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Reviews
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1989)
The Greatest
In my opinion, the finest movie ever made for television. Charlotte Coleman and Geraldine McEwan are magnificent.
I stumbled upon this movie quite by accident when it was shown in 1990 or 1991 on A&E in Canada, and I stayed up all night to watch it again. I bought Jeanette Winterson's book the next day and have loved it ever since.
Grass (1999)
A Stylish Documentary
A lot of the discussion about -Grass- both here and in the press has focused on what the film is not. It isn't a documentary about marijuana use, nor is it intended to be. Instead, it's a film about the history of the "war" on marijuana in the U.S.
Mann's films are done in a "high" visual style (no joke intended) that is very graphic-intensive. While this isn't to everyone's taste, it does cut through the otherwise heavy use of archival footage. The narration is incisive, but it is kept thankfully to a minimum. The result is a documentary that entertains and instructs.
I was somewhat disappointed that the film did not go on in any detail about the post-1980 period, where some of the most interesting battles have been fought. Other than that, -Grass- is an excellent summary of how the "drug war" in the U.S. came to be fought in the way that it is today.
I suppose my other disappointment is that the film focuses exclusively on the U.S.; I had hoped that a Canadian such as Ron Mann would have examined the equally interesting history of marijuana prohibition in Canada.
-Grass- is well worth a viewing, both for its visual appeal and its committed take on an interesting subject.