Havana Marking's SMASH AND GRAB offers those naughty Pink Panther jewel thieves

Just a couple of days ago, one of the Pink Panthers escaped from a European prison, which makes this week's documentary debut all that more timely. SMASH AND GRAB: THE STORY OF THE PINK PANTHERS, the new film from documentarian Havana Marking, fills in those of us who pay little attention to our own low-level criminal breed here in the USA, let alone those of Europe (while wishing that our government paid more attention to the high-level, Wall Street/banker type of bad boys) on the tale of this hierarchical and highly organized (but in such a manner that makes it very difficult to infiltrate) gang of jewel thieves.

Ms Marking, shown at right, who evidently got access to high-level gang members, has devised her film in such a way that their identities are kept secret by recording their interviews, using actors to portray them, and then disguising even these actors by using a kind of animation and posterization (below and further below) in which the actors' identities cannot be ascertained, let alone that of the real criminals. While this works well as a disguise, it also distances us twice over from the real thing.

Consequently what sticks most post-viewing is what we hear and learn from a certain investigative reporter who herself has done a lot of leg work and interviewing to discover information about the gang members, who hail -- surprise! -- from a place known as the former Yugoslavia. But here, at least, were not talking genocide by the Serbs, against which jewel robbery seems like the proverbial walk in the park.

The most interesting information the movie has to offer, in fact, is how -- in the era following Tito's "liberal Communism," during which various ethnic groups and religions were held together peaceably via this more-or-less benevolent dictatorship -- civil war came to the territory, along with genocide and ethnic cleansing, and the resulting shards of hegemony became to a large extent criminal states. In the choicest bit of dropped info, we learn how these states deal with own criminals: They are sent abroad to rob in other countries and then bring the loot back home.

The Pink Panthers are a part (certainly now the most famous) of this criminal set that appear -- if the movie is to be believed -- to use the threat of violence rather than the real thing against the people they rob, thus cowing their victims (in Western Europe, Asia and the Mid-East but never in their own countries) into immediate surrender and help.

All these animated interviews are woven into footage of the actual robberies obtained via security tapes, along with interviews with that aforementioned journalist and some law enforcement officers, accompanied by a musical score that ranges from jaunty and upbeat to the sort of loud, generic stuff of a B-level suspense movie. The result is a relatively interesting hodge-podge that gives you some kind of introduction into this netherworld of well-concealed and perhaps state-inspired criminality.

If the movie is playing fair with us, these guys and occasional gals are robbing solely from the world's sleazy "one per cent" and since they are not actually killing the underlings who labor for that one per cent, I guess we can consider them the pseudo-Robin Hoods of the former Yugoslavia, who, according to the two interviews we get here, only want to make enough money to retire and live in a pleasant style with their loving families. Gosh -- ain't it the American Dream all over again.

Smash and Grab, from Music Box Films' relatively new Doppelganger Releasing division and running just 90 minutes, opens this Wednesday, July 31, at Manhattan's Film Forum. Elsewhere? Probably, but nothing has been posted on the distributor's sites just yet.  But since it's from Music Box, a DVD and/or Blu-ray should also be in the offing, eventually.

Say hello to the hybrid mockumentary: Victor Quinaz's BREAKUP AT A WEDDING

We've seen documentaries, we've seen mockumentaries, we've seen hybrid documentaries, and now it's time, I guess, to welcome the hybrid mock-umentary BREAKUP AT A WEDDING, the new whatzit from filmmaker Victor Quinaz. Just what is a hybrid mockumentary? Damned if I know, but this movie just seems a bit different from your Christopher Guest model, or last week's overblown version, Colossus, or any other kind of "mock" I can easily recall. Blatantly a fiction film, it still appears to be a documentary posing as as reality while clearly being unable to reach that precious plateau -- even as a fake "reality" movie.

Mr. Quinaz, shown at right -- who acts as director, co-writer, one of the film's producers and even has an acting role in the movie -- is handing us the notion that he's been hired to capture a couple's wedding on video (by now we know this routine very well, though the film that does it best, oddly enough, is the terrifically frisky, funny zombie movie [REC] 3), even though the twosome has decided (due to the bride, not the groom, who is nicely played by the filmmaker's brother, Philip Quinaz, below, left) that it is not actually getting married but will instead "fake it" for the relatives and guests.

How they do this and what ensues makes up most of the movie, which is relatively funny and sometimes charming but more often proves just a little bit off both base and key.

If you notice the photos above and below (this isn't fair, of course, but they are all I've found to use), you may detect a bit of a strained quality in the expressions on hand (particularly that of the bride, played by Alison Fyhrie, above and below). There's a sense here of trying too hard, and it seems to infect everything from writing to direction to performance.

Sometimes things come off well enough, at least, to allow us to sit back and enjoy. But more often that "pushing" sense occurs and we tighten up in expectation of, well, too much. This is not the best way, I think, to enjoy a comedy. But here, we must take to so-so with the good.

Comedy itself is one of the more difficult genres to get anything approaching agreement from audiences. One man's laugh is another man's lack of. I suspect there will be enough of the former to make this movie at least an OK experience. The "wedding" takes place on one of those multi-venue propositions at which several couples can marry at the same time on their own turf. My favorite section had to do with how to steal your liquor from an adjoining festivity (and if that festivity offers a "Star Wars" theme, all the better).

Breakup at a Wedding, from Oscilloscope Films and running, even at only 85 minutes, a bit too long, opens this coming Friday, August 2, at Brooklyn's IndieScreen theater, with one of the most famous of its producers -- Zachary Quinto -- appearing at select screenings for Q&As. The film was also released onto VOD and digital channels earlier this summer (and may still be playing there, if you're couch potato-inclined).

An "original" seeks distribution: Mark Lewis' funny, sweet and crazy WILD GIRL WALTZ

Every once-in-a-while a movie comes along that seems so quirky and odd, yet genuinely its-own-thing, that you're certain it's a shoo-in for festivals who claim to appreciate new approaches to film-making. When it's passed by, you find yourself thinking, "What were they thinking?" So it is with WILD GIRL WALTZ, a true original about a threesome of friends, two of whom are romantically connected, with the third still looking.

The perpetrator of this little gem of situation, characterization and (I'd call it) semi-improvisational style is a fellow named Mark Lewis (above), who has made but two films so far, including Baystate Blues back in 2009). In the first couple of minutes of his new movie, we get a surprise -- just as does one of our main characters -- that pulls us (and her) up short with a shock and then a laugh (from us, anyway; she's not too thrilled).

We notice very soon the natural flow of some very good dialog. "I feel like the floor of a movie theater," notes our girl, who gets a laugh from her friend. 

"Not funny," she frowns. 

"It is if you're me," says the friend. From funny, we quickly go to dirty, sexy, silly, and sweet, as the two girls decide to ingest a couple of "good time" pills one of them has been given by a co-worker, after which they go a little sweetly berserk and must be babysat by the third party (the boyfriend of one of the girls) until they come down.

That is pretty much the whole movie, which is all of 82 minutes long and a very easy sit. The goofy dialog, as any good dialog should, unveils a lot about character, situation and place. We stop for a drink, served by an old friend, above, and the discussion turns to Redskins and Redhawks, and then we have a moment and situation that is fairly old-hat (it was used, as I recall, as the punch-line ending of one of the better episodes of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series) but  here it is played for comedy/surprise. 

Mr. Lewis has nailed a certain odd portion of American demographic in this movie and made it seem about as charming and real as you could want. And he's given us -- together with the help of his ensemble -- two wonderfully rich roles for women, which his two leading ladies, Christina Shipp (above) and Samantha Steinmetz (below), carry off with... I'd love to say "aplomb" but they're just too weird and crazy for that, so let's make it "utter credibility and fractured charm." As the babysitter, Brian, Jared Stern, shown one photo below, makes a smart, funny, even kind of sexy (because he's so confident and non-pushy) male overseer.

There's a scene here involving the recently baked pies of a friend of one of the girls' mothers that is hilarious and suspenseful, and there are a few other interesting ones, too, but mostly it's just the threesome, hanging in and out of a car and interfacing to beat the band. In his own special way, Mr. Lewis has nailed how men and women act -- together and apart, high and sober, mostly happy and occasionally sad. Wild Girl Waltz is a movie you will not mistake for any other.

So how do you view this little treat? Lewis says he's still hoping to get into a festival or two, and TrustMovies is hoping his film will, as well.  Meanwhile, since this blog doesn't like to cover movies that readers cannot actually see, the filmmaker has very generously agreed to send a DVD out to anyone who requests a copy. Simply go to the film's web site, click on CONTACT at the bottom, and send an email requesting your copy to the address on the screen. Be sure to include your snail mail address, and tell Mr. Lewis that TrustMovies sent you.

Raunch done right: Stick Maggie Carey's funny/smart THE TO DO LIST on yours.

It's a shame about that "R" rating, for THE TO DO LIST is the kind of movie you'd want adolescents to see and discuss. But they won't be able to get in unless you accompany them. So get ready. If America were the kind of adult society we often to claim to be -- fundamentalists of all stripes aside -- any film that explored sex and sexuality with the novelty, charm, intelligence, fun and, yes, raunch (the real thing, not the pseudo variety we more often get) of this one would be embraced. But these films are usually rejected out of hand : Look at Jon Kasdan's so-good-you-probably-didn't-even-hear-of-it The First Time, or the Scandinavian whoopie cushion Turn Me On, Dammit. To those and a very few others, we can add this new, very funny, envelope-pushing movie from writer/director Maggie Carey, below.

Rauch is a tricky thing to handle on film, and Ms Carey's movie is full of it. Getting your cast on the same page (and tone) about what you're doing is one important way to proceed. Then you just hope your audience comes aboard. It takes us and the film a little while to find our footing, but there are enough surprises and laughs along the way to keep us alert and interested. Slowly we're won over, as we watch and identify more and more with the movie's heroine, Brandy -- a smart performance from Aubrey Plaza (below and on poster, above) of Parks & Rec fame and Safety Not Guaranteed. Ms Plaza will hit 30 next year, but she still manages to make a relatively believable teenager -- looks-wise and (more important) emotionally. Most important (for our and the movie's edification), Plaza is funny and versatile -- going from controlling nerd to sexy young woman and hitting just about every stop in between.

Set in Boisie, Idaho, in 1993, the plot hangs on the idea that a just-graduated-from-high-school young woman who is still a virgin, in order to "lose it," come hell or high water, over the coming summer, makes that titular "list" of important steps along the way to deflowering. This is not especially far-fetched, although, in this day and age, a girl who graduates from high school a virgin is probably a relative rarity.

The movie's ace-in-the-hole is sex -- not so much the thing itself but the attitude toward it of everyone in the film. Most of Brandy's peers give it the kind of all-out embrace that makes it essential but somehow empty, while Brandy and her two best friends (played by Sarah Steele, above, center, and Alia Shawkat, above, right) are hopeful but properly skittish about what it is and what it means.

Brandy's sleazy sister -- the pretty, funny and properly raunchy Rachel Bilson -- uses sex (along with other people) for her own benefit, while the sisters' parents (Connie Britton and Clark Gregg, both pricelessly on-the-mark, as always) have their own agenda: She's all for it and, in fact, wants to help it along (with lubricant); Dad says no, of course -- until the usual pretense of true love and waiting-till-the-wedding go along with it.

The females of The To Do List are a good deal smarter and more receptive than the males, but Ms Carey does not make her men into pigs (not complete pigs, at least). The three most prominent are played by Scott Porter (the hunk), Johnny Simmons (above, right, as the best friend) and Bill Hader (below, who plays the boss at the outdoor community swimming pool at which Brandy finds a summer job).  Mr. Hader's role bears no small resemblance to that of Sam Rockwell's in The Way, Way Back, though the two charac-ters and the tone of the two films could hardly be more different.

The movie also features funny turns from Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Donald Glover, and a nearly unrecognizable Andy Samberg. By the time our heroine has discovered sex -- and how different it can be, depending on the partner --  I suspect that you will be so firmly ensconced in the movie's attitude and philosophy that you may be surprised at yourself. I hope so, anyway. And though the film flirts with some feel-good sentimentality toward the end, it smartly draws back just in time.

The To Do List, a kind of stealth groundbreaker/troublemaker, is a film that teenagers -- hell, adults, too -- will be all the better for having seen.

The movie, via CBS Films (which seems to have disowned The To Do List, if its web site is any indication) and running 104 minutes, opens tomorrow, Friday, July 26, all over the place. Click here, and then enter your zip code under Find Tickets & Showtimes, to find the theater nearest you.

Open Roads 2012 alumnus, TERRAFERMA from Emanuele Crialese, hits IFC Center

Immigrants again, this time on a small island off the coast of Sicily, where our hero, Filippo -- one of the members of a very divided family -- is out on the family's fishing boat with his grand-father when the pair encounters a surprise. Now: what to do? In Emanuele Crialese's wonderful new film TERRAFERMA, the decision that the young man and his grandpa make sets in motion all kinds of further happenings that show us the immigration problem from various angles and via a number of different viewpoints.

No mere intellectual study, however, Crialese's movie (the filmmaker is shown at right) tosses us smack into the action and forces us up against conflicting ideas and feelings that are as apt to be as visceral and shocking as they are sometimes beautifully moving. He doesn't simply stack up the pros and cons in two neat piles; no, he gives each side its weight and understanding, with the scales finally tipping, as they ought, toward humanity. This is the very talented filmmaker who earlier gave us Respiro and one of the best immigrant movies ever made, a work of art called Golden Door, so it is splendid to have him back with a new work like this one.

There's a scene here as memorable as any I've seen all year, in which our hero is out on the moonlit sea with a girl he hopes might become someone special. Suddenly in the near distance they see something approaching. Is it a school of dolphin? Shark!? No. What happens next is now ingrained on my memory forever. The boy reacts as the sensible seaman he is; the girl, a tourist on the island, represents our typical kindly, liberal but untutored mentality. And the outcome disrupts everything.

The islanders, as well as the family members take sides on the questions of "illegals" and "rescue-at-sea" in ways sometimes surprising that also remain open to change. Filippo's mom (ace actress Donatella Finocchiaro, shown two photos up) is probably the most conflicted, wanting to follow both the business-like imperative of her brother, who'll do anything to keep tourists coming to the island, and her father, who hews to the old ways.

Filippo (a lovely, very real performance from Crialesi regular Filippo Pucillo, above, right and further above), is conflicted, too, in his own confused and adolescent manner. Only Gramps (a noble, angry performance by Mimmo Cuticchio, shown below, in the midst of a message made of fish) has any certainty. This makes the resolution of the film -- which, like so much of this year's Open Roads, brings the theme of justice to the fore -- all the more difficult and dearly earned.

Terraferma, another must-see via the annual FSLC Opens Roads series of new Italian cinema, and distributed in the USA via the Cohen Media Group, opens today, July 24, in Manhattan at the IFC Center, and in Los Angeles on August 9, at the Laemmle Music Hall 3. Elsewhere? Click here (then scroll down and hope for the best). Whenever Cohen Media Group sees fit to update its web site, you may be able to find out where else this fine film is playing.

In BLUE JASMINE, Allen and Blanchett channel Blanche DuBois via Mrs. Madoff

Woody Allen just keeps rolling 'em out. And while he doesn't really repeat himself (I don't think any alert viewer would mistake one of his films for another), it may be that he cranks these out a little too quickly, relying as ever on happenstance and coincidence to make the connections that real life can seldom provide. This works best in the comedy and rom-com genres, where we expect -- hell, we want -- our happy endings. When too-easy coincidence occurs in drama (whether it tilts toward the happy or unhappy makes little difference), the whole thing begins to look too much like a set-up.

So it is with BLUE JASMINE, which is saved, as Allen's films often are, by first-class casting and acting. As a writer, the guy seems to grow sloppier, while directing-wise he's even less fussy than in the old days and so more on-the-mark. Notice how he handles the repeated back-and-forth of time frames to present and past. These are sharp, clear and focused so that we quickly know where we are and whether it's now or then. It's as though he's telling us, "Look I don't have time to erect all the signposts; just follow along!" And we do.

What we follow here is the tale of an entitled, sleazy and basically nasty woman named "Jasmine" (she's changed to that name from something more prosaic), played by Cate Blanchett, above, whose marriage and fancy, moneyed life have recently collapsed. She's left New York City and the Hamptons for the much simpler and more affordable(!) world of San Francisco. This location shows how out-of-touch Mr Allen is with where working people can afford to live, but I guess the midwest would not have been as much fun for him to film. San Francisco is the home of her lower-class sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins, below, left, with Andrew Dice Clay, who plays -- and very well -- her former husband).

Fully one-third to one-half of the film is set in the past, so we really get to see who Jasmine was, as well as who she remains -- even though her circumstances have turned upside down. Allen is crafting here a morality tale for our time -- the financial crisis and the economic downturn -- in which the great wealth of Jasmine's husband (Alec Baldwin, below, center, and fine, as usual) was evidently derived from fakery (think Bernie Madoff).

Yet the filmmaker's grasp of how the hoi polloi live is awfully limited. Even the manner in which Jasmine earns her living as a "worker" -- a short spell with an odd dentist (the amusing Michael Stuhlbarg) and then, nothing -- indicates that Allen has little understanding of or interest in how most of us pay our bills.

Ditto his creation of "working men" like Ginger's new boyfriend (the wonderful Bobby Cannavale, above, left) and his best friend (Max Casella, above, right) who remain walking, talking clichés. That Cannavale and Casella walk and talk damn well, goes some distance toward camouflaging this. But there are times when, watching Cannavale act, you think, God, he must have been dying for a bit of decent dialog! But none of the characters here, save Jasmine, are given any depth by their author.

Around the time Peter Sarsgaard (above) appears (then rather quickly disappears), the coincidences really hit home. Through it all, Ms Blanchett delivers a spot-on performance, with every moment real (and often grating). Cate's too smart an actress to try to sugar-coat her character, who is, let's face it, a horror who just keep growing more horrible. That the actress has played -- and quite well, I am told -- Blanche DuBois could only have helped her performance -- which is some kind of wonderfully strange concoction of Blanche and a character somewhat like Mr. Madoff's wife (but younger), who could not have helped but know what her husband was up to on some level but ignored it all to bask in the wealth. At this point in our film year, Blanchett would seem a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination.

Blue Jasmine is a lot of fun, though it is not particularly funny, as in ha-ha. (That's Louis C.K. with Ms Hawkins, above.) It is light on its feet, as shallow movies with weighty themes sometimes are. I think Allen may not have intentionally gone after a character study, but that's what, thanks mostly to Blanchett, he has achieved. It's a good one, too -- even memorable -- though everything else here pales beside it.

The movie, from Sony Pictures Classics and running 98 minutes, opens this Friday, July 26, in New York City (at the Angelika Film Center, City Cinemas 123, Lincoln Plaza Cinema), in Brooklyn (at the BAM Harvey Theater) and in Los Angeles (at The Landmark and perhaps elsewhere). From there, a national rollout will follows in cities across the U.S.