documentary

Man on Wire
$26.98
It's clear to me that the Oscar was granted due to the subject matter; the nostalgia for the time when the Twin Towers were brand new, and when America was free enough that a man could actually wire walk between them without being picked off by a police or military sniper in mid-performance or being sentenced to life after he walked off the wire. It's impossible for an American to watch this movie and not be constantly reminded of 9/11; this movie takes back the Towers from Bin Laden to some extent, and for that reason alone I think it won the Oscar for best documentary. I felt the nostalgia myself, being old enough to remember Petit's feat and the construction of the Towers.

It's great to see Petit perform; his enthusiasm is contagious; and as the participants admit, the planning and execution of the walk are like a heist movie where no one is robbed or hurt. The climax, where we see him walking between the Towers, is worth watching the entire movie to see. But the remainder of the film is flawed. Primarily, I wanted to know more about his friends who helped him in his guerilla wire-walking endeavors, particularly the Americans who he recruited in New York. How did he meet them? Why did they agree to help? I understand that artistically the choice may have been made to not tell us; it's Petit's life, and they're just along for the ride, and cut loose after he reached his lifelong dream. But I think it would have been a better documentary if we knew a little more about how he persuaded his friends and helpers to help with his epic feat. It's not like the movie didn't have enough time; even at 100 minutes, it felt awfully long.

"Man on Wire" is at least worth a rent; you will like it, even if you don't love it. But it probably won't be a movie you'll want to add to your permanent collection.

National Geographic - Wetback: The Undocumented Documentary
$19.98
This documentary takes a frank and at times, graphic look at the indignities that men and women have to endure in their quest for the American Dream. After this film many will think hard and deeply about how they treat their fellow man and their own stereotypes. A must see for any class that deals with immigration.

F**K - A Documentary
$19.98
It's clearly hard to write a review of this movie, why, well it's about a word that is specifically banned in Amazon's reviews. We're left to the euphimisms they mentioned in the movie.

All kidding aside, the first half of this film is remarkably good. It's well put together and makes a lot of sense. Just after the couple simulating sex at the rock festival in Europe, the film just becomes repetitive and boring.

The movie is a classic talking head documentary. There's some cute animmation between segments (see the cover art, the same artist did the inter segment work). A couple of talking heads against a black background talk about some aspect of the word. It goes back and forth, and sometimes a clip is shown to illustrate the point. There's subtitles that are supposed to be witty (not really). The talking head list is very wide - from Miss Manners to Ron Jeremy (that pretty well covers the gamut there). Tera Patrick is surprisingly intelligent. And of course I'd like the movie when Kevin Smith talks.

There's a couple of good segments about Lenny Bruce and George Carlin - in so many ways this film should be about these two guys.

How offensive is this film - it's not really. That word is used over 800 times. But after about number 100, it's nothing. In fact you kind of find yourself leaning toward saying it in casual conversation. The views are somewhat well balanced between conservative view (Pat Boone) and liberal view (Kevin Smith). It isn't apparent the director had an axe to grind one way or the other.

An hour and 30 minutes, roughly. It's so R rated. Actually when you get down to the nudity, it's R not anywhere near NC-17. No violence. Minimal nudity (you would expect more). Tons of strong language.

Paper Clips
$24.99
I thought this was a very moving documentary with a great story to tell. Some of the interviews do sound very forced,(we southerners are insecure about how our accent will pick up on camera), but overall it was fine.

The only thing I really disliked about this film was the way they edited in the students' comments over top of the Holocaust survivors' speeches. Let the survivors speak! I would much rather hear the stories in the words of the people who lived them than hear a 13 year old girl summarize them.