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Bowling For Columbine Buy
NOW!
Though he can be a hard man to like, Michael Moore certainly
has something worth saying whether you agree with his views
or not. Taking a look at the role of guns in the modern world,
Moore travels across the country and interviews people ranging
from Columbine victims to NRA President Charleston Heston. A
bank that gives away a rifle with every account opened and an
interview with the crazed brother of the Oklahoma City Bomber
are as funny as they are terrifying. Though very one-sided and
unquestionably manipulative, Bowling For Columbine says a lot
and says it well. Even at its worst, it’s funny and very
entertaining. (Silas Lesnick) |
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Burden Of Dreams Buy
NOW!
Ostensibly a portrait of the troubled production of Werner Herzog’s
epic Fitzcarraldo, veteran documentary filmmaker Les Blank’s
“Burden of Dreams” emerges as a unique tale of two
men equally possessed by a ravenous desire to realize their
artistic aspirations. One of these men is Fitzcarraldo, played
by Klaus Kinski as an epicurean prospector who dreams of bringing
opera to the “noble savages” of the Amazon at any
monetary or human cost. The other is Herzog himself, a filmmaker
whose mammoth ambitions put him at odds with the laws of nature
and gravity.
Herzog attempts to portray Fitzcarraldo’s efforts to haul
an ocean-liner up and over a mountain in order to reach a tributary
where he hopes to stage his beloved operas. In doing so, Herzog
aligns himself with the heroic folly of Fitzcarraldo and becomes
the surrogate embodiment of that character’s near-fatal
hubris. Shooting on location in the thick of the Amazon jungle,
the production is challenged by violent weather and Kinski’s
equally turbulent relationship with the natives, aside from
the logistical frustrations of actually heaving a massive sea-faring
steamboat over a mountain. Blank proves sympathetic to Herzog’s
irrepressible spirit but is equally critical of the almost impossible
challenge of bringing Fitzcarraldo to the screen, an effort
that comes close to destroying Herzog, the production and even
the Amazon itself. Burden of Dreams won the British Academy
Award for Best Documentary in 1982. (Josh Slates) |
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Grey Gardens - DVD Criterion Buy
NOW!
This funny, sad, bizarre documentary about Big Edie
and Little Edie Bouvier, the aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis, stands up to many repeat viewings. The Bouviers live
in a dilapidated mansion in the Hamptons, and over the course
of the film one sees the mansion falling into greater and greater
disrepair, as rodents (most notably of the raccoon variety)
take up residence as well. Watch out for the Marble Faun! The
Criterion DVD release of this film is one of the best arguments
in favor of DVDs: brilliant digital transfer, great special
features, and a revelatory commentary track by the filmmakers
(Albert Maysles, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer; the elder of
the Maysles brothers, David, died in 1987). Be sure to watch
the color bars, which are accessible from the DVD's main menu…
and watch them all the way through. (Scott Wallace Brown) |
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Lost In La Mancha Buy
NOW!
In the innately chaotic world of multi-million-dollar movie-making,
short tempers and screaming fits often characterize creative
relationships on-set and technical difficulties plague production
crews at almost every turn. The disintegration of Terry Gilliam’s
fantasy epic The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, studied in detail
in the documentary Lost in La Mancha, is a sobering account
of the many frustrations that can compel even the most driven
artist to abandon one of his most endeared projects. Highlighting
the volatility of international co-productions (and the unforgiving
streak of the bond companies that insure them), Gilliam finds
himself fighting an unyielding schedule that affords him few
luxuries or even an escape route. His woes are compounded by
the endless contractual negotiations required for something
as simple as an actor’s costume fitting. Shooting on location
in Spain, the efforts of location scouts who are largely ignorant
of the niceties of synchronous-sound filmmaking (as many European
films feature dialogue dubbed onto the soundtrack after the
fact) further plunge the shoot into a mire of morass. Not unlike
a tragic hero of the sort that he hoped to immortalize on screen,
Gilliam valiantly marches on despite this collusion of technical
and logistical entanglements. His inevitable surrender to the
forces that seek to unravel the fragile tapestry of his production
comprises the heart-rending catharsis of Lost in La Mancha.
(Josh Slates) |
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My Best Fiend Buy
NOW!
Up until his death in 1991, Klaus Kinski played leading
man five times for Director Werner Herzog. Years later, Herzog
reflects on the life of Kinski and their bizarre relationship
which moves from close personal friends to bitter enemies and
back again constantly, at times going so far as each trying
to murder the other. Not so much an analysis of Kinksi’s
life as a tribute to the bond between him and Herzog, My Best
Fiend works best as a companion to any of their mutual works
(Aguirre, Nosferatu, Woyzeck, Fitzcarraldo, and Cobra Verde)
A deeply personal documentary, Herzog has the reluctant last
word and it is both hilarious and touching. (Silas Lesnick)
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The Panama Deception Buy
NOW!
Produced on grants from the AFI, NEA and with the help
of people like Michael Moore, Barbara Trent’s The Panama
Deception tells the story of what the U.N. called a “flagrant
violation of international law.” Yes, the locations have
changed but the lies and names (mostly) remain the same. In
1989, President Bush I invaded Panama to rid that nation of
a terrible dictator, not to decimate their military and take
over the canal that previous President Jimmy Carter had arranged
to give back. Now replace canal with oil and forget about giving
anything back to the sovereign and you have to admit that there
just might be a Bush pattern developing here. Featuring interviews
with political scholar Michael Parenti, former Panamanian diplomat
Humberto Brown and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark
to name but a few, Trent takes a look at a story the mainstream
media didn’t bother to - which is another pattern I don’t
have space for here. And yes, that is Bewitched star Elizabeth
Montgomery doing the narration. (Joe Tropea) |
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The Trials of Henry Kissinger –
DVD Buy
NOW!
All of Kissinger’s greatest hits are covered in this fascinating
documentary. See the political wunderkind play LBJ against Nixon
in a move that gives new meaning to “job security,”
watch as he wins the Nobel Peace prize in 1973 for ending the
Viet Nam war – a war that actually ended in 1975, listen
to him ‘mislead’ congress about his involvement
in illegally brokering arms sales to Indonesia, hear how he
‘loses track’ of Track II – a plan involving
the kidnapping and murder of Chilean General Rene Schnieder…
but wait there’s more learn how he paved the way for Cambodia’s
deadly killing machine, the Khmer Rouge. The hits don’t
stop coming. That’s right, all Henry’s favorites
are covered in this doc – one the whole family is sure
to enjoy. (Joe Tropea) |
