Apocalypse soon in Jeffrey A. Brown's slow-burn horror, THE BEACH HOUSE

When a cute and sexy but squabbling young couple  -- played by Liana Liberato and Noah Le Gros -- show up at his family's supposedly empty beach house for a long weekend (or maybe an indefinite stay), after a bout of quick lovemaking, they discover they're not alone and must share this lovely and spacious retreat with a kindly older couple, who are friends of the Le Gros character's father, who owns the house.

This might be a nice set-up for comparing relationships, young and old; or maybe a kind of coming-of-age tale in which the younger set learns about priorities and responsibility.  Except that this movie begins with the camera panning down, down, down to the bottom of the ocean where a huge rock formation is suddenly giving off a very weird, gray combination of what seems like steam and dust.

What's going on in THE BEACH HOUSE, the new sci-fi/horror/thriller from first-time/full-length writer/director Jeffrey A. Brown (shown at left), turns out to be the kind of theme and movie that usually demand an enormous budget. Brown quite cleverly reduces it all to four actors/characters (plus a few extras) and a time frame of maybe two full days, if that. What happens begins at a very slow burn then increasingly heats up until we're grasping at straws, trying to discover a way out -- any way at all -- for the remaining characters. Things finally begin to happen so fast and furiously that we rather know in our heart and mind that there is no way out. Which make the final lines spoken in this film so awful and moving.

Ms Liberato's character, Emily (above), is studying to be (if TrustMovies remembers correctly) a kind of astrophysicist-by-way-of-marine-biologist, and knows how to explain her fields to that older couple (Jake Weber and Maryann Nagel, below) so that they (and we) understand just enough of what might be happening that we can suspend disbelief and hold on tight.

That early slow burn allows us to ascertain a bit more about character and situation as we move along -- Emily is highly responsible, Randall (Mr. Le Gros, below) is anything but, while Mitch (Mr. Weber) is a loving caregiver, though Jane (Ms Nagel) is definitely not long for that care.

Special effects -- beginning ever so quietly and slowly, then heatedly ramping up -- are very well chosen for both suspense and their "ick" factor. The power of suggestion is also used quite smartly here. Even at just 88 minutes, the movie is still a little too long. Once it is clear how and where things are going, Mr. Brown dawdles and repeats a bit in getting us there.

But, finally, we do. And though it's not a place you'd choose to be, there is, as they say, at least some closure. From the AMC streaming platform, SHUDDER, The Beach House opened last week in the U.S.A., Canada, the UK and Ireland. Click here to find the fastest way to access the movie.

On digital: Tom Cullen's PINK WALL highlights the ups and down of a six-year relationship

"Who are these people?" you may ask yourself during the initial scene of PINK WALL, as two characters begin babbling on in ways that appear improvised but also seem more than a little "off." Unfortunately, this babbling never stops, and while the two actors involved -- Tatiana Maslany and Jay Duplass -- have fine track records, given the tired and tiresome situations and dialog they are given here, try as they might (and they mightily do), characters we care about, empathize with or even believe are real never finally or fully materialize.

The fellow most responsible for this would be the writer/director, Tom Cullen (shown at left), who also happens to be, according to the IMDB, the long-term partner of Ms Maslany (shown above and below), which goes a distance in explaining her involvement here. Mr. Cullen made a large and positive mark as one of the lead actors in Andrew Haigh's Weekend, and he has graced some other good films.

This is Cullen's first foray into writing and directing however, and he clearly did not learn much from Weekend's spare and on-the-mark disalog. The chattering here is near-constant and often grating as all hell.

"Don't they ever shut up?" TrustMovies wondered from time to time as this 82-minute (but still too long) movie unfurled. No, they don't, but if the subjects this pair of long-time lovers discuss did not seem so typical and if the discussion rose above mostly cliché, we might better appreciate it. The most interesting section involves open relationships, and here, for a change, a few other characters are also involved. Even this extended scene gives us little new to ponder concerning the age-old question -- except maybe the first cock-size-à-propos-cunt-size exploration I've seen on screen.

I suspect the movie wants more than anything else to be "cool," as one of its characters accuses the other of always trying to be. It may indeed manage this, depending on your definition of the word. Time-wise the film moves back and forth between year six and year one of this relationship, with each of its half-dozen scenes meant to show us more of this fraught relationship. Finally, though, it all fudges together into the single non-stop talk-fest of two good actors trapped in poor material.

By way of recent companison, however, this movie is way better than Entangled. From 1091, Pink Wall hits digital tomorrow, Tuesday, November 12 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Brian Crano's adult rom-com, PERMISSION, explores a few do's-and-don't's for couples

I hope that Tao Ruspoli, creator of the recent doc, Monogamish, has the chance to see PERMISSION, the new rom-com-drama by writer/director Brian Crano, because the concerns of each film are similar enough -- even if the roads taken by the two movie-makers prove very different. Crano's latest full-lengther (after his remarkable debut with A Bag of Hammers from 2011) is all about what happens to a 30-something couple -- who've been together practically since adolescence and who have never had sex with anyone except each other -- when a drunken pal one night suggests that they at least try another sexual partner before cementing their relationship with marriage and/or children.

Mr. Crano, pictured at left, is smart enough not to make things too easy for our very attractive couple, played with ever-evolving surprise, wit, charm and great appeal by Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens. (shown below and on poster, above). Both actors have already shown us numerous times, how versatile and adept they are, so this is yet another feather in the caps of both.

Though they manage to rather quickly find attractive playmates outside their relationship, their ability to adjust to the newness and thrill of all this, as well as to the jealousy and fear involved is seeing your partner stray, are given their due--and then some.

She -- a music student as well as teacher -- finds a very hunky young musician (French-Canadian actor François Arnaud. below, right) to bed and maybe more,

while he -- a furniture maker with a thriving business -- quickly turns an older-woman client (Gina Gershon, below) into a bedmate, as well as his tutor into a new world of sex, drugs, and letting go. (How good it is to see Ms Gershon given a role with some variety and surprise, and then see her fill it so well.)

Fair enough. But where (and how and why) does our experimenting couple go from here? The journey, of course, is what lends the movie its real interest, and if Crano makes a couple of false moves in the dialog area (Stevens last line about "growing up" is one that his character would never have concluded so quickly, nor does it need to be underscored this heavily), the filmmaker manages to take a subject fraught with dangers of both overkill and under-cooking, and make of it one of the more interesting and disquieting lessons on love and relationships that the movies have provided of late.

Ms Hall (above) is a pleasure to see in one of her more lighthearted roles (initially, at least), while Mr. Stevens (below) continues to stretch and grow. A side plot involving gay partners in which one of the men wants to adopt a baby in some ways mirrors the growing change happening in the Hall/Stevens relationship. Morgan Spector, David Joseph Craig and Jason Sudeikis bring this situation to fine life.

We've seen enough films by now about open marriage, sexual experimentation, and the like -- from Design for Living through Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice to last year's Professor Marston and the Wonder Women -- that a filmmaker tackling this anew must provide some thought and depth to go along with the titillation. Crano manages this by forcing us to see that if you decide to experiment, you'd better be willing to evolve.

From Good Deed Entertainment and running 96 minutes, Permission opens this Friday, February 9, in New York City (and the Village East Cinema) and in Los Angeles (at the AMC Sunset and Arena Cinelounge), and elsewhere. Click here to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Prevarication reigns (and rains): Phil Allocco's goofy, funny rom-com, THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES

Though it has been sitting around for two years now, hitting the festival circuit while waiting for release, a rom-com called THE TRUTH ABOUT LIES -- written and directed by Phil Allocco (shown below), who earlier made a name for himself as guitarist in the band, Law & Order  -- turns out to have been worth the wait. The movie is funny, charming and goofy as hell, and it sports a first-rate cast of good-looking actors who also know how to create the proper chemistry together, as well as nailing the humor as easily as the romance. 

You will have to suspend your disbelief a bit at some of the whoppers you'll be asked to accept here, but since Allocco has made his movie all about lying, and his leading man, the hugely under-appreciated comedic hottie, Fran Kranz (shown below in romantic mode and and further below in comedic), handles these lies with such amazing aplomb that, for maximum enjoyment and fun, it's best to simply go along on this wild ride. 

The filmmaker's point would seem to be that we all lie to each other all the time, but if we can just ground those lies in a healthier life style -- a decent job, apartment, mate, diet and more -- then we'll get by just fine. What? How dare he! 

Mr. Allocco dares, all right, and he pretty much gets away with it, too, thanks to some clever writing, decent direction, and the ministrations of his first-rate cast. Mr. Franz has long been one of my favorite rom-com actors, and once again he acquits himself royally. Whether he's falling in love, above, or killing time in the men's room, below, with a couple of rolls of toilet paper, he's alternately sexy and funny and always fun. 

His suddenly former and soon-to-become girlfriends are played by Mary Elizabeth Ellis (below) and Odette Annable (further below), the former with a lot of anger and sass, the latter with such graceful beauty and charm that she'll sweep you off your feet, just as she does our hero his.

Allocco peppers his movie, via title cards, with frequent and often terrific quotes about lies and truth -- and their effect on us all. Many of these quotes are first-rate, and they'll make you think (and laugh) as much as does the movie itself. 

In the supporting cast are other good (and good-looking) performers such as Miles Fisher (below, as Kranz's best friend) and Chris Diamantopoulos (at bottom, playing Annable's husband). 

From time to time the movie will put you in mind of early-Woody Allen. But, hey, early Woody Allen ain't bad. And neither is The Truth About Lies. And if the movie will not set the world on fire (we can leave that to Donald Trump), it's nonetheless a pleasurable enough outing for those who appreciate the rom-com genre.

Opening theatrically in some 25 cities across the country this Friday, October 27 -- in New York City, it hits the Cinema Village; in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center -- the movie, running 94 minutes, will be available digitally, as well. Click here, then click on Screenings in the task bar, to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Sad, funny, bizarre and off-kilter: Jiménez, Scherson and Zambra's take on FAMILY LIFE

Directed by Cristián Jiménez and Alicia Scherson (Ms Scherson is pictured below) and written by Alejandro Zambra, the new Chilean movie, FAMILY LIFE, proves equal parts oddball and fascinating. Never boring for an instant, often provocative and by its finale, leaving you (along with at least one of its characters) in a state of desolation, the movie offers up a highly unusual main character who is utterly irresponsible and sociopathic. And yet the movie itself is surprisingly light and airy, seeming to bubble along on the strength of its odd plot, the genuineness of its characters (all of whom are bizarrely believable), and the relatively strong writing and direction.

The script, from Señor Zambra, is full of sharp dialog that moves the plot along nicely while opening up the subjects -- responsibility, relationships, and that "family life" of the title -- that are of such interest to the filmmakers. Ms Scherson, a few years back, gave us another interesting "family" film, Il futuro, and she's back at it again with this new one -- which on one level is much more mainstream and yet also quietly refuses to pigeon-hole itself too easily. Señor Jiménez is responsible for the also oddball Chilean/Argentine film Bonsai (based on a novel by Zambra), and the resulting collaboration between these three artists turns out to be a productive one indeed.

The plot, on one level, could hardly be simpler: A family -- mom, pop and young daughter (above) -- must suddenly leave Chile for France for a few months, and when a caretaker for their apartment falls through, dad asks a rather distant relative, Martin, to live there and look after the place. The family barely knows this guy but they are willing to give him a chance.

What happens when the family departs and Martin moves in is quite, quite interesting -- utterly expected yet often not so, full of oddity that works because it is based on character rather than contrivance and exposes itself slowly and strangely. The actor who plays the lead -- Jorge Becker -- is just about perfectly cast. He's kind of cute but nothing spectacular, sports a nice full-frontal package, and is able to simultaneously express, while keeping a good part of this hidden, the bizarre personality -- full of fear, anger, hope and general unease -- of someone who has never properly grown up and yet inhabits the body of a man.

Martin cannot accept responsibility, and when a relationship blooms between him and a local young woman, he must resort to huge pretense to carry it off. How all this occurs, along with what results from it, is alternately amusing and disturbing because the object of Martin's affection (Gabriela Arancibia, above, in a lovely, intelligent, guileless performance) proves such a genuine and loving partner.

The movie refuses to allow us to take it too seriously -- we're not talking tragedy here -- and yet it works very well. We root for both leading characters, hoping against hope that Martin can somehow "come around." Sorry, this is nothing like your typical rom-com. The characterizations, however, are strong enough to surmount all else. You may not like what you are left with as Family Life closes, but you will certainly not be able to discount it out of hand.

From Monument Releasing and Cinema Tropical and running just 80 minutes, Family Life opens this Friday, June 9, for a one-week run in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center, with openings in San Diego at the Digital Gym on Friday, June 23; at the Tower Theater here in Miami on Friday July 21; and at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on Friday, July 28, followed by other U.S. cities. The film will be available on TVOD come August 1, and via Amazon Prime on September 1. So, really, you've no excuse to miss this one! 

Ducastel & Martineau's PARIS 05:59 THEO & HUGO -- the year's best love story, already?

We're not even one month into the new year, but if a better love story than PARIS 05:59 THEO & HUGO comes along, then we're in for quite a romantic 2017. Of course, the viewer who ventures into this new film needs to be warned: Before you meet and discover exactly who our two lovers are and why you should in any way care about them and their story, you will have to endure a quarter-hour or more of an hardcore orgy taking place at a gay after-hours club in Paris.

OK. Now that we've lost that part of our audience, let's continue. Even some gays may find the opening orgy difficult or tiresome to sit through. My spouse was ready to quit the film early on, but, suspecting that a real movie -- with characters, plot and progression -- was on tap, I convinced him to last it out. I had no trouble lasting it out because I enjoy hardcore now and again, particularly when it appears in films that offer much more than merely sex. I also have loved the

earlier movies by filmmaking duo Olivier Ducastel (above) and Jacques Martineau (at left), which include The Adventures of Felix and Côte d'Azure, and this new one turns out to be their best by far. Imagine a romantic comedy/drama in which the lovers engage in sex (with others, as well as with each other) at the very beginning and then proceed toward a much different and more important kind of intimacy, and you may get some idea of what is so odd and so very special about this film. Gays will understand this sort of experience perhaps better than straight audiences, as initial sex is often the trigger for a relationship (lasting or otherwise).

Here, one fellow, Théo (the slight, curly-haired and very well hung Geoffrey Couët, below, left), who, in the midst of being hit on by various other men, notices someone who more than catches his eye, and so he slowly proceeds, via various sexual iterations with one fellow and then another, toward his goal. This turns out to be Hugo (the more conventionally gorgeous, sleek, muscular and also well-endowed François Nambot), below, right.

In a scene that strikes me as both hot and original as any meet-cute I've seen, the two end up finally facing each other, even as they are simultaneously fucking different men. Their gaze and then their mouths meet, and -- voilà! -- we have perhaps the most unusual love-at-first-sight scene in movie history. They have terrific sex, climax, gather up their belongings, and leave the club together. Then the movie really begins.

Who are these two, and what might they find together? We soon begin to learn. The dialog in the film is spectacularly good: natural, real, but genuinely interesting and exploratory. Both young men are worth getting to know, and you can feel their interest in each other -- which began as something visual/emotional/sexual -- begin to bloom into something richer and possibly more lasting.

Ducastel and Martineau, together with their hugely appealing and emotionally on-point actors, make every moment count, and the visuals of early-morning, pre-dawn Paris are marvelous indeed. We only spend a couple of hours with these two, as their relationship grows (the movie seems to be taking place in near-real time) but by the end, we are with them, body and soul.

Along the way, we/they visit a hospital, meet a very odd "patient" (above) as well as a most helpful AIDS worker (newcomer Elodie Adler, below). They encounter a young man from Syria (Georges Daaboul) who works in the kebab house at which they hope to buy a breakfast,

and finally, on the subway, they engage in the most lovely conversation with a femme de chambre who works in one of the city's nicer hotels (a wonderful Marief Guittier, below, center)  The young men's conversation bounces from subject to subject, and sometimes gets interestingly social/political, but never leaves its goal of bringing the two young men closer together.

By the finale, which has got to be among the most beautifully romantic/poetic/engulfing/hopeful scenes in gay movie history, they and you should be walking on that proverbial cloud. Seldom has a film begun so very differently from where it ends. Théo and Hugo -- both the movie and the guys -- are not to be missed. This one will take your breath away.

From Wolfe Releasing, the movie opens this Friday, January 27, in New York City (IFC Center), Los Angeles (Laemmle's Music Hall 3), San Francisco (The Roxie) and Fort Lauderdale (The Gateway Theatre). And as the film is from Wolfe, it's sure to appear on DVD/VOD eventually.

THE SALESMAN: Another Asghar Farhadi film, another disturbing, moving thought-provoker

What? They produce plays by Arthur Miller in modern-day Iran? It would seem so (even if the censors may have to delete a few lines here and there); at least, that is what we discover via the new film from Oscar-winner Asghar Farhadi (of A Separation and a flock of even better films). In his newest work, THE SALESMAN, our very attractive and hot young couple are performing the leading roles of Willy and Linda in Death of a Salesman.

Mr. Farhardi, shown at right, is a continuing master at offering up present-day Iran via its bourgeoisie and making the lives shown and problems explored look, to our eyes, remarkably like our own. Except in certain important cultural ways. (I was going to include the word "religious," but what we see seems so deeply ingrained as to have gone well past religion into the country's culture.) The husband here is also a school-teacher, and we see him (and how his mind works) in the classroom with his students, who seem to like and respect him.

One evening, post-performance, as the wife, home alone, is removing her stage make-up, the buzzer to the couple's apartment building rings. Expecting her husband, she buzzes him in, leaves their apartment door ajar and goes back to the bathroom. This will change their life.

From this point on, the movie, which has begun almost as a kind of critique of life in Iran, opens up into so much more. In the opening scene, the couple's original apartment building must be evacuated, as it appears to be literally breaking apart. Much of the city, it seems, has been rather poorly constructed.

Yet from the "event" onwards, the movie becomes a deeper, unsettling exploration of trust and betrayal, love, respect and, as seems true of all of Farhadi's films, a critique of his country's patriarchal/macho grounding, coupled to a look at slowly budding feminism.

The two leads are, as always in Farhadi's films, first-rate, with Shahab Hosseini (above, whom you might recognize as the nutcase hubby from A Separation) again doing a fine job as a man who slowly unravels in the course of events, and Taraneh Alidoosti (below, who played the title character in About Elly) doing an equally fine job as the wife who is "done wrong" not only by the event in question but by what happens afterward.

Farhadi's movie is part mystery, as solved by amateurs (who, for understandable cultural reasons, do not want to involve the police), and the filmmaker's handling of the sleuthing is expert: smart but not too smart, and very believable. Farhadi also, as is his wont, refuses to disclose all that has happened. But unlike some of what was withheld from us in A Separation, this adds to the situation's complexity, rather than seeming to be merely deliberate withholding on the filmmaker's part.

The result of all this quietly explodes into something much larger and more difficult that we (or this couple) could have expected. There is plenty of guilt to go around, along with a try for redemption. But the thirst for compensation/revenge is present, too. How the filmmaker weaves all this together makes for a spectacularly dense and slowly revealing conclusion that will have you feeling and understanding the viewpoint of every character present.

This is major filmmaking, and if Farhadi were to walk away with another Oscar, I would not be surprised. (His film is among the five nominees in the BFLF category). The Salesman forces you to re-consider your priorities: what you would finally allow or not allow, and how much damage you might be willing to inflict on another in order to satisfy your own sense of justice and/or need for revenge.

From Amazon Studios and the Cohen Media Group, in Persian with English subtitles and running a long but never boring 125 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, January 27, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal. Here in South Florida, it opens February 10 at the Tower Theater, Miami; the Movies of Delray and Lake Worth, and at the Regal Shadowood and Living Room Theaters in Boca Raton. To see the many playdates all across the country, with cities and theaters listed, simply click here and scroll down.