The Writer with No Hands (No Certificate)
Directed by William Westaway
★★★★★

WHEN an out-of-work British PhD graduate, ironically a failed comedian, acquires the unseen file of an autopsy report for a Hollywood screenwriter alleging he was murdered in a CIA kidnap operation, he leaves Britain for Los Angeles to seek evidence that a government-staged assassination really happened.

In 1997, Hollywood screenwriter Guy Devore, with credits including Dogs of War, Raw Deal and Running Scared, vanished without trace while driving home through the Mojave Desert.

The documentary The Writer with No Hands follows British writer Matthew Alford as he tries to establish that the accidental death of  Devore was in fact an assassination by the US government. With a cameraman, he headed to California to try to solve the mystery.

Devore was working in 1997 on a screenplay covering allegations against the US government involving bank robbery, drugs and the invasion of Panama.

A year later, his car was found by an amateur investigator at the bottom of an aqueduct with what appeared to be his body inside but with no hands attached to his arms — and hands then found in the truck were declared to be around 200-years old.

There were other ignored inconsistencies. According to official evidence, Devore’s lights were not on, seemingly indicating he had driven in complete darkness. According to one witness, “Evel Knievel at his best couldn’t do that.”

Devore’s laptop containing the screenplay for The Big Steal had vanished, as had his gun.

“It's very difficult to actually prove something happened, like a murder,” Alford says, after years of investigation. “But you can prove that something didn't happen, like an impossible accident.”

He believes that the mysterious disappearance of Devore is “the greatest spy story never told.”

In 2017 the film, as tense and telling as any Hollywood fiction, deservedly won Best Documentary at the Vienna Independent Film Festival.

Unmissable.

Available for download on Means TV, means.tv

Standing Up, Falling Down (15)
Directed by Matt Ratner
★★★★

A STRUGGLING stand-up comedian meets a drunk in a bar and an unlikely friendship blossoms in this wonderfully charming and comic feature by Matt Ratner.

With a screenplay by Peter Hoare, it's an impressive debut by Ratner which raises a predictable tale into a class of its own thanks to the inspired pairing of Ben Schwartz with comic legend Billy Crystal.

Schwartz plays the 34-year-old Scott who returns to his parents' home with his tail between his legs after four years , having crashed and burned in LA.

His father sees him as a failure who's wasted his time, while his mother wants him to join the post office. So he drowns his sorrows with new-found friend Marty (Crystal), an alcoholic dermatologist who has his own issues.

This gentle and slow-burning comedy drama bursts into life every time Schwartz and Crystal spar together, with the latter a sheer delight to watch.

The pair gatecrashing a funeral is one of the highlights of a film exploring confronting your regrets. In Scott's case, it's leaving his fiancee (Eloise Mumford), now married to another, to pursue his career and in Marty's, not being a good husband or father.

As Marty tells Scott: “Happiness fades, sadness dulls over time but regret, that shit lingers.”

Without being cheesy or uber-sentimental this drama will make you laugh and cry — a welcome tonic at this time.

Maria Duarte

Acceleration (15)
Directed by Michael Merino and Daniel Zirilli
★★

THE INCIDENTS proliferate, the body-count's high and the storyline is light on logic in Acceleration, concocted by screenwriter Michael Merino, who co-directs with Daniel Zirilli.

They serve up lashings of blood-soaked action as the film follows skilled getaway driver Rhona —  played to the hilt and then some by Natalie Burn — during the increasingly gory night she spends tracking down her kidnapped young son.

As ruthless crime boss Vladik, Dolph Lundgren plays Dolph Lundgren as usual. He triggers the escalating carnage while Sean Patrick Flanery’s engaging super-hood cheerfully chews the scenery while keeping a commendable straight face as the crime boss who provokes Rhona’s blood-and bullets-heavy mission, during which she makes 007 resemble a coy pacifist.

In this kick-ass, superheroine action-and-revenge riff — think Jane Bond — all concerned play it  with straight faces in a film which benefits immensely from Jan-Michael Losada atmospheric cinematography of night-time Los Angeles.

Released on all digital platforms on April 6.

AF