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thegentle0
Reviews
Jungletown (2017)
Clearly underrated on here
This is a hybrid doc/reality series. Yes, it features a lot of characters that are flawed and immature, but it is highly entertaining, pretty self-aware and unforgiving. If you liked "Naked and Afraid", you'll like this - there's a sort of Robinson Crusoe feel to it.
All the problematic things - privilege, lack of awareness, greed, conflict of interest, purity spirals - are discussed in the series. It's a great take on idealism clashing with reality; the portrayal of local Campesinos is quite fair although they just play small side roles and their lives aren't well fleshed out. Still, there's a lot more that could have been poorly portrayed about this challenging subject. I recommend you watch at least 3 episodes before making up your mind.
Prepare for lots of cringe and a good portion of self-reflection. And for wanderlust, if you like warm rain.
100 Humans (2020)
Poorly designed
Look, there's so many great ways to make psychology interesting. There's so many good movies on legitimate experiments.
But this series takes actors and says they're a representation of the United States, then uses three really lame and over-acty hosts pretending to be scientists, and then takes a bunch of poorly designed experiments that fail nearly in every regard on grounds of confounding variables - and then tell us that this is good reality TV? Please, I'll go back to "Naked and Afraid", or even "Millionaire Matchmaker" and learn 10x more about the human condition than on this fake simmering pile of pretend-psychology.
La otra conquista (1998)
Clash of cultures, gives good psychological insight
The film's theme and psychological quest to search for the true mother is a very interesting idea. Production value wise, I was impressed by how many original locations were used on a limited budget; especially the temple in the middle of Mexico D.F. sounds too impossible to get access to. I like that Carrasco fought for the picture to get made, and you can feel that during the film; it has heart and is sensitive.
You will enjoy this movie if you like the battle between superior powers and indigenous tribes - not in a fighting manner, but on the psychological level where it is all about indoctrination and mind control. A good piece for everyone interested in Mexican identity...
La battaglia di Algeri (1966)
Totally fascinating struggle for independence, a very raw film
This film is truly striking; it has the feel of an epos told inside a ghettoized district; the French as well as the Algerians are given their fair share of voice and sympathy, and you really don't know who to root for, unless you have a preference for the underdog or colonizer; both parties have their good reasons in this fight, both use dirty tricks and have a certain honor code and dignity towards each other. The film totally resembles Italian Neorealism with a war backdrop that becomes its own character.
The film really calls out your passion when you are viewing it and sucks you in; the writing is brilliantly realistic, the characters bold and diverse. A near-perfect film about guerrilla warfare and a god lesson for peace activists and extremists alike... it's one of the films where it's really up to the audience to give it a meaning and message.
Los olvidados (1950)
A lovely and sad story about adolescence
This film can disturb you on the inside. You see terrible things happening, but the film acts like an innocent child that does not know what right and wrong is, it just stands there, observing (while an older man without legs has to drag himself after his cart, after the antagonist of the film takes it away from him ... things like that happen constantly).
I felt very bad for the children that grow up in such an environment, and even if the story is fictional, these kind of children are very likely to exist in a slightly different form. It's one of these films where you constantly know that whatever good happens, it's going to get destroyed the next moment, and still you keep your hopes up until the end.
The film is a very realistic depiction of an early Mexico, and a great tool to wake people up and show them: Look, there is people out there who need the help of a government - do something about it. It's an emotional trip.
Once Were Warriors (1994)
Amazing film about a peoples nobody cares about
This film will shake you. Shake you with its really skillful and precise use of violence, with its tough plot and even tougher characters, and with its depth and range of the Maori culture, that you probably meet for the first time on this distance unless you are a cultural anthropologist. It shows you possible solutions to suppressed modern native people's problems (gambling, drinking, drugs), namely education and tradition. The film's rough emotional curves that zig-zag you on your ride are a greatt representation of how the lives of these people can take sharp turns from one day to the other.
The directing is really well done, and the cast fits very well together. I really liked the film's internal judgemend of justice, and was perplexed by its depth of story, even if it happens just in a small community close to a freeway.