Bart Layton's AMERICAN ANIMALS: an original heist film w/charm, humor, suspense, sadness

When Bart Layton's The Imposter opened theatrically back in the summer of 2012, it caused a stir of sorts, mixing as it did both documentary and narrative tropes into a single very hybrid movie about identity theft, among other things. Despite a certain queasy-making factor, the movie mostly worked.

Now, six years later, Mr. Layton (shown below) is back again with another mix of narrative and documentary about a true-life tale -- the heist of some uber-valuable artwork/books by a quartet of naive-but-daring college kids. This one works even better.

AMERICAN ANIMALS (a name that doesn't really do full justice to the subject matter, while setting its audience up for something more violent/vicious than it should or could deliver) is a heist movie with heart, soul, sadness and lots of humor -- as well as the requisite amount of surprise and suspense. The ace up its (and Mr. Layton's) sleeve is that it very cleverly and successfully mixes the real people involved (a decade or more after the fact) with some very good actors who play these four kids in their college days.

The effect, rather than something startling or unbalancing, instead slowly gives additional credence to both the story and characters at hand. The fact that the real people here often contradict each other (sometimes even themselves) makes the story told seem somehow yet more truthful. (As we know by now, even eye-witnesses can get their facts wrong.) What the real people say, and how it jibes (or often doesn't) with what we see, adds welcome surprise and humor to the events, filling out these characters (the "acted" ones) with additional layers of reality and humanity.

Mr. Layton, as writer and director, also manages to include themes of class differences, economics and privilege into his scenario without ever belaboring his points. Overall, these add weight and sinew to characters and events so that we never lose sight of what's at stake, despite the ongoing fun and suspense of the heist itself.

There is also very little actual violence in the movie, and what there is is handled so well that it registers exceedingly strongly -- instead of hitting us like the repetitive and mindless violence-as-entertainment we're constantly confronted with via our super-hero and action movies. All this puts American Animals in a class by itself and makes it easy to forgive the film's occasional minor blunder -- such as placing a real character and his actor counterpart in a car together and then making so little or this that it seems merely a directorial stunt.

The cast of actors is first-rate -- Barry Keoghan (shown two and three photos above, of Dunkirk and The Killing of a Sacred Deer), Evan Peters (above, and the standout here), Jared Abrhamson (shown at bottom, center) and Blake Jenner (below) -- with each individual doing a fine job of bringing to immediate life his character, sometimes with only minimal but pungent dialog.

In the supporting cast, it is Ann Dowd who (as usual) shines brightest as the unfortunate woman in charge of what is being stolen: a cache of John James Audubon's originals! Also on view and always fun to see is Udo Kier (below, right) as a possible fence for the upcoming stolen goods.

What makes the movie especially memorable is the manner in which it captures the craziness of youth in all its dumb glory, even as it offers the adventure of a good (well, maybe bad) heist, along with the sadness involved in lives gone so wrong for such silly (but understandable) reasons. Ah, kids: They just want to be special!

From The Orchard and running a long but never boring 116 minutes, American Animals --after opening on the coasts and maybe elsewhere -- hits South Florida tomorrow, June 22. In the Miami area, look for it at MDC's Tower Theater, AMC's Aventura 24 and Sunset Place 24, CMX's Brickell City Centre, and the O Cinema, Miami Beach. In Broward Country it will play AMC's Pompano Beach 18, Fort Lauderdale's Classic Gateway Theatre, and the Regal Sawgrass. In Palm Beach Country, see it at the Living Room Theaters in Boca Raton, the Movies of Lake Worth, AMC's CityPlace 20, Cobb's Downtown at the Gardens, and AMC's Indian River 24. Wherever you live across the country, to find the theater(s) nearest you, simply click here.

Cantet/Campillo's THE WORKSHOP is rich, encompassing cinema -- both broad and deep

TrustMovies often speaks of French cinema (and the French themselves) as perverse. I mean this as a kind of complement because they and their films so often go in a different direction than expected. Whether this is done for humorous, ironic or sometimes, yes, simply transgressive reasons, the result can be bracing, abrasive and thought-provoking. So it is with THE WORKSHOP, a new film directed by Laurent Cantet (Human Resources, Time Out, Heading South and The Class) and his co-writer Robin Campillo (Eastern Boys, They Came Back, and the recent BPM).

Messieurs Cantet (shown at left) and Campillo (below) have worked together often enough now that I suspect their wavelengths must be close enough to nearly run as one. Either that or their strengths and weaknesses so balance each other out that the result is, at this point, just about seamless. 

With The Workshop, the pair addresses a host of themes and ideas, both super-timely and, well, ageless. These would include everything from immigration and terrorism (the home-

grown variety) to the impact and importance of art on the general public. Oh, yes -- and, as my spouse pointed out after viewing the film, it is also, maybe most of all, an unusual coming-of-age tale.

In the film, a young man named Antoine (played by the excellent newcomer Matthieu Lucci, shown below, left) from a local port city in France joins a summer school workshop led by a smart and attractive teacher from the "big city" (the always interesting Marina Fois, below, center).

As the class progresses, it becomes clear that Antoine is both very talented and very problemed. How this is revealed to us demonstrates anew Cantet/Campillo's excellent grasp of storytelling techniques, dialog, and the mysteries of human character and motive.

The filmmakers excel at something I'd call not mis-direction (intentionally bringing you to think or expect the wrong thing) but rather a refusal to satisfy your expectations too easily or simple-mindedly. Cantet and Campillo actually demonstrate Chekov's famous "gun" concept and then stand it on its head by making that second-act usage less (and at the same time more) than a mainstream audience may want or care to wrestle with.

The entire class (above) is peopled by a fine assortment of young characters, each of whom is drawn and acted quite well, and who together represent a smart but not-too-tidy look at today's France. Their reactions to each other, and especially to Antoine, are spot-on and help push the plot, such as it is, onwards. I say "such as it is" because Cantet and Campillo have always been more interested in character and theme than in heavily dramatic plotting.

Things happen and build to a kind of crescendo of dramatic possibilities, and then they simply ebb as naturally as the tide that rises and falls around the port town. This may disappoint those who demand melodrama and major confrontation, but it will surely satisfy others who prefer a more realistic slice-of-life that refuses to solve all problems within the framework of a less-than-two-hour movie. Some change does occur here -- and to all the characters -- though we cannot be sure, I think, in which direction that change is headed or how it will turn out.

It has been enough to confront politics, economics, unemployment, immigration, the making of art and the confusion of youth so very well as do Cantet and Campillo. I can't wait to see what this duo comes up with next. From Strand Releasing, in French with English subtitles and running 108 minutes, The Workshop opens this Friday, March 23, in New York City at the IFC Center and then on April 6 in Los Angeles at Landmark's NuArt, and here in South Florida at the Tower Theater, in Miami, and the Savor Cinema in Fort Lauderdale, as well as elsewhere across the country. Click here (then scroll down to click on Screenings on the task bar) to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

THEY LIVE BY NIGHT: Nicholas Ray's "little" classic hits Blu-ray via The Criterion Collection

Who'd have thought that a relatively small, kids-on-the-run movie, with leading actors who were newcomers (or nearly so) and a first-time director with no reputation to speak of, would down the decades quietly burn itself into the canon, ending up as a Blu-ray disc as part of the prestigious Criterion Collection? Back in 1948, when THEY LIVE BY NIGHT was released, Nicholas Ray (shown below) had made none of the several groundbreaking movies -- from In a Lonely Place and Johnny Guitar to Rebel Without a Cause -- that would put him permanently, if always a bit bizarrely, on the map.

Watching today this fascinating, moving and entertaining melodrama that broke new ground visually and aurally at the time of its release is a rather grand experience. In addition to viewing the Oscar-caliber supporting performances from Howard Da Silva and Jay C. Flippen (shown left and center left, respectively, two photos below), we are also treated to two wonderful and memorable lead performances from Farley Granger (below, left, who would go on to make Hitchcock's Rope the same year) and Cathy O'Donnell (below, right, from The Best Years of Our Lives), who are as exceptional here and as they would ever be.

Ray combines bank robbery, thriller, romance, film noir and social justice into one unusual genre-jumping movie that, if it's no outright masterpiece, remains one of the most impressive directing debuts of its own time and even now (up there with the likes of The Usual Suspects), while the filmmaker's genuine concern for all his characters shines through, as always.

While it is now indeed a "period piece," the movie simultaneously seems to exist in its own special time and place: something that critic Imogen Sara Smith notes in her excellent critical appreciation of the film, which is part of the Criterion disc's Bonus Features and is "must" viewing. Ray's film is -- by turns -- exciting, sweet, charming, moving and surprising, even featuring, toward the finale, a first-rate musical number that exists beautifully on its own, while commenting on a number of themes to which we're being treated.

They Live By Night is first of all a romance between two genuinely nice-but-problemed kids, neither of whom have had anything approaching a helpful or normal childhood. We root for them both and especially as a unit because they work together so well. Mr. Ray allows us to understand this without piling on the sentimentality. If the finale must end in a kind of tragedy, even the character who betrays these two is given a measure of understanding and respect.

The new Blu-ray transfer is very good, as you would expect from Criterion, with new 2K digital restoration and uncompressed monaural soundtrack. The audio commentary is from a decade ago and features Farley Granger and film historian Eddie Muller, and the remaining "extras" include a new essay from film scholar Bernard Eisenschitz and just so-so audio excerpts from a 1956 interview with producer John Houseman.

The new Blu-ray, running 95 minutes, in black-and-white with an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, hits the street this Tuesday, June 20, as part of The Criterion Collection and will be available for purchase and rental.

Girls (the real deal) in the Jenny Gage/Tom Betterton coming-of-age doc, ALL THIS PANIC

There were times during TrustMovies' viewing of ALL THIS PANIC -- a new film from Jenny Gage and Tom Betterton -- when he wondered if this movie about a group of young girls on the cusp of adulthood was actually a documentary. The girls' dialog, which sounds completely off-the-cuff, was presumably caught on the fly, while the cast list uses their real names, with the exception of the leading lady, who is referred to as Lena M. Yet at times the movies is so cinematic, engulfing and artfully done that one is tempted to wonder if it is not, after all, some kind of fictional fable about coming-of-age in our current, frightening, what-lies-ahead? decade. Late adolescence and the oncoming trip to adulthood have always been fraught and uneasy. These days they are simply more so.

Ms Gage and Mr. Betterton, shown at right, introduce us to these maybe half dozen young women in their last (or penultimate) year of high school and then follow them, so the press information tells us, for three years. It's all very scattershot and all over the place, but as the short (just 79 minutes) film progresses, we come to understand these girls surprisingly well and care about them, too. My spouse, busy in the kitchen but able to hear the soundtrack, called out to me at one point, "These sound like pretty nice girls!" They do, and they are. 

Sure, they argue and get angry and all the rest, but basically they're rather normal examples of what we used to refer to as raw youth. They're certainly not "mean girls," and we wish them well. What they're dealing with, however, runs the gamut from parents who have their own problems (unemployment, mental health) to life after high school (and college, which proves a tough, do-I-go-or-don't-I choice in itself) to the usual what-to-do-about-sex quandary.

At first we see only the girls -- all varieties: straight, gay, black, white -- and then slowly, some of the parents enter the picture (they prove just as real, believable and problemed as their offspring), and finally we get a boy or two, as relationships form and evolve.

And that's it. Yet, by the end of this little film, it seems as though we've been made privy to girls' lives in a manner we've not seen previously: genuine, specific and on the mark -- if scattered and fragmented all to hell. The result is a documentary that has us hanging on every word, with visuals that are immediate, pointed and often quite beautiful, as we (and the girls) try to piece it all together. In its way, this is as good a picture of late adolescence as we've so far experienced.

At the end, which is, by the film's very nature, anything but an end, we simply leave the girls in the middle of it all. This is one documentary to which, a few years down the road, I would love see a sequel.

From Factory 25, All This Panic (a smart, ironic-but-not title, which one of the girl expresses early on) opens this Friday, March 31, in New York City at the IFC Center and in Chicago at Facets Multimedia.  On April 7 it hits the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn, and on April 14, the Arena Cinema in Los Angeles. Click here then scroll down to view all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed.

With European Film Awards winner, YOUTH, Paolo Sorrentino offers up another amazement

A master class in filmmaking, from a visual standpoint, certainly, YOUTH is... what? Paolo Sorrentino's best yet? Don't we say that nearly every time a new movie appears from this guy? Why not? In my estimation, he is among and perhaps the finest living filmmaker, even if his movies are, yes, all over the place. But what he lacks as a screenwriter, he more than makes up for as a director. As a writer, he seems to cajole, even fondle, his screenplays into providing the kind of imaginative, rich, one-of-a-kind visuals in which so many of us art-movie fans exult.

Sorrentino's stories fascinate, as well: tales told to make their themes resonate -- even if sometimes not as strongly or in as condensed a fashion as we might like. And yet, post viewing -- and I have seen most of his movies more than once -- I find myself enjoying and learning from them even more. With Youth, the filmmaker (shown on set, at left) has made a movie about -- among other things -- age, art, love, family, moviemaking, creativity and commerce -- and he's wrapped all this into a near-constant array of stunning color, composi-tion and juxtaposition.

Take the poster image, shown at top, as one instance. This is from one of the film's most ravishing scenes, in which youth and age are juxtaposed to marvelous effect in a lush, deep and dark several moments that brings to the by-now tiresome "dream sequence" something unique -- and visually beyond compare. (The cinematographer here is the great Luca Bigazzi.)

The story is one of two old friends -- a retired composer/conductor (played by Michael Caine, above) in his consistent and increasingly elegant less-is-more mode) and a filmmaker (Harvey Keitel, below) working on what may be his final opus. The two spar (often about a girl they once knew), enjoy each other and their surroundings (a first-class hotel high in the Swiss mountainside) and try to work through their various family problems (the Caine character's daughter is married to the Keitel character's son).

Further complications arise when the maestro is contacted by a very high-level personage and asked to come (briefly) out of his retirement while, simultaneously, the filmmaker finds himself having trouble finishing his screenplay worked on (in the Italian style) by a bevy of screenwriters (shown below).

Along the way, much is made of the composer/conductor's series of songs that have proven his most acclaimed and popular work. Much is also made of a certain leading actress, who is to be the star of the filmmaker's new work. We hear about both of these over and over again, from different angles and various other characters. This is quite a build-up. Many filmmakers would be content to leave it at that (or fearful not to, and then have to make good on their inflated claims). Not so Sorrentino.

When we meet at last that famous star, as played by Jane Fonda (above and below) in a role that requires not merely terrific acting but a near-complete abandonment of the usual "star" vanity, Ms Fonda more than delivers the goods.

Likewise, the movie's finale, when, at last, we approach the moment when we're about to hear that famous and much bandied-about music. We expect, of course, a cut to black, as the movie ends, letting instead our fertile imaginations provide the celestial music. Oh, no. Sorrentino, together with his composer David Lang, provide an ending so glorious, aurally and visually, that it brings this 124-minute movie to a grand close.

In the youth department of Youth are Rachel Weisz (above) as Caine's daughter, and Paul Dano (below, right) as a famous young actor researching some background material for his latest role. Both are fine, especially Mr. Dano, but they take an understandable and expected back seat to their elders here.

In set piece after set piece, Sorrentino provides great beauty (to crib from the title of his previous film), as well as fine irony and ideas to chew over at some later time -- maybe when you watch the film again. One of the things I liked best about Youth, in retrospect, is how it makes rather joyful and endearing fun at movie-making and movie-makers.

God knows that Sorrentino takes his art and craft seriously. Yet he also, I believe, understands that, hey, it's just a movie. But since it is a movie, why not make of it every glorious thing we can?

Youth, from Fox Searchlight Pictures, while continuing its run in New York and Los Angeles, opens around the country Friday, December 25 (what a Christmas present for film-goers!), Here in Southern Florida it will play in West Palm Beach, Naples, Delray Beach, Hollywood, Miami and Fort Lauderdale.  Click here then enter your location to find a nearby playdate.

Eugène Green's LA SAPIENZA proves a precise and thoughtful ode to the meaning of wisdom

Normally I publish my reviews in advance of those in our daily newspapers, but occasionally, as now, I forget to schedule the posting of a film seen a few weeks earlier, and so I am late in covering LA SAPIENZA, the new film (and the first of his I've seen) by New York-born writer/ director Eugène Green. Consequently I can suggest that you also read the very fine review of this movie by A.O.Scott in The New York Times, which should indicate pretty quickly if this is the sort of movie that appeals.

Precise is the first word that came to mind as I viewed this quietly beautiful, visually and verbally unusual movie by Mr. Green, who is shown at left. The filmmaker's precision in all he touches is extraor-dinary. Everything from compositions to dialog is choreographed in a most exact manner. Initially, this may seem off-putting. Yet so beautiful is what Green shows us, so precise is the dialog that comes from the mouths of all his characters that this produces a kind of pleasantly hypnotic effect -- and not one that puts you to sleep. Rather it quiets you and allows you to watch and listen to your fullest.

This "style," which is, if not totally different from almost any other film-maker I can recall, is at least pushed farther than most would dare to take it. In La Sapienza -- which translates into English as sapience (and I had to look up the meaning of this word to be certain) or wisdom/sagacity -- an architect (Fabrizio Rongione, above, right), who has refused all offers of working as a teacher and who is clearly estranged on certain levels from his wife (Christelle Prot Landman, above, left), a sociologist and perhaps a budding psychologist, too, has a kind of epiphany over the course of the film. The film, in fact, constitutes that epiphany.

The couple, mostly at his bidding, decides to travel to Italy so that he can complete a project he began years earlier on Italian architect Francesco Borromini. While there, the pair meets a younger couple, siblings played by newcomer Ludovico Succio (above, left) and Arianna Nastro (above, right, of The Solitude of Prime Numbers, click and scroll down), he about to study architecture and she a lovely young lady with a fainting problem.

Immediately we're faced with the push and pull of age against youth, the interests of each, and the knowledge and experience necessary for one set to rise to the level of the other. (The movie bears an intriguing relationship to another that opens next week: While We're Young, about which I'll have more to say soon.) In any case, the male and females separate here, with the characters played by Succio and Rongione going off on a Borromini trek, while Ms Landman and Ms Nastro stay behind and have quite an interesting time on their own.

The two men visit various architecture and also spend some time with a "friend of a friend" who introduces them to a younger and different set of folk who then connect the two (and us) to "modern living." Those quotes are necessary, for Mr. Green's idea of modernity acts as a kind of theme of its own, giving the film a bit of a goosing (yes, they go to a "club" and dance) but also a bit of a baseball bat with which to beat some sense into us about how awful this modernity really is.

The problem here is that most people I know can and do appreciate both the beauty and quietude of great architecture, as well as being able to sit down at their computer or at their tablet or cell and connecting with life in ways that do not have to be in-person or one-on-one. Some have even been known to go clubbing, as well as to the Met (Museum and Opera). There is a bit too much insistence on either/or to make the movie completely convincing. (Mr. Scott's review is especially interesting in its look at the personality and desires of the filmmaker.)

That said, La Sapienza offers so much beauty and so many thoughtful ideas on architecture, light, spirituality, psychology and relationships that it is worth the time of intelligent audiences worldwide. Besides introducing us to two beautiful young performers who may have further careers, the film does some lovely stuff regarding the relationship between the two women -- one of whom discovers more about her maternal instinct, while the other begins to understand herself better and can thus exercise more control over her own life.

There's a lot to love about La Sapienza, once you give over to Green's unusually formal and precise style. Take a chance on this one, which opened theatrically here in New York City yesterday, March 20, at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema. From Kino Lorber and running 100 minutes, the currently scheduled playdates around the country can be accessed by clicking here and scrolling down.