DVDebut: A teen suicide cult forms in a small Wales town in Jeppe Rønde's BRIDGEND

The kids may be suicidal in the small town of Bridgend, Wales, but it's the adults who would appear to be criminally negligent in the 2015 movie, BRIDGEND, that made its DVDebut last month. Beginning with a few moments in the woods that stagger in their simplicity and emotional jolt (this is the boy-and-his-dog scene to end them all), the movie then zeroes in on a father/daughter who are returning to the little town, after years away.

As directed and co-written by Danish filmmaker (best known for documentaries) Jeppe Rønde, shown at left, the movie offers up a generational divide more immense than even usual: the adults here are hypocritical, useless, unfeeling, drunken shits who seem to have no clue about anything. Their kids may be the product of all this, but what in the world has induced them to form this seeming "suicide cult"? After viewing this too-long movie, I suspect that Mr. Rønde hasn't a clue. And neither will you. But he has turned what evidently is a movie based on real events -- as the end credits inform us, there were 79 suicides in this town between 2007 and 2012, with more occurring even now -- into a would-be noirish horror film that defies credibility, common sense and intelligent moviemaking. (The line "Everything is going to be OK" has rarely sounded stupider than it does here.)

The filmmaker does manage to engross us for maybe the first half-hour, as one suicide, then another, occurs and we fear for our heroine. But then she gets sucked into the "cult" far too easily, and we begin to wonder why the townspeople, including the police department (our heroine's father, played by Steven Waddington, above, is even on the force!) are doing little to nothing about all this.

Our girl (played by Hannah Murray, above and on poster, top) is busy all the while with various males in the cult. One tries to kills her, another to rape her, but she has fallen for Jamie (Josh O'Connor, below, rutting), a very problemed cult member who can't seem to decide on much of anything -- or stick with it, once he does.

Mr. Rønde enjoys teasing us with weirdness and some nudity and enough creepy scenes to keep us watching. But eventually the movie begins to feel like nonstop vamping, as the screenwriters search for something, anything, to keep us interested. But even on a rudimentary level the movie begins to make no sense.

The town's adults seem to have zero control over their kids, nor do they appear to have any interest in obtaining it. Events are simply arbitrary, with their consequences practically nil. The townspeople, including the families we see, barely have a nodding acquaintance with each other.

Those notorious Bridgend suicides deserve a better memorial this this -- the biggest piece of crap I've seen all year. From Kimstim and being released to home video by Icarus Films, Bridgend -- in English and running 104 minutes -- is available now for purchase and maybe rental.

Odd, subtle and exceedingly humane: Frank Hall Green's teen roadtrip tale, WILDLIKE

Stick with WILDLIKE. It may seem a bit off-putting in its initial stages. In fact, my spouse, oft-mentioned in these posts, while ready to call it a day early on, nonetheless stuck it out, and by the finale declared himself very happy that he did. In this, the first film of his to secure a theatrical release, writer/director /producer Frank Hall Green proves himself surprisingly adept at circumventing melo-drama. And since his movie includes plenty of subject matter that would (and in most movies repeatedly does) lend itself to melodrama, I think it's clear that Green intentionally wanted to avoid that pitfall.

How did the filmmaker, shown at left, manage this? Via quiet, unshowy camerawork (by Hillary Spera) that locates whenever possible the human face as the key to character, while plotwise avoiding confrontation, except in the most necessary circum-stances (and even then, Green withholds any push to go over the top). He also quite cannily allows us viewers to form conclusions (just as we so often do in life) before we really have enough information to understand a situation. Thus we imagine the movie is about a typically rebellious and withdrawn teenager (a lovely, still and deep performance from Ella Purnell, below) who is going to spend some time with another close family member while her mom is away.

Well, it's not quite so easy or typical as all that. And while what we soon begin to learn covers territory oft-trod in today's movies (particularly of the independent variety), it is not trod in anything like the manner we see here. Wildlike actually gives independent filmmakers a lesson in what can be achieved using tact and subtlety rather than a flashy style and pile-it-on theatrics.

Opposite Ms Purnell is starred one of Canada's leading actors, Bruce Greenwood, above, who throughout his nearly 40-year career in film and television has amassed a terrifically diverse and creative resume. That is he is not one of our most famous leading men still surprises me, as his acting chops, together with his good looks, ought to have catapulted him to stardom long ago. Instead he keeps appearing in smart little independent films like this one (or Meek's Cutoff, Barney's Version, or the marvellous but underseen And Now a Word From Our Sponsor). With 134 credits (so far) the actor no doubt has many years and roles ahead of him. Here, as the quiet man who grudgingly takes our heroine under his wing, Greenwood is aces once again.

In the supporting cast strong work is done by Brian Geraghty (below) and Noland Gerard Funk (above) as two other young men in Mackenzie's travels. Funk is fine as the surprised-into-sexuality semi-suitor, while Geraghty unveils even more of his seemingly non-stop versatility as he speeds from role to role, this one among his most unusual so far. Also giving another of her wonderful supporting performances is Ann Dowd (two photos below), as the smart and thoughtful woman the pair encounters on its travels.

One of the pleasures of the movie is that filmmaker sees life as more than cut-out cliches with villains and heroes who confirm to their types. He shows empathy for everyone on view, even, in one case, a character who usually gets blasted away with fear and loathing. This does not mean that Green does not know right from wrong, just that each situation demands its own special handling. The problem often is, of course, that it takes some time before certain situations fully reveal themselves.

Where does the title, Wildlike, comes from? The movie may have offered a clue, but if so, I didn't catch it. One thing I do know is this: Whenever the occasion arises where I have to type the word wildlife, I end up typing the world wildlike. I never understood why, since on a keyboard the f and the k are separated by three letters. Yet that's what my fingers insist on typing. Has this ever happened to you?

Meanwhile Wildlike, released via Amplify from Killer Films and Tandem Pictures, opens this Friday, September 25, in thirteen cities across the country. Click here to see all of them, with theaters included.

BENEATH: Larry Fessenden's smart/funny/ nasty teens-in-jeopardy movie opens @ IFC

It's good to have a Larry Fessenden film back in theaters. Been awhile since 2006's The Last Winter appeared, though Fessenden has been busy, meantime, with both acting and producing. With BENEATH, he's back in the director's chair and has cranked out what looks, initi-ally and deceptively, like a by-the-numbers monster thriller about a group of just gradu-ated high school friends who go out on a lake in a boat. They mostly stay there throughout nearly all of the film's 90-minute running time, during which they are threa-tened by a rather too-large and too-toothy underwater creature.

That fish is just fine (in fact, you may start rooting for him, as we did, to get the job done), but it's the group of "buddies," both girls and guys, who take center stage in the film and help carry it, surprisingly quickly and nastily, to a conclusion that is satisfying in a manner that most of the films in this genre don't get near. Fessenden (shown at left), his writers (Tony Daniel and Brian D. Smith) and his very game cast manage to create a group of characters who come to life quickly and believably, then unveil themselves to us in very interesting layers as the plot and threat thicken.

Information spills out piecemeal, and pretty cleverly, too, as tension and tempers rise. Thankfully, the behavior of these kids is only now and then dumb. Mostly, they act as most of us would under this sort of trying circumstance.

The budget here is low but put to very good use, and each cast member distinguishes him/herself properly in roles that are typical, all right, but are then given an extra goose so that each cliché spins into something a little different.

As the boy who we imagine will be our put-upon hero, Daniel Zovatto (above, center) combines charm with buried sex appeal and a smart diffidence,

while Chris Conroy (above) parlays his hunky body and laid-back machismo into something not quite what we expect.

Bonnnie Dennison (above) makes a pretty blond heroine with all sorts of stuff up her non-existent sleeves, while Mackenzie Rosman turns her role of second-string female into something touching and real.

Completing the array are Jonny Orsini as the little brother who tries harder, and Griffin Newman (above), who takes the standard role of the nerdy friend with the ever-present videocam to new heights (and depths).

Definitely a B -- hell, maybe even a C -- movie, Beneath offers such smart, nasty and sometimes darkly funny fun that, while I might hesitate to recommend the cost of a theatrical visit, this is definitely one you'll want to see on VOD, DVD or streaming. The movie, from Chiller Films, opens this Wednesday, July 17, in theaters (here in NYC, it plays the IFC Center) and can be seen simultaneously via VOD. (That's Mark Margolis, above, in the role of, yes, the old-man-who-warns-kids-of-bad-things-to-come.)

The photos above are from the film itself, 

with the exception of that of Mr. Fessenden, 

which comes courtesy of Indiewire.com