Secrets, Life, Prison, Voting

Secrecy is a movie about the US Government’s secrecy programs.  It costs almost 8 billion dollars to keep the secrets secret.  That seems like a decent place to do some deficit reduction, but that’s just me.  Movies like this make me hate the government.  I can’t even say much about it, because it just makes me crazy that the government will keep things hidden rather than admit things.  Even worse is when they say something is classified for security reasons and then it comes to light that it was just to hide their mistake. BLARG!

Up Syndrome is the story of two kids who grew up as best friends, and are now adults.  One of them is a man with Down Syndrome.  I am always afraid to start movies like this, because so often the person with the disability is treated like they aren’t a real person, but just their disability.  Instead, the director of the movie (who is the best friend) treats him like he is just another guy, making fun of him, teasing him, talking about women, doing all the things that guys do together.  The movie isn’t set up to exploit this man, but instead is just an honest account of their friendship.  You can sense the love that these two men have for each other, and while the movie drags a bit in places, it is a respectful portrayal of the life of a young man with Down’s syndrome and his relationships.  It is the coming of age story of a young man, graduating school, trying to find a job, enjoying time with friends, girlfriend dumping him; he just happens to have a disability.  I am impressed with how the documentarian did such a good job of making him into the guy next door, and his Down’s Syndrome is a piece of his life not the whole of it.  I think the most touching part of the movie is when Rene, the subject of the movie, is given the chance to drive for the first time, and he just laughs the whole time so clearly enjoying himself.  Rene’s dream was to be a cop, and so he is driving around this totally empty area and the director says “Look at you, crusin’ like a cop”, and the smile on his face is so amazing.  On a personal note.  I miss you Roy, Brandon and Carlos. 

Deadline is a story about the death penalty, using the Governor of  Illinois deciding to abolish the practice in his state as the start of the story.  It isn’t really an anti-capital punishment movie, but more about how it should be used more sparingly. Seriously, how did we elect George W?  There were more executions in Texas in five years (1995-2000) than there were in the entire United States from 1976-2000 (143). 

So Goes The Nation is a discussion of the ways that Ohio is an important state during Presidential elections.  The movie follows both sides during the 2008 election.  It’s a lot of blah blah politics blah blah.  It also shows how underhanded both sides are.  I should stop watching movies about the government, because right now I am getting annoyed.  Also, I get that you have to accept volunteers, whomever shows up, but the Democrats need to get more people that aren’t so freaky looking or socially awkward.  Wow, a Republican strategist just said they target the elite to get them to come to vote for Bush, and then those people will tell the people under them who to vote for.  Yep, Obama is the elitist! You know, it is so sad to me to watch young people screaming horrible things to each other, over a presidential election.  Something they really have no control over. I’m watching this movie like I don’t know who is gonna win. Seriously, I’m getting all excited that Kerry is ahead, and then I remember he didn’t win.

Death, Horse, Death, the Devil, and a CRAZY person

A Family Undertaking is a movie about home burials and taking care of our dead loved ones at home.  This movie is incredible.  I think that one man whose wife had just died and they were taking care of her at home summed it up the best, that having her in the home after she died was more helpful for the family to see that she was truly gone.  Another woman who lost her seven year old daughter in a car accident was talking about how her two sons were in the car when the accident happened, and after she felt that if her daughter’s body would have been taken to a funeral home, the boys would never have gotten the opportunity to understand and see that their sister had died.  Great movie, I highly recommend.  It’s making me want to go take the $465 course to become a home death practitioner. 

HeroinTown is a movie about a news story.  60 Minutes came and did a story about this small town and it’s horrible heroin problem.  This movie is in response to the 60 Min story, and yet it is really poorly done. It’s like they gave a camera to someone and said
“here, make a movie” and he did.  Not worth watching, didn’t keep my interest, I was ready for it to be done after 15 minutes, and then it kept going for another hour and seven minutes. It does make me a little melancholy for the Curben. 

Right To Exit is a movie about Dr. Kevorkian’s legal battle and time in prison.  He was a fascinating man, played the flute, spoke five languages, incredibly intelligent.  Good movie, I had just seen all the info before.

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.  Lee Atwater was a Republican campaign manager who worked for many, many candidates, and was the guy who came up with many of the dirty tricks that the Republicans use still.  He seems like the kind of person I have no respect for, he didn’t actually believe in the Republicans ideals, he just did it to make a name for himself.  He is Karl Rove’s mentor.  He used a opponents mental health history and said that he had been “hooked up to jumper cables”.   He was the architect of the “Willie Horton” ads, and changed the face of politics to this day.  Interesting movie, very well done.

Alive! Is Michael Jackson Really Dead?  This is a crazy movie.  I enjoy conspiracies, but this one is silly.  Things like the fact that the autopsy has the name “Michael Joseph Jackson” but his name is really “Michael Joe Jackson”.  Seriously.  This movie is messed up, with no real details but just questions and things like “Elvis lived in Graceland, MJ lived at Neverland”.  Seriously, crazy! She is adding meaning to his dancing, like making it into sign language. HA! Ok, she just used the Weekly World News as a source.  This movie is BS!

Pot, Pimp, Passing on

Square Grouper is a movie about the South Florida pot trade, focusing on three stories of groups of people that were caught smuggling.  It gets to the point where you have seen one of these drug smuggling movies, you have seen them all! Not really all that interesting, but filled some time.

Katt Williams: Nine Lives is a back stage look at Katt Williams, that he didn’t seem to be involved in the making of.  It ha some good interviews with people, but it seems to be light on facts, it’s kinda like a behind the music without the musicians. J  I think Katt Williams is one of the best comedians to come out of the US in the past 20 years, and this movie really didn’t give me any more information than I had before I watched it.  It did make me laugh though.

Frontline: Facing Death is a very well done look at people facing end of life decisions, and the difficulty that surrounds making those choices.  Frontline always does a good job of presenting an even story on hard issues.  This is a well done film, and the families that they profiled were very strong when facing hard choices.  I know that it would be difficult for people to say yes, it’s time to take them off the machine, but people should really think about that more.  When your mother is old, has Alzheimer’s and is on a ventilator, she doesn’t want you to give her a tracheotomy.  Trust me. 

God, Iraq, Coffee and Jail

You know how sometimes, you have no motivation to do anything, even something as simple as finding and watching documentaries? Ok, well that is my life this last week.  I watched a lot of The Event, and the Daily Show, and Law and Order. 

A few docs made it; Selling God which is a funny and smart look at how churches use marketing tactics to get more people into the pews.  It is clearly biased against evangelicals, so you know I enjoyed it. :D

Iraqi’s Hired Guns is a NatGeo doc about Iraq.  Nat Geo loves Iraq! It’s your typical Iraq movie, talking about contractors working in Iraq.  It is a little odd to me how this show explains in decent detail how to make an IED called an EFP Explosive Formed Penetrator.  Thanks NatGeo!   

Hot Coffee is a great movie about the civil judicial process and how the media uses half-truths to convince people that capping civil judgments and having strict Tort Reform is the way to go, when it really harms people.  This movie made me a little sick, because for example, the woman who spilled McDonald’s coffee on herself, that was the butt of many jokes about frivolous lawsuits…that woman had third degree burns all over her inner thighs from the coffee.  She had to have skin grafts, and only sued after McDonalds refused to pay for her medical expenses.  Great movie. (this is available on HBO but not Netflix, so sue me).

Next up is After Innocence about people who were convicted of crimes and then exonerated after DNA evidence was tested.  Some of these guys were exonerated, but their records weren’t expunged and so they still have to say they were convicted of a crime, even though they were released because there was evidence they didn’t commit the crime.  That’s messed up. Holy crap, the guys who are released are given no services like parolees get.  Just the money in their accounts and their property.  Messed. Up. You know, I just keep watching movies about how embarrassed Americans should be.  Seriously.