Mark Kendall's LA CAMIONETA: The Journey of One American School Bus

One of those Who-Knew? movies that acquaints you with a topic of which you knew little-to-nothing and then, unfortu-nately, leaves you wishing you knew a lot more, LA CAMIONETA: THE JOURNEY OF ONE AMERICAN SCHOOL BUS tells us about the after-life of many American school buses. Evidently, these buses, still in pretty good working order, are auctioned off, in many cases to Latinos who have come to the U.S. precisely to purchase them and then drive them back to... Guatemala!  Is this the only country south of the border all that interested in buying our used school buses?  As we don't hear otherwise, it would appear so.

The film's director, Mark Kendall, shown at left, has done a nice job of organizing his movie so that one of his and his narrator's themes -- the connections forged between people who have ridden in the same vehicle (the other is the utter precariousness of the lives of those men who drive these buses in Guatemala) -- is picked up at the film's beginning, shown now-and-then throughout, and then used for a quietly effective finale. Otherwise the director relatively effectively cuts between scenes of driving the bus to its destination and what happens to it, once there: design, paint job, chroming, and the like. We also learn that simply driving through Mexico is a crap shoot in which the driver's life is at risk.

Unfortunately, things don't get any better once the drivers reach Guatelmala. In the course of the documentary, we learn that, since 2006, nearly 1,000 bus drivers and and fare-collectors have been murdered for either refusing or being unable to pay the extortion money demanded by local gangs. One news report informs us that a recent attack "could be the result of not paying extortionists their Christmas bonus." (Viewers may have the sense that no irony at all is intended here.) Later we witness the police dragging off a bus the body of a dead man, perhaps the driver or the fare-collector.

Though we meet several of the bus men involved in all this -- Ermelindo, who purchases the buses; Angel, who drives them; and Mario, who does the artwork for them -- and some of their family members (scenes of family life alternate with the work on the particular bus we follow), we don't delve deeply at all into any of this. We do get an enormous sense of the injustice of it (something that seems to go with so many Central and South American countries, and that is increasingly seen here in our own, as the USA becomes more and more of a Banana Republic -- and I am not referring to that clothing chain).

One might have wished that Mr. Kendall could have done more investigation, though given the state of the corrupt police force (a nod to this is told us along the way), any investigation might have resulted in very bad problems for the filmmaker and his Guatemalan friends. The one scene of a politician promising to help, and a widowed mother and her child being used to promote that help seems like very little very late.

Once the bus in finished and ready for action, it gets a blessing from the local pastor/priest, along with a special St. Christopher story (he's the patron saint of travelers, in case you didn't know), showing us once again that religion is indeed the opiate of the masses. In this case, as in so many others, it's pretty much all these masses have got. There is no "Afterward" given us as the end credits roll, but since it has been at least two years since the filming took place, it might have been nice to let us know if all (or any) of the bus-involved folk we've met here are still alive.

La Camioneta (from IFP), a slight film with a slight running time of 71 minutes (including six minutes of credits), opens this coming Friday, May 31, for an exclusive one-week theatrical engagement at the reRun Gastropub Theater in Brooklyn. On June 7th, it opens in Los Angeles at the Downtown Independent, and on July 2, it hits San Diego via the Digital Gym. Elsewhere? I'm not certain. But a DVD ought to be in the works eventually.

Opens Roads 2013: Marco Bellocchio's DORMANT BEAUTY gets an encore visit

Euthanasia may not seem the hot-button issue in America that abortion always is, but float it into a conversation -- anywhere, anytime -- not simply as a subject for discussion but with real specifics attached and you'll discover shock followed by flaring tempers before you know what has hit you. Imagine the same topic in Italy, home of the Vatican and its brand-new and controversial-as-always Pope, and you'll end up with shock-and-temper squared.

All of which makes Marco Bellochio's newest film DORMANT BEAUTY (Sleeping Beauty is a closer translation, but I guess that one's been used a few too many times) such a strong and satisfy-ing film. A surprising one, too -- and not in terms of what Signore Bellocchio (shown above) is capable of and usually gives us. As is lately the case with this master filmmaker, the surprise comes from the fact that the writer/director does not take a side but instead shows us several sides. (Yes, in life, readers, and even with subjects such as abortion and suicide, there exists more than merely "pro" and "con.") Bellocchio forces us to confront human beings in specific situations, rather than mere ideas.

The film takes place in 2009, during the fraught period just prior to an Italian father's pulling the plug on his daughter, Eulana Englaro, who had been in a coma for some 17 years. (For an American version of this, think back to 2005 and the case of Terri Schiavo.) While Italians demonstrate on both sides, Bellocchio zeroes in on a handful of disparate people.

Among these are a Senator (Toni Servillo, at left, above and below) whose personal feelings and conscience go against those of his party, and, in fact, of his own daughter, who is adamantly pro-life. His conversations with his peers, as well as with a "therapist to the politicians," are among the film's most trenchant and sometime darkly amusing. A word must be said here for Signore Servillo, who has got to be among the world's finest screen actors. Compare his work here with his almost unrecognizable performance in this year's It Was the Son (or in any of his movies, really: Il Divo, The Consequences of Love), and you will come away with renewed amazement for what this actor is capable.

When that daughter (Alba Rohrwacher, at left, and below, right) becomes suddenly involved in an incident provoked by the other side, her life takes a drastic change, as she finds herself drawn to the brother of one of the protesters (Michele Riondino, below, left). This situation -- fodder, it might seem, for a smart rom-com -- is here used in a way that allows these characters, along with us, to try, if haltingly, for some growth and change.

The dormant beauty of the title, in addition to the real Eulana, is found in the home of a famous French/Italian actress, played by Isabelle Huppert, below. Her daughter, too, is comatose, and while the father and brother might like to see that plug pulled, the actress, who has renounced theater, has submerged herself in the Catholic faith. That this section, though believable enough, is the least persuasive should not be surprising, for all-or-nothing religious faith must, I think, be experienced to be truly understood.

Elsewhere, a drug-addicted woman (Maya Sansa, below, left) is taken notice of by a doctor (the filmmaker's younger brother, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, below, right) and a dance of death/life ensues, and again, thanks to first-rate writing, directing and performing, we're able to understand things from both sides of the war. Will the movie change any viewer's viewpoint from one side to the other? Probably not. But it probably will make the "other" more understandable. For that, film lovers throughout the world can be very grateful.

That this really excellent film does not yet have U.S. distribution (most of Bellocchio's films have found such) is more than a shame. Perhaps in the days to come, due to the additional Open Roads exposure, some savvy/enterprising distributor will step up to the plate. Meanwhile, Dormant Beauty plays again, after its initial Film Comment Selects showings, at Open Roads following the opening night selection, on Thursday, June 6, at 9:15 pm at the Walter Reade and again on Friday, June 7, at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center at 1:15 pm.

You can find the entire Open Roads schedule here.

Open Roads 2013: Paolo Virzi's up-to-the-minute love story, EVERY BLESSED DAY

Think of the couple -- Antonia and Guido -- that grounds this oddball and very welcome new film in "movie" terms: They are little independents trying somehow to work with and fit into the big, wide main-stream world. That is their challenge and it is also what defines the new film -- EVERY BLESSED DAY (Tutti i santi giorni) -- from the popular Italian filmmaker Paolo Virzi, below, who earlier gave is the wonderful My Name Is Toninio, Caterina in the Big City and more recently The First Beautiful Thing.  "Family" is Virzi's thing, in all its wonder and strangeness, hope and disarray, and in his newest movie, though we see a bit of the large, extended family, mostly it is these two main characters (who hope to create their own family) that we come to know best.

Know them we do, in all their quirks and charm, pain and anger, and we root for them something fierce, even while understanding that the road ahead (just as was the road behind) will hardly be an easy one. In his new film, Signore Virzi is dealing with our current economic times, as well as with relationships and family, and this gives his movie an added boost of reality (and difficulty). His two characters are both working well below their level and capacity, and yet are (at least in his case) grateful to have the job at hand.

As his two leading actors, Virzi has chosen (or maybe is simply very lucky to have) a couple of actors who could hardly be better: Luca Marinelli (above, right, of The Solitude of Prime Numbers and this year's Nina) and Federica Victoria Caiozzo (above, left, a composer/musician and now actress who most often goes by the name of Thony).

Marinelli (above) is a riveting presence, all the more so because he never seems to try for this. A rather goofy looking fellow, he is also incredibly "hot" sexually and intellectually -- again, because he never pushes. His Guido is a one-of-a-kind guy who experiences something like love-at-first-sight when he sees Thony's Antonia perform.

For her part, the actress, above, embodies the spirit of upheaval and protest, even if the thing she is perhaps most protesting is herself. Despite all the love given her by her man, the woman can't escape her own demons. Thony wrote the music for the film, and this works just as well as does everything else.

Finally, Virzi has created a wonderful modern-day love story that begins with a ravishingly beautiful view of the eternal city and ends with a scene and a film technique that, though it's been done before, may never have seemed quite as moving and humorous as it does here.

Every Blessed Day (102 minutes) will be shown at Open Roads as the opening night attraction, Thursday, June 6, at 6:30 at the Walter Reade Theater, and once more on Tuesday, June 11 at 9pm at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.  Click here to seethe entire Open Roads program.

OPEN ROADS 2013: Current Italian cinema arrives–bracing & beautiful. And horrifying

We're posting a little early this year, as the Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual Open Roads series of new Italian cinema, co-organized by Istituto Luce Cinecittà, does not officially begin until Thursday, June 6. To bring you proper coverage of all twelve of the films in this year's series, however, TrustMovies thinks he'd better start now -- in order to give each its due.

The 2013 program, which is said to offer more of what the FSLC calls the "regionalist trend" -- this has been apparent in the Open Roads selections for literally years now -- features films set in Sardegna and Sicily, as well as elsewhere around "the boot." The program also brings back Bellocchio's brilliant and enormously empathetic Dormant Beauty (above), one of this legendary filmmaker's best, which had its New York premier earlier this year during the FSLC's Film Comment Selects. The series opens with Every Blessed Day (shown at top), the new film from the always worthwhile Paolo Virzi. 

So far, I've seen nine of the dozen films on display, and the best -- the most original and provocative by far -- is the new work from famed cinematographer/editor/writer/director Daniele Cipri (this is the first film he's done without his longtime partner, Franco Maresco), It Was the Son, shown above and below.

Of the nine movies I've seen, if the overall quality seems just slightly lower than that of other years, there has also not been a clunker in the bunch. Each is worth seeing for a number of reasons, not least of which is its entertainment value. (And I haven't even mentioned, Nina -- below -- the most gloriously beautiful of the films, with cinematography that puts color, light, architecture and space to use in some incredible new ways.)

So click here and take a good, long look at the entire series, then make your choices. If you see three films or more, you can save big money, so once you've decided, click here and then click on the FSLC's Discount Package. You're unlikely to get this much -- or this good -- a view of Italian cinema, art, culture and mores anywhere else. (Until Open Roads 2014, that is...)

DVD/Blu-ray debut: Kim Jee-Woon's THE LAST STAND--more fun than you've heard

I've sometimes said that thrillers with three sets of pro/antagonists are usually more fun that those that offer only two (see The Nest or Hostage for a couple of good examples). Well, here comes a movie that features -- count 'em -- four. It's the latest Schwarzenegger vehicle THE LAST STAND, written by newcomer Andrew Knaeur and directed by South Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-Woon (shown below). This quartet of good/bad guys/gals ups the ante and makes the movie a lot more interesting (fun, too) than it might have been. Add to this a good cast of supporting players, and you've got a film that ought to have done better at the box-office but will likely find its real legs in the ancillary markets.

The "good" teams are made up of Arnold (and his crew), as the sheriff of a tiny southwestern town, over a weekend in which almost all of that town is off at an "away game" sports event in which its high school team is taking part, and the high-level government team led by Forest Whitaker, which is in the process of moving the fierce head of a drug cartel from one prison to another.

The bad guys are, of course, that head cartel guy and his "helper" and a team of "experts" sent ahead to the sleepy little community to set up the escape. These four groups are generally in four different places throughout the film, with one set desperately trying to halt the work of one of the others.

As the poster atop indicates, this would appear to be a movie with lots of action and shoot-em ups. If this is what you want, you won't be disappointed. There's an especially speedy car (above) in the mix, a nice escape via magnetic hold, and some shoot-outs that are actually exciting and fun because Mr. Kim knows how to film action scenes so that we can follow along -- and on tenterhooks.

Yet within all this, there is also a nice sense of community and people banding together to do what they must. When one of them is killed, in fact, the loss and pain registers much more strongly than in most films of this genre. There are the usual funny lines (our villain -- played by Eduardo Noriega, above -- calling Schwarzenegger "abuelito" is one of the best) and some nice character work from Johnny Knoxville as the town's weirdo.

I don't want to overpraise this movie. At 107 minutes, there are some slight longueurs. Nonetheless, laboring outside his native land, Kim does a more than creditable job with both the action and the quieter scenes. For the most part, The Last Stand works just fine as a throwaway good time -- with some very nice set pieces that will keep you glued to the screen.

The Last Stand, from Lionsgate, hit the street yesterday on DVD and Blu-ray, for sale and rental by the usual suspects.

BEFORE MIDNIGHT: 3rd time (still) lucky for the Linklater/Delpy/Hawke franchise

As great movie trilogies go, forget Lord of the Rings and the recent Batman crap. Leave it to Linklater (Richard, that is) to come up with the real keeper. Who'd have thought, back in 1995, when he had two strangers meet on a train and mostly just talk (but what talk!) in Before Sunrise, that he would follow it up with more of the talky twosome nine years later with Before Sunset, then do it again with this latest and best of the three: BEFORE MIDNIGHT.

I say "best," but maybe not. Without the first two films, there would no third. Would there? The idea is interesting: Could this movie stand on its own? (I suspect so.) How would it play for people who have not seen the other two? Not badly, I warrant. Most of the folk who flock to Linklater's latest (the filmmaker is shown at right) will already be fans, and I don't think they'll be disappointed. For this film is -- by virtue of its continuing a great love story and enriching it over time as its characters grow and change -- the standard-bearer of relationship movies: remarkably real, moving and funny, while giving both parties their power and say, without ever for a moment descending to anything as paltry and tiresome as "fair and balanced."

The two characters, Jesse (Ethan Hawke, above and below, right) and Celine (Julie Delpy, above and below, left), after meeting and growing close in the first film, meet again nearly a decade later in the second, once they've gone their separate ways and hooked up with others.

Now after almost twenty years, they're together with a family of their own, though Hawke's son from his earlier marriage (in the great "airport" scene that begins the movie), after a vacation with his dad, is headed back to Chicago.

The two and their two adorable little girls are vacationing on one of the Greece isles, so the scenery is jaw-dropping gorgeous. But it's the conversation that will really get you. Over an al fresco dinner, they and their friends and hosts talk about so many things, and the dialog -- involcing creativity, love, sex and marriage -- simply sparkles, without every becoming precious or unreal. God, this is wonderful stuff!

All the performances are all spot-on, with a special shout-out to a fabulous cinematographer, Walter Lassally (at left, back to camera), who here proves also to be a good actor.

Finally, though, it's the relationship between Jesse and Celine -- still fraught, tender, loving, angry and so much more -- that commands the movie, leading us and these two into a greater state of maturity that encompasses more, while allowing us to understand it, than we've seen before.

Delpy and Hawke collaborated with Linklater on the screenplay, as in the past films, and it's clear that all three continue to grow and mature. In the process of this day and night, scabs are ripped from a few not-quite-healed wounds, some continuing problems resurface, but so do the memories, good humor and self-deflating irony that help healthy relationships survive.

The filmmaker keeps his camera close when necessary, distanced when appropriate and always watchful so that we see what we need to -- via the spot-on performances -- and so can fill in certain blanks better even that the expert dialog.

You might think of this as the narrative companion to something like Michael Apted's 7-Up series, though it doesn't really compare to much else that cinema has given us. It's a rich, blessed experience and the kind of honest love story (as much for its uncertainty as for anything else) that comes along once in a lifetime for both the participants and us viewers. I won't be alive for the next nine-year installment. I'm missing it already.

Before Midnight, from Sony Pictures Classics and running 108 minutes, opens this Friday in New York City (at the Angelika Film Center and the AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13), Los Angeles (at The Landmark and the Arclight Hollywood) and Austin (in Linklater's hometown at the Violet Crown Cinema). In the weeks immediately following, the movie will open all over the USA.
Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.

THE ENGLISH TEACHER: Ms Moore shines (again!) in Craig Zisk's high-school hosing

How comfortable it is to settle into an old-fashioned (except maybe for some of the sex), funny, charming and well-written/directed/
acted movie that hits all the bases and arrives safe at home plate -- on a bunt. This is the situation in which we find ourselves in Craig Zisk's very enjoyable but rather predictable new film, THE ENGLISH TEACHER. And I do not mean that as anything but a compliment, although it's a mild one about a mild little movie. And yet. This is a film that seems to know exactly what it wants to accomplish and does just that, entertaining us quite well in the process. If it breaks no new ground, so be it. As one of my several mothers used to tell me, when I was given to complaint, "For goodness sake, Jimmy, just sit back and appreciate what's in front of you!"

And that, dear readers, is exactly what I'd suggest of you. What you'll find in front of you, first and foremost, is another fine performance from Julianne Moore, above, fresh off her triumph in What Maisie Knew. Here she plays an uptight teacher of high-school English, who has mostly found her pleasure in life from the great books she is so good at teaching to her classes. When a talented ex-pupil of hers returns to town, with an unproduced play he's written in hand, event piles upon event until comedy and melodrama collide and a lot of (expected) change occurs.

Mr Zisk, shown at right, hails from television, where he has directed everything from Felicity to Scrubs, Weeds to Smash. He clearly knows how to juggle and burnish the themes provided by his screenwriters (Dan Chariton and Stacy Chariton) -- repression, creativity, trust and betrayal -- into something appealing. The plot is not, shall we say, shockingly original, but it does have a few surprises up its sleeve. Let's just leave it at that so that any spoilers remain at bay. What the movie also has -- in spades -- is an excellent cast, with each member used by the director for all s/he is worth.

Greg Kinnear (above, right), again playing a doctor (and looking every bit as fine and fit as he did thirteen years ago in Nurse Betty) provides the older heart-throb, while Michael Angarano (below, left) plays the younger version, as that playwright who is both more and less than he may seem. Mr. Angarano should be seen here and in last month's The Brass Teapot, if only to get a whiff of this young man's versatility.

Nathan Lane (below) is everything you'd expect as the school's drama teacher, proving once again that he can spin the most clichéd material into -- if not gold -- at least gold leaf.

Also in the cast and quite good are Broadway stars Jessica Hecht and Norbert Leo Butz as, respectively, the school's Principal and Vice Principal, and Lily Collins (below) as the student who lands the lead in the play that creates the rumpus.

Technical credits look for the most part like standard, acceptable network television, but a special mention must be made of the delicious narration offered by Fiona Shaw, whom we never see but only hear. This is perhaps the screenwriter's finest creation, and Ms Shaw delivers each succulent line with verve and snap. In the final scene, in fact, she suddenly becomes such a character that you may well leave this movie remembering her most of all.

The English Teacher, via Cinedigm and Tribeca Film and running a just-about-perfect 93-minute length, is currently playing in the L.A. area (at Sundance Sunset Cinemas and the Laemmle Playhouse 7) and will open here in Manhattan this Friday, May 31 (at the Village East Cinema). Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.