Reviews

BoJack Horseman is has-been celebrity whose moment of fame has passed, but he's gotten the idea of maybe reviving his career or even his stalled life. This series is the crazed reflection of a lost soul, or maybe a city ("Hollywoo") of lost souls; can you relate to the concept? It's hilarious but it's also touching, and as messy as complicated as life itself. The first season intrigued me, and subsequent seasons have varied in quality. But the fifth season is something eerily reminiscent of genius.

This documentary lays out the hard facts, and it should disturb all Americans who believe in freedom of speech. The "Path to 9/11" docudrama was suppressed by political censorship. This is on the record. Prominent Senators wrote to ABC and threatened the "review" their broadcast license. Mainstream Democrats jumped on whatever platforms they could and demanded the series not be run. It ended up being cut until the Clintons were satisfied. ABC forfeited the sponsors, and then ran it a single time, and never again, and a DVD was never released. Isn't this all just a little bit weird? Can you imagine George Bush demanding that a movie company change its portrayal of him? Do you think anyone in Hollywood would listen to him if he tried it? This is naked American political censorship, and we've let it happen with nary a word of protest.

To be clear, "Path to 9/11" was NOT intended as a hit piece against the Clintons. It was also, contrary to claims made by Democrats, very well documented and vetted. It pointed out problems in both the Clinton and Bush administrations. They production team was not particularly "conservative", and in fact they were of the opinion that the political fallout would be a big embarrassment to George Bush (since Clinton was out of office and out of focus, whereas Bush was on the job and could be damaged). And ABC is not a producer of conservative propaganda.

The vital warning of "Path to 9/11" was that political considerations caused America to turn a blind eye to a real military threat. So there's a terrible irony in political considerations causing America to suppress the warning that political considerations made us vulnerable to 9/11 in the first place.

I guess I'm "conservative" (whatever that is), but I'm not into "political" movies. And Michael Moore is a jackass, but I'd rather ignore him than bash him. With the small distribution and poor reviews, I wasn't expecting much from "An America Carol". I was surprised how much I liked it.

This is a modern re-working of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", except with the Christmas-hating Scrooge replaced by a Fourth-of-July-hating Michael Moore-type character. It's a mix of cheap gags (mostly at the expense of the loony Left) and high wit. But the main thing that makes the film work is that they made Michael Moore into a sympathetic character. That is, we (the audience) actually like him. His crazy odyssey through time and space becomes good-hearted and funny. It's a human comedy first, and the politics are second. Sure, the hard Left people will sputter to see their sacred cows barbecued (like the ACLU lawyers portrayed as "Night of the Living Dead" zombies). But unless that sort of thing completely turns you away, it's a pretty funny movie. Especially if you remember a few scenes from any of the various "Christmas Carol" films so you'll appreciate the structure of the parody.

Let me clarify that. This is the worst film ever made that isn't in the category of being so bad it's good. It falls into the class of execrable films that you don't want to see. Trust me on this, or you'll be very sorry later.

I saw "Caligula" in its theatrical release in 1979. Coming off the high of the superb BBC mini-series, "I, Claudius", I thought "Caligula" might be in the same spirit. What a horrific mistake! "Caligula" was entirely lacking in dramatic merit. There's no dramatic progress, there's no lesson, there are no surprises, there's nothing except base depravity in scene after scene after scene. And the scenes that aren't disgusting are boring. The titular Caligula is a reptile at the beginning, and he's the identical reptile at the end. He lives, he stinks, he dies. The end.

I'll close by noting that, as far as I know, this is the only film the erudite Roger Ebert summed up by invoking the word "sh**". You can find his review by searching at his website, RogerEbert dot com.

I just came home from seeing this film. I was prepared to like it. I've got only good things to say about "Magnolia" and "Short Cuts", and I'll also speak well of "Thirteen Conversations About One Thing". But this one turned me away, and for this reason: It wasn't about characters; it was driven by its theme and its "message". Thus it became bombastic and heavy-handed. It did a nice job capturing the racial posturing and racial politics that are so endemic in our modern culture, but that sort of exposé makes for lousy drama. Where I was supposed to feel the anguish of the characters in my gut, instead I felt the manipulative hand of the writer/director on my shoulder. I'm not saying the film was terrible, but it simply failed to reach me. I salute the effort, but I can't recommend it.

I just want to note that it *is* possible to offer social commentary without pulling the rug out from under your characters. For example, I loved "The Incredibles", which managed to struggle with issues of individuality and a couple of other timely topics, and nevertheless succeeded dramatically. But you came away from "The Incredibles" thinking about the characters and not its deep relevance.