Change Your Image
borderlands-43986
Reviews
Christina Cooks (2001)
Culinary shock and awe
These recipes are so atrocious, I wouldn't trust her to cook for a death row inmate.
A torinói ló (2011)
Very serious movie
This is a very serious black and white movie and, basically, there's a horse that's about to die the whole time.
A Chef's Life (2013)
PBS sponsored infomercial
There's little to enjoy here. A relatively will to do white Southern lady conducts a culinary business while, superficially, connecting with low income cooks and hourly staff. This show just reinforces the bootstrap narrative of running a small food empire. The actual insights are scarce.
Perfectly Normal for Me (2017)
These dancers are more than perfectly normal
This a profoundly moving documentary portraying children and youth with physical disabilities as characters with tremendous strengths. I especially enjoyed the commentary of two whip smart and articulate young women: A 15 year old who was still a part of Dancing Dreams and one who was about 22 and was a graduate of the program. This documentary interrupts the portrayal of young people with disabilities as something to be observed, admired or pitied. It puts each dancer's perspective on the front and central stage, both inside and outside of the dance space. Most importantly, by interviewing the dancers themselves, this documentary is an opportunity to hear about the observations and reflections of young people for whom disability is "perfectly normal for me." I couldn't offer a higher recommendation.
Born in Flames (1983)
Profound discourse on social movements
How had I never seen this before? This film, which took 5 years to film and produce on a $30,000 budget, follows a gritty, near future dystopia in which a socialist revolution has taken place. Except all sorts of people, Latinx, queers, low income folks, women and African Americans receive less in this system that enforces social cohesion by silencing any dissent as counterproductive to the promotion of the collective welfare. Central to the narrative is the Women's Army, a loose collective of women who act in individual cells and broadcast their message via two independent radio stations. Many of the central actors are both lesbians and African Americans. Throughout the film, groups of women, especially those most impacted by this "new socialism," which is complicit in rape and fires women from construction jobs so that men may have them, for instance, debate the merits of the movement and the the efficacy of their participation therein. Watching this film in 2020, I found this film to be profoundly moving, especially as one of these guerrilla stations was called Station 2016. We're past 2016. And yet, 37 years later, we're still having the same debates about privilege and the fulfillment of what an equal future entails. (Equal for whom?) Eventually, and despite discouragement from white party officials, the white, relatively privileged women at an official party move from dialoguing with the Women's Army to taking up their cause when an African American lesbian activist is murdered by the police. As someone very much invested in social justice movements, but equally alienated by aspects of complicity in some relatively well to do white progressive circles, this film is compelling as an object lesson in societal change that leave very many people behind. I'd recommend this film to anyone looking to reflect on social movements, or perhaps to learn more about differing views on women's rights by people who all agree that change needs to happen. The narrative structure leaves something to be desired, but the discussions from various perspectives about what does and doesn't effective manifestations of social change make this 1 hour, 20 minute delight very worthwhile.
Jazzy Vegetarian (2011)
Cringe worthy, culinary atrocities that only a person without taste buds could love
This woman doesn't know to cook. Just when I think she can't get a recipe wrong, she'll use extra virgin olive oil in pancakes. She thinks that garam masala is a single spice and that, after baked onto sweet potatoes, go great with a parsley finish. Vegan cooking CAN be delicious, but she'll combine a bunch of kidney beans with about a tablespoon of oil, and, when commenting that they look dry, add another half tablespoon of oil. I imagine that they taste slightly better than chewing on dried concrete. Certainly, disordered eating is no laughing matter; I used vegetarianism myself as a cover for my eating disorder in high school. But if PBS wants to carry a program that will help people eat less meat or expand their culinary repertoire, the should go with somebody other than a woman who clearly got the show because she knows somebody "jazzy" in the entertainment industry. This food is so terrible that I'd rather starve! If a bunch of pureed cashews, some maple syrup and and a block of soft tofu actually tasted like cheesecake, people would use that recipe. But they don't, because what that tastes like is a vegan train wreck that makes you wish you had a hunk of flesh to sink your teeth into. Vegan cheese pizza with asparagus, radishes? I'll take a vial of cyanide. Learn what vegetables go together! Finally, I honestly can't tell if this woman actually thinks she knows how to cook. She says people can't tell her stuff is vegan, especially her husband. It's clear that her husband is lying to her because he loves her, and everyone else, I think, is just trying to escape her grip so that they can get some vegan, gluten free "sushi" from Whole Foods that isn't maple syrup and tamari sauce. Honey, your vegan "eggs" with nothing too savory and inadequate spices but full of regret isn't going to save a confined chicken. Why not read the Enchanted Broccoli Forest and Google yourself some spice family charts? Maybe learn how to flavor tofu? Use more garlic and nutritional yeast! And PLEASE actually have more than a gram of fat per serving. Besides your food being like some personal hell for people who loved McDonald's a little too much, you're taking up valuable PBS programming space that would much better be occupied by the many actually talented vegetarian and vegan chefs.