Category: review
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Review: The Bugle (Podcast)
TimesOnline With the Writers Guild of America still on strike, the absence of late-night commentary on politics has been missed. Though the quality of the commentary was rarely exceptionally high, late night comedians did provide a useful and informative diversion for those less tempted to read the papers (like myself, most of the times). So […]
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Review: Yesterday, Raking Leaves
I’ve reviewed quite a few movies in the time I’ve been writing reviews here. I’ve also managed to talk about a few books, a few podcasts, a few web-only video projects. But all of that has been, to varying degrees, frustratingly pedestrian. So today, something truly unusual: a review of my time raking leaves yesterday […]
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Review: The Wind that Shakes the Barley
The first half of Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley can easily be seen as a justification for terrorism and a condemnation of torture–the obvious reading for an American in a country now more or less obsessed by the topics. If justifying terrorism seems a hard thing to do, The Wind that Shakes […]
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Review: American Blackout
I had an inkling that I was in for trouble when I saw the provocative title of this 2006 film. I decided to give it a look anyway. I was rather certain I wouldn’t like it when I saw that this documentary was made by an outfit which calls itself the Guerrilla News Network, which […]
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Review: Ken Burns’s The War
The latest Ken Burns’s epic The War aired on PBS over the last two weeks. The fifteen-hour program tells about America’s involvement in in the Second World War by focusing on four towns: Mobile, Alabama; Luverne, Minnesota; Sacramento, California; and Waterbury, Connecticut. In choosing this device, Burns his made a film both richer and narrower […]
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Review: The Sun is Always Brighter by Joshua James
Joshua James’s The Sun is Always Brighter is the artist’s second album, his first released on iTunes, and his zeroth available in stores. But where at some time in the past this would have been proof that he has no talent–or is signed to the world’s worst record company–being independent is now a viable option […]
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Review: My Date with Drew
My Date with Drew was sadly missed by too many people, including myself, when it was released in 2005. Because of its obscurity, I was concerned about its quality. But within the first ten minutes I was sure there was no need to worry. Brain Herzlinger is 27, a rather anonymous young man living in […]
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Review: The Moral Center
David Callahan’s The Moral Center can be a difficult book. Not because it’s exceptionally intellectual, partisan, or long. It’s difficult primarily because it emphasizes ways in which the American political landscape has subverted actual reason by favoring what is easy and appears straightforward. And by showing the naked irrationality of the policies of both political […]
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Review: Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?
The name Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? is a rather hollow gimmick, but the story this documentary tells is still compelling. Raising a question based on Frank Capra’s seminal Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the film follows a different Jeff Smith, a young 29-year-old with no experience in public office, running for United […]
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Review: onBeing
Jennifer Crandell’s onBeing is a series of short videos featuring residents of Washington, DC. Explaining the project beyond that becomes difficult. For that reason, I’ll let it define itself first: onBeing is a project based on the simple notion that we should get to know one another a little better. What you’ll find here is […]