Fabrizio Terranova's smart romp of a doc, DONNA HARAWAY: STORY TELLING FOR EARTHLY SURVIVAL

I'd never heard of Donna Haraway before receiving the publicity information on the new film about her from Icarus Home Video. But after sitting down and viewing this very interesting and surprisingly inventive documentary, TrustMovies was taken time and again by how much Ms Haraway reminded me of the subject of another recent doc, the late Lynn Margulis, as seen in Symbiotic Earth. Both were/are professors/teachers. Ms Margulis was much more of a scientist, while Ms Haraway now calls herself a "story teller," albeit one possessing quite a set of credentials, though the film at hand -- DONNA HARAWAY: STORY TELLING FOR EARTHLY SURVIVAL -- never pushes these.

Its director, Fabrizio Terranova (gorgeous name!), shown at right, seems determined -- perhaps because the subject of his film considers herself to be foremost a storyteller -- to become a something of a fabulist himself. He is certainly not content to simply place his camera in front of Haraway and let her proclaim, though it may seem at first that this is exactly what he is doing. And Ms Haraway does proclaim very well. She proves provocative, intelligent and lots of fun. But as the film moves ahead, you may notice some odd things about the window behind Haraway, in which the view will suddenly change, not naturally but more via special effect. By the time a jellyfish is swimming in the air above and around his subject, and she herself is playing with objects that clearly seem to be out of, say, Marvel's Doctor Strange, you'll understand that you not watching your everyday documentary.

All this is in spite of -- and also because of -- the leading lady. Haraway (above and below) is an original, dedicated to everything from feminism to the environment, science fiction to progressive relationships, and history to the upending of what we might call "common sense." The woman talks about all of these and more (including orthodontia!), in the process making us think and smile and think again.

We learn about her own history: family (birth and chosen), relationships (both loving and sexual), and especially her canine companion, a beautiful Australian shepherd, now in decline, whom we also see during his earlier and impressive training feats. Slowly and very interestingly, an entire life and philosophy come together before us. As a younger woman she once heard her own mother refer to her as perhaps "not marriageable."  Gosh, somehow she has managed quite well.

Along the way, we see some funny, appropriate animation, hear from a few other folk in the equation, and by the time we arrive at the film's conclusion -- during which Haraway finally tells us one of her stories -- Terranova actually makes the screen go dark for awhile, so that we can simply listen and better process what we're hearing. Earlier in the film, she has told us that "Some of the best thinking is done as story telling," and now we see/hear an example -- one that seems to contain so much that this woman has already placed as highly important in our mind.

Haraway may not be a scientist but she certainly is smart. And so is the man who made this charming, very interesting documentary. From Icarus Home Video, Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival becomes available this Tuesday, March 5 -- on DVD and streaming (via Amazon, Vimeo and iTunes), for both purchase and rental.

Isaac Ezban's THE SIMILARS takes smart, low-budget sci-fi to a new high-water mark

It is so rare to encounter a genuine original, especially in the realm of science fiction/horror, that when a movie like THE SIMILARS (Los parecidos) arrives, one is quite heavily tempted to stand up and cheer. This new movie from Mexican filmmaker Isaac Ezban is so immediately engrossing and unusual that you'll hooked within a minute or two. Then it simply gets better and better until... oh, my god.

And while it is vastly amusing in a manner than becomes darker and darker, it is also so rich and strange that its humor -- which is completely organic and never slick or precious -- is as pivotal and important to the film as are its scares and surprises, of which there are many. Señor Ezban, pictured at right, has taken a great idea and run with it so far, fast and completely that its ramifications keep unfurling as his film moves along until they reach a brilliant ending that in no way disappoints.

This in itself is pretty spectacular. That the filmmaker keep you gasping and smiling in equal proportion every step of the way is even more amazing. The plot? Let's just say that a group of disparate people have been forced to gather at a small, out-of-the-way bus station due to a staggering rainstorm that seems to be hitting the entire world simultaneously. Impossible? Quite.

Ezban sets his movie back in 1968, and this makes it even more intriguing because it can then incorporate much that was going on at the time -- from student unrest and the music of the era to the effects of acid rain -- and it does this is an equally unsettling manner, leaving things open to further discussion, except that everything moves so fast that discussion (or even much thought) is the last thing these characters, along with their audience, have time for.

The filmmaker has assembled a crack cast to do his bizarre bidding -- he both wrote and directed the movie -- beginning with an fine actor you may have seen in another unusual Mexican film called Leap Year: Gustavo Sánchez Parra (above, left), who plays the first arrival at this nearly deserted bus station. There is also a pretty and very pregnant young woman (Cassandra Ciangherotti, above, right, and below). Both are trying to get to Mexico City, which seems to be blocked off due to the rain.

A very odd indigenous woman who does not speak Spanish is also present, along with the ticket seller named Martin, and a young female friend of his, as well. Soon will arrive a woman and her young son (below) who is clearly in need of medical help, along with a young man who may just be one of those student revolutionaries we keep hearing about on the bus station radio, the reception for which repeatedly goes in and out.

Once this group has arrived, the plot unfurls. From here it is mostly a matter of what is happening -- I'll tell you right now that it's a lulu -- and then why this is happening (which turns out to be even more bizarre). There's some blood and gore, all right, but mostly, there is amazement coupled to odd, dark humor at the very weird situation here.

Comparison has been made to the old TV series, The Twilight Zone, but I'll tell you right now that this film is better, richer, more thoroughly thought out than any Twilight Zone I ever saw. Ezban's filming technique is to drain almost all color so that, initially, the movie looks like it was filmed in black and white. But then we catch sight of a little light blue, or yellow. Or, ummm...yes, red.

So much depends on what is happening visually here that for awhile I wondered why the print looked like something redolent of an old (and not that hot) videotape. There is a reason for this, too: In order to show us what he wants us to see, the moviemaker must ensure that his film always looks a little muddy so that the premier visual effect here -- and it's a knock-out -- will be believable. We see, but often not all that clearly. But we see enough to always understand what is happening.

OK: enough said. If you sci-fi/horror/mystery/creep-out aficionados aren't yet hooked enough to make sure you view this movie, then I give up. I've done my part without -- I hope -- delivering a single spoiler. God knows, Señor Ezban has done his part by making one of the finest, most assured and original genre films in the long and varied history of low-budget sci-fi.

From XLrator Media and running a sleek 89 minutes, the movie is said to have opened in theaters yesterday (I cannot find a single one of them, however). But its distributor promises that it will open on cable VOD this coming Tuesday, November 15, and then via iTunes and digital platforms the following Tuesday, November 22.  I urge you -- nay, I command you -- to seek it the fuck out. 

Paul Haggis' THIRD PERSON probes the creative process as few other Hollywood films ever have

As genuinely ambitious a project as I have seen an independent filmmaker tackle, THIRD PERSON, the new movie from Paul Haggis (shown below, whose work I have warmed up to but slowly), proves a surprise in so many ways. It is also one of the most creative and daring films I've seen in a long while in terms of how it toys with the viewer, at times making you wonder if there was any continuity person involved in the shoot. Don't worry: There was. There was also a very smart writer/director at work here, devoting himself to a subject dear to my own heart: how the creative process works, with particular attention to the link between creativity and the loss of a loved one, especially where writers are concerned.

Third Person tells three not at all obviously inter-connected stories set in three locales: New York, Paris and Rome. In each one, a kind of love story surfaces, though each is fraught with anger, repressed or on the surface, and loss.

Mr. Haggis has concocted some wildly emotional scenes -- sometimes funny, sometimes not -- in each of these stories, and he and the editor with whom he often works (Jo Francis) have done a bang-up job of threading them and the stories together so that we always and quickly know where we are and with whom.

The wrap-around tale takes place in Paris, shown above, where a famous writer, played by Liam Neeson, is involved with a younger writer and muse (Olivia Wilde).

A bi-polar woman (Mila Kunis, above) and her painter husband (James Franco, below) are fighting over custody of their son in New York City.

Rome is home to the tale of a semi-sleazy fashion-design thief (Adrian Brody, below) who finds himself involved in the attempt of an Eastern European immigrant woman (Moran Atias, shown at bottom) to get her young son safely into Italy.

Each story has its pleasures -- particularly via the fine performance Haggis draws from his crack actors -- but each also has its problems. The stories don't always make complete sense: Details are off (and then they're on again), locations are confusing. Yet by the end, all of this is justified. What perhaps is not (quite) justified is the unnecessary repetition which adds to the length (two hours and seventeen minutes) which attenuates the movie's strengths and may put off some viewers. (Also, some stories here are better than others.)

If you last the movie out, however, the finale is so stunning and beautifully rendered (flesh becomes metaphor and more) that you will want to sigh and maybe cry and then applaud. When it is finally clear what is going on, so original and lovely is this paean to writing-by-way-of-filmmaking (or is it the reverse?) that you may, as do I, want to view it all over again, this time from quite a different standpoint.

In the cast are some other notables like Maria Bello (above, rather wasted in too small a role, though her last moment is oddly indelible), Kim Basinger (below, quite wonderful), Loan Chabanol (as Franco's new squeeze) and Italian hottie Ricardo Scarmarcio, as the nastiest bartender in Rome.

As I say, Third Person is one of the most ambitious, big-budget indepen-dent films I've ever seen. If you stick it out to the end, you'll be greatly rewarded. Whatever its flaws -- and Mr. Haggis, damn him, has made them part and parcel of the very core of the film -- it's going to excite and anger, flummox and thrill intelligent audiences all around the world.

The movie, from Sony Pictures Classics, opens this Friday, June 20, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, the AMC Lincoln Square, and City Cinemas 1,2,3, and in the Los Angeles area at The Landmark in West L.A. and the Arclight Hollywood.  In the weeks to come it will receive a large-but-still-limited nationwide release in cities all across the country. Click here and then scroll down to see all currently scheduled playdates.