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motenswing
Reviews
Owned: A Tale of Two Americas (2018)
It a lot.
Disappointed with this especially after the great work of Giorgio Angelini on "Feels Good Man", which was an amazing, deft presentation of narrative of an immense amount of detail. Here, the octopus, many faceted of the topic seems to overwhelm Angelini. His attempt to connect the beginning/end of the film, which is a personal life/worldview comparison, with the middle "facts/history" portion is embarrassingly amateurish. His has said in interviews his goal was to have the film connect emotionally. Who was the intended audience here? What pandering would reach anyone not living in a cave. Comparing a retired cop from Levittown gathering with friends for a meatball lunch with that of lame diversity session that attempts to surprise the audience with the unveiling of a convicted felon to be an educated, "articulate, black person" is the inch deep, inch wide stuff of a sheltered novice. Too, bad. The middle portion's presentation of the subject's history is the most successful and shows Angelini's promise as a filmmaker, but it's still overly ambitious in attempting to portray the intended scope of its topic in less than 90 minutes. Angelini's ability to keenly edit the many interviews into the narrative that keeps it from otherwise feeling slapdash and scattered. Hopefully it affords him more deserved opportunities, which include episodic ones.