SEDUCING CHARLIE BARKER: Amy Glazer's film of Theresa Rebeck's script/play opens

Normally TrustMovies opts for touting the director over the writer of a film because, from what he knows of the industry and how it works, the director has most of the power and control. In the case of SEDUCING CHARLIE BARKER, however, he's going to concen-trate more on the screenwriter, on whose play the movie is based: Theresa Rebeck. Ms Rebeck, shown below, has never been a darling of New York critics, in the manner, say, of Wendy Wasserstein. And yet her work certainly rivals, and in TM's humble opinion outdoes that of the late Ms Wasserstein. But because, he suspects, this writer hails first from television and then made her foray into legitimate theater (Aaron Sorkin, on the other hand started in theater, then movies and then TV), she has not been taken as seriously as she deserves.

The first theater piece I recall seeing of hers was a terrific political comedy about behavior in our capital city entitled View from the Dome, given a smart, sleek staging back in the late 1990s by the New York Theater Workshop. Roundly (and unfairly) dismissed by The New York Times critic, the play pleased only the audiences who were lucky enough to see it. Currently on Broadway, her latest play Seminar, with Alan Rickman in the lead, is again pleasing audiences (and some, if not all, of the NY critics). And now we have this new film that she's written, based on her 2006 plays The Scene (unseen by me).

Directed by Amy Glazer (shown at left), whose work is completely new to me, Seducing Charlie Barker is only Ms Glazer's second full-length film (her first -- Drifting Elegant from 2006 -- never made it past a few smaller film festivals around the U.S.) and it is an odd duck indeed. Never less than interesting and often quite funny, still, the movie doesn't seem to ever quite gain the proper balance. My one scribbled note, after viewing it, was, "What is this about?"

On one level, it's very clear what it's about: the actor's ego. The titular Charlie, nailed quite well by leading man Stephen Barker Turner, above, is one of these New York actors so full of himself and his talent that he can't lower his sights to pursue a TV job that might help pay the rent. He's talented, all right, but so are so many others here in NYC.

His wife, Stella (nice to see Daphne Zuniga, above, back in the movies again), a successful career woman in TV, puts up with him, and the couple appears to have a pretty good marriage. Until Charlie and his best friend Lewis (David Wilson Barnes, below, left) get a look at an enticing ass (below, center) during a party at which Charlie is supposed to be chatting up a TV producer.

The ass belongs to the young lady, Clea, who takes on the movie's titular endeavor, and also to the very unusual, beautiful and talented actress who plays her: Heather Gordon (shown above and below). The entire cast is very good, but Ms Gordon is the main reason to see the movie. Her performance is by turns bizarre, hilarious, utterly truthful and just as fake as can be, all of which describes quite well the character she's playing. One minute you're thinking Clea's unhinged, the next that she's merely the smartest person in the film.

This young lady knows what she wants, and she is going after it full-speed -- using behavior and body to keep the males in her purview consistently off-balance but coming back for more. And so the movie is also about an ambitious young lady who knows how to get ahead in the entertainment industry. But it's also about Stella and Charlie, who are (mostly on her part) planning to adopt a foreign-born baby. Oh, and best-friend Lewis, below, who turns out to be carrying a long-time torch for Stella.

The movie's also about the entertainment business -- the workings of television, movies, legit theater -- of which Ms Rebeck by now must understand quite a lot.  (Her original play, after all, was titled The Scene). And she does bring a "knowing" blend of incident and character to the proceedings.

All of this is is believable enough but little of it is expanded upon or developed past the point of simple exposition. Ms Rebeck is certainly a talented writer who knows what she's doing, and so I fear some of blame must be placed on Ms Glazer, who captures fine performances from the talented cast and has her camera pointed properly (cinematography by Jim Orr) but perhaps is lacking the sense of style and/or snap, not to mention the ability to mold the disparate strands of a story into some kind of organic whole that might have brought the project to greater fruition. (Or perhaps Ms Rebeck, in this case, needed another set of eyes to better shape this particular property.)

I enjoyed Seducing Charlie Barker -- its humor, locale, performances, and particularly the fact that most of the characters believably grow and change in small increments from beginning to end (no big, seeing-the-light moments here). But I still wanted more. The film opens this Friday, December 9, for a run at New York City's Quad Cinema.

SCN: Luis García Berlanga Retro opens with EL VERDUGO -- plus nine more treasures

TrustMovies will cover the ten-film retrospective of the work of one of the late and great Spanish filmmakers, Luis García Berlanga, shown above), trying to view as many of the movies as possible. Only one of the ten -- The Executioner -- was shown to the press prior to the start of this year's series, so his viewing will be catch-as-catch-can, and he will add to this post, with coverage of each new Berlanga film that he is able to see.

As the FSLC's press release so aptly puts it, "Together with Juan Bardem in the early Fifties, Berlanga shook up what had been a fairly dormant Spanish cinema with a series of works that revealed uncomfortable truths about the rigidly controlled Francoist society. Even as the regime began to ease up a bit in the early Sixties, Berlanga, often working with screenwriter Rafael Azcona, became if anything even more barbed in his criticisms. Yet beyond being important documents of the growing social resistance to Franco, Berlanga’s films are treasures because their extraordinary humor always seems to propel his often madcap tales into more general, timeless observations on the human condition. There are rarely villains in his works—only characters with greater or lesser levels of self-delusion."

Luis García Berlanga (that's he, above, in his earlier days) whose work has been previously featured in Spanish Cinema Now, died in November 2010 at the age of 89. The FSLC is proud to present this special tribute in memoriam.

THE EXECUTIONER (El Verdugo, 1963)

There are two executioners in this little gem, which is one of Berlanga's juiciest films. The first is the old man (the wonderful José Isbert, above left) who's been doing the job for decades; the second is the young fellow -- noted Italian actor Nino Manfredi (above, right) of Bread and Chocolate -- working as a guard, who comes into contact with the older man and slowly gets inextricably involved with him and his attractive daughter (Emma Penella, below, left). The hypocrisy of Spain at the time, and how its populace treats the men who do its dirty work, proves as ugly as it is funny, and Berlanga makes the most of both.

As noted above, no one here is a villain, exactly. Some people are better than others, but all are adrift in a dead society in which everyone in every way finally caves in to the power of the state. And yet, given all this, how amazing that the filmmaker digs so much amusement, dark as it is, out of the mess. The cast is excellent, especially Manfredi as a not-so-nice guy who, when faced with doing something that goes utterly against whatever is left of his better self, becomes heartbreakingly, wretchedly human. The film, 90 minutes, in Spanish with English subtitles, plays at the Walter Reade Theater this coming Friday, December 9 at 3:20pm and again Tuesday, December 13, at 6:15pm.

Stills from The Executioner come courtesy of 

www.moviescreenshots.blogspot.com

Photo of Berlanga at top is by Alvaro Rodriguez,
courtesy of Getty Images, while the shot of him as a
younger man is from, well, those marvelous web archives....

SCN: Carlos Iglesias' ISPANSI! tells a Spanish Civil War tale we haven't heard

Last year SCN offered one of those rich, wonderful stories of the Spanish Civil War -- Paper Birds (Pajaros de papel) that showed us something different and bracing, even if it was decked out in melodramatic (but fine) style. This year's selection that best fits that bill is the terrific movie by and starring Carlos Iglesias -- ISPANSI!, which I am guessing is Russian for "the Spanish!" and which tells a story I had never heard -- about the hordes of children sent to Russia for their safety by the anti-Franco Republicans during the Civil War. What a tale it proves to be, and how splendidly has its writer/director/lead actor Iglesias (shown below) managed to create and execute it.

The filmmaker tosses us into the thick of things immediately, introducing characters we will only slowly know and understand. He then backtracks to the past, showing us how they got into this strange place, and then carries them forward into, well, you can hardly imagine the ins and outs and ups and downs you're about to experience. Though this is a tale of children, Iglesias wisely makes it a love story, too -- but one that take ever so long to flame. For quite some time we don't even know that it is, or will be, a love story. Yet by the time it  explodes, we are already completely in its grasp.

That the love story is between a Republican worker/fighter and a upper-class woman from a Franco-phile family makes it all the more bizarre and vital, and the two actors -- Iglesias and Esther Regina (above, right,and from last year's The Consul of Sodom) could hardly be better.

What the movie tells us, among many other worthwhile things, is how pure, physical attraction can pave the road to a relationship that will change what we might have imagined were unchangeable basics of character and class.

Iglesias takes us from the Franco forces to the Russians to the Germans and back again, as our small party grows smaller as it escapes, barely, from one bad situation to another, with some lovely, much-needed respite now and then. We see and hear the wealthy of Franco's Spain (two photos above, and the one below) as well as near-poverty of post-war Russia. And we feel the loss of a child that, despite all else, never heals.

This is a rich, often very beautiful-to-view movie, filled with great characters and a cast of remarkable actors who can bring them to life. It's got history, politics, love, death, sacrifice and just about everything else that makes a memorable, old-fashioned blockbuster. While watching the film, I could not help but wonder if, in its way, the movie might have gone some distance in uniting today's Spain. Except that the populace just elected another right-wing regime, so perhaps it is being united in the wrong direction. Once again.

I don't know that this film has any U.S. distribution yet, and it's playing only once during Spanish Cinema Now: Friday, December 9 at 1pm at the FSLC's Walter Reade Theater. So if this kind of movie is your cup of tea, do not miss Ispansi! 

Luis Landivar's RED HOOK BLACK: It's a love/hate letter to the B'klyn neighborhood

RED HOOD BLACK, I'm afraid, does not belong in a theater. It belongs on a shelf in its filmmaker's room, to be shared, if requested, with friends and family. If this film had opened two weeks earlier, around the Thanksgiving holiday, I'd have chosen it for Turkey-of-the-month, if not the entire year. (But, no: That crown is still held by The Abduction of Zack Butterfield, which opened last May, and proved so ridiculous that some of us are still giggling.) Red Hook Black does not come close to the entertaining heights of unintentional "camp" as did the Butterfield business. It's just, sadly, not very good on any level.

Adapted and directed by Luis Landivar (shown at left) from a play of the same name by José Landivar (a relation, no doubt, but I could not find the actual connection), the movie tells the present-day story of two old friends from the neighborhood, Marco (Kyle Fields, below left) and Damian and their currently difficult times. Why these two would remain friends into adulthood is hard to fathom, as Marco is one singularly annoying, unpleasant clod, married to a sick wife (she's got Multiple Sclerosis) and soon leching after his nubile niece, who is more than happy to oblige. (According to the film's web site, inspiration here came, but did not rub off, partly from Arthur Miller's play A View from the Bridge.)

For his part, Damian (played by James Jackson, shown below, left) is saddled with a no-account younger brother who deals drugs and has zero sense of responsibility. Damian is also suffering post-traumatic stress from a fairly recent divorce.

Having neither read nor seen the play from which the film was adapted, I can't remark on its quality. But the movie, from the first, offers some terrible, clunky dialog about sparkling eyes and a sparkling blouse (!) with reams of exposition and repetition. "I'm sick, Marco. I'm sick!" And soon after, "I can't take it, Marco. I can't take it!" When it's not repeating, the dialog alternates cliché with near-non-sequitur. Notes the toast at the finale ("What doesn't kill us makes us stronger." Gee, we've never heard that one before!) or wifey asking hubby "Were you building a spaceship?" when he finally appears after a long absence. Huh?

Further, all this is spoken by performers who are not professional enough to know how not to call attention to the bad dialog. Instead they go for it, both barrels blasting. The pacing is usually "off," as well: too fast, too slow or just too many small but unnecessary pauses so that nothing quite seems natural. (The wife, above, is played by Victoria Negri, while the role of the niece is taken by Danielle Lozeau, below.)

TrustMovies does not enjoy giving a notice like this one. But Red Hook Black -- so obvious is so many ways that it soon becomes boring -- should not be let off the hook. It is not an easy film to sit through, despite its relatively short running time of 87 minutes. Mr. Landivar not only adapted and directed the film but co-produced it and wrote the lyrics to many of the songs on the soundtrack (the music, listenable if not very original, is probably the best part of the experience).

According to the IMDB, Landivar has also made another, earlier film about Bushwick, Brooklyn, so this one on Red Hook may lead to more films set in the borough's various communities. If so, let's hope that his filmmaking skills improve with each new location. For now, Red Hook Black -- the title of which refers to the days in which oil was found under this particular neighborhood -- will open for a week's run in New York City at the Quad Cinema this coming Friday, December 9.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL: Nacho Vigalondo's loony, loving sci-fi surprise opens SCN

Think there's not much new in the "space invaders" genre? Think again. Nacho Vigalondo, the young Spanish filmmaker who a few years back brought us the mini-budget but maxi-creative sci-fi thriller TimeCrimes, is back this year with Spanish Cinema Now's opening night selection. This is a wonderfully goofy, funny and inventive movie that takes a very real and imposing invasion from space and turns it into a kind of McGuffin, a red herring that allows this clever and ironic writer/director to explore once again, Spanish style, those eternal verities of sex, love, honor and commitment while making us gasp and laugh, wonder and chuckle. One neat feat of moviemaking is EXTRATERRESTRIAL!

Señor Vigalondo, shown at left, is a man who makes the most of his resources. And while the budget here is a lot bigger than it was for TimeCrimes, it's still small potatoes by most movie-making standards. And yet the filmmaker creates a truly marvelous world in which invaders land (or at least hover), the populace is evacuated (except, of course, for the few characters who plays into the scenario) and... action ensures. Yet that action becomes more and more about everyday occurrences -- jealousy, envy, what's-for-dinner -- rather than the usual "escape-the-aliens" routine. It takes, I would suggest, immense balls to even try something like this -- let alone bring it off as well as does Vigalondo.

How the filmmaker interests us in this, rather than in what we expect to be interested in, is what makes the movie such a little treasure. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the first such topsy-turvy film in the invaders-from-outer-space genre, and as such, as well entertaining the hell out of audiences receptive to something different, is going to be remembered in times to come. For Vigalondo's use of tennis balls alone, the movie is memorable.

Vigalondo has cast his little "game" with a more-than-game cast, and everyone delivers the goods. In the lead role of our just-a-guy hero, Julián Villagrán (two photos up and below) is terrific -- going through change after change, trying to adapt to the invasion of his planet and then of his heart, as he grows closer to the young lady whom he has recently screwed but knows almost nothing about. Played by Michelle Jenner (above) -- quite the little performer who also stars in this year's SCN movie Don't Be Afraid -- this crackerjack actress is practically unrecognizable visually and emotionally from one role to the other.

The film's remaining three characters (small cast!) are handled by Miguel Noguera (as a TV newscaster with a lot of problems), Raúl Cimas (above, with firearm) as Jenner's boyfriend, and especially Carlos Areces (so amazing in last year's SCN hit The Last Circus) as Jenner's next-door-neighbor, the ironically named Ángel. Among his many skills is Vigalondo's ability to subtly foreshadow and then build on it. I won't say anymore -- except that the film's final conversation is delightful: a kind of message about how to live, to perform and maybe even to make movies. And the last shot is simply glorious: a beautiful, low-key, deadpan hoot-and-a-half.

Extraterrestrial will screen twice only during SCN: Friday, Dec. 9 @ 6:15 pm and again Thursday, Dec, 15 @ 9:00 pm. But (he says, with hope in his heart), surely some smart/art distributor will take a chance on this one and give us a larger, longer chance to catch it.

Heads up! Spanish Cinema Now--20th edition--opens next Friday at the FSLC

Aficionados of Spanish film, take heart: the 20th edition of Spanish Cinema Now arrives at the Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center this coming Friday, December 9, and will feature, as usual, an array of the latest films from Spain, as well as its usual "tribute" portion of the program -- this year honoring the late and legendary Spanish director, Luis García Berlanga.

According to FSLC press release, highlights for this year’s series include the opening-night screening of the new film from Nacho Vigalondo, who three years ago gave us the terrific little sci-fi thriller Time Crimes, and now has another original, sci-fi-based delight called Extraterrestrial (shown at top, and one of the must-sees of the series) Mireia Ros’ Catalan documentary Barcelona Before; and the magic realist Galician film Crebinsky, directed by Enrique Otero. A new generation of Spanish comedy is also well represented in this year’s edition of Spanish Cinema Now, with box-office superstar Santiago Segura’s Torrente 4: Lethal Crisis, the latest film in the Torrente series, and Daniel Sánchez Areválo’s comedy Cousinhood (above). Also of note is the Spanish-Portuguese co-production José and Pilar, Miguel Gonçalves Mendes' portrait of the final years of Nobel Prize winner José Saramago and his Spanish wife Pilar del Rio.

Attending filmmakers and actors include Señores Vigalondo, Sanchez Arevalo and Segura; Quim Gutiérrez (above, from SCN's 2009 Sangre de Mayo and appearing this year in the the ensemble of Cousinhood); Ms. Ros;  Jonás Trueba, write/director of Every Song Talks About Me (a still from which appears at bottom of post); Marina Comas, one of the stars of Black Bread (shown below, left: Her film is back this year for an encore screening after walking away with with a bunch of Goya Awards), and Alberto Morais, write/director of The Waves, a still from which is the penultimate photo below.

A centerpiece of the film series will be the 10-film tribute to the late Luis García Berlanga, one of Spain’s greatest directors, who died last year. Together with Juan Antonio Bardem, Berlanga revolutionized Spanish cinema by shaking up what had been a fairly dormant scene with a series of films such as Welcome Mr. Marshall, Plácido and The Executioner (below, and one of the must-sees of this series).

Having viewed but eight of the 27 films that comprise this year's program, TrustMovies is in no state to say much more about the series, other than: Go if you can!  Of the eight films so far, three -- maybe four -- are must-see, with the rest at least worthwhile, pleasant and/or interesting. I'll start posting on the individual films tomorrow -- each post will begin with the letters SCN -- and will continue throughout the series for the next three weeks until I have seen and covered all the films. Well, almost all. We shall see....

Spanish Cinema Now is presented by the FSLC in collaboration with the Spanish Film Institute (ICAA) in Madrid and the Instituto Cervantes in New York, with special thanks also to the Spanish Consulate General in New York.

Tickets are on sale now, both at the box office and on-line. Discount single screening tickets are available for students, seniors, Film Society and Cervantes Institute members, but anyone can enjoy a Special Four-Film Discount Package.  Click here to view the entire program. To purchase tickets, click on the individual film and then on the BUY TICKETS link under SHOWTIMES.

Photos above are from the films themselves. 

Thanks especially to www.moviescreenshots.blogspot.com 

for the still from The Executioner.

Benjamin Marquet's LADS & JOCKEYS opens for a theatrical run in New York City

Lads into jockeys might be a better title for LADS & JOCKEYS, the 2008 documentary just now opening here in the USA that tracks a bunch of boys and girls (though we see little of the girls) around 14 years of age, as they are educated -- via a special boarding school in Chantilly, a small village outside of Paris -- in the joys and pains of possibly becoming a jockey. As one trainer not so pleasantly puts it, "They call these kids 'apprentice jockeys' but 'apprentice stable lad' is more like it."  And it's true: They clean the stables, groom the horses, and do a load of other chores -- but few of them, it seems, will make the grade as full-blown jockeys.

Directed by Benjamin Marquet, shown at left, the film focuses on three boys: Steve, Florian and Flavien (shown below) -- though only the last of these is called by name often enough during the film so that viewers will know him. Flavien (shown at left, below) also seems to get the most screen time, for reasons that become apparent as the movie rolls along. He's certainly got the best face of the three -- and maybe the best form, as well.

The film's sweetest scene, however, is given to that freckle- shouldered, red-headed kid, shown at right, above, as he's on a cell phone with, first, his dad, and then his mom.  The three boys make a trip to the big city in one scene, and to the racetrack, where they even place bets. (Can 14-year-olds do this legally in France? Evidently so.)

In addition to some interesting archival footage interspersed throughout (the film's beginning features Eddie Constantine talking about how much he loves doing deals, making money and horse racing), much of the film is given over to the boys being trained, with emphasis on the horses' well being, rather than the jockeys'. "Think about the horse -- not yourself!" one boy is told. We go to a stud farm, as well, and learn about the importance of good breeding -- only to have the rug pulled from under this importance by the final few words on the subject.

While the training sessions can be exhausting, the horses are indeed gorgeous, and anyone who's a horse lover will probably want to see the movie, as will those interested in where jockeys come from, or those who simply love all things French.

"You're on horseback: Man's greatest conquest!" notes the head trainer early on. Someone might want to respond, "Well, there was that time we sent men to the moon...." But why quibble. Horses are gorgeous creatures, and France is always a lovely place to visit.

Lads & Jockeys, from Music Box Films, in French with English subtitles, and a shade too long at a running time of 100 minutes, opens Friday, December 2, in New York City at the Cinema Village, and on December 16 at the Music Box Theater in Chicago. Further playdates might be in the offing, though this one may be a tad too esoteric to warrant a much larger limited release.