Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 163
October 17, 2014
Department of Weekend Reading: October 17, 2014
And now the protests come even to Plaza Frontenac.
Pushing black voters to go Republican in St. Louis.
If the CDC’s budget hadn’t been cut in half since 2006, we might have an Ebola vaccine by now.
Signs of real-world openness, and reactionary backlash, at the Vatican synod.
The gentrification of the humble dosaand inconvenience as a indulgence of the rich.
It’s not good enough to just jog anymore, the truly fitmust now train as if for the apocalypse.
The abandoned mall in Kurdistan where Iraqi Chr...
October 14, 2014
Now Playing: ‘The Overnighters’ Shows the Dark Underbelly of the Oil Boom
A church becomes a sanctuary in ‘The Overnighters’ (Drafthouse Films)
The oil boom in the Bakken shale ofNorth Dakota has had a broader effect than just the local economy. Because of the Wild West boomtown pressures, rents have skyrocketed in the small prairie towns nearest the fields, leading to homelessness among the many workers flooding here from around the country. A fascinating new documentary about one town describes the struggles between a Lutheran minister who opens his church to thos...
October 11, 2014
Now Playing: ‘The Judge’
Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall in ‘The Judge’ (Warner Bros.)
InThe Judge—aka the movie that most people will assume was based on a John Grisham novel but wasn’t—Robert Downey Jr. plays one of those smart-ass big-city lawyers who has to finally use his sleazy skills for good when he is forced to defend his father (Robert Duvall) on a murder charge.
The Judgeis playing now in wide release. My review is at PopMatters:
The Judge offers little that feels like an original movie. It has actors and...
October 10, 2014
Department of Weekend Reading: October 10, 2014
Ferguson racial tension stubborn and deeply rooted.
The disunited state of Missour-ah.
As of this week, for the first time most Americans live in a state with marriage equality.
Mission creep, again; also, Syria could be to Barry as Vietnam was to LBJ.
Back in 1976, Henry Kissinger seriously considered bombing Cuba.
How the U.S. government negotiates for your release if you are kidnapped by terrorists.
Hmmm, maybe we shouldn’t have given awaybillions.
No more smokes on base.
Matching cardigans and ot...
October 9, 2014
New in Theaters: In ‘Evolution of a Criminal’ the Director Tells How He Became a Bank Robber
Bad decisions in ‘Evolution of a Criminal’ (Independent Lens)
Darius Clarke Monroe was a straight-A student froma tight-knit familyin Houston; the last kid anybody would have picked to become a criminal. But nevertheless, he and two friends left high school one day to rob a bank.Evolution of a Criminal is Monroe’s confident, morally astute documentary about what led up to and followed that life-changing decision.
Evolution of a Criminal is opening this week in very limited release and will be b...
October 7, 2014
Now Playing: ‘Bird People’ Perches Between Rapture and Oblivion
Anaïs Demoustier and friends in ‘Bird People’ (Sundance Selects)
Two people, one hotel next to an airport, an atmosphere of rootlessness, a little bit of magic, and lots of sparrows. Those are the ingredients of Pascale Ferran’s gorgeously odd Bird People, which has almost everything going for it but a story. Plus Bowie.
Bird Peopleis playing in very limited release now and deserves to be sought out. My review is at PopMatters:
Airports are all about promise. Springboards to the great elsewhere,...
October 5, 2014
Reader’s Corner: Banned Books
We’re a week late on this, but in case you hadn’t heard, Sept. 21–27 was Banned Books Week. Below isthe current list of the 10most frequently challenged books in school libraries.Some of them make a certain sense (50 Shades of Grey, for instance), butBone?
Captain Underpants (series), by Dav PilkeyReasons: Offensive language, unsuited for age group, violence
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, violence
The Absolutely True Diary o...
October 3, 2014
Department of Weekend Reading: October 3, 2014
The CIA Starbucks, just like all the others, except no names on cups.
The great bourbon barrel-aged beers of Chicago.
When is it good for a city to be boring?
The point at which street art becomes racistgraffiti, or not.
How technology of almost any kind helps make us just a little bit stupider.
Mittens, still buying houses.
Each prisoner at Guantanamo costs about $3 million per year (versus $78,000 a year in U.S. Supermax prison).
Bill O’Reilly’s global mercenary army; what could go wrong?
The many...
New in Theaters: ‘Last Hijack’ Gets Inside the Mind of a Somali Pirate
‘Last Hijack': Let’s steal a ship. (The Match Factory)
In the latest take on the Somali pirate phenomenon,Last Hijackcomes from a more innovative direction. It mixeson-the-ground documentary footage of Mohamed, the pirate captain who’s pushing for another escapade even as his parents and new wife beg him not, with imaginative animated segments that portray his roiling internal strife and traumatic memories of war.
Last Hijack opens today in limited release after playing a number of film festiva...
October 2, 2014
New in Theaters: ‘Harmontown’ Goes Deep Nerd
Dan Harmon gets angry on ‘Harmontown’ (The Orchard)
In between crafting one of the modern era’s great meta-TV-sitcom gems (Community) and self-destructing on social media, Dan Harmon hosts a weekly podcast that usually starts in drunken tomfoolery and ends with an even more drunken round of Dungeons & Dragons.
The documentary about that highly nerd-centric podcast,Harmontown, has been playing various festival dates and opens nextFridayin limited release.
My review is atFilm Journal International...
