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billmil
Reviews
Deliver Us from Evil (2006)
Raw emotions and insights into pain and denial
I saw this movie tonight and found it excellent. Parts of this movie made my skin crawl, others moved me to tears. The sight of a sixty year old man, with a deep bellowing voice, weep in anguish at the pain his daughter went through and the deception the whole family experienced: this touched me deeply.
This movie also offered some helpful insights in alternating between both the abused and the abuser looking back on the abuse. The abuser looks back on it w/ detached shame and remorse. The victims and their families rage with intense, fresh pain despite the decades.
The ray of hope in this movie is Father Thomas Doyle, a priest who reaches out to the families with compassion, hugs, apologies. He's articulate and knowledgeable about church polity and politics as well as the "spiritual rape" that occurs when kids are abused by a religious leader; and he knows his Jesus, that is, he shows Christ talked about "suffering little children to come to me..for such is the kingdom of God."
I still don't understand how the church leadership in California (i.e. in this specific case) leadership forgot this teaching of Jesus regarding children: "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea."
I wish this topic would have come up more in the film.
Addendum: * My thoughts led me back to this film as I recently learned that someone had abused one of my former students. "Deliver us from evil" came immediately to mind; this movie woke me up to the fact that a nice/charming/well-mannered/harmless-looking/great-with-kids person can really be dangerous evil and treacherous, i.e. "prowling around like a roaring lion." For this reason, I think every adult should see this movie.
(Just today I read how a man in Chicago abused a girl after befriending her mom. "She said their friendship grew to the point where she allowed him to take her son and daughter on outings." I cannot but think that if either the mom/neighbor/relative/friend saw this movie someone might have said uttered a word of caution which could have prevented such a tragedy).
* Clearly the priests who shuffled around the abusers (and effectively covered up these scandals), underestimated the trauma and damage caused by abuse. But just what *were* they thinking? "They won't remember it." "They'll get over it". Yet the testimony of the people in this movie show that the long-term damage is enormous. What really went on in the heads of the leadership? I'd like to know.
Kekexili (2004)
Wortwhile for the scenery alone
A preface: I will go out of my way to see a movie that takes me to a new part of the world. Thus I was excited to see "Mountain Patrol" as I'd never been to Tibet. The local reviewers (Chicago) gave it very high marks.
The scenery and the background-story (destruction of the antelopes) makes this movie worth seeing.
Yet, as I watched this movie, I found myself thinking: if this movie was about Mountain Goats in the Sierra Nevada (i.e. something less exotic than Tibet), Chicago reviewers would be more critical. The characters are flat ; the plot is somewhat thin. The mountain patrol are "searchers", but the movie doesn't have that edge of the John Ford western. The movie seemed formulaic for the first hour, but happily breaks out of that rut.
A similar "high altitude" movie which I enjoyed more was "Himalaya." I recommend both "Mountain Patrol" and "Himalaya", especially for those interested in armchair/movie theater traveling to the "rooftop of the world".
New York Doll (2005)
From Killer Kane to Citizen Kane
While I agree with the reviews that New York Doll tells a compelling story, I didn't find it terribly different from the other 'behind the music' rockumentary genre (from glory to the gutter to an unstable equilibrium somewhere between). As for religious conversion documentaries go, 'Sister Helen' is much more gripping.
I first stumbled across the New York Dolls in a book about punk rockers 25 years ago as a young teenager. Who were these guys dressed up like women? And why did they rank up with all these other bands--the Talking Heads, Iggy and the Stooges, the Velvet Underground? When I saw the movie poster, I was excited: finally I'd hear what made this band important, and maybe hear some of their music. (after all those decades, I still hadn't heard any of their songs).
As with the Pixies DVD, 'New York Doll' contains a lot of respected, famous musicians (e.g. Morrissey, looking noticeably like Cary Grant) wax profusely about how said band broke new ground and made a profound impression on their young sensibilities. It's interesting to hear their stories, recounted freshly despite the decades. Yeah, they had attitude and mascara. But I still walked away thinking, "Joy Division...now *that* was a band." (and '24 Hour Party People'...that was a movie!)
Kane's conversion to Mormonism gives the movie it's poignancy, but "New York Doll" doesn't explore the lows and highs of sins and redemption that we find in, say, Johnny Cash "American Recordings" series of records. Nor does it probe some of the more interesting aspects of Mormononism and how these affect Kane in his new LDS-life (e.g, mormons need to wear secret underwear, they believe God lives in bodily form on a place/planet/star called 'Kolob', and that a Mormon becomes a God of his/her own planet when he dies). Instead we see a religion depicted fairly similar to, say, the Baptists, but with a nod toward Joseph Smith. It really does seem like the film maker had an agenda here to spin positively the LDS church. A more neutral film maker would have treated this more evenhandedly and given us less sanitized story. This would have made for a (somewhat) better movie.
To conclude, I recommend seeing this movie. But it's not "really really really good". As for documentaries about religious conversion, see "Sister Helen". It's great. As for music movies, see the Pixies DVD and 24 Hour Party People.
Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)
The Birth of Rad
This movie was great for several reasons.
*It captured the curl of a counter cultural wave. The whole several-hundred-million dollar snowboard/X-games/everyone-at-Vail-wearing-baggy-outerwear thing came out of this group of skate punks from the Zephyr surf shop.
* Great action footage..... Those surfing shots at the beginning (guys surfing through pier pilings ) were amazing. The Z-boys really did have fluid style, also. Not a lot of vert, mind you, as that didn't exist yet.
*Fun soundtrack. Hendrix. The Stooges. Blue Oyster Cult. Pink Floyd.
*Stylistically interesting, for a documentary. Intriguing use of effects (fast forwards, fake film-melting, use of clips from Charlie's Angels to capture the 70's ethos.) The Z-boys attention to style has spilled over into Mr. Peralta's filmmaking.
*It's a rare exposure in our youth oriented culture to see footage of the same people at 14 and 40 juxtaposed. I'd really recommend this to parents *FOR THEIR TEENAGERS*. Jay Adams story--from precocious blonde skate punk to a convict is very compelling. He makes very clear his two big regrets are that he didn't stay in school and he got involved with drugs. Much more convincing than 'just say no'.