Day After ..... (2022)CIFF 2022

 

If movies are supposed to reflect life then DAY AFTER..... is perhaps the best example of it I've seen in decades.

This is a magnificent trip down a river in Bangladesh. We board the boat and take a ride and hang out with the people traveling the river. We are never involved, always observing as life happens all around us. It's a stunning  experience as we are on that boat for that trip.

Beautifully shot in a glorious widescreen DAY AFTER....  visually puts us in the place where everything is happening.  We feel the cramped quarter on the ship, while we also feel the wide expanses of the world of the river. This is exactly the sort of experience that the epics of Hollywood tried to achieve but never did. 

I have no words to express what it's like to just fall into a film and suddenly find yourself on a grand adventure. 

There is so much to love about this film, but I think one of the best things is that the trip is always tactile. We are given verbal clues about the things we can't experience, the smell of a river, the taste of food, the feeling of objects. We may not be on the ship but we really are on the ship.

I love this film.

I know some people may not like it. Nothing much happens except a trip down the river, however at the same time everything happens, the whole world explodes before us as we see people vlogging, people discussing religion, politics, arguing about which bathroom they can use or how to navigate in the mist.

This is what movies should do- show you life and fill you with a sense of wonder.

Highly recommended - And if you can see this on a BIG screen and not a phone or computer do so because this was made to be seen huge.

Justice of Bunny King (2021) opens Friday and hits VOD on September 30

 I had every intention of not seeing The Justice of Bunny King but I stumbled into seeing it when I couldn’t access a different film in the Tribeca library. Wanting to watch something, it looked like the least painful of the available choices so I dove in…

The film is about Bunny King, a single mother who is living hand to mouth, paying bills by hustling to watch car wind shields. She is desperate to get enough money to get a home so protective services will give her kids back. As he plans go banana shaped she is asked by her niece for help. Can Bunny step up?

Bunny King surprised the hell out of me. It wasn’t the story that drew me in but the performances. Somewhere about the time that King, while visiting her kids shuts down a social worker for the way she asked her daughter if she wants different color, I was hooked. My planned short visit just to see how it is before  moving on became a stay for the whole run time just because I fell in love with the people.

Essie Davis is a marvel. She gives a fully formed performance that exists not only in the cinema world but in this one as well. We feel her pain. We completely understand why she does what she does. There is nothing wasted. And  what makes this work is the rest of the cast is as good as she is so we believe it all even when the plot takes a turn or two that is not ad organic or seems slightly cliché.

To be honest the problem with having issues with the plot is not that there is anything wrong with it, more that the cast is so good that we want more from the rest of the film

A solid story is vaulted into must see territory by the great cast.

Go see CONFESS, FLETCH (2022)

Gregory McDonald's Fletch returns to the big screen in the person of Jonn Hamm and all is right with the world....

... or would be if the suits weren't burying this film with almost no promotion and dumping into theaters at the same time it's on VOD..I'll come back to that.(also see addendum below)

Fletch has retired from reporting. He is now working on finding out who stole nine works of art from an Italian count. He's traveled from Italy to Boston following a lead and instantly ends up as a murder suspect when he discovers a dead girl in the house his girlfriend (the count's daughter) rented for him. From there it's Fletch being a smart ass as he follows the leads and battles to prevent the cops from arresting him.

This is a fine representation of the book. More or less this is exactly the sort of film that I wanted from when I first tore through the Fletch books decades ago.  Funny and smart this is entertaining as all hell. Outside of changing the Boston cop to "Slow Mo" Monroe  and his partner Griz from Flynn who was such a foil for Fletch that McDonald spun him off in his own adventures, this is pretty much what I remember the book to have been.

What a joy this film is. Genuinely funny you will laugh from start to finish. Outside of Kyle MacLaughlan's Horan's germphobia everyone on screen is a real character. Yes some are goofy,but there is still something there. I loved everyone and would love to see them return. I would even love to see a Monroe and Griz series.

Hamm's Fletch is a joy. Seemingly playing a suaver version of Chevy Chase Hamm at first gives a performance in such a way that you think it's going to be smarter but similar to the earlier films, and then the colors and shades come in. We quickly realize that Fletch may look like a fool, but there is way way more to him. Watch the whole end sequence where Hamm reveals what he was really doing. Yea he is goofy at times, but it's clear its careful calculations. You understand why Frank wants Fletch to work for him.

And I love- I mean a truly love - Fletch and Frank. Jon Hamm and John Slattery ripping each other in their few films is everything that movies should be.  Their real life friendship bleeds into their roles making them one of the greatest on screen teams ever.

This is a film that is so good it should spawn a long running series of films....

...and that's the rub. Miramax/Paramount dumped this film into theaters and on to VOD (and Showtime next month) with almost no publicity. Yes they let some reviewers see it, but they did zip in the way of promotion. Of course you would think that would mean the film sucks- but as everyone I've run across  has said this film is so good that had it been properly handled this should have been the start of a long running series.  When was the last time you read reviewers bemoaning that they may not get more films in a series. Never. It never happens- other than the odd review here or there it never happens but review after review begs for more films

What was Miramax/Paramount thinking?

Do yourself a favor-either go see this film or get it on VOD. 

Yes I know the VOD is about 20 bucks, but get some friends and get some popcorn and see this. Do what you can but vote with your wallet that you want more Fletch films. Trust me once you see this film you'll want more. Actually what you'll have is a new film that you watch every time it's on cable. Yes, this is going to be one of those films that you watch a thousand times.

Please! Please! Please see this film so we can have more Fletch films and set the world back on the road to being alright.

CONFESS, FLETCH is one of the joys of 2022 and a must.

ADDENDUM: The film was made by Miramax, who sold it to Paramount who is giving it limited theatrical run along with the VOD release. It will be on Showtime at the end of October

Fantastic Fest starts Thursday

The great Fantastic Fest starts this week and Unseen Films is going to have coverage up through the fest.

One of the most important genre festivals of the year it’s the place to see great horror, scifi, action and fantasy films from around the globe.  It’s the place to see many of the films that will be blockbusters over the next year before everyone else. Need proof, BLACK PHONE started here last year before it blew it all up at the box office.

I can’t wait to dive in and start to see what goodies they are screening.

Well actually I have seen a good number of their films already so if you want to get a check out my thoughts on some of their films click on the titles below and see what out thoughts were:

Liz Whittemore on ATTACHMENT

CHOP AND STEELE

COUNTRY GOLD

DEMIGOD

Liz Whittemore on FAMILY DINNER

HUESERA

LEONORA WILL NEVER DIE

LYNCH/OZ

MISSING

ONE AND FOUR

SHIN ULTRAMAN

SOMETHING IN THE DIRT

SWALLOWED

UNIDENTIFIED OBJECTS

WE MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD

WOUNDED FAWN

I’ve also seen a few others and will have reviews closer to screening. (Though my review of BONES AND ALL, DECISION TO LEAVE and TRIANGLE OF SADNESS have to wait until they play the New York Film Festival)

I suggest you keep an eye out for NIGHTSIREN which is nominally a horror film but is really a look at superstition in small communities in the modern world. It kicked be in the chest.

I also highly recommend VESPER. The story of a young girl trying to help bring back the plants in a world where the ecology has been wiped out by Man’s interference. It’s the first film in years that you’ll want a sequel to because you both want to see what’s next and because you want to return to the world it presents.

More reports are coming so keep reading.

For more information and tickets go here

Burial (2022) CIFF 2022

Meditation on how we are going to handle dealing with hiding away the nuclear waste we produce. Focusing on a reactor that is a large twin of the one at Chernobyl which is being cut apart and buried we are left to ponder the enormity of the project and what the future brings.

This is a haunting film about the dangerous garbage we create.  Focusing on making us see what the places look like where we mine uranium and turn it into electricity, we are forced to wonder what we are doing to our environment.  Not much is said, we are simply told things by titles on the screen. This is a film focused on making us feel and think.

I've seen several films on what to do with nuclear waste over the years, indeed one of the first films I covered for Unseen at Tribeca was INTO ETERNITY about trying to design a storage facility that would remain safe for millennia. Most of the films faded from my head not long after seeing them. That isn't the case with BURIAL. In the 24 or so hours since I saw the film before I wrote it up I was haunted by it. The images came back to me and I wanted to revisit it not just because I wanted to reengage with what it was telling me but because the visuals are so striking.

Highly recommended, especially if you can see it on a big screen.

Me to Play (2021) Plays Fandor starting September 20

Dan Moran and Chris Jones are two New York actors who have developed Parkinson's Disease. Unsure how much longer they will be able to continue performing they embark on a production of Samuel Beckett's Endgame for what may be their last time before an audience.

Haunting and hopeful, with more than a touch of bittersweetness ME TO PLAY is one of my early favorites of Slamdance. Watching the film I was reminded of the struggles of friends and relatives with their own and their relatives battles with the awful disease. Watching the men shuffle through their days broke my heart because the film makes clear what the disease does not only to the person afflicted but also the people around them.

That last bit is responsible for one of my favorite bits in the film when I believe it's Dan's wife expressed her displeasure at Michael J Fox and his family for making the course f the disease seem like shiny happy bunny farts. Her wish was to be more like Mother Teresa in handling her husband's illness but that isn't possible since it is kicking the shit out of her too. It's a towering moment, not couched in anything but emotion that lets people know it's sucks to be a caregiver some time and that brave face isn't always possible.

This is a marvelous portrait of two men struggling to keep doing what they love, and if this it is the end for them it's a good way to go out. God bless them both and their families.

I really loved this film. And I really am bummed I didn't get to see the production of Endgame.

Highly recommended. 

One of my favorite films of the year Onoda, 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2022) plays FIAF Tuesday

Onoda hit me like a ton of bricks. The true(ish) story of a soldier who remained on station alone for decades, seemingly forgotten by his army moved me. There is something about the notion of duty and honor and all of the motions tied up with that really hit home for me.

While the film is based on the life of Hiroo Onoda who remained in the Phillipines for 30 years after the end of the second world war, it is not a historically accurate on his story. The film is not based on Onoda’s memoirs but uses the work of Cendron and Gérard Chenu’s biography and archive as a jumping off point.  Director Arthur Harari and Vincent Poymiro take his story and fashion it into an emotional tale of a man trying to stay alive and do what he feels is his duty. It’s a film rich with ideas, themes and especially emotion. Onoda is not a crazed soldier, he is something much more complex and Harari and Poymiro explore the inner landscape of the man. We are moved by his plight.  By the time the film ended and we saw his journey home I was misty. I felt for him.

To be honest there is a lot going on in this film and I need to see it again a few more times to really feel comfortable discussing it. Its not that there is anything wrong with the film, more that there is so much right with it that I don’t know where to start. I don’t know what I should discuss and what I can leave for you to discover. Yes the film runs almost three hours and it’s a very full three hours. Every moment is carefully constructed to move things along either narratively or emotionally. This is a film where long takes and silences are just as important as motion and dialog. In trying to write on this film I have run into the best sort of a problem , how do I express how a film makes you feel and how it alters how you think.

Frankly I am in love with this film. 45 minutes into watching it I shot off a brief Tweet that I was watching a film that was making me wonder why more people weren’t talking about it. This film that reminds me of all the films from the early to mid 1970’s that opened my eyes to what cinema outside of Hollywood was like. This is a throw back to the grand  days 40 or 50 years when “art cinemas” where opening the minds of regular people to cinemas as literature.

This is one of my favorite films the year so far.

Highly recommended

It Is Night In America (2022) CIFF 2022

Deadly dull look at life at night in a Brazilian  city, focusing on the interactions of people and animals.

Opening with what maybe the most annoying four and a half minutes in  years (we watch a camera spin around and around in increasing speed on top of a building in a city) this film  wears out its welcome early and never recovers.  Made up of  grainy night time images, mostly of animals in extreme close up, the film presents a look at life at night. The trouble is that other than juxtaposing the animals and people a couple of times and a couple of interactions of people and animals, there really isn't anything there here. 

The problem is there is nothing  here to put anything in context. What are the filmmakers going for? I don't know. We are so close in most shots the images could have been shot in a dark room or in a zoo.

I lost interest quickly and tuned out. 

I can't recommend this film at all.

H (2022) CIFF 2022

 Director Carlos Pardo Ros tries to sort the time immediately before the death of a man known briefly only as H. He was killed during the running of the bulls when he was thrown and gored. Using eyewitness testimony and recreations he recreates the night before the tragedy.

Low key and meditative look at what might have happened to a relative many years ago.  This is a documentary that leans very much toward being a tone poem. It's an achingly beautiful film that you fall into. This is a film that is just as much about the telling as the tale with the result is a film that alters your head space. This is a grand tale that you cling to and want to revisit repeatedly.

I absolutely love this film a great deal

Recommended.

All of our Heartbeats are Connected through Exploding Stars (2022) CIFF 2022

 

This is a look at several people and nature and how they recovered in the years after the 3/11 tsunami.

Low key meditative portrait of how humans and nature healed after the earth changing tsunami eleven years ago. We watch as several people go through their paces and discuss their loss and recovery. At the same time we are told of how the changes the wave brought  was slowly healed by nature.

This is a quiet little film focusing on the cycle of life. We come to understand how the massive sudden change altered their worlds and made it difficult to come back. We also see how  over time that happened.

We are also shown what happened in the wake of the wave of water. We see how the material it pulled out into the sea is still out there and how it is slowly making landfall at places like Hawaii.

If you're in the mood for a quiet meditation and life, change and healing this film is recommended.

My Imaginary Country (2022) Camden International Film Festival

Patricio Gúzman returns to Chile 45 years after the revolution he documented in THE BATTLE OF CHILE in order to document another a revolution brought on by the general anger and unhappiness of the people. Not directed by political parties or politicians the revolution sought to make the country a livable and safer place than it had been before.

A documentary portrait of the now tinged with a trip down memory lane Gúzman shows us a movement that seems to have succeeded where early uprisings failed. Gúzman‘s film is full of hope and how the dreams of the past seem to be coming true in the country he loves so well.

I was moved to tears by the stories of the protesters who simply stepped up because they had to. They are not motivated by ideology  rather by a simple desire to do good. As the people say I march because I have to.  A mother at the start talks about having to go out and march knowing that there  is always a chance she might not come back. He desire was born out of a need to make the world a better place for her son despite knowing she might never come back. She goes know that even if she never comes back she will be leaving her son in a better world because of it.

Its powerful stuff and it will rock you.

For me it was nice to see people protesting real issues and not the alleged mistreatment of a billionaire liar grifter.

I loved MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY and I can’t wait to put a copy next to my copy of THE BATTLE OF CHILE

Highly recommended.

MY IMAGINARY COUNTRY sneak previews tomorrow at the Camden International Film Festival before opening Friday

ROBUST (2022) plays FAIFF Tuesday September 20, 2022 at 4pm

Hands down the best thing I’ve seen Gérard Depardieu in in a very long time.  Playing a version of himself, a famous actor with a difficult reputation he ends up with a part time wrestler to act as his bodyguard and babysitter when his regular one has to take time off.  Of course the odd couple begin to bond in unexpected ways.

This is a great little film. To be certain the film hits many of the expected points, but at the same time the performance and the interplay between  Depardieuand Déborah Lukumuena shines.  It’s a chemistry of the sort we don’t see very often.

And I need to just say again how good Depardieu is. This is the first time  in a long time where he seems to real relish performing. There is a genuine performance here not just a movie star tearing through his lines.  When the film was done I wanted to up to him and give him a hug for being wonderful.

This is worth your time and money.

Rewind And Play (2022) CIFF 2022 NYFF 2022

On the afternoon before Thelonious Monk played a concert in Paris, Jazz writer  Henri Renaud had Monk come in to record a solo performance and do an interview for French television. The performance was released as a now classic record a short time later. The interview was conveniently  “lost to the ages” until director  Alain Gomis rediscovered the raw footage and assembled it into a cringe inducing experience.

The cringing is not because the film is bad, rather it’s because Renaud is shown to be an absolute asshole. What starts off as a friendly talk turns ugly as Renaud refuses to accept Monk’s answers to his questions and either repeats them or says things that will make you wonder how a “jazz writer of great stature” could say this to one of the legends of the art. It’s obvious Renaud has issues and wants to stand superior to Monk.  Silences lengthen and things get uncomfortable as Monk refuses to bow to the racism before him. Clearly Monk is not standing for the bullshit and he just stares at Renaud in disbelief, giving him the answers he has for the stupid questions. Renaud comes off so badly that you know why this was buried, and you see how Renaud’s reputation is going to be tossed on the trash heap of history.

It’s a painful thing to watch. More so since in watching Monk with the handlers who get him to the engagement or the crew the problem is not them.

Beyond the confrontation there is the music. Monk slays it in a solo performance that has rightly become a classic in the eyes of many Jazz aficionados.  Not having seen a great deal of footage of Monk play before I fell in love with seeing him interacting with the piano with the ease of a true master. You know why the music was released.

This is a solid film and worth your time- especially if you are a jazz fan. It’s a damning reminder of the quiet racism that exists even in the places you would never expect it to.

The film is currently playing at the Camden International Film Festival bot in person and virtually through September 25.

It will play The New York Film Festival October 8 and 9

EVERYTHING WRONG AND NOWHERE TO GO (2022) Camden International Film Fest 2022

Director Sindha Agha is worried about how climate change is pushing us to extinction so she contacts a Climate Psychologist and begins having sessions to come to terms with the things she can't change.

Cinematic meditation on how climate change is making many of us nuts. The fear of not being able to either control what is happening or know what will happen is a real thing and there is a whole new track in mental health aimed at helping people. Agha uses her own fears to help everyone in the audience.

This nifty little film is going to be a god send for many. In its brief running time it lays out why we feel as we do and how we can deal with it. Sure it may not replace sessions with a professional but it at least can help us calm down a bit and realize we are neither alone nor crazy.

This is a super little film and is recommended.

Nate Hood on The Seer and The Unseen which plays Ovid September 9/20

You may not believe in elves, but Ragnhildur “Ragga” Jónsdóttir does. Like hundreds of thousands of her fellow Icelanders, she believes in the existence of huldufólk (“hidden people”), invisible nature spirits that inhabit rocks, trees, streams, and mountains just like the kami in Japanese Shinto. Since the first Vikings arrived in Iceland in the ninth century, the huldufólk have been central figures in their culture and folklore—it’s said the first documented law in their nation’s history required ship captains to remove dragon figureheads from their ships when coming into port so they wouldn’t frighten them. Ragga is among the most revered “seers” in Iceland, one of the select few believed capable of seeing and communicating with them. She’s hired to investigate construction sites to make sure they aren’t disturbing their otherworldly inhabitants; in one early scene she explains to the bemused yet patient owner of a bed and breakfast near a tourist-infested geyser that his intended expansion is next door to a colony of huldufólk living in a cluster of birch trees. She seems at first glance a gentle old woman, earnest, magnanimous, completely harmless. At least until she puts herself directly into the government’s crosshairs by announcing an imminent highway construction project through the Gálgahraun Lava Field will go straight through one of their most sacred villages. Almost overnight she becomes an icon among Icelandic environmentalists who want to stop the destruction of the ancient lava field. But can she handle the pressure?

Sara Dosa’s The Seer and the Unseen is the portrait of one woman’s battle to preserve her beliefs and homeland from the ravages of capitalism run wild. At least it should’ve been. Overlong and unfocused, the film attempts too many things at once, veering wildly from lectures about the Icelandic economy and the reckless “Viking investors” whose antics exacerbated the 2008 financial crisis to glorified home movies of Ragga puttering around her home with her family. These latter are at least tolerable due to their depiction of how folk beliefs are transmitted through the generations, but when the serious topics of climate change and economic corruption show up they feel thematically out of place. It grows into a film of visceral psychological violence, unflinchingly showing the abuse of protestors by police and the destruction of the environment by construction workers.

This film needed tighter focus, a clearer purpose, and about fifteen minutes shaved off.

Rating: 5/10

Gratitude Revealed (2022)

This is a look at how changing your attitude to gratitude and good thoughts will make not only your life but the world better.

I went into this film with the general thought that the last thing we need in the world is another namby pamby  goodie two shoes look at  how changing our way of viewing the world will make thigs better. I mean the world is fragmenting and everyone is ready to kill their neighbor. How can changing one’s mind help?

Apparently it can. I mean I came out of the film a great deal more hopeful then when I went in.

The film is a collection of portraits of various people who talk about how they changed their lives  by changing how they viewed the world.  We watch as a bunch of really nice people talk about how they made their lives better by trying to think and be better.

What can I say this film melted this curmudgeon’s heart. To be certain the film feels a bit too much as like a slick this is good for you doc, but once you get past the slick presentation and you just take the various people profiled on their on terms its really good. When you focus on people like Jack Kornfeld, Norman Lear or Michael Beckwith it’s less like teacher telling you what to do then a friend telling you what works for them to get them into a better place.

Worth a look

We Are Art: Through the Eyes of Annalaura(2022)

 Artist and director Annalaura di Luggo chronicles the creation of Colloculi, multi-media, interactive art installation constructed in the shape of an eye made of recycled materials  It chronicles the lives of four individuals  who are in the process of change. As he viewer interacts with the art they can find themselves inside the story.

Good portrait of the artist in the act of creation doc  could have used a bit of distance in the telling. As the film stands Annalaura the director is much to close to the artist with the result that the film doesn’t play a truly informational documentary but more as an hour long promo for the piece. The camera is almost always on the artist. She is almost always looking into the camera and not the people she is talking to making it every sequence is seem staged.  It’s not fatal  but it keeps us at arm’s length

If you are interested in the creative drive and how a work of art comes together give this film a try.

Tekkonkinkreet plays Friday at the Japan Society

This is a repost of the review that I ran a couple of years ago on the truly mind blowing Tekkonkinkreet. This is one of the touchstone films i my love of animation because there is nothing like it which is why you should see it.

Tekkonkinkreet is the story of two kids named Black and White. They are known as the Cats and are considered by some to be the protectors of a part of the city known as Treasure Town. As a year goes by a yakuza captain returns to the city and a man named Snake appears with his eye on turning that part of the city into an amusement park.

I'm explaining it badly, forgive me, since this is a film thats better to experience than to hear about. Using a mix of 2D and 3D CGI this is a film that is vibrantly alive. There is a real sense of place that is missing from many animated films. The world bleeds off the screen. The film rarely sits still its constantly in motion as characters go from place to place or engage in battles for life and death. Its an amazing thing to watch.

The characters are very real. The voices of the kids were kids and seemed to perfectly match their personalities. The same goes for the other characters as well. What I liked was that the kids were kids. They seemed to be real kids behaving in the situations presented. Granted the film is wildly fantastical but the personalities and behaviors outside of the running and jumping and beating people up was real.

A word of warning, this is a dark film at times. There is a great deal of violence, which despite being animated is very nasty and bloody. The film also has some dark undertones as some of the characters slip into the darkness of their souls. Its disturbing enough to get an R rating.

On the down side the film takes a while to get going. I was about a third of the way in before it started to click with me. No doubt it was due in part to the very large cast of characters. (I'm certain this is going to play better on a second viewing). My other problem with the film was a shift towards the end which makes me think I may have missed something along the way. I feel as though I missed the climax of somethings. (Again this will probably be better on the next viewing)

Over all worth a shot. definitely see this in widescreen since the compositions are geared to that.

JB on WILD (2016) which plays on Ovid September 16th

Joe Bendel saw WILD a couple years ago at Sundance. I am reposting his review which originally ran at JB Spins to tie into the running on Ovid.TV starting on the 16th.

Wolves are solitary creatures, but they mate for  life. Perhaps that is why Ania is attracted to them. By ‘attracted,” we mean in the most provocative way possible. The call of the wild is strangely seductive to her in Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Ania is a mousy office drone, but her blowhard boss can see just enough of the swan beneath her ugly duckling exterior to skirt the boundary of sexual harassment. Yet, Ania hardly seems to notice. She just plugs away, maintaining her emotional distance from everyone around her. One night, she locks eyes with a wolf on the edge of the woods surrounding her drab apartment building. Strangely, it is her first real connection that we know of. Soon she is leaving meat for it, hoping to win its trust. After an aborted attempt, she successfully entraps and smuggles him into an abandoned flat in her complex.

Initially, the wolf is generally not receptive to her plans. He is rather loud, hostile, and smelly, demonstrating several reasons why exotic pets are such a terrible idea. However, as their “courtship” progresses, Ania and the wolf come to an understanding. Yes, it will have a physical component. Yet, she is not just drawn to the wolf. She also finds his “lifestyle” enticing.

It is important viewers do not confuse the various films simply titled Wild. One features a beautiful actress doing awards caliber work and the other is a light-weight Reese Witherspoon vehicle. Fortunately, this is the former (though technically it is the later production). It also seems to bear comparison to Roar, the notorious Tippi Hedren film, in which the cast was regularly mauled by poorly trained lions. Human-wolf proximity is downright intimate here as well. It all gets rather alarming for safety reasons, rather than prurient concerns. However, wolf trainers Zoltan Horkai and peter Ivanyi deserve credit for the masterful control, as does lead actress Lilith Stangenberg for her nerves of steel.

Frankly, it is a bit of a surprise Stangenberg did not walk away with this year’s performance award. This is one of the darnedest empowerment arcs you will ever see, but she makes every animalistic step believable. Krebitz’s aesthetic is pretty severe and she lets the film get a slow start out of the blocks, but somehow she manages to take the potentially lurid material and make it feel dignified and cerebral.

Too bad Sundance does not have an animal handling award, because Wild would have won in a landslide (the same would have been true for White God last year). If you want to see a film about human-lupine relations and not feel guilty or embarrassed about it afterward than this is the one you have been waiting for. It is also worth seeing for the rest of us, thanks to Stangenberg’s fearless (in several ways) breakout performance, so expect to see it programmed aggressively, following its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Riotsville (2022) opens Friday

RIOTSVILLE,USA is an odd duck film. A mix of documentary and essay it gives me a lot to chew on but by the time it  was done I wasn’t sure I wanted to.

The film is a look at America through the lens of civil unrest in the 1960’s. As the country exploded in riots the Federal government set up a commission to study it and a fake town in order to train the military as to how to handle social unrest. We watch footage shot in the town by the government which is intercut with TV footage  of news broadcasts and stories. There is voice over commentary and on screen text relating facts.

While the film is very much trying to discuss  the inequality in America and how that lead to unrest there is a point where the film kind of runs out of steam.  The  discussion and footage kind of repeats and until the film gets toward the end with a brief plea for a new Harlem, the film largely stalls with the need for the film to be stretched to feature length working against it.

While not bad I was disappointed