Hilarion Banks & Scott Fivelson's "industry" melodrama, 3 HOLES AND A SMOKING GUN

Having just recently viewed Maps to the Stars, the knock-out Hollywood satire/ melodrama/black comedy from David Cronenberg and Bruce Wagner, it is probably a bit unfair to compare it in any way to the film that opens this week, 3 HOLES AND A SMOKING GUN. And yet this little melodramatic, would-be black-comic look at screenwriting strivers here in New York City who are bent on taking credit for the creation of what, from the sound of everyone's reactions to it, must be the greatest screenplay ever written (something called, with no great originality, Hijack), is so full of supposed inside-the-industry knowledge, back-stabbing and thievery that comparisons can't be helped.

Written by a fellow named Scott Fivelson and directed by someone else called Hilarion Banks (shown above), this movie is so ridiculously bad in terms of plotting and believability, that it is little wonder its copyright date of 2012 would indicate a certain period of sitting on the shelf, waiting to be released. It is difficult to believe that anyone who viewed the final cut would not have immediately suggested, "Leave it there."  I am not so much knocking the work of Mr. Banks -- which is perfectly standard and OK -- as that of Mr. Fivelson, who has packed his story full of details that seem mostly wrong.

Consider the scene in which a man has been poisoned and sits coughing and dying in his car, in what is certainly one of the "extended death" scenes of all time. A passer-by appears to notice this -- from quite a distance away, at night, and with the car's windows rolled up -- and motions as though he might come and help. Yeah, right.

Or consider the scene in which we meet the actual writer of this great screenplay, who has typed it on an old Remington and neglected to make even a single copy of his script. In this day and age. Yeah, right again. (The actor at left, above, is probably the film's most noted performer, Joaquim de Almeida, who has a small role at the proprietor of a junk shop.)

The movie jumps back and forth in time, to no avail at all, because soon nothing seems remotely real. Nor is it funny or interesting or unusual enough to warrant our attention. The plot concerns a has-been screenwriter, Bobby (James Wilder, above), who now teaches a course in that art here in NYC, and what look initially like his star student, Jack (sexy, cute but so-so acting newcomer Zuher Kahn, below), who soon proves to be an even sleazier sort than his creepy teacher.

The men, it turns out, have shared the love of another student, Sailor (Rebecca Mae Palmer, below), not that this matters one whit -- except to pave the way for another corpse or two.

The film's funniest scene, though again totally unbelievable, concerns a mugger (the very good Rudolf Martin, below), who wants to make off with Jack's valuables but who instead stays to chat.

Well, the location shots are fine, as is the "look" of the film. Otherwise, 3 Holes and a Smoking Gun is little more than an inadequate time-waster.

The movie opens on cable VOD this Friday, March 20, via Comcast, Cox, Dish Network, and Verizon, and from Shaw on Tuesday, March 24. It will also be available for digital streaming on March 24 via Amazon Instant Video, Google, iTunes, Vudu and X-Box. A theatrical premiere will follow in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Music Hall 3 on Friday, March 27. 

BUZZARD's memorable oddities: character, movie, and filmmaker/actor, Joel Potrykus

If you caught indie filmmaker Joel Potrykus' earlier film, Ape, and saw its lead performance from actor Joshua Burge, you're one up on TrustMovies. I came to the new film, BUZZARD, as a virgin to the work of Mr. Potrykus and so was promptly blown-away by the bizarre Mr. Burge and the film in which he takes center stage. What a face this guy has! Every bit as strange and memorable as that of Julian Richings (from last week's oddity, Ejecta), Burge's is younger and a tad more handsome (in a strange way), and the actor uses his face very well, passing from loony to nasty, vulnerable to empty and finally into something quite frigh-tening. And yet this actor manages to hold us and make us somehow care.

Burge is helped considerably by the filmmaking skills -- mini-budget as they may be -- of Mr. Potrykus, shown at right. The writer/ director sticks his camera in Burge's fluid face and captures those features, large and handsome-grotesque, in their constant and amazing mobility. Burge plays Marty Jackitansky (he's White Russian, rather than Polish) a slacker/scam artist who works as a temp at some kind of bank, where his co-worker and friend (were this guy capable of actu-ally having a friend), Derek (shown at bottom and played by the filmmaker himself) have fun and do very little work. Marty's scams, minor and funny as they initially seem, grow larger and more dangerous as the movie unfolds. As does our non-hero, as well.

Yes, Marty is an anti-social asshole, but he is also a medically-challenged, problemed person, with whom we ever so gingerly begin to empathize. This empathy, which actor Burge allows us to feel despite his character's huge flaws, is what makes the movie more than mere caricature or deadpan humor. Burge, shown above and below, lets us enter the mind and soul of Marty and, hellish place that this is, also allows us to engage with him.

Along the way, we see our guy taken advantage of by an even-more-powerful scammer, and then hightail it off to Detroit, where he stays in a posh hotel and eats spaghetti and meatballs (above) and get into even more trouble. The threat of violence hangs over Buzzard from the very first scene (involving an odd glove). And though this violence does come to fruition, it is both worse and better than we might have imagined.

There's a school-boy duel between Freddy Krueger and a Star Wars laser, and some back-story hints dropped now and again. But to Potrykus' great credit, he has turned Buzzard into a fine character study of a sad but fascinatingly marginal figure -- and in the process given his star a creepily star-making role to play.

The movie -- from Oscilloscope and running 97 minutes -- debuts tomorrow, March 4, at BAM in Brooklyn, and then opens theatrically this Friday, March 6, at 13 cities across the country, and further, too, in the weeks to come. (In NYC, it plays the Film Society of Lincoln Center; in L.A., Laemmle's Noho 7.) To see all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters, click here and scroll down.

How to become a writer the easy/hard way: Alain Gsponer's LILA LILA opens in New York

The adorable German actor Daniel Brühl (from Good Bye Lenin! to last year's Rush) has such a youthful countenance that even after more than a decade of film-making he barely seems to have aged. Even so, in what is his latest movie to open here in New York City, LILA LILA, he appears to be suddenly aging backwards. Never fear: this is because, though Lila Lila opens this Friday, it is already five years old, having been released in Germany back in 2009. This is not the only oddity about the movie. While watching it, I kept thinking of another film -- The Words -- released in 2012 that appears to have been "inspired" by its German counterpart. Both films deal with a young man who comes upon a manuscript -- that he then pretends to have written -- of what turns out to be, once published, a critically acclaimed and extremely popular novel.

While The Words treated this whole thing uber-seriously and thus became utterly silly, Lila Lila uses the idea for its rom-com potential and thus gives in to the silliness, allowing us to have some fun. Directed by Alain Gsponer, with a screenplay by Alex Buresch, adapted from the novel by Martin Suter, the movie is lightweight in the extreme, with characters doing things that often don't ring true to who they are. Or maybe who they want to be. But this does not prove a deal-breaker, as the glossy trappings and attractive leads -- Herr Brühl, playing a character named David Kern, pairs with the spunky, attractive young actress Hannah Herzsprung, below -- make the viewing pleasurable and nearly swift enough to keep us watching. (The running time of 107 minutes might have been shortened by about ten for maximum effect and to avoid needless repetition.)

Having a hero who claims credit for something he didn't actually do can be tricky, but Lila Lila finesses this by having Ms Herzsrpung's character, Marie, send the manuscript to the publisher unbeknownst to David, who then spends the remainder of the movie feeling guilty but trying to enjoy the perks that sudden fame has bestowed upon him.

Brühl (above) is by now a past master at playing sweet and naive, and he does so again here with proper relish and just the right amount of diffidence. (The actor is much more versatile than this, however, as his appearances in Rush and The Fifth Estate will attest.)

The movie is helped (for awhile, at least) by the introduction of a new character, Jacky (played by the funny Henry Hübchen, above and below, left). Who he is and what he wants add to the near-screwball comedy that the movie would like to -- and sometime nearly does -- achieve.

Also on tap is a publisher's assistant hoping to become David's agent (a very nice job by Kirsten Block, below, left). There's romance, a little comedy, and a look at how German publishing works (it's not that different from most Western countries). But mostly, the film will please fans of the ubiquitous Mr. Brühl.

Lila Lila -- the rare theatrical release from Corinth Releasing (the very interesting catalog of which you ought takea look at) -- opens this Friday, May 23, in New York City at the Quad Cinema.