Todd Drezner's LOVING LAMPPOSTS offers a different --but necessary-- look at autism

Of the many autism-themed documentaries to come down the pike over the past few years (the subject accounts for practically a mini-genre in itself), LOVING LAMPPOSTS is among the best. And not because it offers any ironclad assessment about this condition (that seems to affect an increasing amount of children world-wide) or its cause (which remains, as ever, up for grabs). Rather, this quiet and relatively short (82 minutes) film -- produced, directed and edited by Todd Drezner, who is himself the parent of an autistic child -- deals more with the societal perception of autism, including (perhaps most important) that of these kids by their own parents.

Many autistic children focus to near-obsession on odd objects, and Mr. Drezner, shown at left, begins his movie with shots of his son (the cute kid on the poster above) who has a thing for lampposts, particularly those in Brooklyn's Prospect Park near where the family resides. The filmmaker spend little time on his own situation, however. Instead he's off talking to many other parents, doctors, educators, therapists and -- most important for his thesis -- the autistic themselves, both children and adults. The diversity we see here is, well, stunning. And this, of course, changes our perception. There are so many variations in abilities (some obvious, others not so), and even -- another surprise -- within the same person, depending on the moment, that you cannot come away from the film without realizing the autism does indeed mean "different" rather than "sick" or "crazy."

Drezner understands how most parents of autistic kids (that's Christina Chew, with her son Charlie, above) want to help their children more than anything else. The filmmaker also understands how easy it is to play into the "fight" scenario (let's declare war on autism!) or the even easier-to-assimilate autism "epidemic," with its attendant and confusing we-must-find-a-cause, which has included villains such as vaccines (for which the filmmaker gives a pretty fair pro-and-con assessment, before coming down clearly, as has medical science, on the pro-vaccine side).

What is Autism? We hear many of the wide-ranging definitions, from the physically- to the mentally-ill to the simply "different."  Yet, how different the person is from the accepted definition of "normal" usually paves the way for the autistic child's life ahead. Perhaps, the filmmaker suggests, parents of these children might want to turn their mind from the idea of making their kids "normal." Drezner shows us, via several of these children and adults, that autism can mean brilliance (as in the case of Sharisa Kochmeister, above, right, with her father Jay) as well as great difficulty, though the difficulty remains a constant to some extent.

One of the really "choice" subjects is autistic adult Stephen Shore (above, left), whose explanation of how he came to understand the concepts  "dating" and "interest from the opposite sex" is quite extraordinary. This section may call to mind the movie Adam, in which Hugh Dancy plays an Asperger syndrome man (Asberger is considered to be a milder form of autism), and in fact makes that fine film seem even more believable.

Mr. Drezner asks so many good questions, too (and then tried hard to get answers from his subjects): "If we think about not thinking 'normal,' then what do we think about?" is one of these. "Not even wrong" is another phrase that is explored to excellent effect, because once we can understand the meaning of not-even-wrong, explains one fellow, then we're primed to understand so much more.

Even low-functioning and high-functioning can reside in the same person (that's Dora Raymaker, above) and can in fact change back and forth within the same day. Still, there clearly is a kind of continuum, and according to Drezner, the name/label neurodiversity may be the best way so far to view the autistic and may also be the ticket into society for many of these afflicted (if I may use that word).

Like the alcoholic, it would seem, the autistic may never be fully "cured" but will remain so even after "getting better" or incorporating into normalcy.  In fact, suggests Drezner, the attempt parents make at having their autistic children ape normalcy may be doing more damage than good for many of these kids, perhaps tamping down some of their more brilliant qualities in the process.

The words "Autism is..." appear on the screen often throughout this film. No answer is forthcoming, however, but the idea that the condition may be a gift, as well as a curse is certainly suggested. Stablization treatments, the filmmaker shows, can include everything from changes in diet to "imitating" your autistic child in order to enter his/her world.  But he cautions viewers that "a fight against ____'s autism should not become a fight against _____ himself, or against ______'s being the way that s/he is."

Fill in the blanks above with the name of the autistic person in your life. And do see this film, which will be available on DVD starting Tuesday, March 29, from Cinema Libre Studio. You can purchase the documentary here.  Or rent it from... where?  You can save it at Netflix, but that is no indication that this increasingly remote DVD behemoth will ever bother ordering it. At Amazon, you can't rent or stream, but you can save one buck off the retail purchase.  Blockbuster? Forget it. How much longer, in fact, will this mistake-from-its-inception (but one that managed to put many small video stores out of business) be with us?  Still, Loving Lampposts is a film that absolutely ought to be streamed or rented. Ah, well....

Tinto's brassy SALON KITTY (1976) brings some awfully naughty Nazis to Blu-ray

What in the world? Trust-Movies had heard about SALON KITTY off and on for more than three decades since its release in 1976. Riding the wave of Radley Metzger soft-core and Gerard Damiano hard-core, Italian impresario/
would-be history buff/sexcapade connoisseur Tinto Brass came up with the marketable notion of combining the sex and decadence of Visconti's The Damned (including two of its stars, Ingrid Thulin and Helmut Berger) with the based-on-fact tale of a brothel catering to important Nazi military men that simultaneously recorded their most debauched activities, while assessing the level of their fidelity to the Führer.

To this end, the brothel must be stocked with the cream of the Aryan crop -- ladies who were both gorgeous and loyal to National Socialism. In what is definitely Signore Brass' (shown at right) finest moment, the recruitment and training of these young ladies are shown to us in the kind of full-bodied (and then some!) attention-to-detail that might be described as eye-opening and shocking -- if it weren't so damned funny. Not simply full of full-frontal (and this goes for both the gals and the guys), the movie's private parts are often played with, decorated and -- in my favorite moment -- used a bulls-eye by a randy Reich marksman.

The young ladies first appear to us in military uniform (above) looking exceedingly daunting. And then, uh, out of uniform, below.

Soon they are introduced to the cream of the SS, who, when called upon to serve their country in an unusual new manner (below) are more than willing to strip --

and, as it were, engage....

Up to this point, what we've seen is simply raunchy, randy, rather silly fun.  But then our young ladies must be trained to service every possible type of desire, and at this point things take a decidedly more unusual turn.

In these short scenes, I think, the movie reaches its pinnacle and nadir simultaneously -- jolting us beyond mere titillation and turn-on into something that touches the profoundly trangressive because it combines things we don't often see, let alone think about, in the same frame.

All this takes place within the first half hour or so of the movie, and once the brothel has been set up -- Mr Berger (above, in Nazi drag) plays as the officer in charge and Ms Thulin the madam -- the film wanders into more typical  territory, with the young whore we get to know best (Teresa Ann Savoy, above, with Berger, and below) falling in love with a military man (Bekim Fehmiu, below, right) who's had second thoughts about Socialism, Nazi-style.

Did I mention that the movie offer a collection of musical numbers, too? Yes, with Ms Thulin (below) singing her heart out in English -- or perhaps she's been dubbed. Here, Brass filches from Fosse's Cabaret, but the numbers at least make for interesting filler.

Overall, Salon Kitty is an original, all right, but this is not necessarily a recommendation. A crazy combo of cunts (natural, shaved and decorated), cocks (mostly flacid, just like the storytelling, but a few at half-mast or higher) and cabaret, the movie moves too soon from stupidly bold and bizarre to simply soap opera.

For Berger fans, however, the film offers a nice surprise: Throughout the actor has been dressed to the teeth (mostly in Nazi-themed black leather) while around him clothes are coming off like crazy and bodies writhing to beat the band. Finally at the finale, the actor gets his moment in the sun (in the steam room, actually), and, yes, he's a sight to behold.

Salon Kitty is available now, for rental or purchase, on DVD and Blu-ray -- and the transfer for the latter is a damned good one: crisp, rich and bright with gorgeous colors and decent enough sound quality.  Oddly, Netflix doesn't stock the Blu-ray edition, only the DVD, so for Blu-ray, you'll have to go to GreenCine for rental, and for sale, to the film's distributor Blue Underground. (Blockbuster appears to stock the movie, and in Blu-ray, too, but when you click "Get It", you discover that you can't -- a typically annoying Blockbuster move.)

Ozon's POTICHE opens; Deneuve, Depardieu, Lucchini and ensemble shine

French filmmaker François Ozon has many moods, and with his newest film, POTICHE, he is in perhaps his lightest and fluffiest since he began pointing a camera. (He’s a lot more grown-up now than in the days when he wanted to shock us with Sitcom.) Here also is Catherine Deneuve in as good a role – full, rich, one in which she truly “stars” -- as that icon of French cinema has had in several years (certainly since A Christmas Tale). Maybe best of all, here are the 1970s, French-style, with all the fab fashions and furnishings that we’ve come to love/hate.

Potiche is, beyond its many other pleasures, a visual treat. It tells the story of a wealthy family, owner of an umbrella factory, and what happens when labor unrest knocks the nasty father from his perch and allows mom (Ms Deneuve) to take the reins. The film is based upon a theatrical boulevard comedy, and its roots are apparent to some extent, but this does not do great damage. Ozon, shown at right, has opened up the movie's locations nicely, while keeping events moving in a sprightly manner so that his film remains for the most part funny, charming and sly.

Did I mention Gérard Depardieu (shown above with Ms Deneuve), Fabrice Luchini, (reclining below, center), Karin Viard (the redhead, center right), Judith Godrèche (at left) and Jérémie Renier (between Viard and Depardieu)? Yes -- and each is terrific. Comedy, romance, women’s lib, even the emerging rustle of gay lib. So what if it’s a bit predictable and sags in the center. It’s mostly delightful. Simply for its opening ode to Walt Disney (?!) I would, and will, watch it again.

Snapped up by Music Box Films for U.S. distribution, Potiche was the opening night attraction at the recent Rendez-vous with French Cinema series, and opens theatrically today in New York City, the Los Angeles area and in Irvine, California. Throughout April it will continue its nationwide roll-out. Click here (then scroll down) to find a city and theater near you.

John Gray's WHITE IRISH DRINKERS: the transition of a mid-70s Brooklyn family

Sometimes a fine acting ensemble can very nearly salvage a movie by placing us viewers so firmly in the grasp of the characters portrayed that we'll follow them anywhere. Or just about. In addition to its actors, there is so much that's good about John Gray's new "family" film WHITE IRISH DRINKERS that this just makes me wish it were better. My companion quit watching at around the three-quarter mark (the running time is 109 minutes) because he found it "phony," but I was with the film for its entire way -- even though I admit that it goes over the top too often, especially at the point when its hero makes a choice that defies all credibility and so loses our credence. I call this a "family" film in quotes because, although it's indeed about a family, it's a long, long way from Disney.

The clan in question is made up of mother Margaret (Karen Allen), father Patrick (Stephen Lang) and brothers Danny (the elder, played by Geoffrey Wigdor) and Brian (Nick Thurston, a newcomer who should go far). Writer/director Gray (shown at left) has imagined these people with a nice combination of qualities both specific and mythic. Dad's a drunk, mom's too subservient (this is the mid-1970s, remember), the older kid's a criminal, while the younger is artistic (and no, this does not mean "gay," though other characters often tease him with that epithet ). Within these somewhat standard descriptions, Gray provides plenty of telling detail and each actor brings enough strength and focus to the role so that these people live -- and vibrantly.

Satellite characters include the boss at the single screen movie theater where Brian works (the always-good Peter Riegert, above, left, whom you might say steals the movie), and a high-school crush of Brian's (another newcomer Leslie Murphy, below, right, with Thurston) who makes an appearance at a local bar where she suddenly and unknowingly doubles as a "model" in one of the film's original and most appealing scenes.

Mr. Gray packs a lot into his over-stuffed film -- coming of age, sexual initiation (well, I think it was the kid's first time, though he's awfully skilled for a beginner), crime and punishment, parent/child problems, the boss-as-mentor thing, loyalty issues -- but because so much of it is interesting and fun (and well-performed!), we're mostly happy to go along. It's when melodrama far exceeds drama and characters starts making ridiculous choices (or spouting, in the case of dad, memories as bad monologues) that red flags go up.

While the movie manages to recover -- and features one hell of a good surprise at the climax -- it never quite builds back to the level it once attained. Yet Ms Allen (above), who has not had a movie role this good in quite some time, bring fine depth and feeling to her performance, as does Mr. Lang (below) -- who is unfortunately saddled with the film's worst clichés and nonsense (you'd have to be a shrink to understand the motivation behind his speech about the accident his elder son had, how he reacted to it, and why this has remotely to do with the reason he keeps beating the kid bloody).

As brother Danny, Wigdor (below, left) brings a nice sneer-n'-jeer quality coupled to genuine caring plus a good dose of sex appeal, while Thurston is terrific -- energized, vibrant and appealing as Brian. His body however (he's nude in a couple of scenes) looks far too buffed and ripped for the mid-70s, when few young guys worked out to this extent, and certainly not one who spends all his free time in the basement, drawing. Sure, the actor is nice to look at, but this effectively destroys the film's time period -- for a scene or two, at least.

The denouement leaves something to be desired, as well. I take it that the filmmaker means his punch-out ending to be about justice at last delivered, but it comes across as nearly the reverse -- making this a movie about a son turning into the worst part of his father. This, in itself, would be quite believable, if negative, but the movie seems to want us to see it as something much more positive and uplifting. Hmmm...

White Irish Drinkers, from Screen Media Films, open this Friday, March 25, at NYC's Landmark Sunshine Cinema. For a schedule of cities and theaters that the film will hit in the coming weeks and months, click here.

PEEP WORLD: patriarch's 70th b'day party sparks the Blaustein-Himmelstein non-com

How's this for a nifty premise: the birthday party celebration of a 70-year-old uber-success Henry Meyerwitz, with his very lesser children and their mates in attendance, including the youngest and most successful of the kids, who has recently written a best-seller about his family that exposes all their secrets. Sounds like yummy fun, right? But what's the "non-com" mentioned in the headline above? That's TrustMovies' term for a comedy that isn't very funny -- except in the most obvious, been-there/done-that-so-many-times manner. And PEEP WORLD, the new film written by Peter Himmelstein and directed by Barry W. Blaustein (shown below) -- which would seem to have all the ingredients of, at the very least, an old-fashioned campy romp -- fills the non-com bill to a tee.

This is too bad because the movie boasts a very game cast to act out its "fun" premise. But it appears that director Blaustein (at left) and writer Himmelstein simply felt that handing us (and their poor actors) the situation itself would be enough to keep us cackling. They've left out any style, wit, visual panache or enough clever dialog that might have engaged us. What's left is the most obvious stuff, and though you begin the movie with high hopes, after awhile all that thudding wears you down. (Gosh, another movie that features a guy who, having taken a sexually enhancing drug, discovers that his dick won't go down. We haven't seen anything that original and hilarious since... Love And Other Drugs!)

Trapped in this sodden swamp of what-might-have-been is such a good cast that my heart goes out to each of them. The patriarch is played by Ron Rifkin, who certainly knows his way around funny. Taking the role of his kids are Michael C. Hall (above: center, left), Rainn Wilson (above, right), Sarah Silverman (shown below and quite wasted in this role), and Ben Schwartz (above, left). The matriarch (and ex, of course) is played by Leslie Ann Warren (above, center), with another raft of fine performers in the significant-other roles: Judy Greer, Taraji P. Henson, Alicia Witt (above, center right) and  Kate Mara. Even the old-reliable Stephen Tobolowsky shows up here (he's above, behind Ms Witt).

Having played VOD for over a month already, the movie -- via IFC Films -- makes its theatrical debut this Friday, March 25, here in New York at the IFC Center.  Its On-Demand presentation ends soon, however; according to its page on the the IFC website, there are now four days left in which to view in that format.  Your move.

ILLEGAL, Belgium's entry into the Oscar sweeps, tracks the immigrant experience

One of the most powerful and immediate films about illegal immigrants (from any country) to yet hit New York screens -- or screen, to be precise; so far it's opening in one theater, the Cinema Village on Friday, March 25 -- ILLEGAL tracks the experience over a decade of a Russian immigrant and her son in Belgium. To the credit of that small country that resides next to France and part of whose population shares the French language, the film was chosen to represent Belgium in the Best Foreign Lan-guage Film category, despite it showing us some wretched behavior from immigration authorities that may or may not have been well-known to the Belgian government prior to the film's release.

Written and directed -- with a fine eye and ear for both everyday detail and the appropriate choice of same that combines to build a believable world around the main characters -- by Olivier Masset-Depasse (shown at left), the film takes us into the lives of a mother Tania (Anne Coesens, below left) and son Ivan (played by the director's own son Milo, at age six, and for the rest of the film by Alexandre Gontcharov, below, right). Living in that constantly anxious state (which director and actress capture in spades) that I would think all illegals find themselves from day one until they are either caught and deported or manage to become "legal," Tania tries to get her son to speak French rather than Russian when in public so that they will not be so noticeable. Being a teenager who imagines that things have always been/will always be as they are, he doesn't comply. One day, out of nowhere, they pay the price for this.

A great strength of writer/director Masset-Depasse is his ability to tell and show just enough to grab us via questions that will only be answered  in time. This keeps us alert and questioning even more. Just what are the Belgian "rules" -- for both prison life and the more "normal" life outside -- that illegals learn to heed? The games that Tania, as well as her captors, play in order to finally win the day are sometimes bizarre and at first seem rather benign, but as the film progresses and the attempts to have Tania deported grow fiercer, the movie becomes stronger and more difficult to watch. I would imagine that these games and rules change in their specifics, and perhaps heavily, from country to country, yet the perseverance shown by Tania in the face of enormous power that wants to see her gone is finally remarkable

Who is responsible -- and why -- for the horrible bruises and beatings that inmate Aïssa (a terrific job from Essé Lawson, below right) bears each time she returns to incarceration? When and how we finally learn the answer makes for one of the most powerful and shocking scenes in the film. Masset-Depasse doesn't shy away from the ugly side of things but neither does he rub our noses in it. In fact, prison life in some ways seems remarkably benign, all things considered. One guard (whom I believe is played by Fabienne Mainguet, below, left) is genuinely kind and friendly, and the closeness and help the prisoners provide each other is also bracing for them -- and for us viewers.

There's a scene toward the end of the film that takes place on a plane full of passengers that is remarkable. Handled very skillfully by the director and his cast, it shows us with reality and force how mere citizens can rise up when their sense of justice and fairness is called into play. This scene is key, I think, to the often confused and jumbled reactions we have toward "illegals"  and how -- seemingly on a dime, when we observe something that yanks at our gut -- our response can change from uncaring or negative to completely pro-active. And yet...  I suspect this particular scene could only happen in Europe. America, I fear, would still side with the "law."

Illegal -- a wonderful and important film about a topic that will only grow more urgent worldwide -- raises all the above questions and more. From the increasingly indispensable Film Movement, the movie's getting a one-week release (March 25-31) in New York at the Cinema Village. So view it there, wait for the DVD to appear, or become a member of this film-of-the-month-club with very smart mainstream/art-house taste. But see it, in any case.