Shaka King's JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH shines a necessary light on 50-year-old history

Hot on the heels of several other important -- as well as hugely entertaining and necessary -- films about the Black experience in America comes one of the best: JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH, directed by Shaka King, with a screenplay by Mr. King and Will Berson. Their movie details the shameful and unlawful treatment by Chicago police and the FBI of Fred Hampton (along with the entire Black Panther movement during the mid-to-late 1960s). 

The title itself comes from the fear expressed by the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover of Mr. Hampton's becoming the new Black Messiah, once Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated. Judas refers to the Biblical betrayer -- here a low-life, con-man/thief named William O'Neal, blackmailed into infiltrating and spying on Hampton and the Panthers

While the actions of Hoover and the police are digusting and thoroughly racist, King (pictured at left) and Berson don't try to sugar-coat the fact that the Panthers had to do some bad shit, too. Yet the amount of this the Panthers perpetrated, together with their reasons for doing it, do not even begin to approach that of "law enforcement." 

In telling their awful (and seemingly, from what TrustMovies remembers, of that time itself, barely fictionalized) tale, the filmmakers take what seems like pretty much a direct route: This happened, followed by this and this and this. 

Because the filmmaking and the writing is so direct and real -- as well as pointed and very political (I did not realize nor remember how anti-Capitalism Hampton was), the movie plows ahead with a speed and energy that belies its two-hour-plus running time. It has taken more than a half century for even a portion of the American populace to catch up with Hampton's ideas, thanks to the continued racist behavior of the police and FBI, along with the continual anti-Socialist message put out by our ever-more corporate controlled mainstream media. Now, finally, this is being fought against via the Black Lives Matter and "Occupy" movements, minimal media (subscribe to The Baffler) and a handful of progressive politicians. 

King's movie tells its story via extremely strong performances from its leading actors: Daniel Kaluuya (above) as Hampton, LaKeith Stanfield (at left, two photos below) as O'Neal, and Dominique Fishback (below) as Hampton's poet, guiding light and eventual lover -- with Jesse Plemons (at right, two photos below) doing his usual excellent work as the blackmailing FBI Agent, and Martin Sheen as certainly the nastiest, deservedly so, J. Edgar we've so far seen.

Considering what the USA was fed by its mainstream media and powers-that-were back in the day, how salutary and necessarily disturbing it is to finally have Hampton's story told this close to truly -- and this well. Judas and the Black Messiah is also the first must-see of the so-far much-vaunted Warner Brothers movies to be released theatrically and via HBO Max. 

The Witches is a lot of fun, but Wonder Woman 1984 is utter crap, The Little Things perhaps the stupidest would-be thriller/serial killer movie ever foisted on the public, and Locked Down much better in its first hour than its second. Let's hope that the up-next Tom and Jerry offers some good, entertaining fun.

Meanwhile, however you can view it, make a bee-line for Judas and the Black Messiah, which hit streaming this past week and will remain in theaters for some time to come, I hope.

Jeanine Meerapfel's MY GERMAN FRIEND: See an excellent, undiscovered film from 2012

It is possible that, despite the current pandemic's making the making of movies more difficult, the flip side of this is that a number of older films, earlier passed over for any kind of international distribution, are now getting their chance to shine -- even if tardily. On the basis of how intelligent, unusually put together, and ever-timely is the newly released movie titled MY GERMAN FRIEND, I would say that, as is often the case when bad things happen, there can be an occasional surprising and worthwhile upside.

Written and directed by Jeanine Meerapfel (shown at left), the movie tracks, beginning in the 1950s, the hugely changing relationship between childhood friends who live just across the street from each other: Friedrich Burg, the son of German Nazis relocated post-war to Argentina, and Sulamit Löwenstein, daughter of well-to-do Jews fleeing Europe for Argentina to escape the Holocaust. 

We're with Sulamit and Friedrich as young children, adolescents, older students and finally adults (Celeste Cid, below, right, and Max Riemelt, below, left). The two have loved and cared for each other all along the way, and yet their paths toward adulthood -- including career, philosophy, priorities -- could hardly have been more different. 

By refusing to take sides but instead showing us how each of her protagonists thinks and feels and thus why they behave in the ways they do, Ms Meerapfel is able to give us a wonderfully expansive and very real love story, without for a change slighting the necessary themes -- politics, protest, history, economics, education, rebellion (and its consequences), even feminism -- that should figure (but so seldom do) into any genuine love story. (Think of this one as The Way We Were, but set in Argentina and Germany, and without all the soap suds.)

The film begins on a train as Sulamit makes her way toward... something, though we don't yet know what. We only learn this as the movie is more than halfway along, as the present moves to the past, catches up again, and plows onward. 

My German Friend is indeed a love story, but it is one that offers so much more than simple romance, a little lust and some feel-good filler. It shows us different forms of love and how help and support figure into all this. 

And if the filmmaker will win no awards for style and/or breaking new ground, she should win a few for showing us life's broader perspective that include what is going on in our world politically, economically, culturally, and freedom/repression-wise. 

By the time of Meerapfel's lovely conclusion -- in which anything simple-minded or obvious has no role -- we are made to realize that love is in ongoing thing in which small battles must be fought, won or allowed to be lost in order to keep the relationship healthy. This movie is a small-but-genuine "find."

From Corinth Films -- which has been giving us a lot of lesser-known but very-much-worth-viewing attractions -- in German and Spanish (with English subtitles) and running 104 minutes, My German Friend hit DVD and streaming earlier this week -- for purchase and/or rental. Amazon Prime members can watch it free of charge.

STOP TRUMP -- and the rest of the current Republican Party. There is no other way.

Historically -- and I mean in the span of my near-80-year lifetime, at least -- the Republican Party (despite whatever it may have been at its birth) has stood for the white, the wealthy and the powerful over the weak, the working class, the poor and the non-white. This attitude has not changed but has simply grown stronger and more obvious as decades passed.

Now, with the ascension/devolution of Donald Trump, a man who, during his entire career, has proved himself a bully, bigot, coward, crook, fool and fraud, along with the hypocritical help of the Republican-led Senate and Supreme Court, the USA has hit the nadir of its very checkered, two-centuries-plus past. Prior to our current Corona-virus era, we had already reached a point at which full-time employment for the masses did not ensure anything close to a living wage.

This current time of lockdown, sickness and death provides an even greater opportunity for the members of the Republican Party to increase their wealth and power, and of course they are going at it like wild dogs in a feeding frenzy.  U.S. citizens can vote these worthless (except for their wealth, of course) sleazebags out of power only if we actually have an unfettered right to vote, which is looking less and less likely with all the voter restrictions now in place, with more being added ASAP.

If we cannot vote them out, they must be thrown out by any means necessary. The New Republic magazine features a most interesting article by Osita Nwanevu in its March issue. The article is titled MAKE IT STOP, accompanied by the following description: In order to save our democracy, we must not merely defeat the GOP -- we have to abolish it. That was how the print version of the magazine put it. Interestingly, the online version, which is all that's available now, plays the description in this abbreviated form: In order to save our democracy, we must not merely defeat the Republican Party. Did someone at TNR get cold feet?

In any case, the article is worth reading, and what it says is quite true, though I wish Mr. Nwanevu had come out more strongly for progressive Democrats over those of the "centrist" persuasion -- who have done the country and the party more damage than good over the past decades since the Reagan administration, leading us -- thanks to the centrists' refusal to stand up to corporations and Wall Street/Banking -- into such frustration and anger (along with stupidity) from the populace that we now have Trump to contend with.

OK: TrustMovies realizes that never in our history has a genuine progressive Presidential candidate -- from Henry A. Wallace through Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren -- been allowed to run for that office. Corporate power, Wall Street and the banks simply will not tolerate this. (Barack Obama and Joe Biden are about as progressive as my Republican uncle, which is why the former was allowed to run, while the latter is actively encouraged to do so.) Concerned citizens keep trying, but an electorate that has, at this point, been turned into little more than consumers of entertainment (never more so than now, during this pandemic) is no match for the nastiness and cunning of the Republican right.

The current demonstrations against the ending of black lives by police, once these devolve into looting, are less than worthless politically (I have updated this post as of June 22 to say how thankful I am that the looting has stopped and was only a small portion of the current ongoing protest), while the effort to somehow separate black protesters from white seems utterly pointless. Identifying ANTIFA from fake-ANTIFA is well-nigh impossible, too, given the current state of news reporting in print, on TV or via the Internet.

So what do we do? If enough of us are not allowed to vote, then we either go sheeplike to our very slow slaughter, or we rise up and take power by force. How? If I were younger, braver and smarter, I might have a clue, along with the strength necessary to put that into action. But surely some folk out there have one. If so, please use it.

What I can do at this point is use my blog to make a statement. It may be paltry but it's all I have. So there it is. And, yes, I'll be back to movies and entertainment tomorrow or maybe the next day....

CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: Justin Pemberton's necessary documentary of Thomas Piketty's even more necessary book

If ever a tome was needed to help correct the world's ever-growing inequality between the wealthy and the rest, it was Thomas Piketty's CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, published in French in 2013 and the following year in an English-language translation.

Though an immediate best-seller internationally, TrustMovies suspects it was one of those books more talked about than actually read by the intelligent masses (yup, I didn't read it either). For those of us who didn't -- and even maybe for those who did -- here comes the movie version (a documentary, 'natch) directed by Justin Pemberton that, after a bit of a shaky start, goes on to become one of those must-see movies that may change the attitude of many lucky enough to view it.

Mr. Pemberton (shown at left), along with M. Piketty (shown below), make

their point via history, economics, statistics and even psychology. Regarding that last, the experiment shown here involving wealth, entitlement and the results of a Monopoly game played without anything resembling a level playing field should open your eyes and leave your mouth agape. That aforementioned point is how hugely the gap in western countries between the very wealthy and the remaining populace continues to widen -- along with how unhealthy this situation clearly is.

Piketty, who, along with Pemberton and Matthew Metcalfe, adapted his own book to the screen, has certainly managed to make his information come across as intelligent, important and more than a little timely.

It is Piketty himself who acts as initial narrator, speaking to us in French (with English subtitles) and popping up from time to time, along with a number of other smart, well-spoken talking heads (including economic analyst Rana Foroohar, above) who, together, make a very good case for why this enormous income disparity is so destructive for so many.

Initially, the documentary took some time to involve me and to lift off. I suspect this is because the film spends a good half hour offering a look at history and telling us things that, if we've also seen other fine docs such as Capitalism and No Gods, No Masters, we'll already know. Add to this, Mr. Pemberton's penchant for filling up the screen with so much of everything as to be distracting (see above and below).

Yet, as Capital in the Twenty-First Century moves along, it gathers such a head of steam that is soon becomes so vitally interesting and packed with more and more with succulent examples and pertinent information that, once finished, you may want to watch it all over again, just to make sure you got the whole thing.

By the time it gets to -- and sticks with -- this twenty-first century,  you'll be absolutely hooked, as Piketty and company explore everything from globalization and its discontents to the country of China (above) -- and why the Chinese (below) are faring better than are we in the west.

This is not simply a slap on the wrist or some dire warning without an accompanying solution. Piketty offers some good ones -- involving taxation and the monitoring of offshore tax havens, among others. Yes, this'll take work. But what that is worthwhile does not?

More to the point, this change demands both the will and the work. But with so many of our current politicians (just as those of the past, above) --- of either stripe -- in hock to the wealthy and the corporate, will and work are, as ever, in short supply. And now we have the current Corona virus to makes it all more difficult. Still, this is a documentary that demands to be seen, discussed and acted upon. We shall see.

From Kino Lorber and running 103 minutes, Capital in the Twenty-First Century was supposed to open theatrically this Friday, April 3 (click here, then click on PLAYDATES, to see the should-have-been theatrical venues). If not available theatrically, surely the film will soon be seen via digital streaming. I'll try to keep you posted with any updates here....

Blu-ray debut for Robert Altman's lesser-known but first-class film, KANSAS CITY

I remember seeing KANSAS CITY at the time of its original theatrical release (1996) and enjoying it a lot. Yet viewing it again, in a glorious new Blu-ray transfer from Arrow Academy, it seems not simply very good but up there with its director and co-writer Robert Altman's best films.

So why is this remarkable movie so little know or even much talked about anymore? I suspect it has to do with how little, style-wise, the movie resembles so much of the other work for which Altman, shown at right, is now most remembered. By style, I mean in particular this filmmaker's much vaunted use of over-lapping dialog, together with the so-much-going-on visuals that have you scanning the screen, ever alert to what to watch and to whom to listen as the movie moves ahead.

No. This film, by conventional standards of Altman's work (if the word conventional can even be used here), seems almost traditional. Aside from a clever opening taking place in two time frames that soon come together (as well as coming clear), the film moves forward with the plot unfurling and characters developing, just as in so many more standard movies.

What sets Kansas City apart --  in addition to the first-rate set and production design, cinematography and all other technical aspects -- are the themes Altman so often pursued, especially the ways in which power congregates and corrupts, no matter the race or class represented.

The movie begins with a kidnapping of one woman by another, the reason for which only slowly comes clear. These women are played by Jennifer Jason Leigh (above, as Blondie) and Miranda Richardson (below, as Carolyn), each of whom is as good here as she has ever been. Their story is front and center, and their characters are wonderfully written (by Altman and his four-time collaborator Frank Barhydt) and beautifully acted by the two women, whose relationship grows oddly closer as the film progresses.

Simultaneously, Kansas City is a love story -- fueled by Blondie's love for her guy, a good-looking nitwit named Johnny, played with brainless charm by Dermot Mulroney, below -- and a non-love story in terms of the relationship-of-convenience between Carolyn and her husband, an ex-politician now working for President Roosevelt (Michael Murphy). The tale unfurls on and around election day, as the local Democratic candidate is jammed through via everything from voter fraud to cavalier murder.

Blondie's Johnny has stupidly planned a robbery of a rich gambler that goes awry but brings in the man who own the gambling house (a nifty Harry Belafonte, below, essaying a role unusual for him). How all these plot strands bounce off each other, finally coming together in a manner that is shocking, horrible, inevitable and completely understandable. It will leave you satisfied and musing, I think, on exactly the subjects Altman wants you to be considering, even as you are impressed all over again with what this great filmmaker could accomplish.

Kansas City is a violent film, but never unduly so, with that violence ranging from the merely casual to the grizzly. Yet it all seems appropriate to the period, the locale, and the situations, while the writer/director's take on race in particular is strong and true for this time and place.

In addition to all of the above, Kansas City boasts some wonderful music -- jazz of the day played right and real -- taking place in the club owned by the Belafonte character. As critic Geoff Andrew tells us in the excellent, newly-filmed appreciation of the movie that is a part of the Bonus Features on the disc, this was perhaps the most personal of all of Altman's work, in so many ways, and the filmmaker's attention to detail in every aspect comes through quite beautifully.

TrustMovies believes this new Blu-ray release will help place Kansas City much higher in the canon of Mr. Altman's oeuvre. It should attract both his die-hard fans for a re-look, while garnering a bunch of new ones, too.

From Arrow Video, distributed here in the USA via MVD Visual/MVD Entertainment Group, the film made its Blu-ray debut last week -- for purchase (and I hope, somewhere, rental).

Serbia and a family--past and present--in Mila Turajlic's THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING

If you think you know Serbia -- as TrustMovies rather foolishly imagined that he did -- simply from earlier history and/or reports of the wartime genocide and destruction of Yugoslavia back in the 1990s, here is an unusual and surprising documentary -- THE OTHER SIDE OF EVERYTHING -- made by a filmmaker (Mila Turajlic) about her mother (Srbijanka Turajlić), a former professor, constant activist and noted scholar. The movie's concen, one of them at least, is what the modern "creation" of a separate Serbian state has meant to mom, her friends and family, and to the barely recognized old woman who, along with her late husband, had been living ensconced in a couple of sealed-off rooms of the family's apartment for decades. Yes: Right about now, you're entitled to be asking, What the fuck?

Who was this old woman, and why has she been there? That's just one of the several questions opened up and only somewhat answered in this slow-burn exploration by a daughter (shown at right) of what it has meant to be her mother over not simply the decades that daughter has been alive, but back to the time of her grandparents and great-grandparents. Simultaneously, the documentary explores what it has meant to live in Belgrade over these lifetimes, during which, as mom points out, you took for granted (don't we all?) that your city would always be part of the same country.

One of the more telling moments comes as mom recalls filling out the first census under Serbia's genocidal President Slobodan Milošević and no longer being able to check off, under "country," the choice of Yugoslavia. The younger Turajlić certainly has visual flair: From her opening, as we view the building in which she grew up shrouded in fog, her sense of color, design and composition proves beautiful and compelling. But it's her foray into family and politics that will most amaze you, I think.

Her mother (above and below), as Mila points out in not unkindly fashion toward the film's end, is a hypocrite. And despite her very progressive and near-lifelong activism, mom is bourgeois to the bone. Just note her attention to the caring for and cleaning of the apartment, as well as the unending delight she takes in her fine china and crystal. Conversely, it seems that her poor "tenant," a self-proclaimed and proud member of the proletariat, was also a huge fan of Milošević. (Well, consider the fan base of the current President of the USA.)

The ironies come thick and fast here. And for folk like me who are not that conversant with Serbian history, we'll probably realize that we're missing half the fun (and the sadness). The younger Turajlić has researched well the archives for some very interesting newsreel footage, and it may surprise audiences to learn that while most Serbs supported Milošević, many did not. The scenes of protests against this dictator should make you think twice.

You may wonder along the way how it is that the senior Turajlić survived until now. Was the regime afraid to turn her into a martyr? Or did she, as during the protest shown near the film's beginning, sometimes not join in due to the remonstrations from her filmmaker daughter? And how about the bizarre treatment of her long-term tenant, for whom she seems to have shown almost no interest? (Her husband, the filmmaker's father, at least according the daughter's account here, was actively verbally abusive to the older couple.)

Well, nobody's perfect, and Srbijanka Turajlić seems in many ways a model of progressive thinking and behavior. And her daughter's fine documentary -- remarkably rich, moving and so beautifully filmed -- should stand the test of time, as well as giving American audiences their first wider look at the recently "renovated" nation they know a lot less about than they might have imagined. And yes, those closed doors (below) do eventually get opened.

After a very limited theatrical release last year, the documentary arrives on home video this coming week via Icarus Films Home Video. Look for it to hit the street on DVD and VOD next Tuesday, August 13 -- for purchase and/or rental.

I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS: Radu Jude's film hits screens

That statement in the headline above, which doubles as the title of this new Romanian movie, are the words of Marshal Ion Antonescu (shown on the TV screen in photo, bottom), Romania’s military dictator, to the Council of Ministers during the summer of 1941 that is said to have begun the ethnic cleansing on the Nazi's Eastern Front during World War II.

The movie itself tracks the fictional planning and execution of a particular outdoor theatrical celebratory event to take place in present-day Romania that is being put together by a certain talented, intelligent, and very driven young woman.

I DO NOT CARE IF WE GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS BARBARIANS is the creation of the very real and also very talented Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude (shown at left, of Aferim! & Scarred Hearts), who again shows us how unusually creative he can be while simultaneously breaking some cinematic rules that many of us probably hold quite dear. His long (two hours and 20 minutes) but never boring (for thoughtful audiences, at least) movie is jam-packed with discussions -- political, philosophical, biblical, historical -- by that young woman and her associates, her married boyfriend and especially the evidently high-level muckety-muck who formerly OKed her project but is now having second thoughts about the wisdom of it all.

If these discussions were not enough of a problem (come on, come on: where's the car chase?), the movie assumes an interest in Romanian history, of which we get quite a lot. By virtue of the fact that Romanian history is so very like so much of European history -- especially concerning the round-up, persecution and murder of the Jewish population -- that assumption turns out to be dead-on.

Our heroine is given such a fine and feisty performance by Ioana Iacob (shown above, center, and below, right) that we are almost immediately in her clutches. She's not simply smart and talented; she also cares about what she is doing to the extent that she'll risk her career, such as it is, to make sure her intentions -- showing her country its unvarnished past, genocides and all (Romania is said to have gladly exterminated more Jews than any other European country save Nazi Germany, together with Hitler's own homeland, Austria).

The movie is full of irony (atop and inside other ironies) so that even when dealing with the most awful portions of Romanian history, dark humor proliferates. And Jude films his provocative discussions in every possible place, including bedside, with his heroine and her boyfriend nude and full-frontal, even as they argue.

How the final event plays out -- we see it in all its detailed "glory" --  is also awash in irony. I won't go into specifics but will say that the movie in one big way disappoints because, if it was obvious to me (and probably will be to you) how things will turn out, this makes the expectations of both the heroine and her main detractor seem rather naive and ridiculous. If we so readily know, how could they not?

Still, I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians proves a rich, ripe history lesson as well as a morality tale about why a country needs to know and confront its own history, including the worst of it. God knows America still has this lesson to learn, as do more and more of the world's other homelands -- even as a sleazy, stupid nationalism continues to overwhelm their thinking populaces via jingoistic demagogues.

From Big World Pictures, in Romanian with English subtitles, the movie opens this Friday, July 19, in New York City at the IFC Center, and the following Friday, July 26, in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center. Another five cities have theatrical screenings in the weeks to come. Click here (then scroll down) to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.