On DVD and Digital: Geeta and Ravi Patel's overly-performed doc, MEET THE PATELS

So f-ing adorable that you will soon be grinding your teeth, MEET THE PATELS has been properly compared to My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Both movies are so obvious that you can't miss a thing and both beat you over the head with their charm until you're ready to scream, "Uncle!" Greek was an out-and-out narrative, while Patels would appear to be a documentary, but it is also a kind of hybrid doc in which almost all the actors so love performing for the camera that you'll soon plead for them to tone it down. They never do.

As you can quickly ascertain -- from the poster, top, and the stills from the movie, above and below -- there is hardly a moment in which nor a character who is not constantly mugging for the camera. This is particularly true of the movie's ostensible "hero," Ravi Patel (who stars and co-directed with his sister, Geeta Patel, shown at right above), who at age 30 still has not found a bride-to-be. Wanting to please his Indian parents (shown mugging below), he commits to finally finding an Indian girl to marry in one of those "arranged" affairs that are said to work out better than our western-world marriages (and divorces).

Immediately prior to the movie's beginning, Ravi has broken up with his red-headed American girlfriend of two years because, we are to assume, she was not Indian enough for him and his parents. Red flag, anyone? Though the movie begins very charmingly, with its characters, as well as its premise, seeming to be fresh and original, it soon begins repeating and repeating itself until more sophisticated viewers may want to fast forward to make better use of their time.

We follow Ravi as he goes on a trip to India (above) then comes back to the USA, checks out various online dating sites, prepares his resume and exchanges same with a bunch of young women, all the while mugging himself silly.

He goes on dates, as above, discusses the matter with his friends, and in general seems like a major bonehead.  The movie is also replete with cutesy animated sequences, as below (in which even the animation can't stop mugging).

I don't think we were even halfway through this much-too-long 88-minute movie before both my spouse and I had figured out exactly what was going to happen. By the time that this finally occurred, we had long given up on the film. Interestingly enough, for a movie that one might expect to undercut those typical Indian-American stereotypes, this one simply bolsters them all. (And it makes us appreciate all the more Aziz Ansari's current Netflix series, Master of None.)

You may have more patience than we, however, and god knows Meet the Patels did get some good reviews (and was one of the movies our neighbors and best friends urged upon us). So if you've a mind to try it, it's available from Alchemy on DVD as of this coming Tuesday, January 26, after having made its VOD debut last month, and its streaming debut last week. (We caught it via Netflix's streaming facility.)

Now on DVD & Blu-ray and better than you've heard: John Wells' food-porn dramedy, BURNT

Do you really think you want to pass up the chance to view a movie starring Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller, Emma Thompson, Daniel Brühl, Uma Thurman, Omar Sy, Matthew Rhys and (for you Italian film lovers) Riccardo Scarmarcio. There are even more good actors involved, but I don't have time to connect all the links). The movie is BURNT, and if you listened to most of the critics, you'd run the other way. Granted, this is no great shakes, but it is a perfectly OK piece of mainstream entertainment, aimed smack dab at audiences who love food porn and chic, pricey restaurants.

As decently directed by John Wells (at left, and who has yet to have a hit film but has given us a couple of perfectly enjoyable and very well-acted mainstream/ arthouse movies: The Company Men and August Osage County) with a screenplay by Stephen Knight (of the marvelous and underseen Locke), Burnt turns out to be a tale of cooking, chef-ing, success, failure, betrayal and, yes, regeneration. But so tasty are all the performances, (of course the cinematog-raphy of the food and its preparation is succulent enough for salivation) that it is easy to sit back on your sofa and enjoy.

Mr. Cooper's character (above and below) is pretty much an asshole, and the actor does not slight us in portraying this. How he treats his staff in the film is said to have turned off mainstream audiences, but more likely, since they can get plenty of food porn and bad-behaving chefs via TV and cable, they took their business elsewhere. Arthouse audiences, more swayed by the critical factor, also stayed away.

Now both can get their fill via home video, and they will most likely be surprised at how enjoyable this movie actually is.  The performances, to a man and a woman, are every bit as succulent as the food. And while the writing and direction is perfectly fine, I do wish that the movie had ended at the point (very near the end) where the word "Service!" is uttered. It is clear that this is indeed the moment to end, and I suspect that the producer's hand came down heavily on the artists involved, forcing them to feed us a feel-good finale. This is particularly stupid because the movie seems to exist in order to tell us that, after all, winning isn't everything.

Well, Ms Miller (above) humanizes things quite a bit, as does the rest of cast, with Mr. Rhys a standout among the supporting roles (that's Herr Brühl, below, left, with Sarah Greene).

From Anchor Bay Entertainment (the original theatrical release came via TWC) and running 101 minutes, Burnt was released last week on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download -- available for both purchase and rental.

The Paz Brothers' horror, JERUZALEM offers sex, demons and Armageddon in Israel

Hand-held horror has come to the homeland. Oy.

JERUZALEM -- with that "z" replacing the usual "s" because, I suppose, it looks so cool on the poster image and will remind audiences of World War Z -- is the new film from The Paz Brothers, Doran and Yoav (pictured below, with Yoav on the left). In a word, it's a stinker. After a been-there/done-that opening, the movie seems to settle into a family/computer technology vibe. But only briefly, as our two heroines prepare for their trip to Israel, where, that opening has warned us, bad stuff is gonna happen.

In this film, hallelujah, zombies are given a religious/Biblical bent. (And isn't it about time!) Except that -- uh-oh -- wouldn't this mean that Lazarus must have been the original zombie? For Christ's sake, Jesus -- what did you do here? But I digress. What the two brothers have done is conflate horror movies and religious beliefs with technology, sex and a cell-phone call from dad at the most inappropriate moment. The Pazes' single addition to movie history may be their introduc-tion of "face recognition" into the plotline, but even here, you can see the "surprise" outcome a mile away.

Along with some clunky exposition and information about how The Jerusalem Syndrome can hit you once you reach the holy city, we're given the usual tourist stuff, with a little "Monkey's Paw"--Be Careful What You Wish For" tossed in for good measure (and telegraphed well before the film's halfway point).

The movie biggest problem is its build-up, which seems to take for-fucking-ever. The foreshadowing, too (as our junior- and high-school English teachers loved to point out) is happily present but rather too-insistently accounted for.

Once the action begins, things ought to crescendo. Instead, they keep stopping and starting, over and over, with one detour into a mental institution featuring a ridiculous I'm-not-gonna-leave-my-boyfriend development, after which, the film becomes a hysterically overwrought and very tiresome piece of silly horror, with nearly everything stolen from other, better movies. The creatures, too, once we finally see them (as above), are nothing to write home about and finally grow repetitive.

My favorite line of dialog has one of the girls asking the other, "You're OK, right?" when it is more than clear that she is already half-dead (or half zombie). It is probably not this actress' fault, but her character wins the stupidest, most annoying that I've seen on film in maybe a decade. Out of kindness and cordiality, I will not mention her name but will wait to do that if and when I see her again in something better. Fortunately, this actress is relegated to being the hand-held photographer throughout a great deal of the movie, so we see much less of her (though we do, unfortunately, hear her) than we do her friend.

That friend, and the supposed star of the movie, is a pretty blond actress named Yael Grobglas (shown above and at left, further above) and she does indeed steal what tiny "loot" the film possesses. Only the very up-to-the-minute technological look (or maybe it's only up-to-last-year, considering how fast technology changes) seems at all fresh here. The words FATAL ERROR -- which keep periodically appearing on screen after some technological glitch has occurred to the camera -- describes the entire film to a T. You'd think those Paz boys would have realized they were setting themselves up as their own punch line.

Jeruzalem, released via Epic Pictures Group and running 93 minutes (with enough actual content to fill maybe 45 of those minutes), is said on the distributor's web site to be opening theatrically tomorrow, Friday, January 22. In New York City, however, it does not open until January 29 at the Cinema Village. Whoops! Over the past 24 hours, it has even been removed from the Cinema Village's web site, so I guess we won't see it playing there. Elsewhere? Don't know, but as it is also simultaneously available via VOD, if you're curious, I'm sure you can easily find it. (I just checked Comcast's On-Demand list down here in Florida and, sure enough, there it is.)

Black & Muslim & Gay & Under FBI surveillance -- whew! Jay Dockendorf's NAZ & MAALIK

Yet another of those movies said to be inspired by "true events," NAZ & MAALIK, the new Brooklyn-set film written and directed by Jay Dockendorf (shown below), certainly gives its two eponymous heroes plenty to contend with. Yet, instead of treating this rather full plate -- race, religion, sexuality and law enforcement harassment -- as something full of drama and/or melodrama, the filmmaker instead offers it up (with the rather embarrassing exception of  how he handles the FBI surveillance) in a realistic, if somewhat romantic, documentary style.

On the one hand, it's refreshing to see black, gay Muslims treated with the kind of honesty and respect we might see in other movies featuring straight, white Christians or Jews. Plus, the lovely performances by the two leads -- Curtiss Cook, Jr. (below, left, as Maalik) and Kerwin Johnson, Jr. (below, right, as Naz) -- gives the movie what little juice it has, bringing us over to the side of these two young men and keeping us there, for awhile, at least. The movie begins with some promise: a blackmailing sister, its Bed-Sty background, and a probably mildly-illegal trade by the two boys who re-sell Lotto tickets on the street. One can appreciate Dockendorf's wish to engulf some realism, but he spends so much time with repetitive and finally not-so-enlightening Lotto-tickets episodes that we soon long to go elsewhere.

We do manage to get into a local mosque, only briefly, and into the homes of the kids, but we don't learn nearly as much as we could from all this (the dialog, while often sounding "real" is also alternately expository and a little tiresome). Mostly we spend time with the two boys, watching Maalik push for more physical intimacy, as Naz backs away.

Many of the scenes smack of too much overt exposition, and once the FBI gets involved they smack of amateur hour, as well. I don't question that an agent might possibly pull a gun on the suspects while questioning them on the street, but as shown here, this scene is unreal and embarrassing.

The biggest problem is that the movie has no momentum; it simply wanders. When some momentum finally comes, it is provided by, of all things, a chicken. The reason for the chicken and way the final scenes add up also seem more problematic and "managed" than they are believable. And while this lack of momentum does help the movie resist melodrama, unfortunately it resists any real drama, too. And then, instead of ending, it simply stops.

I applaud the moviemaker's tackling of themes this weighty and the performances of his two lead actors. This is Dockendorf's first full-length film, so perhaps we'll see more and better in time to come.

From Wolfe Releasing and running 86 minutes, after a successful LGBT film festival exposure, the movie has its theatrical debut in New York City at the Cinema Village this Friday, January 22, with a DVD and digital release from Wolfe Video fast following on Tuesday, January 26.

Radu Jude's AFERIM! opens: Romania's overlooked entry into the BFLF sweepstakes

It didn't get a nod from the Academy, even as one of the shortlisted films in this year's roundup of Best Foreign Language Film contenders, but Romania's entry nonetheless deserves a look from foreign film aficionados. Its title -- AFERIM! (which I am told translates from the Turkish as Bravo!) -- can only be meant ironically, as there is damned little to be "bravo-ing" about in this movie, its quality notwithstanding. These days, we are most used to films that come out of Romania as tackling one of two subjects: the current and difficult life in this now-post-Communist country or a look at the "bad old days" under the Nicolae Ceausescu regime.

To our surprise, Aferim! takes us back to some even older "bad old days," specifically to 1835, a time when the enslavement of gypsies in Romania was still very much alive and thriving. The film's writer and director,  Radu Jude (shown at right), along with his co-writer, Florin Lazarescu, and all the locations, set and costume people have given us a "period piece" that looks, to western eyes at least, even more "period" than we might imagine (maybe 1735, rather than 1835) -- so backward does everything, especially the characters, seem. But that, or course, would be the point of the ironic Bravo!

The attitudes of the people -- to each other and the world around them are so unhelpful that you might think you'd stumbled into a costume party given and attended by America's current Republican Party. Though you might find yourself chuckling now and again, Aferim! is not really a comedy. It's part satire, part road trip, and part an uncovering of history that many would rather forget. And there is one simply terrific and hilarious little speech about certain countries of the world and the particular thing that characterizes each.

The plot has to do with a brand of "Constable" (Teodor Corban, above) who has been assigned by the town's "boss" (the fellow in that bizarre "hat" shown two photos above and three photos below) to bring back an escaped gypsy slave. The circumstances under which the slave escaped will eventually become clear, but for now the Constable and his nearly-grown son head out to find the slave, while encountering all sorts of oddities along their way.

Casual betrayals by nearly one and all show the world of this time to be populated by folk who find anything and anyone unlike them to be worthless and disposable. Hate everyone, trust no one would seem to be the motto here. The groveling populace refers to the constable (and just about anyone with a little power) as "Bright Lord," and there are a number of these "Bright Lords" whom we meet as the movie progresses.

The black-and-white cinematography (by Marius Panduru) proves an enormous asset, with the camera seeming not to favor many close-ups, particularly in the initial stages of the movie. (This may be fortuitous, in that it helps us keep our distance from all concerned.) The large cast joins happily into the fray, bringing to life this time when life seemed unpleasant and most likely all too short.

By the finale of this Romanian romp, we're once again made aware of the evils of patriarchy and how power and injustice go hand in hand. If many of the subtleties of the film probably went right over my non-Romanian head, I do wonder what its original audience made of this movie: how it was perceived in its home country -- as a comedy, a provocation, or what?

Whatever, it's a very interesting film, a blend of history and unpleasant humor culminating in a grizzly act of macho power that will have males in the audience crossing their legs, while the women roll their eyes and mutter, "Men!" From Big World Pictures and running 105 minutes, Aferim! opens this Friday, January 22, in New York City (at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Angelika Film Center) and Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Royal and Playhouse 7) and in San Francisco (at the Opera Plaza Cinema).  To see all currently scheduled playdates, click here and scroll down.

Arturo Ripstein's back with BLEAK STREET, an empathetic descent into the hell that is Mexico. Or Mexico for certain people, at least.

It's not that the grand old man of Mexican filmmaking, Arturo Ripstein, doesn't make many movies (the IMDB credits him with directing 58 of 'em during his 50-year career), but rather that we here in the USA get to view damn few of them. His best known is probably Deep Crimson (another telling of that Honeymoon Killers tale). His latest (and perhaps one of his best -- but how would I know, having seen so few), BLEAK STREET (La calle de la amargura), opens this week, and it might also open the door a tad wider in garnering the filmmaker a larger audience here in the USA.

Señor Ripstein, shown at left, along with his near-constant screenwriting collaborator (as well as his wife), Paz Alicia Garciadiego, have here concocted a tale said to be torn from the headlines of Mexican newspapers. It involves quite a set of characters, beginning with identical twins (midgets who double as luchador wrestling mascots), their parents, and a couple of local whores who have aged to the point that their pimp no longer wants to work with them. One whore's significant other is a cross-dressing fellow who prefers boys, while the other's, well, "business partner" is a very old woman/mother figure no longer able to care for herself, who is put out on the street daily as a beggar, and who brings home more money than does her would-be "daughter" from that meagre prostitution trade.

OK: This sounds pretty sleazy, and of course, it is. But thanks to Ripstein and Garciadiego's skills at presenting these folk honestly and empathetically, the pair manages to embrace reality while avoiding sentimentality. This is no mean feat. The approach here amounts to a kind of clear-eyed tenderness.

Stylistically, Ripstein opts for a combination of noir and neo-realism that works wonderfully in keeping our gaze focused on the proceedings, finding a kind of artful beauty in the ugliness and despair without losing its grip on how difficult are the lives depicted here. (The black-and-white cinematography comes via Alejandro Cantú, whose camera usually moves between semi-close-up and middle distance, gracefully following the participants from one awful situation to the next.)

The realistic dialog occasionally offers a choice morsel: One whore to the other, "This trade is like mange; it never ever leaves you."  And the performances, to a man and woman, are terrific, combining that neo-realism with enough theatricality to make us cognizant that we're not watching a documentary. Particularly moving and always riveting are the two whores, played by Patricia Reyes Spíndola (above, left) and Nora Velásquez (above, right, and below, left)

Weakness piles upon weakness, betrayal tops betrayal, until arrives a surprise that changes everything. The great old song we hear over the end credits is, under these circumstances, about as ironic as it comes: a vinegar-drenched love letter to a Mexico that could exit only in the minds of the deluded rich or the entirely unaware tourist.

Distributed by Leisure Time Features and running 99 minutes, the movie has its U.S. theatrical premiere this Wednesday, January 20, in New York City at Film Forum. Other playdates? I have no idea, and Leisure Time's website provides not a clue. (The company may be a waiting to see how well their film does during its two-week NYC debut.)

Catching up with one of 2015's best films: Michael Almereyda's knockout EXPERIMENTER

TrustMovies has long had a soft spot for the films of Michael Almereyda, They're odd, certainly, but they've usually hit this viewer in ways that most other movies don't. His latest, EXPERIMENTER -- all about the life, career and experiments of behavioral scientist Stanley Milgram -- is, I wager, his best yet: the most accessible yet different of his entire oeuvre. The experience of viewing it is like sitting in on perhaps the best, most wonderful, rich and expansive high school or college class that you've ever taken: one that combines science, philosophy, behavior, ethics, and a whole lot more. Ever better, this writer/director (shown below) has expanded his own kit of moviemaking tools and tricks to include an array he's never offered up until now.

The result is a film that grabs us from the outset and hold us fast, as we meet Milgram (the always excellent Peter Sarsgaard. shown above, left, and below, right), his soon-to-be wife (the better-than-ever Winona Ryder, above, right, and below, left), and a host of subsidiary characters playing the helpers and participants in Milgram's notable experiments -- the most famous of which (from the 1960s) would be that little ditty in which folk were given instructions to shock their "partner" with increasing doses of electricity whenever a wrong answer was given until they were using enough "power" to render the recipient dead. A wide majority of these fine Americans (and later folk from other countries) willingly obliged -- making clear that the behavior of the Nazis during WWII (doing what they were told, no mater the consequence to other people) was maybe not so far afield from "normal" human behavior, depending on the circumstances. The results of his experiment did not make Milgram particularly popular among his peers (who earlier claimed nothing like this could ever happen) nor among the common folk who preferred to see themselves as, by nature, generally good and kind. More than anything else, I think, Milgram managed to puncture our deep-set capacity for hypocrisy and denial.

How Almereyda brings all this to fruition -- breaking the fourth wall, using an elephant out of nowhere and quite brilliantly, creating the 1960 and 70s with spot-on decor and often completely fake "theatrical" backgrounds, in the process making us understand and accept so much more than most movies even attempt -- educates us and entertain us in equal measure, giving insight into the life and mind of this quite special scientist and man.

In the fine and precisely-chosen supporting cast, a particular standout is Jim Gaffigan, above, playing one of the Milgram's most enjoyable "actor/helpers" in the experiment. From Magnolia Pictures, the movie got a limited theatrical release and some VOD play last year. It's now out on Blu-ray (the transfer looks spiffy indeed!), DVD and digital download. Do not miss it. (Having just watched it the other evening, I am adding it right now to my post on the Best and Most Underseen Movies of 2015. In fact, if TM had a list of "top ten" films, rather than "top 50," Experimenter would probably rest in that tier, too)

Franziska Schlotterer's CLOSED SEASON: yet another surprising tale out of The Holocaust

They have no end, these stories that keep rising, year in and year out, from the ashes of the destruction of the Jews in the Nazi-occupied territories during World War II. The latest -- sort of, it was made in 2012 but is only now arriving in U.S. theaters -- is a small-scale tale of a husband, wife and the interloper who becomes a odd but necessary part of their "family." CLOSED SEASON (Ende der Schonzeit), co-written (with Gwendolyn Bellmann) and directed by Franziska Schlotterer (shown below), takes place in the Black Forest area of Germany in the middle of WWII, and, with the exception of a few local townspeople (along with a few others shown in Israel at the film's beginning and end). is basically a three-hander: quiet, intimate and at times even lyrical.

Though telling an unusual (that's putting it mildly) tale, the movie should leave little doubt that such a thing could and probably did happen during this time and place. Still, to its credit, the film does not claim that it is -- as is every other movie these days -- "based on true events." Slow-moving, somewhat obvious, and lacking much action (except in sexual situations), Closed Season is certainly no "breakthrough" of any sort. Yet the dialog and direction are strong enough to carry it along, and the performances in particular are top-notch.

As the pivot point of this movie, Brigitte Hobmeier (above) brings a fine combination of distance, dignity, anger and passion to her role of the put-upon (in more ways than one) wife. As her stern and seemingly thoughtless husband, Hans-Jochen Wagner (below, left) does wonders with a character that could easily seem remote and unfeeling. By movie's end we're in his corner every bit as much as we are in those of the other two protagonists.

In the third role, that of a young Jew fleeing the Nazis who stumbles upon the couple and their farm, Christian Friedel (of The White Ribbon and Amour Fou), shown above, right, and below, would of course appear to have our sympathy from the get-go. It is to the movie's credit that his character proves as nuanced as the other two -- though what he must finally endure bears little comparison to the travails of the host couple.

Although in its peculiar way a movie about The Holocaust, Closed Season allows us to view not a bit of that awful experience. It all remains off-screen. We are privy only to what occurs between this threesome. But that is enough to keep us relatively hooked. The book-end opening and closing of the film allow us a look into the next generation, as well as revealing more about what happened to our threesome -- and why.

All in all, if the film breaks no new ground, Ms Schlotterer's movie is well-executed enough to be worth a viewing and maybe some interesting discussion afterward. From Menemsha Films and running a concise 100 minutes, it has its American theatrical debut here in South Florida tomorrow, Friday, January 15, at the Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale, the Living Room Theater, Boca Raton, and at the Movies of Delray and Movies of Lake Worth. Further release dates, cities and theaters can be found (eventually) by clicking here.

Personal appearance: 

the film's co-writer Gwendolyn Bellmann 

will appear at the various theaters above 

for a Q&A during the opening weekend.