Yet another asshole chef on view in Jesse Zigelstein's Canadian meller, NOSE TO TAIL

For proof of the little phrase Nothing lasts, you needn't turn to the likes of Shelley's Ozymandias. Just consider the restaurant industry in most western culture, where even the best examples have but a limited life span. The 2018 Canadian melodrama NOSE TO TAIL (just arriving on digital streaming in North America), rather than describing your dog's special ability, instead I believe refers to the philosophy of using every part of the animal in food preparation, letting nothing go to waste.

TrustMovies is not certain why the film's writer and director Jesse Zigelstein (shown left), whose first full-length film this is, decided on that as his title -- unless he means it ironically -- since our restaurant's chef and leading character in the film, Daniel (played exceedingly well by Aaron Abrams, above and below), seems bent on wasting if not downright destroying everything and everyone around him.

While giving one's lead character a problem or two to surmount is how drama takes shape, you may question just why Mr. Zigelstein had to load them on to this extent. Daniel has money problems, staffing problems, health problems and love/relationship problems. So by the time his family (ex-wife and child) problems surface, you're ready to cry uncle times ten.

Plus, Daniel handles each one of his problems in the worst possible way, over and over again. Which brings up some simple questions of logic and credibility: Given who this guy is, how could he ever possibly have succeeded (or even imagined success)? Worse, how can literally everyone around him not know by now that his restaurant is failing, bigtime?

Mr. Abrams' committed, stops-out performance does help matters considerably. Every performance is first-rate here -- that's Lara Jean Chorostecki, as Daniel's employee/lover, above, and Ennis Esmer as his maybe business partner, below -- so Zigelstein clearly knows how to get the best from his actors. But by piling on misery to the max the filmmaker very nearly approaches black comedy, if not outright camp. By the time we meet Dan's family, "Oh, come on now!" is likely to be your initial response.

All we are ever given as the reason for our chef's quest is, as the film's IMDB description explains, "to serve excellent food without compromising."  From what we see (not that much), the meals look OK (their presentation, at least), and folk describe them as tasting very, very good. Yet given Daniel's terrible predicament and asshole attitude, every meal served here becomes at best a kind of pyrrhic victory. Perhaps that is the filmmaker's point. Does no compromise insure no success?

From 1091 and running a relatively quick 82 minutes, Nose to Tail hits digital streaming and VOD tomorrow, Tuesday, July 28 -- for purchase and/or rental.

Criterion Blu-ray/DVDebut for Aki Kaurismäki's refugee charmer, THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE

How does he do it -- Aki Kaurismäki? How does he manage to wring so much humor, charm and pathos out of what is basically just deadpan storytelling. After viewing so many of his films (Kaurismäki is shown below), I'm still surprised by each new one, often quite similar in its themes and even cast members (he uses his own ensemble most often) to what has come before. Just looking at the stills shown below from THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE, after nearly a month has gone by since I first watched the new Blu-ray from the The Criterion Collection, brings a smile to my face all over again as I remember the incidents in their quiet, crazy, sweet glory.

Kaurismäki's latest begins with maybe a nod to Samuel Beckett's Happy Days (shown below), as we meet one of our two heroes, a middle-eastern immigrant (played by Sherwan Haji) whose journey to Finland, which we learn of a bit later in the film, has been a fraught one indeed.

Part of the magic this filmmaker manages comes from his understanding of calm and how to make use of it, quietly forcing us to look, really see, and begin to somehow feel via the characters we're watching.

Sure, it's easy (well, for some Americans, anyway) to take the side of an beleaguered immigrant. But what of our other hero (played by Sakari Kuosmanen, shown center, below), a family man who suddenly leaves his wife to strike out on his own? These two could hardly seem more different at first, even second, glance, yet what binds them is the kind of common decency that unfortunately seems all too uncommon throughout the world these days.

Kaurismäki takes his sweet time bringing the two together. First we must understand each one's situation and begin to bond a little with the very idea of these guys. A restaurant, seemingly on its last legs, enters the picture, and its staff proves every bit as quietly hilarious as so much else in this Finnish filmmaker's oeuvre.

The decision to turn the place into an Asian eatery -- and what follows -- is deadpan heaven. As are many of the little musical interludes that crop up along the way.

Of course Kaurismäki courts sentimentality, basing his movie around the immigrant/refugee question and all the baggage that goes with it. Yet thanks to his innate humor, a clear-eyed look at how immigration policy often works (or actually doesn't) in the western world, and, yes, it must be said, a few coincidences, too, instead of sentimentality, the filmmaker manages something that certainly approaches, if not actually reaches, "truth".

If you've never seen a Kaurismäki movie, this one's as good as any a place to enter his world. If you already know that world, you'll probably want to dive right back into it.

The Other Side of Hope -- in Finnish with English subtitles and running 100 minutes -- hit the streets on DVD and a fine Blu-ray transfer last month from The Criterion Collection. As usual, with Criterion, there are beaucoup bonus features, so film buffs can, as ever, get their fill.

Broken Lizard's THE SLAMMIN' SALMON: More laughter and a bigger budget

Broken Lizard is a comedy troupe that TrustMovies ought not to like, given its combination of low-
end humor, slapstick & schlock. But he does. Go figure. Sometimes more than others, of course, and fortunately BL's new movie THE SLAMMIN' SALMON is one of the troupe's best: glitzier, sillier, funnier and definitely high end--given what we have seen previously from these guys.

Set in a chic (for Florida) upscale restaurant owned by a former Heavyweight Champion named Cleon Salmon (Michael Clarke Duncan, as rude, pompous, funny and stupid as he's ever had the opportunity to be -- and he's great!), the restaurant is manned (and woman-ed) by a staff made up of Broken Lizard and its friends. This comedy troupe and its movies consist of one idea for each film, sometime good, sometimes not, and a collection of moments, some good, some not. Puddle Cruiser, the group's first film, had its funny stuff -- and enough of it to put BL on the map; Super Troopers, though the group's most popular film, proved a lot less fun for me. Club Dread had some -- and some very funny moments -- but Beer Fest was only middling, at best. None of the films have been anything approaching consis-
tently funny -- until now. The Slammin' Salmon puts a grin on your face pretty early on; once it gets going, the laughs never cease.

All the films are group-written by the Broken Lizard members, but this is the first to be directed by Kevin Heffernan (shown two photos above with Duncan). Perhaps Mr. Heffernan has found his metier. (He's in the film, too, as the toadying, pompous maître d' and right-hand man to Cleon Salmon.) He helps bring many of the running jokes to proper fruition, and keeps the pacing smart and the action on-point. The plot has to do with a competition between the restaurant staff to see who can bring in the most money -- which leads to greed, brawling, betrayals and lots of fun. Viveca A. Fox, Morgan Fairchild and Lance Henriksen put in appearances, and the distaff side of the wait staff is brought to perky and very pretty life by Cobie Smulders, April Bowlby (man, she's on fire!) and Carrie Clifford.

I cannot in good conscience claim Slammin' Salmon is great shakes as either comedy or art. But, unlike last week's dank and un-endearing The Strip, this movie made me laugh. A lot.

Broken Lizards's latest opens this Friday, December 11, in what might well be considered a nationwide release: New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington DC, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Austin, Dallas, Portland and Seattle! Check your local listings for theaters and showtimes.