Movie Reviews
(This review was originally published on July 20, 2012 at Reel Film News.) We all know what goes into recruiting our Olympic athletes here in the US; it’s not so much recruitment as it is being the best at what you do and getting noticed for it. In China, it seems that for the sport […]
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(This review was originally published on July 13, 2012 at Reel Film News) Pawns in the politics of Major League Baseball and their scouting protocol in the Dominican Republic – an island making up almost 20% of the professional talent that populate the fields of America’s favorite sporting pastime – are two sixteen-year-old prospects hoping for the payday promised by a phone call that comes on the sacred 2nd […]
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(This review was originally published on July 6, 2012 at Reel Film News.) In 2008 in the sunny climes of the Dominican Republic, two young men – Miguel Angel Sanó and Jean Carlos Batista – are being developed into star baseball players to be courted by Major League Baseball teams. These two have been playing […]
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(This review was originally published on June 29, 2012 at Reel Film News.) When we were children, we all dreamed and wished that one day, our stuffed animals or dolls would be able to talk and actually interact with us. More often than not, we would say, “Oh, ____ (insert object of childhood desire here), […]
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(This review was originally published on June 22, 2012 at Reel Film News.) The first time I heard of a phenomenon called NIMBY – “Not In My Back Yard!” – was in a routine delivered by one of my personal heroes, George Carlin, at Comic Relief ’90. The Comic Relief charity and concerts were put […]
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(This review was originally published on June 22, 2012 at Reel Film News) Though maybe not the most well-executed documentary I’ve ever seen, “Cape Spin: An American Power Struggle” could be the most unbiased political account in recent memory. Directors Robbie Gemmel and John Kirby compile footage from a decade-old controversy surrounding Jim Gordon’s Cape […]
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(This review was originally published on June 4, 2012 at Reel Film News) Laced with incongruous humor, “U.N. Me”, just like its title, should have been much better. As a documentary tallying the transgressions of the United Nations specifically over the last two decades – from Rwanda to Darfur – there’s something unnerving about its […]
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(This review was originally published on May 31, 2012 at Reel Film News) “Take This Waltz” is an awkwardly paced romantic drama that puts its stock in aesthetics rather than dynamics. A mundane story spiked with character-defining eccentricities, its plot progression is manic but without much substance.
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Tearing into a media culture that caters to society’s lowest common denominator, writer/director Bobcat Goldthwait’s “God Bless America” lashes out at reality TV, YouTube and the country’s shrinking sense of human decency. While some memorably shocking moments are slightly diminished by a clichéd final act, the film is wholly unapologetic – a brutal social commentary that might […]
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