Butler's Cinema Scene

“OUTSIDE THE LAW” (Now available)

The latest from French/Algerian filmmaker Rachid  Bouchareb takes the same three Algerian brothers featured in his sweeping WW2 yarn “Days of Glory” and plops them down in post-war France, where they become urban terrorists on behalf of their homeland’s independence movement.

The oldest, Messaoud (Roschdy Zem), is a former French soldier who returns from the Indochina debacle missing an eye. He hopes to marry, settle down and never again raise a weapon.

Abdelkader (Sami Bouajila), the intellectual, has spent years in a jail for his opposition to French colonialism. He’s a particularly dangerous sort — an doctrinaire revolutionary (think Robespierre) who loves ideology but apparently has little use for people. He doesn’t think twice about ordering the murders of those who disagree with him politically — even family members.

Baby brother Said (Jamel Debbouze) is apolitical. He gets involved in the Parisian crime scene, runs a nightclub and wants only to be left alone to make money.

Bouchareb’s epic tale,  nominated for a foreign language Oscar, has stirred controversy in France, where the families of the independence movement’s victims have protested what they see as the glorification of terrorism.

But in truth “Outside the Law” is about how a life of intrigue, hiding and mayhem eats away at the soul (in that regard it’s like 1969‘s brilliant “Army of Shadows,” about the French Resistance during World War II).

 “THE CONQUERER” (Now available)

Based on Nikolai Gogol’s novel Taras Bulba (also the inspiration for an incredibly cheesy 1962 film starring Tony Curtis and Yul Brynner), “The Conquerer” is, like “Alexander Nevsky,” a tale held near and dear by many Russians.

It’s a story of love, family, defiance and war set in the mid-1600s, a period in which Poles had invaded and colonized part of Russia. Taras Bulba– portrayed here by 70-year-old Bogdan Stupka, one of the Ukraine’s most honored actors and its Minister of Culture — is an old warrior who once again suits up in armor to rally his Cossack kinsmen and take on the Poles.

Bogdan Stupka as Taras Bulba in "The Conquerer"

A sprawling and often spectacular war saga, “The Conquerer” is much more faithful to the 1835 original novel than the Hollywood rendering…for good and for bad.

The setup’s the same: OId Taras and his two sons go to war. One of them falls for a Polish princess (an opportunity for some nudity) and, branded a traitor, is killed by his father. The other (in a plot line not covered in the earlier film) is captured and undergoes a hideous public execution that makes Mel Gibson’s fate in “Braveheart” look like massage therapy.

There are some really cool, bloody battles here, especially a spectacular siege of a castle.

Unfortunately, there’s also a strong vein of anti-Semitism. In this the film is true to the book (the Poles, we’re told, were abetted in their subjugation of the Russians by Jewish financiers…sigh), but it makes for some nervous movie watching.

And it kind of makes you wonder how your rank-and-file modern Russian views the film. Was this movie intended to play to Putin’s thuggish nationalism? Kinda creepy.

“PEEP WORLD” (Now available)

A great cast wasn’t enough to get this prickly comedy theatrical bookings. But at least we’ve got home vid.

“Peep World” is the title of a novel young author Nathan (Ben Schwartz) has written about his rich, dysfunctional family. Now the clan has gathered to celebrate the birthday of its patriarch, a ruthless real estate mogul (Ron Rifkin) who appears not to have a sentimental bone in his body.

Son Jack (Michael C. Hall) is a failure in business and has convinced the Missus (Judy Greer) that his depiction in the book as a porn-addicted loser (thus the title) is simply Nathan’s fictional creation. If only.

Sister  Cheri (Sarah Silverman) is a spoiled, seething cauldron of resentment and failure. Plus every time she looks out her condo window she sees a film crew shooting scenes for a movie version of Nathan’s book.

Brother Joel (Rainn Wilson) lives out of his car and is always borrowing money for hopeless get-rich-quick scams. At least he has a woman (Taraji P. Henson) who loves him for who he is.
Throw into the mix the kids’ Mom (Lesley Ann Warren), Dad’s new squeeze (Alicia Witt) and reliables like Stephen Tobolowsky, Kate Mara and Lewis Black (as our narrator), and you’ve got a crew overflowing with talent.

Okay, we’ve kind of seen this before. But writer Peter Himmelstein and director Barry W. Blaustein get more dramatic/comedic mileage out of the premise than you’d expect.

Definately worth a rent.

| Robert W. Butler