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leonevilo
Reviews
Punk Rock Vegan Movie (2023)
Moby documents an influential grassroots movement most people have never heard of
Watch this if you want to understand why the staff at your local vegan restaurant or health food store are tattooed so heavily.
Moby interviews some of the punk and hardcore musicians who were first to be known as vegetarians on the scene (like Captain Sensible (The Damned), Steve Ignorant (Crass/Conflict) and HR (Bad Brains), were among the first to speak out in the mid to late eighties, like the Cro Mags, MDC, Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits, or took it to the next level by promoting veganism in the early nineties when it was largely unheard of, like Earth Crisis.
Speaking out for animals didn't win popularity contests in the eighties (in or outside the scene) and it definitely didn't make life easier for them on tour, but the message appealed to many active people in the scene, who stopped eating animals decades before it was cool.
One of the interviewees said that vegetarianism and veganism could spread in punk better than in any other scene because punks aren't scared to be different from the norm. I think this is true, just like Straightedge (a youth culture strictly abstaining from all drugs and alcohol) could only develop in the Hardcore scene, saying no to eating animals came much easier to Punks who never cared if they were seen as outcasts.
Fast forward to 2023 and be amazed how mainstream veg*anism is today, how common the label is in supermarkets and how widely available vegan options are almost everywhere in the world. Much of it has to do with the hardcore kids who got exposed to animal rights through punk and hardcore and started vegan restaurants, bakeries, food trucks, health food stores and other businesses, not just in the US, but all over Europe, Australia and Latin America as well.
Few of the people using vegan hashtags on Instagram or TikTok today have any idea who John Joseph, Ray Cappo or Karl Buechner are, and yet they have so much to thank them for. I know i do, over thirty years later and i still do not eat animals, long after being part of that scene, just like many of my friends from back in the day.
So glad Moby put this together, it's a great introduction to an aspect of the punk/hardcore scene that hasn't had much exposure, but deserves to be recognized for it's influence.
Tetris (2023)
Shallow mess
If you're looking to watch a superficial depiction of how bad the Soviet Union was paired with a messy depiction of international contract negotiations then this movie is a top choice.
If you were hoping for a good, consistent storry, or well developed characters with believable acting, you may want to look elsewhere.
I have no idea how they managed to stretch this movie for over two hours without giving any character any depth. Tetris is basically a bunch of comic book characters running around in russia, yelling rudely at state officials and being surprised about state surveillance. Oh well.
Le premier rasta (2010)
great intro to the roots of rastafarianism
I'd never heard of leonard howell before, but this documentary does a great job of connecting the dots, showing which influences lead to the creation of rasta, from marcus garveys and 1920s harlem to indian mysticism and ganja.
Yes, there is music and the beginnings of reggae are touched upon in the later part of the documentary. Mainly the doc consists of many interviews with people who lived with howell at pinnacle or touched with him, because there are few recordings from his life.
Great doc overall.
Als wir träumten (2015)
a story of youth falling apart
Als wir träumten tells the story of a group of friends growing up in leipzig, an east german city two hours south of berlin. most of the story is set in the early nineties, right after reunification, with a few flashbacks to the eighties, the big demonstrations in fall 89 being the big divide. however, politics are as absent as possible when telling stories about this very political era.
since the story makes no attempt to give any context or explain circumstances to the viewer, let me explain a few things that will help you 'get' it: in the eighties life in east germany was very structured, everyone had jobs, food, a place to live, safety, but no freedom. kids were told stories about building a socialist society, which had been told to their parents, most had never believed in the first place or lost their faith along the way, until many were dreaming about leaving to the west. if you grew up then and there, you constantly felt left behind by friends and relatives, often without hope to see each other again.
after reunification another kind of disillusionment set in: most factories shut down, many grown ups were jobless, trying to figure out life with new rules they had yet to learn themselves, unable to provide guidance to their kids. only a few months divided the eighties, where everything was reglemented (mostly forbidden) and the nineties, when all of a sudden nothing seemed off limits and authorities were gone from one day to the next.
this story is about kids testing limits and not finding any, which was fun sometimes, but often just a way to see if anyone even took notice of them. it's about kids trying not to lose their friendship, about crashing cars, bittersweet love, drugs, petty crime, occupying abandoned places, boxing, everyone smoking cigarettes, running from nazi bullies and cops, short stints in jail, violence, harder drugs, longer stints in jails and the music that was popular at the time (techno). the story is not about any of those things specifically, they are all at the peripherie, it is really all about friendship and trying hard not to drift apart.
the movie is based on one of my favorite books, and although i have a few minor objections - some scenes are missing which may have increased the emotional impact even further - i understand they were left out to avoid the word depressing in reviews. als wir träumten is not a feel good story, there is nothing glossy in it, but it does a good job recreating the raw emotion of the book and the harsh reality of that time.
Ma nuit chez Maud (1969)
Hard to understand without knowledge of religion
Tbh, i watched the movie and appreciate the esthetics, but i do not get the plot.
Roughly 80% of the movie is dialogue, most of which consists of christian (catholic) references, which apparently also result in the main characters extremely prude relationship to women. Also, there are many references to Blaise Pascal who is local to the cty the film is set in. Not being familiar with Pascal or religion, most of the talk is completely empty to me.
But what is left of the movie if you cut out the dialogue? Not much. A main character who is ashamed of anything he may like, apparently due to his catholicism? I found it impossible to relate to him in any way, and since there are only three supporting characters, of which only Maud is allowed a personality of herself, this movie is pretty bland.