"THE WOLFPACK" DOCUMENTS COMING OF AGE IN A WORLD FILTERED THROUGH FILM

Now available in iTunes, You Tube, VUDU, Google Play Movies, Amazon, and in select theaters including:

NEW YORK:

Film Society of Lincoln Center's Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

Sunshine Cinema-Landmark Theatres, New York City

Nitehawk Cinema, Brooklyn

CHICAGO:

Music Box Theatre, Lincoln Park,  Chicago  

Landmark Theatres: 

Century Centre Cinema, Lincoln Park

Renaissance Place Cinema,  downtown Highland Park

LOS ANGELES:

Sundance Cinemas, West Hollywood
Regent Theatre, Westwood
The Landmark, Los Angeles
Quart Theatre, West Los Angeles
Laemmie Playhouse 7, Pasadena

Also available in theaters nationwide, check local listings for theatre locations and times 

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere


"THE WOLFPACK," independent filmmaker Crystal Moselle's first full length documentary (recent projects include the series "Something Big, Something Small," featuring Pharrel Williams, Aurel Schmidt and Shepard Fairey, picked up by The New York Times, "Excavating Taylor Mead," a documentary portrait of the downtown New York artist and Warhol Superstar, which was part of the 2006 Whitney Biennial), is a somewhat free-form look at the lives of the six Angulo brothers, raised by their parents while locked away in an East Village apartment, whose only contact with the outside world is through film. It's a realistic look at a subject that cuts to the heart of the role of film in society and its psychological influence, and is a case study of the intersection of film and reality. 


It was filmed over a five year period, when the boys began their foray into the outside world. Director Moselle first encountered the boys by happenstance, following them as she was cruising down First Avenue in the East Village and noticed a band of teenaged boys with long hair weaving in and out of the crowd. 

She chased them down and began questioning their identity. Initially distrustful, she began to gain their confidence through their mutual interest in film. Their  friendship was  based on their interest in learning more about the business of filmmaking. She began by showing them her cameras and equipment. Gradually, she further gained their confidence by teaching them the filmmaking process. Four months in, they allowed her to come into their home to begin filming. The depth of their story then began to unfold.

Bhagavan, Govinda, Narayana, Mukunda, Krsna and Jagadisa all have names derived from the Hare Krishna Center in West Virginia, where their parents, Susanne and Oscar Angulo, lived during the first years of their marriage. A daughter, Visnu, the oldest and only girl of the siblings was born there in 1990. She is mentally disabled and was not included as a subject in the film. 


A word about their parents. Susanne, a hippie from the Midwest, met Oscar Angulo, an aspiring rock star,  while traveling in Peru on the road to Machu Picchu. Oscar offered to lead she and her friends.  Along the way they fell in love and moved to the States. After traveling the world, they settled into the Hare Krishna Center  where first Visnu and then Baghavan, the eldest son, was born. Twins Govinda and Narayana were next. 

The family then traveled the country in search of music opportunities for Oscar. While still living in the van, Mukunda was born in LA. 


Hearing that there was cheap housing to be had in New York, the family moved to the Bronx and Queens, then to Brooklyn. Gunshots became part of the daily soundtrack of their lives. The parents then became fearful for their children's safety.

Moving to the projects in Manhattan's Lower East Side, the father forbade the mother and children to leave the house on their own. Thus began their odyssey into social isolation.




Susanne Angulo became the educator and provider for the family, supporting them on public aid. Oscar Angulo continued his futile search for a music career.   Along the way, he managed to teach all of his children music and impart to them his deep devotion to world religion and philosophy.  

As long as the children were little, it all went swimmingly. At least once a year, particularly during the summer months, the family ventured into the outside world. But one year, Oscar locked the door for good.  That's when the seed of rebellion was planted in Mukunda, the Alpha male of the pack.  He was the first to break out of the apartment disguised in a Michael Meyers mask.




The rest of the film recounts their complete absorption of the dialogue, culture and style of the films Oscar brought home.  It's odd, one would think, that a father so protective of his children, would expose them to the very pop culture and society he is shielding them from, but, there it is. 

Dad brought home both classic and cult films. The more violent, horrific and complicated the film, the more the boys seemed to like them.

PULP FICTION was the first film they saw together on television. That began an obsession with all things Quentin Tarantino. 

Film led them to fashion their wardrobes and their personalities into the characters they saw. Oscar would bring them clothes he'd found on the street and at the Salvation Army. The boys, aged 11 to 18,  would  fashion them into makeshift costumes based on their favorite characters. A pair of beat up old tennis shoes would be taped with a blue Nike swoosh to look like Marty McFly's, an old woman's rain coat would be cut up and re-sewn to resemble Mad Max's leather bike vest.

 


Filmmaker Moselle described the lengthy filming process as somewhat of a rollercoaster. She said it took several years for the boys to finally open up and show their more tender side. She said her experience in working with teenagers in general helped her to weather the ups and downs of the project. In between, she worked on other short film projects, including commercials and music videos, and even filmed an artsy short on the boys called "Lightning People" for Nowness.

 

Besides winning the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance,  Moselle is also a Tribeca Film Insttute grantee. At last spring's Tribeca Film Festival, she and the Angulo brothers walked the Red Carpet and did a filmed homage to Tribeca's co-founder, Robert DeNiro, reenacting scenes from Goodfellas(1990), Mean Streets (1973), Analyze This (1999) and Taxi Driver (1976). The brothers got to walk the same red carpet as their filmatic hero and to drop enough F-bombs to make even Harvey Keitel raise the hair on his now-famous pompadour. "You talkin' to me?!"


Surprisingly, she said, their parents were open to the idea of documenting their family; perhaps seeing the opportunities it would open up for their children. In fact, a couple of the boys are actively pursuing careers in film or related endeavors. 




THE WOLFPACK is a fascinating and unvarnished intimate portrait of an extraordinary family. Moselle was not only privy to the family's inner sanctum, she also had unprecedented access to their  vast archive of home movies, which documented the boy's on camera mimicking the characters and dialogue of the films they watched.

The more ominous questions of spousal and child abuse and involuntary confinement are faced head-on, but, as Moselle noted in subsequent interviews, the boys seemed rather well adjusted in spite of their unusual upbringing.  That fact, more than anything, speaks to the transformative power of movies. 




THE WOLFPACK


A Magnolia Pictures Film




84 minutes, in English


Conceived and Directed by Crystal Moselle


With, Bhagavan, Govinda, Narayana,  Mukunda, Krsna and Jagadisa Angulo


Music Composed by Daniel Bensi, Aska Matsumiya, Saunder Jurriaans




Producers  Crystal Moselle, Hunter Gray, Izabella Tzenkova, Alex Orlovsky

Executive Producers  David Cross, Tyler Brodie, Cameron Brodie, Louise Ingalls Sturgess





Steak (R)Evolution: A Film Searches The World for the Perfect Meat

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere
In Select Theatres July 17 and August 28

There's nothing better than a great steak. Even an avowed vegetarian has to occasionally give way to that almost primordial craving for a good piece of meat. That's sort of where filmmaker and steak connoisseur Franck Ribiere and his favorite butcher, Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec begin their adventure; searching for the world's best steak.

It starts with the premise that their native French Charolais cattle, lack the firm texture and distinctive, mineral taste and marble fatty distribution that make American steakhouse beef so delicious and desirable.  Both agree, as do a couple of other producers they meet in other countries along the way, that Peter Luger steakhouse in Brooklyn, New York, is the best overall steak dining experience to be had anywhere. Nsmrf best steakhouse in New York City for the past thirty years, this Williamsburg mainstay was also named the first James Beard Foundation Classic in 2002.

German born Perter Luger founded the restaurant in 1887 with his nephew Carl as the chef. The basic idea was to create a place for the predominantly German working-class people in his neighborhood to eat a good, cheap, tasty meal. In those early days it was billed as "Carl Luger's cafe', Billiards and Bowling Alley." When his son put the place up for auction in 1950, it was purchased at private auction by a frequent customer, and the rest is history. Third generation owner Judy Storch serves as restaurant manager. She personally learned the business under the tutelage of her mother. who trained her in the meat packing plant from school-aged years on up in the business of cutting, grading and selecting the meat that is finally used to grace the plates of Peter Luger's diners.

Rebiller and his cameras then head to Argentina, Scotland, Japan, Italy, Sweden and the western U.S. in search of the world's best steak. The interviews he conducts with chefs and producers are revealing. Not only do they recount the mechanics, myth and science behind great beef production, they also touch upon history, religion, philosphy and myth in the process. All that mumbo jumbo you hear about Kobe beef is true. The filmmaker interviewed one producer of Kobe beef who actually does play Mozart music to his cows throughout the day to sooth them into great meat production. He also alludes to the fact that he may massage some of his more prized cattle with Sake to loosen up the meat and relax them. The practice of massaging with Sake oil spray is a daily practice at the producers of super-soft Amiyaki beef in Matsuyama, Japan. The husband and wife team there take the practice to the extreme.  The maker of the film is brought to tears as he visits as local restaurant and samples the highly fatty, exquisitely marbled beef that is prepared in a ritual only matched by a Buddhist temple rite.

Wagyu beef produced in the American West is another surprising topic. The cattle were brought directly over from Japan and are nurtured with all of the mystique and ritual of their forebears in Reviewed by Dwight Casimere
In Select Theatres July 17 and August 28

There's nothing better than a great steak. Even an avowed vegetarian has to occasionally give way to that almost primordial craving for a good piece of meat. That's sort of where filmmaker and steak connoisseur Franck Ribiere and his favorite butcher, Yves-Marie Le Bourdonnec begin their adventure; searching for the world's best steak.

It starts with the premise that their native French Charolais cattle, lack the firm texture and distinctive, mineral taste and marble fatty distribution that make American steakhouse beef so delicious and desirable.  Both agree, as do a couple of other producers they meet in other countries along the way, that Peter Luger steakhouse in Brooklyn, New York, is the best overall steak dining experience to be had anywhere. Nsmrf best steakhouse in New York City for the past thirty years, this Williamsburg mainstay was also named the first James Beard Foundation Classic in 2002.

German born Perter Luger founded the restaurant in 1887 with his nephew Carl as the chef. The basic idea was to create a place for the predominantly German working-class people in his neighborhood to eat a good, cheap, tasty meal. In those early days it was billed as "Carl Luger's cafe', Billiards and Bowling Alley." When his son put the place up for auction in 1950, it was purchased at private auction by a frequent customer, and the rest is history. Third generation owner Judy Storch serves as restaurant manager. She personally learned the business under the tutelage of her mother. who trained her in the meat packing plant from school-aged years on up in the business of cutting, grading and selecting the meat that is finally used to grace the plates of Peter Luger's diners.

Rebiller and his cameras then head to Argentina, Scotland, Japan, Italy, Sweden and the western U.S. in search of the world's best steak. The interviews he conducts with chefs and producers are revealing. Not only do they recount the mechanics, myth and science behind great beef production, they also touch upon history, religion, philosphy and myth in the process. All that mumbo jumbo you hear about Kobe beef is true. The filmmaker interviewed one producer of Kobe beef who actually does play Mozart music to his cows throughout the day to sooth them into great meat production. He also alludes to the fact that he may massage some of his more prized cattle with Sake to loosen up the meat and relax them. The practice of massaging with Sake oil spray is a daily practice at the producers of super-soft Amiyaki beef in Matsuyama, Japan. The husband and wife team there take the practice to the extreme.  The maker of the film is brought to tears as he visits as local restaurant and samples the highly fatty, exquisitely marbled beef that is prepared in a ritual only matched by a Buddhist temple rite.

Wagyu beef produced in the American West is another surprising topic. The cattle were brought directly over from Japan and are nurtured with all of the mystique and ritual of their forebears in Japan. Another visit to a cattle producer in the Scottish highlands, with steer that more closely resemble giant Mastadons than cattle; some as tall as seven-feet high and 14 years old!

The beef producer in Corsica, which has its Mediterranean roots in both France and Italy, offered the most sublime summation of the quest for the perfect beef cattle and in turn, the most desirable steak. His expression of his desire for perfection was almost poetic in its eloquence and lent a philosophical weight to a film that, on the surface, might otherwise seem self-serving.

Frank Ribie're has pedigree to spare. He was raised in a family of cattle breeders and served as a fashion phtographer's assistant in New York before embarking on a career as an executive producer of documentaries.

Steak (R)evolution  a Kinbo Lorber Production
A Film by Franck Ribie're
French with English subtitles
2014
1 Hour, 50 minutes
Opens July 17 at New York's IFC Center, and
August 28 at Quart Theatre, Los Angeles, Opera Plaza Cinemas, San Francisco, Shattuck Cinemas, Berkeley, CA, E Street Cinema, Washington, D.C. and Esquire Theatre in Denver.
Japan. Another visit to a cattle producer in the Scottish highlands, with steer that more closely resemble giant Mastadons than cattle; some as tall as seven-feet high and 14 years old!

The beef producer in Corsica, which has its Mediterranean roots in both France and Italy, offered the most sublime summation of the quest for the perfect beef cattle and in turn, the most desirable steak. His expression of his desire for perfection was almost poetic in its eloquence and lent a philosophical weight to a film that, on the surface, might otherwise seem self-serving.

Frank Ribie're has pedigree to spare. He was raised in a family of cattle breeders and served as a fashion phtographer's assistant in New York before embarking on a career as an executive producer of documentaries.

Steak (R)evolution  a Kinbo Lorber Production
A Film by Franck Ribie're
French with English subtitles
2014
1 Hour, 50 minutes
Opens July 17 at New York's IFC Center, and
August 28 at Quart Theatre, Los Angeles, Opera Plaza Cinemas, San Francisco, Shattuck Cinemas, Berkeley, CA, E Street Cinema, Washington, D.C. and Esquire Theatre in Denver.

 Filmmaker Franck Ribiere in search of the perfect steak in his film Steakl (R)Evolution

 Wagyu beef cattle graze in the American West

 The perfect loin cuts selected by Peter Luger Steakhouse, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York

 A luscious slice of succulent Kobe beef

 The shaggy, well-aged beef cattle raised in the Scottish Highlands

 An impassioned plea for sustainability  from a beef cattle producer in Corsica

Japan. The husband and wife team there take the practice to the extreme.  The maker of the film is brought to tears as he visits as local restaurant and samples the highly fatty, exquisitely marbled beef that is prepared in a ritual only matched by a Buddhist temple rite.

Wagyu beef produced in the American West is another surprising topic. The cattle were brought directly over from Japan and are nurtured with all of the mystique and ritual of their forebears in Japan. Another visit to a cattle producer in the Scottish highlands, with steer that more closely resemble giant Mastadons than cattle; some as tall as seven-feet high and 14 years old!

The beef producer in Corsica, which has its Mediterranean roots in both France and Italy, offered the most sublime summation of the quest for the perfect beef cattle and in turn, the most desirable steak. His expression of his desire for perfection was almost poetic in its eloquence and lent a philosophical weight to a film that, on the surface, might otherwise seem self-serving.

Frank Ribie're has pedigree to spare. He was raised in a family of cattle breeders and served as a fashion phtographer's assistant in New York before embarking on a career as an executive producer of documentaries.

Steak (R)evolution  a Kinbo Lorber Production
A Film by Franck Ribie're
French with English subtitles
2014
1 Hour, 50 minutes
Opens July 17 at New York's IFC Center, and
August 28 at Quart Theatre, Los Angeles, Opera Plaza Cinemas, San Francisco, Shattuck Cinemas, Berkeley, CA, E Street Cinema, Washington, D.C. and Esquire Theatre in Denver.

"THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT" TESTS BOUNDARIES OF HUMAN NATURE

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

What happens when you give someone a uniform and a weapon and give them unbridled authority over a group of men and those men, in turn, are subject to   their insults and humiliation due to imprisonment? That's pretty much the question posed by the state of the U.S. penal system and the crux of the film "The Stanford Prison Experiment"

Directed masterfully by Kyle Patrick Alvarez (Easier With Practice, C.O.G.) the film is an almost clinically precise adaptation (by script writer Tim Talbott  of Dr. Philip Zambardo's 2007 book, "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Become Evil,'  which documents his controversial 1971 study of the psychological impact of power on those who are suddenly given absolute authority over others. The results, as depicted in the study and the movie, are chilling and horrifying.

The film begins inauspiciously enough, with Dr. Zimbardo, played with headlong arrogance by Billy Crudup, interviewing a series of unsuspecting Stanford University students for his scientific project. To be conducted over the summer break in the vacant offices of the administration building and Justin Hall, which are turned into the warden's office, which doubles as the study's command center, where the proceedings are observed through hidden cameras, and a makeshift jail, constructed in a stifling, airless hallway and empty classrooms turned into makeshift holding cells. The students have no idea what they're in for. All their interested in is the carrot Zimbardo and his team hold out; a $15 an hour stipend to interrupt their carefree summer for two weeks for the good of modern science. 

When asked whether they'd like to play a prison guard or an inmate, almost to a person, each one, in this post-Vietnam and Civil Rights protest era, opts to be a prisoner. A flip of a coin helps Zimbardo and his staff separate the guards from the prisoners. 

Suited up with uniforms, a nightstick and a pair of sunglasses, which allows them to hide behind a wall of anonymity, the guard's are given their marching orders. The students, as inmates, are stripped of their identity and are addressed only by number. No prisoner is allowed to speak, they must eat meals at precise times and address the guards at all times as "Mr. Correctional Officer." No one is allowed to physically assault anyone, but that proviso quickly goes out the window as the guard's become increasingly intoxicated with their newly gained power of authority and the 'prisoners' become increasingly rebellious and aggresively defensive. The most rebellious are No. 8612 (Ezra Miller) and No. 819 (Tye Sheridan) who become the masterminds of a failed escape and are, by turns, locked up in isolation in a storage room that has become 'the hole.'

Sound and production design by Gary Barosa and the haunting score by Andrew Hewitt, served to emphasize the mounting tension and increasing danger. The sounds of guards banging their nightsticks against walls and bars are echoed in Hewitt's score, which becomes more ominous as the film progresses.  Jas Shelton's excellent cinematography frames the interactions between the 'guards' and inmates' in wide-angled shots, so that we see their actions and reactions simultaneously. It's as if we're watching the action unfold under a microscope. It's impossible to avert your attention even though the film becomes increasingly uncomfortable to watch.

In the actual experiment, Jesse Fletcher, a consultant who spent 17 years in San Quentin, played commandingly by Nelson Ellis of the James Brown  topic "Get On Up," is brought in as a reality check. 

As it becomes apparent that  the wheels are starting to come off the whole proceeding, even he has to take a dive for the exit door. As he observes, its shocking how quickly the students, who are from privileged backgrounds, have so quickly devolved into sub-humans, far outpacing his experiences in the real prison world.

Dr. Zimbardo is undeterred, even ignoring the device of his student-turned lover and assistant Christina Masiach, played brilliantly by Olivia Thereby, who warns that his career will be ruined by parent lawsuits if he continues with his headlong experiment. So consumed is Dr. Zimbardo in his own pride that he is reluctant to turn the ship around, even in the face of collision with a barrier reef.

When the abuse by guards becomes increasingly humiliating, finally resulting into an orgy of simulated anal sex, Zimbardo is forced to call a halt 
to the project, less than a week in.

Closing credits laud Dr. Zimbardo as a pioneer in the research that led to the modern movement toward prison reform. That may owe more to his involvement as a consultant to the film than the truth of events subsequent to his study, some 40 plus years ago. The Stanford Prison Project leaves a bad taste in your mouth and a troubling reality; unbridled authority, even in the hands of those we deem as 'civilized' can quickly get out of control. Given the right set of circumstances, any one of us could be come an abuser or a victim. How that conundrum is addressed is up to each of us to decide and monitor in society.

THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT, by IFC Films
Directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Starring Billy Crudup, Ezr Miller, Tye Sheridan, Olivia Thirlby, Nelson Ellis 
2 hours, 2 minutes
In English
Opens in theaters July 17

"10,000 Km" A Tale of Cyber-Love Perfect for Our Time

Long distance romance enabled by Skype reveals complexity of love in the Digital Age

Opened theatrically July 10 and in VOD

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

Increasingly the computer is becoming both the grafter and sustainer of relationships as society becomes more immersed in the cyber-culture of Facebook and Twitter. Individuals are more likely to find romance, real or imagined, in the confines of their home or office on the computer screen, than they are in the brick and mortar world of a bar or a health club.  

There have even been a plethora films dealing with the phenomenon of cyber love. The Oscar nominated film "Her" with Joaquin Phoenix comes to mind. Now comes "10,000 Km" from first time feature director Carlos Marques-Marcet (short film, "I'll Be Alone," , Los Angeles International Latino Film Festival, HBO New York  Latino International Film Festival), which tells the story of Alex (Natalia Tena of TVs Game of Thrones) and Sergi ( David Verdaguer, Marcel Barrena's "Four Seasons," Sonia Sanchez's "Barcelona,"  and Mar Coll's "Three Days  With The Family"). 

Alex is an ambitious photographer who left her cozy roots in London to live with Sergi, a native of Barcelona, struggling to pass the state board exams to become a teacher, his only prospect of job security. The two are in their early 30s, and from the passion of their early Sunday morning sex, appear to be deeply in love. There's even pillow talk of having a love-child together. That warm and fuzzy little bubble quickly gets burst when Alex reveals that she's just been granted a long sought after fully-paid, year-long residency with a photography studio in LA that will catapult her dormant career. Sergio, somewhat of a traditionalist, is none too pleased with it. Although he won't say it, he's pissed and has no desire to see Alex fly off thousands of miles away to pursue her dream, especially when compared to his modest ambitions which seem to be in a state of arrest. 

Director Marques-Marcet does an excellent job of conveying the unstated, but deeply rooted emotions of the character's displeasure with each other. While Sergi gives his verbal, if begrudging, approval of Alex's planned move, he forcefully scrapes at his morning toast, almost reducing it to crumbs. When  Alex senses his displeasure, she too starts the same aggressive toast scraping. You can cut the silence between them with a knife, save for the incessant and intensifying sound of  toast scraping.  Masterful!

The film has already garnered critical acclaim, winning the 2014 South by SouthWest Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Acting:  Natalia Tena and David Verdaguer and the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival  Best New Director Award for Carlos Marques-Marcet, among others. 

Marques- Marcet wisely places the entire story in the stifling realm of the couple's tiny living spaces; Sergi's cluttered apartment in an ancient building in the heart of Barcelona, and Alex's  IKEA furnished, mental halfway house sterile apartment in West LA. The outside world is merely referenced in the couple's dialogue  (Sergei encourages Alex to get out and mingle more, exploring her new environment and meeting new friends). Only the stark LA streetscapes Alex shoots with her camera for her studio projects, Google maps and tours of Alex's neighborhood via laptop camera, provide glimpses of the world outside. The film eventual settles into the couple's Skype video chats across thousands of miles, in which they try desperately to keep alive the flickering flame of their tentative romance.

The number of days of separation are noted in title-frames in between scenes. As the relationship wears on, there's increasing frustration and bickering over small misunderstandings. There's also evidence of at least one infidelity on both of their parts. Sergio awakens in the altogether one morning and groggily retrieves a used condom from the bedroom floor and walks into the bathroom to dispose of it. He then rolls and smokes the obligatory afterglow cigarette while staring blankly out of his balcony window. She starts frequenting a local dance club in LA and appears to be shaking off the regretful afterthoughts of the previous evening's tryst in one of their skypes. Her indiscretion is unstated, but woefully apparent, though neither party speaks of it. With time wearing the fabric of their relationship thin, and Sergi digging in his heels about staying put, its obvious that their long-distance relationship is unravelling. 

The cyber-chat scenes become progressively revealing and desperate, as the couple tries to literally reach through the screen to maintain the intimacy they once shared. There are shared meals, even a cooking lesson via Skype (Alex is a terrible cook. She can't even slice an onion)  and, yes, the inevitable internet love-making session  that puts the "I'll have what she's having" scene in "Sleepless In Seattle" to shame!

There is some evidence that the relationship is starting to wear thin, even as the couple invests more energy in their cyber sessions. We see Sergi awaken one morning in a stupor, only to retrieve a well-used condom from the floor. (It's also one of the rare instances that this reviewer can remember seeing male genitalia exposed in an R rated film, although fleeting.) There's also a veiled reference to Alex having an affair after a dance party in her newfound home of West LA.

The cyber-chat between Sergi and Alex is at times humorous and tender, but also disquietingly uncomfortable. When Sergi starts to pleasure himself at the conclusion of their cyber-sex session, it's too embarrassing for Alex to watch and she shuts her laptop. We quickly realize that sex is one of those things thats pleasurable to experience but sometimes painfully uncomfortable to watch, especially when someone you're intimately connected with goes off on a personal tangent.

As with any cyber-relationship, the buildup created by the long-distance yearning, can often result in a let-down when the two parties come face to face, and that is exactly what happens when Sergi finally breaks down and decides to travel thousands of miles to visit Alex.

 Her apartment, he observes, is much smaller than he imagined. We see her posturing, standing guard near her kitchen stove, as if subconsciously protecting her space against this strange intruder that is suddenly invading her space. Only the introduction of a bottle of whiskey, brought by Sergi as a belated housewarming gift, serves as an ice-breaker that plunges the couple into drunken sex, which alternates between the savage and sublime. The moment is fleeting and empty, leaving them both bereft.

"10,000 Km" moves at a deliberate pace, allowing the inner-dynamics of the relationship to build. It's a carefully crafted film that puts the subject of internet-based relationships squarely out there for all to examine. As computers and the internet hold out promise to increasingly become  the platform of human interaction, the film asks the question, can they effectively become the glue that binds us together in our societal and interpersonal relations, or do they only drive us further apart. 

Note to film producers and editors: The all-white subtitles were difficult to read, especially in the crucial, plot-building opening scene, which was all set against the white of her undershirt and later,  against her all-white apartment and the sun-bleached streets of Los Angeles. A lot of the dialogue of the film was literally 'lost in translation."

Photos: Oscar Fernandez Orengo/Broad Green Pictures

     

'10,000 Km'  from Broad Green Pictures

Released July 10, Theatrically and VOD

1 hour, 45 minutes

Directed and co-written by Carlos Marques-Marcet, co-written by Chara Roquet

MPAA rating: R, for strong sexual content, language, brief graphic nudity

In Spanish with subtitles

"Tangerine" a Raw, Heart Rending Look at Transgender Life on the Edges

"Tangerine" a cinematic masterpiece shot entirely on the iPhone

Reviewed by Dwight Casimere

"Merry Christmas, Bitch!" is the opening line, and that should tell you everything you need to know about where this new film by Sean Baker (Statlet, Prince of Broadway) is heading. "Tangerine," is a raw, melancholy, sometimes comical look at the lives of transgender prostitutes living in the underbelly of West Hollywood's taciturn streets. It's the indie hit of the year and deserving of all the accolades and buzz its getting, both for its edgy subject matter and the new technology involved in its creation.  Shot entirely on an iPhone 5s (with a special prototype lens from tech startup Moondog Labs, and additional apps and post-production techniques that give it a saturated film-like look), the film breaks ground on two levels; first, because of its compassionate look at an often maligned segment of society, and its audacious, groundbreaking use of new technology, which allows young filmmakers to use a device that is readily at hand (although with enhancements) to produce a film at a fraction of the cost (a mere $100,000) of using standard film or high definition video. If nothing else, this film and the promise of its new technology will propel the art of indie films light years ahead.

Director Sean Baker delivers a film with a captivating, mouth-watering look and plenty of heart. You can feel the genuine angst of the characters beneath all those layers of makeup and fake Korean weave-shop hair and almost feel a tear or two well up inside as they recount their foibles and disappointments,  in a matter that is both tragic and comic. They're all like the clown who makes others happy while all the while there are tears inside.  

Baker takes us down the trash-strewn streets, inside the lonely diners, 'no-tell' motels and front seat taxi trysts that are the hallmark of West Hollywood, all on one Christmas Eve night in the life of transgender prostitute Sin-Dee Rella (Kitana Kiki Rodriquez),  just out of jail on the Night Before Christmas, who learns that her pimp/boyfriend Chester, (the mercurical James Ransone, in a standout humorous performance) has been cheating on her while she was away with a local 'fish,' transgender slang for a heterosexual woman, named Dana (or Desiree or Dinah), Sin-Dee isn't quite sure of her identity, but she has a pardon for her anyway and is determined to find her and exact revenge.

She enlists the reluctant aid of her good friend and confidant Alexandra (Mya Taylor, in another breakout performance that reaches right for your heartstrings. There's an intriguing subplot involving an Armenian cabbie (Kareen Karagulian), who is Sin-Dee's cheapskate regular client, who comes to have a thing for her and ditches his family on Christmas Eve in order to seek her company. It all ends up in a pathetic scene at a local club where Alexandra fulfills her life-long dream to sing Victor Herbert's "Toyland," albeit to a crowd of only three. It just brings home the hollow emptiness of her life.

There are some unforgettable madcap scenes; the headlong search for Chester, the almost-slapstick confrontation at the local hangout, Donut Time, where the search for Chester and the fallout between the Armenian cabbie and his family's strict, moral and cultural values, all collide in comedic fashion. 

It all ends on a tender note, with Alexandra and Sin-Dee attempting to pick up the pieces of their pointless lives in a deserted laundromat and the Armenian cabbie, bereft of his family, sitting in lonely dejection in an empty house by the Christmas tree. It's the Christmas movie for our time and one that commands our immediate attention.

 TANGERINE, a film by Sean Baker, Magnolia Pictures. In select theaters everywhere beginning July 10.