Netflix streaming tip: Frank van Mechelen's slam-bang political thriller via Belgium, SALAMANDER

I can't imagine that I'm the first to draw a parallel here, but if any of you recall the Belgian political crisis of 2010 through 2011 -- during which that little European country found itself with no actual governing body in place at all -- then I should think you'll be doubly interested in watching the succulent and tension-filled television series, SALAMANDER, from Belgium, which first aired in 2012. No, this series does not mirror the country's travails prior to finally forming a government that functioned again. What it does do, coming so close on the heels of a period that must have left many Belgians wondering just how -- and if -- their government really worked or even mattered, is to posit a theory of a small western nation in thrall and in hock to a coterie of wealthy and powerful men and women who effectively control the entire country -- and who will, of course, do whatever it takes to retain that control.

As directed by Frank van Mechelen (shown at right, who helmed all 12 episodes) and written by Bavo Dhooge and Ward Hulselmans, the series begins with a very well executed (and filmed) bank robbery in which the thieves open only certain safe deposit boxes and then take only -- and oddly -- jewelry and other "fence"-able items, along with all the personal papers stored within, but not any of the more valuable items so obviously available to them. How this robbery leads to an increasing and possibly near-complete breakdown in governmental function is the story that Salamander tells in a riveting and often surprising manner.

The ripples (well, more like waves) from this robbery begin expanding outwards almost immediately, as a police informant spills the beans of what he knows about the robbery to the inspector who becomes the hero of the series, a fellow named Paul Gerardi, an overworked family man with a rather old-fashioned sense of justice and morality. The actor who plays Gerardi, Filip Peeters (above), is a striking fellow with a full head of white hair and beard and a handsome, craggy face that, while mostly stoic, still manages to express volumes.

The series involves Gerardi almost immediately, while seeing to it that he is cut off time and again by everyone from the big bad boys (and girls) to his own police department and so must finally go rogue to learn what's going on, why, and by whom. To this end we grow closer to him and his family (that's his wife, Sarah, below, played by An Miller), as well as to his immediate boss, his ex-partner, some denizens of the local monastery, not to mention the creeps at the top of the heap (that's the head of the bank, shown above, played by Mike Verdrengh).

What makes the series so propulsive and watchable (it's the closest I've yet come to a complete binge) is the way the writers and director have woven this all together and how carefully and wisely they've dispensed just enough information to keep us and their hero stretching toward the truth of things.

The other ace-in-the-hole are the very fine characterizations of almost everybody we meet. Most are neither black nor white but fall firmly into that very human realm of folk trying to maintain their decency, and often losing it, in the face of power, money and the threat to their or their loved one's life. These would include the wife of one of the politicians marked for blackmail (Ann Ceurvels, above) and a fellow named Vic (played by Koen van Impe, below), one of the government's high-level underlings who seemingly goes from bad to good, while simply doing his job (though perhaps with a bit too much relish).

Whom we root for -- other than Gerardi, of course -- keeps changing, due to the level of bad behavior on view, and this is yet another key to the great success of Salamander. Some people do the right thing for the wrong reason, others the wrong for right, and so our understanding of human nature, while sometimes confounded, keeps growing. (That's Koen De Bouw, below, as the bank robber-in-chief.)

The series could occasionally move a bit faster, but because of the plot and its propulsive hold on us, this won't matter much in the end. There are evidently more seasons to come of the show, but this first one does indeed give us some closure. You won't go away feeling at all empty-handed.

Salamander -- in twelve 45-minute episodes (plan to spend nine hours total) and in Flemish with English subtitles -- can be screened via Netflix streaming, and probably elsewhere, too. It is, in the vernacular, a humdinger.

With SNOWPIERCER, Bong Joon-ho teaches Hollywood how to make a smart blockbuster

There are probably half a dozen ways to approach SNOWPIERCER, the first English-language feature from noted South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, shown below. You could certainly call it an action movie, which it is. The action is terrific and practically non-stop, save for one surprising expository speech from star Chris Evans (on poster, above, and two photos down) that is so out of nowhere and rather charming and tender that it stops the movie in its tracks for a couple of sweet minutes.

Or simply call the film a blockbuster, since it offers two full hours (plus credits) of enjoyment, a starry cast, explosions, near-non-stop thrills, and lots of gun play and violence -- all wrapped within an intelligent plot that gives us a hell of a lot more than mere special effects. Attention, Hollywood: This is how your blockbusters ought to be delivered -- with the usual hotshot trimmings surrounding some genuine content for a change.

But wait: Snowpiercer is also a sci-fi movie, taking off from the point at which our world has finally come to terms with global warming by shooting into the atmosphere some new derivative that overdoes things hugely, turning the world to ice. All surviving citizens have been herded aboard an enormously long train that has been designed to keep the inside temperature within a livable range.

Ah, yes, but this movie is also a nifty political parable about class in our society. The train, you see, is a microcosm of the world in which we already live. How this "new" world is organized turns out to be one of the delightful treats that Mr. Bong, as director and co-writer, has up his sleeve -- a sleeve, by the way, that is continually surprising and politically astute. This filmmaker has already gifted us with three very different, though equally successful, films: the police procedural, Memories of Murder; an unusual monster movie, The Host; and the character-study-cum-criminal-justice tale, Mother.

Snowpiercer is like nothing else Bong has done, and I think it's his best film yet, certainly his most accessible to western audiences. Oh, yes: And did I mention that this is also one of those newly popular contained-space thrillers, in which everything we see and experience, save a couple of minutes, takes place inside this speeding train. Bong has found a way to keep things moving so fast and so intensely that the pace never lags. One surprise after another awaits us as our set of beleaguered heroes -- think of them as the 99 per cent -- makes its way from train car to train car in its quest to reach, and wrest power from, the one per cent.

These train cars and what they hold are too much fun to spoil with any give-aways here (my personal favorite is the schoolroom, with a well-used Allison Pill, above, as the teacher). Instead let's talk about the crack international cast that Mr. Bong has assembled and that brings his movie to amazing life. Mr. Evans, always good, is light years away from his Captain America image (think of this performance as a cross between his super-hero work and his role in The Iceman).

Evans is well abetted by a fine and action-prone Jamie Bell, above, as his second-in-command. His "mentor" is played by the wonderful John Hurt (below, left with Luke Pasqualino), who brings his usual charm and precision to the proceedings, as well as a little more melancholy and hesitation that we're used to from this excellent actor.

A word must be said for Ed Harris, who does his typically commanding job, as well as for Octavia Spencer (below) who brings her enormous humanity and luminosity to the film, as a fighting mother.

The scene-stealer of them all, however, is Miss Tilda Swinton (below, center), who walks away with the acting/performing/knocking-your-socks-off award. She is unlike anything we've so far seen in her evidently vast repertoire, and she staggers us, while entertaining us royally, as always.

Mr. Bong is from South Korean, so it only seems fair that he include a couple of good Asian actors into his mix. He does, and Song Kang-ho (below, of Secret Sunshine and Thirst) comes through with flying colors. He is -- as character, actor, and action hero -- every bit the equal of Mr. Evans.

As the young woman who accompanies him, Ko Ah-sung proves delightful and daring in her own way. Ms Ko, below, right, gets a particularly suuculent moment in the film, as she and another species eye each other interestedly, warily.

Another of my critical compatriots noted, after the press screening, that he was concerned that director Bong might have made too many concessions to Hollywood's need for feel-good. But no: both of us agreed that the filmmaker has given us his usual dark vision, in which some of the very characters we care for most do not make it to the film's finale.

That finale is something, all right: different from anything else we've seen in this movie, both hopeful and frightening. Snowpiercer is one hell of a ride. Anyone interested in learning what a smart blockbuster looks, sounds and feels like should not miss it.

The movie, from Radius-TWC, opens this Friday, June 27, here in New York at the film centers Angelika and Elinor Bunin Munroe, as well as making its NYC debut as part of BAMcinemaFest 2014 the The BAM Cinemateque in Brooklyn tomorrow, Wednesday, June 25. (This BAM screening will feature a Q&A with director Bong Joon Ho and actor John Hurt, moderated by Scott Foundas, chief film critic for Variety.) Where is the film playing elsewhere across the country? Well, try clicking here, and then entering your info under TICKETS AND SHOWTIMES and see what happens....

Argentine entry for Best Foreign Language Film, Benjamín Ávila's CLANDESTINE CHILDHOOD, opens in New York

What would it be like to have been a child raised in a family of left-wing activist, guns-and-ammunition-running relatives during Argentina's 1970s right-wing military dictatorship -- which has been called the most repressive in that repression-prone country's history? Not a lot of fun, perhaps, but fascinating as hell, at least according to the very interesting, thought-provoking memoir movie based on real-life characters that opens this week. CLANDESTINE CHILDHOOD is the Argentine submission for Best Foreign-Language Film in this year's "Oscar" sweepstakes, and I would not have been surprised to see it make the shortlist.

That it didn't might just be due to the fact that the movie's politics, given the historical situation, seem pretty middle of the road. The co-writer (with Marcelo Müller) and director, Benjamín Ávila (at left) makes certain that we understand the necessity of activists rising up against a tyrannical dictatorship at the same time as he makes clear how deprived in certain ways is their child, the boy who is at the center of this relative-ly stringent movie.

The film's greatest strength -- aside from being compulsively interesting and occasionally nail-bitingly suspenseful -- is that it forces you to identify with all its major characters: those who must fight against oppression, even if it takes their own lives, leaving their children bereft (and who knows what else?); the relatives who want to help the family but are too frightened and cowed by the violence against dissidents to join in their "revolution"; and most of all, the boy himself, torn between the normal needs and desires of approaching adolescence and the need and desire to help and be part of his immediate family.

Beginning with a scene that combines live-action with a kind of classy, children's-book/comic book-style animation, the movie takes us into the mind-set and world of its hero, young Juan (played with exactly the right combination of intensity, fear and childlike understanding by first-time actor Teo Gutiérrez Romero, shown above center, with mom and dad), who will soon be living under the alias of Ernesto, with a fake passport, birth date, birth place, history -- the works.

One important question the movie asks (and without ever out-and-out mentioning it) is this: What kind of children-to-adults do active revolutionaries raise? In one pivotal scene the boy's uncle (a charismatic performance from Ernesto Alterio, above, right) and father argue over the birthday party for the boy soon to take place here at "home" with all his school mates. Does the revolution halt for this event, or is the party merely a wasteful pastime?

Another terrific scene takes place between the boy's grandmother (Cristina Banegas), and the rest of his immediate family, partic-ularly his mother (a rich, multi-layered perfor-mance from Natalia Oreiro, at left, with gun, and 3 photos above), about the child's well-being. There is no "answer" to these questions, only despair, anger and maybe, just a little, hope. The movie is based upon real-life characters; how truthful to the actual characters the film is, I have no idea. But as an entertaining, thought-provoking movie, Clandestine Childhood hits the proverbial nail dead center, with its shock waves manifesting still.

The film, released here in the USA via Film Movement and running 110 minutes, opens this Friday in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza and the Quad cinemas. Click here and scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates around the U.S.

Time for a re-see? Jonthan Demme's THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE remake

It's been six years since the initial theatrical release of Jonathan Demme's remake of  THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, a movie I had little interest in revisiting since seeing it when it first appeared on DVD. But thanks to the recent post of my colleague Glenn Heath Jr. at his site Match Cuts, I found myself wanting to give the film another shot.  I'm glad I did -- because on a second viewing the movie seemed quite a bit better than I recalled. Interes-tingly enough and for whatever reason, I didn't remember quite a few of the scenes from the film, so they seemed remarkably fresh.) This time around I was actually moved by the end of the movie -- rather than annoyed, as I was upon my initial viewing.

I blame -- maybe praise would be more appropriate -- the timing of the film's creation and release and my own response to this. We were well into Bush fils' second term, depressed as hell, with little light glowing in a tunnel that was beginning to seem unending. And so Demme (shown at left) and his writers/adapters Daniel Pyne and Dean Georgaris (from the earlier version by George Axelrod, adapted from the Richard Condon novel) could have been accused of simply "piling it on."  Today, with an actual popularly-elected and supposedly "populist" sitting President, but so little of the promised "change" occurring, it is easier to view the film from a more dispassionate stance. From that angle, the movie catches, even more strongly now, the sense of global corporations -- and their masters -- run amok. Consequently it seems more timely than ever.

Now nearly a half-century old, the original Manchurian Candidate (1962) appeared when trust in our country and the powers-that-be was at a much higher level.  Audiences therefore could more easily be shocked -- and boy, were they! -- by what went on in this film, melodramatic and coincidental as much of it was. Now, with all that has come to light over nearly fifty years, we are not so easily bowled over, so while the new "candidate" ups the stakes, the violence and (yes) the pacing (though, in its day, the original seemed terrifically fast-moving and surprising), audiences are now way ahead of and probably even more paranoid than the plot of the new version. in which Denzel Washington (at top and just above) essays a similar role to that of Sinatra in the original.

The film's biggest problem, as is true of so many "paranoid thrillers," is that, as usual, because the bad guys control so much (can you say "everything"?), how can our hero manage to outfox and upend them?  This appears most flagrantly in the question of why they would allow Denzel's character to continue his investigation.  It would simply be so easy for them to whisk him out from under the protective custody of the character played by Liev Schreiber, shown above (it was Laurence Harvey in the original).  The movie has its own surprise in store, but only to some extent does this answers our objections.

In the role that helped make indelible the career of Angela Lansbury (a phenomenal show biz force that continues to this day),  Meryl Streep gives her usual strong performance, but for those who saw the original at its time of release, there will probably never be anything quite like Ms Lansbury.  Looking at the film now, it is as much the gleaming roster of supporting turns by actors who went on bigger acclaim that add as much luster to the movie as the leads: Vera Farmiga (below, 2004 was her breakout year), Jeffrey Wright (at bottom, and brilliant, as usual), Anthony Mackie, Pablo Schreiber, and a host of old-timers from Jon Voight to Charles Napier.

Director Demme does good  job of keeping us on our toes: Is Denzel's character a "reliable narrator," and if not, who might be a better one? Toward the finale, he tosses in a moment in which a federal agent, in search of her suspect, breaks in on a school pageant that seems to feature every icon of trust and reverence in America's history --Washington, Lincoln, the Statue of Liberty -- for a sudden, blink-of-an-eye burst of witty irony.

I wonder if you will find the scene that shows the election night crowd utterly thrilled by their candidates' victory a sad reminder of our most recent presidential election?  I did.  And this made me realize all too clearly that -- gosh, no -- we don't need any super-technology to control our fledgling politicians.  If you combine the recent Supreme Court decision that gives global corporations more power than American citizens -- allowing them to contribute endlessly to the political candidates of their choice -- with the general venality and stupidity of the American people and their "leaders," what possible use would we have for "implants" and "brainwashing"?

The Manchurian Candidate (2006) is available on DVD and Blu-Ray, as is the original 1962 version (on DVD only) -- for sale or rental.