Capone's Art-House Round-Up with PROPHET'S PREY, SHANGHAI, and PARTISAN!!!

Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here, with a few films that are making their way into art houses or coming out in limited release around America this week (maybe even taking up one whole screen at a multiplex near you). Do your part to support these films, or at least the good ones…


PROPHET’S PREY
Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Amy Berg has a powerful history with making films that don't just explain an issue with you; they throw you head first into the subject at hand and force you to feel the immediacy of it. With works like WEST OF MEMPHIS and DELIVER US FROM EVIL, Berg puts us right there with the victims of great injustices, who somehow managed to find the strength to come out the other side (although her most recent work, the Janis Joplin doc JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE, which just premiered at Toronto, might be going after a different vibe). In the film that's hitting theaters now (and should be on Showtime fairly soon), PROPHET’S PREY, Berg sets her sites on the ongoing disgrace of the FLDS—Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints—one of the largest Mormon denominations, whose members practice polygyny by marrying off their young teenage girls to older men.

The still-leader of this group is Warren Jeffs, who sits in a jail cell for the rest of his life, still running his church as its prophet whose instructions are more faithfully followed now than when he was free. But while he was in hiding from the FBI, he made the Most Wanted list, where his photo sat between Osama Bin Laden and James "Whitey" Bulger—good company, if you ask me. Berg gives us the history of the church through the eyes and words of author Sam Brower (who wrote the book on which the film is based) and Jon Krakauer (who wrote the preface of the book). If Krakauer's name sounds familiar, it's because he wrote the book Into the Wild and is featured in the mountain-climbing doc MERU; he's also portrayed as a character in the current film EVEREST. The two men drive around FLDS compounds in a truck pointing out surveillance cameras, church police following them, and hundreds of children scurrying to avoid being seen.

PROPHET’S PREY is about unveiling secrets, and much of this is done through high-ranking former members of the FLDS, including Jeffs' own family members, who tell stories of being thrown out of the church for unknown reasons, often being forced to leave their children behind. There are also stories of Jeffs compulsive ways as a sexual predator of both boys and girls when he ran the church's school while his father was the designated prophet. The film almost overwhelms with stories of misery, isolation, depression and occult-like brainwashing. The FLDS's current headquarters is in El Dorado, Texas, and there is a genuine fear of the situation there becoming another Waco situation, or worse, another Jonestown, a concern that is echoed by local law enforcement as well as Krakauer and Brower.

PROPHET’S PREY's most sinister moments come simply from listening to tapes of Jeffs' sermons, in which he speaks in a haunting monotone about facing death if the prophet is not obeyed. We also see glimpses of him in court, where he offers no testimony about his bad deeds, instead hiding behind the Fifth Amendment over and over again. The film's eerie score comes courtesy of Warren Ellis and Nick Cave, who also narrates. The cumulative impact of watching the movie is an ever tightening pit in your stomach, and overwhelming questions about where the line is between religious freedom and cult behavior hiding behind the guise and protection of religion. It's a harrowing, heartbreaking profile that will linger in you mind for a long time to come.


SHANGHAI
I'm sure there's a story out there about why it has taken five years for director Mikael Håfström's SHANGHAI to make it to theaters stateside. The film played in theaters throughout Asia and the Middle East from 2010-11 and has been on home video in many parts of the world since 2011-12. I'm guessing it was in someone's contract that the film must play in theaters in the US before it can be released on home video, but still... five years?

And look at this cast: John Cusack as an American spy working in Shanghai in the months leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and Chinese superstars Gong Li and Chow Yun-Fat as Anna and Anthony Lan-Ting, a married couple who seem to run the Shanghai underground in a time when the Chinese city had a zone for every occupying nation involved in war at the time. Cusack's Paul Soames has some leeway in the city since America is not yet involved in the war officially, and he's posing as a Nazi-sympathizing reporter working for a British editor (Hugh Bonneville).

Also on hand are David Morse as Paul's real boss at the American's consulate; Ken Watanabe as the Japanese officer in charge of security in Shanghai; Franka Potente as the wife of a German diplomat and the woman Paul is sleeping with to get to her husband's top secret files; and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Paul's best friend and fellow spy Conner, seen almost entirely in flashback and whose death is one of the film's many mysteries that Paul is attempting to solve. It's certainly an impressive enough international cast to warrant a more timely release, and I suppose we should just be grateful it escaped at all from the often-crowded vaults of The Weinstein Company.

So how is the actual film? Not bad, actually. It plays out more like a film noir, in which we, the audience, already know what story's biggest secret is. All of the middle-of-the-night murders, talk of resistance fighters, love triangles, and strange alliances are leading toward Paul nearly figuring out that Japan is planning a large-scale attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. There is no implication that this character knew and was ignored by higher-ups (that might be a little too conspiracy theory for American audiences), but it does make a lot of the film's machinations seem a bit superfluous and behind a smoke screen that covers an entire city, which doesn't mean some of it isn't enjoyable.

Working from a script by Hossein Amini, director Håfström (who also helmed Cusack in 1408, as well as THE RITE and ESCAPE PLAN, both made after Shanghai) somehow manages to make things a bit too complicated and too simplistic at the same time. There is example after example how the allure of women steers men wrong and makes them do things that put the masses in danger just to save one lady friend. And honestly, the only times in this film where that theory holds up are moments involving Gong Li, who is not just pleasing to the eye but also the only woman in the film who gets enough screen time to prove to us that she's good as steering the many men under her spell in the direction she wants.

The plot about the dead spy twists and turns, while the search for resistance fighters in the city weaves around Paul's search for any number of people connected to his late friend. But none of it truly matters, because none of that is what the film is really about. To a degree, that works since we're looking around the corners and edges of these interpersonal mysteries to look for clues about Japan's intention to declare war in America. Once that happens, the only thing that seems to matter to anyone in this movie is how fast can they get out of Shanghai.

The film is beautifully shot by Benoît Delhomme (who went on to become director of photography on such films as The Theory of Everything), and the filmmakers do a credible job of capturing the vastness and separation that was in place at the time in Shanghai. A bit too much is over-explained, but with so many nations and characters at play, maybe too much is a good thing. SHANGHAI is no great piece of filmmaking, but it certainly doesn't deserve to be handled like toxic waste by its distributor. I think most audiences that are able to find it will be largely impressed, as well they should be. I would never ask anyone to see a movie just to send a message, but if you're curious about a film with a powerhouse cast like this and a unique look at the events leading up to America's involvement in World War II, this film will likely do something for you.


PARTISAN
A film that manages to be deeply disturbing but impossible to tear yourself away from, PARTISAN is an Australian production about a closed micro-society filled with single mothers and their offspring, all under the largely positive influence of the protective, seductive Gregori (played by the brilliant French actor Vincent Cassel of EASTERN PROMISES, BLACK SWAN, MESRINE). As the film opens, Gregori is in the early stages of building his new community, when he seemingly wanders into a maternity ward and seeks out the one woman, Susanna (Florence Mezzara), who doesn't have any bedside flowers, let alone visitors. Whatever the reasons, she is utterly alone with her newborn.

The story jumps ahead 11 years, as Susanna's son, Alexander (Jeremy Chabriel), is celebrating his birthday and we discover that he and his mother were the first to populate Gregori-land, located in some unknown corner of the world. As written by director Ariel Kleiman (his feature debut after several highly regarded shorts) and Sarah Cyngler, Gregori seems to be a genuinely thoughtful caretaker. He emphasizes education, physical fitness, doing one's chores, and a certain amount of discipline. He's not a fan of those who second guess him, but usually he is patient in setting someone straight. He's something of a more kind-hearted Fagin to Alexander's Oliver Twist, or so it would seem.

But before long, we start to learn of certain "errands" the children must run out into the world to provide for the group, and no one is better at these expeditions than Alexander. Not entirely surprising, the errands involve a certain amount of illegal activity and a great deal of cold-hearted violence, and as Alexander is maturing, he begins to question the bloody tasks. The film's tension levels escalate slowly at first, but when it becomes clear that a friendly game of paintball is a dress rehearsal for something far more sinister, ever aspect of this seemingly tranquil haven takes on an eerie, disconcerting hue.

While it's clear that Gregori would do anything to maintain order in the community, his affection for Alexander is genuine, and he does everything in his power—from friendly persuasion to outright threats—to keep the boy among the flock. Cassel has historically excelled at portraying menacing figures in a many of this films, but Gregori has more layers. As misguided as his efforts may be, he truly is looking out for these women and children, even if a few innocent outsiders must die to make that happen. Cassel isn't playing evil, but it's easy, even tempting, to see Gregori as such, especially when he puts his more sadistic side in full view when disciplining someone in the group.

The most fascinating moments of PARTISAN involve Alexander discovering, at a somewhat advanced age, the value of life. When another young boy refuses to eat chicken because he's discovered it's distant relative of the T-Rex and therefore wants to save the lineage (he apparently thinks the only chickens in the world are the few in this compound), Alexander is curious, both about the idea of protecting living creatures and the ferocity of Gregori's punishment of this other boy. It doesn't take long for Alexander to adjust his behavior when he puts others' needs before his own.

As strong as the acting is here, full credit goes to director Kleiman, who has a confident visual style and powerful minimalist writing that doesn't over-explain what exactly is happening in the film in one exposition overload. If you watch, you'll figure it all out soon enough, and the impact is far more chilling. PARTISAN has a great deal of twisted logic when it comes to violence, and it's all the better for it. Existential questions about the use and place of violence in the world have plagued humanity for centuries, and for far too long, films have made its use a very black-or-white issues. But this debut feature takes a bit more time than most to allow us to think a bit about consequences and learned behavior. It's a strong effort that you should seek out either in art houses or VOD.

-- Steve Prokopy
"Capone"
capone@aintitcool.com
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