Trey Edward Shults' IT COMES AT NIGHT -- Atmosphere: 10. Characters, pacing, story: 3

As sloppily silent as his earlier Thanksgiving-family-trauma movie, Krisha, was sloppily talkative, the new would-be horror movie from the hailed-as-a-wunderkind Trey Edward Shults (shown below) turns out to be one of the most disappointing entries into the apocalyptic, end-of-civilization genre TrustMovies has yet seen. Derivative, tiresome, repetitive and paced like molasses-on-ice, the film's worst sin is to trap us with a sextet of characters for 97 minutes and yet provide none of these protagonists with any real character. They're frightened, and they're distrusting, and that's about it. IT COMES AT NIGHT turns out to be as clichéd as its silly title, the "it" of which comes, well, just about anytime at all. But, hey, darkness (including via cinematography) can cover a multitude of sins, don'cha know?

This movie is actually so bad -- super high on atmosphere and dread but super low on any of the specifics and details that might give credence and meaning to its poorly conceived plot -- that I think it is practically spoiler-proof. I will still honor the element of surprise, however, and keep my mouth shut (and fingers tied down) so as not to ruin what little there is here. It is safe to say that some kind of non-specific plague has evidently decimated humanity, but one family has persisted out in the wilds, though as the film opens we see that poor Gramps is a goner, leaving mom, dad and son alive and presumably well. Soon a would-be break-in via an intruder leads to another mom, dad and son joining the little group.

So far, so-so, with nagging little questions regarding what possible good those silly gas masks can do (perhaps the infected let out some nasty farts?) and exactly how long it takes for symptoms to show up (somebody mentions their being fast-acting, but, hmmmmm...).

Not that any of this matters, for soon we're being treated to the requisite gooey/scary special effects (above and below), which of course come via the also requisite nightmares -- which are required because, otherwise, there would be no special effects to speak of at all, and our current idiot audiences absolutely demand these. But I digress.

I do question the need for such a first-rate cast -- Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo and Riley Keough, with an especially promising young actor, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., (at right in the penultimate photo) as the older of the two sons -- since no character trait whatsoever (other than being scared) has been provided them by the filmmaker.

Yes, the movie flirts with themes of trust and betrayal, the wisdom of helping others, family comes first, and that the horror may actually come from within. But it is all flirting -- with no real depth, let alone consummation.

So on we go. Until we don't. In its way, this is the perfect film for our Trumpian times: The situation is dire, and there's no hope.

Finally little other than a load of been-there/done-that crap, the movie is more than mere disappointment: It's a harbinger of our critical establishment's increasing placement of atmosphere above intelligent movie storytelling. If you are looking for a truly interesting, surprising, unusual and oddly fulfilling end-of-time/apocalypse film, I suggest that you watch The Girl With All the Gifts, available now on streaming and DVD.

Meanwhile, from A24 and running a snail-paced 97 minutes, It Comes at Night opens nationwide this Friday, June 9. To find the theaters near you, simply click here.

Just a gal and her dog. And bombs. Gabriella Cowperthwaite's moving film, MEGAN LEAVEY

One of the strengths -- there are a lot of them, along with a few weaknesses -- of the new film MEGAN LEAVEY, directed by Gabriella Cowperthwaite (of Blackfish fame) and written by Pamela Gray, Annie Mumolo and Tim Lovestedt is that it refuses to turn the character of its titular Ms Leavey into anything approaching the typical movie bio-pic "wonderful-person" heroine. Megan is clearly a problemed young woman who has major trouble with what we might call just plain socialization. Her "people" skills are greatly wanting, probably due to that usual combo of nature and nurture. In fact, it seems that she joins the U.S. military because it just might prove pretty much the only way out of her currently dead-end life.

As written by that above trio of screenwriters and directed by Ms Cowperthwaite (shown at left), the movie never sugar-coats Megan's lack of social skills. We're not even certain, by film's end, that she has gained much more of these, other than her newfound and terrific ability in handling military dogs.

And yet we're with this young woman -- hoping for her, even as we wince at her mistakes -- all the way. This is due to the filmmakers' skill at showing us various situations in which Megan finds herself, along with the difficult, if typical, ways in which she tries to extricate herself. Usually with negative results. We feel her pain and understand her anger, even if we also wish she could learn how to control/use it more wisely.

All this is due as much to the rich and rounded, warts-and-more-warts performance from actress Kate Mara (above, front and center) in the title role. Ms Mara keeps us with her at every moment, never more so than when, finally, she begins bonding with those military dogs and slowly discovers the one area in which she truly excels -- below -- training those dogs to sniff out possible IEDs in our still current and probably for-fucking-ever middle east wars and then remaining smart and intuitive enough to understand and interpret the dogs in action.

Ms Mara, Ms Cowperthwaite, and her crew do a bang-up job of all this, in particular one lengthy, sustained scene in which Leavey and her dog do that good work, are hit and injured for their trouble, and then keep on doing more of the work immediately after. Though Leavey and her dog(s) were responsible for many "saves" during her time "in country," this single scene is all we need to understand what her work entails and why it was so important.

Cowperthwaite is not known as an action director, but she certainly proves to be one here, and the scene is as good as anything in the recent The Wall, or any other of our middle-east war movies I can readily recall. Suspense, surprise, shock, action, drama -- the director gets it all. (Along the way, she, her writers and Mara even give us a little humor now and then to interrupt the unpleasantness at hand.)

We also get a little "family" time, during which Edie Falco (above, left) plays Megan's controlling and generally selfish mom, and Will Patton her disliked step-dad. A particularly good performance comes from Common, shown below, who proves anything but in the role of Leavy's strong, stern and caring commanding officer, Gunny Martin.

Love interest is provided by Ramon Rodriguez (below), and although he and Mara work well together and never have a dishonest moment, this part of the film seems somewhat "inserted" to provide a bit more popular appeal and to further "humanize" our girl.

No matter. What I have not yet mentioned and what is most true of this film is that it's an "animal movie" (as was Blackfish), in particular a dog story -- so animals lovers will cream and kvell at the goings-on. Deservedly. Cowperthwaite never tries to jerk those tears. There's no need. They'll come unbidden and of their own accord because of the tale told and the outcome here.

Opening wide this Friday, June 9, Megan Leavey , running just short of two hours, may prove the most successful of all the movies released so far by the little distributor Bleecker Street. It's certainly opening at the most theaters I've seen from this distributor. And why not? It's patriotic and pro-military without being stupidly "America first," animals lovers will embrace it, it's feminist without pushing things, and it's an excellent character study, too -- of a woman who can't/won't fit in and then, finally, does.

Wherever you are across the USA, to view/find the theater(s) nearest you, simply click here. In South Florida, the movie will be opening on oodles of screens, including AMC's Sunset Place 24, Hialeah 12, Aventura Mall 24, Tamiami 18, Pompano Beach 18, City Place 20, St Lucie 14, Indian River 24; at Cobb's Hialeah Grand 18 and Miami Lakes 17; at CMX Brickell City Center 10; at Silverspot Coconut Creek Cinemas; at CFB Majestic 11; at Cinemark Palace 20 and Paradise 24; at Flagship Cinemas 14; at Paragon Ridge Plaza 8 and Wellington 10; at REGAL's Magnolia Place 16, Cypress Creek Station 16, The Falls 12, Oakwood 18, Kendall Village Stadium 16, Westfork 13, Treasure Coast Mall 16, Broward Stadium 12, Shadowood 16, Southland Mall Stadium 16, Royal Palm Beach 18, Sawgrass 23, Wellington Cinema 8, and South Beach 18; and at the Regency Cinema 8 in Stuart.

Sad, funny, bizarre and off-kilter: Jiménez, Scherson and Zambra's take on FAMILY LIFE

Directed by Cristián Jiménez and Alicia Scherson (Ms Scherson is pictured below) and written by Alejandro Zambra, the new Chilean movie, FAMILY LIFE, proves equal parts oddball and fascinating. Never boring for an instant, often provocative and by its finale, leaving you (along with at least one of its characters) in a state of desolation, the movie offers up a highly unusual main character who is utterly irresponsible and sociopathic. And yet the movie itself is surprisingly light and airy, seeming to bubble along on the strength of its odd plot, the genuineness of its characters (all of whom are bizarrely believable), and the relatively strong writing and direction.

The script, from Señor Zambra, is full of sharp dialog that moves the plot along nicely while opening up the subjects -- responsibility, relationships, and that "family life" of the title -- that are of such interest to the filmmakers. Ms Scherson, a few years back, gave us another interesting "family" film, Il futuro, and she's back at it again with this new one -- which on one level is much more mainstream and yet also quietly refuses to pigeon-hole itself too easily. Señor Jiménez is responsible for the also oddball Chilean/Argentine film Bonsai (based on a novel by Zambra), and the resulting collaboration between these three artists turns out to be a productive one indeed.

The plot, on one level, could hardly be simpler: A family -- mom, pop and young daughter (above) -- must suddenly leave Chile for France for a few months, and when a caretaker for their apartment falls through, dad asks a rather distant relative, Martin, to live there and look after the place. The family barely knows this guy but they are willing to give him a chance.

What happens when the family departs and Martin moves in is quite, quite interesting -- utterly expected yet often not so, full of oddity that works because it is based on character rather than contrivance and exposes itself slowly and strangely. The actor who plays the lead -- Jorge Becker -- is just about perfectly cast. He's kind of cute but nothing spectacular, sports a nice full-frontal package, and is able to simultaneously express, while keeping a good part of this hidden, the bizarre personality -- full of fear, anger, hope and general unease -- of someone who has never properly grown up and yet inhabits the body of a man.

Martin cannot accept responsibility, and when a relationship blooms between him and a local young woman, he must resort to huge pretense to carry it off. How all this occurs, along with what results from it, is alternately amusing and disturbing because the object of Martin's affection (Gabriela Arancibia, above, in a lovely, intelligent, guileless performance) proves such a genuine and loving partner.

The movie refuses to allow us to take it too seriously -- we're not talking tragedy here -- and yet it works very well. We root for both leading characters, hoping against hope that Martin can somehow "come around." Sorry, this is nothing like your typical rom-com. The characterizations, however, are strong enough to surmount all else. You may not like what you are left with as Family Life closes, but you will certainly not be able to discount it out of hand.

From Monument Releasing and Cinema Tropical and running just 80 minutes, Family Life opens this Friday, June 9, for a one-week run in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center, with openings in San Diego at the Digital Gym on Friday, June 23; at the Tower Theater here in Miami on Friday July 21; and at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on Friday, July 28, followed by other U.S. cities. The film will be available on TVOD come August 1, and via Amazon Prime on September 1. So, really, you've no excuse to miss this one! 

Bill Morrison's most mainstream -- yes! -- endeavor yet, DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME

TrustMovies has loved (to some degree) every Bill Morrison movie he's seen so far, from Decasia and The Miners' Hymn to The Great Flood and Beyond Zero: 1914-1918. But in recommending any of them, as I have always done, I've also had to place a caveat along with that recommendation that the movies require some effort on the part of the viewer. They are not your standard sit-back-and-watch-that-superhero-in-action sort of thing. Now comes DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME, in which Morrison's love of everything from movies to decaying film, history, oddball facts, social justice and more all come to the fore and provide -- thanks to the crackerjack tale he has to tell -- that almost anybody with minor intelligence and love of movies and history can enjoy. Yes, this film is utterly accessible.

The story here -- which details the how, when, where and why of the discovery of what may very well be the largest single load of silent movies, long thought to have been destroyed, that has even been recovered -- is so terrific and well-told that it is hard to imagine Mr. Morrison (the filmmaker is shown at left) ever being able to top this film in terms of again finding a tale so filled with all the things he cares for most and is most adept at filming. His movie held me in thrall from its first frame throughout its complete two-hour running time.

Dawson City tackles everything from the Klondike Gold Rush to some great old silent movies and features everyone from Charlie Chaplin to an honest-to-god avalanche that looks more real and shocking than anything our special effects wizards have put together in recent times. We even get a sneak peek at how the Trump family's (yes, sleazy Donald's) fortune actually began -- with the combo hotel, restaurant and whorehouse shown below.

Once gold was discovered, we see how the newly minted mining town of Dawson City rose from what was formerly a perfectly lovely village of an indigenous Canadian Indian tribe that had occupied the area for ages.

Morrison dots his movie with lots of fascinating history and anecdote, along with the inter-cutting of those silent movies (as above and below) right into his film in order to demonstrate salients points along the way. This is an inspired, charming, often funny and always on-target means of reminding us of the importance of both history and film and how well they can and should complement each other.

Needless to say, almost all of these are not silent movie scenes that we've viewed previously anywhere else because, so far as any of us knew, all this had been missing or destroyed. Along the way see view footage of everything from Palestine (in 1907!) to the infamous Black Sox Baseball Scandal, as well as wonderfully detailed history of the odd up-and-down fortunes of Dawson City itself.

With the exception of the film's first few minutes, and then at around the hour-and-three-quarters point, we get something unusual from a Morrison movie: verbal narration. The remainder is, as usual, told us via visuals, music (by Alex Somers and often exceptionally beautiful) and an excellent written narration, all of which somehow seems exactly the right way to unfold this remarkable story.

Toward its end the movie even turns into to a bit of a "love story," and the finale features a montage of a host of water-damaged, decaying film that Morrison so loves and when used in this way produces its own very special "special effects." Over time, I think I am beginning to love and appreciate the strange beauty of this decay, almost as much as does Morrsion. Maybe you will, too.

Meanwhile, the movie will make you most grateful that this treasure trove of film was buried in the cold, preserving climate of the Yukon. The reason, as we learn, was that Dawson City was the last stop on the circuit of towns that played these films, and the movie companies did not want to pay the freight charges to ship their films back. Thank god that last stop was not somewhere down here in hot-weather Florida.

From Kino Lorber, Dawson City: Frozen Time opens this coming Friday, June 9, in New York City (at the IFC Center) and on June 16 in Chicago (at the Gene Siskel Film Center,) Los Angeles (at the Landmark NuArt) and San Diego (at the Digital Gym). To view all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and then scroll down.

In their shoes -- and deeply -- in Andrew Cohn's fine documentary, NIGHT SCHOOL

Among James Baldwin's hopes was that someday, somehow America's whites would finally be able to understand, identify with and to some extent experience the lives of this country's black population. I think Baldwin would have appreciated and applauded the new documentary, NIGHT SCHOOL, directed by Andrew Cohn. In it, three disparate blacks (what they mostly have in common is their race and their lack of a high school diploma) from the Indianapolis area (which has one of the lowest graduation rates in the country) decide to try a somewhat experimental program of night school in order to finally obtain that missing diploma.

Mr. Cohn, shown at right, has obviously chosen his three protagonists with great care. Fortunately he also had the patience to stay with them as often and much as possible, and the skill to separate the wheat of his and their endeavor from the chaff. The result is a documentary that captures the lives and the hopes of his trio with surprising richness and complexity -- particularly given that the film lasts a mere 82 minutes. We also get a good strong sense of the importance of the folk -- counselors, social workers, family, friends -- who help our trio toward their goal.

Our three protagonists include Greg (shown above, with his daughter), a 31-year-old single father who tells us early on that he already has three strikes against him: He's black, a former felon and never finished high school. He's determined to counter that last strike, but along the way, it seems that he may be able to finesse the second one, too.

Melissa, above, a very large woman who is already 57, knows that she missed an opportunity by dropping out of high school, so she is determined -- as much to honor her late mother's wishes as for any great career she might at this point undertake -- to correct that mistake. We're with her at night school, working with the counselors, at home, the laundromat, even at the bus stop -- where something happens that will quietly and wonderfully change her life.

The youngest of our three is Shynika, a 26-year-old fast-food worker who is experiencing a lot of tension due to the constant pull between her need for both work and this new business of, once again, attending school. Then, midway, our girl has her consciousness raised via a labor organizer regarding the fight for a $15 minimum wage. Slowly this begins to change a lot of things for Shynika.

Slow, too, is the progress these three make. But it's there, and it's sure. And thanks to the many details Cohn records, we believe in that progress and in these three strivers, as all those details build toward a tremendously moving climax.

There's hope, suspense, struggle and disappointment -- just like in life (and in a good narrative movie). Despite Mike Pence, Indianapolis and Indiana have a night school program of which they can be proud. Let's hope they are. James Baldwin certainly would be.

From Oscilloscope Films, Night School opens this Friday, June 9, in New York City at the IFC Center; in Indianapolis on Thursday, June 15, at the IMAX Theater in the Indiana State Museum, in Los Angeles on June 23 at the Laemmle Music Hall 3; and in Detroit on Thursday, June 29, at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Click here then click on SCREENINGS, as further playdates may be forthcoming.

An Irish filmmaker explores Russian life: Johnny O'Reilly's entertaining soap opera, MOSCOW NEVER SLEEPS

Basically a soap-operatic set of interlinked stories telescoped to fit into a one-hundred-minute format, MOSCOW NEVER SLEEPS begins like yet another of those Russian movies about life in Russia that sets out to show us all too believably (see Leviathan or The Fool) how ugly, heartbreaking, corrupt and nasty it is for all the characters -- no matter what their station in life. But then, as the movie wends its very lively way along, something odd happens, and you slowly begin to see things in a slightly more positive light.

This most likely is because the movie was made by an Irishman, Johnny O'Reilly, pictured at left, who is said to have lived in Moscow for the past dozen years, and is clearly rather smitten with the place -- as awful in so many ways is it probably is (whether you're Russian or Irish). As writer and director Mr. O'Reilly has given us quite the set of characters, each one brought to fine life by the excellent set of actors he and his casting directors and Elina Ternyaeva & Yulia Milovidova have corralled.

These folk, who include the likes of a very ill but very popular Russian television star (Yuri Stoyanov, above) and a pair of not-very-happy nor friendly step-sisters (Anastasiya Shalonko and Lyubov Aksyonova, below, left and right), out for a night on the town that turns into something a tad more appalling...

a not-so-nice business mogul (Leviathan's Aleksey Serebryakov, below), who's in the midst of being screwed by the state and maybe also by his would-be singer/girlfriend,

who is suddenly torn between her richer, more powerful current beau and her poor-but-hunky ex, who is now in hot pursuit. These latter two are played by Eugenia Khirivskaya (below, right, and at bottom, left) and Oleg Dolin, (below, left and bottom, right) who, if you like your men big, beefy and beautiful, is one hell of a knockout here.

There are a number of other key players, including a granny, her son, grandson, and the son's put-upon wife, and each set of characters and their circumstances are handled with precision, brevity and smarts, so that we come to care as much for these people as the film's short running time can possibly allow.

Another plus are the many gorgeous shots of Moscow, by day and night, that make the city seem, for all its cavalier cruelty, something special and beautiful. (You can certainly understand why those three sisters longed for the place.) So lively and fast-paced is Mr. O'Reilly's keen direction that we have little time to do more than hang on for the alternately funny, moving and wild ride -- by the end of which Russian life seems to have at least partially redeemed itself. Well, almost.

Distributed via Snapshot Productions, the Russian-language film (with English subtitles) hits theaters nationwide, beginning June 9th, 2017 in New York City at the Village East Cinema, June 16th in Los Angeles at Laemmle’s Ahrya Fine Arts  and Town Center 5, and June 30th in Washington, D.C. at the Landmark E Street Cinema. The film will then expand into additional cities throughout the summer.

Marcelo Mayen's BULLOCK THE BRUISER screens at NewFilmmakers New York at AFA

Normally, TrustMovies does not cover short films, given the amount of new full-length features he is asked to view and review. But since he was told that BULLOCK THE BRUISER, a film by Marcelo Mayen (shown below), had won "Best Feature" at the Monthly Film Festival, he decided to take a chance. Surprise: Full-length it is not, since it comes in at just 40 minutes. But that, perhaps, is best, since much more might have proven too much, as these minutes pack in every typical trope of the revenge-thriller genre.

Or is this actually a send-up of that genre? Either way, the film keeps toppling over into cliché, while showing us that, yes, violence is clearly the only answer. Along its short journey, Bullock the Bruiser does offer up a very handsome hero, the titular bruiser played by Will Parker (shown below); a fairly typical film-noirish bad girl, played in a bright red wig with not quite enough strength by Alice Dessuant (shown further below); a couple of not-

so-interesting "good" girls, played by Esther van Zyl (in the photo at bottom) and Danielle DeWulf (in the penultimate photo), one of which has already come to a sad end; and a "bad guy" (Max Turner, two photos below) who turns out to be not-so-bad after all.

Mr. Mayen has staged his "action"scenes with all the finesse and inadequacy of Christopher Nolan in his early Batman mode, with the plot, such as it is, made up of mostly exposition with which one character regales another.

So what's the point here? Well, I'd guess, Bullock the Bruiser is supposed to act as a kind of "calling card" short that can show that Mr. Mayen is capable of handling something larger and longer.

Considering the low-intelligence level of so many of our major movies these days, particularly the increasingly would-be super-hero block-busters, I'd say our filmmaker is more than ready to tackle the big league.

Meanwhile, if you'd care to take a look at his work, Bullock the Bruiser will screen, via NewFilmmakers New York, this coming Wednesday, June 7, at 7:30 pm at the Courthouse Theater at Anthology Film Archives.