Ireland's entry into the BFLF sweeps--Paddy Breathnach's VIVA--filmed in Cuba, in Spanish!

Hey -- if France can submit a movie filmed in Turkey in the Turkish language, then I guess Ireland can submit one filmed mostly in Cuba with all the dialog in Spanish. France's Mustang has made it all the way to the final five nominees. while VIVA, the Irish submission written by Mark O'Halloran and directed by Paddy Breathnach, (shown below), managed to be one of the final nine foreign language films shortlisted for a possible Oscar. It's a lovely movie, and while it deals in what some will call cliches of the transvestite/ transgen-der genre, so all-embracing and emotionally resonant is Viva that most audiences, GLBT to arthouse/ mainstream, should find themselves falling for it, heart and soul.

Featuring two terrific lead performances (and a bunch of fine supporting turns), the movie tells the tale of Jesus, a Cuban teen on the cusp of young manhood who does the hair and wigs of the performers at a local trans club but want more than anything else to himself become a performer. With his mom dead and his dad in prison (perhaps dead, as well), he's a near-orphan who has learned to take care of himself with help from a wide assort-ment of friends.

As played by newcomer Héctor Medina (shown above), Jesus is a smart, somewhat scrappy kid, given to luxuriating in certain music and mostly scraping by in today's Cuba, where living above poverty level isn't easy for many people. Into his life one evening comes a man -- played by that wonderful Cuban actor, Jorge Perugorría (shown below, right, and best known here in the USA for Strawberry & Chocolate), the less I say about whom will benefit the movie's plot twists.

The relationship that develops between the two men plays out over the remainder of the movie and it is one that runs the gamut from anger and pain to just about everything else you can pack into a 100-minute movie. This kind of film lives or dies on the quality of its lead performances, and the two men fill their roles as well as you could possibly want. Perugorría has always been an actor of great strength, resourcefulness and subtlety, and he bring just about all he knows and practices into this role of a man who must now learn to go against everything he has formerly known and lived by. You'll alternately want to punch him out and embrace him.

Young Medina possess a wonderful delicacy that goes well beyond anything fey or feminine.  His early renditions of songs for the trans bar possess the kind of subtlety and grace that put to shame most of the drag queen performances we see on film. However, this is not what the usual spectators want, and so Jesus must adapt to the desires of his somewhat crass audience. He does -- losing as much as he gains in this process of adaptation.

Fortunately the movie is about a lot more than drag performances, and the strong pull that this relationship saga offers is what finally makes it so moving and compelling. Friendhip, love, "family," and more coalesce into a drama of great strength and power, making Viva the kind of keeper you don't initially expect.

From Magnolia Pictures, the movie opens in theaters this Friday, April 29. in New York City (the Angelika Film Center); in the Los Angeles area (Laemmle's Playhouse 7, Monica 4-Plex and NoHo 7, and at the Sundance Sunset Cinemas); and all over Southern Florida at nine different venues. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

The life and art of an unusual woman come together in Marcie Begleiter's EVA HESSE

This is clearly the week for artists, as, over the past several days, TrustMovies has viewed and covered very good documentaries about David Hockney, Edith Lake Wilkinson and now EVA HESSE. The last of these is a woman whose career took off in the late 1960s but by the end of May 1970 was dead. Before watching the fine new documentary written and directed by Marcie Begleiter, I knew little to nothing about Ms Hesse. Now I feel as though she was one of the most important, perhaps the most important of artists of that time period -- not simply able to understand and presage art trends of the day but to take them and make them her own, leaving us with a phenomenal amount of fine art (a retrospective of her work filled up the walls of the entire Guggenheim Museum) in which quality very likely equalled quantity.

This is Ms Begleiter's (the documentarian is shown at right) first film as writer and director, though she has held a number of art-related job on films over the past three decades. I think she has done a remarkable job of bringing together some marvelous archival footage, interviews with friends. family and other artists of the period so that we get quite a rich sense of Ms Hesse's life and her art -- from perspectives social, historical, artistic and especially psychological.

As Lucy Lippard, one of the many people interviewed here, explains, "With Eva, it's almost impossible not to think psychologically when you know her art and you know her as a person." After viewing this fine documentary, I suspect most audiences will feel they know both the woman and her art -- certainly better than they did going into the film.

Born in Germany, post the takeover of Hitler but just prior to WWII, Eva (shown above and below) and her sister were among the last Jewish children to leave Germany for Holland on the kindertransports. Eventually the sisters and their parents were reunited, ending up in the USA (the rest of Eva's extended family perished in the Holocaust).

We learn of her tentative steps toward art, as well as her relationships with friends and eventually with Tom Doyle the artist who would become her significant other for much of her short life, We see her expand and grow as an artist, with help from those friends -- Sol LeWitt was probably the biggest help (this artist loved her, and the two were extremely close, like 'family,' but as Eva noted, "You don't go to bed with your brother") -- until she was ready, as we're told, "to take all the influences she saw and then use them in her own way."

A trip to Germany, where she and her boyfriend worked on new art, was empowering -- even if, eventually, the two finally split. "Eva was very high maintenance," her ex explains, while admitting that, yes, maybe he did drink a little too much. All the while her work continued to grow in wit, charm, shock and meaning ("Hang Up," a splendid combo of painting as sculpture, is a particular amazement.)

She eventually treks from post-abstract impressionism to surrealism then to minimalism -- which was the art of the day -- but Eva kept it all personal and specific and consequently, perhaps, more womanly? She gets her own show at last, and then discovers new materials -- and even begins making these materials herself.

When the downturn comes, suddenly, it's a shock and a horror. Mostly, though, it seems beyond untimely. What might Eva have done had she lived to the length that most artists manage? But as finally explained:
"Life doesn't last. Art doesn't last. It doesn't matter." (That's Eva, below, with Josef Albers.)

Eva Hesse, from Zeitgeist Films and running a long but fascinating 105 minutes, opens this Wednesday, April 27, at Film Forum in New York City. It will open in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center on May 13. To view the many other playdates throughout the country, with cities and theaters listed, simply click here. 

On Blu-ray/DVD/VOD/Dig: Gavin O'Connor's (very) slow-burn western, JANE GOT A GUN

Better than you may have heard (only 40% positive from both critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes), but nothing to get excited about, either, the would-be-home-invasion-cum-revenge western, JANE GOT A GUN, proves pretty to look at (via the scenery and the faces of its stars Natalie Portman and Joel Edgerton) as well as decently acted by its ensemble and adequately directed by Gavin O'Connor.

Mr. O'Connor, shown at right, came to the project very late, when the original director suddenly withdrew, and the screenplay he was saddled with (credited to Brian Duffield, Anthony Tambakis and Mr. Edgerton), while laconic enough to pass muster in the western genre, does contain a couple of roll-your-eye howlers along the way. Ms Portman (above and below) is most definitely the star, but her supporting cast is good enough to keep viewers on their toes.

In addition to Edgerton, shown below, that cast includes Noah Emmerich as Jane's wounded husband, whose initial appearance starts the ball rolling, and a nearly unrecognizable Ewan McGregor (two photos below) as the chief baddie and revenge-seeker (though this is the kind of movie in which almost everyone seems to want revenge for something or other).

It is also a very violent movie, in which torturous pain is inflicted prior to death. So this may turn off more than a few viewers. Those remaining (who probably enjoy the western genre or they wouldn't be here) can feed off the stark but lovely landscapes and the slow-burning plot, in which Jane must call upon her ex-boyfriend to help her hubby and herself survive the coming onslaught.

The plot is not all that unusual -- there's a set-up for a huge explosion that we can be sure is coming -- but there is a small surprise or two along the way (one of these is provided by a bird). By the shoot-em-up climax, we've been treated to enough of those why-the-fuck-didn't-he-pull-the-trigger-when-he-had-the-chance moments to render the film silly, which leaves (spoiler just ahead) its feel-good denouement something less than believable.

Budd Boetticher's fine B-movie westerns still remain the genre's high point. See Seven Men From Now or Comanche Station for proof -- and these are around a half-hour shorter, too. (That's Boyd Holbrook, above, as one of the current film's lesser bad guys.)

Meanwhile, Jane Got a Gun -- from The Weinstein Company and Anchor Bay Entertainment and running 98 minutes -- hits the street on Blu-ray (in a nice transfer), DVD and VOD this Tuesday, April 26, after being available on Digital HD since April 15 -- for either purchase or rental.

Discovering a new/old American artist in Anderson & Boyaner's PACKED IN A TRUNK: THE LOST ART OF EDITH LAKE WILKINSON

What a surprise and what a treat it is to discover an important American artist you've never heard of, yet whose work proves a real joy to view. When that artist is long dead, utterly unknown, and spent the final 32 years of her life committed to an asylum, her story would seem to be rather special, but when her art proves to be even more so, art and documentary aficionados will know they've stuck pay dirt. The artist in question is one, Edith Lake Wilkinson, whose great-niece, award-winning playwright and screenwriter Jane Anderson, has shepherded the project to fulfillment, acting as co-writer, along with Michelle Boyaner, shown below, who also directed the documentary.

Though their lives ranged over more than a century, these two women, Wilkinson and Anderson, shared talents, interests and sexual preference. Both were artists, often attracted to similar subjects, and both were/are lesbians -- Wilkinson, in a time when this was not accepted in America (it may have accounted in part for why she was committed to the asylum) and Anderson, shown below, right, who is now married to her spouse, Tess Ayers, below, left, who figures prominently in this film about art and discovery.

How Wilkinson's art was discovered -- packed in the trunk of the title, in West Virginia, where Anderson grew up, surrounded by her great aunt's paintings, yet not understanding fully who the artist was or what had happened to her -- is the jumping-off point for this fine documentary.

Wilkinson's tale, as told in PACKED IN A TRUNK: THE LOST ART OF EDITH LAKE WILKINSON, is one of a privileged life (the artist is shown in her youth, at right) in which our heroine comes to New York City, attends art school, falls in love with an older women (who coincidentally has the last name of Wilkinson), makes several trips to Europe, joins the Provincetown school of art that arose on Cape Cod in the early 20th Century, and is finally done in by a sleazy lawyer who has her committed to that asylum.

Her art -- several paintings and one woodcut print (at bottom) are featured below -- turns out to be quite wonderful and varied, full of that spectacular light that emanates on the tip of Cape Cod, where no large industry has existed and consequently no air pollution dilutes or mars the light/color.

The movie shows us how Anderson and Ayers investigate Edith's past and slowly uncover her story -- some of it, at least. (Although, a fellow Provincetown artist named B.J.O. Nordfeldt is credited with developing the "white-line print" in 1915, the movie posits, pretty believably, that Wilkinson did this a full year earlier than Nordfeldt.) We learn of her relationship with her partner, Fanny Wilkinson, her diagnosis as "paranoid" by the hospital that takes her in, and we meet and talk to relatives who loved and valued Edith's work.

Ms Anderson even manages to obtain a gallery show in Provincetown, and eventually a museum home for Wilkinson's art. Yet this artist's personal life remains pretty obscure, and the filmmakers' decision to go to a psychic in order to "reach" Edith and uncover more about her life may strike some viewers -- TrustMovies, for instance -- as not such a hot idea. Oh, yes, this psychic -- who has even (as so many of them these days seem to do) helped the police in various investigations -- certainly seems to be "reaching" Edith Wilkinson and even Fanny Wilkinson, too. But, really now...

All this may be part and parcel with Ms Anderson's particular peppy, positive, can-do lifestyle, which is reflected throughout the documentary. In the final analysis, however, it's the art that counts. Once you've seen the movie, go on the film's website and look at it all. It's pretty wonderful. And film is, at least, a good introduction to it. And to Edith herself, mystery that she still remains.

From Wolfe Video and running just 78 minutes, Packed in a Trunk hits DVD and VOD this Tuesday, April 26 -- for purchase or rental.

Randall Wright's HOCKNEY proves a model doc about a fine artist very much worth exploring

Even folk who are not particularly prone to enjoying fine art probably know some of the work of David Hockney, the British artist who came to America in the 1960s and found it satisfied him in all kinds of ways. His output down the decades since has included paintings of simplicity, sophistication and remarkable use of color; mind-expanding photography in which the placement and framing is as important as the photographs themselves; and some colorful, lively set design. The artist and his work have continued to evolve, and seeing/understanding this evolution is one of the several accomplishments of the fine new documentary by Randall Wright called simply HOCKNEY.

Mr. Wright, shown at left, clearly loves his subject and wants us to share that love. It's not difficult. Via history -- of family and country (birthplace and adopted venue) -- friends, lovers and sources of inspiration, Mr. Wright gives us as close to the whole story as we're likely to see for some time to come. This is a much different, more standard-issue documentary than the very odd (for its time) narrative/doc combo, A Bigger Splash made back in the 1970s, during the time Hockney was reeling from the breakup with his lover (perhaps the only important one in his life), Peter Schlesinger. Wright's film is much more professional than Jack Hazan's but the two no doubt complement each other in very interesting ways. (TrustMovies has not seen A Bigger Splash in maybe 20 years, so his memory of it may need some rebooting.)

We see Schlesinger (above, right) in the new film, too, looking as hot and beautiful as ever, and even a little full-frontal of Mr. Hockney himself -- who seems more than happy to have us filled in -- via various friends -- about his private and professional life.

Hockney takes us from Bradford, England, the artist's birthplace, to his arrival in New York City and then out to Southern California, where he found his home-away-from-home. The artist is best known for his paintings of So.Cal -- and the doc let us see how the place inspired him and what he has given back to it. You come away from this film with a real appreciation for the way in which Hockney sees, among other things, water and the play of light on this, and how, earlier in his career, he used photographs (black-and-white, never color) as the starting point for much of his work.

Hockney's friendship with the late art historian, critic and curator, Henry Geldzahler is explored here, too, and the reminiscences of others of his set are often funny and telling. The artist's own memories prove a lot of fun, too, as he speaks about everything from his parents to Picasso and his run-in with British Customs regarding a cache of male nude magazines.

As an openly gay man throughout much of his adult life, Hockey differed from, say, Andy Warhol (his art, for my money, is a lot better than Warhol's), and this openness becomes part of the charm and genuineness of the documentary. Hockney's homosexuality certainly influenced his art and life, but it seems to have done so in a relatively open and healthy way -- unusual at the time (and even, dare we say, today).

Exactly when major success came to Hockney (and how) is something the movie somehow misses -- unless, of course, he was a huge success from painting number one. Otherwise, the film covers most of the bases and does so with intelligence, energy and as much style as a doc of this sort can muster. Style, in any case, is what Mr. Hockney has in spades, and this translates nicely from his art onto the screen.

From Film Movement and running a lengthy-but-never-uninteresting 112 minutes, Hockney opens today, Friday, April 22, in New York (at The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the new Metrograph) and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal and Playhouse 7.  To see all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, click here and then scroll down.

Don Cheadle's MILES AHEAD gives us some fun, along with a fantasia on Mr. Davis' life

From the opening credits of MILES AHEAD, the new movie co-written (with Stephen Baigelman), directed and starring Don Cheadle, we learn that Miles Davis Properties LLC , a company controlled by some of the late Miles Davis' family members, was involved (TrustMovies suspects rather heavily) in the overseeing of this film. One cannot blame family for doing its utmost to burnish a legend's image -- the man and his music -- but I wonder if it can be trusted to offer up anything approaching "reality" about the subject at hand?

Not that Mr. Cheadle's movie (the actor/filmmaker is shown above and elsewhere below) doesn't give us the kind of warts-and-all biopic audiences have come to expect these days, but at the end of it all, we do have that kind of queasy feeling that we ought to understand that Davis' music excuses just about anything and everything.

So, yes, this is indeed yet another movie about a music personality who is egotistical, brilliant, drunk and drugged-out and very self- and other-destructive. The difference is that it stars Mr. Cheadle, who is always a joy to watch, and it is -- from what I can gather -- almost totally invented in terms of the plot line, which involves a supposed reporter (played by Ewan McGregor, below), who, in attempting to to get an interview with Davis, himself becomes involved in trying to get back a stolen tape recording of the musician's latest work.

This is fun and games, I suppose, and acted quite well by all concerned, but what's the point? Unless it is designed to somehow show us the "real" Davis by giving us invented narrative over the usual bio-pic documentary fodder. Well, it's an odd choice, but it's one that does provide the opportunity for a little wit and surprise, along with all else.

There's gunplay and beatings and a car chase and a bunch of shady characters, as the movie circles in and around on itself. becoming a kind of fantasia that culminates in a whoop-dee-do prize fight that descends into music and melodrama and murder. In another unusual scene, the dialog during a argument/fight between Miles and his wife (played with feisty beauty by Emayatzy Corinealdi, above and below) is literally overcome, as is so much else here, by the music itself.

In its period detail, the movie gets the "look" down pat -- from the hairdos and cars to the clothes and home decor -- and the supporting cast (which includes the wonderful Michael Stuhlbarg in another fine role) is certainly on target. And the movie does have a genuinely interesting construction: flashing from present to past, with the music always at the periphery and occasionally front and center, and circling back on itself as it bounces back and forth from here to there and now to then. But for all that bouncing, what comes up is too often the usual stuff of cliched musical biopic: a life of drugs, dames and bad behavior.

At both the beginning and end of the film we do get a kind of "interview" with Davis, as performed by Cheadle, in which he tells us that his music is not "jazz" but something he prefers to be called "social music" (as if all music ever composed -- from opera to the Twist -- wasn't in some sense social music). Clearly, Davis was some kind of control freak, a quality that Cheadle captures with spirit and intensity .

From Sony Pictures Classics and running 100 minutes, the film, while playing New York and Los Angeles, opens all across the country tomorrow, Friday, April 22. Here in South Florida, it plays everywhere from Aventura to Boca Raton, Hollywood to Miami, Coconut Creek to Pompano Beach. Click here to see all playdates, cities and theaters.

Just in time for Earth Day, Sylvie Rokab's LOVE THY NATURE hits NYC (and a bit later in L.A.)

Narrated in his usual dulcet tones by that vocal delight, Liam Neeson, and filmed everywhere from the USA to Brazil, the Caribbean and Namibia (the cinematography of the natural world shown here is indeed gorgeous), the new documentary LOVE THY NATURE, written, directed and edited by a young filmmaker named Sylvie Rokab is perhaps the perfect film to see for Earth Day. The earth, as this movie tells us, is a single living system in which all is connected (yes, we're talking Gaia here), and even with all the negative stuff currently happening, the earth can self-regulate. (But that self-regulation might just happen once we human beings have effectively wiped ourselves out.)

Ms Rokab (shown at left) has given us a combination of the usual talking-head experts, including the recently-seen Stephen R. Kellert (from Biophillic Design), Biomimicry's Dayna Baumeister, NASA consultant Duane Elgin and Jungian analyst Jean Shinoda Bolen -- among a number of others; animation (that's a little too cute for my taste); and the idea that, however far we've come toward inevitable climate change and destruction, there is still plenty of positive thinking (and doing) with which we can busy ourselves.

Along the way, we learn about Descartes, who, for all his intelligence, was a little dumb about animals, and today's powerful corporations, which are even dumber about almost everything (except profit-making). The movie may bring tears to your eyes and repeatedly, both for its beauty and its hopefulness in the face of the almost completely negative behavior by those in power worldwide.

One of the most impressive sections of the film shows us the entire history of the world compressed into a time frame of but a single year -- which certainly puts things into perspective. We learn that over 200 toxins are now found in the blood of newborn babies, and that staying out of the sun to prevent skin cancer also deprives us of Vitamin D -- which helps prevent skin cancer. We learn about biomimicry and its uses, and how we share around 95% of our genes with chimpanzees (which I knew) but also that we share some 25% of our genes with trees (which I didn't).

Occasionally Ms Rokab's visuals don't quite jibe with her words  There's one shot of a woman and a tree that supposedly goes with the idea of "Meaning," but I couldn't help think that a photo of a man and a giraffe might have worked just as well (or badly). But this is minor carping. Environmentalism and social justice, the movie tells us, go hand in hand. So how can we both participate in and take responsibility for this planet we're living on? That's the question. And if we -- and our elected leaders -- don't answer it pretty damned fast, the won't be time for a second ask.

The movie is very good at telling us a lot of things we already know but have not yet acted upon. What the hell: Maybe this time we'll listen and act. But even if we do, if those in power don't turn this into a global initiative, I don't expect it will matter much. So enjoy Earth Day, along with this 70-minute movie (with six further minutes of credits), which opens in New York City at the Cinema Village on Friday, April 22, and in the Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica Film Center on Friday, May 6. To learn more about the film and how else you might view it, visit its official web site here.