If Paris Not Fun

If Paris Not Fun, If Paris Downcast 2018

If Paris Is Not Fun Around the love story between Yue Zhu (Truong Han) and Nguyen Man Quan (Hieu Thanh Tu). He is a successful young entrepreneur going to receive the admiration, women followed long queue. She is a good lawyer and a strong, deep woman who does not fall easily. A person with a liberal personality, not afraid of anything in this world. One who always wants to protect himself and others around him is in love with each other. Imagine they are two opposing extremes, but they create a touching love story. Before meeting Dong Zhuo Yao, Nguyen Man Quan encountered the biggest event in his life. To help her ex-boyfriend get rid of a financial case, the man fake the papers, but she also finds herself in jail and is unable to work as a lawyer.

Staying in prison is still a heart toward her boyfriend she is waiting for each day free to return to find her love. But the end result, when Tse Yao was released is also his boyfriend married another girl. The soldier seemed to have lost everything, so much so that there was nothing left. And at that moment she accidentally encountered Yue Zhuo, who pulled her from the mire. Nguyen Man Quan tried his best not to stop him from becoming a voice actor in the company. But then, she wanted to return to work as a lawyer as before, not because she missed the job so much that she could not quit, but because she wanted to pursue Yao Yuzu Peach.
But their love is too many obstacles, the Army has always felt guilty about his past, while Trieu Yao has many "good reputation far away" about the lack of food, playing lovers not long. Apparently they love each other but always fear and evade their feelings. The enemy flees, to lose before the heart, she ran to Paris, but finally met him. That may be the cause, probably because they can not give up each other but later on, the military knows for Tieu Yue: "People who love Dong Zhuo Yao, but in the world Yue Zhuang only one That person is Nguyen Man Quan. "

Share:

Read More

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)

Morgan Spurlock [Super Size Me] is back with a documentary about brand marketing in movies. Spurlock has made just one feature documentary between this and the 2004 McDonald's documentary that was so popular, mainly because he has had a documentary TV series, 30 Days, that he has been working on.


The documentary starts by giving examples of advertising in movies and television shows, some incredibly blatant. He then decides he wants to make a movie built 100% on advertising money. He gives his pitch to a few companies and receives constant rejection. I'm not sure if this was just editing to make the viewer think that he went from constant rejecting to a lot of acceptance or not. He starts to pick up some major sponsorship from POM Wonderful, JetBlue, and Mini. At this point the film really takes a turn, we see the affect of the sponsorships and what he is allowed to say. The final approval of the film requires that POM Wonderful is happy with the final product. So we aren't even sure what ELSE has been taken out.

The film does not attack any of the issues with advertising in film, it merely talk about how it works. That isn't enough for a good documentary. You won't see this on anyone's "top" lists.

Vote: 5/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1743720/

Share:

Read More

Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011)

The full title of the film makes it pretty self explanatory. The film is a look inside The New York Times newspaper at a time when newspapers are a dying breed. Considered a front runner for an Oscar nomination I felt that the film had the perfect scope on an interesting subject matter. That being said, I'm writing this review after finding out that it did not even make the 15 film short list for the Oscar.

The film starts with us meeting some of the staff and they explain the process behind determining what will make it on the cover of the newspaper. We look at some of the important moments in the paper's history and how they have been a national if not world leader in news. The film isn't like some of these "band" documentaries where they ignore the negatives, there is actually discussion on the WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction] fiasco and how the Times reporter pushed false information. They also defend her, in that, the information to was given by a government source was wrong.

The most interesting and scary thing about the documentary is that the newsroom venue of collective minds deciding was is important news is dying. It looks at internet sites that take Times articles and plug in search engine keywords to retool the titles to get more internet hits. It looks at the fact that without newspapers credible field reports are going to be hard to come by.

Oscar or not, this is a documentary you should watch. Informative, interesting, and important.

Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1787777/

Share:

Read More

Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest (2011)

After watching documentaries on Foo Fighters and Pearl Jam this year I thought it would be interesting to watch a documentary on a musical group that I DIDN'T group up liking. I know of this hip-hop group and heard a few of there song in CMJ [College Music Journal] back in 1993 when Midnight Marauders came out.

The documentary looks at who influenced the group, how they came to stardom their their connections to DJ Red Alert and their formation of the Native Tongues. A pretty cool concept of collaborating with fellow artists like, De La Soul, Queen Latifah, and Jungle Brothers. The thing I think the documentary hinted at but did not discuss very much was hip-hop being "killed" by rap. At least this is my opinion. The unofficial death was really about the time I started listening to a range of music ironically and was in 1993 when Midnight Marauders came out the same week as Wu-Tang Clan's "Enter Wu-Tang." That same year Snoop Dogg, 2-Pac, and Easy E all came out with albums. Soon enough the fun loving hip-hop artists were overshadowed by gangster rap.

A look at the history of hip-hop and the rise of rap would have been much more entertaining to me, but that isn't what they were going for here. The end of the film goes into the bickering that broke the group up and was not exciting at all. I think Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters documentaries were both better, maybe because both bands are still creating music and getting along.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1613023/

Share:

Read More

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2011)

A dangerous formula of combining Werner Herzog and documentary leads to the first film I've fallen asleep in this year. Considered a potential Oscar documentary contender I thought I'd get a jump on the eligible films knowing that some won't get shortlisted. Of all the ones I watched early, this is the only one I regret watching. Originally shot in 3D, it had a pretty decent box office run, and the non-3D is not great.

The film is about a cave that was found in the south of France in 1994 by a couple of explorers. They found that it contains wall paintings that date back 20,000 years. The oldest preserved wall writings and the film is an exclusive look at a very contained site. Honestly it was pretty cool for about 15 minutes, and I think this would have made an excellent documentary short film. The content just seems to run out after 30 minutes and we get interviews with scientists who talk about how the cave "might" have smelled, what dreams the people "might" have had.

The problem was that the scope of the documentary was so limited that scenes of a toy plane flying around the valley [pandering to the 3D I'm sure] seemed out of place. The valley probably looked completely different 20,000 years ago so what are you showing me. This wasn't for me, to each his own, but I'm glad this one wasn't shortlisted.

Vote: 3/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1664894/

Share:

Read More

Pearl Jam Twenty (2011)

Directed by Cameron Crowe, this film documents the twenty years that the band Pearl Jam has been together. Lead singer Eddie Vedder was greatly influenced by The Who, and Crowe who is fan of The Who and their documentary The Kids Are Alright (1979) constructed this film partially as an homage to them.

The band, who started in the Seattle grunge scene after the death of Andrew Wood broke up Mother Love Bone. They came onto the scene with the album Ten, and in many respects rivaled Nirvana for air time and publicity. The film touches on Cobain's dislike of Vedder and his band, then goes into their feud with Ticketmaster.

I have been a Pearl Jam fan for a very long time. The hard part for me is that I really like their angry and passionate music from Ten, Vs., and Vitalogy. When the band took a step back and "reinvented" themselves... sometime that bands have to do to stay interested and interesting I lost some interest. No Code was not my favorite and I felt I made myself like it. Yield was just ok, and I had lost interest by Riot Act, Self-Titled (2006), and Backspacer. I listened to them all at least once, and I bought the b-sides "Lost Dogs" a couple of years ago and felt that was a mistake.

I have a lot of respect for how the band handles themselves. They are very unified in their stances on Tibet, Choice, government, and how to act in public. It is rare for a band to get along so well and probably part of the reason they have managed to stay together so long. I recommend this to anyone who likes the band, but even if you don't know much about them it is still a good documentary.

Vote: 9/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1417592/

Share:

Read More

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop (2011)

Another documentary that doesn't fit into horror month. Why? Well because my wife and I are done with our horror films for the month, and I'll be watching the rest of the horror movies on my own this month. We jumped to see this one as soon as it went to dvd because we are Conan fans. Not big fans, but we prefer him over the other late night hosts, and hate what Leno did to the man.

So a little background [and the film does explain this], Conan was awarded the Tonight Show when Leno retired. After a few months NBC decided to give Leno a primetime slot in a bad economy because talk shows are cheap. The ratings were awful... as expected and they told Conan they would push his show back to midnight to make room for Leno. He opted out of this deal and was awarded a large severance package, part of the package gauranteed a non-compete where Conan was not allowed to go in television or internet for 3-4 months. During this time he decided to go on tour.

This documentary follows Conan while he sets up his show, and through a portion of his performances. We learn how annoying he can be, and mean/funny he comes across as, because let's face it comedy usually comes at someone's expense. As a Conan fan I liked this because I felt I learned something about him, but it really isn't much of a documentary and wouldn't be worth your time if you didn't know the man already. It reminded me a little of the Joan Rivers documentary because both people can't stop being in front of people and just eat up attention.

Good if you like Conan.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1864288/

Share:

Read More

Babies: Bébé(s) (2010)

Watched just in time to make my 10 worst films of the year [with my two year anniversary a week away]. This documentary was actually pushed pretty hard, I saw ads online, it was in theaters, and was pushed as an Oscar contender.

The documentary short list came out and there wasn't any mention of it being snubbed.... now wait a minute, it wasn't even in the top 15 of the year and no one cared? What happened?

So I'm writing this review with a two week old baby at home, and I also have a three year old... so I've seen the first year recently. The film follows four children across the world showing the last weeks of pregnancy to the children being a year old. We see a kid in Africa, Japan, Mongolia, and San Francisco. I wouldn't say that the San Francisco kid is treated anything like how I do with my kids, e.g. you won't see them with me naked in a hot tub. So don't get my wrong, its cute, but calling this a documentary is complete rubbish.

We see dangerous conditions in Mongolia, the kid is left in the field with animals all around walking over it. The kid in Africa really is never bathed with water. The Mongolian kid is taken home on the back of a motorcycle! So what do I know? How dangerous are all of these things we see really? Who know! There is absolutely no narration, no story, no explanation of why the culture does things the way they do. It is natural to think that something different is wrong, and this film does nothing to teach me about how kids are raised in other countries. Some of these countries have better life expectancies than we do in the U.S.

I absolutely hated watching this from the prospective of one of the babies... because that is what the film is. We don't understand the parents talking, we don't know why we are forced to do the things asked of us, etc. Forget you heard of this one... I learned nothing.

Vote: 1/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1020938/

Share:

Read More

Waiting For 'Superman' (2010)

Every year there seems to be an immediate list of films that got, "snubbed," by the Academy when the nominations come out. With the introduction of the 10 film best picture list last year the list became questionable when you start talking about if The Town deserved that 10th spot over Winter's Bone. Hey, I liked The Town more but we knew it wasn't going to win, so who cares.

The documentary race was interesting this last year though, because I believe that this was the snubbed film of the year. Just like in a best picture race where two similar films keep each other from winning. Or in the Golden Globes were two actors from the same film are nominated in the same category and neither win because of that. This year there were two documentaries about the Public School system that kept each other from getting nominated. In a category were there are actual messages being conveyed this is quite disappointing. Both were labeled as "Charter School Lottery" based documentaries, but I found that this wasn't really the case. The film The Lottery, immediately made itself available on netflix instant watch, itunes, and really campaigned to get it's story heard. This film on the other hand, didn't have a DVD release until well after the awards were over and didn't have screeners sent out. Pretty surprising considering that it was directed by Davis Guggenheim, who won the category with An Inconvenient Truth a few years ago.


So The Lottery is really more about the fight between Charter Schools and public schools, and it focuses on how PTA's and Teacher's Unions fight a charter school that takes over a failing public school. It is definitely focused on how unfair it is that those that want a good education are unable to get it. I felt that it failed to bring in many relevant statistics and pandered to the emotion of a few kids getting their "Ticket."


This film seemed to start the same way, introducing some inner city minority kids applying for charter schools. Darn I had seen this film already... but wait. It takes a turn and starts delving into why the system is screwed up. The lottery is still part of the film, but not the focus. The focus is on the inefficiencies of the public system. The fact that the vast majority of kids in wealthy suburbs aren't even prepared for college directly out of high school thanks to Tracking. It goes into how firing a teacher is nearly impossible thanks to powerful teachers unions that are so big they are hurting themselves without realizing it. Did you know it is easier for a public school teacher to get tenure than a college professor at a public university?


I really felt like I learned a lot from this film, I highly recommend this film to anyone with kids in the public school system. It does use a charter school director as it's main source of information, so I didn't feel like it gave both sides of the story, but documentaries really don't usually. Try and find this one.


Vote: 9/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1566648/

Share:

Read More

The Tillman Story (2010)

I have really been enjoying the Oscar documentaries and have been finding more and more of the short listed films from the last years. This one, which was shortlisted last year, but not a finalist projected to be on that final list by a number of Oscar predicting websites. It has the criteria for an Oscar nominee, well put together, high profile, and a clear message. But was lacking something...

The film is about Pat Tillman, a phenomenal athlete, who played professional football for the Arizona Cardinals. After 9/11 he, and his brother, decided to join the military. Without being rude toward the Army, let's just say that the majority of soldiers now are kids fresh out of high school looking for direction. These were not exactly the peers that Pat was expecting, and while on a tour in Afghanistan he was killed by friendly fire.

The enraging part of the film is that it was covered up. The US government went against all of Pat's wishes and held a public funeral which was heavily attended by high ranking officials, and the family was told that he was a hero and saved others in his battalion. Through amazing efforts the family was able to find out the truth, and this is their story. It is a sad a tragic story with the government coverup completely uncovered, but the problem is that the topic just isn't that big.

I liked the film, but two hours to get to the bottom of this was pretty slow and a little boring. I get it. It was wrong. The men responsible for lying and making him a hero have done much much worse things in their lives that they will have to answer for, and for that alone I just didn't find it all that informative or interesting. Just ok for me.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568334/

Share:

Read More

Waste Land (2010)

It has taken me a while but I finally got around to watching the 5th documentary nominee from last years Oscars. I feared that this film would be artistic and boring but was surprised at how good it really was.

The documentary follows Brazil's most famous artist Vik Muniz as he travels to Brazil's largest landfill to document the workers. This film follows him as he spends two years in the landfill learning about the people that work there, and how they got into such a dire situation. He hires a handful of the workers that he takes pictures of to help construct the pictures out of trash by following outlines of their projections on a warehouse floor. They would be quick to correct me that it is not made from trash, but from recyclable materials.

I really think I would have give this an 8 if I hadn't already seen Recycled Life, an Oscar short with the same theme without the art. I liked this better than Exit Through The Gift Shop though, and believe it deserved the nomination more because he actually had a message.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1268204/

Share:

Read More

Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010)

For a second year I've been really into the documentary category of the Oscars and try and watch a handful of short list picks that didn't get a nomination. It really helps me get a feel for what the academy thinks is worthy and if going beyond there picks is worthwhile. For the most part I like all documentaries, and as you have probably seen from my ratings they usually get at least an average rating. It quickly drops into an avoid watching (5/10) if I felt I gained nothing from the film. Unlike fiction films, I want to learn something from a documentary. When I feel I'm being lied to I start to really hate the film. 3/10 might be generous for a documentary that really pissed me off.

Eliot Spitzer was a powerful man in New York who did a lot of good in terms of regulations on Wall Street, he was also an asshole. Maybe that is what it takes to go up against the likes of AIG and these corporations, but when you are also doing illegal stuff you lose all credibility yourself. Spitzer is interviewed in this film and has no problems talking about all the good things he did in his career. He immediately tells the interview he does not want to talk about all of the illegal things he did. Come on. YOU MADE THIS DOCUMENTARY. If you aren't willing to get it out in the open, apologize, and move on how are you going to gain any credibility. This documentary is more of a campaign ad of Spitzer's telling us to forgive him because others were so much worse than him.

I learned nothing from this documentary, which is horrible considering that it pushes 2 hours. Interviews with call girls that just drag out, and air-headed girls that run these call girl organizations was almost painful to sit through. One of the first documentaries that I severely disliked.

Vote: 3/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1638362/

Share:

Read More

Murder on a Sunday Morning: Un coupable idéal (2001)

Don't let the title fool you, this film is 100% English. It was just directed by a Frenchman Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, and produced in France, so it gets the international title. The film is the documentary feature winner Oscar winner from 2002, and one that a friend found for me in the Dallas library system.

The story is quite sad. A 15-year-old African American boy was picked on a Sunday morning while walking to Blockbuster to pick up a job application. The police told him that he committed a murder, asked a 60 something man to identify him as his wifes murder [from a distance while he sat in a police car], then beat a confession out of him. The film is as much about being a defense attorney as it is about an innocent boy on trial.

Patrick McGuiness, the defense attorney, is the main character in the film. We follow him around as he puts his case together, then the trial proceedings, and interaction with the family. It is almost like a REAL Law & Order episode, very well edited, and worth a watch. I'm a documentary fan, so I'm a little biased, and this doesn't get a higher rating because I like to learn when watching documentaries. It wouldn't compete against the Oscar documentary winner from the last couple years, but it very good nonetheless.


Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307197/

Share:

Read More

Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (2011)

A made for tv [VH1 to be exact] documentary that I felt deserved a post about. This is one of the bands I grew up listening to, and with their latest album just being released the 2 hour film is worth a review. The film centers around Dave Grohl and his journey through his musical career.

Side Note:
I remember not getting tickets to the tour of their self-titled album release back in 1995, then begging my dad to take me to The Colour and the Shape Tour in 1996. We went to the show in mid-July at a venue that didn't have A/C. It was later recorded that it was 112 degrees inside, and I can imagine what it was like on stage. Anyways, I have a lot of memories of this band and seeing a full history was nice.

So the documentary starts primarily with Dave joining Nirvana and his side of the Kurt Cobain suicide, and the difficulties of continuing his musical career afterwards. Just like one of my other favorite bands, Nine Inch Nails where Trent Reznor performed all the parts of his first album Pretty Hate Machine, Dave in fact performed all the parts of the original Foo Fighters album himself. He then went out and found a band that had just fallen apart and recruited three of its members, as well as a former Nirvana band mate to go on tour. After the first three albums and seven years only one of those 4 members made it through.

The documentary does a great job keeping the focus on the bands growth and evolution. I really could have done without the last 30 minutes which was more of an ad for the new album and less about the band's history, but it was nice to see the band interacting and working on new music and the thought process behind that.

Overall: A very bias perfect 10/10 because I love the band, even if I didn't the first two hours is a 7 or 8 depending on if you like this music.


Vote: 10/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853563/

Share:

Read More

Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport (2000)

I have slowly been expanding the years of Oscar winners that I watch. This year I've pushed it back to 2000 which adds about 8 movies to my list of films to watch. This was the documentary winner in 2001 and definitely a motivation to look back further and further at documentary winners.

I'm sure you could make 100 different documentaries about subgroups of people from the second world war, but time is definitely running out on getting real interviews with survivors. This film has a very interesting topic and was done really well. The film talks about how Jewish kids in Germany and Poland were treated by classmates, then follows them through the beginning of the Nazi occupation. The Kindertransport was a system established by some Jewish Germans with the British government to allow Jewish children to leave Nazi occupied territory. Approximately 10,000 children were able to go to Britain into foster homes and halfway houses avoiding concentration camps.

It is one of those documentaries that will make you cry. Not many of these kids ever saw there parents again. The scenes where the parents had to watch their kids leave on trains knowing they might never seen them again was hard to get through. Some of the stories were very powerful and this one is worth checking out.

Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0248912/

Share:

Read More

Inside Job (2010)

The 4th of the 5 Oscar documentary nominees for me. I'm very far behind on my blogging because I actually watched this a couple nights before the Oscars aired. Documentaries can be just as much about the director as they are about the subject matter, and Charles Ferguson's professionalism made this film easily the favorite this year. Ferguson directed  No End in Sight, the 2007 documentary that lost the Oscar to Taxi to the Dark Side. I felt the voters got that completely wrong, and was glad to see Ferguson take the Oscar home this time.

First off, this documentary is about the financial meltdown and explains in layman's terms how everything went down. It was interesting to learn that after the cold war, a number of engineers that had been spending all of the efforts on nuclear defense shifted to the stock market, engineering ways to make money. The film takes a look at Iceland and why and how they went through a big crash. The real kicker for me was that Ferguson not only was able to get interviews with a number of important people, it was willing to ask hard questions. When they started in on how "complicated" these things were, he was quick to make it clear he understood and wasn't going to let them out easily. The graphs and charts were easy to follow and looked very professional.

I highly suggest checking this film out. I suggest pausing in the middle and taking a 5 minute break because at times it is like a two hour intense lecture with a lot of information. I needed a break to stay focused. I loved GasLand, but this one really deserved to win.

Vote: 10/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1645089/

Share:

Read More

Restrepo (2010)

The third Oscar documentary nominee for me, honestly one that I would have skipped if it would have not been nominated. I'm tired of this type of film, and there were others that I was hoping and expecting to see nominated [Waiting for 'Superman' or The Lottery]. You can't judge a film without seeing it, so let's talk about it.

The film's slogan is "One platoon, one valley, one year," which is very fitting. We start on a plane, filming 4 soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan. They are getting drunk and having a good time, this is also the last time we see Private Restrepo alive. Early in the film he is killed when the platoon exchanges gunfire with the Taliban while working to secure a position in their valley. Considered to be a pivotal valley to control the move helps them take control and establish a new base. They name this base "Restrepo" after their fallen friend, and so we have the title of the movie.

The film is all about getting the feeling that you are right there with the troop. It is pretty incredible that they were able to film during actual warfare and you witness several people getting killed in the movie (not actually on film, but in the "scene" per se). I comment the documentary film makers for managing to tag along during all of this, but at the same time it was a pretty boring film overall. I almost dozed off at one point, and I really don't feel like I learned a single thing. Something I usually hope for in a movie.

It definitely has a following for winning the Oscar given the circumstances this was filmed under. I'll reserve my feeling about this winning for after I watch Inside Job.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1559549/

Share:

Read More

GasLand (2010)

Winner of the Special Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and nominated for an Oscar. Having seen 3 of the 5 documentaries they year I'm willing to gamble and say that this is my pick for the Oscar. Maybe not to win, but it was my favorite.

The film is a look at the unregulated natural gas drilling that is happening all over America. It is ruining stream water, American's well water, and important to me... it creates more pollution that vehicle emissions in my Metroplex.

As a Fort Worth resident it is chilling to see just how much drilling is going on in my own backyard. I now know what the big pool of green water next to the drill a half mile from my home is. It is a way for the gas company to allow toxic chemicals to evaporate into the air... completely unregulated. It is no surprise that the Dallas/Ft.Worth Metroplex is now home to cities with the highest rates of cancer.

The most important documentary of the year, if I can suggest a single film for residents of my community to see it is this one.

Vote: 10/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558250/

Share:

Read More

Under Our Skin (2008)

This one made the documentary short list last year for the Oscar but ended up getting cut from the nominees. Since last year was so strong with Food, Inc.and The Cove. I ventured into some of the other short listed films.

A documentary about Lyme Disease, and the issues those that have it are facing. It takes a personal approach following the life of a 20-something (the girl on the poster) who is suffering from the disease. We follow her as she goes through treatment while trying to maintain a normal life. The problem with a documentary like this is that it gets to personal on a single individual and you lose the big picture. We are trying to showcase just how many people are going through this, yet the events we attend show the same few over and over.

It does however do a great job bringing to light all the issues with the medical field, the doctors that are attacked for trying to treat patients, and the insurance companies that manage to dodge treatment costs. It has redeeming qualities, and since a friend of a friend of a friend is going dealing with the disease I wanted a little more insight. Now the one issue I really had with this documentary was the mother who knew that having a child would mean passing the disease along. Having already gone through the death of a child she tries again and again. I might understand if she didn't already have a healthy child, wanting to have a child yourself... but how is this better than having a kid when you know you have AIDS. Just adopt! It seemed very selfish bringing a child into the world when you know they will have a disease.

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1202579/

Share:

Read More

Joan Rivers - A Piece of Work (2010)

By far the most interesting documentary I've seen this year. I don't necessarily think that I'm saying that in a good way. After seeing it I bother understand why it is not on the short list for the documentary and why it is so popular.

First off, I knew very little about Joan Rivers before watching this. For those of my generation, think of her as Kathy Griffin's predecessor. You know, the annoying redhead from a couple Seinfeld episodes? Anyways, Rivers is a comedian that thinks she is an actress. She lives a lifestyle all of her own, and this documentary follows her around for a year exposing you to her schedule.


The film is in many ways, sad, pitiful, frustrating, and mainly unbelievable. Not because it was fake, but because it was all too real. Rivers looks like a monster without her make-up, an opening sequence that almost hard to watch. It is one of those films that you can't really put your finger on. Did I like it? It is wrong to like it? In many ways it was little more than a long episode of 60 minutes, obviously there was no real message, but it was a fun watch.

I suggest checking it out.

Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568150/

Share:

Read More