Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
There's is a moment in this film when they are explaining the belief system of the Scientology religion where I thought to myself, "I still have no idea what these people believe!". What I do know is that Scuentology is insanity, and I've thought a lot this week about what would bring seemingly somewhat intelligent people into this religion. I still really have no idea. What becomes more obvious through interviews of credible ex members is that the whole thing is a scam cult. Both John Travolta and Tom Cruise, perhaps the most famous scuentologists, are not interviewed, but they are given their own segments via news footage. When I finished John Travolta's segment, I just felt sorry for him because he is clearly struggling with some things if he needs to cling onto this. Tom Cruise was a different story. He clearly has an insane god complex, and now I am more resolute to not see any of his movies anymore. Luckily he hasn't made anything recently that I've actually wanted to see. If you get a chance, catch this film. It is definitely interesting and exasperating.
8 out,of 10
Kurt Cobain : Montage of Heck
Kurt Cobain's ultimately tragic story is told differently than a conventional documentary. While there are some interviews of loved ones, most of his story is told through home video footage, his music, and some of his other art work and journals. The artwork and journal entries are interesting at first but because a little bit repetitive by the end of the two hour film. The home video footage is more revealing. The saddest and scariest moment is when he is interacting with his baby while he's totally fried on drugs. As his parents, friends and the great Courtney Love tell his story, it becomes obvious that the story was always going to end the way that it did. His legacy should be his musical talent and not the way he died. Unfortunately, that isn't the way it will ever be.
7 out of 10
Citizenfour
This was this year's Oscar winner for best documentary, and I can't really understand why. Other than the fact that it was so timely, and the fact that this filmmaker had such access to Edward Snowden as he leaked classified information. It had to be the immediacy of the event because this isn't great documentary film making. Long moments of people staring and not talking does not tell me a story. The film definitely paints Snowden as a hero, while I don't necessarily think it is quite that black and white. I just think something with the intrigue of this story shouldn't be this dull. Hey, they got an Oscar. What do I know?
5 out of 10
No comments:
Post a Comment