'Criticism is the only thing that stands between the audience and advertising.' - Pauline Kael

*


Paul Robeson With Oakland, Ca. Shipyard Workers, 1942

Black August

So in order to best cover all bases, progressive film critics tend to consider three categories of assessment, rather than two: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. The first two are self-explanatory. And the third category is reserved for movies that may have been impressively put together, but there's just something offensively anti-humanistic about them.

Stay tuned......

The Organizer

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Arts Express: "A political moment desperately needs a new story about race to be told."

** "A political moment desperately needs a new story about race to be told."

                      Ava Duvernay, Director Of The 13TH
  
In this movie awards season when The 13TH, one of the most important films of the year is forgotten, Arts Express sits down with a roundtable gathering of eminent racial justice advocates who participated on screen in this documentary: Malkia Cyril, director of Oakland's Center For Media Justice and daughter of a Black Panther; Lisa Graves, executive director of The Center For Media And Democracy in Madison, Wisconsin; and Kevin Gannon, alias 'The Tattooed Professor' - director of The Center For Excellence In Teaching And Learning, and Professor of History at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. 
Ava DuVernay's explosive documentary The 13TH, is a crushing indictment of the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution, generating through a malevolent escape clause, mass incarceration, institutionalized criminalization, racial injustice, and exploited neo-slavery enriching prison corporations today. The 13TH was the Opening Night Premiere in September at the NY Film Festival - and the first ever honor for a festival documentary.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW HERE

** "This was a story that said, you've got to write me now."

  
What are the unique choices and challenges for that rarely acclaimed, behind the scenes creative force in movies - the screenwriter. A conversation with Allan Loeb, who composed two rather disparate films - Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps in 2010, and now the David Frankel [The Devil Wears Prada] directed Collateral Beauty. In which Will Smith as a grieving father, attempts to cope in a highly unusual way as a writer himself - penning letters to the universe while going toe to toe with a possible figment of his imagination, Helen Mirren.


Happy Anniversary!


 On this day in 2008, journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw both of his shoes at President Bush in protest at US occupation of Iraq. "When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, George Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people."
 

Why I Threw The Shoe |
Muntazer al-Zaidi
December 14, 2008.


Prairie Miller

Arts Express: Thursdays 2pm ET: Airing on WBAI Radio in NY 99.5 FM, and streaming live and archived everywhere at wbai.org.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

I, DANIEL BLAKE: INTERVIEW WITH PAUL LAVERTY, LONGTIME KEN LOACH COLLABORATOR




By Liza Bear

In this piercingly relevant contemporary drama, Laverty's tightly structured script tracks Daniel Blake (Dave Johns), a joiner in his fifties recovering from a heart attack as he confronts implacable bureaucracy when his benefits are inexplicably denied, meanwhile befriending Katie (Hayley Squires), a single mother with two children and her own survival problems. The film is also a richly detailed portrait of community solidarity and resourcefulness.
 

Palme d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake's screenwriter Paul Laverty talks to Liza Bear about his early career, his 20 year collaboration with director Ken Loach and the political background to the film: the UK's austerity-driven Strivers Versus Shirkers campaign that targets the disadvantaged. 
Filmed by Liza Bear at the 54th New York Film Festival.

Liza Bear is a member of the James Agee Cinema Circle
.

Sunday, September 11, 2016

'Where The Fuck Is Snowden' - Oliver Stone Tackles Surveillance State Espionage Thriller


Oliver Stone's surveillance state docu-thriller Snowden delves with detailed scrutiny into the controversial life and defiant courage of NSA whistleblower and fugitive Edward Snowden. Revisiting much of what we already know through media accounts and the prior Laura Poitras Oscar winning documentary, Citizen Four, there are nevertheless several fascinating details gathered along the way.

And burrowing into the Snowden's introverted egghead personality with as much demonstrative emotional energy as is possible under the circumstances, Joseph Gordon-Levitt sensitively expresses a dual conflict plaguing in succession the profoundly psychologically and politically torn Snowden. Including his deeply held conservative ideological family roots, a brief stint as a Special Ops soldier until he broke both legs in training, and unquestioning patriotism sorely tested by both his shocking cyberspace discoveries of unethical government mass espionage of its citizens as a CIA and NSA computer analyst - along with the leftist politics of Lindsay (Shailene Woodley), a romance ironically ignited online as well, at a dating site.

The evolving and occasionally politically divisive contentious romance between Ed and Lindsay, though lingering for too long as time out interludes between the far more serious and sobering matters, does lend a few welcome casual digressions from the heavy duty narrative wrought with unrelenting anxiety and danger. In particular when they first kiss and Snowden in a rare moment of humorous abandon, jokes that her lips taste too liberal. And a pause for thought to wonder just how much his activist girlfriend's influence may have kicked in, leading to such a tremendous ideologically subversive transformation. And with Lindsay remarking at one point, 'I've been watching your inner liberal grow, and I like it.'

Likewise an ironic addition to the proceedings, is Snowden's army commander at boot camp early on in the film, searching around for the missing injured recruit and in hindsight rather prophetically barking, 'Where the fuck is Snowden!' While in summation audiences are left to ponder - Snowden: patriot, fugitive, soldier, spy, hacker, traitor, hero. With Stone somewhat suggesting that viewers call the shots on their own.

Prairie Miller

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Hillary's America: The Not So Secret History Of The Democratic Party


As the rather mix 'n match title implies, Hillary's America: The Secret History Of The Democratic Party, is really two separate films rolled into one. And with the lion's share topically reserved for the latter assertion, while the former regarding the current presidential candidate feels tacked on, hasty and scattered. And actually, a rather redundant indictment of Hillary that has received a far more in-depth examination and incriminating revelations lately, by experts and civilian journalists alike online.

Which positions filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and this followup to his 2012 critique Obama's America, in the rather ironic ideological space of concurring with those he aligns himself with (the Republicans on the right), but also at the other end of the political spectrum, the left who've embraced Bernie Sanders or the Green Party's Jill Stein. A peculiar place indeed for D'Souza to find himself, and only further reinforced by imploring conclusively that Americans therefore needs to vote Republican in this presidential election - without actually saying why.

So what is ultimately presented, is the unfortunately all too common one side to ever story reporting, delineating the historical sins of the Democratic Party while whitewashing the Republicans across the centuries - primarily through that other sin, of omission. And no, Inaccuracy Alert, Lincoln was not against slavery for quite some time ["If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it,” Lincoln wrote to Horace Greeley in 1862], while viewing the black population as inferior to whites [“I am in favour of the race to which I belong having the superior position...Free them [slaves] and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this. We cannot, then, make them equals.”] And in fact, Lincoln and the early capitalist North settling on anti-slavery as a war tactic, primarily to break the competitive economic back of the rebel South.

At the same time, D'Souza appears to tiptoe around the biggest Hillary elephant in the room - seeming ironically on the same side with her about this biggest of her current crimes most substantially outed in Wikileaks revelations - namely her covert collusion in rigging the Democratic presidential primaries in league with the DNC and corporate bought big media - and seemingly D'Souza carefully avoiding any defense or support for the victim on the left of those very questionable primary 'victories' - Bernie Sanders. Ideological Walking On Eggshells Alert. And, a potential backfiring of just what D'Souza is intending to do here - namely draw audiences into voting Republican, but potentially sending them off in droves to Jill Stein and the Green Party.

Political ironies aside here, D'Souza may come out of this with the appearance of being his own worst enemy. That is, regarding the extended sequences in the film where he seethes in jail about being railroaded there by Obama and the Democrats, following a campaign contribution conviction. A directorial state of mind which can readily be interpreted as subjectively motivated retaliation as - opposed to a measured critique.

And with such determined scrutiny, why in contrast is there a glaring omission of the historical crimes of the Republican Party. And actually, both parties behind the profit crazed ,genocidal military industrial complex mass murder of millions across the planet, under the superpower guise of US exceptionalism. While in fact at the same time, the modern history of presidents from both parties is ironically inconsequential. As those presidents function merely as the greased palms middlemen and the face of the secret permanent government behind the scenes - the banks and corporations.

Then there are several other assorted elephants in the room that inevitably comes to mind here, with the evidently elaborate and expensive production values lavished on this documentary, and that receives no explanation not to mention disclaimers in the closing credits  - Who funded your movie. And, if you're an apparently proudly guilty as charged advocate for the contemporary Republican Party, will you be following up with a professionally impartial sequel about that equally abhorrent entity - both of which have driven most voters this round to seek out candidates outside the political establishment?

That question may have already been answered in D'Souza's abrupt and swift sign-off at the end of his documentary - You know, just go vote Republican. Period.

Prairie Miller
WBAI Radio

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Los Angeles Plays Itself on DVD: LA In Life, Not Movies


By Sandy Sanders

A short while ago, by chance, I ran into the filmworks of Thom Andersen, including a 2004 feature length video essay titled "Los Angeles Plays Itself". Andersen's filmworks make personal observations about the movies by sequencing snippets of films to disclose non-obvious content and meaning. Andersen has lived in Los Angeles since 1946 and uses brief cuts from films made in, or about LA, along with first person narrative and city location photographs. The film discusses the differences between the Los Angeles he experienced and the LA as depicted by the movies. The film was initially shown only at limited screenings but officially released by Cinema Guild in 2014 and is available on DVD. 


For anyone who has lived in Los Angeles this film is a must see. For movie aficionados curious about Los Angeles and Hollywood image- crafting, this insider's take on "LA", is equally interesting. It runs 2hrs and 49 minutes with an intermission which allows two viewing periods, for those pressed for time. But the film moves breathlessly through known and lesser known film depictions of Los Angeles as Background, as Character and as Subject, presenting a personal tour of what has made Los Angeles unique. Andersen contends that Hollywood created the acronym of "LA" as a part of generating a mystique-of-place to keep moviegoer's attention. The historic modernist architecture, the hillside mansions, views of the ocean, the mix of urban and rural, the endless suburbs, anonymous streets and ubiquitous freeways, and post-industrial downtown, that make background for film noir, glamour, spectacle or the seedy, of Hollywood movies.

Andersen asks us to see the documentary aspect of films as nearly equal to their fiction. To see film with the "voluntary attention" of a conscious observer instead of the usual suspension of disbelief required of moviegoers. As we begin to see, Los Angeles was first used by Hollywood as a blank slate for their story-telling, then actually affecting the further development or exploitation of the City and surrounding towns to re-image the illusions of the movie industry. The real Los Angeles lies outside the film reel and includes the ordinary realities of a mixed urban culture of Blacks, Latinos, Asians... and Whites creating disparate but unique places and spaces from a dynamic sprawling region that started exploding in the 20's.

Also on track for discovery is the corrupt history of a city that has been run by the rich and powerful, Hollywood and LAPD. "Kiss Me Deadly", "LA Confidential" and "Chinatown" are period pieces explored for their reconfigured depictions of real events sorted differently timewise, to discuss the power, corruption and lies simmering under the surfaces of Los Angeles. Hollywood does tell tales that expose the power brokers and their scams on society, but, as Anderson comments, aren't these just "crocodile tears"? Do Hollywood movies clandestinely disclose nasty truths for citizen action, or do they merely placate guilty souls until the theater lights come on?

For me the most intriguing part of "Los Angeles Plays Itself" is the discovery of a group of neo-realist LA filmmakers quietly working on the fringes that deserve viewing. Kent MacKenzie's "The Exiles" is a 1961 black and white film about a group of Native Americans coping with being outsiders near downtown, that includes unique views of the now lost Bunker Hill area. Billy Woodbury's "Bless Their Little Hearts" (1984) and two other black filmmakers Charles Burnett and Haile Gerima make unique black & white films of black lives struggling in urban Los Angeles.
Another highly recommended Thom Andersen feature is "Red Hollywood", created in a similar method, about the blacklisting period. 

Sandy Sanders creates art and the future at BlueJayWay.net. He is a member of The James Agee Cinema Circle.

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Anti-capitalist Ken Loach drama takes top prize at Cannes 2016!

Loach said it was “very strange” to receive the award in such glamorous surroundings, considering the conditions endured by those people who inspired the film. “We must say that another world is possible and necessary.”
Jury member Donald Sutherland praised I, Daniel Blake as “an absolutely terrific movie that resonates in your heart and soul.”

The 79-year-old Britain has triumphed at the Cannes film festival for the second time with his welfare state drama, as Andrea Arnold’s American Honey takes…
THEGUARDIAN.COM|BY CATHERINE SHOARD

Sunday, April 24, 2016

The Tribeca Diaries


By Liza Béar​

  
TRIBECA DIARY: ​

BUGS
THE BANKSY JOB​

April 18, 2016--The day started with an edible insect lunch at the Mexican Miscellanea in the East Village with Andreas Johnsen, BUGS director and his Nordic Lab partner from Copenhagen.

WATCH BUGS FOR LUNCH HERE


This was the first pop-up event for BUGS, one of Tribeca's most exotic documentary premieres.  Enterprising Danish filmmaker Johnsen, who also produced and shot the film, accompanied researchers and scientists from the Nordic Lab in Copenhagen to several countries from Mexico to Uganda for three years as they studied insect-eating habits practiced by 2 billion of the world's population. Today's offering was ant larva tacos cooked in avocado oil with onion and mint. {I ate two small open plan tacos as fortification for cycling from the East Village to the Regal Cinemas in Battery Park). Given Denmark's reputation for Michelin 5-star haute cuisine and its five top international chefs, don't be surprised if insects show up on the menu at the new Grand Central food court and Danish restaurant in the near future. BUGS will be screened again at Tribeca this week at Regal Cinemas, Battery Park (Wednesday, 10:30pm); and at Bow Tie Cinemas in Chelsea (Thursday 2:30 pm).

Then a quick ride down the West Side pear blossom and daffodil-lined bike path to the Regal for another world premiere, THE BANKSY JOB ably co-directed by Ian Roderick Gray and Dylan Harvey. This highly entertaining and well crafted UK movie documents the twists and turns of an art heist engineered by Andy Link, a Hackney, London, self-styled art terrorist AK 47 and, depending on your p.o.v, the successive acquisitions or thefts of Banksy's The Drinker, itself a hollow remake of Auguste Rodin's Le Penseur (The Thinker) adorned with a huge traffic cone/dunce cap on his head--surely a reflection on the artist rather than on Rodin as AK47 thumbs his nose at classic sculpture, its recreation and re-installation on Shaftesbury Ave as The Stinker, and its final disappearance. Silly story, right? But superbly staged, well performed, great production design and super-cynical about the London art world and art authentication, with astute and deadpan commentary by representatives of said art world. The film's dialogue effectively contrasts the posh accents of Brit gallery dealers with the hard-to-decipher Yorkshire brogue of the art "terrorists".

Day continued with a visit to Famous Deaths a surrealist Dutch interactive project at the 50 Varick Street Tribeca HQ. The lounge is adorned with product placements eg IBM's robots: Trendy Bot, Dusty Bot and Shy Bot.

WATCH JUNCTION 48 HERE

TRIBECA DIARY: JUNCTION 48

April 20--Excerpt from the Q & A after today's screening of Junction 48, a narrative film about two striving hip hop artists set in Lyd, a mixed Arab/Jewish town near Tel Aviv. It premiered at the Berlinale this year where it won the Panorama audience award. This is a well-acted, intense and moving film that offers a fresh take on the situation of Arabs living in Israel, fraught as it is with tragedy, co-written by Tamer Nafar (who also stars as Kareem) and based on his own experiences as a hip hop artist, surmounting daily crises. The story is as dramatic as it is realistic. Co-star Samar Qupty, a filmmaking graduate from Tel Aviv University, is a knock-out. Video:  Director Udi Aloni expresses his views on the role of art in the Palestinian resistance, going way beyond ideological clichés to claim that for oppressed people, achieving quality in art, music, theatre is in itself a form of resistance.

TRIBECA DIARY: COURTED




April 23 2016--Christian Vincent's COURTED (L'Hermine) has its last Tribeca screening today Saturday at 6:15, Regal Cinemas, Battery Park. This is a thoroughly engaging milieu film set in a provincial Assize Court in Saint Omer, northwest France, the only court in France to have a jury trial. Leads are topnotch

French actor Fabrice Luchini as the aptly-named Michel Racine, the supercilious presiding judge with impeccable diction but a bad case of the flu and Sidse Babett Knudsen as Ditte Lorensen-Coteret, a juror on whom Racine had a crush in the past; she was the anesthetist who brought him out of a coma after an accident. Knudsen is apparently known as the prime minister in Borgen to viewers familiar with the Danish TV series (I'm not). Here she plays a single mother with a sharp-tongued 17-year-old daughter who buts in on one of judge and juror's rare coffee breaks and attempts to suss out their relationship.

Its emphases as distant from formulaic courtroom drama as you can get, COURTED unfolds with pointed anecdotal detail in the course of a felony trial for the death of a seven-month old girl. The notoriously uncooperative father has been accused of having kicked her to death, a charge which he vehemently denies. Tragedy and comedy go hand in hand. Facts and contradictions emerge--but in both situations, the trial and the not-quite romance, is the full truth ever known? Whether the combat boots the defendant wears throughout the trial are relevant to the charge is never determined. The film's great strengths lie in its nimble script whose subtle observation of human interactions contrasts with the formality of courtroom procedure, and superb performances by both professional and non-professional actors. Winner of Best Screenplay and Best Actor at Venice Biennale this year. Film stills courtesy Tribeca Film Festival.

Liza Bear is a member of the James Agee Cinema Circle. Check out her other videos and interviews on her Youtube channel, nothingofficial, HERE

Saturday, April 9, 2016

PAUL ROBESON

Today in History, Paul Robeson Was Born - Which of These 3 Announced Films on His Life Will Be Made First?



Photo of Tambay A. ObensonBy Tambay A. Obenson | Shadow and ActApril 9, 2016 at 12:11PM
 
 
Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
On this day in history, April 9, 1898, Paul Robeson was born in Princeton, NJ. He would've been 118 years old this year were he still alive (he died in 1976). Sidney Poitier gets much of the ink, so to speak, and rightfully so, but Robeson laid the groundwork, coming more than 2 decades before Poitier starred in his first feature film ("No Way Out" in 1950). Robeson made his big screen debut appearance in a film directed by another of cinema's historical treasures, Oscar Micheaux's "Body and Soul" in 1925. In fact, Robeson's film acting career pretty much ended in the late 1940s (the fact that he was blacklisted and isolate politically by the House Un-American Activities Committee certainly didn't help) before Poitier ever stepped in front of a film camera, with around 12 credits on his resume - his performance in "The Emperor Jones" in 1933 likely his crowning achievement; on film anyway.
One key opportunity (among many) that was missed which may not be widely-known (and given some of our recent conversations on this blog about films on anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection) is that Robeson was reportedly to star in a film on Toussaint-Louverture, which was to be made in the 1930s, with Soviet-era directing legend Sergei Eisenstein attached to helm. It obviously never happened.
But Robeson wasn't just a film actor. He also had a successful stage career, was a singer and activist. But those are a mere words that simply can't fully capture the dynamic human being and incredible presence that he was.
And with all the apparent interest in biopics on black public figures (see my most recent list here), I'd say that a Paul Robeson biopic is long overdue, given the man and his accomplishments - frankly, far more-so than many of the biopics we've seen in recent years.
As of this posting, we are aware of 3 previously announced films on the life of Robeson, although it's not clear where each one stands today - whether they're still alive and in development, shelved for good, or in Limbo.
The first: Announced in 2012, Michael Jai White said during an interview while doing press for a documentary ("Generation Iron") he was involved in, that he intended to bring the life story of Robeson to the big screen, playing Robeson himself. He lamented the fact that Robeson's legacy seemed to have been forgotten, and argued that he hasn't been given the proper recognition he deserves, given what he accomplished, calling him a personal as well as a national hero. White insisted that he is/was the person to play Robeson, adding that it was a part that he could definitely do justice to. He went on to say that the project was in the works, and that it was a personal quest for him to see that it got made. That was almost 4 years ago; no word on whether it's still a passion project for him at this point.
The second: Announced in 2013, British actor David Harewood was attached to play Robeson in what was said to be more of an indie production, with Sydney Tamiia Poitier (daughter of Sidney Poitier) as Paul Robeson’s wife, Eslanda ("Essie") Goode Robeson. South African director Darrell Roodt ("Winnie") was initially attached to helm. Months later, Vondie Curtis-Hall reportedly took over, replacing Roodt in the director's chair. The project hailed from Four Stars International, and was to be produced by Greg Carter, and executive produced by Richard Akel, with a script penned by Akel and Terry Bisson, with promises of a film that's worthy of its subject. Also of note, Louis Gossett Jr. was to portray W.E.B. Du Bois in the film which was expected to be a traditional biopic, showing Robeson's rise (along with his wife, who was also his business manager) into his 60s. The goal was to shoot the film in August of 2013, in Toronto and Montreal; but it doesn't appear that photography actually happened, or if the project is even still in the works. It's not listed on any of the above names' IMDB pages.
And the third: Announced in 2014, Steve McQueen revealed, via the Guardian(UK), that he was planning to direct a feature film based on the life of Robeson, saying that it would indeed be his next feature directorial effort after "12 Years a Slave." It wasn't clear to me whether McQueen's project was something entirely new, or if he was in fact taking over the existing project that his fellow Brit, David Harewood, was already attached to star in. According to the Guardian piece, directing a film on Robeson was McQueen's dream project: "His life and legacy was the film I wanted to make the second after Hunger [...]  But I didn’t have the power, I didn’t have the juice," McQueen said. With an Oscar-winning film on his resume, and the attention of the film world, he certainly had "the juice" after "12 Years." But 2 years later, it's not clear whether it's still a dream project for him. Harry Belafonte is involved in the project, although we don't yet know in what capacity exactly. I'd guess as a producer/consultant, given that Belafonte and Robeson were pals. McQueen added: "We’re very fortunate that we’re on a roll together to make this dream a reality. Miracles do happen. With Paul Robeson and Harry Belafonte, things have come full circle." He didn't share what actors he may have been eyeing for the part. But assuming it's still a project in the works, but is just taking some time to come together (as is often the case in the business of movie-making), depending on when the film is released, and given that it would very likely be high-profile enough, it could very well be another Steve McQueen film that will find itself in Awards season conversations, for whatever year that is.
Given the long life that he lived, the events he lived through, the other historically-significant public figures he knew, interacted and worked with (like Oscar Micheaux), his on-screen and off-screen accomplishments, his activism that would lead to his black-listing, and so much more, there's a lot of great history here in this one, single life. And a big screen account of that life is one that's definitely warranted. Or maybe a miniseries, his story unfolding over several episodes, that one of the premium cable TV networks picks up, so that we get a more comprehensive portrait of the man and his life, instead of squeezing it all into a 2-hour feature film.
Which project will get to the finish line first is anyone's guess. I imagine that there's a matter of life rights to be considered here, with the Robeson Estate controlling them. So there could be some behind-the-scenes conflicts that may not have been made public yet. We'll certainly find out soon enough.
But no matter; I'm just encouraged that there's actual new interest in bringing Robeson's life to the screen.
In the meantime, one of my favorite clips of the renaissance man; dateline 1959, talking Shakespeare (he portrayed Othello early in his career - 1943). It's a rare treat to find footage of Paul Robeson as Paul Robeson. 

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Moonwalkers: Tarantino On Acid Subversive Sixties Stoner Satire




Moonwalkers may be a sixties cold war comedy about US media machinations to make it to the moon first, but its combo ballsy big screen intersection of politics, publicity and propaganda couldn't be more provocatively in the here and now. As a competitive moon landing operation in heated rivalry with the Soviet Union back then shrewdly bids to even out the odd over at the Pentagon, by substituting for perseverance the predetermined, conveniently scripted scenario skills over in Hollywood.

A psychedelically laden satirical banquet bashing a discredited US media as manipulative when it comes to fact versus fantasy as the storytelling machinations on any movie set, Moonwalkers opts for a hand wringing CIA in stealthy ops mode. And bent on tapping already spaced out on screen director Stanley Kubrick to stage an Apollo 11 makeshift moon landing well, just in case. Reluctantly called to duty for this daffy quest is PTSD damaged Viet vet CIA operative Kidman (Ron Perlman), who has massive anger mismanagement fantasy issues of his own, inside his perpetually restaged Nam freakout flashback head.

Which lands the seriously disoriented Kidman in the UK packing a suitcase full of CIA secretive cash in a search for the elusive Kubrick. And pursuing in the course of an extensive menu of period detail mindblowing mishaps, an array of individuals none of whom are the directing legend but claim they could be. Chiefly among them is failed rock musician Jonny (Rupert Grint) - more Harry Pothead here than anything else. And who may not be Kubrick, but is motivated enough by the money to possibly conjure a marijuana fueled make believe moon landing anyway. 

Move over millennials, who may be too out of touch with the sixties stoners thing you wouldn't understand. But just how far we've come a long way baby, from truth in movies and the media if there ever really was any, couldn't be more subversively served up in Moonwalkers - whether high on controlled substances for the duration or not.

Prairie Miller
Critical Women On Film

Liza Bear: Best Films, Released And Unreleased In The US

            Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

--Court
--Timbuktu
--Taxi
--Mustang
--The New Girl-Friend
--The Assassin
--Spotlight
--Carol
--Going Clear
--The Connection

 --Sworn Virgin
--Stranger in Canton
--The Measure of Man
--Mia Madre
--Human Capital
--Treasure
--Arabian NIghts
--Peace Tolls in Our Dreams
--No Home Movie
--Listen to Me Marlon

Liza Bear
Bomb Magazine