The institutional racism weighs over nearly every scene with the Jackson family. Pappy’s overt disdain is a seething caricature (not unrealistic, just BIG) who, if he were the only type of racist in the film, would let the white audience feel the dismissive superiority of “Look how far we’ve come from THAT.” But Henry’s character is almost worse - the veneer of a reasonable man, someone who’s just doing what’s best for business, not even realizing his privilege, sense of…
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A Futile and Stupid Gesture 2018
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
So many clever decisions here, starting with the biggest: Old Man Doug Kenney. I will forever be jealous of Mike or John [screenwriters] or whoever came up with that device. I didn’t know Doug Kenney’s story when I read their script, so I was blindsided by it. I feel like there was even more of him in the script draft I read, and I missed that in the final cut. You had come to know that character so well, it…
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No Crossover: The Trial of Allen Iverson 2010
There's a moment toward the end of this doc, a few minutes of home video of Allen Iverson getting his high school diploma (or equivalent - unspecified, doesn't really matter in this context). And he's smiling, and he's happy, and he's done good, and he knows it, and he's with people he knows he can trust to love him, and he's unguarded, and he's a kid, and that's everything and the universe in grainy VHS footage right there, isn't it?
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Young At Heart 2007
Cutesy music videos and “Look how cheeky these oldsters are!” interviews have their charms, but nothing genuinely affects like rolling cameras on magic and getting the hell out of the way. This doc got to me twice: the prison concert and Fred’s concert take on “Fix You.” On the former, excellent editing call to put the weight on prisoners’ faces, not the singers’. Predominantly young men who are clearly missing something are presented with seniors who have found something, and…
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