Parky at the Pictures (In Cinemas 14/8/2014)

Prior to 1990, only 12 fossilised Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons had been unearthed and few had been more than 40% complete. However, as Todd Douglas Miller reveals in Dinosaur 13, this changed when a major discovery was made by the members of the Black Hills Institute in the Ruth Mason Quarry near Faith, South Dakota. The team had been happy to find some Edmontosaurus bones and was all set to head for home to Hill City on 12 August when Peter Larson and Terry Wentz realised that the tyre pump hose on their truck was broken. As they went into town to get it repaired, Susan Hendrickson decided to have a last look around the site and found a couple of bone fragmentss lying on the ground. On looking up, however, she saw a much larger piece protruding from a cliff face and hurried back to inform Larson.

Seeing several large bones on the surface, as well as some articulated vertebrae, Larson was immediately convinced that Hendrickson had found a sizeable T-Rex and called his brother Neal to bring some specialist equipment and a movie camera to chronicle the dig. Within two days, it began to dawn on the team that it had stumbled across a 30ft skeleton. Over the next 17 days, they worked in 115° heat to inch the specimen nicknamed `Sue' (in honour of Hendrickson) out of the ground. Each new section was meticulously recorded on butcher's paper and landowner Maurice Williams watched the operation with genuine fascination. Indeed, he built up such a rapport with Larson that he insisted there was no need to sign formal documents when he accepted $5000 for the bones, which was then the largest sum ever paid for an American dinosaur.

Discovering that Sue was 80% complete, Larson announced that she would be exhibited in a museum that would bring tourists to the Black Hills. Miller films experts Phillip Manning, Philip J. Currie and Vincent Santucci explaining the significance of the find, which Oscar-winning film-maker Louie Pshihoyos claims enabled scientists to get a much firmer grasp on evolution, as they were able to delve deeper into time than they had been before. But Miller is also keen to establish that contemporaries were delighted that Sue was in the care of such a decent man.

Peter Larson had found his first dinosaur tooth at the age of four and spent many hours hunting for samples outside Madison with Neal and their father. They set up their own small museum and founded Black Hills Minerals with Bob Farrar after Peter graduated from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Business was slow, however, and the siblings sold their fossil collection to launch the Black Hills Geological Institute in Hill City in 1979. But nothing could match the discovery of Sue and Lynn Hochstafl, Marion Zenker, Bill Harlan and Marv Matkins recall that the whole town was behind the Larsons in their plan to house her in a purpose-built museum. Some 2000 visitors came to see the skull and learned that Sue had had a tough life, as several bones had been broken and that she had died as a result of her jaw being torn from its socket during a struggle with another creature.

In May 1992, Larson announced that Sue appeared to have curled up as she died, as her skull had fossilised against her pelvis. The delicate process of separating the body parts using specialist lifting tools was filmed amidst great trepidation, as the slightest mistake could have compromised the integrity of the find. Wentz recalls the sense of euphoria when the task was completed. But the triumph proved to be short-lived, as less than a week later (on 14 May), two FBI agents arrived at the Institute at 7am declaring that they had a warrant to seize Sue and all the records relating to her discovery. Peter was accused of having stolen the skeleton from federal land and lawyer Patrick Duffy arrived to see the National Guard cordoning off the area as Acting District Attorney Kevin Schieffer informed the press that he was upholding in the greater good in enforcing the Antiquity Act.

In all, some 30 people participated in the raid, which took three days to complete. Larson and Wentz agreed to co-operate in order to ensure that Sue was not damaged as she was placed in a series of packing crates. But their neighbours were outraged by the confiscation supervised by National Guard officer Harold J. Sykora and Pshihoyos recalls the vehemence of the protest, which he covered for National Geographic. Yet, even as they watched everything they had worked for being taken away, Larson and Wentz remained focused solely on Sue's well-being, as she was transferred to the former's alma mater in Rapid City, some 30 miles away.

In the hope of publicising what he considered to be a theft, Larson contacted Kristin Donnan on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries show and soon news networks across America were reporting the story as a case of heavy-handed governance. However, Williams had informed the federal authorities that he has not sold Sue and claimed still to be its rightful owner. Everyone knew he was a shady character, but there was nothing the Institute could do to challenge him, as they had no signed proof of purchase. Moreover, in 1969, Williams had entrusted the land on which Sue had been found to the US Department of the Interior and, because he was a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, this meant that he had to seek permission from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to sell anything found on it.

In fact, Williams had not paid his $100 licence fee and, thus, the government could claim that it had a duty to protect Sue under a complex trust system outlined in the Allotment Acts. Duffy and Donnan concur with lawyer Bruce Ellison and archaeologist Carson Neff Murdy that the fossil had landed in a legal netherworld and preparator Leon Theisen agrees with Larson that Schieffer exploited the situation to gain maximum publicity for himself in order to boost his career prospects.

The Larsons were not alone in feeling cheated, however. The citizens of Hill City were determined to get their dinosaur back and a Sue Freedom Run followed a protest at the 1993 Dakota Days Parade. Moreover, mayor Drue Vitter launched a petition that drew 20,000 signatures from around the world denouncing Schieffer's self-serving motives. But, as a romance began to blossom between Larson and Donnan, two federal courts supported the seizure and Sue remained in the boxes that had now been her home for 229 days. Larson frequently visited her and vowed to free her. But a number of academics launched a backlash against the Black Hills Institute by claiming its members were pirates out solely for commercial gain.

Palaeontologist Robert Bakker tried to counter by affirming that Larson had devoted his life to study and had an excellent reputation for preserving his finds. But this counted for nothing when District Judge Richard Battey delivered his verdict on the ownership of Sue on 3 February 1993. By dismissing the claim of the tribe, he forced the government to withdraw its trust action. But he also ruled that the mineralised bones counted as land that Williams had no right to sell. However, just as Sue was being branded real estate, the IRS Criminal Division instructed agent Keith Nelson to start collecting evidence for a Grand Jury investigation into the Black Hills Institute.

According to Santucci, who was then with the National Parks Service, the IRS had been exploring whether Larson had been taking items illegally from public land since 1985. But the Sue case convinced them to push for a prosecution. Zenker and Vitter accused FBI agent William Ashbury of harassing and victimising Larson, as the feds offered immunity to Hendrickson and Wentz if they testified against their boss. On 19 November, a 39-count indictment listing 153 charges was issued against the Larsons, Farrar, Wentz, the Institute and two of its business associates. Among the crimes claimed by Assistant US Attorney Robert Mandel were the theft of fossils from federal land, money laundering, currency fraud and the making of false statements.

Facing five counts, Wentz insists that Mandel threw as much mud as he could to see what would stick. But, while Neal and Farrar were hit with 38 and 36 charges respectively, Peter was warned that he could be sentenced to 353 years for his 36 citations, which included the transportation of stolen goods, wire fraud and conspiracy to steal. Duffy was determined to keep his clients out of jail and negotiated a plea bargain with Judge Battey. However, as Sue's confinement hit 961 days, Hugh O'Gara wrote about the case in the Rapid City Journal and Battey was so furious that his integrity had been impugned that he ordered a trial, which began on 10 January 1995.

Refusing to disqualify himself, Battey presided over what became the biggest criminal case in South Dakota history, as 600 pieces of evidence were presented and 90 witnesses gave their testimony. IRS agent Nelson agrees that the proceedings were poorly structured and questions the contribution of Utah State Palaeontologist James Madsen, who was summoned to determine the value of the `stolen' fossils so their theft could be classified as a misdemeanour (under $100) or a felony (over $100). Yet, the court undermined its legiticimacy by accepting judgements on items that Madsen had not personally inspected and the Institute team started to fear the worst.

Two of Larson's felony charges relating to transporting cash in excess of $10,000 without declaring it to US Customs. The first sum was to be used to fund a museum in Peru, while the second was for a deal in Japan. Four witnesses testified that Larson had acted honourably in each instance and Duffy was so satisfied that the prosecution had failed to prove its case that he decided against putting Larson on the stand, even though Neal had been cross-examined for three and a half days. The jury retired after a 45-day hearing and took another 18 days to reach its verdict. Juror LaNice Archer reveals that the majority had wanted the entire case dropped for lack of tangible evidence. But Neal was found guilty of one misdemeanour theft and Farrar of twice submitting false customs statements. Peter was convicted of two theft misdemeanours and two instances of illegally transporting currency, while six lesser charges were proved against the Institute.

Three of these were later dropped, along with Farrar's felony raps. But, convinced by elitist academics that commercial fossiling was a shabby business, Battey was bent on making the Larsons pay for the embarrassment he had suffered during the case. So, on 22 January 1996, he gave Neal two years' probation and a $1000 fine and sentenced Peter to two years in prison, as well as a further two years' probation and a $5000 fine for his failure to fill out customs forms. He was granted a month to put his affairs in order before he had to report to Federal Penitentiary ADX Florence in Colorado. Despite being unable to walk because of a broken leg, Larson had his cane confiscated as he entered the facility. However, as he filled out the necessary paperwork, the duty guard informed Larson that he must have really put the judge's nose out of joint to receive such a long term for such a minor offence.

As Larson went inside, Maurice Williams approached David Redden at Sotheby's to arrange for Sue's sale. Suddenly keen to appear concerned about the dinosaur's fate, Williams took his family to her basement and posed for photographs before the crates were shipped to New York and placed in a storage facility until an auction date could be arranged. Larson took solace from the fact that he and Sue were sharing the same fate and Donnan and Psihoyos reveal that he threw himself into giving Saturday morning lectures that earned him the respect of his fellow inmates who recognised that he had been wronged. His model behaviour also impressed the governor and Larson was released into home confinement after 18 months. But, while he was happy to return to the Institute, Donnan laments that he had been scarred by his experience and took some time to relearn how to interact with people.

Larson might have been bowed, but he was far from beaten and he forged an alliance with state senator Stan Adelstein to try and buy Sue for South Dakota. However, when the bidding began on 4 October 1997, their $1.2 million limit was soon exceeded as the asking price leapt to $7.4 million in 29 seconds. Ultimately, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago prevailed with a total bid of $8.36 million, which was partially funded by McDonald's and Disney. After Sotheby's took its fee and the US Department of the Interior ratified the sale, Williams received $7.6 million tax free for a piece of trust property that had previously been deemed useless.

Although Donnan felt frustration that such an undeserving clan had profited from Larson's hard work and sacrifice, he insisted that Sue had gone to a good home. It took three years to prepare her for exhibition and Psihoyos denounces the Field crew for not offering Larson a chance to participate in the work. Indeed, he wasn't even invited to the official opening of a space that creditably restored some ferocity to the prehistoric predator rather than presenting her as a cute curio. Larson must have approved as he watched the unveiling as Hendrickson's guest. But, while Sue will forever remain in his heart, he has remained committed to palaeontology and has since found nine more T-Rex specimens. He has also enhanced the status of the Institute's own museum. But, as Miller shows Larson striding out in search of more discoveries, he regrets that his place in history has been compromised and notes in the closing captions that it seems unfair that Hendrickson should have received an honorary PhD from the University of Illinois, while Wentz decided to quit fossiling altogether and the Larsons have continued having to eke out a living.

A final caption notes gleefully that Kevin Schieffer ended up in federal court after he was fired by a railway company in 2009. However, by failing to go into detail about his dealings with the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, this seems to be a cheap shot that is unworthy of inclusion in an otherwise excellent account of a wholly dispiriting incident. Working from Peter Larson's memoir, Miller (who also serves as his own editor) settles for a standard actuality format in cross-cutting between archive material and talking heads. But, even though objectivity is often at a premium and some of the re-enactments feel more than a little manipulative, Miller tells his tale with an assurance and cogency that will soon have audiences cheering on the underdog, as several sledgehammers are employed to crack a relatively small nut.

Although their absence is somewhat inevitable, the film might have benefited from some input from Schieffer, Battey or a representative of the Williams family. But, with Matt Morton's score championing the Larson cause with as much eloquence as his friends and supporters, there appears little doubt that anything they might have said would probably have been turned against them. Even Thomas Peterson's views of the Badlands are used to make the Institute crew seem small against the unforgiving landscape. Yet, while this may only just stop short of propaganda, it remains utterly compelling and there is no doubting either Larson's scholastic sincerity or his devotion to Sue.

Viktor Bout is no less likeable than Peter Larson. Indeed, while watching Tony Gerber and Maxim Pozdorovkin's The Notorious Mr Bout, he comes across less like the inspiration for the gung-ho gunrunner played by Nicolas Cage in Andrew Niccol's Lord of War (2005) than someone Borat might have interviewed in a Sacha Baron-Cohen sketch. But such is the banality of Bout's evil that it is easy to mistake him for a loveable rogue who fell victim to American paranoia in the wake of 9/11 rather than the `Merchant of Death' who revelled in the luxury and power that his legal, but morally reprehensible trade afforded him.

In 2008, Viktor Bout flew to Bangkok to meet with two Colombians who wanted to harm American citizens. Grainy surveillance footage shows Bout and South African go-between Andrew Smulian chatting happily with Carlos Sagastume and Ricardo Jardenero in the belief that they are FARC rebels rather than undercover agents. However, the meeting is raided and a montage of news clips provides a brief background to the case before Bout is shown landing in New York under close guard. The action forwards to 2011, as Alla Bout waits outside a courtroom hoping for good news about her husband, who appears to be the life and soul of every party in the home movies she shows Gerber and Pozdorovkin.

Journalist Matt Potter claims that Bout is a walking contradiction whose character traits can be exploited by friend and foe alike. The latter cast him as an evil supervillain who knew exactly what he was doing, while the former insist that he was offered up as a scapegoat by an arms industry whose major players are governments rather than independents. However, in the e-mails that Bout sends the directors from prison (which are voiced by Gennadi Vengerov), it is clear that he feels he was framed and he eagerly seeks to set the record straight.

Born in Tajikistan in 1967, Bout was the son of an auto mechanic and a book-keeper. Brother Sergei recalls that he was obsessed with Esperanto as a boy, as he loved the idea of a language that everyone could speak and finally understand each other. He studied languages at college and, while serving with the Soviet army, the 20 year-old was posted to Mozambique. Propaganda footage shows FRELIMO leader Samora Machel, as Bout enthuses about the excitement of travel and the pleasure of meeting Alla, who was four years his senior, a fashion designer and the wife of a petty official. They met again three years later and Gerber and Pozdorovkin archly cross-cut footage of their wedding day in St Petersburg in 1991 with scenes of Boris Yeltsin successfully resisting a coup in Moscow.

By October 1993, Bout was becoming restless and quit the forces to go into business for himself. Stuck in a one-room apartment with basic amenities, Bout resented the food shortages that capitalism had brought and he decided to set up a company importing beer, cola, sweets and sausage from across the former Communist bloc. As the money started to roll in, he bought a camcorder and began filming obsessively. In one clip, he urges Alla to put a bit more energy into a kittenish pose, while another culminates in her ordering him to stop recording random nonsense.

Determined to operate without protection from the growing number of gangs springing up across the capital, the Bout brothers opened an office in Brussels and bought their own plane, which they proceeded to lease to the Angolan government at a handsome profit. Filming incessantly, Bout discusses illegal ivory exports with a client, but seems unconcerned by what his planes carry, as, in his opinion, the courier can never be held responsible for the content. But, as he reveals in an e-mail, the Belgian enterprise didn't last long, as people were reluctant to share. So, in 1994, he relocated to Sharjah, which he considered the Hong Kong of the Persian Gulf, as it offered so many money-making opportunities. Sergei followed and, as Potter explains, they cashed in on the `big bang of globalisation' by shipping electronic and other consumer goods to the former Soviet republics at a sizeable profit.

Bout also endeared himself to the locals by building a maintenance facility at the airport and making sure that everyone got their cut. By now, he was a millionaire and a father, although he missed the caesarian birth of his daughter Liza because he was busy cutting a deal. But, while he proved to be a doting father, as the family moved into a villa with its own pool, he had started to realise that he was only ticking over when he could be making big bucks. He switched focus soon after hiring Slava Grichine as his project manager, as he suggested supplementing the humanitarian aid military supplies being sent to UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi in Angola with strategic advice to help him in the civil war that had broken out after a disputed election.

Potter commends Bout for wanting to do his bit for Africa and for recognising that he could pick up exotic items for European supermarkets while making his drops and intelligence expert Brian Johnson-Thomas recalls being charmed by him when he was working for the Red Cross in Congo and they shared a beer. But, as logistics expert Sergio Finardi reveals, Bout was also in cahoots with Bulgarian arms trader Peter Mirchev, who invited him to meet his suppliers in 1996. Footage follows of weapons being demonstrated for African clients and Bout plays up to the camera without the slightest qualm that he is doing anything ethically dubious. He retains this sang froid even after a pilot is held hostage for a year in Afghanistan after the Taliban intercepts a shipment destined for the Northern Alliance leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud.

But Bout was able to celebrate his 30th birthday in style in 1997 and he feigns modesty to the camera as his friends sing a specially composed song in his honour. However, they have all melted away by 2011, as Alla fights a lone battle to have him freed from custody in New York. As she visits lawyer Albert Dayan, DEA agents Robert Zachariasiewicz and Wim Brown recall how they built Operation Relentless around Andrew Smulian, who had first met Bout in 1997 when he was trying to set up a business transporting wild animals for rich collectors. However, the Bouts left South Africa soon after thugs broke into the family home and beat Alla's babysitting mother in a bid by ruthless competitors to find Bout's computers and phone (which they stole during a raid on his office the following day).

Johnson-Thomas accuses Smulian of being a petty crook who betrayed his friend to save his own skin. But Zachariasiewicz and Brown deny that they entrapped Bout, as he could easily have walked away when the FARC duo mentioned slaying Americans. This tendency to exhibit bravura was also evident in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2000 when Dutch journalist Dirk Draulans teamed with Belgian photographer Wim Van Cappellen to snap Bout supervising the unloading of a weapons purchased by FLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba. He would later be brought before the International Criminal Court in The Hague after his troops were accused of rape, brutality and even cannibalism and Draulans believes that Bout's fate was sealed when Van Cappellen's pictures were widely circulated in the press.

Yet, while Bout continued to insist he was primarily interested in improving communication links and opening free trade zones, he showed up in Rwanda in 2000 and was accused of smuggling weapons by the United Nations. Indeed, his name started to crop up with increasing frequency after Labour minister Peter Hain branded him the `Merchant of Death' in a speech to the House of Commons. Bodyguard Timur Edikhanov complains that much of the talk was gossip rather than hard fact and Johnson-Thomas confirms that arms only accounted for 5% of Bout's dealings and that none of these transgressed international law as there is no statute against the transportation of weapons. Thus, while author Douglas Farah could tell Al-Jazeera reporter Riz Khan that Bout was `the world's most efficient postman', he could counter that he was no longer interested in making money and was considering devoting his time to travelling and making documentaries.

Everything changed, however, on 11 September 2001. Suddenly, every plane had to be checked and Bout's business with countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone was jeopardised when Rwanda and the Central African Republic refused to allow him to use their airspace. Furthermore, Anglo-American pressure persuaded the authorities in Sharjah to cancel Bout's visa and ask him to leave after seven years. Grichine tells the co-directors that this decision was wholly unfair as Bout had no connection with either Al-Qaeda or the Taliban, while Potter agrees that the standards of evidence required to blacken a character became much less stringent post-9/11. Indeed, in many instances, governments would leak bogus intelligence that was printed by the press and then used as an echo chamber form of proof.

Forced to retreat to Moscow, Bout went on a charm offensive to clear his name and re-establish his credentials as an entrepreneur. He jokes in one radio interview that he is being picked on and is now viewed in the West as a bear who smells of garlic and vodka. He also extend his sympathies to Nicolas Cage for having to play such a buffoonish part in Lord of War. But Johnson-Thomas believes that his campaign was a mistake, as it exposed his lack of moral fibre and Potter claims that the Americans decided to nab him after the appearance of the `Arms and the Man' profile in the New York Times.

Yet Bout was finding it difficult to stay afloat in a city where `biznizman' is the slang for `gangster'. He tried manufacturing kitchen tiles and importing reindeer meat, but continued to party as his fortune started to dwindle. He toasted his friends at his birthday party and thanked them for their loyalty. But US Treasury agent Andreas Morgner had already begun to compile a case against him, even though Finardi had refused to co-operate because Morgner had claimed to have amassed plenty of secret evidence. DEA Special Agent Louis Milione took less convincing, however, and he flew to South Africa to recruit Smulian to lure Bout into a snare.

Smulian told Bout that FARC had contacted him about acquiring some helicopters and planes. However, they would only meet in Thailand and Bout was extremely reluctant to leave Russia, as he knew that the Kremlin would never allow his extradition. But he was also suffering from wanderlust, a bruised ego and an inflated sense of infallibility and, consequently, he ignored the advice of his inner circle and jetted to Bangkok. Pottet finds it difficult to believe that such an intelligent and experienced operator would have missed the obvious signals that Sagastume and Jardenero were bad actors lacing the conversation with incriminating phrases. But Bout was busted and charged with plotting to kill innocent American. Sergei was sure there had been a mistake, while Grichine couldn't understand how anyone could be charged with the intention to commit a crime.

Finardi is still dismayed that the media was duped so easily into portraying this minor player as a warlord when governments do much worse things on a daily basis. He calls for a reform of the global arms trade to prevent institutionalised infamy. But his plea looks set to fall on deaf ears, just as Bout's exhortation to Vladimir Putin through the bars of his cell ultimately went unanswered. Although Smulian was prepared to testify against Bout, Thailand was reluctant to send him to the States because it didn't consider FARC to be a terrorist organisation. But US lawyers appealed the verdict and Bout was on a plane within an hour of it being overturned.

Looking much thinner, he managed to kiss Alla as he was dragged from the courtroom. Now, on 2 November 2011, she is in New York waiting for the jury to return. She chats with her husband on the phone before taking a car downtown and pacing outside smoking a cigarette. But Bout is found guilty and Zachariasiewicz and Brown smugly assert that the real criminal gave himself away with his outburst before sentence was pronounced. Yet, from the audio included here, Bout's tone seemed measured and melancholic, as he asked why he was being castigated while so many Americans doing the same job were allowed to walk free.

The judge noted that Bout had done nothing strictly illegal before the sting and was promptly denounced by right-wingers on the nightly news bulletins for handing down the minimum 25-year sentence. Dayan criticised the jury for seeking a way to condemn rather than acquit his client, while Alla was disgusted that the case wasn't dismissed for being based on entrapment. She insists that Bout won't have to serve the full term and tuts that she would go and celebrate in a bar if she had someone to go with.

As captions reveal that Smulian was released for turning evidence and that Bout has been denied the chance to appeal, footage appears of clouds shot through the window of an aeroplane. On the soundtrack, Bout ponders the possibility of plunging to his death and comments on the horrifying beauty of the view. He concludes that good things always come at a price, but this seems a rather feeble end to an otherwise compelling disquisition on one man's crime being a powerful nation's right. Gerber and Pozdorovkin have fallen on their feet in being presented with Bout's video archive and they make inventive use of playful and incriminating scenes alike, as well as the cardboard cut-outs illustrating the courtroom segments. They also drew some astute insights from their talking-heads, although the feds are made to look dull dogs compared to Bout's cohorts and those able to see both sides of the argument.

While the picture is slickly assembled, it is much harder to judge where the directorial sympathy lies than it was in Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (2013), which Pozdorovkin made with Mike Lerner. Clearly the pair have earned the trust of Alla Bout, who was undoubtedly using them in the hope that their portrait would help her spouse's cause. But she may well have been taken aback by an approach that presents Bout as an inverted version of a wise fool, who alone fails to recognise the immorality of actions that consistently breach the spirit while upholding the letter of the law. Given that governments are often guilty of the same offence, it's possible to appreciate Bout's sense of injustice. But a quick comparison between his blithe exploits and the selfless endeavours of commodity trader Jean-Yves Ollivier in Carlos Aguilo and Mandy Jacobson's Plot for Peace should be enough to silence any cries of `foul'.

If Viktor Bout's life often seems stranger than fiction, Robin Wright's futuristic experiences feel chillingly real in Israeli animator Ari Folman's The Congress, a sleek if rather unexpected follow-up to Waltz With Bashir (2008). Five years in the making and taking its inspiration from Stanislaw Lem's darkly satirical novel, The Futurological Congress, this live-action/animation hybrid marks something of a departure for Folman, as he refocuses the anti-Communist ire of the original on to America's pharmaceutical giants and the various conglomerates controlling the Hollywood film studios. But, in exploring the illusory nature of media truth, the diminution of free choice and the exponential creep of capitalism, this visually striking picture isn't always intellectually acute as it might be. Nevertheless, Wright and her co-stars commit admirably to the conceit, while Folman is equally well served by production designer David Polonski, animation director Yoni Goodman, sound designer Aviv Aldema and composer Max Richter.

Actress Robin Wright pays a visit to agent Harvey Keitel, who laments that she threw away her early fame by consistently picking the wrong men and a succession of bad movies. He also criticises her for devoting more time to son Kodi Smit-McPhee than her career. However, Keitel is prepared to give her one last chance, as an opportunity has come up to put her back on top and he urges her to seize it. But Wright has to rush away because airport security has caught Smit-McPhee flying a kite close to the perimeter fence and sister Sami Gayle teases him when he is brought home and told to behave.

Passing a poster for The Princess Bride, Wright sighs wistfully as she approaches the Miramount studio. Production chief Danny Huston greets her warmly and gushes that he is going to make her the star she should have been. He explains that technology now exists to take a performer's likeness and history and digitally manipulate it to fit any role in any scenario. Thus, she could become an immortal icon without ever having to work again. However, Wright hates the idea of losing control of her own image and storm out of the office, as Huston calls after her that she has 30 days to accept his offer and then he will be powerless to help her

Returning home, Wright is concerned that Smit-McPhee seems listless. He encourages her to try flying his kite and she feels a sense of contentment and control that she finds liberating. But her reverie is interrupted by Keitel arriving with studio underling Michael Stahl-David, who shows her a sample scene featuring Sarah Shahi and Keitel enthuses that she will be guaranteed to give nothing but brilliant performances from now on. Gayle is impressed and warns her mother that this isn't the time to be technophobic. But, while Keitel reminds her that she can stay a star without having to endure the trials of shooting and the tantrums of her directors and co-stars, Stahl-David cautions that nothing can be changed once the scanning process has taken place.

Wright remains unconvinced, however, and it is only when doctor Paul Giamatti informs her that Smit-McPhee is slowly losing his hearing and sight that she decides to accept Huston's terms and dedicate herself to caring for her child. Huston congratulates her on making a wise choice and assures her that films as we know them will rapidly disappear. He notes the genres she wishes to avoid and promises to keep her 34 for the next 20 years before entrusting her to cinematographer Christopher B. Duncan, who will conduct her scan.

Ushered into a vast dome, Wright is asked to display a range of emotions. However, she struggles to respond to order and only starts to change her expression when Keitel comes into the booth and begins telling a rambling anecdote about how he became an agent and learned how to exploit the weaknesses of his clients to guide them towards success. He concludes by admitting that he loves her, even though she has often been difficult to handle, and hopes that she finally gets the life she deserves. As he falls silent, Wright realises she has just given her final performance.

A caption shifts the action forward two decades and Wright appears at the wheel of a fast car speeding towards Abrama City, where she is due to attend the Futurist Congress in a 1000-storey hotel. Security guard John Lacy informs her that she is about to enter the Restricted Animated Zone and that she will only be able to leave through his checkpoint. He hands her an ampoule and tells her to sniff it as she drives along the desert road.

Suddenly, Wright turns from human being to animated avatar and she finds herself bowling along a rainbow route that passes through waves bearing a selection of ships with faces and an array of friendly critters. A screen appear in front of her and it plays the trailer for the latest Rebel Robot Robin picture and Wright is so dismayed by what her image has become that she plunges off a precipice and lands in an end-of-the-pier town, where she is welcomed at the door of the hotel by a diminutive bellboy.

Venturing inside, Wright sees the lobby filled with celebrities like John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, Che Guevara, Pablo Picasso and Elizabeth Taylor, who appear to change form on inhaling a mysterious substance. She is nonplussed by their eccentric behaviour and is relieved to get a call from Smit-McPhee, who is being treated in a hospital room. Wright confides that it feels odd being a cartoon and she barely recognises herself when she sees Rebel Robot Robin giving an interview to promote her latest adventure. She is shown to her room by busboy Kevin Thompson, who reminds her that everything she experiences is happening in her mind and Wright realises that the ampoule must have contained some sort of psychedelic drug.

No longer sure what is real and what is imagined, Wright calls Huston and only agrees to sign a new contract if he stops messing with her mind. She finds herself singing in a spotlight beam and panics when the cops raid the venue. However, she realises she is dreaming when she notices that Huston is the chief of police and rises for her morning meeting. Waiting outside Huston's office, she gets chatting to Tom Cruise (voiced by Evan Ferrante), who informs her that they are the last stars in cinema, as everyone else has become a character actor.

He boasts that he has been feeding kids in Africa on behalf of UNICEF and Wright asks why everyone at the Congress is behaving so erratically. Cruise explains that the film industry is about to become obsolete because viewers will soon to able to ingest a substance and imagine a movie in their heads without there being any need to shoot it. Moreover, they will be able to headline in the guise of their favourite stars. Thus, Miramount want him and Wright to sign extensions to their contracts, as people still want them to feature in their DIY plots. Cruise finds this gratifying, as he has never ceased to be an actor in his soul and still enjoys the adulation.

Wright gazes off down the corridor and sees a band playing in a large arena. A man walks on to the stage and announces that the Miramount-Nagasaki corporation has created an amazing new world in pill form. He further declares that scientists have cracked the chemical formula of free choice and that there is no need for anyone to be frustrated any longer. He takes a sniff of the ampoule in his hand and turns into Clint Eastwood, Jesus Christ and Rebel Robot Robin. The company president comes forward to introduce Wright. But, as she is fixed in the crosshairs of an unseen rifle, Wright goes off message and denounces Big Pharma for neglecting its duty to cure disease in order to produce a mind control drug that lead everyone to die of guilt.

She calls herself a prophet of doom, as she is dragged into the wings. But mayhem ensues when the president is assassinated and Wright is swept off her feet by Jon Hamm, who places a breathing helmet over her head as giant bugs release a purple gas. Hamm tells Wright that they are trapped in their avatars, but she is distracted by the sight of her daughter fighting with the anti-Miramount rebels. Descending into a flooded room, Hamm orders Wright to stay awake and not succumb to hallucinogenic poisoning. However, she looks up to see Huston dangling from a chopper by a rope. He tells her that he is the chief of police and has come to take her to safety.

But Wright wakes from this latest dream to discover that Hamm is the animator responsible for Rebel Robot Robin. He lets slip that he has fallen in love with her in the 20 years he has been drawing her, even though he has never seen any of her live-action films. She is charmed by his awkwardness, but she seeks reassurance that she is actually awake when news comes through that guerillas have taken over the management floor and have stopped the flow of mind-bending chemicals into the water supply. Hamm nods and reveals that he had become so obsessed with Wright that he feared he would be taken off her pictures. So, he went looking for the real woman in order to find new movements and expressions to make her character even more engaging and he shows Wright some black-and-white footage of her playing a heroic pilot riding on a bomb like Chill Wills in Dr Strangelove.

However, when Wright is roused from her next sleep, she finds Huston standing beside her in a frogman's outfit. He explains that Hamm has disappeared and that there is no one to protect her from the consequences of her reckless folly on the stage. Marching Wright to the hotel roof, Huston accuses Wright of committing professional suicide and positions her in front of a firing squad. She asks for a bullet in the head, but Huston insists that this is life not an hallucination and pulls the trigger of his gun.

Wright wakes in hospital, where a doctor informs her that she is going to be frozen because she has fallen so deeply into an imagined state. Duncan helps lower her into a container and Wright is seen shivering as she wanders a perishing landscape. She longs to see Smit-McPhee and, just as the thought enters her head, his kite flies overhead and it pulls them along the ice as the cling to each other in a desperate embrace.

Yet again, Wright wakes from her trance. This time, she finds herself in a bedroom with a Grace Jones lookalike, who tells her that she has to return to childhood in order to rebuild her reality. Hamm enters and says he is glad she has finally thawed out. However, he bears the bad tidings that Smit-McPhee has gone missing and reveals that their only hope is to go to the big city and follow the few clues they have to his whereabouts. In order to reach New York, they have to cross a field that appears to have become a grotesque version of Eden and Wright realises that she has entered a place in which old concepts of time have lost all meaning.

The Big Apple has become a mass of hanging gardens and Wright learns that ego, competition and war have been outlawed to ensure that everyone is who they want to be. People emit pheromones that allow them to remain inn a state of bliss and Wright watches as Yoko Ono wanders past and skyscrapers blast off like rockets. Hamm leads Wright to a street that contains all knowledge and tells her that he has experienced all of the Greek myths at first-hand. He explains that everyone is free to feel whatever they wish and, so, Wright goes in search of a doctor who can supply her with a potion that can turn her hands into wings. As a voice sings `Forever Young' on the soundtrack, Wright and Hamm fly above the metropolis and land in a wilderness beyond its limits.

Hamm informs Wright that Gayle has become a naturalist, but advises against trying to find her, as she would no longer recognise her own mother. Undaunted, Wright takes off again and lands at her old home beside the airport. She finds one of Smit-McPhee's old kites and she sends it airborne, only for it to slip its string and cause a plane to crash and set off a chain of explosions across the airfield. Wright and Hamm make love as flowers spring up around them and she experiences pleasure for what seems to be the first time in ages.

They go to a restaurant, where the lobster serves itself and Michael Jackson is one of the waiters. Wright asks how she can escape this chemical party and reach the world beyond, but Hamm admits he isn't sure, as he doesn't know how to make the return journey. He produces a capsule from his teeth and informs Wright that it causes a whiteout that removes all the chemicals from her system. She thanks him and promises to remember him, as she swallows the drug and leaves behind a place of idealised beauty and finds herself in a rundown live-action reality, in which people in rags are huddled together and everyone looks old and tired.

Wright searches for Smit-McPhee and an ailing black lady sitting alone urges her to check at the doctor's surgery nearby. Taking a train crowded with derelicts, Wright reaches a place with kites and airships moored by ropes and disembarks to climb into a balloon. It takes her to a light-filled airship that is filled with spotless, seemingly affluent people who inhabit another world from the one she has just left behind. She tracks down Giamatti, who has aged considerably. However, he embraces her warmly and sighs that little has really changed, as people still have the option to face reality or try to hide away in dreams fuelled by anti-depressants.

Giamatti suddenly turns serious and informs Wright that Smit-McPhee waited 19 years for her to come and fetch him. However, when he was almost totally blind and had all but given up hope, he decided to cross over and find her. Wright asks where she can find him, but Giamatti says she would never be able to recognise him now, even if she returned to the same place he happened to be inhabiting. He explains that her landing spot in the dream world would depend upon chemistry and imagination. But Wright insists she is prepared to take her chances and she returns to the animated netherworld, in which she makes films and enjoys being a mother. However, she returns to the Congress and succeeds in arriving at the airship just before Smit-McPhee makes his decision to cross to the other side. She follows him and she alights to find him working on a model of an early flying machine. He turns to see her and the action ends on a freeze frame.

As should be readily apparent from reading the synopsis, this is a film that has to be seen and experienced rather than described and assessed. There are too many fleeting details and passing references to famous people to record them all in a simple outline and, even then, the prose could rarely do justice to the fluidity and vibrancy of the visuals. Yet, while this is rarely anything but aesthetically dazzling, it is also bereft of humour and feels dramatically and philosophically fraught, as though Folman had been making up the entire scenario as he went along while under the influence of some LemSD.

The opening live-action segment is stiff, overlong and far from convincing, as Folman struggles to set his scene. As a result, the surreally fantastical sequences feel detached in a way that, say, the Pepperland scenes in George Dunning's equally trippy Yellow Submarine (1968) were not. However, this often feels as though Ralph Bakshi's Cool World (1992) and Bill Plympton's Idiots and Angels (2008) had crashed head on and this reliance on animation seriously undermines the fulmination against a Hollywood philistinism that seems curiously outmoded. The cast works hard, but if they get what Folman is striving to say they are prevented from fully conveying it by being rendered as mediocre cartoons rather than flesh-and-blood humans raging against the machine.

Debuting siblings Zeke and Simon Hawkins similarly struggle to inject much life into the ciphers created by screenwriter Dutch Southern for We Gotta Get Out of This Place. His basic premise is a good one, as it is borrowed from hardboiled crime ace Jim Thompson's contention that while there are 32 ways to tell a story, there is only one plot: things ain't always what they seem. However, unconvincing characterisation and an over-reliance on contrivance means that this Lone Star noir never comes close to recapturing the despair and urgency that Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil put into the 1965 song by The Animals, from which it takes its title.

In the dead of Texan night, Logan Huffman causes a fire in the yard of a Mark Pellegrino's cotton farm in order to distract the nightwatchman so that he can sneak into the office and empty the safe. He also steals Pellegrino's gun for good measure and meets up next morning with girlfriend Mackenzie Davis and best buddy Jeremy Allen White, who are discussing grammar and literary theory over biscuits and gravy in the local diner. They are about to leave their one-horse town for college and White (who has a scarcely concealed secret crush) is worried that Davis will spread her wings and leave him in a dead-end rut.

Lacking basic street smarts, Huffman clearly isn't tertiary material. But Davis adores his homespun hunkiness and zest for life and readily agrees when he suggests a night away at the coast. White tags along and is surprised that Huffman has so much money to spend. However, he gets embarrassed when his friend tries to bribe bar girl Ashley Adams to pleasure him and endures some drunken teasing in a hot tub as Huffman jokes that White must be saving himself for a nice college type. Davis also feels abashed by Huffman flashing the cash and showing off, but makes allowances because he has had a tough time since his father committed suicide. She urges him not to dwell on the stuff messing up his head, but resists his attempts to get frisky.

On the way home, Huffman tells White that he stole the money from his boss and they get to the farm to find Pellegrino beating the living daylights out of the Hispanic watchman for stealing the money. Unable to bear such injustice and realising that Huffman isn't going to own up, White tells Pellegrino that he took the cash and is appalled when, irrespectively, he shoots the old man dead. He demands that White returns the $20,000 and, when he says he doesn't have it, Pellegrino insists on knowing who helped him spend it because they will have to help him find the exact same sum, as it was borrowed from cotton gin-owning gangster William Devane, who doesn't accept excuses.

Fortunately, Pellegrino has been giving the matter some thought and he proposes that White hijacks the weekly drop that Devane makes to launder his ill-gotten gains through the gin. He also suggests that Huffman lends a hand because he knows he helped him spend the dough. Intimidated by the barrel of a gun, Huffman blurts out that Davis also spent her share and the pals bicker about getting her involved, as they bury the watchman's corpse. Although aghast at being set up, Davis agrees to do her bit and listens as Huffman outlines his brilliant plan (which is amusingly presented with White and Davis raising their objections in situ). If all goes well, they should be able to slip into the gin wearing stocking masks and carrying toy guns, turn off the CCTV cameras, terrorise the old couple who keep an eye on the place and crack the safe without anyone being any the wiser.

White and Davis are slightly perturbed that Huffman suggests they use baby alarms as walkie-talkies. But they lack the common sense to switch off the one he leaves behind and, consequently, he hears every word as they declare their love for each other and tumble into bed. Storming home, Huffman calls Pellegrino. But while his passions have been inflamed in one way, the lovestruck White decides that discretion is the better part of valour and he goes to see sheriff Jon Gries. Much to his surprise, however, the laconic lawman asks if he is convinced that unburdening his conscience is the best thing to do and cites the fallout from his own confession of an affair with a 19 year-old Mexican stripper as an example of silence being the wisest course.

With Gries's warning to keep his word still ringing in his ears, White heads home. However, Pellegrino insists on offering him a lift home and he explains that he feels like a surrogate father to Huffman and hates seeing him feel so left out because he is the only one not going to college. As they pull into the farm compound, he asks White how Huffman would feel if he knew that Davis had cheated on him and White tries to feign ignorance, as Pellegrino gets far too up close and personal while wielding a sledgehammer.

Suddenly, the barn doors fly open and a bound-and-gagged Davis is pushed into the half-light and asked if she wants to play a game of Name Your Price. White looks on helplessly, as Pellegrino offers Davis money to perform a variety of sexual acts with his henchmen. But White eventually shouts out that he will steal Devane's loot and Pellegrino laughs as he wipes Davis's spittle from his face and cautions her that they will pay a heavy price if they fail. Safe in the sanctuary of Davis's bedroom, White suggests that they grab the cash and keep running. But she refuses to spend the rest of her life looking over her shoulder and they resolve to grit their teeth and get the ordeal over with.

White has a chilly exchange with his cynical mother on arriving home and is further dismayed to find Huffman waiting for him in his room. He says they have something important to discuss. But the camera doesn't linger to eavesdrop. Instead, we cut to Davis getting a phone call from White at work informing her that the drop has been brought forward to midnight. She goes home to shower, only for Huffman to materialise in the bathroom and begin fondling her in full view of White, who just happens to be looking up at Davis's window. Behind the drawn curtains, however, Davis is defending her love of crime novels, while Huffman is insisting that she has never fully appreciated how much they are alike and how foolish it would be if they ever broke up. He tries to force himself upon her, but, even after he holds the baby alarm to her face, she refuses to allow him to scare her.

The moment he leaves, Davis calls White to warn him that Huffman is on to them. However, he ignores the call and takes the landline off the hook. She goes to his house and holds back the tears as she opts not to knock and find out why he is snubbing her. Thus, the atmosphere is even more highly charged as Huffman picks them up and drives to Devane's cotton gin. He informs them that he will stay outside as lookout and urges them to get a move on. They are taken aback by the discovery that the surveillance system is already down, but Huffman chides them over the baby alarm to stay focused. Nevertheless, Davis has a bad feeling as they pass through the unlocked office door and find the safe empty and the custodian couple lying slumped in a corner whose walls are smeared with blood.

White orders the terrified Davis to leave immediately. But they are greeted outside by Huffman firing a shot into the air with the gun he stole from Pellegrino. He demands to know if they really thought they could get away with deceiving him, but he is as shocked as they are to discover that the old couple are dead and the money is gone. At that moment, Pellegrino sidles into sight and answers Huffman's question by taking credit for the crimes as he shoots him in the stomach. He announces he is also going to murder Davis and White, put the incriminating weapon beside their bodies and call the cops to confess to gunning them down in self-defence. .

However, Davis warns Pellegrino that she has tipped off Devane about the robbery and that he will take a dim view of his underling try to dupe him. He scoffs at her threat and is about to pull the trigger when the wounded Huffman grabs his hand. The pair scurry up a ladder to the gantry above the gin, as Pellegrino blasts Huffman and comes after them declaring how much he enjoys it when people seek to change the rules midway through the game. He quickly traps them and ridicules White for thinking that Davis would be true to a nerd like him. But this serves only to get White's dander up and he charges at Pellegrino and plunges them both to the ground below.

A sobbing Davis rushes down to kiss the comatose White and Pellegrino taunts her for losing two lovers in a single night. However, he gets his comeuppance when Devane walks in and tells Davis to take the revived White and scram, so he can dish out some backwater justice. As they limp towards the door, they hear a shot ring out and White asks her if this was what she meant when she said there were 32 ways to tell a story and she smiles as she gives the credit to Jim Thompson.

Given the recent glut of films set in rural America, it was only a matter of time before the first disappointment arrived. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with the direction of the Hawkins brothers, as they maintain a steady pace and manage to impart a modicum of suspense to a scenario whose outcome was evident from the moment Pellegrino put in an appearance. Cinematographer Jeff Bierman also makes neat contrasts between the wide open spaces and the cavernous unlit interiors. But the characterisation is threadbare, the dialogue overripe and the plot often bereft of logic. Moreover, few of the performances are anything more than adequate.

The siblings might have talked Pellegrino into biting fewer chunks out of Seong-Jin Moon's sets, while Devane and Gries might have passed on a few more tips about doing simmering menace. But White and Davis are hardly worth rooting for, while Huffman is little more than a throwback to the kind of palooka who motivated crime Bs during the studio era. By its very nature, pulp shouldn't be too precious. But it still requires finesse and Zeke and Simon Hawkins will have to learn this if they are to make the transition from amusingly gimmicky shorts to features. However, they have already mastered the tricky art of atmosphere, so they are already well on their way.