Charm, chubbiness, bullying and breath-holding: Jim Loach's MEASURE OF A MAN opens

A most interesting example of the coming-of-age film hits theaters this week, and it's one that's full of both the expected and the just-slightly-skewed. This combination proves a most winning one, and that, together with the lead performance by a young actor named Blake Cooper that is as real and on-the-mark as you could want, turns what could be mere feel-good fodder into something occasionally quite rich and strange.

MEASURE OF A MAN, directed by Jim Loach (shown below, and, yes, he's the son of Ken),

with a screenplay by David Scearce (from a novel by Robert Lipsyte) turns out to be a rather deft rendition of the education of a bullied fat boy -- via the various people around him -- regarding himself, his situation and the world he inhabits.

While much of the story does indeed have a certain been-there/done-that quality, the oddities involved in the details of both the supporting characters and the situations at hand combine to make the movie consistently interesting and pleasantly-if-strangely just a tad off-kilter.

Take the seemingly wealthy old man whose offer of summer employment for our hero Bobby (young Master Cooper, above, doing his exercise in breath-holding) comes with some strings apparently attached. As played with his usual flair and decorum by Donald Sutherland (below), this fellow has secrets of his own, which will be revealed in time, but lightly and properly with no trace of the heavy hand, by filmmakers Loach and Scearce.

Interesting, too, is the fact that within Bobby's immediate family -- father (Luke Wilson, below, center), mother (Judy Greer, below, left), and sister (Liana Liberato, shown at bottom, left), there are enough things going on that each of these characters could easily have been given a leading place in the story. Yet everything here is rightly supportive to the tale of Bobby and his own situation.

How that situation comes to the fore -- involving a long-time summer friend of Bobby, played with grace and wit by Danielle Rose Russell (below) -- and how it also involves everything from plastic surgery, some GLBT activity, and the usual conflict between the "townies" and the "summer people" in the resort area in which the family vacations yearly simply adds to the ironies and contradictions present.
\

The time frame here in that famous year of our country's Bi-Centennial, 1976, and this is wisely used for everything from nostalgia to an unusual (given our current times) GLBT situation. All of this comes together very nicely indeed, and with the strong cement provided by Cooper's very lived-in and real performance, by the time you will have reached the properly feel-good finale, I suspect you will also be able to manage this guilt-free.

While the movie will set no records nor win too many awards, it remains a smart, empathetic, twistily-told tale of the coming of age of a chubby, decent kid.

From Great Point Media and running a just-right 100 minutes, Measure of a Man opens this Friday, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center, Noho 7, and Playhouse 7; in New York City at the Village East Cinema; in Chicago at Facets Cinematheque; and here in South Florida at Cobb's Downtown at the Gardens in Palm Beach Gardens and the Living Room Theater, Boca Raton. It will play simultaneously at more than 25 other cities/theaters across the country, so check the film's Twitter link for further venues.

SHELTER: Eran Riklis' semi-thriller about the Middle-East, world politics and betrayal

As a longtime fan of the work of Israeli filmmaker Eran Riklis (TrustMovies interviewed him back in 2009), I'm a bit perplexed by his latest movie, SHELTER.

In it, a semi-retired female Israeli Mossad agent is called back into service in order to protect a Lebanese double agent who has turned from Hezbollah to the side of Israel and is currently being hidden in a safe house Germany, recovering from plastic surgery which has reconfigured her face and will help with her new identity.

So far so good -- if a little standard in its premise and plotting. In the previous films of Mr. Riklis (who is pictured at left) -- from The Syrian Bride and The Lemon Tree to The Human Resources Manager -- this director and sometimes writer has managed to take complicated subjects and from them weave tapestries of drama, humor and most especially a full range of human behavior that does justice to some difficult, often seemingly insoluble situations. Yet in Shelter, he has simplified much of what we see and hear down to the level of the simple-minded.

His movie does hold our attention, thanks in good part to the appealing performances of its two leads: Neta Riskin (above, left) as the Mossad agent and Golshifteh Farahani (above, right) as the Lebanese woman. Both actresses are talented, beautiful and charismatic (each in her own very different manner), and Riklis, as screenwriter, initially provides enough spy-movie type situations to keep us properly guessing as to who's good, who's bad and what the hell is going on.

Granted all this does seems a little second-, if not third-hand. We've seen most of it many times previous. But the two woman are worth watching, as are the various supporting-role male actors who surround them (the always excellent Lior Ashkenazi, above, and Doraid Liddawi, below).  Eventually, though, Riklis peppers his movie with so much coincidence, deliberate misdirection, fantasy/nightmares and the like that we begin to wonder if the whole thing isn't taking place in some kind of oddball alternate universe.

The film's last half hour, in particular, is so crammed with plot twists and turns (not to mention a whole bunch of intentionally left-out information) that what happens seems increasingly unlikely, if not outright impossible.

This is too bad because, at heart the movie seems to want to be about betrayal -- by one's peers, one's "employer," one's country. The movie makes its move toward feminism, as well (the women here, along with maybe a single male character, are clearly the only ones to be trusted), but it's mad rush to what can only be construed as a feel-good finale (or maybe wish-fulfillment fantasy) comes off as mostly nutty.

If you're going to pull multiple major "switcheroos" at your conclusion, you damned well better show us at least a little about how you were able to accomplish all this. Perhaps working in the spy thriller genre, which I think may be new to Riklis, has him imagining that this will either not be necessary, or can be delivered completely via shorthand. Sorry, but no.

Still, for awhile, the whole thing works decently enough and the lead performances are very much worth seeing. Ms Farahani (of About Elly, Paterson and many other films) is such a delicate pleasure to view, while Ms Riskin, via her strength and slow-burning vulnerability, offers a fine complement to her co-star. Finally, however, the necessary suspension of disbelief required here would not seem out of place for a sci-fi/fantasy film.

A French/German/Israeli co-production running 93 minutes and released here in the USA via Menemsha Films, Shelter opens this Friday, April 6, in greater Los Angeles area, at a quartet of Laemmle theaters: Ahrya Fine Arts, Monica Film Center, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5.  Elsewhere? Nothing on the schedule as yet, it seems. But I would expect a DVD to be released eventually, along with some digital streaming availability.

Blu-ray debut for John Grissmer's 1977 southern-gothic oddity, SCALPEL

Leave it to Arrow Video to unearth (and then so beautifully reproduce/remaster) some really oddball entries into the movie canon. One such is the recently-released on Blu-ray, 1977 psychological thriller/southern-gothic melodrama, SCALPEL, that features, among other delectations, a very heavy dose of would-be father-daughter incest. Golly, the south! Not enough that it was the cradle of American slavery, it seems, as ever, to get up to the most transgressive stuff.

This little zircon-in-the-rough, directed and adapted (from a story by Joseph Weintraub) by John Grissmer, shown at right, tells of a semi-famous and quite popular plastic surgeon whose daughter suddenly disappears following the suspicious death of her current boyfriend. Dad is so bereft that, when a young stripper gets her face beaten to that proverbial pulp, he takes the poor child under his wing and, yes, gives her the face of that missing daughter. As you might imagine, complications ensue.

Are you already put in mind of that classic of all plastic surgery movies, Eyes Without a Face? Worry not. Grissmer's little spin on the Franju film offers enough fun and games, smart and reasonably witty dialog, ambience and characters that fairly drip of our besotted south, and even a few surprises to keep you pleasantly engrossed.

The surgeon is played by that yeoman professional Robert Lansing (at left, above and below), who does a bang-up job of first impressing us (as well as his students) with how smart and resourceful he seems, before allowing us to see what an absolute turd this guy really is.

As the subject of his little experiment, The Young and the Restless actress Judith Chapman (above)-- who barely looks much older today than she did back in '77: she's a shining example of the art of plastic surgery -- also does nifty turns playing the dual roles required here.

Fine support is given by a game cast, including an especially good, Arlen Dean Snyder, as one of this seedy family's seedier members. If you've seen more than a dozen-or-so mysteries you will probably figure out much of the plot machinations prior to their taking place. Still, Grissmer does a nice job with enough of his twists and turns that you'll probably stick with Scalpel to its amusing and quite "just" finale.

About the Blu-ray transfer: It is up to Arrow's usual excellent standards. Especially worth noting is that the movie appears in two formats on the disc. One is evidently what the original release pretty much looked like in theaters. The other, however, has been given a kind of semi-golden overlay more fitting of the southern gothic look that both Grissmer and his cameraman, the now highly noted Edward Lachman, originally wanted. I watched a bit of the former but would recommend the latter, which not only looks wonderful but seems more correct for both the time period and location (Scalpel was filmed in the state of Georgia).

Bonus extras on the disc include very good present-day interviews with the director, the cinematographer, and the lead actress -- plus a new audio commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith.

From Arrow Video, running 95 minutes and distributed here in the USA via MVD Visual, the movie hit the street last month and is available now for purchase -- and I would hope somewhere for rental, as well.

VODebut--The high-end low-down on plastic surgery: Joan Kron's TAKE MY NOSE... PLEASE!

A fast-moving, hugely-enjoyable, surprisingly thought-provoking romp about a subject awfully dear to (but generally unspoken about) women and some men: plastic surgery, of the kind that will render the person undergoing it either younger- or more beautiful-looking. So, yes, we're talking "vanity" here. Now, really, you may be thinking: Could there possibly be anything more to consider, feel or say about a subject that is, as the phrase used to go, of so little redeeming social value?  Well, yes, since just last fall we saw yet another media kerfluffle regarding this surgery via that useless Jane Fonda/Megyn Kelly interchange. And if your guide to this subject is a woman named Joan Kron, who has covered the plastic surgery scene for decades and probably knows it as well as any journalist (or filmmaker) alive today, you're in the very best of hands.

Ms. Kron, pictured at left, has not only covered the scene, she's undergone it, too (multiple times, I think), and her movie, TAKE MY NOSE... PLEASE!, stresses a point made countless times already: that women's place in our society demands that they constantly look their best, as this is the route to their well-being and survival.

What makes Kron's film different and also allows it to resonate more strongly, is that the women she follows here are all comedians. They make us laugh, yes, but they also make us understand their very mixed and complicated feelings about undergoing "the knife."

Chief among Kron's funny ladies is, for my money, the most talented, funny and transgressive comedian I've ever seen, Jackie Hoffman, pictured above (and below, on stage), who talks openly and often hilariously about her appearance, life, work, career, upcoming surgery and even her very supportive and cute-as-a-button hubby. Hoffman is a delight, as usual, and her honesty, wit and willingness to confront-the-difficult are among the movie's great treasures.

We also spend a great deal of time with a lesser light named Emily Askin, below, who hails from Pittsburgh and works with an all-girl improv group called Bombardo. Emily is pretty and talented and has a fiance who feels absolutely no need for her to get that nose job (she's got a very small bump on her proboscis), but she is determined anyway, and so he stands by whatever she wants.

Interwoven with these stories are those of a number of other comedians -- Lisa Lampanelli, Judy Gold and Julie Halston (in the penultimate photo, below) among them -- as well as archival footage of the late and famous, such as Totie Fields (below), Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers (shown at bottom). Their stories (or parts of them) add to the pros and cons we're given regarding this surgery.

We meet a few of the better-known practitioners of the "art" (such as Sherrell J. Aston, at left, below), and watch them as they advise their clients on some do's and don'ts, and, as this 99-minute documentary comes to its close, we realize that -- well, I did, anyway -- some of our heavy-duty prejudices against the whole idea of this surgery have been at very least called into question.

We can certainly better understand how the women we see here -- who must continue to work, eat, live and maybe raise a family -- have to do what's best for their career (and, yes, maybe their vanity, too).

OK: When set against documentaries about our current takeover by the rich and corporate or those concerning global warming, this one is small potatoes indeed. But those potatoes are funny, entertaining, even thought-provoking.

From The Orchard -- the distributor which, surprising to me, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year -- the film, after opening to good reviews theatrically last year, will hit all digital and on-demand platforms this Tuesday, January 9. 

Open Roads 2013: Looking your best? Pappi Coriscato's THE FACE OF ANOTHER

Every year the Open Roads fest tends to bring us at least one mainstream comedy, often sporting a satiric bent. (Remember Whatsoeverly from 2011? If not, click above and scroll way down.) This year's entry is the face-lift-cum-excrement comedy THE FACE OF ANOTHER (Il volo di un'altra), and although shit does play a major part in the procee-dings, this is anything but a shitty movie. While it certainly could be sharper and more pointed, there is still plenty here to amuse, delight and cause a fright. The movie goes after Italy's and the western world's penchant for face- (and other) lifts, celebrity-sodden culture, and the need for fame at any cost.

The film's director and co-writer, Pappi Coriscato, shown above, is said to be a Neapolitan choreographer who once worked as an assistant to Pedro Almodóvar; I think you'll ferret out the connections pretty quickly. He and his co-writers have imagined a pseudo-elegant (but genuinely-expensive) spa/resort/surgery-center in the Italian Alps (below) where the moneyed go to get their wrinkles rearranged.

From the outset, as we eavesdrop on a group of maintenance men in the basement, where the inferior plumbing system is acting up again, we get a strong foreboding of what lies in store. (When it arrives, this poop apocalypse is something to see.)

Toilets, in fact, come into play throughout almost the entire film. One of them sets in motion the event that will require our anti-heroine (trust me, there are no heroes to be found in this movie!) to undergo some heavy-duty surgical stuff (above).

Our lady of the bandages is played by Laura Chiatti (above and further above, who can also be seen in this series' Piazza Fontana) as a popular television show hostess about to get the ax. Her hubby, who is doubles as head surgeon at the resort, is played by that super-handsome-and-just-slightly-sleazy-looking actor Alessandro Preziosi (of Loose Cannons), shown below. This couple is, as they say, made for each other.

Also on hand is a maintenance man harboring a notion of fame for his very bizarre singing act (whose performance, shown below, provides one of the funniest scenes in the film); a head nurse with a severe attitude problem; and countless odd patients, plastered up something fierce.

Once word of the TV hostess' "accident" and the surgery she'll need (the operation will be shown on TV, of course) gets out, the celebrity-prone hold a all-month vigil on the road to the resort, and the movie kicks into high (well, at least medium) gear.

There are some very funny scenes here, and the resort itself, with its Alps locations is plenty gorgeous. If we wish the movie were better -- tighter, funnier and more satiric -- we'll accept it as is for an evening of good, semi-solid, excremental fun (complete with some nifty dancing, below).

The Face of Another will play Saturday, June 8, at 6:15pm and Sunday, June 9, at 1:15pm. To view the entire Open Roads program, with showtimes, click here.

Mitch McCabe's MAKE ME YOUNG explores our growing penchant for plastic surgery

Is it remotely possible to have a "balanced" look at the anti-aging industry (plastic surgery, injectables, laser treatments, wrinkle creams, hair transplants -- and the people who push them)? On the basis of MAKE ME YOUNG, the recent documentary, just out on DVD via Cinema Libre Studio (it made its debut via HBO), the answer is, "Sure" -- but you'll have think for yourself, disagree with many of the participants, and maybe even surprise yourself by going somewhat against your own better judgment as you watch this alternately fascinating, flabbergasting and exasperating little film. Does it reflect America today and our preoccupation with youth-at-any-cost?  Absolutely.

In it, director/producer/editor/co-writer Mitch McCabe, shown at left, herself a daughter of a plastic surgeon (albeit one who came to that professions by first helping victims of war, accident and sickness), opens up about her own obsession with aging and where this might have come from ("My obsession was my dad's profession"). She then travels the country -- meeting, interviewing and making friends with various doctors and their patients, and talking with "experts" on this subject.  These include the professionals, of course, but also editors of fashion magazines, a "Creative Director" of a upscale clothing store, a self-styled consumer advocate and various hawkers of skin creams. You will have take their words with the proverbial grain-of-salt, but together they paint a picture of a society willing to forgo this month's rent in order to have the necessary Botox injections.

There are many ways to try to fool mother nature, and this movie covers a lot of them -- such as the boob job we see on one of the saddest of our interviewees, Texas-based Sherry (above), who has lots of work done in lots of area and claims to be happy as a clam. For all of her southern gush, however, she seems, as seen here, obsessed only with her desire for a better appearance. Another "victim" who's into fooling, in the bloodiest section of the movie, is Gary (below), getting a hair transplant.

Mitch then meets yet another daughter of a plastic surgeon, who is currently posing for skin magazines (Daddy didn't know during the filming, but he probably knows by now. Does he care?). We discover all sorts of anti-aging devices, like this little job (below) that looks like an electric shaver but, instead of hair, gets rid of wrinkles. Or so its propronents claim.

The movie is supremely anecdotal; we meet a few too many characters to get to know most very well. Yet this also gives us an a wider overview and lets us take home the movie's message, which is finally picked up and run with by the movie-maker herself: If all this makes you feel good, just give in and do it.  And so she surely does.  

The craziest, saddest moment in the film comes when a lovely blond woman (not Mitch's BFF, above, left) looks at her reflection in the mirror and declares, "It's just disgusting!"  At this point, the viewer may want to scream, "But you're beautiful! How crazy can you be?" The character who grounds the movie, however, is Dee, an early patient of Ms McCabe's dad, who was given new breasts after a double mastectomy. We see old footage of her at the time and then nearly 20 years later. Then and now, she seems the ideal plastic-surgery candidate: She actually needs it. Yet she remains imminently sane, funny, smart and real -- rather than someone clutching desperately to a fading youth. (That's a photo of the late Dr. McCabe, below, showing off a "boob" pillow sculpture that one of his patients had made for him.)

Offering up a sad statistic, McCabe alerts us to the fact that more and more of our new, young doctors are opting for this industry rather than becoming primary-care physicians.  The money is much better, of course, so why not? And since more and more of us seem to prefer the kind of medicine that caters to the needs of our exterior rather than our interior -- well, sure, come on in:
The doctor will see you now.

Make Me Young, which debuted on DVD last week, is available for sale now and -- eventually, we hope -- for rental.