(Step)father and son bonding gone awry in Jan Zabeil's tri-character drama, THREE PEAKS

I don't have time to go back and view the beginning of THREE PEAKS all over again, but if I'm not mistaken, this movie literally has only three characters whom we see for the duration of the film: wife and mother, Lea; her son, Tristan; and her significant other, Aaron, who is trying ever harder to be the step-father that Tristan clearly needs -- even though the boy is hanging on for dear life to his birth dad (whom we never see but are made aware of via dad's persistent phone calls to his son).

In Jan Zabeil's 2017 film, just now receiving its American theatrical debut, those titular three peaks refer to the name of the mountain top to which the couple their boy goes on a vacation which takes up the final half (or more) of the film.

Yet these three peaks could as easily refer to the three characters, each one trying to be the most significant and strongest of all. Writer/ director Zabeil (shown at left),  German born and raised, has given us a most unusual movie and a very good one -- in which family dynamics turn into a life-and-death situation without anyone actually being the villain or hero.

Instead, attempts at closeness and caring -- thanks to small, incremental mistakes by an adult, along with the kind of major foolishness from a child that suddenly endangers him and his caretaker -- result in the possibility of utter destruction. The filmmaker is particularly wise in setting up the situation carefully, so that

 

we only slowly and unsurely realize the extent of how troubled is young Tristan, played with a combination of fierceness, fear and caring by the fine young actor, Arian Montgomery (shown above, left, and below, right). His imagined nemesis and actual hope, Aaron, is played with wonderful mesh of clarity, strength and insecurity by Alexander Fehling (above, right, and below, left), of Young Goethe in Love and Labyrinth of Lies).

The third wheel -- unfortunately, by virtue of how the movie is set up and executed, she is just that -- is the wife and mother, played as well as her circumscribed role allows, by Bérénice Bejo. Ms Bejo (below, right) is a fine actress, as she has often shown us, and she does a good job again here, though she is confined to the first half of the film, during which her character demonstrates a love for both her man and her son, as well as perhaps a little too much connection to that ex-husband which abets, without meaning to, some of what happens plot-wise.

Three Peaks is packed with the kind of offbeat, careful behavior found when a family divides and then opens to include someone new. Everyone is just a little on-guard, trying to do the right thing but screwing up now and then. As the film progresses and the situation becomes ever more dire, it takes on the feeling of a thriller, even as it remains a kind of character study of both Tristan and Aaron, and to a lesser extent, of Lea.

Herr Zabeil manages to keep us holding our breath, hoping for the best, even as our sympathies move back and forth between boy and stepfather. We understand how a child can lash out in unjust anger, but we can't help wishing this were happening somewhere/anywhere less fraught than here. Overall, Zabeil's move proves quite an accomplishment, mashing genres into something both provocative and new.

From Greenwich Entertainment and running a slowly engulfing 90 minutes, Three Peaks is currently set for screening in ten cities across the country, opening this Friday, June 28, in New York City at the IFC Center, and then on Friday, July 12 in Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt. Click here and then scroll down to view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Susanne Bier's sci-fi thriller, BIRD BOX, proves one of this lauded Danish director's best yet

Despite Susanne Bier's BFLF Oscar for In a Better World, along with some other awards throughout her career, I have been at best lukewarm to her work, finding her films, which generally deal with important human relationships above all else, too full of coincidence, manipulation and sentimentality to deserve our credence. Then last year I saw the British/US-produced cable series The Night Manager and found it surprisingly well done, melding those vital human relationships into a theme of international arms trading/spying.

Now comes the new Netflix-released movie BIRD BOX, a kind of sci-fi survival thriller that is a fine enough example of genre filmmaking that it occurs to TrustMovies that either Ms Bier's real strength may lie in the genre area, where coincidence, manipulation and sentimentality are more accepted, even perhaps expected, or -- since Bier (shown at right) is much more of a director than a writer and depends more often on the work of others in the writing capacity -- that both The Night Manager and Bird Box succeed as much on the strength of their screenplays as on the direction. (Bird Box was written by Eric Heisserer, based on the novel by Josh Malerman, while The Night Manager is credited to David Farr, based on the novel by John le Carré.)

Either way, Bird Box proves a riveting, surprising and emotionally gripping experience, as it moves back and forth in time, showing us what has happened to lead up to what is taking place right now. The movie posits that something, perhaps an alien force, is causing humanity worldwide to commit mass suicide. While watching, you may be put in mind of a much lesser film, M. Night Shayamalan's The Happening, and also of another sci-fi-thriller that opened earlier this year, A Quiet Place.

In the latter film, the aliens seemed to have next-to-nothing eyesight but wildly acute hearing capabilities, so the protagonists have to make no noise. In Bird Box, the suicides appear to be caused by actually viewing the alien force, and so the few survivors have learned, when out and about, they'd better cover their eyes. How Bier and her screenwriter bring this all to life works remarkably well, and how the tale is carried through to conclusion provides plenty of suspense, surprise and loss -- that last regarding characters we've come to understand and care for about as much and as well as any film in this genre I can readily recall.

In the leading role of a woman hurt by life and so recoiling from it, Sandra Bullock (above, left) gets a role she is perfect for and runs with it like the pro she usually is. The two children she is caring for are played -- by Vivien Lyra Blair and Julian Edwards -- very well, too -- while the well-chosen supporting cast includes first-rate actors like John Malkovich, Jacki Weaver, BD Wong, Sarah Paulson (above, right), Tom Hollander and Danielle Macdonald (below).

Worth special note is the performance from Trevante Rhodes (below, left and recently seen as the third iteration of the hero of Moonlight), playing the fellow who proves most capable of bringing Bullock's character out of her shell. Rhodes' work here proves that Moonlight (along with the several other films in which the actor has appeared) was no fluke.

Aside from being a good story well told, Bird Box almost works as well on a deeper, more profound level as an exploration of humanity in all its foibles and strengths. I say almost because, for me, it did not quite have the heft or depth necessary, though it occasionally came close. For you, it might be quite another story. In either case, the movie --  from Netflix and streaming now -- is definitely worth seeing.

Damien Power's crackerjack -- but extremely ugly -- survival thriller, KILLING GROUND

As much as I am in awe of KILLING GROUND -- which is the best film of this particular sub-genre (lovers-go-camping-and must-suddenly-fight-for-their lives) that TrustMovies has yet seen -- I am somewhat loathe to recommend it unless I also say that, as frightening and thrilling as it is, it's also one of the most matter-of-fact ugly movies I have ever seen. Now, it is nowhere near the bloodiest nor goriest of this genre. In fact, there is about as little of all that as could be imagined, considering what happens here.

And yet in this, his first full-length film after a slew of shorts, writer/director Damien Power (shown at left) has managed to get just about everything right. This would include the ability to engage us with his characters (all of them, good and evil); build suspense and atmosphere in equally deft, quick strokes; rouse simply superb performances from everyone on screen (including a near-infant and a dog); and then, once the tension he's created has reached its peak and the plot's "explosion" has occurred, see to it that we're practically unable to take a breath until those final credits start to roll. The filmmaker even manages to lay out his tale using past and present in a way that keeps us unnerved and guessing until that aforementioned explosion of violence takes place, making inevitable all that follows.

The movie of which Killing Ground may most remind you would be Eden Lake, the James Watkins 2008 survival thriller starring Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender. This one is even better, more sophisticated in both its construction and execution, and equally unnerving and thrilling. Also, the filmmaker thankfully refrains from making us view a lot of the horror that happens. This will displease torture-porn connoisseurs. Yet the scenario itself is so full of irredeemable ugliness that I can't imagine anyone accusing Mr. Power of being too prissy.

Our lead characters are a couple who is, from the sound of things, thinking about getting hitched fairly soon. He (the fine Ian Meadows, above) is a doctor, and she (an even better Harriet Dyer, below) is -- hmmm... I am not even sure I know or remember what occupation she has (other than trying to stay alive). They arrive at their camping destination to discover another tent pitched ahead of theirs. Yet no one is in it, so the couple expects to see and meet their "neighbors" fairly soon.

The villains of the piece are two men (Aaron Pedersen, below, right, and Aaron Glenane, below, left) who are revealed along the way as Outback psychopaths (the setting here is Australia). Their behavior grows crazier as the movie rolls along, but that behavior also cannot be discounted because, as nutty as it gets, it still unfortunately seems to fit these truly frightening and unpredictable characters all too well.

While our hero and heroine would seem no match for these two men, the latter's very oddness and plentiful kinks play into what happens and why. There is another entire set of characters, too, and these -- a father, his relatively new bride, their barely out of infancy child, and his daughter (Tiarnie Coupland, below) from an earlier marriage -- bring the past into the present, while giving the movie its ugliest charge.

That's it for plot, so as not to provide any more spoilers. The film, by the way, is highly feminist -- in its own non-showy way. So if you're partial to suspense, creeping dread, and edge-of-your-seat thrills, you could hardly do better than Killing Ground. But, yikes: You've been warned.

From IFC Midnight and running a sleek 88 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, July 21, in New York City at the IFC Center, and in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinelounge Sunset. If you're near neither city, despair not: The movie simultaneously hits VOD nationwide.

Hèctor Hernández Vicens' THE CORPSE OF ANNA FRITZ: winner (so far) of this year's "Transgressive Award"

Things do seem to come in pairs -- if not trios. Just yesterday, we covered one of the most transgressive films to be seen in some time: Emelie. Now, but one day later, we've got an even more transgressive movie to bask in (or avoid): THE CORPSE OF ANNA FRITZ. It begins very cleverly and economically (we're talking quite a low budget here) with the body of a young woman being wheeled into the morgue of a Spanish hospital, accompanied by a soundtrack that quickly lets us know, via the voices of newscasters and celebrity TV hosts, to whom this body belonged.

Yes, it's that titular Anna Fritz, the most popular, glamorous and "accomplished" movie and TV star of the day who earlier this evening has "been found dead in a bathroom at a private party." This set-up by Hèctor Hernández Vicens, shown at left, who is the film's director and co-writer (along with newcomer Issac P. Creus) has been so quickly and effectively accom-plished that we know literally everything we need to proceed. Cut to a young morgue attendant named Pau (Albert Carbó, below), alone and eager to explore, who takes the corpse's picture on his cell phone and of course texts it to his two friends, who immediately show up for a dead-celebrity look-see.

That the location of the hospital to which the corpse has been taken is being kept secret from the press proves quite a boon to the soon-to-be-hatched plans of these three young men (not to mention the entire plot of the film), and the fact that these three seem initially like super-sleazy, narcissistic assholes means that, whatever might happen to them, we won't give a fig. Pau's mates are played with nasty entitlement by Cristian Valencia (below, center) and with an interesting mix of would-be machismo and late-breaking humanity by Bernat Saumell (below, right).

That corpse is played by a young woman named Alba Ribas, whom I hope we'll be seeing more of in better circumstances. The plot, which I will not go into further, takes some very clever turns -- if you can accept the initial surprise, which, though very unlikely, is, I suppose, remotely possible in the grand scheme of things. There is also, maybe midway along, a single unbelievable action (non-action, actually) that might be a deal-breaker for some.

Yet the movie is, for its genre, so well-written, directed and acted by its quartet of performers that it is pretty damned easy to just "forgive and get on with it." It is also -- especially its pivotal scene -- so very transgressive that it may take your breath away. One could compare this movie to a Canadian film of 20 years back starring Molly Parker and Peter Outerbridge that dealt with a similar topic but in a serious, heartfelt manner (I will not give away of the title of that film for fear of spoiling the surprises in store).

Yes, there are the usual unbelievable touches here, as just about always happens in films like this. (Where in hell is the hospital staff during the prime time of the evening?) But these are rather expected, no? What Senor Vicens does with his tale is what counts, and he manages to keep us alert and holding our breath for most of the movie's 74 minutes.

His ending, by the way, seems terrifically appropriate and darkly just: by turns surprising, ugly, and fearlessly feminist in a manner to which only the most stupid of males will be able to object. That ending, in fact, leads us right into tomorrow's post -- whoops, make that the day after tomorrow, as I had to make room for a quick post on Gods of Egypt -- which will cover a documentary, The Mask You Live In, all about what is so very wrong with today's men in western society. See you then....

Meanwhile, The Corpse of Anna Fritz, distributed via FlixFling, will hit the streaming venue this coming Tuesday, March 8. You can view it exclusively on FlixFling.

Roar Uthaug's THE WAVE: a swift, smart tsunami blockbuster made for 6-1/2 million

Eat your heart out, Hollywood. For almost 17 times the budget of the excellent Norwegian special-effects thriller, THE WAVE,  Hollywood managed to give us last year's CGI-crammed blockbuster, San Andreas. Yes, those special effects were good -- if still problematic because of the far-too-high-def quality that the best CGI often provides -- but the story, writing and direction all seemed typical, obvious and, well, second rate. When set against this relatively little (though certainly big-budgeted for any Scandinavian country) film, thanks to its tight plotting, smart dialog and the kind of realistic performances that pull you in and make you care about the protagonists, the silly time-honored coincidences and last-minutes "saves" of San Andreas seem mostly ridiculous.

Director Roar Uthaug (shown at right) knows how to set up his situation for maximum potential: a family man about to leave his job as geologist and protector of a popular tourist town in the Norwegian fjords suddenly grows worried about the seismic activity in the area. Sure enough, some-thing bad is afoot, and it will take every bit of his strength and endurance to save his family, friends and coworkers (below) from a watery grave.

Not everyone does get saved, by the way, and how all this happens -- quickly, sometimes shockingly -- provides surprise, occasional humor, and a larger, more jolting dose of deep feeling than you find in most movies of this popular genre.

The leading players seem drawn from a real family, just as does our hero (Kristoffer Joner, above) and his co-workers, all of whom appear as savvy geologists. The screenplay wastes little time on anything not germane to either the family, the crisis or the post-crisis (and even more disturbing) outcome.

The special effects provide everything that is called for, and while they are used quickly and rather sparingly, when compared to what we get from our home-grown product, they work all too well, providing fright and shock aplenty. And filmmaker Uthaug knows how to ratchet the suspense to keep us on those proverbial tenterhooks. Yet nothing seems to go on too long. (The film lasts but 104 minutes, considerably shorter than most of our versions of the disaster blockbuster.)

From Magnolia Pictures, The Wave opens all across the country this Friday, March 4, and will reach even more cities and theaters in the weeks to come. (Click here to view all playdates, cities and theater scheduled so far.) The movie is everywhere, in fact, except down here in Florida. Maybe the distributor feels it would be just too much for us coastal folk. So I guess Floridians will have to wait for DVD and streaming.

It's time for a decent werewolf film, so take a chance on Paul Hyett's train thriller, HOWL

What is it about movies that take place on a speeding train that makes them -- initially, at least -- irresistible? Maybe that inesca-pable sense of "confined space"? Or the opportunity to meet a group of disparate characters who wouldn't otherwise be thrown together? Or the suspense provided by that other thing these movies always seem to possess: a big problem -- a killer, a bomb, a crazy person -- in the midst of all that train travel?

Two recent and very good examples of this genre are Last Passenger and Honour, the latter of which, though not officially a "locomotive" movie, offers a terrifically effective opening and closing scene aboard a moving train. The latest to enter the train genre is the new werewolf movie HOWL, and I think it is no coincidence that all three of these films, along with so many other "train" movies (remember The Lady Vanishes?) are British. The Brits seems much more connected to their trains than are we auto-obsessed Americans.

Howl is a much better and more subtle film that its too-obvious American DVD/Blu-ray box art, above, might suggest. (The British theatrical posters, at right and below, give a much better sense of the dark tone and suspenseful appeal of the film.) Oh, there's plenty of guts, gore and nasty creatures involved here, but the film takes its pleasant time building up to this, as we meet and get to know the diverse set of people aboard the last nightly train from London to the provinces during an initial storm that eventually ceases, unveiling -- uh-oh -- a full moon.

While the passengers and crew seem at first to be a sad and unpleasant lot, as we get to know them, truer colors surface, and most of these men and women prove decent enough sorts who gain our sympathy. The train is soon brought to a halt in the midst of a dense forest, and then the carnage begins. Director Paul Hyett (shown below), together with screenwriters Mark Huckerby and Nick Ostler, may be a bit better at building suspense than they are at maintaining a riveting pace.

Still, they are good enough at both to eventually have us holding our breath in hopes that these people whom we now care about, will somehow survive. Who does and who doesn't is, of course, necessary for the fun-and-games of the survival genre -- of which this film is also a part. The dozen or so passengers and crew that make up the cast do a fine job of differentiating themselves and creating surprisingly full characters in a very short time.

In the leading roles are the sad young conductor (Ed Speleers, above) who's just been denied a promotion, and the coffee service girl (Holly Weston, below, left) whom he likes but who does not return his affection.

We also have the career woman, the hotshot businessman, the sullen teen, the working-class striver hoping to find a better job, the loving senior couple, the out-of-it fat boy, and the nerdy egghead East Indian or maybe Pakistani kid. A mixed and interesting bag, this, but very soon their numbers begin to decline.

How the attacks come and what happens is all part of what we expect from the werewolf genre, but there are enough little surprises along the way to keep us feeling creepy and on our toes.

How it plays out -- from claw marks on the equipment (above) to some unusual behavior from all concerned -- is alternately expected and not,

with the long-awaited transformations finally coming fast and furiously.

Certainly no masterpiece of the genre, Howl nonetheless fills a gap by being one of the better werewolf movies since the much-appreciated but woefully underseen Dog Soldiers back in 2002.

Interestingly enough, one of the stars of that Neil Marshall movie, Sean Pertwee (above), also makes an appearance in this one, as the unlucky train driver.

Well, most of the characters here turn out to be unlucky, but they're rather plucky, too, which adds immeasurably to the movie's interest and charm. Howl, from Alchemy and running a crisp 92 minutes, is available now for rental or purchase on DVD, Blu-ray, early EST (Electronic-Sell-Through) and digital streaming (via Amazon & perhaps elsewhere, too).

In Daniel Barber & Julia Hart's THE KEEPING ROOM, we see The Civil War from a race/class/feminist angle

"War is cruel," goes the quotation from General William Tecumseh Sherman that begins THE KEEPING ROOM, an initially enticing, small-scale mixture of war film, western, suspense thriller and -- given the leading characters, there is no way around this -- feminist tale of what happens when a couple of unhooked and marauding Union soldiers come up against a trio of put-upon Southern women. The remainder of that "War is cruel" quote, written out in full at the film's beginning, is brought to ugly but believable life in much of the film that follows.

Writer, Julia Hart (at left, above), and director, Daniel Barber (at left, below) do a doozy of a job bringing us into their story -- which is told over the film's first seven minutes with not a word of dialog (unless you're willing to count the barking of a dog and the woman who barks right back).

The incidents we see, however, shatter us with their extreme and unnecessary violence. But, hey, we've got that quote to live up to. The filmmakers do not dwell on excessive gore; we see what we need to: the intended and some unintended results of war. We also note the extreme fear experienced by the victims of that war, who have excellent reason to be afraid.

From that opening seven-minute section, we move to some new characters, our protagonists, those three women: older and younger sisters (played respectively by Britt Marling, above, and Hailee Steinfeld, below,

and the black woman slave (by now a nearly ex-slave, as the War seems about to draw to its horrific close), played by the very fine actress Muna Otaru, shown below).

For roughly half of the running time of the film, Ms Hart's dialog together with Mr. Barber's smart direction keeps us quivering and hooked. We note the nastiness and ferocity of the two antagonists, played by Sam Worthington (below) and Kyle Soller, and feel sorrow at the plight of their victims.

But then, as tension mounts and our protags and antags inevitably meet, the movie begins to pack in an excessive amount of cliché -- who gets shot and who's dead or not -- so that we begin rolling our eyes in anticipation of more of the same. The filmmakers still have a mild surprise or two up their sleeves, but considering the amount of time we're suddenly spending watching women with guns and men with guns sneak around and about each other, the film begins to leach much of its former suspense and originality.

The penultimate scene seems intended to fully demonstrate General Sherman's quotation, while the film's final scene may not appear particularly believable, but then, the movie ends before we can actually judge how well this ploy will play out.

Mr. Barber, who earlier gave us the so-so Michael Caine revenge tale, Harry Brown, demonstrates a good sense of pacing and eye for detail, and his film is atmospherically shot (as above, by German cinematographer, Martin Ruhe) and well-scored (by Martin Phipps/Mearl),  I just wish it had held up a little better (and a little longer), before losing us.

The Keeping Room (the title comes from a dark and untimely coming-of-age tale that the slave tells the sisters), from Drafthouse Films and Cinedigm, after playing a very limited run (in Albuquerque and Chicago earlier this month) heads straight-for-video tomorrow, Tuesday, December 29, available on Digital Download HD. Click here for further details on how to order a DVD or Blu-ray.