This year's WTF doc arrives: Maíra Bühler & Matias Mariani's I TOUCHED ALL YOUR STUFF

Or is this film actually a cleverly put-together narrative posing as a documentary? TrustMovies went into I TOUCHED ALL YOUR STUFF having paid little attention to the press release (these sometimes give away the store) and so imagined that it was indeed a new doc. But after watching the 90-odd (increasingly odd) minutes, if you told me almost any crazy thing about this movie, I'd have to consider it as at least a possibility. It's that bizarre.

There is probably an entirely other movie to be made about how the two filmmakers -- Maíra Bühler and Matias Mariani, shown above -- came into contact with their prime subject and managed to put this wayward and way-weird movie together (I think they'd call it "The Making of I Touched All Your Stuff"). But what we have here seems to be a "true" shaggy dog story all about immense injustice (to whom and because of what actually changes during the course of the storytelling), a naive dweeb, a mystery woman, Pinocchio, and the hippopotami of Colombian drug lord, Juan Carlos Ortiz Escobar. And that's just for starters.

As the movie progresses (if that's quite the right word) via talking-head interviews, especially with our "hero," one Christopher Kirk (shown at top and above), who appears to be... in prison, along with re-creations, computer files, travel footage and especially Mr. Kirk's constant narration, it takes at least a half hour for us to figure out that we're maybe seeing the all-time dumbest sucker-in-love (above) coupled to the most over-the-top femme fatale (below) in movie history. What a combo! But wait.

The movie moves along via chapter headings that seem alternately funny and weird (not unlike the movie itself). For a time we imagine we're getting a dose of culture clash of a very unsettling order. Then suddenly we're in Lapeer, Michigan (below), visiting the all-American family of our strange hero. All told, we bounce around from Columbia to Brazil to Washington State, California, Michigan and back again.

Among the things we learn from this educational movie is that when the lover muses about his beloved, "Maybe there's a one per cent chance that this could work," he is in big trouble. We also learn not to trust anyone whose password is "mentir" (that's Spanish for "to lie"). Or maybe the lesson here is not to trust anyone at all. Talk about your unreliable narrators!

The documentary that I Touched All Your Stuff most reminded me of is that early be-careful-of-the-Internet demonstration, Catflish, which was more "of its specific time." Love and trust stories are generally timeless, though this one does make use of our current fascination with technology and hacking.

In any case, the doc/narrative/whatever proves non-stop fun that should leave you in the relatively healthy state of questioning just about everything you see and/or hear. From Cinema Slate and running 92 minutes, the movie opens at the following theaters on the dates shown below:

August 28, 2015 – New York City (Cinema Village) 

August 28, 2015 – Los Angeles, CA (Arena Cinema) 

September 4, 2015 – Columbus, OH (Gateway Film Center) 

September 4, 2015 – Chicago, IL (Facets Cinemateque) 

with more playdates, we're told, coming soon. 

Click here for further information,

DVDebut: Weirdos run riot in Dusty Bias' fresh-frozen "bizarrosity," PRAIRIE LOVE

I suppose it had to happen, but it still came as a shock: At long last, TrustMovies and his oft-spoken-of companion sat through a movie from that never-miss distributor, Film Movement, that actually, uh... missed. Even so, the 80-minute, mindless mind-bender called PRAIRIE LOVE is so damned bizarre that, for movie-lovers who demand something different above all else, TM feels he almost has to recommend that you try it. How did this extremely odd movie come into being? After a viewing, it seemed to me that the filmmaker/director/co-writer Dusty Bias (shown below) and his co-writers, Ashley Martin and Holly Lynn Ellis (the latter also stars in the film), decided to reach for the single most bizarre group of characters they could create -- and then made sure they neglected to answer the most-likely-to-be-asked questions about each. I can imagine the little group chortling, "That'll keep 'em off-balance!"
It does indeed.

Consequently viewers will either accept what they see and go with it, or finally cry uncle when it becomes clear that "character" as we know it has pretty much gone missing. This means that the actions, which arrive thick and fast and generally unhinged, proceed from three people who may be the most anti-social critters ever seen on screen. (Or if not anti-social, then completely bereft of any kind of social interaction skills over the course of their life.) In other words, what we have here is weirdness for weirdness' sake. This is not uninteresting, however: People this bizarre demand attention, of course. It is only after the fact that you may feel that your attention has somehow been filched.

Mr. Bias (interesting name!) gives us three characters: one he calls the Vagrant, played by Jeremy Clark, above, right, (until well over mid-way through I didn't realize that this was actually his "status"); the girl, played by Ms Ellis, above, left (something like a 20-year prison sentence is her excuse for weirdness, but that takes us, and her, only so far); and a fellow named NoDak (newcomer Garth Blomberg, below, in his tightie-white-ies) who has, unfortunately, the least character of all and so raises the most red flags.

These three interact -- if not physically and verbally, at least via letters -- and the outcome is, ummmm... iffy. Consequently the movie seems, finally, to be more manipulative than anything else. Yet, as I say, the weirdness is so strong and so constant that it does indeed hold you, even as you ask for more. And the director certainly has a good sense of how to capture the area visually. Mr. Bias grew up around these parts, and if you choose to read his statement in the press package, as I did (you can open it here), you may think that he had the kind of childhood that might have resulted in his becoming any of these three people. (If you do read the press package, do so after you've seen the movie.)

Prairie Love, has recently become available on DVD, and can also be viewed via VOD streaming from FilmMovement, for purchase or for rental. (And you do not have to become a Film Movement member to rent or purchase.) Simply click here -- and follow directions.

MOUTH OF THE WOLF: Two years later, a great documentary finally gets its day in the (American) sun

TrustMovies covered the film below as part of the FSLC's annual Open Roads festival in 2010. As this wonderful documentary opens today at MoMA, here's that short review again, and updated....

THE MOUTH OF THE WOLF (La bocca del lupo), walked off with Italy's Best Documentary award at the Donatellos two years ago. I don't know what the competition offered, but it is hard to imagine that anything could have legitimately bettered this film. As strange, poetic and beautiful -- as well as crass and prosaic -- as any documentary I've seen in some time, the movie, from Pietro Marcello (shown below), is a wonderful, moving surprise. It sneaks up on you; for awhile you will not even know what it is really about.

A man moves through landscapes, a city and time, and the film also moves back and forth, too, as it combines words, images, voices, music, sound (the lack of ambient sound, in particular, is very strange) and finally character -- two fascinating examples of this -- to create a rough kind of poetry.  The experience of simply sitting quietly and letting this film flow over you is such a unique one that I hesitate to say much more about it.  Except that it does involve prison, and a man (Enzo, shown below and on poster, above) whose dark eyes, thick mustache, high cheekbones and sunken cheeks may remind you a bit of Pierre Clementi. His inamorata, Mary, is something else, as well.

A kind of mosaic of a city, its people, the past and present, and "unknown desires, forbidden remembrances of a lost world."  And finally, everyone's dream: "a country house in which to live quietly, hugging each other and waiting for old age." The Mouth of the Wolf is strange art indeed, and we are lucky to have the chance to see it in a theatrical release. It will play for one week, beginning today August 4, at MoMA in New York City. Click here for screenings and tickets. Doc lovers: don't let this one get past you.

HELLO LONESOME: Adam Reid's dear and delicious little film tracks a trio of quirky couplings; plus a fun Q&A with filmmaker

Loneliness is not the easiest quality to capture on film, at least not without boring us by offering up the usual visual clichés of the figure, alone in a landscape, or within but separated somehow from the world around him/her. Loneliness when you're with other people is a harder thing to pinpoint, and one of the treats of the new film HELLO LONESOME is that its writer/ director Adam Reid manages this odd and tricky task very well.

Reid (shown at right) is the filmmaker who, a few years back, gave us the Academy-shortlisted live-action film While the Widow Is Away. He uses the two actors who starred in that 19-minute movie -- Lynn Cohen and Kamel Boutros -- along with several others to make up the fine, nine-actor ensemble that he and his casting director Brette Goldstein have collected. Casting is vital to a chamber piece such as this; one wrong call and you've broken the delicate chain. Fortunately, the players work beautifully together, bringing to life the stories Reid tells.

The first of these concerns a man (played by Harry Chase, above) who does voice-overs -- very successfully, from what we can surmise -- working out of his spacious home in the country. With a failed marriage and a daughter who isn't in touch, Harry enjoys a meager friendship with his delivery man (the very interesting Mr. Boutros, below) and the occasional one-night stand.

In another part of town, Ms Cohen (below, left) plays a somewhat sight-challenged widow still hurting from the demise of her longtime husband, who gets some surprising attention from her neighbor, played by James Urbaniak (below, right). This unusual pairing, which brings up the subject of intergenerational love, and perhaps even sex, is handled by Reid and his actors with such halting surprise and charm that we're ready for whatever comes.

In the third and most poignant of the tales, a young man (Nate Smith, below, top) looking for love, or whatever, goes online to discover another lonely soul (Sabrina Lloyd, below, bottom). The two connect -- oddly, I grant you -- but in a major way. The quirkiness here sometimes threatens to go over the top, but due to performances that stay real no matter what happens, the top is never reached, let alone breached.

The three stories and their characters weave in and out of the whole without ever connecting. And that's fine. We don't miss the connection because Reid's theme of loneliness, links and the forging of bonds is so strongly felt. (Much better, this, than one of those films in which "everything is connected" via the puppeteer pulling unbelievable strings from above.)

Hello Lonesome, delicate but grounded, knows what it's about. And so, I think, will you. This may take awhile to come clear, but while it does, you're in for some enjoyable performances. And when it does, you're hooked -- and then some.

The film (93 minutes long and distributed  by Bodega Studios, opens this Friday, May 27, at New York City's Cinema Village, with a DVD release in the offiing soon.

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In the Q & A below, TrustMovies' Q's appear in boldface, while the A's of Adam Reid (pictured below, this time in director attire) are in standard type.

Where did you find Harry Chase and Kamel Boutros? Is that Chase’s real voice (and is that the major reason why you chose him for this role)?

Kamel Boutros is a very talented friend (opera singer and pianist) who I cast in my first film, a short titled While the Widow Is Away that also starred Lynn Cohen. I am consistently blown away by Kamel, he’s such a charac-ter in real life with a natural gift for com-edy, and I like to surprise audiences with his musical ability. When I started writing Hello Lonesome I knew that I wanted to work with him again.

Harry Chase is a real life voice-over artist and a very successful one, at that. I’ve been hearing Harry’s voice my whole life and didn’t really know it. (You may know him as the voice of Captain’s Morgan’s Rum “Got a little captain in ya?”, Disney on Broadway, CNN, Quizno’s and countless other things.) I wrote the role of Bill Soap as a composite of all the voice-over guys I’ve worked with making commercials. When it came time to cast the part, I knew I wanted the real pipes in the voice-over booth, and then the magic trick would be getting a great on-camera performance. This is Harry’s first on-screen role. I think he’s a truly gifted actor, we’ve just never seen his face. I have to give credit to our tenacious casting director Brette Goldstein for finding Harry for me. She sent me a list of VO guys to listen to and once I heard Harry’s voice, I had a big hunch he was our man. I went to Harry’s house to meet him for the first time and it was love at first sight. He’s actually become a dear friend.

Chase, in the lead, manages to fit into the whole ensemble somehow, while remaining just outside it – due to the bizarre quality he communicates (you can believe his daughter never calls him back). Was this part of the man himself, or did you have to coax the over-the-top behavior out of him?

Harry in real life is a force of nature. It doesn’t take much coaxing, in fact, there was more effort put into curbing his performance to match the emotional tone I was looking for. It’s worth noting that Harry is a dedicated husband and father, but in almost every other way, resembles his character completely. In some ways it’s like a documentary that way, there’s a lot of Harry being Harry.

As the film is dedicated to, I believe, your sister (we thought that as we watched the end of the end-credits, and your PR folk Susan and Linda confirmed it), this is probably the loveliest dedicated-to-my-sister movie since Bobby Harling’s Steel Magnolias. Can I get a little more personal than usual and ask if there was indeed such a young man who came into her life at the time and actually stuck by her? If so, are you still close with him?

Indeed, this story is very much based on my sister Lisa. Poor girl. She was in her 30’s and met a guy on JDate just before she found out she was sick, and he stuck by her. He was himself a big sports book betting kind of guy, and I was so struck by how they let everything ride and hoped for the best. I’ve had such mixed emotions about their relationship and making Hello Lonesome has been a powerful way to reflect on that for me. They married, and she passed away after that. I am so grateful that Lisa had that love in her life when she was sick. At the same time, I don’t think they had enough time to see what kind of a team they would become. It’s very bittersweet to say the least.

For me the scene in which he learns of his lover’s illness and makes that decision was quite something. I’ve known men who’ve gone both ways upon leaning this sort of thing, and just last year we had the mostly-stupid-but-could-have-been-a-lot-better Love and Other Drugs with a similar situation. You have an interesting way of taking odd bits and pieces and putting them together so that we believe what has happened – that’s sort of how the whole girl/boy relationship comes to fruition. But it works somehow. Your characters are quirky (sometimes quirky as hell) but grounded enough to make us believe in them. I think this is difficult to achieve, but you have done it. (Does this make sense to you?)

This makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for the compliment. I have to give a lot of credit to Sabrina Lloyd (above) and Nate Smith (below) for how they handled this very intense scene and somehow managed not to make it all-out melodrama. The dialogue in this scene was nearly word for word pulled from real life, and that can be very tricky to pull off.

As for the quirk-factor, I find most people to be quirky as hell, once you get to know them. These characters are all very real to me. The actors I cast were chosen, or had the roles written for them, because they ARE these people they are playing in some real way. The situations were written, that’s the fiction, but the idiosyncratic detail they fill the scenes with comes from them. There’s no keeping Lynn Cohen or Harry Chase from being quirky once you let them off the leash. They’re just naturally funny people with some truly goofy aspects to their personality.

You’ve also done a fine job of drawing good performance from your very grab-bag cast – so diverse – not to mention the use of seasoned performers with newcomers. Did you find a huge difference in how you dealt with these two groups: the veterans and the newcomers?

Oddly enough, I didn’t treat any of the actors differently. My very favorite actors to work with are either A) Total Professionals with years of experience on camera or B) Non-actors with no experience. I suppose I struggle with struggling actors. They “need” too much, try too hard, and I have a tougher time trying to get them relaxed on camera. I love mixing them together, the pro’s and newbies. The pros have learned how to let go, and the newcomers I am drawn to have that same quality.

Your theme of loneliness is handled in an interesting manner. It seems as if there is really no cure for it, save the use of the “other” and of yourself, even as you understand that this will not really make it go away -- because the other person can only go so far in acting as a salve. The individual has to come to terms with it him/herself. Would you agree, or am I just pushing my own theory onto your film. (We critics LOVE to do that!)

You’re not that far off at all. I was in a lonely funk when I was writing Hello Lonesome and I think that had a big impact on my perspective and the final film. I’ve since met the love of my life, and I am happy to report that perspective has shifted considerably. {Editors note: Click the link and watch the above video; it's f-ing wonderful!}

All three stories in Hello Lonesome feature imperfect pairings that complete each other in unexpected ways. These are desperate people. Which sounds depressing, but there’s some joy in that because standards are thrown out the window and we are able to open ourselves to connections we would have never considered otherwise. So, while I don’t think that the condition of loneliness is permanent at all, I do believe in the magic and goodwill that that loneliness can create in a vacuum. Get two REALLY lonely people together and then stand back and watch what happens. They are willing to change for each other. Most people want everything to be perfect all the time. Truly lonely souls don’t care, they’re just happy to have company.

For you, what was the most difficult part about making this movie? The easiest?

Hello Lonesome was made for about fifty thousand dollars and shot over fifteen days. While anything but easy, and taking years to complete, this film was very do-able on this scale. We had a crew of about five on set, and then of course dozens of talented people who helped put it together afterward. I learned so much, wearing multiple hats. To anyone who wants to make a movie this way I highly recommend it.

The most difficult part was convincing Lynn Cohen that she could drive. She told me she was a good driver when I was writing the script and I believed her. She can’t, and she doesn’t. The shots of her driving are all faked in a variety of ways. At one point we shot her in the parking lot of a TGI Friday’s at night, a fan in a shopping cart blowing her gray hair and a 100 watt light simulating the oncoming traffic. Lynn was a terrible, terrible driver but you’d never know it watching the film. Oddly, I’m very proud of this.

According to the IMDB, this is your first full-length film. How did you come to do the Gilbert Gottfried video – Comedy Central, I would guess?

The DIRTY JOKES concert performance was a fluke and not related to Comedy Central actually. He’s a friend of a friend and I was excited to put that together with him. That DVD is the filthiest thing in the world, just FILTHY, and if you have the stomach for it, side-achingly funny. That’s all Gilbert. He didn’t want to spend much (typical) and I was willing to shoot and edit the show for very little which worked out great for both of us.


How can I see While the Widow is Away?

You can find While the Widow Is Away on iTunes! The short film (Ed: a still from which is above) won a bunch of awards and was eventually shortlisted for an Academy Award (which, sadly, we didn’t get.) Do check it out! Especially if you like Hello Lonesome, you can trace a lot of Hello Lonesome's funny/sad DNA back into this little project. I shot it myself for $3,000 with a total crew of 2, me included.

What’s a sea-monkey? (That’s from your IMDB bio….) You have 250 of these? They must be small, I hope…

You don’t want to know… But in case you do: here's the link.

Editor's note: We went on the site.  Yikes.

DVDebut: Don't miss Malcolm Venville's sleeper 44 INCH CHEST

When Sexy Beast appeared a decade back, and the raves -- mostly for Ben Kingsley's over-
the-top performance -- started coming, it was perhaps too easy to overlook the supporting work of actors Ray Winstone and Ian McShane and the screen-
writers Louis Mellis and David Scinto. Now, a relatively new director to movies named Malcolm Venville (shown below), with his first full-length film 44 INCH CHEST, also written by Mellis and Scinto, takes us back to what initially looks like the mob milieu of Sexy Beast but is actually a much more sophisticated and surprising location: the human mind, body and soul.

This interior/exterior belongs to another criminal type, a fellow named Colin Diamond,  played by Mr. Winstone.  He is this time surrounded by a pack of pals that include McShane (again), joined by Tom Wilkinson, Stephen Dillane and John Hurt. Male ensembles don't get much better than this, and the cast delivers every juicy line of dialog, every smile, frown and curse, as though we'd never seen nor heard a bit of it until now.  The story  involves Colin's wife, who has just told him she must leave him for another man.  Winstone runs the gamut in the next few moments.  And then all hell breaks loose.

As TrustMovies recalls (having read a portion of some of the reviews at the time of the film's limited release: mid-January 2010), mention was made of Sexy Beast and of the plot outline and the vicious and bloody goings-on, with the critical assessment more thumbs down than up and box-office results following suit. (Films like this need critical boosting if they are to take off at all.   Even then, few do.)  Now that TM has finally seen the film, he's mildly appalled at the misapprehension of what is basically a psychological love/hate story about a rather typical British gangster-type upended and then redeemed by coming to terms with his situation and feelings.

Mr. Venville and his writers flash back and forth -- not only between then and now but between reality and fantasy.  The consistency is maintained via the actors, all of whom nail their characters and maintain their through-line, thus holding the film together quite well and allowing its audience to know where we are at any time.  This also enables us to forgive what could be some difficult-to-believe moments, such as a kidnapping in a restaurant (the beginning of which is shown above, with Misters Hurt and McShane) that proves as funny as it is scary.

Just how much of the film is fantasy and how much reality is never quite clear, nor does it need to be.  The whole thing -- once the event that sets the plot in motion is established -- could be going on only in the mind of our protagonist.  Still, fantasy or reality, the movie needs to be brought to life, and here Venville and his cast deliver in spades.  As the wife, Joanne Whalley (above), an actress we see far too seldom anymore, is as alluring as ever.  Even with an added decade and little more weight, she's still a knockout: sexy, gorgeous and able to command the screen whenever she appears.  (When will they transfer to DVD one of this woman's great early films, the British TV piece Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?  What a wonderful work that is!)

And as her new paramour, French actor Melvil Poupaud (shown above, left, with Mr Winstone), without (unless I'm mistaken) one word of dialog, is still impressive.  You root for him against all hope.  The rest of that cast is splendid.  Hurt, as a homophobic but sexless senior has some of the saltiest dialog heard in ages ("cunt" is tossed about more often here than I can remember, and each rendition outdoes the last); Wilkinson, who takes good care of his aging mum, adds yet another wonderful character to his gallery of them; Dillane, the youngest and best-looking of the bunch, makes prime use of this, leaving us always a tad off-balance; and McShane -- as an unapologetic gay who's always on the make -- is a delight.

Yet it's Winstone, with the help of the writers and director, who holds it all together, and he gives perhaps his most memorable performance.  Even if this is all some kind of fantasy, if one can fantasize redemption -- if one can imagine it -- then it must be possible, no? I think the placing of a bloody, wounded hand upon the head of our "hero," in an act of love or grace, somehow guarantees this.  See what you make of it; in fact, see what you make of this whole chilling, funny, sad thing.

Don't miss the DVD extra in which the director talks about the film. Mr. Venville is one of the least full-of-himself filmmakers I have witnessed, and everything he has to say here rings true and is extremely interesting.  Out this week on DVD, 44 Inch Chest has proven my biggest and most pleasurable surprise of the year so far.  As you can probably tell, I heartily recommend it.