New Movie Shorts

BROTHERS
The story is a mishmash of familiar war-movie plots, albeit with a distinctly Dogme sensibility. Michael (Ulrich Thomsen) is a model husband and father, but he's a soldier first. Leading peacekeeping troops into Afghanistan, he is captured after a harrowing helicopter crash and becomes a prisoner of war. Believed dead by his country and his family, Michael is forced to make an awful choice to survive, and the experience changes him radically. Meanwhile, Michael's previously irresponsible brother Jannik (Nickolaj Lie Kaas) has become more protective of Michael's family and emotionally closer to Michael's wife, Sarah (Connie Nielsen, endearingly vulnerable in her first role in her native Danish). When Michael escapes and returns, we expect — and get — something like The Deer Hunter at Pearl Harbor. The differences, aside from a distinct lack of actor-y tedium or swoopy jingoistic bluster, are a sharp screenplay by Anders Thomas Jensen; gutsy performances; and sensitive, expert direction by Susanne Bier. Throw in the sheer novelty of a Danish war film — produced by Lars von Trier's Zentropa Entertainment, no less — and Brothers amply surpasses its tropes. --Ryan Godfrey (Ritz at the Bourse; Ritz 16)

MAD HOT BALLROOM
The simple-sounding premise of Marilyn Agrelo's documentary — New York City public school students prepare for an annual ballroom dancing competition — doesn't begin to describe it. Insightful, careful, funny and sharp, the film follows three groups of fifth-graders as they practice the rumba, tango, swing, merengue and fox trot. In interviews, teachers articulate their own passionate dedication to their charges (as well as their desires to bring home the six-foot-high trophy), and the kids (variously sized, raced, shaped) speak thoughtfully about their hopes — to win, of course, but also to perform well, to do their parts for their teams and to express themselves. This last may be the movie's most endearing revelation. On one level, the film relies on the charming vision of these little bodies moving in such adult-seeming ways, but on another, it lets the kids be kids, some with supportive parents, some dealing with difficult home lives. Coming from different backgrounds (Tribeca, Bensonhurst and Washington Heights), the children are by turns awkward, ambitious and adorable, using dance to perform and work through their personalities-in-process. Most effectively, the movie respects the dancers as (admittedly short) people, showing their disappointments and rationalizations (when they don't advance to further stages in the competition), as well as their growing self-confidence and sense of community. --Cindy Fuchs (Ritz at the Bourse; Ritz 16)

3-IRON
Insufferably precious except when it's gut-churningly violent, Kim Ki-Duk's near-wordless fable is three parts syrup to one part blood. Jae Hee plays a transient with a flair for B&E, but instead of larcenous, his motives are anal-retentive. He wipes, dusts, washes and folds, then snaps a picture of himself in his now-sparkling surroundings. Not all domestic dirt can be removed with a vigorous scrub, however. When a couple returns home midmakeover and the husband starts beating his wife (Lee Seung-yeon), Jae grabs the husband's golf clubs and long-drives him almost to death. What girl wouldn't be charmed? The crunching sound of ball hitting bone doesn't stop Kim from pouring on the treacle, as mute burglar and traumatized wife go on a vicarious-living spree, moving from house to house until their time inevitably runs out. Rather than muting the movie's cloying tendencies, Kim's low-key presentation throws them into sharp relief, tempting you to fill the quiet with exasperated screams. --Sam Adams (Ritz Five; Ritz 16)

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