ANY DAY NOW may have a story that seems fitting for a Movie of the Week but that doesn’t change the fact that it is a incredibly well crafted film full of surprisingly powerful performances. Paul (Garret Dillahunt) is a closeted District Attorney and Rudy (Alan Cumming) is an aspiring singer currently working as lead in a drag performance at a gay bar. When Rudy’s negligent junkie neighbor ends up in jail, he looks after her son Marco (Isaac Leyva), a teenager with Down syndrome. Family Services places Marco in a foster home but Rudy soon finds him wandering the streets and takes him in once again. With temporary custody approved by Marco’s mother, Rudy and Paul begin raising him as their own. But when it is discovered Rudy and Paul are not cousins but a gay couple, they face a harsh legal battle to keep Marco in the safe and loving family environment they created for him.

Garret Dillahunt is probably best known for continuing the long-standing tradition of hilarious TV dads on Fox’s RAISING HOPE. I do not watch the show nearly as often as I’d like but he is consistently funny whenever I do. I haven’t noticed him in much else so it was a very pleasant surprise to see that just like Bryan Cranston (another former scene-stealing TV dad), Dillahunt is just as gifted a dramatic actor as he is comedic. He has a strong presence in the film and some truly great chemistry with the equally talented Alan Cumming. This may be Cumming’s best performance to date or at least his most powerful. Newcomer Isaac Leyva is truly captivating as Marco, almost immediately forming a deep connection with the viewer.

Travis Fine also deserves much praise for his expert handling of this story. Not only does he prove himself a very capable director but his writing is sharp and full of emotion. Credit for the script also belongs to George Arthur Bloom who originally wrote it over 40 years ago, which was the basis for Fine’s rewrite. It can be extremely difficult to find the right balance of humor for a film like this but the light touches throughout feel completely natural and welcomed. The only time I was a little caught off guard was the introduction of Don Franklin as a quite comical lawyer who shows up in the third act. At first he seemed to walk in from a different movie but he actually adds a lot of necessary levity that eases us into the finale.

The film takes place in the 70s but its underlying themes are just as relevant today. Full of fantastic performances, this is certainly a film that will have some buzz around it come Awards season. As someone who tends to avoid movies that require a box of Kleenex with ticket purchase, I cannot recommend this movie enough. Go see it, even if you are a cold heartless bastard.

Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – JerryCavallaro.com

TAKE THIS WALTZ opens with a fun little meet-cute between Margot (Michelle Williams) and Daniel (Luke Kirby) who soon find out they are actually neighbors. This is unfortunate because Margot is (un)happily married to a chicken cookbook author played by Seth Rogen. I write it that way because although she doesn’t seem happy most of the time, none of her reasons seem solid enough to justify why she is so upset with her life. At one point she goes into a rant to which Seth Rogen asks what the f— she is talking about, as if speaking for the entire audience. Perhaps it is my slight man-crush on Seth Rogen but he seems like a pretty good husband to the often childish Margot. She is simply just bored of her everyday routine, which is what leads to a growing fascination with the shiny new toy that is Daniel.

But all new things get old eventually. That isn’t spoiling anything by the way. It is pretty much the running theme of the film since it constantly beats you over the head with this message throughout the bloated running time. This grows increasingly more frustrating leading up to an ending that feels more like a series of alternate endings played in succession. Repetition is apparently the name of the game. This may have been a stylistic choice by writer / director Sarah Polley since the film plays out in a steady stream of highs & lows and reoccurring themes much like Margot’s life. However, if that is the case, it just didn’t work for me. It is too bad though because there are some truly great aspects to the film.

Visually the film is stunning in terms of direction, cinematography, locations and even the color palette. This film just looks fantastic and it is often paired with a wonderful soundtrack that adds greatly to the feel. Everything really comes together perfectly for a scene in which Margot & Daniel go on the spinning Scrambler ride while “Video Killed The Radio Star” blasts on the radio. It is a fantastic sequence that says so much without any dialogue. It just works on so many levels, which is part of what makes the film so frustrating. There are moments like this that work so well but they are thrown off by so many other scenes that don’t. One other scene worth noting is an absolutely hysterical segment that has Margot and her sister-in-law (Sarah Silverman) attending a seniors water aerobics class, which was probably one of the funniest moments of any film playing at Tribeca this year. Speaking of Sarah Silverman, she and Seth Rogen really step up to show they have serious dramatic chops in addition to perfect comedic sensibility.

In the end, there is enough good in the film that I wouldn’t tell anyone to avoid it but I wish they found a way to say more with less.

Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – JerryCavallaro.com

With DEATH OF A SUPERHERO, all the elements are there for a great movie. In fact, all the elements are there for several great movies and that may be the problem. Donald is an angsty high-schooler with terminal cancer who acts out his frustrations by drawing comic book art. This artwork tells the story of a superhero being tortured by a man with a Freddy Krueger / hypodermic needle type hand. He also sometimes sees his characters in the real world, which is when the audience is treated to brief animated segments. Donald starts seeing a shrink after he gets in trouble with the police for graffiti. Over the course of the film he also falls for the new girl at school, deals with family issues and has friends concerned with the fact that he may die a virgin. If that last one seems a little out of place, it’s because it sort of is. However, that was the most original aspect of the film and also the part I enjoyed the most. In fact, I would have much rather seen an entire film dealing with that plotpoint.

The film comes across as a mashup of 50/50, GOOD WILL HUNTING, and THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF ALTER BOYS. As a result, it doesn’t feel cohesive. Certain story elements & relationships feel forced / rushed, problems seem to get solved too easily and characters disappear for too long. I am only guessing but since Anthony McCarten adapted the screenplay from his own novel, it could be the film does not offer enough time to flesh everything out but he didn’t want to cut any important elements from the story. Again, that is only speculation since I have not read the book but that is one of the more common problems with book adaptations.

Visually the film is pretty interesting, especially when it jumps into the comic book style animation format. The acting is also quite impressive, including Andy Serkis who is not painted over with any CGI although he is buried under an oversized sweater most of the time. Thomas Brodie-Sangster does a good job as a confused teen handling each of the characters ups and downs, no matter how stereotypical they might be. Aisling Loftus also does well in a role that could have benefited from more screen time. Sadly, there just is not much originality in the film and the few moments there are feel out of place.

Jerry Cavallaro – @GetStuck – JerryCavallaro.com

Well, with the big-boy action blockbusters right around the corner ( almost May 1, ya’ know! ) Hollywood’s going to see if they can strike gold with another, modest-budget, PG-13 romantic drama ( I’ll resist that sexist rhyming ’ flick’ term ). After all, last January’s ” based on true events ” THE VOW was a surprise after Christmas hit. And so we have THE LUCKY ONE. But this doesn’t have the ‘true’ subcategory. It’s the latest in a series of film based on the work of prolific author Nicholas Sparks, following THE NOTEBOOK,  THE LAST SONG,  A WALK TO REMEMBER, and DEAR JOHN. So is this new adaptation another pay-out from his mother-lode of novels?

The title refers to Logan ( Zac Efron ), a marine on another tour of duty in Iraq. We first meet him during a particularly nasty night-time fire fight where several brothers-in-arms are shot. That next morning, as he’s going through the rubble, Logan spots a glistening photo. It’s a lovely blonde woman standing in front of a light house. As he picks it up, an explosion hits. Later the wounded soldier awakens and is told he avoided death by just a few feet. If he hadn’t walked over to get the photo….well, his luck would’ve run out. No one there at base camp knows who she is, so after an uneasy reunion with his sister’s family in Colorado ( we get a recreation of the internet videos of returning vets being greeted by their dogs as Logan and his German Shepard Zeus reunite ) Logan zeroes in on the location of his ‘ angel ‘ via the background light house. He and Zeus walk ( ! ) to a sleepy little Louisiana town and meet Beth ( Taylor Schilling )  a gorgeous single mom with an adorable little boy and a fiesty, but adorable Granny ( Blythe Danner ). Beth’s taking a break from her teaching job, a class full of adorable tots, to concentrate on her boarding/ grooming kennel full of ( you guessed it! ) adorable doggies. Before he can explain why he’s there ( shade of Gene and Rog’s ” the idiot plot” ), Kate hires him to help with the pups! Looks like smooth sailing to love-land until Logan runs into the t**d in the punchbowl at this party : Kate’s thuggish ex-husband, Keith ( J. R. Ferguson ) who’s also the chief of police ( a bully with a badge! ).Will he derail this love train?

As I hinted previously, this flick almost drowns in a sea of adorable-ness and cloying cliches. As time dragged on, I started to sympathize with the actors trying to bring life to this turgid screenplay. This may be Efron’s first full-fledged bid to escape the ‘ teen dream ‘ roles he’s been doing for the last few years. An attempt been made to toughen him up with some wispy facial hair ( grow a beard or shave it-we don’t need another Ethan Hawke! ) and a somber demeanor ( he’s got a hair-trigger at his sister’s place) . For a great deal of screen time, he’s eye candy with the camera lovingly showcasing each  muscle and sensitive stare. Schilling is stuck in many scenes trying to control her lust, while attempting to push him aside. Her rollercoaster of behavior patterns in the third act seem unnatural requirements of the plotting. Danner does her best in the wise, straight-talking, nurturing granny role ( the type of role that Shirley MacLaine probably tired of years ago). Ferguson seems to be having a bit of fun as the leering, scheming bad guy ( a more violent version of the jerk he plays on TV’s ” Mad Men ” ), but a half-hearted attempt to redeem him rings hollow. His son exists just to mellow out Logan ( see, he’d be a great dad! ) until he’s put in jeopardy in a clunky rescue finale. Hollywood can make a romantic film that can appeal to men and women if they really wanted . It just takes more originality than what’s been at the multiplexes lately. When film makers and studios really put some time and effort into future ” heart-tuggers”. then each member of the audience will feel that they’re the lucky one.

Overall Rating: 1 Out of 5 Stars

No, this is not a remake of the Samuel L. Jackson brain-enhanced killer sharks thriller. THE DEEP BLUE SEA is actually a new screen adaptation of a stage work more than sixty years old by Terence Rattigan as part of a centennial celebration of the noted British playwright. It’s set just a few years after the end of World War II and could very well have been made in the waning years of Hollywood’s Golden Age . This might be considered a ” woman’s picture ” back in the day and starred Bette Davis or Joan Crawford ( maybe at that time it would be Deborah Kerr or Olivia DeHaviland ). Going back to the early talkies romantic dramas were big earners for the studios in the days before male-dominated action flicks took over . An intimate study focusing on the female protagonist is rare these days. Of course certain elements of this story couldn’t have been tackled in those Production Code days. So can the themes of this decades old play still resonate ?

Well as the song in CASABLANCA says, ” It’s still the same old story. A fight for love and glory…”. Although, in the first scene , all  the fighting of WWII is over. In 1947 Hester ( Rachel Weisz ) shares a modest flat with her younger lover, ex-RAF pilot Freddie ( Tom Hiddleston ). As the film opens, the affair’s downward spiral compels Eve to take desperate measures. Flashbacks reveal that Eve is separated from her much older husband Sir William ( Simon Russell Seale ), a prominent judge. In another sequence we see Freddie’s random meeting  with Hester and their whirlwind, passionate fling. During a weekend with her husband’s cruel, controlling mother the affair is revealed. Sir William will let her go, but he will not grant her a divorce. Hester leaves her lavish lifestyle to move in with the directionless Freddie. It turns out that he does not love her with the same the same fiery passion that she has for him. Loneliness envelops her during the long days when Freddie travels and searches for employment. After her desperate act, Sir William returns. Eve must quickly make a decision about these men and her future.

The film is lifted up by a terrific cast, although the drama really rests on the very talented ( and lovely ) shoulders of Ms.Weisz. After making a name for herself in the first two Mummy flicks, it’s great to see her flexing her acting muscles in more demanding dramatic work. Weisz gives us a portrait of a woman floundering in a stale marriage. When she meets Freddie, her joy almost bursts out of the screen. This makes her crash back to Earth even more shattering. Hiddleston, perhaps best known as the evil Loki in THOR, makes a dashing young lover who relishes those glory days fighting the good fight. He finds life out of the clouds dull and dreary. It’s startling to see this happy-go-lucky chap turn into a man frustrated by a postwar world and by a woman who wants more from him than he can give. On the other hand Beale’s Sir William should be the cold villain of the piece, but he elicits great sympathy as man still desiring a woman who has no desire for him. No mere cuckhold, Sir William is a caring, but still proud man. Kudos to Barbara Jefford as his mother. Her verbal sparing with Weisz in the early scenes really crackle with energy. Ann Mitchell is also very strong as Hester’s stern, but nurturing landlady. The costumes and art direction are superb along with the cinematography. We get a glimpse of pub life in a couple of spirited sing-a-longs along with a look at wartime London. There’s an impressive shot of Hester and Sir William waiting out a bombing raid along with several other Brits in a subway tunnel. Unfortunately the rest of the film shows its stage roots with long, staid dialogue scenes with little editing. Because of this the last act moves almost at a snail’s pace. Fortunately the ensemble does their best to blow the cobwebs off this play and shows us that sometimes the lovers don’t always live happily ever after or  ” as time goes by…”.

Overall Rating: 3.5 Out of 5 Stars

A young boy who longs to be reunited with the father who abandoned him falls in with the wrong element in THE KID WITH A BIKE a new French-language drama from Belgian writer/director brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The new film has their trademark style using available light and a handheld camera seems to simply observe events as they unfold, as if the film makers have just happen to have stopped to film what’s going on. It’s a candid tone sorely missed in Hollywood’s noisy style of movies but the story lacks interest and on balance, THE KID WITH A BIKE is a snooze

THE KID WITH A BIKE opens with 11-year-old Cyril living at a state-run orphanage, trying to understand what happened to his father, who disappeared from his life without saying goodbye. Cyril figures his dad, no matter how much a deadbeat, wouldn’t have left voluntarily because he at least would have given his son the lad’s bike, which is missing. After a repetitive series of scenes in which Cyril desperately searches for his father, he finally learns that he sold the bike, which is bought back for him by Samantha, a kindly hairdresser (Cécile de France) who wants to be Cyril’s proxy parent. Meanwhile, Cyril falls in with a neighborhood thug who acts as a surrogate father figure and convinces the boy to commit a violent crime for his approval.

THE KID WITH A BIKE is a mildly effective, Dickensian look at a youth in crisis and has something to say about the innocence of children and their capacity for good in the corrupting world of adults. There’s nothing terribly wrong with it, and you’d have to be a coldhearted cynic not to be moved by Cyril’s dilemma, but THE KID WITH A BIKE is bland and inoffensive to the point of offensiveness. The plot progress is steady but there’s little interest in probing characterization. It crawls along at an endless-seeming 87 minutes and is paced in a way that I found myself asking questions. Why is this kid was so obsessed with finding a dad who obviously wants nothing to do with him? Why is this attractive woman so determined to embrace Cyril, who’s a little brat, to her, at least in their initial meeting? When is something interesting going to happen? The movie does have moments of drama, such as a scene where Cyril is clinging to Samantha’s legs in a doctor’s waiting room, but between those moments lay huge blank, boring segments. The performances are likeable, especially Ms de France (so good in last year’s NISRENE) as a woman who seems to embody goodness in a situation where it’s most needed. Thomas Doret plays Cyril in a manner critics love to describe as “naturalistic”, which is a polite way to describe him as blank and unemotive. To me the kid exuded an air of disinterested boredom which is how I felt while watching him. I’m not normally an impatient moviegoer – I enjoy a well-told story that slowly builds to an interesting, thought-provoking, or moving conclusion, but THE KID WITH A BIKE simply never delivered.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

THE KID WITH A BIKE opens in St. Louis today at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater

Not since David Lynch’s THE STRAIGHT STORY have I enjoyed a film about the charm of an elderly man’s unwavering determination and loyalty. THE DROUGHT, written and directed by Kevin Slack, is a 12-minute short film starring Edmund Lyndeck as Jonas, a senior resident of Brooklyn who struggles with his efforts to sell umbrellas from a small street cart during a summer drought. During his down time, Jonas recollects his life through visions of his late wife Janet (Kathleen Hope Reilly) as a young woman, the only thing that makes him smile during these dry, hot days of summer.

THE DROUGHT is an extremely romantic film, not in the contemporary sense, but in the nostalgic heart-warming sense. Jonas is a good guy, sad and lonely, but he’s pure and true. Lyndeck gives a quaint performance of a likeable old man, stubborn in his ways. Other than the memory of his wife, only one other thing in this world puts a smile on Jonas’ face… umbrellas, especially his first, which holds a special place in his heart and on his wall.

Cinematographer John Paul Clark works closely with director Kevin Slack to create an absolutely beautiful film, shot with a warmth that conveys the dry, summer heat, but still feel comfortable and inviting. The rest of the world around Jonas is happy and enjoying the weather, but Jonas dreams of the rain’s return… and therefor, the return of demand for his umbrellas. Rob Gokee supplies the original music for the film, adding to the overall romanticism of the story.

THE DROUGHT has two primary characters. The first is obviously Jonas, while the second is Marco (Ivan Goris), a supporting character and fellow street vendor. Marco and Jonas are friends despite being each others indirect competition. Marco makes efforts to help out the struggling Jonas, but he remains committed to his umbrella passion, despite his unspoken uncertainty. This friendship adds a level of generational perception, an element of the changing times to compliment the metaphorical use of the seemingly unchanging weather.

As is usually the case with short films, THE DROUGHT won’t be found in any theaters, except maybe for the occasional film festival. With that said, short films are often well worth the time it takes to seek them out and deserve more attention than they receive. Kevin Slack’s THE DROUGHT is gorgeous. It tells a simple but smart and pleasing story without being condescending or too cute.

With that said, I am privileged to say you can watch the film below:

The Drought – short film from Kevin Slack on Vimeo.

The Drought trailer from Kevin Slack on Vimeo.

LAMBENT FUSE is an independent drama made entirely in Minnesota by college students, pre-professionals and new professionals in the filmmaking field. An ambitious project that strives to shed a more realistic light on issues of mental illness, LAMBENT FUSE has a lot going on within it’s 99-minute running time. While I applaud and encourage such ambitious undertakings, the rule of thumb known as “less is more” is often a philosophy one does well to heed, which applies to filmmaking as easily as anything else. However, that should never keep a storyteller from offering the viewer a challenge.

The film revolves primarily around two characters, Freddie (Rhett Romsaas) and Allison (Heidi Fellner), a couple near their two-year anniversary. LAMBENT FUSE follows a similar structure as more recent films including CRASH (2004) that feature multiple plots that converge across an indirect narrative structure. While this gives the film more to play with, and therefor more for the audience to keep up with, the overall outcome can be equated to five lanes of rush hour traffic trying to squeeze onto a three-lane expressway. Once again, this is not meant as a deterrent, but let’s be fair and call it what it is.

LAMBENT FUSE begins with two rather bumbling, inexperienced small-time crooks going from one convenience store to the next, sticking them up for their cash. This pair of supporting characters struck me as slightly too comical to fit into the rest of the story, and when it’s all said and done, serve little significance to the overall message and plot. This does, however, help introduce the audience to Lt. Phillip Richter (Matthew Feeney) who serves a crucial role in Freddie’s story, which is sprung into emotional liftoff by the death of his sister Emily (Jennifer Mergen). Richter also is primarily a supporting character, serving as a catalyst for the choices Freddie makes as he deals with his own state of mental distress, which goes from loss-induced depression to rage fueled by revenge.

When it comes to the filmmakers’ intent to convey a more realistic depiction of mental illness, Allison’s story is much more readily accessible. As her relationship with Freddie begins to deteriorate after Emily’s death, we witness an old, seemingly dormant case of kleptomania emerge once more, causing a downward spiral in her own life as a result of Freddie’s mental state constructing a wall between them. Unknown to Allison, another threat is building parallel to her hardship with Freddie as Paul (Eric Hanson), the chef at her favorite restaurant, begins to reveal an unhealthy and dangerous obsession. I found myself deeply intrigued by this arc of LAMBENT FUSE, partially as a result of the tension, but also partially because I found Paul reminded me a lot of a creepier version of Howie Mandel. This isn’t a knock on Eric’s performance… I actually really admire Howie.

LAMBENT FUSE certainly held my attention, and while it had my curiosity firing on a commendable level, I found that the suspense leading up to the various outcomes was somewhat lacking. In other words, some of the film plays out more predictably than I imagine was intended, but this isn’t enough to draw a death card for the film as a whole. The film’s pacing is spot on, never feeling slow nor rushed. In addition to directing the film, Matt Cici also served as the editor, which very likely played a role in this pacing accomplishment. The cinematography (Zachary Nelson) looks great from a lighting perspective, and there are frequently some great choices in framing and composition. However, I also found a number of moments when an erratic use unstable handheld shots, intrusive focus shifts and spontaneous zooms threatened to yank me from the story.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to locate detailed soundtrack information for LAMBENT FUSE, but I can say that the original music composed by Ross Hackenmiller and Blake Hosler is refreshing and lends greatly to the overall tone of the film, shifting with the mood of the characters and the implications of the events happening on screen. Once the multifaceted story comes full circle I found this make-believe world of human drama came to a natural, albeit creatively poignant conclusion. these characters all have their own, individual issues they must overcome, but at no point do any of them feel over-the-top or unrealistic. On that note, mission accomplished.

LAMBENT FUSE is directed by Matt Cici and co-written with David Marketon. The independent drama made it’s Minnesota premiere on March 18th, 2012. LAMBENT FUSE was awarded Best Minnesota Feature from Twin Cities Film Festival and Best Drama Feature from Highway 61 Film Festival.

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BEING FLYNN is the new comedy/drama that explores the unique bond ( or lack ) between father and son. Based on the memoir by Nick Flynn, ” Another Bulls**t Day in Suck City “, Paul ( ABOUT A BOY ) Weitz’s new film deals with a young man estranged from a father absent from most of his childhood. He’s angry about the missing years, but somewhat eager to get to know him, along with the fear that he may become his father. The movie deals well in presenting these conflicting emotions while also shining a light on one of the biggest problems of society. It also gives Robert DeNiro one of his most interesting film roles in years.

The opening scenes of BEING FLYNN introduce us to son and father. Nick Flynn is an unemployed, directionless twenty-something who flirts with the idea of being a writer. After being tossed out of the home he shared with his flight attendant girlfriend, he hooks up with two young men turning a former strip club into an apartment. We see flashbacks of young Nick as a pre-teen being raised alone by his mother Jody ( Julianne Moore ) after his father is sent to jail for helping pass bad checks. But Dad never returns after his prison stint. Turns out that the cantankerous elder Jonathan Flynn ( DeNiro ) drives a cab not far from his son. After driving the streets, he returns to his crummy flat for vodka ( screwdrivers actually ) and to pound away on his old typewriter, adding to a massive literary work that may never be finished ( or published ). That is until a battle with a noisy downstairs neighbor causes him to be evicted. Out of the blue, Jonathan calls Nick to help him move his meager possessions into a storage unit. After everything is loaded up, the two men part abruptly. Dad believes he can crash temporarily with some old drinking buddies. Nick soon takes the suggestion of on-again, off-again girlfriend Denise ( Olivia Thirlby )  and joins her,working at a homeless shelter. He begins to actually enjoy his job until Dad shows up for a place to stay. What will happen to Nick’s newly ordered, organized life now that his father is now firmly back in his life?

For about the first half of the film the time is divided between the two Flynns, with Jonathan’s story being the more compelling. Dano does well as this drifting young man who finally finds a direction before his dad’s return sends him into a downward spiral leading to very serious drug dependency. The road to addiction has been traveled many times before at the cinema and we don’t really learn anything new. The journey of DeNiro’s Jonathan is one not often explored in film ( and certainly not by as gifted an actor ). We get to see how someone literally slips through the cracks of society and ends up sleeping in the streets ( very cold ones, you can almost feel the frostbite forming on his toes and fingers ). We feel enormous empathy for him even though the elder Flynn is not a pleasant guy to be around. He’s delusional ( a publisher’s rejection letter is high praise ), stubborn, egotistical, racist, and homophobic. It’s a testament to DeNiro’s skills that he makes this misanthrope someone worthy of our sympathies. Occasionally he’ll launch into screaming diatribes that come close to being a ” best of Bobby D ” montage, but after seeing him mired in the ” Focker ” comedies and under-written supporting roles ( LIMITLESS ), here’s a part worthy of his time ( and ours ). Moore hasn’t much to do as flashback mom besides suppressing her frustrations in front of her boy, sharing a crude, coarse catch phrase, and modeling some unflattering 1970′s ( I think! ) fashions as she goes back and forth from her jobs as waitress and bank teller. We even get a quick look at her line-up of somewhat “skeezy ” boyfriends. It’s always a treat to see JUNO’s Thirlby in a new film, but here her character functions mostly as a plot device to get Nick to the shelter and later as his moral compass ( a very lovely Jiminy Cricket ). The rest of the shelter group are played by several terrific character actors particularly Wes Studi as the boss AKA ” The Captain ” and a motherly ex-meth user player by indie-film stalwart Lili Taylor ( wanted to see more of her ). Weitz does a great job of presenting the city as an urban jungle, full of unexpected dangers ( usually at night ). Though BEING FLYNN may stumble a bit in its father/son reunion dramatics , it’s a harrowing study of an old, obstinate crackpot that society almost throws away.

Overall rating: 3.5 Out of 5 Stars

IN DARKNESS was one of the recent Best Foreign Film nominees at the Academy Awards ( Iran took home Oscar for A SEPERATION ). It tells another tale of European Jews being helped to evade the forces of Nazi Germany, a story related in previous films like THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK to SCHINDLER’S LIST.  DARKNESS proves to be a worthy addition to these dramas. It’s no dry history lesson, but an involving, suspenseful thriller that has as many nail-biting moments as the last three or four big-budget action extravaganzas. You’ll leave the theatre having learned something and perhaps feeling invigorated. When you think about what these folks had to go through, the air outside the exit doors may smell just a little sweeter than when you went in.

The main focus of the story is Leopold Socha, a sewer worker in Lvov ( former Poland ). He and his co-worker are trying to make ends meet and not incur the ire of the occupying German forces during the early 1940′s. Socha even robs the homes of Jews who have been re-located to camps ( they’re interrupted during their haul in an early scene ). Making his rounds he discovers that some Jewish families have built trap-doors in their apartments that allow them to drop down below the buildings and hide from the soldiers who would load them up in trucks. Sosha sees a way to take advantage of their plight ( and bring a bit more home to his beleaguered missus ). He’ll escort them down into the sewers under the streets and take them to a small spot that few others know about . And he’ll bring them food until the soldiers have left the city. He’ll do all that for a nominal weekly fee ( not counting the initial entrance spots that he collects before the trip down below ). The refugees have little choice, but to put their faith ( and funds ) in the hands of the mercenary city worker. Days drag into weeks, then into months. Socha tries to stay several steps ahead of the authorities ( who’ve heard rumors of people hiding away down there) while his charges try to hold on to their sanity as they live out their mole-like existence with no apparent relief in sight.

The film’s greatest strength is the humanity of all the characters in this unbelievable, but very true story. The refugees are not stoic, noble heroes, but real people with all their faults and foibles. One man carries on an affair with a woman while his wife and child sleep nearby ( or so he believes ). The sewer-dwellers bicker about their class standings and education (  the college professor is constantly on the defense ). On the other side, one of Socha’s old pals has fallen in with the occupiers and tries to get his old buddy to help him track down unwanteds. As for the other townspeople, many decry and bemoan the treatment of their Jewish neighbors, while others grumble, ” Good riddance. About time. ” ( the Nazis get to act on these citizen’s jealousy and hatred ). Of course, the character with the greatest arc is Socha. Originally there to make a few quick bucks off them, after a few shouting matches ( they just don’t appreciate him! ), he becomes sympathetic and even parental towards his hideaways ( like Schindler, he calls the ” my Jews ” ). Kudos to the film makers for not over-emphasizing the filth of the sewers ( no ” Smell-a-Vision “, thank heaven. They also crank up the tension when the small group expands and later when a deadly flash flood strikes ( the flooding tunnel has been used since the early silents, but this sequence adds another layer of thrills as the refugees try to keep out of sight ). This is an incredibly well-made motion picture that helps shed a well-deserved spotlight on a greedy little con-man who opened his heart and became a great historical hero in spite of himself.

Overall Rating: 4.5 Out of 5 Stars

Background Information: ANNA was made as part of Project Twenty1, a 21 day film competition in Philadelphia where teams are given exactly 21 days to write, shoot, edit and deliver a short film up to 10 minutes in length on a secret element. The element for ANNA was: Start With A Crash. ANNA earned three awards from Project Twenty1, including Best Cinematography, Best Female Lead, and Best Acting.

The world is cruel. We all know that, whether we want to admit it or not. We make our own way, either by choice or by circumstance, but we all cut our own slice out of this life. The size and shape of that slice is entirely up to us, but what happens if you’ve already taken your slice and you’re not satisfied?

ANNA is an 8-minute short film about a young woman, unhappy with the slice of life she’s been served. Directed and co-written by Daniel Brown, the film’s title character is played by Amanda Colianni. The film begins with Anna studying herself in the mirror, starring into herself with a loathsome disgust. What she sees is a woman not in charge, a woman uncertain, a woman who wants more out of this life.

This long, static opening shot is abruptly broken when the film cuts to Anna choosing to take control of her life. Structured like cinematic sandwich, ANNA contains colorful, anti-establishment dramedy between two hardy pieces of reflective camera shots depicting Anna’s epiphany. Her character rises from the gray of her life and becomes a vibrant, outgoing and confident woman. Anna’s transformation is captured with vivid cinematography by Matt Duffy, a vibrantly colored wardrobe and direction that puts the character’s new-found confidence in the forefront.

Mindy Hixson plays Anna’s coworker Callie, who plays a more integral role than initially expected. Anna squares off against typical societal barriers and burns the broken down, bottomed out bridges she no longer holds any desire to keep aloft. ANNA is an inspired story, but in other ways is also a more feminine combination of OFFICE SPACE and FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF.

To view the trailer for ANNA, go to annamovie.com

To learn more about the filmmakers, go to wideeyedpictures.com

ACT OF VALOR is co-directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh. The film is cast with real, active-duty Navy SEALs, which on its own merit, is a really cool concept, a concept that equally fails and succeeds, depending on which aspect of the film we are discussing. What do I mean? Let me put it this way… Anytime you cast a film with untrained, non-professional actors — or amateurs, in short – you run the risk of poor performance destroying a film, despite the quality of its many parts in whole. That is not the case with ACT OF VALOR, well… not entirely. The greater portion of the blame during certain scenes goes to a low level of dramatic writing and bad dialogue, but there is some blame to be put on throwing inexperienced actors into these types of roles. Hence, one key hurdle for the modern rise of indie film that often must be overcome.

What are these key scenes? I’ll step back for a moment and discuss what does work, which is roughly 75% of the film. This majority of the film takes place in the military mindset of a mission, prep leading into a mission, or official correspondence and interaction on a military level. On this level, the primary cast works wonderfully, not because of some ingrained acting ability, but because that’s what these SEALs do, this is their job, their lives even. It’s not acting for them, so in that sense it comes off entirely authentic. Combine this with the successfully executed use of dynamic cinematography to capture the intense and often chaotic moments of a mission, and this saves an otherwise doomed concept that could have failed miserably if it had been cast entirely with non-military trained actors. Bravo for the bold move.

However, the remaining 25% of the film deals with civilian life, family and the drama that occurs when not in uniform or on a mission. This is where ACT OF VALOR breaks down. The dialogue is bad, the delivery is forced and in many cases, overly melodramatic. In these scenes, the film takes on a decidedly disappointing made-for-TV daytime drama personality. Fortunately, this is limited enough so that it does not ruin the experience, but add to this an underlying narration from one of the SEALs that delivers a bit of poetic, but unnecessary back story and it becomes just slightly harder to swallow, that is of course until the big guns begin to fire.

Yes, ACT OF VALOR has big guns. There’s more to the film than this, specifically the welcome and positive tribute the film serves as to honor the special ops soldiers, both living and deceased. On the other hand, when it comes to making a financially successful, entertaining movie, it never hurts to have big guns and explosions, which occur on a frequent but not overblown scale. One scene in particular that had me giggling maniacally like a demented 13-year old boy was an action-packed, tension-filled scene depicting the extraction of the team from the jungle that involves… well, big guns and explosions. Yeah, mini-gun’s rule!

The villains, namely two bad guys in collaboration on one nasty scheme against the Unites States, are played rather well by actors Alex Veadoz and Dimiter Marinov. That’s right, they did not cast “actual” terrorists and bad guys in these roles, but in this case, we’re better off. These two men offer a great deal of dramatic punch where the SEALs are unable to deliver on a level we’re used to seeing in big, Hollywood films. There is also an unexpected but welcome and fitting cameo by Emilio Rivera, which will surely delight any fans of the FX series SONS OF ANARCHY.

In the end, the action and intense combat choreography, intense realism in tactics and the somewhat unconventional camera work keeps ACT OF VALOR afloat despite the relatively miniscule acting faux pa while in the civilian moments. On a note regarding the camera work, gamers will find some of the action reminiscent of so many first-person combat games, but the directors were smart and integrated this sparingly when useful, rather than focusing heavily on this for combat scenes. If you enjoy these types of movies, ACT OF VALOR is worth a look, so long as you are willing to bite your tongue and look past the non-military scenes, but more importantly, appreciate the active duty military men and women who are the focus of this film, presented in part as a tribute.

Soldier Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Civilian Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN was originally reviewed during the 2011 Stella Artois 20th Annual St. Louis International Film Festival

Imagine yourself as a parent. Now, aside from outliving your own child, imagine the worst thing that could happen. Despite all your best efforts to be a good parent, to raise your child properly, imagine your child does something horrific and unforgivable. Imagine they have done something that turns the entire community against you. Now you are as prepared as you possibly can be for watching WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, from Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, whose previous two feature films are RATCATCHER (1999) and MORVERN CALLAR (2002) and both films are extraordinary. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is the third feature film written and directed by this exciting new cinematic voice. This also happens to be her darkest film, and perhaps her best film to date.

Tilda Swinton plays Eva, a worldly free-spirited woman who suddenly finds herself settled down with her husband Franklin, played by John C. Reilly, and having a child. Eva, despite her best efforts to be the mother she’s expected to be, never wanted a child. Still, Eva tries her very best to raise her son right, but from a very early age, there’s something Eva sees in Kevin that sends chills down her spine, something only she sees, while Franklin is fully submersed in the intoxicating drug of fatherhood, blind to the warning signs.

Ramsay constructs this frighteningly all-too-familiar story with a mastery of non-linear progression. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is really Eva’s story, while her son Kevin is the film’s antagonist. This is mother versus son on a level as close to being a horror movie without being a horror movie. Eva has her flaws, both as a mother and as a human being, but Swinton gives her such authentic emotions, such conflicted motives and desires that we can’t help but fully empathize with her. It’s not just her son she must contend with, nor her community after the tragic event, but Eva’s most debilitating struggle is with herself, coping with the guilt of what has happened on her watch as a mother.

Ezra Miller plays Eva’s son Kevin as a teenager, while his various stages of youth are played by other child actors. Most notably frightening as a child is Rock Duer, who plays Kevin as a toddler. A mostly silent role, Rock will creep you out! If THE OMEN had not already been remade, I would count Rock as a shoe-in to play Damien. However, it’s Ezra Miller’s performance that stands out in defining Kevin as the troubled, enigmatic and dangerous teenager.

John C. Reilly is sort of an odd choice for this film. His character is the right fit for his style, goofy and lovable, but it often struggles to fit the dramatic mold setup in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, contrasting with the intensity of Swinton’s performance, but at the same time somewhat saved by Ezra Miller’s ability to shift his character’s diabolical personality with such smoothly polished seams. Regardless, Franklin is a relatively insignificant character to the story, a tool by which to strengthen the mother-son dynamic more than a central focus.

Ramsay has crafted an incredibly dark, terrifying story of the American family, while also engaging the audience is some rather black humor. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is one of those films that makes you laugh, then immediately feel like you’ve outright sinned for laughing at what’s really a very sad, unfortunate ordeal. The film will likely shock most audiences, hopefully most audiences, but more importantly should bring Lynne Ramsay more to the forefront of American audiences as the next great female filmmaker.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Gender disguise has been used most predominately in movies for generating laughs. As a matter of fact, the American Film Institute, in their list of the greatest movie comedies ( via their TV special ” 100 Years, 100 Laughs ” ) , had TOOTSIE as number two and SOME LIKE IT HOT as number one. Most feature men dressing up as ladies to get a job in the former and escape gangsters in the latter. Occasionally dressing in drag has been used in dramatic films as in YENTL in which a woman assumed a male persona in order to gain an education. This theme is explored in the new film ALBERT NOBBS in which the title character attempts to circumvent nineteenth century society’s rules and create a better life for his/herself. Actress Glenn Close played the title character in an off-Broadway stage production thirty years ago. Since then she’s established herself as one of the great screen stars, but bringing this story to the screen has eluded her till now. Does this tale still resonate three decades later?

The slight, quiet, soft-featured Mr. Nobbs has worked as a waiter/valet at a luxury hotel ( for many guests, it is a boarding house ) for the owner/ operator Mrs.Baker for many years. Each night Nobbs retires to his sparse, meager servant’s room in the hotel and counts his tip money. He jots down the totals in a small diary, hides his savings under a floor board, and dreams of a better life. His plans are almost sidetracked by the arrival of a house painter, Hubert. Paige ( Janet McTeer ) . MINOR SPOILER ALERT ( well if you know the actors involved, it’s not too much of a twist ). Mrs. Baker insists that Mr. Paige share a room (and bed ) with Mr. Nobbs despite Albert’s protests. His fears come to pass as Paige learns Nobbs’s secret: he is a she ( a flea had made its way under Albert’s tightly strapped corset. Nobbs is more skittish than usual around Paige over the next few days until Paige reveals that he shares the same secret. Not only that, but she’s married and has a home in the back of his wife’s seamstress shop. Nobbs is fascinated and soon visits the couple. Can they give any advice on how Albert can follow his dream of owning a tobacco shop and sharing the living quarters with a wife ( perhaps the hotel’s lovely, young blonde housekeeper Helen Dawes ( Mia Wasikowska ). VERY MINOR SPOILERS DONE!

For such an unusal premise, the film is very low-key. It’s almost a PBS or BBC-America Victorian drama ramped up with a star cast and spiced up with gender disguise. Perhaps the main problem is Hobbs. We learn little of what drove him to this subterfuge besides a vague story about being poor, orphaned, and abused as a child. For most of the time he blends into the hallways of the hotel. A great deal is made of her perusal of the young Helen, but he has no real passion for her. When she demonstrates a ” lovers’ kiss” on Nobbs, he almost has an attack. Helen ‘s just one step of the big plan for Nobbs, who seems to be more passionate about operating the tobacco shop than romance. The shallow young woman only really cares for the hotel’s bad-boy Joe ( Aaron Johnson ), who’s the robust young eye candy for the hotel’s ladies. Wasikowska is not given a chance her to flex her acting chops here as she did in JANE EYRE and THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, while Johnson is riffing on the anti-social aspects of his young John Lennon from NOWHERE BOY. Close makes for a believable, wispy, older gentleman ( although the scenes of Albert going over his plans aloud don’t translate well from stage to screen ) and has a great rapport with McTeer’s Mr. Paige. Hubert is burly, rough, and quite a flirt with the maids and hotel owner ( who reciprocate ). It’s a role requiring charm and tenderness which McTeer nails down confidently. What perhaps resonates most from the film is not the gender politics ( or the affairs and secrets of the staff ), but the treatment of the working or servant class by the upper-crusts of high society. The bullying and the verbal (and often physical ) abuse is quite startling. ALBERT NOBBS is a well made journey through this long ago era, but unfortunately like it’s title character, the film is too formal and reserved. The film is strapped down tighter than Albert’s corset.

Overall Rating: Three and a Half Out of Five Stars

PARIAH joins a long line of coming of age dramas set in New York ( in this case Brooklyn ). It deals with a young African-American woman about to finish high school and explore the world. Unlike many of these films, this protagonist is concealing her sexuality from her family and many friends. The title refers to the reaction many have gotten when they’ve come out. They’re treated as pariahs-outcast and ostracized. Writer/ director Dee Rees tells this story with great sensitivity and avoids exploitation and stereotyping.

The film follows Alike ( Adepero Oduye ) during her last few months of high school. She lives with her religious mother Audry ( Kim Wayans ), usually absent policeman father Arthur ( Charles Parnell ) and bratty, spying kid sister Sharonda ( Sahra Mellesse ). Alike is a quiet student who excels in her writing class. After school she meets up with her best pal, the hard-working, living on her own Laura  ( Pernell Walker ) and the two cruise the local underground lesbian bars and dance clubs. Laura tries to encourage the shy Alike to be more outgoing. Before the bus ride back to her family , Alike changes back into the more feminine wardrobe that her mother has given her and tries to sneak back into her bedroom. Audry suspects something, but can’t get the attention of her distracted husband. The marriage seems to be on very shaky ground. In trying to distance her from Laura, Audry encourages Alike to hang out with the daughter of church friend. Alike doesn’t have anything in common with Bina ( Aasha Davis ), but soon the women bond over music which leads to more serious shared feelings. Can she tell this to her parents without losing them, like her pal Laura did? It’s a very complicated senior year for Alike.

Dee Rees directs the drama with a steady hand and gets terrific performances from this mostly unknown cast. Oduye lights up the screen as she blossoms into a strong, young woman reeling from her first true love, but still concerned about having her secret life exposed. Walker shows the tender hurt little girl inside the tough-talking Laura. She tries to be supportive to Alike while still stinging from her family’s rejection ( a visit to her Mom is truly heartbreaking ). The big surprise her is Wayans. I didn’t realize she was Audry until the end credits rolled. After seeing her in many TV comedies over the years I was taken aback by her strong dramatic work as the uptight, sad matriarch. The location work is exceptional and the film moves at good pace. The tender intimate scenes are offset with the violent confrontations against the gay community. The final scenes may be a bit too pretentious ( flying metaphors abound ), but PARIAH is sweet drama that presents a different viewpoint of growing up today.

Overall Rating: Three and a Half Out of Five Stars

Golden Globes viewers hopefully caught George Clooney’s very witty acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Dramatic Motion Picture in THE DESCENDANTS. He singled out a couple of the other nominees and teased Michael Fassbender for baring all in SHAME. Movie goers might go to this NC-17 rated film in anticipation of a titillating bedroom romp featuring two of cinema’s most exciting young stars. But the explicit scenes lose their erotic lure fairly quickly. Sex in this story is used much as drinking was used in the Billy Wilder classic THE LOST WEEKEND. What starts as a fun and glamorous activity turns quickly into degradation and abuse. Both film’s heroes are out of control, flawed men who must hit rock bottom before they change their behavior and save their lives.

Brandon Sullivan ( Fassbender ) seems to be single thirty-something who has it all. He’s got a lush ( probably very expensive ) apartment in the heart of the Big Apple. But something’s not quite right. His answering machine ( mmm, people still have those! ) is filled with messages from frustrated dates and conquests ( as the film progresses one caller’s pleas take on many tones: angry, inquisitive, sarcastic, etc.). He does live internet sex chats and orders up call girls as you get pizza delivered. In the morning, after pleasuring himself in the shower, he downs energy drinks and drifts into his office. There his sleazy, married boss David ( James Badge Dale ) enlists Brandon as his “wing man” has they troll for women during ” happy hour “. Brandon’s lifestyle is disrupted by the arrival of his kid sister, Sissy ( Carey Mulligan ). She’s coming off another failed relationship and needs a place in NYC to crash while her singing gig at a club lasts. Her behavior is a wake-up call to him ( Sissy pleads with former beaus on the phone, just as the desperate women on his machine ), and Brandon must decide how he will live the rest of his life.

Director Steve McQueen ( no relation to the Hollywood icon ) elicits strong performances from both main actors. Mulligan’s Sissy is a battered, bruised soul. Her breathy, hesitant rendition of the old staple ” New York, New York ” expresses her longing for someone who’ll stick by her. But the film is really Brandon’s story and Fassbender exposes much more than just flesh. Brandon is a spiralling out-of-control sex addict, who slowly wakes up to see how his actions destroy himself and those all around him. He hopes that a relationship with a co-worker will put him back on the right path, but his fractured psyche will not be so easily healed. By the time we see him on an erotic bender, sex has little enjoyment, it’s almost mechanical. McQueen gives us a quiet, low-key, dimly lit Manhattan that offers all manner of temporary cures for the lonely, broken hearts. There’s no easy solutions or quick-fixes ( for that matter, we never really find out the reasons for Brandon and Sissy’s dysfunctions ) in this sad, powerful tale but like Ray Milland in THE LOST WEEKEND, Fassbender’s Brandon can hope to find the strength to battle his inner demons one day at a time. The film drags a bit in its final third, but thanks to the work of Mulligan and Fassbender, it’s worth spending an evening with this damaged duo.

Overall Rating: Four Out of Five Stars

Few living things on this planet are more majestic than a horse. Creatures of graceful beauty and tremendous strength, almost as closely bonded with mankind as the dog, yet as a civilized species we’ve put the horse through so much over our centuries old relationship with the gentle giants.

WAR HORSE, directed by Steven Spielberg, offers a glimpse into the life of just one of these fine creatures. The story is told from the perspective of one horse named Joey, raised from a freshly born colt by an Irish farm boy named Albert (played by Jeremy Irvine) who immediately forms a strong friendship, only to be devastated when World War I hits home and the horse is sold into the cavalry by Albert’s father Ted (played by Peter Mullan).

What follows is the emotional journey of Joey through the trials and tribulations of war. Joey trades hands multiple times, his possession transferred from the British cavalry to German soldiers and to a frail young country girl and her pacifist grandfather. The film’s journey has no central human character, but several roles filling a segmented timeline. This creates a sort of anthology effect, allowing the viewer to more easily experience how this one horse could bring people together as it does.

WAR HORSE has two specific strong points; the performance – if you will allow me the liberty to call it such – of the horse playing Joey, and the gorgeous cinematography from Janusz Kaminski, a regular collaborator of Spielberg’s. The soft, glowing warmth of the scenes away from war and the colder, gray tinged scenes during and surrounding the war, compliment each other, but also often coincide and crossover to meld the two realities into one inseparable truth of the time and place of the film.

No one performance truly stands out amongst the human actors, except maybe that of Neils Arestrup’s as the frail girl Emilie’s Grandfather, the most endearing and convincingly unique performance. Otherwise, the entire cast performed wonderfully in their respective roles, never reaching beyond the scope of their purpose. The cast of many youthful and a few veteran names include Emily Watson as Albert’s mother, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, David Thewlis and Eddie Marsan.

The original score for WAR HORSE is composed by the legendary John Williams – you know… the guy who helped immortalize Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones and Superman in our collective aural memory. Surprisingly, the music in this film does not display that characteristically dominating presence of Williams’ most recognizable work, instead slipping into the background to near subliminal effect. I personally didn’t even realize I was listening to John Williams until reaching the end credits, when for the first time, his music became vividly apparent.

WAR HORSE is just as much about the tough times as it is about the horse’s journey. One thing I relished in observing during this film was the attention given to details and lesser known facts about World War I. There is one very powerful scene in the third act that takes place in no man’s land between the British and German trenches. The grounds are obliterated, bodies mangled and tossed about the tangled chaos of the barbed wire. This is not a violent scene, but rather an incredibly poignant and uplifting scene depicting an example of occurrences that actually took place during the war. While WWI and WWII may share very similar names and scopes of conflict, they were in fact two very different wars with two very different pairs of warring sides.

In the end, WAR HORSE delivers on the type of ending most audiences will expect and want, which is fine because it’s warranted in this film. Expect a journey that lasts just barely more than two hours, but doesn’t feel exceedingly long, a journey that will touch the animal lover within and remind us that wars are waged by governments, but fought be regular Joes, and Joeys.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Marilyn Monroe was a complicated woman. Even today, people struggle to make sense of her life and career. For many, she was merely a starlet, a famous actress and icon with the world wrapped around her finger. They believe she had the perfect life. The truth, however, is the subject of MY WEEK WITH MARILYN. The story revolves around a young man named Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne) who wishes to make his own way by breaking into the motion picture business, instead of riding on his father’s success. Colin ventures out to obtain a job — any job will do — with Sir Laurence Olivier’s production company in London. Colin’s timing and youthful determination lands him on the set of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL. This is how he meets Marilyn Monroe, played by Michelle Williams.

As London prepares for the arrival of the world’s most famous woman, Sir Laurence Olivier, played by Kenneth Branagh, prepares to director and star in a film with the sexiest woman on Earth. Part of him somehow hopes for a flirtatious rejuvenation, despite being married to actress Vivien Leigh of GONE WITH THE WIND, played by Julia Ormond, and Marilyn being on her third marriage, this time to the accomplished playwright Arthur Miller, played by Dougray Scott.

Directed by Simon Curtis, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is his feature theatrical feature film. Curtis was worked primarily as a producer, and as director of multiple television series and made-for-TV movies. While this may sound like a warning sign for a mediocre movie, the rule does not apply in this case. The film may have a subtle element of melodrama, but is overwhelmingly insightful and uplifting in a non-sappy sort of way.

How does a virtual nobody like Colin Clark fit into the legendary story of Marilyn Monroe? The screenplay is based on the diaries written by Clark during his time with Marilyn, on and off the set of THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL, at the time titled THE SLEEPING PRINCE. Colin Clark wrote two books about Marilyn Monroe; “The Prince, The Showgirl and Me” and “My Week With Marilyn.” The interesting dynamic of the relationship between Colin and Marilyn is that, despite her incredible success, talent and fame, she still thought of herself as a regular, flawed person. She was a frightened woman, nervous and paranoid of being abandoned.

These traits come from Marilyn’s troubled and frankly sad childhood. Marilyn was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Rather, she worked very hard for her success, which occurred over time, not overnight. Beginning life as Norma Jean, she invented the persona of Marilyn Monroe, but she would continue to struggle with this throughout her unfortunately short life. Marilyn found it difficult coping with the constant attention as Marilyn, feeling like her own true identity was being held captive beneath the overpowering persona of her own invention. Colin comes into play soon after meeting Marilyn. She seems him as a kindred spirit, a regular guy. She could trust Colin and open up to him. What happens between them is left for you to experience in the film, but it’s the basis of support that triggers their unlikely bond.

Michelle Williams is breathtaking. Not only does she portray Marilyn with stunningly accurate beauty – in appearance, voice and mannerisms – but she captures the conflict so well. Williams’ has tapped into the psyche of Marilyn, allowing MY WEEK WITH MARILYN to humanize the woman Colin calls “a Greek goddess.” Branagh is stellar as Sir Laurence Olivier, a role meant for him alone to play. Branagh gives Olivier a frustrated hilarity, with class and manners, but also shows the temperamental perfectionist behind the camera.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN chronicles many previously unrecognized elements of cinema from that long gone era. The trials and tribulations between Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe working together on a film was a fragile balancing act, bringing two eras of filmmaking together, illuminating the inevitable death of the ways things have been, ushering in the new era of Method acting and the new Hollywood star.

Aside from Williams’ and Branagh’s potentially Oscar-worthy performances, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN also serves up inspired supporting performances from Judi Dench as Dame Sybil Thorndike and Emma Watson as Lucy, the young wardrobe worker on set with whom Colin has a romantic interest. In addition to the acting, MY WEEK WITH MARILYN features a soundtrack for the music lover at heart. Conrad Pope provided the rich orchestral original score, while the film also features fabulous pieces of the era from Dean Martin and Nat King Cole. Most impressive is Michelle Williams doing her own singing when Marilyn performs… a treat in and of itself, especially during the “Old Black Magic” performance during the end credits.

MY WEEK WITH MARILYN is an enjoyable, well-made movie for anyone who is familiar with the icon and the era to enjoy, but I highly recommend the film to those less familiar with Marilyn, or those who perhaps only see her as the persona and nothing more. For those, the film should hopefully be an eye-opening thrill and a testament to the artist more than her creation alone.

MELANCHOLIA originally reviewed during Fantastic Fest 2011.

Writer and director Lars von Trier has shared his own personal experience with depression with the public, so its not surprising that his newest film, MELANCHOLIA, is such a strong representation of what that experience could be like. The auteur filmmaker revealed in an interview accompanying the screening of the film that MELANCHOLIA is not a story of his own account with the condition, but rather that his experience clearly helped him in telling an honest, accurate story two sisters, dealing with two distinctly different types of depression.

One thing MELANCHOLIA certainly succeeds at is dividing its audience, but Lars von Trier has a history of making films that do just this. Generally speaking, his films are either hailed as visionary masterpieces or criticized as pretentious, boring and self-indulgent. My experience lies very much in the center for virtually each of his films, and this one is no exception. I found myself compelled by the intensely accurate portrayal of a character living with depression, and the extraordinary cast as a whole, but also felt the film runs a bit long, which will lessen the impact the film can have on many viewers. Structurally, MELANCHOLIA is split into two parts, each chapter titled with character’s name whose point-of-view drives that chapter.

Part One – Justine (Kirsten Dunst) is an attractive, successful advertising copywriter who is about to get married to Michael (Alexander Skarsgard), the man of most womens’ dreams, but despite her best efforts, her crippling fight with depression overwhelms her. Partially triggered by he mean-spirited mother Gaby (Charlotte Rampling), her emotionally unavailable and playfully immature father Dexter (John Hurt) and her asshole boss Jack (Stellan Skarsgard), Justine has a sever breakdown that leads to a soul-shattering lever of personal disaster that would send anyone into a deep abyss of self-loathing. The difference, however, is that Justine’s depression is clinical and beyond her control, an experience so many people suffer daily. Much like those in real life, Justine’s family is less that supportive, even down right dismissive, except for her sister Claire.

Kirsten Dunst has rarely impressed me as an actress, but she shocks the hell out of me with her stellar portrayal in MELANCHOLIA. I am saying it now, with no regrets, that Dunst deserves an Oscar nomination — at least — for this role. Her ability to capture the range of emotions, the unpredictable change in moods and the paralytic effects of depression on both the mind and body are astounding. Without going into detail, I am speaking from a point of personal experience, from which I draw a great amount of my comparison. This is why, ideally, this film needs to be seen by everyone, but I am fully aware this will not happen. This is unfortunate.

Part Two – Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is Justine’s sister, her best friend and at times her worst enemy. Claire is as supportive as she can be, at times emotionally and physically drained by the amount of energy she must commit to helping her sister, which is intensified by also having a child, Leo, and a wealthy but selfish husband John (Kiefer Sutherland) who is the richest, whiniest money-pincher I’ve seen on film in years, but Sutherland does a great job in one of the first widely seen roles since his time on the TV series 24.

Claire is a women who deals with a much more manageable, yet unbearably brutal form of situational depression. Her primary catalyst for her breakdown is the result of MELANCHOLIA’s sub-plot that spells the end to everything, period. Charlotte Gainsbourg is every bit of fascinating on screen as her counterpart Dunst, which is what makes focusing on Dunst so difficult. Her performance, as is her character, is drastically different from Dunst’s and for good reason. It’s a reactionary role, whereas Dunst’s character is simply being, in the moment, for better or for worse.

Regarding that “sub-plot” I mentioned… MELANCHOLIA is on a very minimal level a science-fiction film, but don’t allow this to sway your preliminary outlook on the film, which begins with a tremendously uncharacteristic use of CGI from Lars von Trier. MELANCHOLIA opens with a superbly rendered depiction of a cosmic disaster, involving the planet Earth and a previously unknown planet that has been hiding behind the sun. Set to a beautiful, orchestral score, the scene sets the mood for the remainder of the film, and is the only bit of CGI in the film until the very last scene. MELANCHOLIA uses this setup as an experiment for how we may react to the knowledge that everything we know and are will inevitably end while we, as a species, are collectively conscious of that end as it occurs. On this level alone, I love what Lars von Trier is doing.

MELANCHOLIA is an astounding work of cinema, even with its flaws which include the need for a more streamlined storytelling structure, a slightly shortened running time and a final CGI ending that would have played better with a simple dissolve to white. Aside from Dunst’s and Gainsbourg’s performances, the star of the film is the cinematography from Manuel Alberto Claro, combining gloriously picturesque landscape composition with intimately personal shots capturing mood and moments of heaviness, but also showcasing some truly phenomenal slow-motion cinematography that makes Zack Snyder’s slo-mo style look like it’s in a hurry. I could watch MELANCHOLIA repeatedly, just for the visual masterpiece it is, especially when combined with the fittingly moody classical score that accompanies this cinematic interpretation of depression unlike any other.

MELANCHOLIA is currently playing in St. Louis at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre.

Imagine yourself as a parent. Now, aside from outliving your own child, imagine the worst thing that could happen. Despite all your best efforts to be a good parent, to raise your child properly, imagine your child does something horrific and unforgivable. Imagine they have done something that turns the entire community against you. Now you are as prepared as you possibly can be for watching WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, from Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, whose previous two feature films are RATCATCHER (1999) and MORVERN CALLAR (2002) and both films are extraordinary. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is the third feature film written and directed by this exciting new cinematic voice. This also happens to be her darkest film, and perhaps her best film to date.

Tilda Swinton plays Eva, a worldly free-spirited woman who suddenly finds herself settled down with her husband Franklin, played by John C. Reilly, and having a child. Eva, despite her best efforts to be the mother she’s expected to be, never wanted a child. Still, Eva tries her very best to raise her son right, but from a very early age, there’s something Eva sees in Kevin that sends chills down her spine, something only she sees, while Franklin is fully submersed in the intoxicating drug of fatherhood, blind to the warning signs.

Ramsay constructs this frighteningly all-too-familiar story with a mastery of non-linear progression. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is really Eva’s story, while her son Kevin is the film’s antagonist. This is mother versus son on a level as close to being a horror movie without being a horror movie. Eva has her flaws, both as a mother and as a human being, but Swinton gives her such authentic emotions, such conflicted motives and desires that we can’t help but fully empathize with her. It’s not just her son she must contend with, nor her community after the tragic event, but Eva’s most debilitating struggle is with herself, coping with the guilt of what has happened on her watch as a mother.

Ezra Miller plays Eva’s son Kevin as a teenager, while his various stages of youth are played by other child actors. Most notably frightening as a child is Rock Duer, who plays Kevin as a toddler. A mostly silent role, Rock will creep you out! If THE OMEN had not already been remade, I would count Rock as a shoe-in to play Damien. However, it’s Ezra Miller’s performance that stands out in defining Kevin as the troubled, enigmatic and dangerous teenager.

John C. Reilly is sort of an odd choice for this film. His character is the right fit for his style, goofy and lovable, but it often struggles to fit the dramatic mold setup in WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, contrasting with the intensity of Swinton’s performance, but at the same time somewhat saved by Ezra Miller’s ability to shift his character’s diabolical personality with such smoothly polished seams. Regardless, Franklin is a relatively insignificant character to the story, a tool by which to strengthen the mother-son dynamic more than a central focus.

Ramsay has crafted an incredibly dark, terrifying story of the American family, while also engaging the audience is some rather black humor. WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is one of those films that makes you laugh, then immediately feel like you’ve outright sinned for laughing at what’s really a very sad, unfortunate ordeal. The film will likely shock most audiences, hopefully most audiences, but more importantly should bring Lynne Ramsay more to the forefront of American audiences as the next great female filmmaker.