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The setting is St. Louis in the 1930s at the depths of the Great Depression. Jesse Bradford plays Aaron, a twelve-year-old boy whose family is being pulled apart: his younger brother is sent away to live with relatives, while his mother’s consumption forces her (Lisa Eichhorn) to check into a sanitarium. His loving but unreliable father (Jeroen Krabbé) is a salesman who is forever dodging landlords and collection agents. Eventually he lands a job on the road, leaving Aaron to fend for himself. At another time and place, being alone in a residential hotel in the middle of a major city might seem ominous, or threatening, but to a smart, resourceful kid like Aaron, it also presents infinite possibilities.

He talks his way into an exclusive school and concocts fanciful stories about his family. Meanwhile, he receives an education of a different sort from the people he meets on the street and in the hotel, including a woozy prostitute (Elizabeth McGovern) and her mysterious client (Spalding Gray).

I can’t think of a film that paints a more vivid portrait of life during the Depression than this one. Its constant ring of truth derives from Soderbergh’s brilliant script, expert production design by Gary Frutkoff, and canny casting. Every supporting character is well drawn and well played (by a fine cast including such up-and-comers as Adrien Brody and a young Katherine Heigl), but top honors go to Jesse Bradford. In his review for Variety, Todd McCarthy wrote, “As a boy increasingly forced to apply his creativity to his life rather than his imaginative world, Bradford simply gives one of the best pre-teen performances in memory.” The promise he showed in this film has borne fruit ever since, in such films as Happy Endings and Flags of Our Fathers, but there aren’t many roles as good as this in any lifetime.

Soderbergh has become one of our most prolific and adventurous filmmakers, alternating personal projects (Schizopolis, Che, The Girlfriend Experience) and experimental films (Full Frontal, Bubble) with mainstream movies (Erin Brockovich, Oceans 11, and its sequels). He has produced a number of worthwhile films and mentored young directors along the way. He’s even found time to interview some of his favorite directors, including Mike Nichols and Richard Lester, both in print and on commentary tracks of numerous DVDs.

But from my point of view, there is still one piece of unfinished business, and I still hope to see the day when King of the Hill is celebrated as the masterpiece it is.

65. KONTROLL

(2003)

Directed by Nimród Antal

Screenplay by Jim Adler and Nimród Antal

Actors:

SÁNDOR CSÁNYI

SÁNDOR BADÁR

ZOLTÁN MUCSI

ZSOLT NAGY

CSABA PINDROCH

ESZTER BALLA

LÁSZLÓ NÁDASI

PÉTER SCHERER

If someone pitched you the idea of making a movie about the men who check passengers’ tickets on the subway system in Budapest, Hungary, you’d probably roll your eyes in disbelief—or disinterest. But filmmaker’s Nimród Antal’s vision, and the world he brings to life, make Kontroll both fascinating and unique.

Is it science fiction? Not really…yet the environment in which the story unfolds, and its cast of characters, somehow don’t seem real. The entire film takes place underground, and in this world we discover a separate society made up of misfits, outcasts, and renegades. These ragged but single-minded control agents work for the metro system in teams; they are openly derisive of their superiors and compete with one another for supremacy on their turf beneath the streets. In this setting, even the buzzing hum of fluorescent light fixtures seems ominous.

A series of unexplained murders triggers the story line, just as the recurring appearance of an ethereal young woman in costume provides the hint of a love story.

This cutting-edge, genre-bending movie has elements of action, mystery, fantasy, romance, black comedy, and high drama.

I was lucky enough to see Kontroll at the Telluride Film Festival, and later invited the director (who cowrote the film with Jim Adler) to bring his film to my class at USC. My students