A Descent into Dullness

So the solution to repairing America's faltering eduction system is around. And all that stands in the way of it are layer upon layer of sometimes conflicting entrenched bureaucracies and a union more dedicated to preserving jobs than educating. I'm kind of looking forward to Finland's future global domination...

A doc on the first openly gay city councilman, San Francisco's Harvey Milk. Who was assassinated, along with San Francisco's mayor, by former council-member Dan White. A well-made piece, though I mostly wanted to watch this before seeing Milk, the Sean Penn helmed biopic. The movie concentrates on the slightly less than a year of Milk and White's time in office. Which includes the fight against the state-wide Prop. 6 which would have banned openly homosexual people from working as teachers...

Roger Ebert bitch-slaps Ben Stein...

A documentary on the hardcore punk movement from 1980-1986. The first ten minutes are spent setting up how the music was a reaction to the new Reagan era and the feel of how something was lacking from the then popular music. And then they spend an hour and a half getting anecdotes from what seems to be every surviving person from the scene. Minor Threat, The Bad Brains, DOA, Black Flag, The Misfits, Gang Green, The Circle Jerks and plenty more. Who, after a while, all start to blend together...

Probably the three most interesting things from the movement only get lightly touched on. Black Flag bassist Kira Roessler briefly touches on how anti-female much of the movement is. Also very lightly mentioned is the popularity of the music genre with skin-head and similar groups. Mostly as a joke about how one of the most popular hardcore groups with skin-heads had a vocally out gay lead. And though the Bad Brains are mentioned by near everyone as a major influence, nothing is said about a movement predominantly white having an all-black band as one of the "founders"...

While I'm a fan of punk in all its incarnations the doc just comes off as light-weight, not really taking a deep look at any part of the scene...

A documentary on the 2003 Air Guitar World Championships. Starting with the 1st American national championships. Its probably best to look at them as performance artists. And not weird and obsessive people. Though the American contestant David "C-Diddy" Jung seemed to be less scary than some of the others. Still, fun to watch the energy the air guitarists put into their acts...

Troy Duffy was a young bouncer and rookie film maker. The documentary follows along as he attempts to get his movie (and a record with the band he fronted with his brother) even after burning his bridges with Miramax and Harvey Weinstein. Duffy thinks that he's the greatest thing to ever hit movies and music and doesn't understand why everyone in California isn't lining up to kiss his ass and beg for his work...

His movie, "Boondock Saints" is actually a favorite of mine. Not that its anything spectacular. But its a fun, quirky action pic about a pair of poor Boston brothers who become vigilantes. Kind of like if in "Good Will Hunting", Matt Damon and Ben Affleck went around killing Russian gangsters. But its nothing that was ever going to change cinema the way Duffy acts...

Maybe the Weinstein's had Duffy blacklisted. Or maybe enough people saw him as an arrogant ass, without the genius talent needed to get away with it...

A documentary on the life of Danny Trejo. Who you probably know as the World's Angriest Mexican. From damn near any movie that needed an angry, mean looking Mexican. Knife Guy in Desperado, the Rapist Who Loses An Arm in Con Air, Kindly Inventor Uncle in Spy Kids. What? He can play against type...

Anyway the docu mostly covers his life as kid in trouble. Drugs, crime, etc etc. Up until he decides to change his life while sitting in solitary after a riot in his mid-twenties. After that he stumbles into an acting career after a job as an extra and boxing consultant on Runaway Train. And now splits his time between acting, family and giving speeches to kids and cons...

Pretty positive movie. Some amusing celebrity bits. Lots with Robert Rodriguez. Worth a rent...

A documentary on a squatter community living in the unused areas of the NY subway system. The filmmaker follows various members around during their normal schedule, seeing how they live and survive. The documentary ends with the community in conflict with Amtrak who want them gone (saying its for their safety and health). Happily the people and Amtrak reach a compromise thanks to a new federal program to provide housing vouchers to the homeless. So the group tears down their little village and moves into regular apartments...

The best parts of this documentary are probably the interviews with filmmakers, critics and others about their experiances with the MPAA. And the bits where they expose who the Ratings Board and the Appeals Board Members are. That being said, Kirby Dick (and this might be the only time I say this) should have trimmed down the stuff with the lesbian P.I. firm he worked with. I'm sure they had an interesting backstory and all, and normally I'm for as much lesbian content in a movie as possible, but in this case IT HAS NOTHING to add to the point of the documentary...