You Must See This Movie

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Good category: This movie looks at an alternate history where the South won the US Civil War, as depicted through a mock British documentary aired on TV, complete with mock commercials. The specific focus is on white people maintaining black people as slaves into the modern era. Unusual for great works of fiction, there aren’t really any major characters that you follow throughout, though some characters do “talking head” historical lessons. Rather, it examines the alternate history starting from the end of the Civil War and continuing on over the years. We see real life events reshaped by white supremacy. Even more brilliant are the mock commercials. Some of the products seem over the top at first glance, but unfortunately every...

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Good category: Frank (Joel Murray) is a middle aged man who has a series of misfortunes. Increasingly frustrated by people being mean on reality TV, he gets drunk and decides to kill one of them before committing suicide. However, the teenaged Roxy (Tara Lynne Barr), also feeling disenfranchised, encourages him instead to go on a crusade with the two of them killing those who deserve it. One thing that some people see as a flaw in the movie I see as a strength: the characters don’t have a fully figured plan at first, and try to figure out the rules as they go along. So, for example, whom they deem deserving of killing changes according to circumstances; they’re not simply targeting reality stars, for example. This also allows the...

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Good category: This movie entirely takes place within a mock reality show which is on its seventh competition. Supposedly this is a series of episodes edited together. The show’s premise is that the show’s players, save the winner from the previous round are randomly chosen and all have to try to kill each other. The most prominent of these players is the reigning champion Dawn (Brooke Smith). The movie doesn’t explain why the players have to play the game or what would happen if all the players refused to do so; instead this is taken as a given in the TV landscape. Since the show appears as the audience would see it, presumably the fictional audience already knows such details. It is clear, however that the players can’t opt out...

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Good category: This is the first documentary to appear on this site. It’s probably fairly well known to people who are into documentaries but not as well known to the general public. The movie, about priests in the Catholic Church who molest children, focusses on alleged child molester Father Oliver O’Grady, whose warm Irish accent probably put a lot of families at ease, not realizing his true nature. His actions are compounded by the church simply relocating him nearby when complaints arise, thus giving him a new supply of potential victims while keeping him in fairly close proximity to his earlier alleged victims. The movie also includes interviews with his alleged victims as well as another priest, Father Tom Doyle, who tries to a...

All posts in this blog are intended to highlight movies (either really good or really bad) that run the risk of being overlooked by the public. Great movies that are well known to the general public need not apply. The following movie is in the Good category: Defendor stars Woody Harrelson as Arthur Poppington, a man with a developmental disability who puts on a makeshift costume and fights crime as Defendor while seeking out Captain Industry, whom he believes killed his parents. Along the way he meets and befriends a street worker, Kat Debrofkowitz (Kat Dennings). This movie, by first time director Peter Stebbings could have gone horribly wrong. When your lead character has a developmental disability, the acting needs to be a bit restrained, and Harrelson has been known to overact at times. Thankfully here he hits the right note. Arthur is sympathetic but believable, neither a caricature nor some idealized person with a disability; he’s no Forrest Gump spouting words o...