GAME CHANGE

If this account of Senator John McCain's Presidential Campaign was only just partly true then it really sinks in what a catastrophic disaster this country/world would had suffered if he had defeated Barak Obama and we had to deal with the nightmare called Sarah Palin as our Vice President.  I am assuming that as the script for this HBO dramatized account was based on the best selling book of the same name by respected political journalists Mark Halperin of 'Time' Magazine and John Heilemann of 'New York' Magazine then this ridiculously implausible scenario is accurate.  God help us all.

Before the Republicans Convention in 2008 it was very clear to McCain's Campaign Team that their man was trailing badly in all the Polls and heading for a colossal defeat.  They advised the Candidate that they only way to combat the celebrity-like adulation that Obama was enjoying nationwide was to go outside the box in picking his running mate.  McCain wanted to have Joe Lieberman which, given their closeness and the fact that as mavericks, made very good sense and as they would make a great team, but such a partnership would not appease the right-wing of the Republican Party. With Hilary Clinton out of the race and all the Polls showing that he was losing the women's votes, McCain was persuaded to pick a woman.  Not a well-known political figure but an outsider with scant experience (and therefore hopefully no baggage) who was both telegenic and seemingly au fait with the right rabble-rousing rhetoric.

The backroom boys rushed through the vetting process in a mere five days to ensure that she would be in place in time for the Convention, and as Sarah Palin seemed to have no demons in her short career to date, McCain picked her.  The telling of this story is sympathetic to McCain who comes over as a decent honorable man, and the only thing that sits uneasy with this concept is that he ran for President on a campaign he called 'Country First', and yet there is no shadow of a doubt at any time that he chose his unlikely running mate putting his personal ambition first.

The gigantic gaffes that Palin made from day one were well documented at the time when they occurred, but what I had not appreciated that these were just the mere tip of the iceberg as the Campaign managed to keep a lid on most of the horrors ... until now that is. It was not just the fact of her total ignorance of the entire world outside of Alaska, but her inability/reluctance to even grasp essential fundamental facts.  The only way the Team got her through (and by the bare skin of her teeth) was have her learn 20 key phrases parrot-fashion and insist that she just keep chanting them regardless of the questions fired at her.

It wasn't just this that shocked McCain and his team but the slow realisation that this woman who smelling the scent of real power, became like a runaway train totally out of control, because she possibly had real mental issues.

I'm still reeling from the fact that I was as naive as Palin in a way that even I thought she could not be as bad as the press had portrayed her.  It seems that she is much worse.  She is nothing more than a small-town, small-minded right-wing reactionary who is a consummate amateur actress when she is fired up on diet-sodas. She will always have a following with simple folk who like to hear hackneyed-cliches that stir up fear and hate, but I'm kind of relieved knowing now that she could never ever get elected to any position of power anywhere except Alaska.  Lets hope she stays there and keeps an eye on the people of Russia from her window as she so loves doing. 

Julianne Moore captured Palin brilliantly, and well deserved her Golden Globe and Emmy for her performance.  I loved the somewhat bizarre scene when Moore playing Palin is watching Tina Fey playing Palin on 'Saturday Night Live'.  Ed Harris was spot on as McCain (also winning a Golden Globe)  and Woody Harrelson held it altogether as Steve Schmidt the Political Adviser who so regrets ever bringing up Palin's name.

I had no desire at all to see this movie when HBO first showed it, but I am so very glad I did.  Even though the intro to this Blog clearly states that I do not watch horror movies, I made the exception for this at this one as it did have a happy ending. A very happy one.

★★★★★★★★★

WRONG

If you read my movie blog regularly then you will know what I really love are movies that are really out there, and that my creed is actually the weirder the better. And this delightful absurdist surreal comedy called 'WRONG' is a perfect example. Written, directed, photographed and edited by Quentin Dupieux (who also did the music too!) the story essentially was about a loner called Dolph who wakes up one morning and discovers that Paul his dog has disappeared. 

   

Starting with his very odd next door neighbor who's in denial that he's a jogger(!), everybody Dolph encounters in his search for the dog has a twisted story of their own.  Not only has Dolph lost his only friend but the palm tree in the yard has mysterious turned into a pine tree.  So he tries to distract himself from all his distress by phoning a new pizza company who have just mailed him a flyer to have an in-depth discussion of whether their logo of a rabbit on a motorbike makes any sense. He seeks solace by going into his office to work, even though he had been fired three months earlier. The office incidentally has a constant indoor rain shower that does not deter his co-workers getting on with their soggy work.

The dog's disappearance is not an accident at all but he has been kidnapped by a guru named Master Chang as part of his master plan to spread the gospel about his theories of the powers of psychic energy between dogs and their owners. Still with me? There is  very stiff competition as to who is the most bonkers of them all .... Master Chang is up there, but so too is the Pizza Company Receptionist who leaves her husband to move in with Dolph after sleeping with him just one night (although actually the man in her bed was Viktor the gardener who looked nothing like Dolph).  Confused? Don't be.  It does all make sense (albeit a very weird one) in the end.

I unhesitating loved it all 100%.  It was also the first time this week that the hard-bitten Sundance Industry audience broke out into applause as  the end credits rolled.  I've read since then that there is the possibility of a subtext to the whole thing i.e. reverse the word dog, and maybe Dolph's search is something more spiritual.  I'm not sure at all if I buy that theory, but regardless of that this wonderful wacky real treat of a movie will definitely be one of my top favorites from this Festival.

P.S.  This review is republished from my SUNDANCE 2012 Blog, and now that the movie has finally made it into Art Houses (and V.O.D.) I revisited it again ..... at O Cinema Wynwood ....and i stand by every word that I wrote 15 months ago.  Jack Plotnick the wonderfully talented actor who was Dolph (literally) did a Q & A via Skype after the Show and managed to dispel the GOD theory, but nevertheless told us that Mr Dupieux  was more than happy for us to read anything we wanted into the subtext. 

★★★★★★★★★

LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE

The opening scene of the movie is set in a small Bar in Tokyo and the camera is fixed looking on the crowd whilst we hear a young woman out of sight arguing. We eventually see her and find that she is on the phone trying to persuade someone that she is somewhere else entirely.  We gradually discover that Akiko is a Call Girl  and the angry boyfriend that she is trying to placate has no idea of how she makes her living when she is not studying at College.  When she eventually ends the call with him, her Pimp tells her that she has a client who lives on the outskirts of town and is waiting for her. She tries in vain to get out of going because her Grandmother has just arrived in the city just for one day to visit with her.

The Pimp prevails and an exhausted Akiko ends up at the home of a retired College Professor who is old enough to be her grandfather which he is mistaken for when the persistent boyfriend tracks Akiko down the next day. The kindly old Professor who soon takes on the role of her guardian angel, goes along with assumptions of the young man who starts to profess his love and asks for Akiko's hand in marriage.  He leaves the two young people alone to have lunch together to talk it over but then has to rush back to collect Akiko again when she phones up in tears after having been hit.

This is as much as there is of a plot in this mysterious and ethereal tale about one very confused young lady, a good-hearted well-meaning old man, and a young auto-mechanic with an uncontrollable temper.  It's much more about what's not being said that's the real interest here. All the strands of the story, like the endless voicemails from the distraught Grandmother who's calls Akiko chooses to ignore, or the talkative nosey neighbor who lives next door to the Professor and passes summary judgements on the world from her tiny window, add to the conundrum. And whilst its clear what drives the two male protagonists, Akiko's motives are much tougher to read.

This Japanese movie is the second work that  Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has made far away from his home. (The first was the award winning 'Certified Copy' starring Juliette Binoche, which I totally loathed).  This however is a thought-provoking intriguing film with many very subtle layers and nuances that I am still processing now. The cinephile in me was hooked from the word go just trying to work out why the camera was nowhere near Akiko as she spoke  and then the fact Kiarostami shot several long scenes in very tight spaces ....like in the Professor's car .... and held the camera still in one place.  Fascinating!

I really loved it but even so would still stop short of declaring it a great movie.  If only I could even pretend that I liked the ending, which shook me rigid, and scared the living daylights out of me.

★★★★★★★★

THE BIG PICTURE aka L'HOMME QUI VOULAIT VIVRE SA VIE

Paul seems to have everything. He's a partner in a successful Law Firm in Paris. Beautiful smart wife and two young children he adores. Stunning house in the country. And he's as handsome as hell (well he's played by Romain Duris, need I say more).  Then suddenly it all starts to fall apart.  His wife is having an affair with a neighbor and she ups and leaves taking the kids, and his Senior Law Partner (and close friend) announces she is terminally ill.

A distraught Paul goes around to confront Greg the neighbor who's stolen his wife's affections and their arguing gets out of hand, and in the ensuing fight Paul accidentally kills his rival. When Paul calms down with his lawyer's obsession with minute detail he plans on how to dispose of the body and then disappear himself by stealing the dead man's identity.

Greg had been an unsuccessful professional photographer, whereas this was also a career that Paul had once chosen for himself before he lost his nerve and gave it up to become a Lawyer instead.  Now after faking a boating accident and having been declared dead by the Authorities, Paul is posing as Greg hidden away in some god-forsaken rural area of Hungary, and he takes up photography seriously.  Word soon gets around the small community and his work is discovered and starts to get published in a Belgrade newspaper. This in turn leads to an Gallery Exhibition and fame, and of course the real risk of exposure, so he burns his bridges once more and runs off to sea and almost death.

In this excellent existentialist thriller Paul's battle is not so much the fact that he had to abandon his wife and children for ever to impersonate another man to avoid being tried for murder, but simply that he had allowed himself to be weighed down in a life that he could never ever have been happy in the first place.  This movie's original French title 'L'homme qui voulait vivre sa vie' literally translates into 'the man who wanted to live his life'.

It's directed and co-written by Eric Lartigau, whose actress wife Marina Foïs plays Sarah, Paul's wife in the movie.  As well as starring Mr Duris in yet another mesmerizing performance as the angst-ridden Paul that always looked like he had the whole weight of the world on his shoulders,  it also has super-star Catherine Deneuve in a cameo role too.

It's both exhilarating and nerve-wracking and even quite nightmarish towards the end  .... and never ever a dull moment.

★★★★★★★★

THE JEFFREY DAHMER FILES

The gruesome story of Jeffrey Dahmer the infamous serial

killer and sex offender who murdered 17 men and boys between 1978 and 1991, has already been the subject of several films and television programmes, and its highly questionable whether there is need for yet another take on these murders. 

Newbie writer/director Chris James Thompson,  a native of Milwaukee where the majority of the killings occurred, avoided both the sheer bloody gore and the sensationalism of the case by focusing his movie on how it affected the local community.  In particular three people : Pat Kennedy a retired Police Detective who had arrested Dahmer and took down his confession; Dr Jeffery Jensen who was the Medical Examiner at the time; and Pam Bass his next door neighbor. As they related their take on how this all impacted their own lives quite substantially, Thompson cleverly interspersed it with re-enactments of Dahmer's mundane daily existence in between his killing sprees.

There was no attempt to throw any light on Dahmer's actions and motives, or uncover anything new about the audacious crimes themselves, but just relating it all to how the people of Milwaukee came to terms with this unprecedented carnage.  It wasnt just the fact that Dahmer killed this innocent victims but also the reality that he subjected them to rape, dismemberment, necrophilia and cannibalism.

Thompson's spin is intriguing and extremely well done because his witnesses were both articulate and interesting,  (the neighbor's naive remarks are quite engaging) but I simply cannot imagine who on earth would want to see this at all some 20+ years later, apart from people who are still obessesed with Dahmer (or compulsive cineastes like me).

If you do, and its not on at an Art House near you, its available now on VOD.
 

KOCH

Neil Barksy's engrossing new documentary is an affectionate look at one of the most infuriating larger-than-life politicians who almost loved his job and his city as much as he adored himself.  Ed Koch was a three term Mayor of New York who rescued his city from the throes of bankruptcy in the 1970's and practically single-handedly dragged it back kicking and screaming into being a vibrant metropolis.  He was a single-minded arrogant autocratic leader, brutally stubborn, traits which helped him in enforcing some staggeringly painful financial cuts to make the City solvent again despite public outcries and municipal workers going on strike.

Koch's catchphrase whether he was campaigning or just hustling in public was his constant shout out 'How I'm Doing?' , but it's very clear that he was never really interested in what the response was.  This media-hogging pushy man lived his life very much in the public eye centre-stage basked in constant attention, and he didn't seemed to be that fazed if it was negative. Right from his early foray into politics he judged how good a day was simply by the column inches he got in newspapers.

Barsky gave us a history of Koch's three mayoral terms interspersed  with interviews with some of the key NY figures at the time. He laced it with a footage of the present day Koch, in his mid-eighties, still  a major player, but as Mayor Bloomberg joked, more of a 'Brand' these days.  There was no question that Koch used influential people to get himself elected and then once in office he would infuriate them by reneging on his promises for the sake of political expediency. At one time or another he managed to fall out  with the Black Community, and the Jewish one, plus the increasingly powerful Gay community too. With the latter, he won points for passing major Legislation to stop Discrimination, but his lackadaisical response to the AIDS crisis, then at it's peak, had the furious community up in arms at what they considered a major betrayal.

Lovable rogue or self-aggrandizing ego-maniac?  After watching 90 minutes of some fascinating footage that covered some of the highlights and low points of his career, I think the jury is still out on that.  His legacy will be the massive re-building of the Bronx public housing, and the fact that he was responsible for the city's survival/revival. He will also be remembered bitterly by some of his missteps such as the closure of the Sydenham Hospital in Harlem which even he admits was wrong.

What is indisputable was his passion and his humor, and with him in charge there was never ever a dull moment.  He joked himself through some of the tough parts of his life, like losing the Primary for a fourth term as Mayor. 'The people have told me to go, so now they must suffer' he laughs, but a little too hard for it not to completely hide his pain.  Interestingly though many people echoed the sentiments of activist minister Calvin O. Butts who certainly shared no love for the man, but he unhesitatingly  concedes that Koch was the quintessential New York mayor of their lifetime.

In the closing minutes of the film Barsky pushes the ex-Mayor on the one question that he has dodged his whole life i.e. is he gay?  The very public slurs and loud innuendos almost stopped his career before it even took off.  He still refused to answer, claiming that that his sexuality is absolutely nobody's business.  But whether he was straight or gay, what the film does show so poignantly was that after all the crowds had gone this man, that only seemed to come alive in the spotlight, goes home totally alone.

Love him or hate him,  the film is unmissable.

P.S. Ed Koch died aged 88 on Feb 1st 2013 : the same week this film premiered in his beloved New York.

★★★★★★★★★

A PLACE AT THE TABLE

This quietly unassuming new documentary is unquestionably one of the most powerful sobering wake-up calls I have sat and watched for a very long time. Without any of the  dramatic shock tactics and megaphone shouting of high profile exposes from the likes of filmmakers such as Michael Moore, the movie carefully rolls out a stream of the most frightening statistics about hunger caused by poverty in the USA today that just totally numbs one. 

Basic fact number: there are 50 million people in this country today  ..... still one of the richest in the world .... that suffer from hungry even though we have more than enough food to feed them.  

Filmmakers Kristi Jacobsen & Lori Silverbush criss-crossed the country to interview all manner of different families who are struggling just to make ends meet.  A single-mother of 2 in Philadelphia who battled to get food stamps only to lose them again when she got a low-paying full-time job that made her worse off: a fifth grader from Colorado who's three generation family are all working and squeezed into a tiny scruffy house, constantly ran out of food; an overweight young Mississippi girl who's diet of the cheapest snack food which was all her mother could afford even though it was seriously risking her health.  The irony of the poor girl's situation is that her home State has the most undernourished people who are also obese.

The health professionals talked about their concerns about the lack 'food security' the term they use for availability of food and one's access to it.  With indisputable facts like the price of fresh fruit and vegetables has gone up by 40% since 1980 whilst at the same time processed food has gone down by 40%

no-one pretends that families on the poverty line have little choice than making bad eating choices just to get by.

There are ways out, but as most of these have to be initiated by politicians, there is scant chance of much ever happening.  After all poor people matter little against the powerful mega-agricultural conglomerates who still reap some $20 billion a years in subsidies they don't need and that could make a significant difference elsewhere.  We follow the progress through the Senate of the renewing of the legislation that supplies funds for School Dinners ... at the moment each school is left with a mere 99c for food when it take out its other costs ..... they got an increase of 6%!  But to pay for the increase they cut the Food Stamps Program.

All the facts are startling .... even the few good ones that it was Nixon's program that all but eradicated hunger in the US in the 1970's. The fact that even under a socially responsible President like Obama, the current situation is allowed to deteriorate rapidly.  As actor Jeff Bridges, a passionate activist who founded End Hunger Network 30 years ago put it 'if another country was doing this to our kids, we would be at war'.  He's right it's insane and totally inhumane.  And completely avoidable.

Totally Unmissable.  Currently in US theaters and also On Demand via itunes.  There is a also a companion book.

★★★★★★★★★★

LITTLE WHITE LIES aka LES PETITS MOUCHOIRS

After visiting one of their best friends in intensive care unit at the hospital after he had a near fatal motorbike accident a despondent tight knit group of friends gather outside. Their big dilemma is do they hang around in Paris waiting for Ludo to be well enough to have visitors or just go on their regular planned vacation together as usual. They choose the latter which speaks volumes for this bunch of assorted individuals who all seem slightly too self-obsessed as they all enter middle-age.

Max, the 'leader' is a wealthy hotel owner and its his rather wonderful house on Cap Ferrat that they all spend every summer as his guests.  He is a micro-manager and total control freak, qualities he brings with him on holiday much to the chagrin of his vexed wife .... and the friends too.  Vincent one of his oldest friends has confessed he has a man-crush on him and that brings out the homophobia in Max. And this is just one of the many un-said things that bubble under the surface that this close group of friends choose not to deal with, and opt to cover up with some little white lies.

Antoine is convinced that Juliette who dumped him after 11 years to marry someone else will take him back, Eric thinks Louise his girlfriend is 'the one' but she only flies down from Paris to tell him she is not, Marie now regrets ever having let Ludo go and is working though that by sleeping with men she really doesn't like to be around.  The only two people to keep this group grounded and the closest they get to real happiness is their old neighbor Jean-Louis and Ludo.  This summer then its all down to the local oyster fisherman as Ludo can only be there in spirit.

The story is full of high drama: lots of laughter and tears as they each of angst-ridden bang their heads against a brick wall, when they are not out having fun in Max's fancy speed boat. And annoying as the storyline can be at times, it is very watchable because of the very impressive ensemble of some first-rate French actors that include: Francois Cluzet, (who is a dead ringer for Dustin Hoffman), Benoit Magimel, Gilles Lellouche, Laurent Lafitte, and a scene stealing Marion Cotillard.  Ludo is played by Jean Dujardin before he made his Oscar winning performance in 'The Artist' ..... and he doesn't get to speak in this much either.  Jean-Louis the oyster fisherman is rather brilliantly played Joel Dupuch who is not an actor but an oyster fisherman.  His is a pivotal role as just when you are on the verge of despair with some of the group's antics, he gives them a good talking too.

At 150 minutes it is at least one hour too long and if writer/director Guillaume Canet ( directed the excellent 'Tell No One') had trimmed it so, then I would liked this piece even more.  I do have a soft spot for French movies of this ilk, and although it may not have been the best of the genre, it was still thoroughly entertaining. Maybe because I like a bit of weltschmerz myself?   

P.S. Have a box of kleenex ready for the end

★★★★★★★★

RENT BOYS

For well over the past four decades Berlin's Zoo Railway Station has been the main stomping ground for the city's rent boys.  Using archive footage from 1965 this fascinating documentary from gay activist filmaker Rosa Van Praunheim paints the scene there as it has evolved until the present day.  It is a desperately sad tale of the squalid and dangerous lives these boys lead in an occupation that at best leaves them scarred for life, and at worse cost them their lives.

In the early days in particular most of the boys that hustled sex for money were victims of sexual abuse themselves and were plying for trade in their very early teens, and some even younger.  Their tales were particularly harrowing especially when they were continued to be exploited by paedophiles,  and were completely unaware of all the inherent dangers of life on the street.  

Nowadays very few of the boys are German and are heterosexual immigrants from neighbouring ex Eastern bloc countries who, discovering that they can make more money from one encounter with a 'john' than they could laboring for a month back home, are prepared to become 'gay for pay' for the financial rewards.  They take the same risks, plus the possibility of being deported too.

Van Praunheim profiled a few of the boys who had been working Zoo Station and the environs for some years now, and despite all the risks, still appeared reluctant to give it up.  He went to the hustler bars and talked to the barkeepers who related about the abuse, the violence, the crime and the drug-taking in a resigned almost complacent manner.  He also followed the workers of SUB/WAY a support group who try their best to help the boys particularly to prevent the spread of AIDS & HIV, and dedicated and hardworking as they are, seemed to be making little headway in getting them off the streets.

The boys stories are heart-rending and their isn't one that has a happy ending. As they eventually drop out/leave their places are taken by fresher naive young boys and the supply chain never seems to be broken.  As Van Praunheim's film shows, the price the pay for their  seedy unhappy lives is far too high.  

Fascinating, but extremely disturbing to watch.

★★★★★★★★

MAY IN THE SUMMER

New Yorker best-selling author May is flying back to Jordan her home country accompanied by her two sisters Yasmine and Delia to plan her upcoming wedding. Her fiance remained behind and plans to arrive just before the ceremony in three weeks time.  Her Jordanian mother, long divorced from her American Diplomat father has found God and become a Born-Again Christian.  Her religious fervor may give her joy but it doesn't stop her making it hellish for her ex-husband remarried to a much younger woman, or to May who has chosen to marry a secular Muslim.

It's quite the dysfunctional family.  One sister is ditsy, the other a closeted lesbian, the father is self-absorbed and inconsiderate, the mother is bitter with everyone and everything, and the fiance ..... well, he's just a voice on the other end of the phone, and May never ever seems like an excited Bride to be about to marry the love of her life.  She's the one who 'has it all' but it certainly hasn't made her happy 

The movie starts out with an energy of a fast paced multi-cultural family melodrama, but then as soon as May's enthusiasm for her forthcoming nuptials wan, so does ours too in the aimless plot that follows.

Written/Directed by Cherrien Dabs who also played May, its a disappointing follow up to her successful award-winning 'Amreeka'. It does however at least show how beautiful parts of Amman are, and how its culture is worlds apart from that of the West.

★★★★

GIMME THE LOOT

Sofia and Malcolm are a couple of teenage graffiti artists (taggers) from the Bronx who set their hearts on the twenty year somewhat impossible challenge to 'bomb the apple' i.e. spray paint the NY Met's notorious giant apple that is shown every time they hit a home run. This sweet naive pair believe that when they achieve this, then the notoriety will bring them fame and untold wealth. The first obstacle they must overcome is to actually get into the Stadium, which a bent Security Guard can arrange for them for a $500 'fee'. 

For these small time street hustlers this is a huge sum of money and they have just two days to somehow get this together.  Sofia a fierce foul-mouthed tomboy tries to collect on monies owed to her, and sell off the cans of spray paint they had stolen from the store, and hawk a cell-phone a cell-phone she  had 'relieved' from a kid, but with a string of unprecedented bad luck she loses far more than she gains. Malcolm, an overly-confident  gentle harmless youth, meanwhile sets about delivering some 'weed' for the small drug dealers he works for occasionally, and when he discovers that his customer is an ultra spoilt wealthy young woman he sets about seducing her and robbing her too.  She's game for the first part, but they get disturbed and he has to go back to try to complete the plan.

This delightful debut movie from writer/director Adam Leon despite its tough-talking young protagonists and the subject matter is surprisingly refreshing and  totally engaging. Thanks to its quick-witted script with all its touches of humor, and the startling wonderful performances of the two young lead actors Tashiana Washington and Ty Hickson who, even though their's is a platonic relationship, have a great chemistry together.

Credit to Mr Leon too for keeping a light touch throughout even in scenes such as when he played the race card with the posh white girl suddenly getting very uppity with Malcolm when she is surrounded by her friends.   Very impressive.  If I have one bitch it will be the ending .... sorts of leave you up in the air ....however, luckily not enough to spoil the whole experience.

The fresh raw energy that comes through a low-budget indie movie shines through quite radiantly, and its clear to see why at SXSW Festival last year it won the Award for Best Narrative Feature. Mr Leon was also honored with an Independent Spirit Award as 'A Talent To Watch'.  And judging by this, he definitely is.

★★★★★★★★

SIDE EFFECTS

A chronically depressed young woman attempts suicide just days after her new husband has been released from prison after he served a sentence for insider trading. The Psychiatrist on duty in the ER room prescribes different regimes of drugs which do not shake off the 'poisonous fog bank' she is immersed in until she persuades him to give her Ablixa a new wonder drug. Whilst highly medicated she commits a dire crime and when she is tried in court uses Ablixa as her excuse and points the finger of blame at the Doctor for not knowing about the side effects.

This latest (and possibly last) movie from director Steven Soderbugh is one that you should know very little about before you see it. It is a first-rate convoluted thriller that unravels beautifully slowly and reminds you what a master storyteller Mr Soderbugh is when he is on form. It also at the same time takes a hefty swipe at the inequities of how the medical profession are in cohorts with the powerful pharmaceutical industry to over-prescribe untested drugs far too easily.

The plot is unquestionably the star of the piece, and with the exception of Rooney Mara in her just her third starring role, the acting was proficient but hardly remarkable. (Although why Mr Soderburgh keeps insisting on casting the handsome but wooden Channing Tatum is beyond me!)  

If this really is his last movie (save for 'Behind The Candelabra' the Liberace biopic due out on HBO very soon) then it's great that he is going out at the top of his (occasionally shaky) form.  But Mr Soderburgh is part of Hollywood where 'never again' rarely means just that.

★★★★★★★★

NIGHT ACROSS THE STREET

Chilean Raul Rutz was a prolific filmmaker who worked mainly in France, and is probably best known to US audiences for movies such as 'Mysteries of Lisbon' and 'Marcel Proust's Time Regained'.

This is his very last film made when he was dying and I think is best described as his personal farewell to movies.  In a complex and impossible 'story' this dream-like manifestation mixes all his historical idols such as Beethoven and Long John Silver from his childhood whilst at the same time is relating a narrative of old Don Celso who is about to be one of the victims of a murder plot.  Rutz mixes in many of the movie genres he loves : there is even a Randolph Scott Western, in what we assume is essentially a tale of his own life, but with all its eccentric image and heavy use of metaphors, nothing at all is straightforward about this strange madness.

It is quite unlike I have ever seen before, and still has me puzzling some 24 hours later.  It was one of the few times that I have sat in an Art House and witnessed half the audience depart before the end. I cannot say that I was riveted to my seat but I was so completely intrigued with the rapid flow of ornate symbolism and visions on the screen that he should choose for his swan song that even though I wasn't sure what everything meant, I felt somehow compelled to stay to the very end.   I have this feeling that some time in the future I will be very glad I did. 

★★★★★★

THE GATEKEEPERS

If this was my One Word Review (as opposed to 5 mins.) then I would unhesitatingly describe this Oscar Nominated Documentary by Dror Morah as 'maddening'.

Morah achieved an extraordinary feat in interviewing the six men who have headed up Israel's very shadowy counter-terrorism agency Shin Bet.  This ultra super-secretive organisation reports directly to the Prime Minister and is not answerable to Parliament in any way.  These six Directors led the service up from 1980 until 2011 and without exception their testimony was so shockingly harrowing that it was difficult at times to grasp that this wasn't some wild fictional movie that we were watching.

What makes their narratives that more potent is that each of the men are highly intelligent, articulate, and compelling but most of all strikingly compassionate.  They never faltered from doing their duty confidently and with rock-solid nerves even though they each made it clear they were painfully aware that they were dealing with situations which demanded amoral behaviour. 

Of all the atrocities that were discussed, there can be none worse than the Bus 300 incident in 1984 when some Palestinians hijacked a bus, and after they were captured they were summarily executed with their hands still tied behind their back. This was one of those occasions when Shin Bet was the scapegoat of the politicians who had been complicit in the bodged operation, and the director at the time, Avraham Shalom, had to resign so that they could keep their jobs. 

The movie also takes great pains to point out that not all terrorists are Palestinian, and Shin Bet had to deal with Israeli extremist factions such as the right wing Jewish Underground.  They were caught red-handed putting bombs on Palestinian buses which would have killed hundreds, but because of their links to the Israeli Establishment, they got off with minimal prison sentences.  

One of the many fascinating revelations of the movie was the surprising fact that all of the Directors shared a belief that a Palestinian State should have been a priority to the point they showed their disdain for their politicians not doing more about it. Except Premier Yitzhak Rabin, who of course paid with his own life at the hands of an assassin.

In a disputed region of the world that seems to be dominated by extremists of every persuasion, it is those of the far right that seem to be in the driving seat. It was interesting then to have one of the directors, Yaakov Peri, summarise it simply 'when you retire you become a bit of a leftist'. 

Moreh intersperses the interviews with news footage of the time which puts it all into context and it's like a potted history since the Six Day War.  There is no attempt to put forward any opposing points of view to those of the Shin Bet Commanders, but even if there were any credible challenges to the whole stream of detailed facts, there can still be no escaping from the inevitable conclusion from this remarkable film and that is simply there really can never be an real possibility of peace in this area.  Never ever.

It is a astonishingly superb movie  that has made so many people angry or shake their heads in despair. It is maddening that it will not change a single thing.

★★★★★★★★★★

ABSENT aka AUSENTE

16 year old Martin Blanco claims to have something in his eye, so Sebastian his High School Swimming Coach whisks him out of Class and takes him to the Eye Hospital Emergency Room.  The doctors give him the all clear, so the teacher offers to drive him home.  School is over for the day, and Martin realises that his bag and cell-phone are with his friend Juan who he was going to have a sleep-over with that night.  They cannot locate Juan or reach Martin's grandmother (his guardian) on the phone so Sebastian takes Martin back to sleep on his couch for the night rather than abandon him on the streets.

Back home they eat and then shower and after Sebastian phones his girlfriend to bring her up to speed with the situation, they retire from the night. Martin is in his tight briefs seductively spread out in the couch whilst Sebastian is sleeping soundly next door. There have been some long lingering glances from Martin, but his teacher is totally oblivious to them, and had he woken up in the night he would have found Martin besides the bed looking at him longingly.

Next day back when he arrives back at School Sebastian discovers that Martin's very distraught parents are there with the Police as their son hadn't returned home that night or even called them to say where he was. Martin feeds them a story about being with another school mate which they swallow with the same ease that Sebastian had believed the night before that the boy's parents lived in another part of the country.

When Sebastian realises he has been conned he challenges Martin for the reason, and the boy is happy enough to 'fess up that it had all been a ploy to get invited into his home hoping that once there 'something would happen' between them.  An angry Sebastian rebukes him but devious Martin knows that if the story ever became public, the Authorities would believe whatever he chose to say, and Sebastian would lose his job.

Argentinian filmmaker Marco Berger's follow up movie after 'Plan B' is full of promise, and sets you up beautifully with this intriguing story full of suspense, but once you are reeled in, just peters out to nothing and leaves you stranded wondering 'why'? 

We never got a glimpse inside Martin's psyche to even start to appreciate any rationale behind his actions, and the plot just wanders somewhat aimlessly once Sebastian uncovers his lies. And if that is not confusing enough, the overly dramatic soundtrack hints at something quite dark is about to happen, and it simply never does.

Such a pity as I was so onboard at the beginning willing this to work ..... its beautifully shot, and has some very strong performances.  It did however surprisingly win the TEDDY Award (best LGBT movie) at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011!

Out now on DVD and on Netflix

★★★★★★