Easily the most powerful and disturbing documentary I’ve ever watched. Filled with unspeakable evil and inspiring courage. I watched it on HBO but assume/hope it is available elsewhere.
Category Archives: Trailers
Teach children “how to believe”
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One of the best ideas (for me) in this documentary came from Prof. Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. He points out that a five year old will 25 in 2031, and asks how can any teacher say she/he is preparing that child for 2031.
Professor Mitra suggest a curriculum that teaches just three skills:
- Reading comprehension
- Information search and retrieval
- Teach the child “how to believe.”
That last one was the money shot for me. He described it as “giving the child armor against doctrine.” Not just religious doctrine, but rigid belief sets of all kinds. Ooh.
Winter’s Bone
I heard about this movie Saturday morning at the Coffee Zone and –as luck would have it– it was showing at the Rag Tag Cinema in Columbia. Be surprised if this makes it to the Cineplex.
Seventeen-year-old Ree Dolly (Jennifer Lawrence) sets out to track down her father, who put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared. If she fails, Ree and her family will be turned out into the Ozark woods. Challenging her outlaw kin’s code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth.
This synopsis doesn’t begin to capture the subtle layers of this movie. And I don’t have the skill to describe them. The bad guys in this movie make the red necks in Deliverance look charming. They’d deep-fry Tony Soprano’s crew and eat ’em.
Winter’s Bone is based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell and took Best Picture and Best Screenplay at the Sundance Film Festival. Filmed in Missouri but I’m not sure where.
Four Lions: Spinal Tap for suicide bombers
Red Dawn trailer
I never saw this movie but understand it’s something of a cult classic. Brought to mind by a clip from a recent news interview with the administration official who resigned over our presence in Afghanistan. He is of the opinion the insurgents are fighting because their country is being occupied. Made me wonder, would we ever stop fighting if a foreign army was on our soil, for whatever reason.
Oliver Stone’s “W”
I might be the last person to figure this out but, based on this trailer, Stone appears to tackle two questions: “How in the hell did George W. Bush ever become president of the United States?” And, “What happened to him before he got to the Oval Office that made him so inept once there?” Or maybe that’s one question.
Sci Fi Channel: “The Lost Room”
In the Sci Fi Channel’s “The Lost Room” miniseries, homicide cop Joe Miller (Peter Krause) stumbles upon a key that turns any door into a gateway to this unassuming motel room that’s been frozen in time. Aside from being able to access the room from anywhere, there’s something else odd about it: no matter what you do inside it – sleep in the bed, set fire to the carpet or add an assortment of Ikea table lamps – it always “resets” itself to its original orderly configuration the next time you enter. [AZ Central]
The first (of three) installment of this miniseries was pretty damed good. Sci Fi is airing the first part again this evening at 6pm Central…followed by part two.
HBO documentary films
While channel surfing last night, I came across a documentary on HBO. “Thin” is the story of four women with eating disorders who are “dying to be thin.” Heartbreaking.
Tonight I watched “Hacking Democracy” which exposes gaping holes in the security of America’s electronic voting system. If you voted in 2004 –or ever plan to vote again– you should watch “Hacking Democracy.”
Three Days of the Condor – Final Scene
I think the best answer can be found at the end of Sydney Pollack’s 1975 spy flick, Three Days of the Condor. Robert Redford’s character (Joe Turner) is talking to CIA agent Higgins (played by Cliff Robertson) about the no-longer-secret plan to invade the Middle East for oil.
Higgins: The fact is, it wasn’t a bad plan. It could’ve worked.
Turner: Jesus — What is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same as telling the truth.
Higgins: It’s simple economics, Turner… There’s no argument. Oil now, 10 or 15 years it’ll be food, or plutonium. Maybe sooner than that. What do you think the people will want us to do then?
Turner: Ask them!
Higgins: Now? (shakes head) Huh-uh. Ask them when they’re running out. When it’s cold at home and the engines stop and people who aren’t used to hunger… go hungry! They won’t want us to ask… (quiet savagery:) They’ll want us to GET it for them.
Kill Bill: Volume 2
You either like Quintin Tarantino movies or you don’t. I’m a fan. Especially the dialogue. His characters say things that sound perfectly natural within the context of the movie but would never be heard in real life (whatever that is). I thought the same thing when I first saw David Mamet’s House of Games. Tarantino would seem to be a fan of David Carradine but was only 9 years old when Kung Fu was on TV. Same for Michael Parks, who is wonderful in Volume 2. Tarantino would have been six years old in 1969 when Jim Bronson rode his motorcycle across the country in Then Came Bronson. And while I know less than zero about cinematography, there was a wonderful, surreal quality to the second Kill Bill. I won’t even try to describe it. Finally, if for no other reason, see the movie for the yummy Uma Thurman.