Last King of Scotland
Had to keep asking myself throughout the film, "How could this doctor have been so mind-blowingly arrogant or stupid?" Further research which revealed the man to be a fictional character inserted for the purpose of plot provided some relief here. Clever handling of the condescension with which colonial powers regard their former possessions. Great performance by Forest Whitaker. DVD includes a short on Idi Amin fact vs myth.
Jesus Camp
Hard to resist the temptation to just constantly shout "Oh my fucking God!" at the screen. As the film goes on, though, I found myself saying something more like, "Okay I get it. So fucking what?" I think it's a bit unnecessary to become alarmed at the fact that there are lunatics among us. I'm in no way excusing the kind of nuttery exemplified by the subjects of this documentary but I don't think there's anything particularly new or threatening about their movement. Yes, the fundies in this film homeschool their children in a nutty GSUS-centric curriculum which denies them the benefit of.. the sum of human rational thought. Yes, they send them to a brainwashing camp where they are repeatedly moved to tears in.. the holy spirit.. or whatever. Yes, they crassly conflate religious instruction with..a somewhat clumsy and simple political agenda. An argument can be made that some of this might constitute some form of child abuse.. but even that isn't entirely clear to me. I suspect, in fact, that despite the best efforts of the adults in this film, many if not most of these children will grow up and learn to think for themselves.
In twenty years, one of these kids is going to write a pretty scary book. That book will sell well and it will be rich with tales of psychological abuse of the sort that voyeuristic American audiences love to gape at.. but ultimately aren't of much relevance to anyone other than those immediately involved. And I think that sums up this movie pretty well too.
Happy Feet
And here's where I had no qualms about shouting "Oh my fucking God!" throughout the movie.. and later on during the nightmares it inspired. Once recovered from the shock of horrifying Moulin Rouge flashbacks brought on by the barrage of pithy faux-clever pop-song references, I found myself confounded by a paint-by-numbers, coming-of-age story punctuated by painfully flat stabs at humor, inexplicable ethnic stereotyping, an unresolved nagging question, (why is Mumble the only penguin who stays fluffy as he ages?) and culminating in a sloppy plot resolution which practically screams, "Fuck you, audience! We couldn't give a damn how to end this penguin turd! Thanks for the seven bucks, suckers!" Painful stuff.
Correction: I incorrectly identified the protagonist of Happy Feet as "Mombo". In fact the character's name was "Mumble" a name which makes slightly less sense than my misnomer. The word has been changed in the post.
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