FullReviews Index
Soldiers of Conscience - Movie Review
<i>Soldiers of Conscience</i> is a documentary about the soldiers' dilemma of whether killing is an acceptable action in war. Statistics show that there are many soldiers who grapple with this issue of morality.
Lioness - Movie Review
Lioness, by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, profiles a group of courageous women soldiers who were deployed to Iraq as support personnel--mechanics, cooks, and clerks--but found themselves in actual combat situations. Known as Team Lioness, they are the first generation of American women to return home as combat veterans, and their debriefing in this film is enlightening.
Full Battle Rattle (2008) - Movie Review
Full Battle Rattle takes us along as the 5-82 Battalion readies for deployment to Iraq with a three-week simulation in the Mohave Desert, where the U.S. military has built and populated several replica Iraqi towns. It's Disneyland for war games!
Crips and Bloods: Made In America - Movie Review - 2008
Crips and Bloods: Made In America is director Stacy Peralta's insider investigation of two infamous African-American gangs that rule South Central Los Angeles, the area where America's two bloodiest and most costly incidents of civil unrest occurred--27 years and three miles apart.
The Good Soldier - Movie Review
In [i]The Good Soldier[/i], documentary filmmakers Lexi Lovell and Michael Uys interview a cadre of highly decorated soldiers who'd fought valiantly in America's wars -- from World War II to Iraq -- and, in doing so, have come to the conclusion that warfare neither a righteous nor effective way to resolve differences of opinion, ideology and/or national interests.
Michael Jackson 'This Is It' - Movie Review
Michael Jackson rehearses for the [i]This Is It[/i] tour. The performances were to be the King of Pop's come back, but the tour had to be cancelled due to Jackson's untimely death two weeks before the premier in London.
Afghan Star - Movie Review of Afghan Star
Afghan Star follows three singing sensations as they make their bid to become the winner of Afghanistan's very popular reality TV show, one of the international spin offs of American Idol.
FTA - Movie Review
FTA, a 1972 documentary that followed Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland's cabaret show as it toured US military bases during the Vietnam War, is a powerful anti-war statement that was almost silenced when the film went missing shortly after it's theatrical release. It has been restored, and is now available on DVD--with extras.
Crude - Movie Review - 2009
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger exposes the Texaco/Chevron toxic waste contamination of thousands of square miles of the Ecuadorian Amazon and rain forest, and chronicles the efforts of local tribes and international conservation and human rights organizations to get remediation.
Good Hair - Movie Review - 2008
Filmmaker Jeff Stilson follows comedian Chris Rock on his hilarious, yet disturbing and sometimes alarming investigation of the social implications and economic impact of African-American women's preoccupation with having good -- that is to say 'straight' -- hair.
Capitalism: A Love Story - Movie Review - 2009
Filmmaker Michael Moore investigates and comments on the current economic crisis.
We Live In Public - Movie Review - 2009
Ondi Timoner's documentary looks at the career and influence of Josh Harris, the Internet visionary and artist who rose to fame during the 1990s dot.com boom. The film chronicles Harris' social experiments, including his 'Quiet' project, in which 100 people lived together for 30 days in an underground bunker while their every move and interaction was observed and recorded. Filmmaker Ondi Timoner tells Harris' story with on camera interviews and archival footage of Harris-staged events.
Second Skin - Movie Review - 2008
This documentary investigates the real life social interactions of devoted players of massively-multiplayer online games, and follows them several of them into their alternative lives in the cyberspace realm of the very popular 'The World of Warcraft' game.
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 - Movie Review
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29 is Kevin Rafferty's nostaligic replay of the amazing playoff game between the undefeated football teams of the two Ivy League giants.
Trouble The Water (2008) - Movie Review
In Trouble The Water, filmmakers Tia Lessen and Carl Deal follow a New Orleans Ninth Ward couple, Kimberly and Scott Roberts, who've survived Katrina with some remarkable footage of the devastating hurricane and its aftermath. This is the story of the Roberts' extended family and neighbors, and how they're heroically coping with the government's failure to provide them with relief as promised.
At The Edge Of the World - Movie Review - 2008
Director Dan Stone chronicles the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's 3rd Antarctic Campaign, in which two small and meagerly equipped ships set out to prevent the Japanese whaling fleet from illegally killing cetaceans in the Ross Sea, and internationally designated whale sanctuary. It's a David and Goliath thriller filled with adventure set against the sweeping magnificence of Antarctica.
Art & Copy - Movie Review of Art & Copy - 2009
[i]In Art & Copy[i], director Doug Pray traces the birth of modern advertising to the marriage of art and copy, when designers and writers got together to talk concept. The film further presents advertising as a force to raise social values by enabling people - consumers - to dream big and do.
Flow - For Love of Water - Movie Review - 2008
Flow: For Love of Water (2008) describes the global crisis we face as Earth's fresh water supply constantly diminishes due to pollution, privatization and corporate greed, and wastefulness. Experts predict that if we continue to abuse our water resources, Earth will become uninhabitable and humankind will become extinct. The investigation points fingers are water corporations such as Nestle, Vivendi, Thames Water, Suez, Coca Cola and Pepsi. Grass roots groups work to reverse the trend.
Throw Down Your Heart - Review of Throw Down Your Heart - 2008
Filmmaker Sascha Paladino follows musicologist and banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck to Uganda, Tanzania, Mali and Gambia to bring the banjo back to the area where it originated, discover banjo-related and other African instruments and record tracks with local musicians.
Earth Days - Movie Review -2009
Earth Day is the annual event staged to raise awareness about our planet, and to further conservationists' efforts to establish policies and practices that protect and will sustain human life on Earth. [i]Earth Days[/i], Robert Stone's brilliant documentary, explores the environmental movements fundamental premises, and chronicles its advances during the 1960s and 70s, when the US was within reach of establishing a truly sustainable and environmentally friendly energy program. Then what happened?
Gotta Dance - Movie Review - 2008
The NJ Nets auditions dancers aged 60 and older, and hires twelve of them to become the team's senior citizen hip hop squad to perform for basketball fans at home games.
The Cove - Movie Review - 2009
Filmmaker Louis Psihoyos follows animal rights activist Richard O'Barry in this shocker of a documentary that effectively exposes the annual secret slaughter of thousands of dolphins by a greedy community of Japanese fishermen, supported by a complicit Japanese government and international whaling commission.
Soul Power - Movie Review
In Soul Power, director Jeffrey Levy-Hinte uses archival footage to replay the performances by James Brown, Bill Withers, B.B. King, Celia Cruz, Miriam Makeba and legendary musical titans at the mega-concert presented in 1974 in Zaire, as companion to the famous "Rumble In The Jungle" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
The Beaches of Agnes (Les Plages d'Agnes) - Movie Review
French filmmaker Agnes Varda focuses on herself in stylish mix of verite and reenactment in which she examines her childhood on the beach, her marriage to Jacques Demy and her career among cinematic greats such as Jane Birkin, Catherine Deneuve, Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Harrison Ford, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Jim Morrison and Philippe Noiret, among others.
The Stoning of Soraya M. - Movie Review
The Stoning of Soraya is the true story of the stoning to death of a women in rural Iran because her husband falsely accused her of adultry. The shocking story, smuggled out of Iran by an Iranian journalist who was living in France, became a best selling book that brought world wide attention to the stoning of women