Loïe Fuller’s dancing passion
French filmmaker Stéphanie di Giusto makes her directorial debut with “The Dancer,” a compelling biopic of the visionary modern dancer Loïe Fuller, the mentor of Isadora Duncan. “The Dancer” is such a bold and assured film, wildly creative and sensual, that it feels far more sophisticated than a debut, and signals Di Giusto as one to watch.
Anchored by a bravura performance by the French singer-actress Soko as Loïe, the film traces the dancer’s life from growing up in a fur trapping camp in the American West with her French father. She ultimately makes it to the stage of the Paris Opera Ballet, thanks to her patron, the Count D’Orsay (Gaspard Ulliel), wowing crowds with her inventive and visually unique style of whirling fabrics and colored lights.
The second half of the film details her close relationship with her protégé, Isadora (Lily-Rose Depp), which swings from romance to rivalry and back again. While Isadora may be a naturally gifted dancer, the film positions Loïe as a creative genius, who drove her body to the brink for her art.
Ultimately, “The Dancer” is a story about the spark of creativity, the ownership of artistic ideas, and the extreme efforts that artists will go to to achieve their work. The stunning and thoughtprovoking film preserves the legacy of an artist before her memory is lost to time. — Katie Walsh
“The Dancer.” In English and French with English subtitles. Not rated. Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes. Playing: Ahrya Fine Arts, Beverly Hills.
Brody’s brilliant in ‘Bullet Head’
A meh title belies a gripping and resourceful crimethriller in writer-director Paul Solet’s impressive “Bullet Head.”
It’s the kind of edgy, offbeat, well-executed B-movie that in the past may have found its niche in action houses, drive-ins and the occasional gutsy art venue, but these days could simply get lost in the video-on-demand shuffle (its token day-anddate theatrical run aside.)
Intrepid viewers who seek this one out will discover an often edge-of-your seat ride involving a well-drawn trio of small-time thieves — the resilient Stacy (Adrien Brody, excellent), the philosophical Walker (John Malkovich) and young junkie Gage (Rory Culkin) — who find themselves stuck in a cavernous warehouse after a botched heist.
The twist: The place is also the site of a dog-fighting enterprise run by the dangerous Blue (Antonio Banderas). And, as bad luck would have it, a killer Presa Canario named De Niro is roaming the premises. Think “Cujo” with criminals.
As a perilous dog-andmouse game ensues, Solet packs his script with tension, dimension and several vivid flashbacks recalling the characters’ seminal encounters with dogs. Cool camerawork too.
Although Solet, an ex-animal trainer, is an admitted dog lover, much of the canine-related mayhem — composed of both sound and fury — is tough to experience. Still, De Niro is afforded a climactic moment of redemption that’s powerful and brutally poignant. — Gary Goldstein
“Bullet Head.” Rated: R, for violence, bloody images, language, some drug use and nudity. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes. Playing: Laemmle NoHo 7, North Hollywood; also on VOD.
Mega moodiness in ‘Palos Verdes’
The waves are elusive in “The Tribes of Palos Verdes,” a moody, disjointed tale of Southern California family dysfunction based on Joy Nicholson’s bestselling novel.
The Masons are Midwestern transplants to the hightoned, ultra-regulated suburban cliquishness of the sun-kissed coastal city. But what follows for them is a different kind of exposure: star cardiologist dad (Justin Kirk) instantly starts a marriage-ending affair, leaving his medicated, lonely and unacclimated wife Sandy (Jennifer Garner) an unstable guardian for their close-knit teenage twins Medina (the appealing Maika Monroe), who turns to surfing as escape, and Jim (Cody Fern), who falls in with a crowd of drug-abusing toughs.
Karen Croner’s screenplay is more a collection of vibes than a clinical tragedy, pitched toward emo-soundtrack-ready sensitivity and over-explanatory narration (a task given to Monroe). But the primary problem is that it’s a foggy, unsurprising skim in the hands of musicvideo/cable-doc stalwarts Emmett and Brendan Malloy. The directors get some melancholic atmosphere out of their visuals but don’t have the scene sense to build their actors’ committed performances into compelling through-lines of seaside personality disintegration.
Medina’s finding of herself in the ocean is an airy commercial more than a story line, while Garner’s gamely acted swings in Sandy’s temperament play like showpiece snippets of crazy instead of the building blocks for an archetype — the isolated, on-the-brink woman — long overdue for sympathetic rescue from “Real Housewives”-style humiliation. — Robert Abele
“The Tribes of Palos Verdes.” Rated: R, for drug use, some sexual content and language throughout. Running time: 1 hour, 44 minutes. Playing: Laemmle Royal, West L.A.
‘Cinderella,’ but not the fairy tale
The Italian animated feature “Cinderella the Cat” uses little more than the title of Giambattista Basile’s 17th century version of the Cinderella story. The title character is reduced to a minor, non-speaking figure in this violent sci-fi tale of crime and vengeance.
Cinderella’s admirable father Vittorio Basile (voice by Mariano Rigillo) built an elaborate science facility on a huge ship in the Bay of Naples, hoping to revitalize the decaying city. But he was murdered on the day of his wedding to Angelica Carannante (Maria Pia Calzone), the moll of arch-criminal Salvatore Lo Giusto (Massimiliano Gallo).
For 15 years, while Cinderella has been enduring the mistreatment of Angelica’s five daughters and transvestite son, Salvatore has been crafting a baroque plot to smuggle cocaine by turning it into shoes. On the eve of Cinderella’s 18th birthday, he’s ready to launch his scheme. But Basile’s loyal bodyguard Primo Gemito (Alessandro Gassman) returns just in time to thwart the evil plan and rescue Cinderella.
The unexpressive animation never rises above the level of a video game, so the four directors have to rely on the seemingly nonstop dialogue and the holograms that pop up at convenient moments to relate the overly complicated story. The filmmakers seem to have been trying for the kind of animated film noir that has been done so skillfully in Japan, but “Cinderella the Cat” never approaches that level level. — Charles Solomon
“Cinderella the Cat.” In Italian with English subtitles. Not rated. Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes. Playing: Laemmle Music Hall, Beverly Hills
Somali pirates roil the waters
Serving as something of a flipside to 2013’s Tom Hanksstarring “Captain Phillips,” Brian Buckley’s “The Pirates of Somalia,” based on a memoir by Jay Bahadur, finds itself navigating some choppy tonal waters prior to emerging as an engagingly performed take on recent world events.
Bahadur’s seemingly improbable story begins in 2008, when the University of Toronto grad (appealingly played by Evan Peters) is off to a slow start realizing his dream of becoming the next Woodward and/or Bernstein from the lowly vantage point of his parents’ (Melanie Griffith and Alok Tewari) basement.
But following a chance encounter with another journalistic idol (Al Pacino), Bahadur perseveres and soon finds himself well over his head in Somalia at the invitation of the president, where he spends the next six months learning the ropes with the help of a local translator/fixer (Barkhad Abdi).
Rather than trusting the many quirks already inherent in Bahadur’s surreal Somalian adventure (filmed in South Africa) writer-director Buckley deems it necessary to constantly inject the proceedings with needless embellishments including glib voice-overs, fantasy sequences and animation.
Fortunately the genuine rapport between Peters, a regular fixture on “American Horror Story,” and the magnetic Abdi, who received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a Somali pirate captain in the “Captain Phillips” film, mainly succeeds in keeping it all on an even keel. — Michael Rechtshaffen
“The Pirates of Somalia.” Rating: R, for language throughout, drug content, and brief strong violence. Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes. Playing: Arena Cinelounge Sunset, Hollywood.