Wednesday, June 29 2011
‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’: Peace, Out
As the Autobots and the human soldiers insist on their worthy cause, people seem incidental.
Tuesday, June 28 2011
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History uses the story of the project to look at the failures of public housing, owing to poor planning, lack of funding, and ongoing racism.
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: ‘This Is My Land… Hebron’ and ‘La Toma’
This Is My Land… Hebron explores the ugly frictions between Palestinians and Jewish settlers in the West Bank city, while in La Toma (The Siege), families of civilians who may have been killed by the Colombian military seek justice decades later.
Monday, June 27 2011
‘Hot Coffee’: The Jury Function
Hot Coffee argues compellingly that manipulations of the civil justice system have increasingly closed off opportunities for individuals to hold companies accountable.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (35th Anniversary Re-Issue)
Featuring strong imagery, The Man Who Fell to Earth ultimately rewards the audience for slogging through long patches of disjointed narrative.
Silverdocs 2011: ‘Scenes of a Crime’
As compelling as the interrogation is, Scenes of a Crime makes clear the many other "scenes" where crimes occur during this process.
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: ‘Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home’
Lost Angels argues that the problem represented by Skid Row is systemic, not abnormal, and its victims are like you, not different.
Friday, June 24 2011
Silverdocs 2011: ‘Incendiary: The Willingham Case’
Incendiary: The Willingham Case undermines the defense that such illogic is a function of ignorance, and instead suggests it's a matter of deliberate political maneuvering.
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: ‘The Price of Sex’ and ‘12 Angry Lebanese’
The Price of Sex and 12 Angry Lebanese illustrate the long, tough struggle of victims, once made invisible, now trying to make themselves known.
‘Bad Teacher’: Been There
As you come to the movie's gooey center, you're also reminded that this summer's ostensible new movie idea -- girls as alternating objects-subjects of raunchy comedies -- is less than new.
Thursday, June 23 2011
Silverdocs 2011: ‘Give Up Tomorrow’ and ‘Where Soldiers Come From’
Two films at Silverdocs show very different effects of trauma that has no end in sight.
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: ‘You Don’t Like the Truth’
This precise, impassioned portrait of post-9/11 collateral damage is exactly the sort of exposé that the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is designed to showcase.
Wednesday, June 22 2011
Silverdocs Documentary Festival: ‘The Interrupters’
The Interrupters considers CeaseFire's premise, that violence can be treated like a disease, that its transmission can be interrupted.
Frameline35: ‘Bob’s New Suit’
In Bob's New Suit, many explanations are offered by the narrator, an Italian suit who reduces all characters to the clothes they happen to be wearing.
Tuesday, June 21 2011
Vuelve a la vida (Back to Life)
Vuelve a la vida is not so much about the shark Hilario and his community were able to bring to shore, by coming together. It's more about the coming together.
Monday, June 20 2011
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: ‘Better This World’ and ‘If a Tree Falls’
As both If a Tree Falls and Better This World follow the intricate legal cases, they come to dishearteningly similar conclusions concerning what one subject calls "the injustice of the justice system."
Sunday, June 19 2011
Human Rights Watch Film Festival 2011: ‘The Green Wave’
The Green Wave reminds you not only of the power of images, but also the importance of journalists who provide them.
Friday, June 17 2011
Human Rights Watch Film Festival NY 2011: ‘Granito’ and ‘When the Mountains Tremble’
Opening this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York, two documentaries -- one new and one nearly 30 years old -- look at the ugly history of American-supported devilry in Central America.
‘The Art of Getting By’: Find Something
Everyone has heard this story before. And that's the trouble with The Art of Getting By.
‘Green Lantern’: The Way a Child Sees the World
Compared to Green Lantern's many other problems -- including cheesy CGI, simplistic hero, and decidedly un-awesome aliens -- its treatment of its girls, ranging from a naked sex toy to a pilot to a research scientist, is most exasperating and yes, childlike.