In "Alps," a young tennis player is gravely injured in an auto accident and is given some hope for making it. In the ambulance, she is asked who her favorite American actor is. In a meeting in a gymnasium being presided over by Mont Blanc(Aris Servetalis), a gymnast(Ariane Labed) tries to call dibs on substituting for the tennis player but Mountbatten(Johnny Vekris), her coach, in no uncertain terms, feels she is not even ready for pop music in her routine. In the meantime, Monte Rosa(Aggeliki Papoulia), a nurse at the hospital, looks in on her. Throuhgout, "Alps" does a neat job of keeping the viewer off-balance. At first, I thought something very sinister was going on due to having watched too many episodes of "The Avengers" when I was growing up but it turns out the cell's well-intentioned with their allowing mourning family members to work through their grief through them. That does not mean that there are not dangers for the characters in this movie, especially considering the extreme emotions in play. The question about the actors is rather odd at first. One could argue that it is about the kind of performance the customers want; natural, method or scenery chewing?(Heaven help anybody if they say Nicolas Cage.) Or could it be about American culture overwhelming all others? Therefore, the substitutes could be working on developing their own native culture with no other creative outlet in Greece. But at least considering "Alps" and excellent recent Greek movies like "Dogtooth" and "Attenberg," there is certainly a national cinema there to keep an eye out for.

A group of four people act as stand-ins for deceased loved ones to help families with the grieving process. The idea isn't a bad one but there is almost no story development, and the (deliberately) bad acting, lighting and camerawork create 90 minutes of unpleasant awkwardness without much to reward the viewer. The second film from the director of DOGTOOTH shows all the stereotypical flaws you associate with sophomore efforts.