Media Boy Reviews

Idiocracy (2006)

If Office Space was Kane is this Ambersons?

[9/10 · 5 November 2006]

Idiocracy screened in Minneapolis last night at midnight. One show only, and the only press about the showing was fairly negative reprints of other towns reviews. Still, well over a hundred people showed up and seemed to throughly enjoy the movie.

I have to say this is not Mike Judge's best work but it is clearly visionary and remarkably interesting to watch. The jokes that are built into the scenery stack up and multiply as the film goes on. Wilson's performance was quite good and I have to say this is the first time I liked Maya Rudolph. Some of the plot turns in the third act seem kind of canned, but less so than 80 percent of current Hollywood comedy.

It is easy to understand why Fox is killing this film softly. This is one of the most subversive movies to be released in recent years. I won't repeat a lot of the jokes you have read about regarding what has happened to Starbucks, Fudruckers and FoxNews, but they can't be happy. For me Judge's damnation is pointed towards what happens when branding and advertising become too close to the identity of the individual citizen (as opposed to consumer).

In the end the film just seems over finished. It looked like lawyers were in the editing booth and dictating the voice over narration. Someday in the future we might get to see a director's cut, but I wouldn't hold my breath. We can celebrate the announcement that Judge will no longer make movies where he doesn't have final cut.

One + One (1968)

A Primer on Recording

[31 May 2002]

Sure, there are lots of reviews that concentrate on the sections that revolve around the African - Euopeans and Americans that interrupt the recroding session or the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil. But, this is just a small part of an amazing and beautiful record of a process that created a song that will last for generations.

Watching the rhythm section work out the song, Mick working out the lyrics, Keith conducting the whole thing, Brian Jones playing remarkable keyboards, reminds us of the process of production. It took time. It took failures and it became an amazing song.

Besides that, the film is so beautifully shot is looks like it came out of an 21st century design magazine.

And please don't ignore the digressions. It is (in my humble opinion) about the appropreation of black culture by whites and white culture by blacks. An interesting diversion when you think about 1968 and Europe and the Americas. We all switch and use and sometimes it makes beautiful music.

This is an important film that should be seen by anyone going into a studio to record a song that will be remebered forever.

• I Am Media Boy.

As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty (2000)

Not filmmaking, but filming

[10/10 · 19 December 2001]

No plot, no story, no tension, no conflict, no irony, no dialog, often out of focus, jittery and nearly 5 hours long. All this and it is one of the greatest documentaries I have ever seen. A stunningly positive and beautiful film that is just about the happiness and joy of family, New York City, country getaways and filming. This is such a compelling work, it did not even seem that long. This is the work of a man at peace with his own happiness. We should all be so lucky.

Public Housing (1997)

Direct

[8/10 · 27 June 2000]

If you want to know the difference between COPS and real documentary, this is a good place to go. The difference between the hyped and emotionalized and what might actually be real. While the complete absence of the photographed acknowledging the photographer is a little drenched in the old school ways, this is great film making.