Rupam Sarmah's IN SEARCH OF GOD: a kind of religious-style 60-minute gourmet

Among the stranger theatrical releases in recent weeks (years?), IN SEARCH OF GOD -- a 60-minute documentary conceived and directed by Rupam Sarmah, shown below, that has television written all over it (at least via its minimal running time) -- purports to show us the spiritual journey taken its protagonist, Kavita, an American girl of East Indian descent, from the depths of atavistic materialism into the realm of spirituality and god.

That our young lady looks (below) and sounds like the very personification of an East Indian "Valley Girl" adds immeasurably to the unintentional humor of the film. When she arrives in India, she gasps, "It's so beautiful!" in near-perfect Valley Girl intonation. Halfway through the film, after her consciousness has been considerably raised and upon visiting a new location, "It's so beautiful here!" she gasps again. Truthfully, either place sure beats out the scene of her strutting along the streets of Hollywood, as photographed in her more materialistic incarnation, below.

Though you may initially wonder if this whole thing is a joke or maybe a put-on, as the film progresses, it becomes clear that it is not. In Search of God may be a kind of "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" for would-be acolytes of eastern philosophy and religion, but it is serious. Or means to be. As Kavita wends her way around India, she hooks up with a young monk named Ram ("He's a lot cuter than most monks," she explains to us), who guides her from tribal villages to temples, dance and theater concerts to a crazy/holy man who lives, it is said, upon air (below).

In one of Kavita's more cogent moments, she tells us that this fellow's life style seems a bit extreme but that his words make sense. We watch as some cross-dressing monks perform an interesting dance, and later we visit an artist who creates fascinating masks and puppet-like characters (below). Then comes a museum tour in which Ram explains various objects. All along the way, with everything reduced to a kind of eastern-tinged sound bite, the philosophy (which may be true for all I know) still comes across as cheapjack. (The question, What is the purpose of life is actually asked here, and an answer given! Sorry: no spoilers.)

We get a gander at Gandhi (below), and eventually we visit Ram's home town and meet three generations: child, adult and senior. At one point along the way, a dog wanders into the camera frame and, for a moment, we get the kind of reality missing elsewhere. And although the movie and its spiritual seers keep making a point of how bonded all major religions are to each other in their final goal (it's just the pathway that differs), it may still come as some-thing of a shock to viewers later in the movie to hear one fellow tell us, "If you choose the right path , you go to heaven. If you don't, you go to hell." Really? And what religion is that, pray tell?

Finally all of this seems beside the point. The real question concerns Kavita's journey and change. Who is/was this girl? We really never know. And why is her story any better or more interesting than that of so many others who have journeyed to India for enlightenment? Truth be told, it is not. It's just another tale of faith pricked into some kind of consciousness. And faith, as we should know by now, is an awfully personal (maybe even private) thing on which to hang an hour-long movie full of the kind of heavy-duty philosophy and questioning that have plagued mankind of centuries.

The movie, if it works at all, might be best shown (and probably will be) as a training/propaganda film for possible converts. In Search of God, distributed by RJ International, opens this coming Friday, September 23, for a week's run at the IFC Center inNew York City and at Laemmle's Sunset 5 in Los Angeles.

A don't-miss DVD: Jeff Shelove's & Michael Jaeger's THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST

TrustMovies is older by far than the director (Jeff Shelove) and co-writers (Shelove and Michael Jaeger) and so his first reaction to the title of their movie THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST of course goes back to the book of the same name by David Halberstam about the group of pompous twits who dug this country's grave in Vietnam. Once I got past that snafu and into their movie itself, I and my (we-don't-always-agree) companion were laughing our heads off at this very funny and very overlooked movie about the ins and outs of getting your child into one of Manhattan's better private schools.

The upwardly mobile young couple who arrives in NYC from Delaware, along with their apparently bright young daughter, have no idea that they can't simply apply to one of these schools and eventually have their daughter enrolled. When mom (a delightful and believable Bonnie Sommerville, above) shows up with kid in tow to one of the early meetings, she notices an entire pew of pregnant mothers, hoping for a spot for their not-even-born-yet offspring. She's aghast. We should be, too. This is crazy, stupid. But that's life in New York's fast lane.

It's at this moment that the movie's path becomes clear: anything goes. Nothing the filmmakers (shown above, with co-writer Jaeger on the left) can shovel at us could possibly be crazier or stupider than this single quiet little scene in which these pregnant moms are told that only half of their unborns can be admitted. So shovel, they do -- coming up with an utterly crazy but very funny farce about power, politics, and scratching each other's back that is as amusingly on-target as it is dirty (the film's "R" ratign is richly deserved). And yet, as dirty as it is, never once does it manage to cross line that separates -- no, not good taste from bad, but the line of demarcation between good and bad entertainment. The Best and the Brightest is pure gold: a looney-tunes lark about how to get around the power-brokers in the big city. (That's Christopher McDonald, below, left, as the movie's Mr. Big.)
 
 On the DVD commentary track -- a good one -- the filmmakers note that they were trying to come up with a farce like their favorites: Tootsie and A Fish Called Wanda. While this movie reminded me of neither, it works just fine on its own. Starting with its protagonists' genuine "need," then slipping slowly into crazier and crazier ways in which to see that this need is satisfied, the film grows funnier and nuttier as it moves along.

Starting out with one of the wittier jokes in quite awhile (about a man's wish that his child grow up to see... no spoilers here), the movie then goes on to tackle poetry (what it is and who can do it), fidelity, friendship, politics, high-rolling bankers and lots more. The scenes in which the poetry surfaces, one funnier than the next, involves everyone from the admissions officer of the school (the terrific Jenna Stern, above) to various board members, each with his own agenda. The funniest (member and agenda) belongs to actor John Hodgman, below, who is simply hilarious as the bow-tied Henry, explaining self-abnegation and the need for golden showers to his peers.

How "Poetry" is used and abused may bring to mind modern artists such as Andy Warhol -- who, while he taught us to view art differently, still managed in the process to create little of lasting value (except, of course, dollar-wise and investment-wise). Shelove and Jaeger's movie makes good, honest, dirty fun of eveything from art to faux Gucci, bankers to politicos.  Mr. Big's wife, played with fierce finesse by Kate Mulgrew (below, right) is one of those politicos, and her deeply cynical attitude is held up to scrutiny quite well here. Her campaign poster, never commented upon but seen in plain view behind the actors in the film's climactic scene, is simply a hoot that grows funnier each time Mulgrew contradicts its sentimental image.

Yes, that Neil Patrick Harris is the still, above, left. He plays the Delaware dad, the movie's "straight man" and sudden poet to whom everything happens. At one point Harris tells his wife, "I'm getting better," and indeed he is. He nails this role with complete aplomb, as the lynch pin around which the whole ensemble circles.

That ensemble, which could hardly be better, also includes Amy Sedaris (above, right) in what may be her best movie role yet, as the "enabler" who helps parents get their kids into these schools; Peter Serafinowicz, as the Harris' old but none-too-reliable best friend; and Bridget Regan, below, as an old high-school flame hoping for a rekindle.

I haven't enjoyed a comedy as much as this one since  Women in Trouble, Electra Luxx or Kaboom. If it's a goofy good time you're looking for, I can't see how you'd go wrong here. Why the review in The New York Times was so utterly demeaning, I will never understand.  It's as though that reviewer witnessed an entirely other movie from the one we laughed our heads off viewing.

In any case, The Best and the Brightest is available now for sale or rental from the usual suspects.

Netflix streaming fun: Shin Jeong-won's Korean "monster" movie CHAWZ

Sometimes there ain't nuttin' like a good ol' monster movie to git dem juices flowin'. Flow they will with CHAWZ (Chawu or simply Chaw), the relatively new (2009) Korean scare flick about a wild board gussied up to mammoth proportions and gone on a heavy-duty nibbling spree. TM streamed it off Netflix while he was in hospital for that recent knee replacement, and it proved just the thing to take his mind off his own pain and put it onto the pain of others -- momentarily, at least. (In fact, the film offers 122 minutes of moments: It's Korean, remember, and they like their movies long!)

To set the tone (and the pace and the style), Mr Shin, shown at right, begins with a montage of Korean dining habits, whether gourmet or gourmand you will have to determine for yourself. In any case, there is clearly too much food being consumed, and much of it appears to come from endangered species -- serving up a populace who is becoming ever less considerate of the planet and its environment

When that point has been made (it is not really approached much again in the film, but that's OK: Once is plenty), the killings begin (yes, that's a dangling hand, above), but as is -- or should be -- de rigeur in this kind of movie, we get few if any glimpses of the monster itself.  For awhile. This works for a couple of reasons. Too much too soon deadens the pleasures and scares of monster movies, and for U.S. audiences, a large wild boar is not guaranteed to throw the fear of the lord into many of us. Thanks, however, to Shin's use of this monster, its familial ties and the why of what it is doing, the movie soon takes on some fun, fright, and even -- dare we say it -- a little charm.

The showdown taking place approximately mid-film between the boar, some diners and the great yellow hunter (above) during a celebratory food festival offers enormous and surprising fun. And while there appears to be a love story or two growing between various characters, these are handled with less cliché than you'd find in most American films of this genre. And when things threaten to get to 'icky-sweet', that boar sees to it that they don't.

With the film are various smaller concerns: fractured families, the care of an aging mother, and the seemingly ever-present problems South Koreans have with their police force. In film after film the cops are mostly venal or incompetent, except for the one or two who show some nerve and caring (above). In CHAWZ this is played mostly for humor, but it still leaves one wondering: What's with Korean cops?

No masterpiece for sure, the movie is still pretty good, and since it was not declared uber-brilliant by critics, as was The Host (Gwoemul), which proved a disappointment to many of us, you can watch Chawz (yes, I suspect the marketing team stuck that "z" in so that it would rhyme with Jaws) at the very least like a guilty pleasure that turn out to be not so guilty after all.  The movie may be "boaring," but it's seldom boring.

Chawz, from Magnet Releasing, is stream-able now and is also available on DVD and Blu-ray, for sale or (soon, one hopes) for rental, too.

In SILENT SOULS Aleksei Fedorchenko makes wondrous use of the four elements

An-honest-to-goodness "art film" by way of Russia, SILENT SOULS from Siberian-born filmmaker Aleksei Fedorchenko, shown below, works in nearly any way and as almost any thing you'd care to call it: art film, mystery, anthropology, poetry, or oddest of all, a kind of accidental (or maybe not) feminist tale. A small, 74-minute jewel of art -- visual and verbal -- the film tracks the very strange road trip made by a couple of modern male mem-bers of the culture of Merja (which, according to the press materials for this film, is "an ancient Finno-Ugric tribe from Lake Nero, a picturesque region in West Central Russia"). OK: I'll go with that.

However, if I were soon to be told that this whole "Merjan" thing were a put-on, and that the movie was some kind of narrative mockumentary, created out of whole cloth, I'd accept it just as willingly. For Silent Souls, whatever it is, exists as the kind of "truth" that a genuine art film manages to create entirely on its own. From the first, beauty of place combines with a narration of piquant words, well-chosen and -spoken by our narrator, Aist (Igor Sergeev), below with birds, who fills us in on his own life and history, as well as that of his best friend Miron (Yuriy Tsurilo, shown two photos down), as the film moves along. We also get a heady dose of Merja cultural habits, sometimes quite specific and strange.

Miron, you see, has suddenly become a widower, and he asks Aist to accompany him, along with his late wife's body -- which they must first bathe and clean (this will remind you of Jewish custom) -- on the ritual "journey of goodbye" for which Merja culture provides. They depart, and their journey becomes, on one level, an engagement with the four elements -- earth air, fire and water -- in ways for which you will hardly be prepared.

This also turns the film, intentionally or not -- and if not, then this is simply another instance in which the artist arrives at his point intuitively rather than intentionally --  into a very strange feminist fable. For all the proclamations of love that Miron makes toward his late wife, the film also shows clearly that she, as well as every woman we see here, are simply objects. They are to be worshiped, perhaps, but they have no place nor personality of their own, no needs worth meeting, no reason to exist except to please, and mostly pleasure, their man. For all we know Miron's wife may have committed suicide.

Now, this male chauvenism may indeed be one of the cornerstones of  Merja culture (and maybe by extension, Russian, eastern, western -- hell, worldwide -- culture), but what this movie does with it is quite extraordinary.  As the body is transported, at one point the auto must stop for a roadblock, and one cannot help but wonder if, in other hands, this tale might easily become a noir mystery: how to murder your wife, Merja style. Further, the film's ending -- a momentary surprise, if not an outright shock -- becomes a kind of judgment on these men that makes sense on a number of levels.

And yet, throughout, there is so much beauty on display -- in the bleak landscape, framed with a artist's eye; in the words that pour out of Aist, about his family, his life, his lack of love (the fine screenplay is by Denis Osokin)-- that this feminist theme never unbalances the movie. Silent Souls is a work of art that is utterly accessible, intelligent, riveting and simply gorgeous in its quiet, un-showy way.

The movie, from Shadow Distribution, after making waves at the Venice, Toronto and New York Film Festivals, opens theatrically in New York at the Angelika Film Center tomorrow, Friday, September 16, and in Los Angeles area on September 30 at Laemmle's Music Hall 3 and Town Center 5 cinemas. Further playdates, I would hope, will come, for this is clearly one of the year's best films.

Anne Sewitsky's HAPPY, HAPPY is a dark/funny dramedy about discovery

From today's earlier post about a threesome in Germany -- 3 -- we quickly move to the Norwegian film HAPPY, HAPPY about two couples exploring infidelity and happiness, sexual needs and the behavior that arises when these needs are not met. Director Anne Sewitsky's seemingly simple but actually rather complex look at two marriages relies for its impact on the characterizations at hand -- the screen-writing by Ragnhild Tronvoll and dramaturgy by Mette M. Bølstad (I'd love to learn the difference between these two credits) -- and on the extremely alert, finely-tuned moment-to-moment acting from the four leading performers.

Ms Sewitsky, pictured at right, and her writers, cast and crew have managed, on what I suspect was a pretty miniscule budget, to create an entire small environment -- a village, two families, stark weather, and most especially those needs -- out of the magic of a fertile imagination. That her film ends up being a kind of difficult romantic comedy, rather than a dark and troubling journey into Scandinavian angst relies on the tone the director manages to capture and on one performance in particular: that of actress Agnes Kittelsen (seen below and at top) in the role of Kaja.

I am not absolutely certain that Ms Kittelsen gets more screen time than anyone else (she probably does), but by force of her personality, energy and specificity, she controls the movie. It is hers to win or lose, and win it -- and us -- she does.

The tale begins as one couple, sophisticated urbanites ( Elizabeth, played by Maibritt Saerens, left, and Sigve, Henrik Rafaelsen, right) arrive at a country house they have rented from its owners (Ms Kittelsen and her husband Eirik, played by Joachim Rafaelsen, below, pummeling), who live in the house next door.

Shared dinners (below) ensue, and soon the reason for the city dwellers' vacation comes clear, which seems, in the mind of Kaja, at least, to offer the opportunity to serve some of her sexual needs. Each couple has a son: Kaja and Eirik's an adorable but not-so-nice blond kid, Liz and Sigve's a recently adopted Ethiopian named Noa. Under the guise of friendship, both the couples and their kids square off for passive-aggressive battle.

Singing figures into things, as well. The urbanites belong to a choral group, so Kaja, who has been told by her husband that she has no voice, invites them to joins the local choir (below) -- which leads to some surprises and one of the better uses of the old chestnut, Amazing Grace, that the movies have gifted us with in some time.

Throughout this quite short (85 minutes including credits) movie, you may be surprised by what happens and how but I doubt you'll question its veracity, so strong is each performance, particularly that of the lynch pin Ms. Kittelsen. Finding the truth of ourselves and what we need, the movie insists, is more important than sticking to society's usual regimen. (Even if, in Scandinavian countries, that regimen is a hell of a lot more tolerant, say, that what we'e increasingly stuck with here in the fake-Jesus/phony-morality land of America.)

For all its fun and would-be amusement, and for all the delight that Kittelsen brings to her unusual role, Happy, Happy is a movie that deals with subjects that could just as easily be sad, sad. That Ms Sewitsky keeps her film so finely balanced between the two, while remaining thoughtful and entertaining, is quite an accomplishment.

Happy, Happy, another good foreign film released by Magnolia Pictures, opens this Friday, September 16, in California at Regency's South Coast Village in Santa Ana and in West L.A. at the Landmark NuArt, and here in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema and the Beekman.  Click here to see a listing of all scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters.

Tom Tykwer's 3 does for threesomes what good love stories do for twosomes

If you haven't figured it out already, TrustMovies has a soft spot for three-somes. (He loved, as you know, the Spanish film 3some, and he may have been the only viewer to have imagined that Anne Fontaine's dark Dry Cleaning was going to turn into some kind of happy-ending menage a trois.) Yes, he's tried a few of these during his lifetime, but no, they never stuck. And so he figured that, hey, most twosomes are difficult enough to maintain over time, so why should a threesome work any easier. Still, one lives in hope. German filmmaker Tom Tykwer (shown below) also, I suspect, lives in hope. He has evidently been thinking about all this, and has come up with a movie -- 3 --  that posits the question of why and how and if at all, and then answers it with humor, feeling, intelligence, pizzazz.... and maybe just a tad too much Utopia for some of us.

Still, I wouldn't have missed this very sexy and very interesting movie. I've enjoyed all of Tykwer's work, beginning with Winter Sleepers, and continuing through this new one that offers us a 40-ish couple (below: Sophie Rois at right and Sebastian Schipper, left), he recovering from cancer, she alternating between helpmeet and frustration.  The third wheel is introduced early on, and he finds himself attracted separately and pretty much equally to both parties -- though, because of the manner in which he has met them, he has no idea that they are connected.

Interestingly enough, Herr Tykwer would be just about the same age as his protagonists. He's certainly every bit as attractive as they are, and, I suspect as intelligent and open-minded, too. If this is a case of the creator being very close indeed to his creations, for the most part this works surprisingly well. As writer/director, Tykwer knows these people: what they think and feel, say and do; what they eat and the outdoor (and indoor) sports they love best. He knows their occupations, too, and the friends with whom they mix, and especially perhaps the city in which they live: Berlin has seldom seemed more manageable and "un-touristy" as it does here.

From the swimming pool that brings our guys together to the scientific seminar that unites our gal and guy, the places and people involved seem believable and generally winning. As he is wont to do in a number of his films, Tykwer introduces "ideas" in the form of words and images that complement the story and characters. I generally enjoyed these flights of fancy but admit that they might grate on some viewers as too showy.

The back-story for Mr. Third Party (Devid Streisow, above, left) is introduced slowly and late in the film but it works well and deepens both the character and the tale itself. I don't want to talk much more about plot because part of the film's fun is seeing how and why things develop in the manner that they do. Thanks to the combination of the filmmaker's smart visual eye and keen intelligence, we're treated to a very sophisticated and charming romantic comedy that cannot help, like it or not, expand your sense of possibilities.

My earlier remark about Utopia comes only from the idea that when passion wanes a bit, someone looks elsewhere and while two can turn into three, what's to stop the whole thing beginning again down the road, when three turns into four?  Or maybe divides easily back into the more conventional two and two?  Just wondering...

3, from Strand Releasing, made its New York debut as part of the German festival at MoMA earlier this past summer, and will open theatrically this Friday, September 16, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and in California in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle’s Sunset 5, in Pasadena at Laemmle’s Playhouse 7,and in Irvine at Edwards' University Town Center 6.