The Act of Killing (2012)

The Act of Killing (NR)

"When In Jakarta"

Chilling documentary that doubles as surreal window into the cold blooded heart of humanity. Peeking into the ramifications of the wholesale murder of a half million minorities and political in 1960-65 Indonesia, an act that is still celebrated to this day.  Their leaders, the executors and their children dance in the streets as their military dictatorship upholds them as heroes and legends.  When a director and film crew begin to peel back the layers and ask the propagators of violence to document their heroic deeds, one among them begins to emerge as a man possessed of tremendous guilt.

The reenactments are beautiful, outsider-art affairs, shot with delicate beauty and supreme craftsmanship.  This is in stark contrast to the words, their descriptions of the massacres are in the spirit of the winners make the rules.  However talking on camera is Anwar, one of those revered heroes, is obviously filled with deep seated regret and horror at his supposed accomplishments.  He breaks down as he simulates how the murders took place, becomes distraught as he puts himself in the literal shoes of his victims.  This is a man of such extreme guilt in the face of nationwide praise that his struggle towards confession is remarkable.  Partnered with the phantasmic cross-dressing musical-dance troupe recreations, this trek down the dark alleys of human psyche is a shadowed one way street.

If the Nazis had triumphed in World War II, and if a film crew had asked an elderly Eichmann to discuss the "wonderous" slaying of 6 millions Jews and recreate the victories using musical theater, and who then began to have pangs of conscience about the blood on his hands on camera, this is that documentary, giving us a one-in-a-kind opportunity into the mind of a ennobled mass-killer.

7.5 Glorious Rallies out of 10 (GOOD)

Gasland (2011)

Gasland (NR) - Review

"The Water Down Below"

This documentary came at just the apex of the National "fracking" debate, an argument between the Oil & Gas Industries and their US opponents; that the act of pressurizing the lower strata of the Earth in order to fracture the shale underneath thereby releasing natural gas to the surface may or may not be environmentally safe.  A folksie small town appeal infused throughout, filmmaker (and banjoist) Josh Fox riled the huge OnG corps and started America talking with his aloof observations, as noble a pursuit as any filmmaker could hope for.

7 "Where's Erin Brockovich when you need her?" out of 10 (GOOD)

Knuckle (2011)

Knuckle (R) - Review

"Fighting Irish"

A family feud that has lasted for decades (or perhaps longer since no one can quite remember why it started) results in bareknuckle boxing matches for money in this English made documentary that spans over 10 years of filming.  These Irish "Traveller" families (near-gypsies) settle their disputes the old fashioned way, boxing in cow pastures.  Vast sums of money as well as the family honor are waged against one son or another, who beat it out until one of them gives up.  As a documentary, the amount of time inside the secret lives of these people is interesting, while the boxing itself is unglamorous and uncinematically violent.  The film mostly follows champion boxer McDonagh as he represents his clan over and over through a near decade of fighting, for what reason even they don't know. Grim old world accents and attitudes prevail as fathers grow into old men and their sons grow up to continue the fighting.

5.5 The Mighty Quins out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)

Catfish (2010)

Catfish (PG-13) Review

"Fickle Fish Fry"

A group of filmmaker friends document the burgeoning love between main onscreen character and his new internet love/acquaintance.  Since this is a film, there must be some kind of hook, and be assured that there is.  The internet was aflame about this movie with much "This Happened To Me Too's!" being typed and hyped.  The movie itself is about as genuine as reality television, with many obvious "re-enactments" and the playboy filmmakers hogging screentime and mugging for the camera.  The central mystery and hook in Catfish is effective and certainly reflects our current social media culture and the negative impacts it can have on our lives.  But as true cinematic art, Catfish starts to reek by the end, a mean kind of smell that certainly made me lose my appetite.

4.5 Profile Pics out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)

Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010)

Exit Through The Gift Shop (R)

"Art for sale"

Very interesting "documentary" about street artists. About as post-modern as you can get in all ways, it was very entertaining and had alot to say about the nature of art itself.  I am glad there are people out there bucking the system like this (and profiting at the same time I suppose).

 7 Stencils out of 10 (GOOD)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (G)

"Caveman of your dreams"

Herzog's 3d documentary about the ancient Cave drawings in France may be your only chance to almost see them in person since the cave is sealed off from the commercial world (and rightly so).  The quality and variety of the drawings is astonishing, the 3D does lend a hand in immersing you into the cave, and director Werner tries with lighting and music and sound to get you to experience them as our ancestors may have: primally.  Mix in a few humans whose own personalities border on the bizarre, and the result is fascinating, mesmerizing and a bit bewildering.

8 Bear Claws out of 10 (GREAT)

Tabloid (2010)

Tabloid (R)

"Standing on Sleazy Street"

The film that proves the old saying "Fact is stranger than Fiction,"  Tabloid is filmmaker Errol Morris' (Fog of War) documentary about the scandals surrounding Joyce McKinney that were exploited by 1970s trash-journalism in the UK.  Morris allows McKinney to unwind and wax crazy about the sex-scandal that involved a Mormon boyfriend who then cried rape and kidnapping and shocked a continent.  The details are often whitewashed by McKinney (the lurid details are oft provided by the slimy Tabloid journalists and her former acquaintances, and the movie sets up the premise of which side should you believe without taking sides).  The wide eyed Joyce's past is shamefully revealed and repeatedly denied, but it is the strangeness of the human heart, from Mormon prudishness to dead pet cloning, that is the real star here.  An entertaining yet palpably sleazy tale, Tabloid jumps feet first into the pool of yellow journalism yet inevitably doesn't come out completely smelling like roses, despite how hard it tries to wash its hands clean.

6 Greasy British Tooth Smiles out of 10 (GOOD)

Standard Operating Procedure (2008)

Standard Operating Procedure (R)

"Say Cheese"

Important documentary regarding the Abu Grahib prison scandal of the early War on Terror, actually told by those who perpetrated and were blamed for it.  Erroll Morris (Fog Of War) pulls no punches in parsing the facts and figures and the gray area of morality that allowed this black hole of morality to squander any or all of the world's post-9/11 sympathies.  Told through the pictures that broke the scandal, the stories and photos are still unforgettable and stomach churning.  The film speaks less to the zeal and bloodlust of the general US public and it's leaders after the NY Trade Center attacks than the condition of the lowly soldier far down on the totem pole following orders, orders both direct and ambiguous.  From there emerges the bigger picture of CIA spooks, cabinet members and, yes, Presidents of the free world.

Featuring only the scapegoats for on-camera interviews is not by omission but necessity, yet Morris keeps objectivity in the viewfinder and prevents

7.5 Digital Cameras were new then, try not to feel old out of 10 (GOOD)

F For Fake (1973)

F For Fake (NR)

"O for Overrated"

Legendary Director Orson Welle's (Citizen Kane) last completed film is a strange commentary on trickery, fakery and the arts.  Cut together from various sources, this semi-documentary zips back and forth between the stories of famed art-forger Elmyr, his hoax ridden biographer Clifford Irving, the supposed voice of tycoon and recluse Howard Hughes, Welle's young vivacious girlfriend and the man himself speaking about his past of treachery vis a vie his infamous War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

Spliced together in a very nontraditional style that skews close to French New Wave collage, the film was met with hostility upon release.  However if the construction proves distracting, the film's content and real life characters are fascinating with hindsight.  Filmed when these men were just being outed as con-men, and with Welle's own personal touch of conspiratorial confession to boot, F for Fake is a strange yet effective rumination on the dual nature of art and forgery, magicians and scam artists, fact and fiction.  The editing jumps off the cogs often, sometimes revealing the men filming the scenes themselves, breaking the then taboo 4th wall and taking all suspension of disbelief with it, evoking a kind of "alakazam" of a twist ending that was probably half the reason Welle's and his lady dreamed up this experiment.  Perhaps not a full fledged film, but shouldn't be viewed as such, F For Fake was an easy forrunner of Banksy's Exit Through The Gift Shop, two sides of a coin, a coin that pays for art is also that which ruins art.

5.5 70s "Look at my hot European Girlfriend in my film" Sexism out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)