berri) with an updated version, also titled in English ONE WILD MOMENT. The good news: It is very well done indeed.

M. Richet, shown at left, has cast his movie extremely well, using two of France's most popular and talented actors in the "dad" roles -- Vincent Cassel and François Cluzet (shown above and below, with M. Cluzet on the right) -- and with two young, beautiful and talented new actresses in the daughter roles. Although the director (who also co-adapted, with Lisa Azuelos, Berri's original screenplay) more often makes crime movies, he clearly has a knack for comedy, as well. Richet's blending of the humorous and the heartfelt with that age-old generation gap and a nice touch of feminism is quite expert. Further, as funny and crazy as things get, he never allows them to reach the point of unreal.

One Wild Moment stays grounded at all times, thanks hugely to the performances of Cassel -- who proves lighter on his feet here than I have seen him in years; the actor is always good, but he's usually given darker roles to play -- and Cluzet, who gets the more unpleasant of the two dad roles and runs with it to completion.

The two daughters are played by newcomer Lola Le Lann (above) and Alice Isaaz (below). Both are excellent, though Ms Le Lann all but steals the entire film, thanks to her great beauty and a talent that is not far behind. She's a knockout in all respects, controlling the movie -- pretty much as she does Cassel's character -- with ease, grace, beauty, charm and a whole lot of willpower.

Because the sex is initiated via the girl and not the dad (who tries his best to resist, again and again), the carnality goes down a lot easier. And it would be hypocritical to imagine that young girls do not sometimes feel this attraction. Couple that to their usual sense of entitlement (particularly when they are as gorgeous as our heroine here) and you have a recipe for an eventual explosion.

How that explosion happens is brought to fine fruition by Richet and his cast. To his movie's credit, its aftermath is only suggested rather than insisted upon. One Wild Moment is yet another example of why and how the French handle the intricacies of oddball romance and sex better than just about any other culture.

Frem Under the Milky Way and running 105 minutes, the movie makes its U.S. debut via home video tomorrow, Tuesday, September 25, available on iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Xbox, Microsoft, Vudu, Comcast, Cox, Charter, Spectrum, RCN and additional VOD platforms. 

Brothers filming brothers: In AIDA'S SECRETS, Alon & Shaul Schwarz offer up a riveting and unusual post-Holocaust documentary

Yes, the Holocaust, as unfathomable and horrendous as it was, continues to unveil some of the more amazing tales the world has yet seen. Eventually some of these reach the screen in the form of either documentary or narrative movies, and this week one more of these, and certainly one of the strangest (as well as one that seems to be continually unfurling) opens here in South Florida (and elsewhere).

AIDA'S SECRETS, a fine and nourishing documentary by brothers Alon and Shaul Schwarz, takes us to Israel, Canada and back again, as a family -- most members of whom have no idea that they even are a family -- reunites. Of course the film packs an emotional wallop at times, but even more exceptional is how much food for thought it consistently provides.

The filmmakers, shown above with Alon Schwarz on the left, bring us here a story so filled with surprise (and, yes, secrets) that you'll have to listen and watch pretty intently to make certain you take in all the details on offer. And there are plenty. To go much into those details here would spoil a good deal of the surprise that the documentary engenders.

So let's just say that the other member of this odd family, mother Aida (shown below, in her younger days, and further below in present-day), has enough secrets -- along with good reasons for keeping them so -- to easily fill out the film's 90-minute running time. Of particular interest is the fact that the two filmmaking brothers have actually found two older brothers -- Izak Sagi and Shep Shell, shown left and right, respectively, above) to become to subjects of their film. Each pair does the other more than justice.

Their story is so full of oddity and emotion, surprise and eventual understanding, that watching and listening as the documentary unfurls is both thought-provoking and revelatory. The various subjects this documentary explores -- by its very existence -- include identity, parenting, the importance of geography (locations range from Poland and Germany to Israel and Canada), what it means to be Jewish, and how important knowing one's history/genetic strain is (or maybe, as we learn while the end credits roll, is not).

The movie makes no judgments but simply lays out the timeline and series of events that take us from there to here, often with our mouth hanging open in wonderment of the decisions that were made and, finally, the reasons for making them.

Aida's Secrets is as much a mystery film as anything else, and that mystery encompasses not merely the facts of the matter at hand but also the secrets of the workings of the human mind and conscience. And, perhaps, what a parent might do to ensure the well-being of her offspring.

The documentary -- from Music Box Films, running 90 minutes and in mostly the English language, with a few English subtitles when Hebrew is heard on the soundtrack -- opens this Friday, October 27, here in South Florida in Miami Beach at the O Cinema, at Delray Beach at The Movies of Delray, in Boca Raton at the Living Room Theater and the Regal Shadowood, and in Lake Worth and The Movies of Lake Worth; and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Playhouse 7, Royal and Town Center theaters. To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and then click on THEATERS and scroll down.

The photo of the filmmakers, 

second from top, is by Sonia Recchia 

and comes courtesy of Getty Images.

FÉLICITÉ: Alain Gomis' DRC-set character/ culture/music study opens in theaters

You'll undoubtedly be taken -- and almost immediately -- with the face, body, and soon the voice of Véro Tshanda Beya, the woman who makes her acting debut in the title role of FÉLICITÉ, the new movie from French filmmaker Alain Gomis.

Ms Beya is, by any standard, quite a woman, and for awhile at least, she is enough to keep us on track in this combination character-and-culture study set in the city of Kinshasha in the Democratic Republic of Congo, aka the DRC or sometimes the DROC.

M. Gomis, shown at left (this is the first of his several films that TrustMovies has seen), strikes me as someone given to creating an impressionistic, rather than a solidly grounded, linear and easily-read creation. His movie begins at a Congolese indoor-outdoor night club at which our heroine is a singer.

Her face, so expressive that you want to read it like a map, sits atop a body seemingly made for amour. The snippets of dialog we hear from the crowd at the night club involve everything from sex to politics to the economics of everyday life.

The next morning, however, Félicité is seen haggling angrily and determinedly with a repairman regarding why her refrigerator -- only just repaired -- has ceased to work again. From every interaction in which our girl is involved, she comes across as proud, poised, fierce and independent.

Until that is, she is informed that her teenage son Samo -- a character (played by another newcomer, Gaetan Claudia, above) we did not until now even know existed -- has been in an accident and may die. Suddenly all has changed and Félicité spends most of the rest of the film racing around trying desperately to raise enough money to get Samo his necessary operation.

Health care in the DRC might make you grateful, momentarily at least, for our own here in the USA, and as we watch our heroine beg, bargain and get stolen from (she must bring in the police regarding the latter matter), you'll be put in touch with what, from all we view here, passes for Congolese bourgeois life and culture. The lengthy scene in which Félicité meets with someone whom I am guessing is the town's big-shot criminal is scary, degrading and quite powerful.

In between all this, Gomis inserts something like dream/fantasy/maybe memories sequences that finally grow repetitive and don't tell us much more than we already know. And then there are the music scenes, both in the club and with a group that seem to be either rehearsing and performing elsewhere. The press information on the film explains that the music acts as "a secondary script that transports us through Félicité's journey" -- a double journey, actually, "through the punishing outer world of the city and the inner world of the soul."

If only any of this seemed at all organic. Instead the movie clunks along from reality to memory to music and back again in an all-too-obvious and repetitive routine. Love enters the picture, too, as Félicité must finally give over some of that independence, even as young Samo seems to be finally coming around to health and maybe even a touch of happiness.

You may have more patience for this unusual film than did I. Its leading lady is certainly something, while the supporting performances seem believable, as well. I suspect that the main reason I could not warm up to this movie more easily is because the culture of the place simply seemed too foreign in too many ways. If there are actual rules in place here in the DCR -- economic, legal, social and more -- I couldn't begin to figure them out. 

From Strand Releasing and running too-long at 124 minutes, Félicité opens this Friday, October 27, in New York City at the Quad Cinema and in Atlanta at the High Museum of Art. On November 10 it opens in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3. To see all currently scheduled playdates, theaters and cities, click here, then click on SCREENINGS and scroll down.