Mystery Dance

 

IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (A-minus) - Filmmaker Jafar Panahi is no longer a political prisoner in Iran, but boy is he still pissed. Like with his previous film, "No Bears," Panahi made his latest without the permission of the government.

 

"It Was Just an Accident" alternates between being a revenge thriller and a bumbling black comedy about former prisoners of Iran's religious autocrats who stumble upon a man believed to be the one-legged interrogator who tortured them during their imprisonment. The plot is set into action by a random car accident that leads the man, known as Peg Leg, to visit an automotive garage, where he is recognized (possibly) by mechanic Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri). Vahid is directed to another victim, photographer Shiva (Mariam Afshari), for help in confirming Peg Leg's identity.

It just so happens that Shiva is taking wedding photographs of a couple, and the bride, Goli (Hadid Pakbaten), is yet another survivor of Peg Leg's who thinks it's him. Finally, the group recruits Hamid (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr), Shiva's ex, who is the most certain about Peg Leg's identity and must be restrained from attacking the man, who is being held drugged and unconscious in a crate in the back of Vahid's van. Hamid is the source of much of the film's fury and dark humor.

Panahi ("Taxi," "This Is Not a Film") orchestrates this ensemble like a maestro. He directs venom at the regime from a variety of sources. He finely articulates the conundrum created by vengeance. He shows the group performing a kind act for Peg Leg's wife and daughter. Panahi builds suspense like a master. And now that the United States is a country where masked goons kidnap innocent people, the anxiety of totalitarianism resonates throughout "Accident's" taut 104-minute running time.  

WEAPONS (B-minus) - Horror writer-director Zach Cregger is his own worst enemy as he takes an interesting idea and trips all over his fussy plot contrivances. And he takes his two interesting lead actors and keeps them apart way too often. It feels like a lost opportunity.

 

The premise is simple. All but one of the students from teacher Justine Gandy's third-grade class have gone missing, fleeing their homes at 2:17 a.m., arms out like airplane wings, disappearing into the night. Obviously, the parents are suspicious of Gandy (Julia Garner), who privately has a bit of a drinking problem. One parent determined to solve the problem is played by Josh Brolin, who is given way too much screen time to brood over his missing son.

More interesting is a local police officer, Paul (Alden Ehrenreich, "Hail, Caesar!"), who has had a fling with Justine, sparking the ire of his girlfriend (fiancee?) Donna (June Diane Raphael), who reins him in. Ehrenreich and Garner ("The Royal Hotel") are the most compelling faces in the movie, but Cregger rips them apart and chooses to balkanize his film by splitting into segments devoted to different characters and by scrambling the time line over and over. He also introduces a junkie (an appealing Austin Abrams), and it's about as much fun hanging out with this junkie as it would be in real life. But the one with the truly "It" factor is Amy Madigan, who is nearly unrecognizable as Gladys, the aunt of the surviving boy. She has a clown-like appearance (to cover up the effects of cancer) and a penchant for hocus-pocus rituals. 

And, lord, is the Crazy Lady character played out at this point. Gladys is doing some sort of voodoo on behalf of her nephew, who still attends school (bullied, of course) and whose parents sit zombie-like on the couch, cloistered behind newspaper-covered windows. All this feels more like a distraction than an active intention to tell a coherent story and solve a basic mystery. Garner and Ehrenreich often disappear for long stretches, and the narrative meanders. (It's odd to see the waifish, child-like Garner play a full-fledged adult -- drinking and having sex -- and you long to see her flesh out her character more; meantime, Ehrenreich is similarly hand-cuffed in his ability to develop a persona.)

It does not help that "Weapons" is yet another movie that cannot justify a running time of more than two hours. It's a sloppy mess that takes way too long to reach its inevitable, underwhelming conclusion, though a climactic rampage of students, wildly photographed, is worth sticking around for.

BONUS TRACK

"Weapons" has a retro soundtrack that tries too hard to please hipster uncles. The initial disappearance of the children is scored to George Harrison's "Beware of Darkness":

 

Of more recent vintage is "Don't Be Scared" by the Handsome Family:

 

Elvis Costello, with our unrelated title track: