I don’t usually hold with films made by committee. They tend to be a study in the blandness of desperation to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Not so with WE INTERRUPT THIS EMPIRE, made by The Video Activist Network, a collective of left-leaning committed filmmakers. The reason is that this particular way of filmmaking… Read More »
LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE!
Heres an interesting question for you. Suppose youd taken a part-time job to help pay the bills as you raise a kid as a single parent or to put yourself through school. Once on the job, you find out that youre scheduled for shifts based on your hair color. How would you react? How about… Read More »
TREMBLING BEFORE G-D
Sandi Dubowskis sensitive and intelligent documentary, TREMBLING BEFORE G-D takes an intimate look at lesbian and gay Orthodox and Hassidic Jews who do not want to turn their back on their religion. Unfortunately, their religion turns its back on them with such abrupt finality, that one can only marvel at the tenacity of faith and conviction… Read More »
THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT
After the brouhaha of Whitewater, Monica, and the impeachment had subsided with the end of Bill Clinton’s eight years as president, authors Joe Conason and Gene Lyons revisited the allegations in a dense, fascinating book, ‘The Hunting of the President”, that in four hundred or so pages dissected with stunning clarity just how vast and… Read More »
LEMONY SNICKET’S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
When I heard that Jim Carrey would be starring in A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, based on the first three installments of the deliciously arch and ironic series of the same name by Lemony Snicket, my heart sank. Obviously, I thought, it was doomed to be a vehicle for Carreys brand of broad physical humor… Read More »
MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, VOL 6
It is conventional wisdom that there are some films that are so bad that they?re good. And it?s a given that, with few exceptions, say GIGLI, which stunned the press audience with whom I endured it into a stunned silence, they are just that much more enjoyable when accompanied by a panoply of snide and… Read More »
LAND OF THE DEAD
Zombies are intrinsically disturbing yet compelling. Dead, yet walking, stupid, yet lethal, slow, yet relentless. Never mind being unsightly. They are as perfect a fodder for metaphor as the brains of the living are for the zombies themselves, a conceit that George A. Romero has a particular knack for locking onto, as evidenced by his… Read More »
HELL HOUSE
George Ratliffs HELL HOUSE is a disturbing, fascinating documentary about the non-traditional house of horrors dreamed up by TrinityChurch in Cedar Hill, Texas. Over a decade old, the Halloween attraction doesnt have vampires and ghosts, instead vivid scenes of people committing sins and being dragged to Hell by demons are played out for paying patrons who… Read More »
AN UNREASONABLE MAN: RALPH NADER, HOW DO YOU DEFINE A LEGACY?
There is no doubt that Ralph Nader has been one of the most influential private citizens of the 20th century. Before he got riled up about it, car safety was optional as far as manufacturers were concerned, environmental degradation was the province of wild-eyed counterculture radicals, and food safety was an illusion. By being AN… Read More »
THE LOOKOUT
With fearless performances in Greg Araki’s poetically disturbing MYSTERIOUS SKIN, in Rian Johnson’s piquantly original BRICK and now in writer/director Scott Frank’s THE LOOKOUT, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has established himself as one of the finest actors of his generation. As good as Frank’s script is, and make no mistake, it is superb, it’s Gordon-Levitt who takes… Read More »