A new kind of "Jonestown," still a cult: Cara Jones' family documentary, BLESSED CHILD

Wouldn't you know? Yes, it's love that fuels the new documentary BLESSED CHILD -- all about a young woman (now middle-aged) who, thanks to her family, became a member of yet another infamous religious cult, this one featuring those "Moonies," led by the South Korean crackpot, "Reverend" Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church.

When TrustMovies calls what fuels this movie love, he's referring to all kinds of that popular condition, from romantic love (which simply was never there for our heroine in the arranged marriage she accepted via Reverend Moon), family love (her entire family was part of and rather high up in the hierarchy of Moon's major shell game), and especially of course, love of god -- however one might define his/her obeisance to the divine s/he/it. Or simply shit, as I sometimes refer to the deity. (Ooops: My atheism is popping out again.)

What makes Blessed Child more unusual than other documentaries that try to unmask and/or hold up to scrutiny one or another religious cult (as with so many docs that tackle Scientology) is that Ms Jones (shown at left) and her whole family, after decades now, still seem to be trying to come to terms with what they have done, who they actually are, and how to deal with that fraud and false messiah, Reverend Moon. From the looks of things, it ain't easy.

Thanks to quite a wealth of archival footage, the cooperation of family members (that's Cara and her brother Bow, above), and her pretty good organizational skills, Ms Jones gives us her own, her family's and Moon's church's histories, which are rather strongly bound together. Fairly early on, we learn that brother Bow is gay -- a huge no-no in the church. (The Reverend was overheard at one point exclaiming how he would love to line up the homosexuals and just gun them all down!)

Cara's dad (shown above with mom, in the early days of their religious fealty, and with the Reverend, below) is most responsible for the family's entry into the church. He is said to have been extremely bright, cautious and questioning. Yet the explanation he gives of why he was so impressed with Moon's teaching (something about the love of a man and a woman for god being able to change the world) seems so simple minded and non-specific that this does make you roll your eyes concerning dad's much-vaunted intelligence.

From what I could gather, the other brothers, including Bow, have left the church by now -- Cara, too (mom and dad are still struggling with it) -- yet again and again, no one seems completely able to quite shake it all off. That sense of disappointing dad and mom hovers over everything here. This clearly was and is a very tight-knit family, so, yes, it would be hugely difficult to give up that.

Meanwhile, the film offers some interesting history and politics, showing how our right-wing Presidents long supported that Reverend, who was always mouthing his God Bless America schlock. (Seeing that right-wing cartoonist icon Al Capp proselytizing for Moon will set your teeth on edge.) And returning to those crazy "weddings" in which hundred of couples -- here, in South Korea and elsewhere -- simultaneously got hitched remains flabbergasting all over again.

For Cara, romantic love seems most important, and though we don't learn specifics about the South Korea guy (above, with face blocked out) that Moon chose for her, it's clear this did not work out. Fortunately, there's someone perhaps more suitable now, as this strangely ambiguous and unsettling little movie makes clear. Good luck to all the Jones family. From the looks of things, they'll need it.

Distributed by Obscured Pictures and running 77 minutes, Blessed Child opened for streaming earlier this month and is now available via iTunes, Amazon and Google.

Emma Thompson, superb as usual, in Richard Eyre and Ian McEwan's THE CHILDREN ACT

If you are looking for a movie full of ideas, excellent performances and situations that will move you and make you think -- without actually forcing you into some preordained box -- THE CHILDREN ACT may be exactly your cup of classy British tea.

As written by Ian McEwan (from his novel) and directed by Richard Eyre, the film probes subjects such as oddball religion beliefs, the law, justice, and most especially, what your responsibility is to someone whose life you have entered and irrevocably changed.

Mr. Eyre (Stage Beauty, Notes on a Scandal), a director of theater, opera, film and television, pictured at right, has had an up-and-down movie career, and this is one of his "ups," encompassing so much so gracefully that you may find yourself thinking about the film as much after viewing as during.

The film's main character is a noteworthy British judge named Fiona Maye, played exceptionally well by Emma Thompson (below), whose workload seem to concentrate most on cases involving children at risk. She soon finds herself embroiled in a case involving a family of Jehovah's Witnesses whose teenage son desperately needs a blood transfusion that the son and his parents all reject for religious reasons.

Simultaneously Judge Maye is going through a bad time in her sexless, emotionless long-term marriage to her University professor husband Jack (a tamped-down but still effective Stanley Tucci, below), who is about to embark upon an extra-marital affair. When the judge decides that she must meet with and question the son regarding his reasons for not agreeing to the blood transfusion, everything suddenly begins to change.

How and why this happens provides the meat of the movie, and, my, is there a wealth to chew on. All of it is held together via Ms Thompson's very strong performance -- which is spot-on moment to moment. The actress takes us through changes minute and major, allowing us to see clearly her character, flaws and all, helping us understand the reasons for each new decision that she must make.

In the pivotal role of the son, Dunkirk actor Fionn Whitehead (above) is even more remarkable here. He captures both the closed-off strength of the religious cult believer and then the strange, sad, buoyant freedom that can come via the release from that brainwashing. A word, too, must be said for the fine Jason Watkins, who plays the judge's aide, a kind, quiet fellow would clearly do anything for his boss yet is treated by her as something approaching the invisible.

What happens in the course of this thoughtful, deeply felt and surprisingly realistic film involves such sudden and life-changing events that even the possibility of these happening to our cast of characters offers more real nourishment that a year's worth of the overdone plots of mainstream soap operas. Viewers who insist on melodrama and cliché may go away unsated, but those who appreciate genuine feeling -- along with characters who struggle with right and wrong and all the stuff in between -- will come away from this film richly rewarded.

From A24 and  running 105 minutes, The Children Act seems to have opened here in South Florida one week prior to its originally scheduled playdate. It hit theaters this past Friday, September 21, at the Movies of Delray and Lake Worth, the Living Room Theaters, and the Tower Theater in Miami. Wherever you live across the country, click here to find the theaters nearest you. If you can[t find a theater close to you, note that the movie is also playing simultaneously via DIRECTV.

Streaming tip: Riley Stearns' indie, FAULTS, proves a superb surprise in every way

One of those streaming surprises that catch you up between breaths in their twisty, funny, spacey logic, as well as a movie that knows exactly what it's doing while keeping a number of steps ahead of its audience, FAULTS , written and directed by Riley Stearns, opened theatrically in a very limited released almost one year ago, and, as often happens to low-budget independent films, simply disappeared. It's available now via Netflix streaming and Amazon (and probably elsewhere), and it is a don't-miss movie for anyone who enjoys something different that is just about perfectly executed.

Mr. Stearns, shown at left, has come up with something equal parts darkly comic, timely and increasingly bizarre, and he has cast it to perfection, too, -- using his wife, that superb actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and an equally fine actor, Leland Orser, in the leading roles.  Ms Winstead (shown below and currently getting her long overdue moment in the sun in the new PBS series, Mercy Street), has given nonstop great performances in everything from the latest remake of The Thing to Smashed. I would say that she has outdone herself with Faults, except she always outdoes herself. That seems to come naturally to the woman.

Her co-star, Mr. Orser (shown below), too, proves a surprise. A fine actor (and one of the reasons Taken 3 was a better movie that most critics wanted to admit), he matches Winstead scene for scene and surprise for surprise. What these characters do and go through in the course of this 89-minute movie is, as we used to say, a humdinger.

The story is a simple and sturdy one: a down-on-his-luck fellow whose career has been all about deprogramming victims of cults, is hired by the parents of a young woman who's been recently "cultivated."  His job is to deprogram her as quickly as possible. That he himself is in big financial trouble proves no small inducement to take this latest case.

The movie is by turns funny, bizarre, dramatic and understated. And the performances from the entire cast are simply terrific. These include Beth Grant and Chris Ellis and the parents, Jon Gries as Orser's boss, and Lance Reddick as the boss' hired hand.

Everything works in Faults, and the beauty of the film is how it works. Part mystery, part comedy, part drama, part "exposé," a movie this good does not appear all that often. Pounce, please -- and do so before you learn much more about this very special film. (I am adding it now to my best-of-last-year list.)

ONE EYED GIRL: Nick Matthews' dark and believable film is a cult-ivating experience

A young therapist who perhaps should no longer be practicing his "art" is the protagonist of a new and very much worthwhile Australian movie called ONE EYED GIRL. Our boy Travis, probably in his early 30s, is clearly going through some bad times, having trouble connecting with his patients (or, in at least one case, connecting with her a little too thoroughly). His boss tries to be understanding, but Travis is losing it. One day on a busy subway car, he encounters what appears to be a pretty young girl and handsome older man handing out leaflets and promising help to those in need. He smartly ignores them the first time, but becomes a bit more interested once the second connection is made.

So begins an increasingly dark and unsettling movie about "giving over": why it happens, what it entails, and how lives are finally consumed by some people's desire for power and others' need for protection. As directed by first-time full-length filmmaker Nick Matthews (shown at right) and written by Matthews, with the help of Craig Behenna, who has a co-starring role in the film, One Eyed Girl proves consistently interesting as it appears to veer one way, then another and another until at last we understand it fully. It's about faith and cults, among other things, and even as it draws us in, it pulls no punches.

Travis, played with jittery panache by Mark Leonard Winter (above), is one of those people with a strong desire to help others who probably ought to have found any means except therapy to do so. The girl on the subway whom he follows into "the fold" is played by a striking young actress named Tilda Cobham-Hervey, below, who made an auspicious debut in 52 Tuesdays and here shows that her earlier performance was no fluke. The actress possesses a fine combination of beauty, subtlety and intelligence that should stand her in good stead.

As Father Jay, the cult's charismatic-in-a-low-keyed-manner leader, Steve Le Marquand (below, left) does a superlative job of pulling us in and having us almost believe, maybe hope, that he's the real deal. The actor, as well as the character he plays, keeps us guessing and maybe wishing for something more and better.

This kind of off-balance push-and-pull is indicative of how the entire movie works its spell. Though they deal with themes and situations we've seen many times previous, Matthews and Behenna weave together character and situation with our own expectations and desires in a manner that makes for an increasingly fraught and tension-filled entertainment in which the past is always with us, the present looks iffy and the future, well, bleak.

From Dark Sky Films and running an entirely credible 103 minutes, One Eyed Girl hits the streets today, Tuesday, December 8 -- available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download, for purchase or rental.

In GOING CLEAR: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Alex Gibney tackles that so-called 'church'

My first experience with Scientology occurred back in the mid 1970s, when neighbors of mine in Pacific Palisades, California, who had formerly been touting the wonders of this "religion'" suddenly found themselves -- because they wouldn't continue to give it more and more of their money -- on the "outs" with the group. They were harassed just about into insanity, and I felt so badly for them I determined never to get within a mile of Scientology or its acolytes, nor to let anyone I cared about near this sewer of fakery and disgust. Over the years, as has been true of just about all really awful, creepy ideas (and the organizations that spout them) -- from Nazis, Wall Street and our banking system to ISIS, just over half of our current Supreme Court and nearly all of the Republican Party -- instead of quickly disappearing in deserved ignominy, these things seem to grow and grow until they conquer then finally do so much damage that they at last must be destroyed. This certainly seems the case concerning Scientology.

GOING CLEAR: SCIENTOLOGY AND THE PRISON OF BELIEF, the new documentary from the prolific and generally on-the-mark filmmaker Alex Gibney (shown at right, who has formerly skewered everything from Enron and our mideast wars to Jack Abramoff and the Catholic clergy), offers a two-hour crash course in what you need to know to stay away from this crazy cult. His film is well made and features a look at a number of folk -- from the famous to the not so -- who've bought into Scientology's "beliefs" only to eventually leave, disheartened and much the poorer (in ways both financial and spiritual). Gibney also piles up his evidence (often anecdotal, yes, but with plenty of history, statistics and even the so-called "ideas" from the "religion's" founder, L. Ron Hubbard, to back it up), before finally lay out as close to an ironclad case for fraud and fakery as any intelligent non-brainwashed viewer could want.

Of course, the documentary gives us a lot of John Travolta and Tom Cruise -- two Scientology stalwarts, whom the doc shows have shamefully allowed this cult to use their image for proselytizing, marketing and near-destruction -- but also lesser-known lights of Hollywood like actor Jason Beghe (above) and writer/director Paul Haggis (below) who were for years in thrall to the powerful group.

We also hear from people like Travolta's assistant, Sylvia "Spanky" Taylor, below, who had to flee with her very young child (whom the cult had reduced to sick-unto-death) and Hana Eltringham, who, as a very young woman, got sucked into things and only recently, as a senior citizen, came out the other side.

Gibney, as did author Lawrence Wright, in his book of nearly the same name from which the film has been adapted (Wright's subtitle, interestingly enough, was Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief), also follows the money -- and we soon see where it has come from and to where it has led. The section involving Scientology lawsuits and the F.B.I. investigation proves, on its own, nearly shocking enough to seal the entire deal.

We get quite a history of that Hubbard guy, above, especially from his ex-wife and mother of Hubbard's child. This section brought to my mind another "religious" leader -- Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist (the religion that I was born and raised into), and Mrs. Eddy's own quite checkered history, which the Christian Science church has long done everything it could to conceal. Supposed religious "icons" rarely if ever stand up to close scrutiny -- except in the minds of their often brainwashed followers.

Some of the movie's most interesting sections deal with those at the top of the Scientology food chain, specifically its current leader David Miscavige and one of his former henchman, a fellow named Mike, shown above, who has since left the "church."  Here we learn about the infamous "disconnects"  that members are forced to take from their families, as well as many of the dirty tricks played against those with the audacity to leave the fold, as well as against others in order to "blackmail" them into staying (this theory certainly might apply to Mr. Travolta's continued presence).

Among the more gossipy bits of information involve the search, discovery and training of a new girlfriend for Mr. Cruise. This is lightweight compared to most of what we learn here, but it, too, helps complete a tawdry pattern. All told, Going Clear (the title is Scientology-speak for arriving at one of the higher levels of the "religion," which is, as one fellow tells us, "full of crushing certainty that allows not a trace of doubt." Any philosophy or religion that doesn't encourage a little doubt now and then is already highly suspect.

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief will open in theaters this Friday, March 13th -- in New York at Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, in Los Angeles at the Arclight Hollywood, in San Francisco at the Presidio Theatre, and will then make its prime-time cable debut on Sunday, March 29 (8:00-10:00 p.m. ET/PT), exclusively on HBO.

Kevin Williamson & Marcos Siega's dark TV series THE FOLLOWING is a fast, smart, unsettling view

Home-grown terrorism is among the topics most Americans would rather forget. Easier, of course, to blame "terrorism" on outsiders, foreigners, those others, please! Ignore the mass shootings, one after another, that seem to crop up every month or two. One of the smart moves of the Warner Brothers-produced, 15-part television series, THE FOLLOWING, comes via its handing us a case of what can only be seen, finally, as home-grown terrorism. But rather than any isolated incident, this is that case of a serial killer who lethally expands his domain and disciples -- hence the series' title -- until we can no longer be certain how far his tentacles can or will reach.

TrustMovies is now up to episode seven of this extraordinarily violent and often shocking series, and those tentacles are reaching farther than he would have imagined during the opening episode or two. Series' creator and oft-times writer Kevin Williamson (shown at right) is the guy most responsible for the Scream franchise, as well as Dawson's Creek and some other successful stuff, and he certainly seems to have grown up in daring to tackle a project this large and convoluted. He also seems quite up to it. One of the clever and most unsettling things he does is keep us forever off-balance as to who among the enormous cast is going to survive -- not to mention for how long. One thing is clear from the initial episode: What looks to be our heroine, played by the always lovely and here hugely vulnerable actress Maggie Grace, is something else entirely.

Williamson's director of choice (who did eight of the initial season's episodes) is the talented Marcos Siega (at left, who also directed Chaos Theory and Pretty Persuasion) and who brings his great ability with actors to the fore. Siega is an unusually humane director, so it's no surprise that here, even with a cast of characters, almost half of which is made up of  "villains," he still allows each of them their due. They have so many moments when they seem, well, just like us in their neediness and confusion. Siega, like Williamson, also understands the use of pacing and surprise, and this is one of the most fast-moving cable TV series I've so far seen. (The three Siega-directed episodes of the first six are definitely the superior models.)

Will The Following hold up throughout? I've been told that it does, and in any case, I am now hooked. Its premise is a terrific one and, so far, what it does with this is equally good. The cast is well-chosen and up-to-snuff in every way, with Kevin Bacon (below) and James Purefoy (above) excelling, respectively, as protagonist and antagonist.

Every last supporting performance is given the necessary specifics, weight and empathy required, with three actors particular stand-outs: Valorie Curry (below, left) and Nico Tortorella (below, right) and Adan Canto (further below).

These three "followers" get their own intertwined stories that smack up against the main thread with surprising strength and gusto. This is one very unusual, violent and unsettling piece of television.

The Following is available now -- commercial-free and highly binge-worthy -- via Netflix streaming. I'm told that a second season is already in the works....

Addendum: Well, we finished the first season, and damn it -- The Following did not, finally, hold up all that well. Purefoy's character grows tiresome (if he appears in season 2, we'll know there is something hugely wrong). His wife is right: This character is pretty much a talent-free fraud. Instead of surprise, we begin to guess one small outcome after another, and even the violence, nasty as it is, begins to bore. Too bad, because for maybe 12, even 13 of the 15 episodes, the creative crew got it right.

Another five-part horror opus V/H/S/2: Lightning, it seems, does not strike twice.

The below review first appeared as this film was making its VOD debut last month. TrustMovies is posting it again, as the movie opens tomorrow theatrically.

Last year's six-part horror surprise V/H/S provided a nasty jolt of bizarre, hand-held scares from a few of our favorite independent filmmakers, some of whom had not ventured into this territory previously. Its follow-up, V/H/S/2 -- other than the genuinely scary and original mid-sectioned Safe Haven by Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Huw Evans (who gave us last year's action hit The Raid: Redemption) -- is a disappointing potpourri of repetition and, god help us, zombies and aliens, with another not-so-hot, wrap-around section (which was the original's weakest part, as well).

Safe Haven, about a couple of journalists trying to discover the truth behind a little-known Southeast Asian cult with a taste for suicide that could lead to something, well, uh... bigger has the the kind of documentary feel and narrative flair that could give Jim Jones nightmares. In addition to being the best of the five works cobbled together to make one full-length film, it is also the longest and most assured piece of movie-making.

Low-budget, it nonetheless smacks of creativity in everything from story to performances to production values, which is more than can be said for most of the other sections -- which reply on jiggly, hand-held scares which, often as not don't arrive because you really can't figure out WTF is going on. This is not true of A Ride in the Park by Edúardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale, in which you can figure most everything out. This short film returns us to zombieland once again but doesn't provide much that's new (other than the POV) yet seems to go on and on and on.

The wrap-around, Tape 49 by Simon Barrett (above), is another of those break into a house and discover a bunch of videos, which of course must be played and then paid for rather drastically. The usual suspense and little surprise ensues.

Phase 1 Clinical Trials (above) by Adam Wingard does The Eye kind of thing in OK-but-so-what? fashion, while the final segment, Slumber Party Alien Abduction (below) by Jason Eisener, is the roughest-hewn of the five and also the least compelling. The low-budget here wears its heart on its sleeve, doing nobody any favors.

So, when the movie -- from Magnet Releasing, The Collective and Bloody Disgusting and running a too-long 95 minutes -- opens theatrically on July 12 (it's actually opening tonight, 7/11/13, in West L.A. at the NuArt), go for the Asian cult number. Or better yet, as the movie made its VOD debut on June 6, stay at home where you can fast forward when necessary. If you prefer the theatrical exper-ience, you can find V/H/S/2's scheduled theatrical playdates here.