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trip to the stars and back. Sworn to lifelong secrecy, Kubrick hid his achievement inside the ghost-strewn halls of the Overlook Hotel, ensuring that only the truly dedicated would follow the clues and have their illusions about America’s Space Age superiority shattered. That grand theory is a grand load of hooey, of course. That grainy space-cam footage featured in virtually every montage about the ’60s really does feature Armstrong placing his foot upon the moon’s surface, not an actor taking a small step on a top-secret soundstage under Kubrick’s watchful eye. But the notion that the moon landing was the director’s stealth sequel to 2001 is prime fodder for a fun alternate history of 20thcentury cinema history, right up there with such amusing “What ifs” as “What if Tom Selleck had actually played Indiana Jones?” and “What if Star Wars had bombed?” Enter British screenwriter Dean Craig, who takes that nugget of a premise and uses it as the jumping-off point for Moonwalkers, an Argostyle caper picture with comic, rather than serious, overtones. Wait a minute—Argo was a real story, you say? Maybe…but after screenwriter Chris Terrio and director Ben Affleck got through with it, it sure played an awful lot like fiction. Veracity aside, Argo does, at least, spin its yarn with conviction and clarity of purpose. Moonwalkers feels like a doodle that Craig and first-time feature filmmaker Antoine Bardou-Jacquet extrapolated on the fly. The shambling plot involves CIA operative Kidman (Ron Perlman, whose perpetual glower is the funniest thing in the film), who flies to England to enlist Bronx-born Kubrick’s participation in his native country’s out-ofthe-world deception. Sitting down with a man purporting to be Kubrick’s manager—but who, in fact, is simply a screw-up-prone, small-time band manager named Jonny (Rupert Grint)—Kidman promises a substantial payout for this deep-cover film project, and that’s all Jonny needs to hear to volunteer his client’s involvement. Since he doesn’t manage the real Stanley Kubrick, though, he enlists his drug-addled roommate, Leon (Robert Sheehan), to impersonate the reclusive filmmaker, a deception that works about as well as you might expect…which is to say, not at all. Luckily for Jonny, Kidman can’t go back to his employers empty-handed and so they join forces to fool the American government into thinking they can fool the American people, hiring Warholesque buffoon Renatus (Tom Audenaert) to make the moon landing a reality in Kubrick’s place. Meanwhile, Kidman’s blunt-force tactics have managed to piss off a crew of British mobsters, and they prepare to descend on the set, adding a deadly ticking clock to an already tension-fraught situation. In addition to Argo, Mel Brooks’ immortal comedy classic The Producers is another clear reference point for Moonwalkers, with Perlman playing the Zero Mostel part, while Grint flails about like Gene Wilder and Audenaert does a hippie variation on Christopher Hewett’s flamboyant stage director. And in place of musical-theatre parodies like “Springtime for Hitler,” Bardou-Jacquet offers up comedy-laced homages to famous Kubrick scenes, most notably a slow-motion bathroom brawl scored to classical music a la Clockwork Orange, as well as the inevitable blast of “Also sprach Zarathustra” when Renatus calls “Action” on the fake moon landing. While mildly amusing in the moment, these air-quote-infused recreations underline the awkward artificiality of the entire film. Craig and Bardou-Jacquet want to make it clear that they don’t believe any of this nonsense about Kubrick directing the Apollo 11 landing either, but in doing so, they fail to establish a convincing comic reality that the actors—or, for that matter, the audience—can hook into. The random bursts of cartoonish ultraviolence that occasionally crop up courtesy of that ill-advised gangster subplot are similarly jarring, and suggest that the filmmakers don’t have a firm grasp on what this movie wants to say about filmmaking in general or Kubrick in particular. Not out there enough to work as gonzo period comedy, and certainly not trenchant enough to succeed as satire, Moonwalkers is an imitation of a real movie. —Ethan Alter INTRUDERS MOMENTUM PICTURES/Color/1.85/90 Mins./ Not Rated Cast: Beth Riesgraf, Jack Kesy, Martin Starr, Joshua Mikel, Rory Culkin, Leticia Jimenez. Directed by Adam Schindler. Written by T.J. Cimfel, David White. Produced by Steven Schneider, Jeff Rice, Lati Grobman, Erik Olsen. Executive producers: Tommy Vlahopoulos, Christa Campbell, Matthew Lamothe, Brian Netto, Rob Van Norden. Director of photography: Eric Leach. Production designer: James Wiley Fowler. Editors: Adam Schindler, Brian Netto. Costume designer: Gayle Anderson. A Black Fish Films, Jeff Rice Films, Campbell Grobman Films and Vicarious Entertainment production. In this clever variation on the home-invasion formula, a woman fights back against three men intent on robbery. Anna (Beth Riesgraf) has just nursed her beloved older brother, Conrad (Timothy T. McKinney), through a long, punishing death from pancreatic cancer; throughout his illness, the lone bright spot in her days has been chatting with baby-faced Dan (Rory Culkin), who delivers prepared meals daily. The family house is on a sizeable lot, so there are no neighbors to notice that Anna has become a shut-in (Intruders’ original title), unable even to venture out onto the porch. So isolated that her only recent visitor has been her brother’s lawyer (Leticia Jimenez), looking to finalize some paperwork, Anna is inordinately grateful for Dan’s brief visits. Beth Riesgraf On the day of Conrad’s funeral, which Anna can’t bring herself to attend, three men–Vance (Joshua Mikel), Perry (Martin Starr) and JP (Jack Kesy)–break into the house, assuming there won’t be anyone home. Ghoulish though it may be, the practice of perusing obituaries and burgling homes during funerals is not uncommon. Anna can’t bring herself to flee and her presence is betrayed by a boiling kettle. But while clearly frightened, Anna isn’t as terrified as one would expect, even after the intruders make it clear that once she gives up the money they know is hidden in the house, they intend to kill her. Anna, it turns out, has hidden resources, including the house itself– much like the apparently fragile Anna, it isn’t as ordinary as it appears. If not entirely plausible–though, sadly, the reason the house is riddled with hidden corridors and rooms stops short of being completely preposterous–Intruders is tautly directed by first-time feature filmmaker Adam Schindler (from a scrrenplay by T.J. Cimfel and David White) and benefits greatly from Riesgraf’s performance as the agoraphobic Anna. She simultaneously conveys both a sense of psychological damage and hint of inner steel from the beginning–there’s an icy almost-threat in her demand that the dying Conrad not call her “Birdie,” a childhood nickname she despises that’s at odds with her otherwise evident devotion to her brother. The filmmakers make subtle use of the bird motif throughout, from a vulnerable parakeet in a cage to the china knickknacks on the living-room mantle; it culminates in the lesson explored by Daphne du Maurier and Alfred Hitchcock in, yes, The Birds: Appearances can be deceptive. —Maitland McDonagh For the latest reviews, visit www.filmjournal.com 52 WWW.FILMJOURNAL.COM FEBRUARY 2016
I N T E R N A T I O N A L CALENDAR OF FEATURE RELEASES VOL. 119, NO. 2 A24 (646) 568-6015 Now Mojave Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac C/93 mins/R Now Room Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay C/DD/118 mins/R 2/12 Remember Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau 95 mins 2/19 The Witch Dir. Robert Eggers 92 mins/R 3/18 Krisha Dir. Trey Edward Shults 83 mins 4/1 Green Room Dir. Jeremy Saulnier 95 mins 2016 De Palma Dirs. Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow 2016 How to Talk to Girls at Parties Dir. John Cameron Mitchell TBA TBA TBA TBA TBA There Are Monsters Zoe Kazan, Scott Speedman Tresspass Against Us Michael Fassbender Into the Forest Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood 101 mins The Adderall Diaries Amber Heard, James Franco Equals Dir. Drake Doremus ALCHEMY (310) 893-6289 Now Moonwalkers Ron Perlman, Rupert Grint 107 mins/R 2/19 Rolling Papers Dir. Mitch Dickman 80 mins 3/11 The Lobster Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz 118 mins 3/25 Mia Madre Dir. Nanni Moretti 106 mins April Evolution Dir. Lucile Hadzihalilovic 2016 Free Fire Armie Hammer, Brie Larson TBA Zeroville Dir. James Franco BLEECKER STREET (212) 951-5700 Now Trumbo Bryan Cranston, Helen Mirren DD/124 mins/R 3/11 Eye in the Sky Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul 102 mins/R 4/15 Elvis & Nixon Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey TBA Captain Fantastic Viggo Mortensen, Frank Langella TBA TBA The Last Word Shirley MacLaine, Amanda Seyfried Denial Rachel Weisz, Tom Wilkinson BROAD GREEN PICTURES (323) 860-2470 3/4 Knight of Cups Christian Bale, Natalie Portman Dir. Terrence Malick 118 mins/R 4/1 The Dark Horse Cliff Curtis 11/23 Bad Santa 2 Billy Bob Thornton, Dir. Mark Waters 2016 Voyage of Time Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett Dir. Terrence Malick 2016 Untitled Terrence Malick Film Ryan Gosling, Rooney Mara, Michael Fassbender 2016 Buena Vista Social Club: Adios Dir. Lucy Walker 2016 Brain on Fire Chloë Grace Moretz 2016 The Infiltrator [ID] Bryan Cranston, Diane Kruger TBA Just Mercy [ID] Michael B. Jordan TBA Untitled L.A. Riots Film [ID] Dir. John Ridley COHEN MEDIA GROUP (646) 380-7929 Now Mustang Dir. Deniz Gamze Ergüven C/97 mins/PG-13 Now Hitchcock/Truffaut Dir. Kent Jones 80 mins/PG-13 2/3 Rams Dir. Grímur Hákonarson C/DD/93 mins/NR 2/19 City of Women Dir. Federico Fellini April Marguerite Catherine Frot Spring Les Cowboys Dir. Thomas Bidegain 104 mins 2016 Standing Tall Catherine Deneuve DRAFTHOUSE FILMS (512) 219-7800 Now Where to Invade Next Dir. Michael Moore Now The World of Kanako Dir. Tetsuya Nakashima 3/25 The Invitation Dir. Karyn Kusama Summer Raiders!: The Story of the Greaest Fan Film Ever Made Documentary 2016 Men and Chicken Mads Mikkelsen ENTERTAINMENT ONE (516) 484-1000 TBA The Program Ben Foster, Chris O’Dowd C/103 Mins TBA The Death and Life TBA of John F. Donovan Kit Harington, Jessica Chastain Dir. Xavier Dolan Hard Sell Kristin Chenoweth EPIC PICTURES (323) 207-4170 Now Jeruzalem Dirs. Doron Paz, Yoav Paz 2/12 Nina Forever Dirs. Ben Blaine, Chris Blaine EUROPACORP (310) 205-0255 4/29 Nine Lives Dir. Barry Sonnenfeld 6/17 Shut In Naomi Watts, Jacob Tremblay 7/15 The Lake Dir. Steven Quale 7/21/17 Valerian and the City TBA of a Thousand Planets Dir. Luc Besson Warrior’s Gate Dave Bautista FILM MOVEMENT (212) 941-7744 Now Theeb Dir. Naji Abu Nowar C/D/100 mins/NR 3/18 Take Me to the River Logan Miller, Robin Weigert 84 mins April Men Go to Battle Dir. Zachary Treitz Now Now FILMRISE (718) 369-9090 Monster Hunt Dir. Raman Hui C/Atmos/117 mins/NR Janis: Little Girl Blue Dir. Amy Berg 104 mins FIRST RUN FEATURES (212) 243-0600 Now Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art Dir. James Crump Summer Last Cab to Darwin Jackie Weaver FOCUS FEATURES (646) 543-3303 Now The Forest Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney DD/95 mins/PG-13 Now The Danish Girl Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander DD/120 mins/R Now Suffragette Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter C/DD/106 mins/PG-13 2/19 Race Stephan James, William Hurt 3/4 London Has Fallen Gerard Butler, Morgan Freeman 3/11 The Young Messiah Sean Bean, David Bradley 4/29 Ratchet & Clank Voice of Sylvester Stallone 8/19 Kubo and the Two Strings Voices of Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes 10/14 A Monster Calls Felicity Jones, Liam Neeson 2016 Nocturnal Animals Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal Dir. Tom Ford 2017 The Trap Idris Elba, Benicio Del Toro Dir. Harmony Korine TBA Bastille Day Idris Elba, Richard Madden TBA The Book of Henry Naomi Watts, Maddie Ziegler FOX SEARCHLIGHT (310) 369-1000 Now Brooklyn Saoirse Ronan, Domhnall Gleeson 111 mins/PG-13 Now Youth Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Dir. Paolo Sorrentino C/Atmos/118 mins/R 1/29 The Clan Dir. Pablo Trapero C/DD/108 mins/R 4/8 Demolition Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts C/100 Mins/R 5/13 A Bigger Splash Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes 7/1 Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley 2016 Wilson Woody Harrelson, Judy Greer TBA J.R.R. Tolkien Biopic [ID] Scr. David Gleeson TBA Can You Ever Forgive Me? [ID] Julianne Moore, Dir. Nicole Holofcener TBA Gifted Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer TBA Table 19 Anna Kendrick FREESTYLE RELEASING (323) 330-9920 Now The Letters Juliet Stevenson, Max von Sydow 114 mins/PG Now Martyrs [Anchor Bay] Troian Bellisario Now Monkey Up Voice of John Ratzenberger 4/29 Meet the Blacks Mike Epps, Mike Tyson Listing includes release date (TBA=To Be Announced), film title, cast or director, and technical information: C=Cinemascope • D=Dolby • DD=Dolby Digital • DTS=Datasat Digital • SD=Sony Digital • EX=Surround EX • LF=Large Format • ID=In Development FEBRUARY 2016 WWW.FILMJOURNAL.COM 53
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