Citing Sources

Let's take a quick break from reviews and talk about my own sources of reviews, criticism and essays that guide me to films. I grew up in the Chicago area, so I have adolescent-era memories of Siskel and Ebert on the local PBS station; that show probably had the most impact on the development of my taste in movies. Here's where I turn these days to cultivate titles and find reliable criticism

* My main source is the New York Times Friday Weekend section. It's the newspaper of record for just about every film released each week. As for the reviewers, there's no denying their talents. A.O. Scott is essentially my alter-ego, though in the past year or so we've veered off the track we were on together. For decades, now, I've tracked well with Stephen Holden both in film and music, so his views are steady and reliable. Manohla Dargis is more hit-and-miss for me. She's brilliant, but her reviews are too long, and she skews too often toward pulp and spectacle.

* The New Yorker offers three more voices. I skew closely with David Denby. Anthony Lane is a master of snark and I love reading him, but our tastes diverge often. Richard Brody's blog features some fascinating essays on the big picture of cinema, but I rarely agree with his reviews. (He found "Damsels in Distress" to be a Great Work.)

* Slant Magazine is ambitious in the range of films they review. Nothing is too obscure. It's tough to get four stars out of them, and it's pretty rare to score three out of four. The main problem is their stable of reviewers is so varied that you can't get a consistent read on any of them. And they seem to be a little too aware of their elitist status, giving too much rope to directors like Bruno Dumont and ripping into some decent films that fail the site's auteur test.

* The Onion AV Club has short, smart reviews with reliable letter grades. They recently shook up their lineup a bit. I couldn't keep track of the various critics (I picture them all being rumpled, clever 38-year-old white men), except for the ultra-mainstream Tasha Robinson, who I know I often disagree with and who has moved on.

* The Boston Globe has two of the most reliable critics, Ty Burr and Wesley Morris (who recently won a Pulitzer for his criticism). They are tough graders and have little patience for run-of-the-mill movies.

* The blog Feminema, by the academic Didion, comes at pop culture from a feminist slant. It's a bit of an inspiration for my revival of this blog. At times, she can be prolific, and she knocks out long, thoughtful essays, dressed up with a snappy layout. I'm in awe of her output and the quality of her criticism, in particular her parsing of the various players (actors and directors). I also like the fact that she hated one of my favorites, Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg" (she called it "misogynistic, unbearable"), marking a thick gender line in the sand.

* Jonathan Rosenbaum: Again, more of an early influence than a current source, Rosenbaum covered film as an essayist for the Chicago Reader, mainly in the '90s.

* I hadn't regularly read Ebert, who died in April, since it was my job at times to proof his copy; I was more partial to Siskel's tastes. (Here's a great compilation of the Siskel/Ebert Top 10 lists over three decades.) No one, though, can match Ebert (a Pulitzer winner) for his writing style's unique combination of serious criticism and popular appeal. (Perhaps my all-time favorite review of his was this one, of the original "South Park" movie.) And his site is ultra-accessible and comprehensive.

Other reliable sources:
* The "coming soon" calendars at the Guild Cinema, The Screen (literally the best screen in New Mexico), and the CCA.

* The annual Santa Fe Film Festival and reports from the Sundance, Cannes and Toronto fests.

* Finally, for a roundup of critics' reviews, I prefer Metacritic to Rotten Tomatoes. The former is based on an actual grading system. The latter is often misleading. A movie can get all B's or B-minuses from 50 critics and still get a 100 percent rating. A movie can get 9 A's and a cranky C and get a 90 percent rating. Both sites, of course, are comprehensive and provide links to a multitude of reviews.

On to Toronto

The Toronto film festival starts in a little over a month, offering a preview of the rest of the calendar year's releases. The lineups get broken down here. And here is a comprehensive list of all the films.
And here is a list from the upcoming Venice film festival.

Some titles we're looking forward to, from TORONTO:

• Kelly Reichardt, who has never made a bad film (most recently "Meek's Cutoff"), returns with "Night Moves."
• Francois Ozon, who has never made a bad film, is represented with "Young and Beautiful."
• Indie god Jim Jarmusch offers up the love story "Only Lovers Left Alive," with Tilda Swinton.
• Alfonso Cuaron finally follows up "Children of Men" with "Gravity," an astronaut tale with America's Guy, George Clooney, and America's Puppy, Sandra Bullock.
• Asghar Farhadi follows up the amazing "The Separation" with "The Past."
• Nicole Holofcener directing Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Catherine Keener and James Gandolfini? Enough said. The movie is "Enough Said."
• Steve McQueen follows up "Shame" with an impressive cast in a Civil War-era drama, "12 Years a Slave."
• Jason Bateman goes behind the camera to direct himself as a man who crashes a kids' spelling bee in "Bad Words."
• Joseph Gordon-Leavitt also directs himself, as a porn addict, in "Don Jon."
• Agnieszka Holland gives us a docudrama about a young man who immolated himself in Czechoslovakia in 1969, "Burning Bush."
• John Hawkes stars in an Elmore Leonard story, with Jennifer Aniston, "Life of Crime," directed by Daniel Schechter ("Supporting Characters").
• "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner hits the big screen with some funny people (Owen Wilson, Amy Poehler and Zach Galifianakis) in "You Are Here."
• There's the racy May-September sizzler that took the big prize at Cannes, "Blue Is the Warmest Color."
• WikiLeaks gets a dramatization in "The Fifth Estate."
• Matthew McConaughey, who has been on a roll, finally rolls out the role that made him the talk of the tabloids because of his gaunt appearance, the AIDS saga "Dallas Buyers Club."
• One of our favorites, Atom Egoyen, is back with the mystery "Devil's Knot."
•  Pawel Pawlikowski ("The Woman in the Fifth") spins the story of a nun who finds out she's Jewish, "Ida."

THE DOCS

• Frederick Wiseman does the hippie college scene with "At Berkeley"
• A look at the Penthouse mag founder, "Filthy Gorgeous: The Bob Guccione Story."
• "Finding Vivian," about a nanny whose trove of pictures showed her to be a talented photographer.
• Errol Morris documents Donald Rumsfeld with "The Unknown Known."

VENICE

• "Jiaoyou (Stray Dogs)," by Tsai Ming-liang 
• "Walesa. Man of Hope," by Andrzej Wajda and Ewa Brodzka

Life Is Short: July 2013

Life Is Short is an as-needed series documenting the films we just couldn't make it through. We like to refer to these movies as "Damsels in Distress." A previous entry is here. 

SOME FILMS require an inordinate amount of attention -- multiple characters, complicated historical touchstones, flashbacks, subtitles. "Il Divo" (2008) has all of that. This pulpy biopic of seven-time Italy leader Giulio Andreotti, a legend in the nation's post-war politics, is lavishly filmed and smartly acted.

But right around the one-third mark, I was adrift and hopelessly outmatched. In the first 10 minutes or so, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino (who more recently presented Sean Penn as a washed-up goth rocker) introduces about a dozen characters in succession, with screen titles providing their names, nicknames and titles. Andreotti himself, we're told, has about a half-dozen nicknames.

At that critical 38-minute mark, three of those men have a dense conversation about the inside politics of the day, and I realized that I didn't remember who they were, and I couldn't recall whether the Christian Democrats were Andreotti's party or not. Throw in some flashbacks and star Toni Sevillo's distracting makeup, and my breaking point was reached.

The film (at least the first third of it) is elegantly rendered, especially a scene of Il Divo striding regally across a vast black-and-white checkerboard entryway and encountering a fluffy white cat, which has one green eye and one blue eye. In other scenes, Sorrentino's camera swirls and swoops with flair. He has a touch like that of Martin Scorsese or Guy Ritchie.

I admit, I have my limitations when it comes to intellect and attention span. Alas, ciao, Il divo.

Title: IL DIVO
Running Time: 117 MIN
Elapsed Time at Plug Pull: 38 MIN
Portion Watched: 32%
My Age at Time of Viewing: 50 YRS, 7.5 MO.
Average Male American Lifespan: 81.2 YRS.
Watched/Did Instead: "... And Justice for All" (1979) on THIS-TV
Odds of Re-viewing This Title: 4-1

Holy Crap*: Beverly Michaels

A mere one-liner in the roundup of the Guild Cinema's annual summer noir festival just doesn't do justice to the blond bombshell that Beverly Michaels dropped into the middle of the proceedings with her B-movie classic "Wicked Woman" (1953) and the somewhat bizarre "Pickup" (1951).

Michaels just explodes off the screen from the opening moments of "Wicked Woman" -- she's a platinum beauty, a slender, almost athletic 5-feet-9, with gangly limbs. Raw and sexy in every scene. The film is streaming on YouTube in six parts. Here's Part 1; check her out at the 4:25, mark as she puts some racy Latin music on the phonograph, stretches out her bare legs and feet (!) on the ottoman, takes a swig of hooch, lights a cigarette and cracks open an Astrology magazine. That is one saucy gal for the first year of the Eisenhower administration.



What draws you in is her near-affectless demeanor: dead eyes, a sad mouth and a rather husky, monotone voice. She's a bit of a beta beatnik. (This thoughtful blog post finds an apt comparison to Sally Kellerman.) She can take or leave ya, mister, so don't waste her time with idle chat or fancy romance. Let's get the dough and ditch this Loserville.

The plot summary of "Wicked Woman" at IMdB is helpfully succinct: A blonde floozy drifts into town and gets a job as a waitress at a local bar. She sets her sights on the bar's handsome owner, who is married to an alcoholic. Her plans are for the two of them to take the bar's money and skip to Mexico - but a boarder at the rooming house where she is staying discovers her plans, and comes up with a plan of his own.

Michaels stars as Billie Nash, and she plays nicely off of the married couple, Matt (Richard Egan,the soap "Capitol") and Dora (Evelyn Scott, TV's "Peyton Place"). Rouse ratchets the tension as Billie and Matt carry out their scheme right under Dora's nose. Percy Helton (a longtime TV character actor) is the mole-like Charlie, the nosy old neighbor who knows how to play Billie and threatens to derail that trip to Mexico. Will Billie get away with it? Would she care much if she didn't?

Michaels was a model and pulp-film actress whose star burned hot and brief, with an IMdB total of only 14 titles in 7 years, from '49 to '56 (roughly ages 21 to 28) (note all the multiples of 7 in there; neat). Not much to her bio: born in New York, died in Phoenix in 2007 at age 78.. Did I mention she stood 5-foot-9 (in her bare feet)?  Married the director of "Wicked Woman," Richard Rouse. Has an Oscar-winning son, Christopher Rouse (editing, "The Bourne Ultimatum"). Earlier had a fling with the director of "Pickup," Hugo Haas, probably contributing to the end of her first marriage (to a producer 30 years her senior).

After the thrill of "Wicked Woman," "Pickup" was a letdown. The sluggish tale has her arriving in another small town to find an older man with money to settle down with. She picks Jan "Hunky" Horak (Haas, the director), a sad-sack railroad worker and widower who just wants a puppy to keep him company at his little shack by the tracks. Instead, he's dogged by Black Betty (Michaels), who finds his bank book, which has a bottom line of $7,300, which somehow seemed like a million bucks to a broke babe 60 years ago. 

Hunky is struck by a car and is rendered deaf, which is fine by Betty, because now she doesn't have to talk to the schlub and she can carry on with the truly hunky railroad co-worker Steve (Allan Nixon). Hunky eventually regains his hearing, but he plays dumb to collect his pension and, more fun, to hear what Betty says around him. It ain't pretty.

Here's a good taste of her bile in "Pickup":



The whole thing eventually falls apart in the second half. A tramp called Professor comes and goes like Mr. Green Jeans for comic relief. Things with Betty and Hunky come to a head. And then Haas tosses in a ridiculous "Wizard of Oz" kind of ending, and you just know that ol' Hugo was a little nuts to have crafted this monstrosity.

The film would be near worthless ... if it weren't for Beverly Michaels. She's a thoroughly modern screen presence, a revelation in the early '50s. Perhaps her blase chick shtick got old quickly and motherhood and other adventures were preferable to the merry-go-round of cheap scripts and relationship roulette with the filmmakers.

We're waiting a while before we dive back into her oeuvre, so as not to burn through her catalog too quickly. And we'll save her final title for last. It's called "Blonde Bait."

Grades
WICKED WOMAN - A-minus
PICKUP - C

* - Holy Crap is an occasional series about unique films, cutting a wide swath from brilliant to awful. Check out previous entries here and here.

The Greats

Richard Brody, at his New Yorker blog, takes a shot at listing the 12 greatest living narrative filmmakers.  He's riffing off of a 20-year-old list by Jonathan Rosenbaum.

 I don't know about "great," but, for grins, let's list our favorite directors, living or dead (but let's call them "modern"), without thinking too hard, knowing we will miss a bunch and will do this again someday with different names. OK, I'll reverse the numbers and do 21 because I'm lazy:

• The Coen Brothers
• The Duplass Brothers
• The Dardenne Brothers 
• Michael Winterbottom
• Francois Ozon
• Noah Baumbach
• Danny Boyle
• Nuri Bilge Ceylan
• Sofia Coppola 
• Steven Soderbergh
• Wes Anderson
• Zhangke Jia
• Nicole Holofcener
• Tsai Ming-liang
• David Lynch
• Jim Jarmusch
• Lynn Shelton
• Bela Tarr
• Bobcat Goldthwait (hey, he put Jerry Lewis on his list)
• Guy Maddin
• Pavel Chukhrai
• Someone from Romania

In memoriam:

• Kryzystof Kieslowski
• Robert Altman

What's Up? Docs

THE SOURCE FAMILY (B+) -A thoroughly entertaining examination of the utopian California cult of the last '60s and '70s, led by the charismatic man known as Father Yod.

The Source Family started as a hangout on the Sunset Strip where James Edward Baker, a martial arts aficionado, started one of the first health-food restaurants (the kind later parodied by Woody Allen in 1977's "Annie Hall"). Baker drew a lot of underage runaways to work in the eatery, and soon everyone was living Manson Family-style in a big house. Hounded by neighbors and the press for their housing of teens and for Father Yod's multiple wives, they moved to Hawaii.

There, the script turns familiar -- the sexual backlash against the omnipotent leader, an infatuation with violence and the apocalypse -- yet filmmakers Jodi Wille and Maria Demopoulos expertly build tension as in an assured drama, particularly in the scene of a harrowing natural childbirth. The archival footage -- both visual and audio -- is fascinating. Many of the members contribute as current-day talking heads, including Isis Aquarian and Electricity Aquarian (many took New Age surnames), who chronicled the group's history in a book in 2006. Their eyes tell as many stories as their voices do. Some continued on the path of simple living off the grid.

The group also featured a Zappa-like band of musicians who played psychedelic space jams. The whole package works as a whole to capture the peak of the '60s/'70s counterculture. The film conjures up a melange of pop-culture touchstones, as if Timothy Leary, the Partridge Family and Jonestown all lived happily ever after. 

DECEPTIVE PRACTICE: THE MYSTERIES AND MENTORS OF RICKY JAY (B) -
This was highly enjoyable, with an entertaining subject and clever framing device. I would give it a higher grade -- because it's definitely worth seeing -- but for two reasons: 1) You need to be a little bit of a fan of Ricky Jay and/or his card tricks. 2) Grading this too high would suggest that this is the ultimate profile of Ricky Jay and his magician mentors; it's not.

But at times, it's true joy. Jay was a child star in the '50s and grew up to be the Penn Jillette of the '70s, perfecting his card-tossing routine as a long-haired hippie of the now generation. You may know his face from David Mamet's films opposite Joe Mantegna in the '80s, such as "House of Cards," "Things Change" and "Homicide." He's also the author of numerous books on magic and various oddities.

What this documentary brings to light is Jay's role as a historian in the world of magic. Because he was already an established performer in the 1950s (urged on by his amateur-magician dad), he provides a key link to the artists going back to the turn of the last century. His library is comprehensive.

Director Molly Bernstein stretches the soup a few times when she's stumped for footage, but she employs a simple but effective framing device: Jay sitting in front of a mirror at a felt table shuffling a deck of cards and occasionally showing off his sleight of hand. She introduces us to the elders: Al Flosso, Slydini, Cardini and others. She shows respect for the secrets of these men.

We also get clips of Jay hamming it up with Dinah Shore on her talk show. And we see closeups of the face of a man easing into old age, his hands still quicker than the eye.

Bonus Track

The trailer for "The Source Family":

New to the Queue

More than one man can ever hope to see, I'm sure ...

The outre documentary about the political bloodbath in Indonesia in the mid '60s, "The Act of Killing."

The story of an Englishman who saved hundreds of Czech Jews during World War II, "Nicky's Family."

A timely documentary about online security and our private lives, "Terms and Conditions May Apply."

An untimely documentary about Chris Bell and Alex Chilton's influential '70s pop band, "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me."

A timely drama about the fatal shooting of a black man, "Fruitvale Station."

A taut drama about a man falsely accused of child molestation, "The Hunt."

The Chilean druggy road-trip film "Crystal Fairy."

A look at a street hustler who inspired rappers, "Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp."

A documentary about a killer Orca, "Blackfish," coming to the Guild Cinema.

And someday, on a slow night, preferably on free TV, I could see myself staying tuned for most of Brooke Shields, Camryn Manheim, Virginia Madsen, Daryl Hannah and Wanda Sykes in the Susan Seidelman trash "The Hot Flashes." I know ...


Back in Line

Because of a busy month and spotty scheduling by the cineplex, I missed the short runs of both "The Bling Ring" and "Much Ado About Nothing."  Back in the queue for you two.

The Noir Chronicles

Highlights from the Guild Cinema's annual summer Festival of Film Noir:

• Brute Force (1947) (B) - A prison film from noir auteur Jules Dassin, it stars Burt Lancaster as an inmate determined to escape and a smug Hume Cronyn as a deputy warden looking to foil him. Cronyn's Capt. Munsey is a nasty little man who, two years after the war's end, gives off a heavy Nazi vibe, as Dassin lays on the concentration-camp vibe heavy by the end. Look for the wonderful Yvonne De Carlo in a bit part and one of my mom's favorites, Howard Duff, as one of Lancaster's cellmates. Complete with a one man Greek chorus -- a performer named Sir Lancelot as inmate Calypso. This one is powerful in spots, but it tries a little too hard to be a major classic.
• Cafe Hostess (1940) (C) - A forgettable effort from B-movie and TV director Sidney Salkow. Jo (Ann Dvorak) is a gal working as a thinly veiled prostitute and grifter working the seedy Club 46 under the glare of Eddie, the violent house piano player.  A sailor, Dan (Preston Foster), comes along to rescue her and give her a respectable life, but Eddie says not so fast. Several barroom brawls ensue.
  
• Girls Under 21 (1940) (B) - Another early "pre-noir" hack job gives us the female answer to the Bowery Boys, a bunch of girls on the brink of reform school. They cause trouble and hope to follow in the footsteps of grown-up Francis, who lives in high style as the gal of a local gangster, Smiley, whom she did time for. But when she gets out, she wants to go straight and set a better example for her little sister and her wild pals. Meantime, their kindly teacher defies the school principal and refuses to rain punishment on the girls, insisting that they'll come around if he's patient and trusting. The girls are devilishly foul-mouthed, and there's as much face-slapping as in a Three Stooges short. When a classmate dies while fleeing a crime scene with the gang of girls, everyone is tested. Enhanced by great street scenes of a crowded neighborhood filled with old ethnic stereotypes.
• The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) (B+) - A brilliant cast spins a tawdry tale of murder and blackmail in small-town America. Barbara Stanwyck is an heiress and industrial bigwig caught in a love triangle with the two men who know the real story behind the death of Stanwyck's rich aunt back when they were kids. Van Heflin is the ruggedly handsome gambler Sam Masterson, who finds himself back in the small town, where little Martha Ivers is now the money and brains behind grownup pal, Walter O'Neil, now the D.A. and perhaps future governor, played by Kirk Douglas in his film debut. Peroxided Lizabeth Scott pouts like a pro as Toni Marachek, the troubled dame who hooks up with Masterson and stirs the sturm and drang nagging at the trio. I always thought Matthew McConaughey was our generation's Paul Newman, but watching this film, I saw a strong connection between McConaughey and the fresh-faced Douglas. This film, which helped close out the fest, ran a little too long but hits you with a hell of an ending.

The fest also featured Dassin's "Riffifi," which we've seen several times. That one truly is a major achievement and probably would earn an A upon a fresh screening.

Bonus Track/Coming Attraction

We're saving the best film of the half-dozen we saw at the fest for a separate post about its star, Beverly Michaels. "Wicked Woman" was paired with a less-effective earlier film of hers, "Pickup."  We'll serve that post up shortly.  Meantime, as a tease, Michaels' flat, smart-ass affectation reminded me of this chick in a clip from a classic '50s film:

The Maturing of Mumblecore

The New York Times last week had a fine piece (here) about the evolution of the key members of the past decade's Mumblecore movement as they advance in their 30s.

Here are a few of my favorites from the past 10 years:

• "The Puffy Chair" -  The Duplass brothers, writer/director Jay and writer/star Mark, make the first great Mumblecore film, about a guy who is determined to drive cross country to deliver a chair to his dad on Father's Day.
• "Humpday" - Perhaps my favorite of them all. Lynn Shelton's third film is a brilliant study of male relationships. Perfectly paced and expertly acted, it's both funny and touching.
• "Mutual Appreciation" - Andrew Bujalski's only watchable film so far, the first of the genre that I saw, features a strong cast led by Justin Rice as a musician falling for his pal's girlfriend.
• "Nights and Weekends" - Joe Swanberg directs and stars with Greta Gerwig in an insightful analysis of a long-distance relationship.
• "The Color Wheel" - Alex Ross Perry and Carlen Altman meld Mumblecore with the '70s road-movie aesthetic in a dark comedy about abrasive siblings on a mission to retrieve her belongings from her ex's house. The dialogue crackles (and sometimes disturbs).
• "The Do-Deca-Pentathlon" - The Duplass brothers take the Judd Apatow model and give it some depth. Here, two grown brothers re-create their childhood competition, involving 25 goofy feats of athleticism and stupidity.
• "Tiny Furniture" - Lena Dunham's gem, which introduced us to her "Girls" voice and to Alex Karpovsky (who had also been featured in "Beeswax," a passable Bujalski effort).
• "In Search of a Midnight Kiss" - A sweet tale of a couple who find each other on New Year's Eve. 
• "Momma's Man" - From Azazel Jacobs ("Terri"), the laconic escapades of a grown man who returns home to live with his parents.

Disappointments: "Funny Ha Ha" (the granddaddy of the genre, from 2002), "Hannah Takes the Stairs," "Beeswax"

And the genre goes mainstream:

• "Your Sister's Sister" - Lynn Shelton uses Mark Duplass to great effect again as a guy mourning his brother and retreating to a friend's cabin, only to get snagged in a triangle between the friend and her lesbian pal. Rosemarie DeWitt and Emily Blunt give heft to the proceedings.
• "Jeff Who Lives at Home" - Jason Segal, Ed Helms and Susan Sarandon lend the Duplass brothers Hollywood cred in this under-appreciated indie. 
• "Frances Ha" - Fortysomething Noah Baumbach and his new girlfriend, the Queen of 'Core Greta Gerwig, splash the genre in multiplexes in all its black-and-white glory.

Bonus Track

"Bishop Allen Drive," from Justin Rice's band Bishop Allen:

New to the Queue

Dare I disturb the universe that includes Michael Winterbottom and Steve Coogan? "The Look of Love" is debuting to tepid reviews, but I don't think I can resist the team that brought us "24-Hour Party People," "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" and "The Trip."

Martha and Rufus Wainwright pay tribute to their mother, Kate McGarrigle, in the documentary "Sing Me the Songs That Say I Love You."

The documentary about an early Detroit proto-punk trio, "A Band Called Death."

Another fun music doc, "The Secret Disco Revolution."

And in the style of "Jesus Camp" and "Girls Rock," the documentary "Magic Camp."

A drama set among some of the old masters, Jem Cohen's "Museum Hours."

And I know I might regret this one, even on video, but it might be time to check in on Neil LaBute and the adaptation of his stage play "Some Girl(s)."

A drama about piracy on the seas, "A Hijacking."


Three people deal with a fatal hit-and-run accident in "Three Worlds."

The story of Napster, "Downloaded," which I missed during its late-evening run last week at the Guild Cinema.

Teen Girl Action Figures

The girls take charge:

LORE (B+) - Teenage Lore grows up quickly in the waning days of World War II, as she shepherds her younger siblings through the German countryside after their parents are taken from the home, apparently to be tried for their wartime crimes as faithful Nazi stalwarts. The kids wander from region to region, spending nights in holding camps and navigating the various factions of the conquering Allies, all the while trying not to starve to death.

Saskia Rosendahl and her blue eyes hold this film together as our flawed heroine. Lore is more naive than bold, and writer/director Cate Shortland (an Aussie following up her powerful "Somersault") is to be commended for giving the young woman layers. Lore is a true believer in the Fuehrer, and why shouldn't she be; it's pretty much all she has known since she was a toddler.

That, of course, involves being taught to hate Jews, but those beliefs get challenged when the young man helping Lore and her siblings navigate the landscape is a Jew. At times we are hit with the schmaltz of forbidden love, but Shortland keeps things believable to the end.

While this sort of story has been told before, "Lore" feels fresh and challenging. Shortland doesn't shy away from the realities of wartime brutality, and this film is not for the squeamish. What's fascinating is the way she creates a world in which the horrors of human nature are constantly contrasted with the beauty of Mother Nature. The greens of the grass and trees and the blues of the waterways are vibrant. It's as if Shortland, in her tale of motherless children struggling for survival, is reminding us that the war's atrocities are all manmade and that the Earth will spin on long after we've wiped ourselves out.

THE HUNGER GAMES (B-minus) - I was more engrossed than I thought I'd be as a reluctant second viewer of this pulp youth entertainment. For those of us who know Jennifer Lawrence from "The Hunger Games" rather than from the Academy Awards, it's a bit unsettling to watch her mug for the masses. But she has flashes of brilliance here, among a hit-and-miss cast.

We watched this in two sittings, and it plays much better when viewed as a very special two- or three-part episode of NBC's corny "Revolution."  Writer/director Gary Ross knows what he's doing here (he aimed for the gut and the heart in "Pleasantville" and "Seabiscuit"), and this works as trashy entertainment. It is paced well, and it hits the right emotional notes ... until it falls apart in the final act.

Lawrence (playing Katniss, which makes the 12-year-old boy in my snicker) comes off as a bit uncomfortable amid the early melodrama, in which Katniss volunteers to take her younger sister's place as a participant in the Hunger Games, the national competition in which a boy and girl from each of the 12 districts (as the former U.S. is now divided at least 75 years in the future) are rounded up and pitted against each other in a televised fight until only one is left alive.

The biggest problem is Josh Hutcherson, who is a cipher as Peeta, Katniss's jockish cohort from District 12 and manufactured love interest. Liam Hemsworth is also a lump, as Katniss's brooding boyfriend back home, but at least he makes himself scarce for most of the movie. I'm guessing these are the types of boys who attract teenage girls who go see movies like this, so just count me as, once again, Not the Target Audience. Lawrence and Hutcherson have zero chemistry, even considering they are mostly faking it for their TV overlords.

Stanley Tucci is a delight as the host of the reality show that televises the Hunger Games with captivating intimacy. Woody Harrelson camps it up as the cranky former survivor who mentors Katniss and Peeta and who uses his connections to help them stand out as participants and attract sponsors who can help them survive during the competition. And that Lenny Kravitz-looking dude turns out to be Lenny Kravitz as another member of Team Katniss.

I was distracted by the filmmakers' vision of the future. It's all over the place. It mostly involves big hair and crazy hats that suggest a post-revolutionary return to the Victorian era. The super-advanced technology is pretty cool, but the rest is a confusing mish-mosh.

The plot creaks under the weight of its 142 minutes. And by the final reel, Ross and the book's author, Suzanne Collins, seem to be throwing out improbable twists just so they can make it to the end in good enough shape for the sequel to work.