Strand Releasing released writer-director Markus Schleinzer’s Michael on DVD in the United States today. To celebrate, we figured that we would post a clip from Michael. And let’s just say that after watching this clip, “Sunny” will have an entirely new meaning…

Writer/Director: Markus Schleinzer
Starring: Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger, Christine Kain, Ursula Strauss, Victor Tremmel, Xaver Winkler, Thomas Pfalzmann

Not to be confused with the Nora Ephron film starring John Travolta, Austrian writer-director Markus Schleinzer’s Michael is an everyday portrait of a pedophile. (Yes, you read that correctly.) A very average-looking thirtysomething, Michael (Michael Fuith) spends his mundane days working in an insurance office. Then, when he arrives home after work, Michael closes the shutters of his windows nice and tight and heads down to the basement to visit Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger), the 10-year-old boy whom he keeps locked up down there. Michael and Wolfgang have dinner, wash dishes, watch movies and play games; then Michael ushers Wolfgang back to the basement and locks him up again… Schleinzer makes Michael’s disturbing sexual deviancy seem surprisingly normal. Except for one scene, Michael never becomes the stereotypical, creepy and deranged pedophile that Hollywood has consistently revealed to us. (Mind the pun.) Instead, Michael is all about keeping up the appearances of a banal, middle-class, suburban existence. He is a model employee at work, keeps his home impeccably tidy and clean, maintains regular contact with his sister and mother, goes on a ski trip with some buddies… (Check out our 8 out of 10 review of Micheal.)

Director: Will James Moore

Writer: Will James Moore, Jonathan Case

Starring: Nathan Phillips, Zachary Knighton, Shannon Lucio, Janina Gavankar, Patrick Bauchau, Turk Pipkin, Chad Mathews, Mike Lutz, Meaghan Cooper

Satellite of Love begins at a carnival as Blake (Zachary Knighton), Samuel (Nathan Phillips) and Catherine (Shannon Lucio) trip the lights fantastic. This turns out to be sometime in the past, presumably while the characters were best friends in college. We flash-forward to a period of time after graduation. Samuel has become a musician and bohemian of the world; Catherine and Blake got married, now they run a restaurant (which Austinites will recognize as Justine’s) together. The threesome might have been BFFs in college, but Catherine and Blake have taken a decidedly different path in life than Samuel.

Catherine and Blake are initially stand-offish when Samuel returns home, obviously still sore from Samuel not attending their wedding. As an apology for his absence at their wedding, Samuel invites Blake and Catherine to the idyllic Nadi Vineyards for a week-long vacation. Samuel brings his sexy Spanish friend [with benefits], Michelle (Janina Gavankar), along for the ride. The wines of the Texas Hill Country begin to flow with reckless abandon — as we all know, that can only lead to one thing…

Considering that Catherine is Samuel’s ex-girlfriend, everyone involved should have known that this vacation was a really bad idea. The foursome’s perpetually drunken state of bliss loosens everyone up enough that they begin to reconsider their options; all the while, the brightest satellite in the sky — Venus (which represents love, sex, and fertility) — shines down upon the four protagonists. Catherine and Samuel are forced to face their feelings of past love and regret, while Blake and Michelle turn into the third and fourth wheels of the scenario.

Catherine is essentially faced with a choice between two distinct personalities and lifestyles. Her husband Blake takes life [too?] seriously; he is a successful chef and businessman who is [overly] concerned with their economic well-being. Blake is the poster child of United States capitalism — he always seems stressed and works incessantly. Order and planning are very important to Blake, so he likes the routine that he and Catherine have settled into. And even though women still love him, Blake is a devout monogamist. Samuel, on the other hand, represents the carefree notion of living life without any concerns for money. Let’s just say that the free-spirited Australian has adjusted well to the constant partying of the European lifestyle. Blake describes Samuel’s fun-loving approach to life as “blow and go” and his seemingly anti-capitalist ways are instantly pegged as communist. Samuel oozes passion, while Blake is the personification of security. Despite their differences, Blake and Samuel are best friends — and they love the same woman.

So, by settling down with Blake, did Catherine merely settle? Samuel seems to believe that Catherine is his one true love, but is he Catherine’s? What is more important in relationships: passion or security? When it comes down to it, Blake and Samuel express their love for Catherine differently. Catherine will just need to decide which one suits her better. Blake and Samuel also begin to contemplate the choices in front of them — Samuel’s eyes begin to wander towards Michelle, while Samuel contemplates the possibility of settling down with Catherine. In other words, the four protagonists are stuck in post-collegiate limbo, uncertain if they have made the right decisions thus far and confused about what to do next.

Eric Rohmer’s La Collectionneuse (1967) serves as a purposeful point of reference for writer-director Will James Moore’s Satellite of Love — not only does Moore cast the lead actor of La Collectionneuse (Patrick Bauchau) as Samuel’s eccentric friend, but Moore even mimics the tranquil Mediterranean atmosphere of La Collectionneuse by setting Satellite of Love in the vineyards of the Texas Hill Country. But while the fourth of Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales functions as a sharp criticism of the lack of morality in the youth of the 1960s, Moore allows his characters to criticize each other and refrains from stamping any sort of directorial judgment on them. The script lives up to the classic intellectualism of Rohmer without ever feeling too stilted or forced; while visually Satellite of Love maintains the vibrancy of the French New Wave, particularly with its impeccably crafted mise-en-scène. Satellite of Love is absolutely gorgeous, from the oh-so-beautiful cast to Steve Acevedo’s masterful cinematography. (I am holding out hope that Satellite of Love will screen theatrically somewhere in Austin.) Rohmer would probably be very proud that he inspired Moore’s film.

Of course, Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love” (from Transformer) is another obvious reference; a fitting one at that, since the song is about the inherent jealousy of contemplating an unfaithful girlfriend…

Rating: 8/10

Smells Like Screen Spirit & Lionsgate invite you

to RSVP for passes to our special advance screenings of

WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN YOU’RE EXPECTING

May 14, 2012 at 7:30 PM in

Dallas & San Antonio, TX.

Synopsis: Over the moon about starting a family, TV fitness guru Jules and dance show star Evan find that their high-octane celebrity lives don’t stand a chance against the surprise demands of pregnancy. Baby-crazy author and advocate Wendy gets a taste of her own militant mommy advice when pregnancy hormones ravage her body; while Wendy’s husband, Gary, struggles not to be outdone by his competitive alpha-Dad, who’s expecting twins with his much younger trophy wife, Skyler. Photographer Holly is prepared to travel the globe to adopt a child, but her husband Alex isn’t so sure, and tries to quiet his panic by attending a “dudes” support group, where new fathers get to tell it like it really is. And rival food truck chefs Rosie and Marco’s surprise hook-up results in an unexpected quandary: what to do when your first child comes before your first date?

Director: Kirk Jones

Starring: Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Elizabeth Banks, Chace Crawford, Brooklyn Decker, Anna Kendrick, Matthew Morrison, Dennis Quaid, Chris Rock, Rodrigo Santoro, Ben Falcone and Joe Manganiello

Studio: Lionsgate

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Release Date: Friday, May 18, 2012

Screening Info: Monday, May 14, 2012 at 7:30 PM

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.

Dallas click here to RSVP

San Antonio click here to RSVP

Arrive early. Screenings are over-booked to ensure a full house and to compensate for “no shows.” Tickets are not a guarantee of admission.

We first saw writer-director Markus Schleinzer’s Michael at Fantastic Fest 2011 and it literally sent ice cold shivers down our spine. Schleinzer’s film also screened in the main competition at Cannes Film Festival, and was an official selection at AFI Fest, Toronto and Chicago International Film Festivals. The film won the Golden Pram Award for Best Feature Film at the Zagreb Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the Miskolc International Film Festival.

Strand Releasing will be releasing Michael on DVD in the United States on May 15, 2012. Since we consider Michael to be one of the creepiest pedophile films ever made, we jumped at the opportunity when Strand asked us to give away a few copies of the DVD to our loyal readership.

Director: Markus Schleinzer
Writer: Markus Schleinzer
Starring: Michael Fuith, David Rauchenberger, Christine Kain, Ursula Strauss, Victor Tremmel, Xaver Winkler, Thomas Pfalzmann
Not to be confused with the Nora Ephron film starring John Travolta, Austrian writer-director Markus Schleinzer’s Michael is an everyday portrait of a pedophile. A very average-looking thirtysomething, Michael (Michael Fuith) spends his mundane days working in an insurance office. Then, when he arrives home after work, Michael closes the shutters of his windows nice and tight and heads down to the basement to visit Wolfgang (David Rauchenberger), the 10-year-old boy whom he keeps locked up down there. Michael and Wolfgang have dinner, wash dishes, watch movies and play games; then Michael ushers Wolfgang back to the basement and locks him up again.

Also be sure to check out:
– Don Simpson’s 8 out of 10 review of Michael

For your chance to win a Michael DVD, tell us (in the Comments section below) the title of a film that sends ice cold shivers down your spine.

***Please note: We can only ship DVDs to U.S. postal addresses.***

Winners will be picked at random on May 15, 2012. Good luck!!!

Director: Patric Chiha

Writer: Patric Chiha

Starring: Béatrice Dalle, Isaïe Sultan, Alain Libolt, Raphaël Bouvet, Sylvia Rohrer, Udo Samel, Tatiana Vialle, Bernd Birkhahn, Manuel Marmier, Gisèle Viene, Gloria Pedemonte, Thomas Landbo

Nadia (Béatrice Dalle) is a mathematician. The rhythms and patterns of her life appear to be very orderly and precise, like — ehem — math. Her high heels clack like a metronome as she goes on the same walk in the park with her 17-year-old nephew, Pierre (Isaie Sultan), day after day after day. The repetition is enough to lull one into a hypnotized state, which could explain why Pierre seems so mesmerized by his aunt. Star-struck is more like it. Pierre worships at the altar of Nadia; to Pierre, she is the epitome of cool. But maybe Nadia is cool because she actually listens to Pierre; she cares what he thinks — especially when it comes to his fashion advice. Most importantly, though, Nadia allows Pierre to be himself.

As we spend more time with Nadia, her highly organized facade begins to chip and crack. The near-arrogant confidence of Nadia’s powerful sexual presence is in reality just a cover-up for a fragile, self-conscious woman who drowns her sorrows and pities in alcohol. This is the point of Patric Chiha’s Domain, to reveal that people are not always what they seem and that the perception of order might just be shrouding an underlying chaos. Chiha allows the editing structure of Domain to parallel Nadia’s personality as the rhythmic and repetitive editing structure of the first act becomes increasingly random and disheveled as the narrative progresses.

Pierre becomes more aware of his aunt’s faults as he witnesses Nadia’s drinking habits become increasingly debilitating. As Nadia’s world spirals downward into unbridled alcoholism, Pierre commences his first relationship. The timing on Pierre’s part seems purely coincidental, but we can only assume that Nadia’s jealousy of Pierre’s new friend/lover plunges her even deeper into a crippling stupor of drunkenness.

Why is Nadia so jealous that Pierre is finally blossoming into an adult? Well, Chiha cleverly keeps the exact nature of Nadia and Pierre’s relationship somewhat ambiguous. There is an uncomfortable creep-factor of something being a bit “off” between them; but if their relationship is incestuous, it is never consummated on screen. We are left to assume that Nadia is afraid of being lonely, but there might be more to it than just that.

Rating: 7/10

Director: Joss Whedon

Writers: Zak Penn (story), Joss Whedon (story), Stan Lee (characters), Jack Kirby (characters)

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson

If you’re undecided on whether or not to hit up the theater to see The Avengers, you’ve probably never picked up a Marvel comic book in the past 49 years, or you’re just not into big action movies. Either way you can save 10 minutes of your life and read something else on the internet today. I hear there are some deliciously low fat recipes on Skinnytaste; maybe you can pin them to your Pinterest or tweet them to your lady friends?

If you’ve been waiting with bated breath for this superhero extravaganza to hit the screens for what seems like an eternity then you can just skip this review ‘cause you know what I’m going to say…this is THE comic book blockbuster of the decade. OK, maybe not the whole decade, but it is definitely the preeminent comic book blockbuster to come out in 2012.

So if you’re still reading this true believers, let’s get to it. First off I’d like to point out that I’m a big enough comic nerd to have picked up on the heavy handed Jim Starlin-esque cosmic opening (and post credit closing) but not enough of a geek to realize that the reptilian extraterrestrials Loki has hooked up with to conquer the Earth were actually Skrulls. They kept calling them the Chitauri and never once did those suckers do any shape-shifting for Christ’s sake; how was I supposed to know? I mean other than their green skin, pointy ears, and corrugated chins…

Anyway, the story goes like this: Evil Asgardian, Loki, has big plans to steal the Tesseract (which you may remember from the post credit scene in Thor, or as the hypercube from Iron Man 2, or even as “the jewel of Odin’s treasure room” from Captain American: The First Avenger) from S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division) and use its unlimited power to subjugate us puny Earthlings. Loki succeeds with phase one of his evil plan and his theft of the Tesseract (and mind control of some of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s top players) forces S.H.I.E.L.D. director, Nick Fury, into reactivating the Avengers Initiative. This sets off a chain of ear shattering, eyeball searing events and the assembling of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes to face the greatest threat our world has ever faced! And it’s all in done in amazing stereoscopics!

Let’s talk about this whole 3-D phenomenon for a second. I’m not against it, and I’m certainly all for it when it comes to certain types of movies. When you’re watching something as amazing as superheroes slugging it out with alien invaders (and each other) for 2 and a half hours, don’t you want the action to be as in your face as humanly possible? I know I do! And even though it took me about 20 minutes to get used to all the whiz bang 3-D tricks, once I got comfortable I couldn’t imagine watching The Avengers in boring ol’ two dimensions.

I don’t think many would argue that Joss Whedon maybe wasn’t everyone’s first choice to handle a comic book  movie of this scope but probably turned out to be the best man for the job. His ability to capture the more human emotions from a bunch of super heroes without slipping into the maudlin territory inhabited by the X-Men was no mean feat. Thanks to Whedon’s writing and direction, (almost) every actor had some room to breathe some believability into their extraordinary characters. Robert Downey, Jr. propels the film forward with his fast talking, flippant, and furiously handsome Tony Stark/Iron Man, while Chris Evans keeps the whole thing grounded as Marvel’s own big blue boyscout, Steve Rogers/Captain America. Johansson and Renner are fine as Black Widow and Hawkeye but who I really wanted on the team were founding members Wasp and Ant-Man. Who knows, maybe those rumors about Eva Longoria and Nathan Fillion as the pint sized crime fighting couple will come true in the sequel? The real surprise star and crowd-pleaser was Mark Ruffalo’s Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk combo. Ruffalo’s approach to Banner was eccentric genius meets a kind of “not gonna’ take it anymore” Straw Dogs David Sumner, and when Banner turns into the meanest, greenest, 1000+ lb monster that smashes shit up real good, you just might find yourself cheering along with all the other frustrated nerds in the theater.

Is The Avengers a perfect movie? No. But hey, we’re talking comic books, not Citizen Kane. So is it a perfect comic book movie? Just about. Any flaws The Avengers has are quickly overshadowed by the next big action set piece or clever bit of dialogue, and at 2 and a half hours there are plenty of both to keep even the most jaded fanboy captivated and delighted. Oh, be sure to stick around after the credits to see that Jim Starlin inspired scene I mentioned, and the big reveal of the sequel’s next villain. It’s a doozy!

As Stan “The Man” Lee would say, “Excelsior!”

Rating: 9/10

Director: Joss Whedon

Writers: Joss Whedon, Zak Penn

Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston

Few moments in cinema have incited as much delight, rumor, or anticipation as the after credits appearance of Samuel L. Jackson in Iron Man. With the final words, “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative,” Jackson represented a movement away from the formulaic superhero film toward a project that would restore the glory of the comic books that inspired the hero craze in the first place. With grace, humor, and more than a few winks at the audience, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers reinvents the superhero film and delivers one of the best action adventures ever made.

With a tantalizing marketing campaign that dropped hints and teasers after the credits of the Avengers’ origin story films, The Avengers set an impossibly high bar for its performance. In a movie year brimming with highly anticipated films, Joss Whedon’s ambitious project could have drowned in its own hype. Instead, The Avengers, like its protagonists, accomplishes an impossible feat: not only meeting, but surpassing, the public’s expectations.

It is no accident that the carefully orchestrated The Avengers is so impressive. Whedon and co-writer Zak Penn’s writing is extremely tight, polished, filled with perfectly timed jokes and emotional development. As a result, the film is not simply a film about explosions and super powers; it is a comedic and emotional journey into the comic book world. While we have seen other action adventures with similar balances of story and action, the quick humor may be the film’s most exciting and unique aspect. Emerging from a tradition of superhero tales that takes themselves far too seriously, The Avengers is deeply layered with witty references to the comic’s history, tongue in cheek nods to the standard failings of the genre, and hilarious references to classical aspects of certain heroes’ personalities. The result is a breathless audience, gasping after bouts of laughter and awe-inspiring action scenes alike.

Naturally, Whedon’s writing and particular tone would do nothing were it not for his absurdly talented cast. Robert Downey, Jr. returns as Tony Stark/Iron Man, and delivers every line with a savory enjoyment. Chris Evans’ Captain America is the decently optimistic foil for Iron Man, while Chris Hemsworth’s Thor is a grunting, ethereal god with little to say and a lot to hit. Jackson reprises his role as the wry Nicky Fury. The two humans in the Avengers, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) supply the narrative with much needed firepower and the inkling of a romance. And most pleasantly surprising of all is Mark Ruffalo’s understated, tense, and undeniably magnetic performance as Dr. Banner, more commonly known as the Hulk.

The Avengers finds our heroes scattered across different continents and solar systems. It is only when Loki (Tom Hiddleston) returns to earth and makes off with the Tesseract, a power source that viewers will recognize from the Avengers’ individual films, that Fury and Black Widow begin to gather up the different members of a defense initiative called the Avengers. Together, the team must stop Loki from enacting his plan to enlist the Chitauri army in an attack upon the earth–a plan apparently motivated by Loki’s desire to destroy the one thing that Thor loves.

Admittedly, the plot takes backseat to other elements of the film. The real conflict appears as the powerful heroes and their equally imposing egos come into play. Some of the most engaging scenes are those where the Avengers face off against each other, whether it’s through heated discussions or actual demonstrations of their physical abilities.

Whedon encases these scenes of development and conflict with thrilling action sequences that are beautifully choreographed, busy, and meaningful. The 3D is used subtly, almost unnoticeable in its enhancement, and yet lending a pulsing reality to the action. Even with this effect, the action scenes are extremely clean and avoid gore or brutality, delivering something tasteful and engaging.

As The Avengers plunges through its disaster-movie climax, it is with such a careful pace and mesmeric character dynamic that the film’s over two hour run-time is barely felt. When the credits do roll, viewers will be satisfied but also fiercely, addictively, wanting more. Thank God–or should we say Stan Lee?–there will be.

Rating: 9.5/10

Director: Whit Stillman

Writer: Whit Stillman

Starring: Greta Gerwig, Analeigh Tipton, Carrie MacLemore, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Ryan Metcalf, Adam Brody, Billy Magnussen, Jermaine Crawford, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Zach Woods, Domenico D’Ippolito, Nick Blaemire, Aubrey Plaza, Hugo Becker, Meredith Hagner

It should say something to us that Seven Oaks College utilizes the Roman alphabet rather than the more commonly accepted Greek alphabet in the naming of their sorority and fraternity houses, as this references the Romans’ propensity for crude decadence over the Greeks’ philosophical pursuits. Propagated by doofi (the plural of doofus), the fraternities of Seven Oaks have de-evolved into a state of idiocracy; the situation is so grim that two male characters do not even know the names of the basic colors. (Did writer-director Whit Stillman’s name of one of these dimwits Thor [Billy Magnussen] as a reference to the Norse god or the Avenger?) We can only assume that this fictional New England university campus was once a bastion for learning, but nowadays the aimless student population is smelly, drunk, or suicidal — or a combination thereof.

The self-proclaimed exceptions to this rule are Violet (Greta Gerwig) and her friends, Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and Heather (Carrie MacLemore). It is Violet’s mission — besides wanting to discover the latest international dance craze and learn “as many clichés and hackneyed statements as possible” — to date men who are intellectually and attractively inferior to her (which seems quite easy to do at Seven Oaks); all the while, avoiding guys who Rose would deem, in her affected British accent, “playboys or operators.” Violet is a tall, blond, style setter; she is obsessed with scents and the history of dance crazes. Violet runs a suicide prevention center where she naively doles out coffee and donuts, teaches dance lessons, and uses scented soap to “treat” the clinically depressed. Her speech and mannerisms hint that Violet is not of this century; she seems to be cut directly from the celluloid of Frank Capra, Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges. Speaking of time — there is no mention of when the film is set (modern cultural touchstones such as Facebook and Twitter are quite purposefully ignored, though a cell phone does appear in one scene and there is a fleeting reference to most communication being electronic); the story is like a time capsule to a non-specific decade (or combination of decades).

Violet takes a sophomore transfer student, Lily (Analeigh Tipton), under her wing; quickly engulfing Lily into her world. Nonetheless, Lily resists accepting Violet as her personal savior, and Violet actually seems to respect Lily’s dissenting opinions; that is until their friendship is unintentionally torn apart by a mysterious guy named Charlie (Adam Brody)…or is it Fred? Violet is thrown into a crippling “tailspin” — not depression — until the power of The Sambola! saves her from utter ruin.

The narrative of Stillman’s first film since The Last Days of Disco (1998) follows both Violet and Lily, a tactic that adds a dash of unfocused and disjointed incoherence to the already densely hyper-intellectualized text. The exceedingly literate characters (well, excluding the the doofi, of course) speak in grammatically impeccable sentences with no slang or contractions. The stylized (and somewhat stunted) performances seem purposefully conveyed as caricatures — but these are caricatures of characters who defy any sense of stereotyping. Damsels in Distress has a certain faux-ness about it; Stillman’s characters are like cyborgs who have learned to talk, emote and move by studying the history of cinema. These are unreal beings who do not know the colors of the rainbow; have never seen an artichoke or tasted balsamic vinegar; and are naive enough to accept the procreation-free sexual practices of the Cathar religion (which shares a uniquely wrong-ended kinship with the A.L.A.).

It goes without saying that Damsels in Distress succeeds because of Greta Gerwig (though Analeigh Tipton and Adam Brody are excellent as well). I could discuss the talents of Gerwig ad nauseum, but I will spare you that lecture; instead I will hone in on the fact that she is the one (and only) actress who can simultaneously channel Alicia Silverstone and Katharine Hepburn, which is why she is perfectly cast as Violet in Damsels in Distress. Like the film, Gerwig has a timeless quality about her. She could be a George Cukor dame from the 1940s or a Woody Allen lead from the 1970s just as easily as she has become the modern day indie “It” girl. Speaking of which – Gerwig got her start as a “mumblecore” actor in Joe Swanberg’s LOL (2006), so it seems fitting that Stillman (who has been an obvious influence on much of the “mumblecore” sect) would cast her in Damsels in Distress. It is also worth noting that Stillman and “mumblecore” filmmakers share a commonality in that they make films about people from their own social and economic environments, thus unabashedly using their films to express their own worldviews. For most “mumblecore” filmmakers, that is white urbanites who are stuck in an existential limbo during their post-collegiate years; for Stillman, that is rich and privileged young people who belong to the most elite of social circles. Some call this a narrow-minded approach to filmmaking, but I call it writing about what (and who) they know. There is no one better at this than Stillman — for that reason I hope it is less than 14 years before his next film.

Rating: 8/10

Director: Anne Renton

Writers: Paula Goldberg, Claire V. Riley

Starring: Emily Deschanel, Jason Ritter, Kathleen Turner, Richard Chamberlain, Elizabeth Peña, Michael McGrady, Sharon Lawrence, Kristen Dalton, Scott Michael Campbell, Angelique Cabral

With The Perfect Family, director Anne Renton poses the age old question: aren’t Catholics silly? They have a holier than thou attitude because they go to church so frequently and do penance just as often. They strive for sainthood and obey every word of their supreme leader, the Pope. They also believe that their god is the cause of everything that happens to them (no matter if its good or bad) because its all part of their god’s plan; in turn, they tend to say a lot of prayers for everything and everyone.

Eileen (Kathleen Turner) is one such dedicated Catholic; in fact, she is so devout that she has been nominated as a contender for Catholic Woman of the Year. Presumably this is a regional award, since Eileen’s only competition is her archnemesis, Agnes (Sharon Lawrence). This award would be a great honor for a woman of Eileen’s convictions, but she really needs the prayer of absolution that comes along with the prize. (What egregious sin could she have committed that requires something as powerful as the prayer of absolution to absolve her of? Just you wait and see…)

Eileen continues with her daily regimen of attending mass, confessing sins, visiting shut-ins, delivering meals on wheels, and praying, lots and lots of praying; but this is not enough to secure the award. The winner of the Catholic Woman of the Year must also have a good Catholic family; and, to paraphrase Eileen, there is nothing wrong with her, she just needs for her family to behave like Catholics.

Eileen’s husband (Michael McGrady) is a recovering alcoholic; and despite him being sober, Eileen is still embarrassed of his history. Eileen’s daughter, Shannon (Emily Deschanel), is engaged — to a woman (Angelique Cabral); oh, and Shannon is also five months pregnant. (We all know how the Pope feels about the LGBTQ community, especially when it comes to raising children.) To make matters worse, Frank Jr. (Jason Ritter) — Eileen’s son — has just announced that he is leaving his wife and kids for an older, non-Catholic, hussy (Kristen Dalton). Eileen not only needs personal references (letters of recommendation) from this dysfunctional family of her’s, but the Diocese must conduct a home visit and meet her family face-to-face. But, as Eileen would say, everything happens for a reason. God only knows what that reason is…

Admittedly, I am not a fan of organized religion. Though I was born and raised Catholic (and attended Catholic school for eight years), I separated myself from the church many, many years ago. I am very critical of Catholicism, but no more critical than I am of any other organized religion. So, obviously, I do not necessarily disagree with critique offered to us by The Perfect Family, though I do think a lot of the humor is irreverently insensitive. As I see it, it does not do much good to make fun of others in an effort to persuade them to see the error of their ways. Sure, The Perfect Family has some very humorous moments, but they are probably only humorous for us non-Catholics in the audience.

Rating: 5/10

A few weeks ago, BAMcinématek teased us with the announcement of 11 films from their 2012 program. Now, BAMcinématek has announced the complete main slate for the fourth annual BAMcinemaFest (June 20 — July 1, 2012). The 12-day festival presents premieres of emerging voices in American independent cinema. With 20 New York premieres and one North American premiere, the young festival includes films culled from Cannes, Sundance, Toronto, Berlin, Rotterdam, Slamdance, and SXSW.

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OPENING NIGHT: Sleepwalk With Me (Mike Birbiglia)
Mike Birbiglia’s adaptation of his hit off-Broadway one-man show. Co-written and produced by Ira Glass, who has featured Birbiglia on This American Life, this hilarious and poignant autobiographical exploration stars Birbiglia as a bartender at a Park Slope comedy club who moves in with his long-term girlfriend (Lauren Ambrose). On top of his struggles with his relationship and his stand-up career, Birbiglia also battles an extreme form of sleepwalking where he acts out his dreams—even going so far as to throw himself out of a second story window in Walla Walla, Washington. This bittersweet ciné-memoir is both earnest and surreal.

CLOSING NIGHT: Rock ‘n’ Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen (Don Letts)
The definitive portrait of a legendary photographer, Rock ‘n’ Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen, directed by the equally legendary punk documentarian Don Letts, is the festival’s closing night film presented in a free screening for its New York premiere on July 1. Most famous for the iconic black-and-white photo of a casual John Lennon in shades wearing a “New York City” t-shirt—Gruen was John and Yoko’s personal photo documentarian—the New York photographer redefined the still image in rock, with what Alice Cooper has described as “the ultimate backstage pass…This guy must have stories that nobody has!” Featuring hundreds of celebrated shots of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Chuck Berry, David Bowie, Elton John, Queen, Iggy Pop, The Clash, Blondie, and more alongside dozens of interviews with Debbie Harry, Yoko Ono, Julian Lennon, Iggy Pop, Alice Cooper, Billy Joe Armstrong, punk historian Legs McNeil, and, of course, Gruen himself, Rock ‘n’ Roll Exposed is the true history of rock ‘n’ roll from the 60s to the present.

SPOTLIGHT SCREENING: Beasts of the Southern Wild (Benh Zeitlin)
Winner of this year’s Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and an official selection at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild is the festival’s spotlight screening, on June 21. Deep in the backwoods of the Louisiana delta, dauntless youngster Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis), her ailing father Wink (Dwight Henry), and their colorful band of neighbors defiantly resist the looming storm and rising waters that threaten to tear their community apart. Zeitlin’s feature debut is a visually lush cinematic folk tale worthy of comparison to the work of Terrence Malick and David Gordon Green’s George Washington—equal parts youthful whimsy, kitchen sink Southern fable, and poignant portrait of the Sisyphean struggle to protect a vanishing New Orleans way of life.

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The Comedy (Rick Alverson)
Drawing comparisons to La Dolce Vita and the work of Lars von Trier, Alverson’s divisive portrait of a privileged Williamsburg Brooklynite—played by a razor-sharp Tim Heidecker—pushes the boundaries of propriety. The result is a darkly affecting satire of our current anesthetized generation.

Compliance (Craig Zobel)
Straight from its controversial Sundance premiere, the unsettling and polarizing sophomore feature by Zobel is a dark, transfixing psychodrama inspired by true events. The film follows a fast-food employee (Dreama Walker) who is accused of theft and subjected to repeated acts of humiliation by her overworked supervisor (Ann Dowd), all at the behest of an authoritarian phone caller (Pat Healy).

Crazy and Thief (Cory McAbee)
The American Astronaut‘s McAbee casts his seven-year-old daughter Willa (Crazy) and two-year-old son John (Thief) in this homegrown coming-of-age fantasy meets road sidewalk movie. The two children embark on a wide-eyed voyage through the streets of Brooklyn and beyond, embracing star signs, mythologies, and fairy-tale monsters.

Detropia (Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady)
BAMcinemaFest alumni Ewing and Grady return with this lyrical exploration of the Motor City that follows intrepid Detroiters—young and old, frustrated and idealistic—as they grapple with the ever-changing landscape of America’s fastest-shrinking city.

For Ellen (So Yong Kim)
The latest from Kim is a hypnotic, glacial portrait of an unstable, semi-delusional musician (Paul Dano) in his last-ditch effort to develop a bond with—and earn custody of—his young daughter.

Francine (Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky)
Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) delivers an unnerving performance as a reclusive ex-convict who rejects human connection, finding solace in her intimate bond with animals in documentary duo Cassidy and Shatzky’s narrative feature debut.

Gayby (Jonathan Lisecki)
Longtime best friends Jenn and Matt, both single and facing diminishing dating returns, decide to fulfill a promise made back in college to conceive a baby together—yet with no turkey baster readily available, they’re gonna do it the old fashioned way. Lisecki’s hilarious first feature, based on an award-winning short of the same name, tells a resonant New York story about loneliness, aging, and the meaning of family.

The Imposter (Bart Layton)
This gripping nonfiction mood piece tells the unbelievable true story of Nicholas Barclay, a child who goes missing from his home in San Antonio, TX and turns up in Spain three years later. Returned to his overjoyed family, Nicholas relays haunting stories of imprisonment and abuse, but no one seems to notice the glaring differences in his appearance and behavior. Bolstered by candid interviews and atmospheric reenactments, The Imposter is a transfixing, layered mystery that becomes increasingly unsettling as it unfolds.

The International Sign for Choking (Zach Weintraub)
A young American artist shacks up in a Buenos Aires guesthouse and ambles his way through the urban landscape in search of an unseen ex-flame, evading work constraints, befriending local skater-musicians, and half-pursuing a fleeting courtship with the literal girl next door (Sophia Takal). His second micro-budget feature, writer, director, and star Weintraub (Bummer Summer) crafts an airy, exquisitely composed tone poem of aimless expat life in “La Reina Del Plata.”

Liberal Arts (Josh Radnor)
In this lighthearted comedy, 30-something New Yorker Jesse (Josh Radnor) welcomes an invitation to return to his alma mater, hoping for a glimpse of the glory days of his youth. When he meets Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), an articulate 19-year-old with an infectious free spirit, Jesse is blindsided by their attraction and must decide whether or not to act on his feelings.

Nobody Walks (Ry Russo-Young)
Russo-Young’s psychosexual comedy, co-written by Lena Dunham, stars Olivia Thirlby as a young artist who moves into the pool house of a young LA couple (Rosemarie DeWitt and John Krasinski) to finish a film project—and sets the relaxed family reeling.

The Patron Saints (Brian M. Cassidy & Melanie Shatzky)
Cassidy and Shatzky bring us another unflinching yet lyrical portrait of life on the periphery with a look at the forgotten souls of a rural nursing home. This ciné-essay, their nonfiction feature debut, is narrated by the facility‟s youngest patient, whose candid account is by turns mournful and macabre.

Pavilion (Tim Sutton)
A sun-kissed, languid daydream of adolescence with its endless summers and fleeting friendships, Sutton’s debut feature is a simple, casual tale documenting laconic teenager Max who moves from an idyllic lakeside town in New York to his father’s home in arid suburban Arizona. Observational in style, the film‟s mesmerizing images of hot summer bike rides and cool lakebound dives have the residual power of memory, capturing the ephemerality and mystery of youth.

Radio Unnameable (Paul Lovelace & Jessica Wolfson)
The 78-year-old legend and New York treasure Bob Fass, “the father of free-form radio,” has been the host of “Radio Unnameable” on New York’s WBAI for almost 50 years. BAMcinemaFest alumni Lovelace and Wolfson make incredible use of Fass’ personal archives: a priceless trove of first-person political reportage, early interviews with 60s icons Bob Dylan and Abbie Hoffman, and other far-out ephemera.

Tchoupitoulas (Bill Ross & Turner Ross)
Experienced through the eyes of three young brothers who miss their ferry home to Mississippi and are left stranded in the Crescent City, Tchoupitoulas is a poetic, sensual odyssey through the intoxicating smells, lights, music, and colors and explosive energy of a long night in New Orleans. Bill and Turner Ross follow the brothers as they encounter musicians, revelers, drag queens, and hustlers—the nocturnal creatures that make the city a unique and vibrant cultural mecca.

The Unspeakable Act (Dan Sallitt)
Jackie’s romantic feelings for her brother Matthew form the unlikely backdrop against which the milestones of adolescence—choosing a college, losing one’s virginity—unspool in film critic Sallitt’s long-awaited directorial return, an unnervingly dispassionate take on the last taboo, set in Brooklyn’s Midwood.

V/H/S (David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence, Joe Swanberg, Ti West & Adam Wingard)
This horror portmanteau film—helmed by the new generation of gore-teurs who brought you The Innkeepers, A Horrible Way to Die, and Silver Bullets—takes on found footage and anthology fright flicks and turns them on their respective severed heads. A group of burglars break into a rural mansion to steal a videocassette and find a dead body, a sea of video decks, and a frightful VHS compilation.

Walk Away Renée (Jonathan Caouette)
Nine years after Tarnation stunned the documentary world, Caouette returns with this poignant evocation of his mother’s 40-year struggle with mental illness and the effect it had on their relationship—showcasing his singular blend of home-video montage, intimate confessionals, and a dizzying CGI dream sequence.

Welcome to Pine Hill (Keith Miller)
Keith Miller‘s debut feature obscures the boundaries of narrative and nonfiction, following newcomer Shanon Harper’s ambiguous journey from the streets of Brooklyn to the Catskill backwoods. This abstract, emotional drama was inspired by the director’s real-life happenstance encounter with Harper.