OUT OF THE BLUE (ETSBA ELOHIM) (Igal Bursztyn, 2008)
Bryant Park Hotel Screening Room
40 West 40th St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, May 20, $18, 7:30
www.dorchadashusa.org
In British-born Israeli author and filmmaker Igal Bursztyn’s absurdist romantic comedy, Shabtai (Alon Abutbul) and Herzel (Moshe Ivgy) are a sad-sack Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, going through life in their own unique, bizarre way. Low-grade junk dealers who putt-putt around the outskirts of Tel-Aviv in a ramshackle motorcycle/cart contraption, Shabtai dreams of local cosmetics queen Lily Dekel (Dorit Bar-Or), while Herzel has a crush on his partner’s daughter, Batya (Zehavit Passi), who is still in school. Determined to meet his red-haired beauty, Shabtai decides to bring her a legless Ping-Pong table as a gift; meanwhile, Herzel spends many an afternoon watching Batya play Ping-Pong from behind the school gates. It takes a while to warm up to Shabtai, who is a rather unpleasant fellow, but Herzel is charming from the get-go, wearing a simplistic, never-ending smile the whole way through. Igvy and Abutbul shared the Best Actor prize at the 2008 Jerusalem Film Festival, while the film garnered seven nominations at the Israeli Film Academy Awards, including Best Actor (Igvy), Best Supporting Actor (Abutbul), Best Screenplay (Burstyn), and Best Film, taking home Best Music (Israel Bright). OUT OF THE BLUE will be screening on May 20 at the Bryant Park Hotel as part of the Dor Chadash Israeli Film Series, preceded by a reception at 7:30 and a discussion with Bursztyn, “Escaping Israeli Reality Through Israeli Cinema,” at 8:00.
With his life in freefall, postal employee Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) gazes up at his poster of soccer legend Eric Cantona and wonders what the Manchester United star would do – and then, like magic, Cantona (played by Cantona himself) appears in his room, to lend advice and help him through his myriad problems. Reminiscent of how Bogie (Jerry Lacy) guides Allan (Woody Allen) in PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, Cantona hangs out with Bishop, talking about how he dealt with adversity on the field and off and sharing joints while discussing life. Bishop’s stepsons don’t listen to him, his second wife has left him, and he ends up in the hospital after driving the wrong way through a traffic circle. But his close group of motley friends – Spleen (Justin Moorhouse), Jack (Des Sharples), Monk (Greg Cook), Judge (Mick Ferry), Smug (Smug Roberts), Travis (Johnny Travis), and leader Meatballs (John Henshaw) – stick by him through thick and thin, especially when his son Ryan (Gerard Kearns) gets into serious trouble with a local gangster (Steve Marsh). A light-hearted, tender comedy that turns somewhat goofy at the end, LOOKING FOR ERIC was directed by, remarkably enough, British iconoclast Ken Loach, who has previously offered up such dour, serious tales as KES, RIFF-RAFF, CARLA’S SONG, and THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY. Loach and screenwriting partner Paul Laverty were looking for a sweet, innocent film to make when Cantona actually approached them with an idea that they turned into LOOKING FOR ERIC, a nod to such charmers as WAKING NED DEVINE and THE FULL MONTY that includes clips of many of Cantona’s most spectacular goals as well as his infamous farewell press conference.
Inspired by his own childhood raised on a commune, Adam Sherman’s debut film, HAPPINESS RUNS, is filled with angst and ennui, overwhelmed by a dank darkness that very nearly strangles it. Mark L. Young stars as Victor, a high school senior living in a utopian — dystopian? — community where sex and drugs run rampant, among the kids as well as the adults, which include Victor’s incompetent mother (Andie MacDowell) and Insley (Rutger Hauer), the local guru who heals his flock by sleeping with all the women he can. When the prodigal daughter, the beloved and beautiful Becky (Hanna Hall), returns to care for her ailing father, followed by ultracool drug dealer Shiloh (Shiloh Fernandez, looking frighteningly like Joaquin Phoenix), life in this supposedly idyllic setting threatens to explode as greed, jealousy, and violence turn the not-so-free-spirited commune into LORD OF THE FLIES. HAPPINESS RUNS, which has its moments, suffers from the lack of an attractive protagonist; everyone appears to be so miserable that it is difficult to identify with any of them. In his song “Happiness Runs,” ’60s icon Donovan sings, “You can have everything if you let yourself be”; in his first movie, HAPPINESS RUNS, Adam Sherman shows that that is not necessarily always the case.