The Pact PBS TV

PBS-TV Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Black Doctors’ Overcome the Odds Story Set to Air on PBS

Rameck Hunt, Sampson Davis and George Jenkins grew up in a Newark ghetto where only about 3% of the kids went on to college. And their own prospects probably weren’t any better, given that they were each raised by a single mom in a broken home in a neighborhood blighted by gang violence, drugs, poverty, unemployment and crime.
Yet, this enterprising trio of best friends had the wherewithal to sense that a ticket out of their bleak surroundings might only be an education away. So, before the streets could gobble up their future, they made a mutual pact, promising to support each other in their shared dream of becoming doctors.
Against the odds, all three succeeded in that quest, Sampson and Rameck, as MDs, and George, as a dentist, and this uplifting bio-pic highlights the considerable hurdles they had to overcome on the road to success. For both of Rameck’s parents were crackheads, and he recounts how he’d pray to God everyday asking that just one of them be able to kick the habit.
Sampson, we learn, did a stint in juvenile prison for armed robbery, and had a sister who was HIV+. And George talks about how the absence of a male role model meant he never learned how to do many things most boys take for granted, such as how to shave or tie a tie.
But ultimately, all three came through with flying colors and, despite their busy medical practices, remain very committed to creating academic opportunities for kids still stuck in the slums. In this regard, the film frequently focuses on the fortunes of Malique, their 12 year-old protégé who also serves as narrator.
Overall, an inspiring affirmation of the power of friendship, courage, determination, hard work and faith to sustain even those seemingly trapped in the most dire of circumstances.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 84 minutes
Studio: Spark Media

The Pact will be airing on PBS stations across the country during May and June. Check the attached Excel chart to determine when it will air in your market.

A Raisin in the Sun DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Diddy Stars in Adaptation of Classic Play Available on DVD

Lorraine Hansberry’s (1930-1965) “A Raisin in the Sun” was the first play written by a black woman ever to open on Broadway. It takes its title from the opening line in a poem by Langston Hughes which poses the question “What happens to a dream deferred?”
The original theatrical production debuted on March 11, 1959 and starred Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. Its semi-autobiographical storyline was loosely based on real-life events which unfolded in Hansberry’s own family back in the Thirties. At the time her parents had been met with pure hatred after purchasing a home in a lily-white, Chicago enclave.
The play focuses on a fictional family named Younger with dreams of moving out of the ghetto but still living in a dilapidated tenement on Chicago’s South Side. A recent Broadway revival featured Sean “Diddy” Combs surrounded by Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan and Bill Nunn. That talented ensemble has been reassembled for this latest version.
At the point of departure, we meet Walter, Jr. (Combs) a hard-working 35 year-old chauffeur in the process of assuming the role of patriarch following the death of his father. The plot revolves around the question of how Walter. Sr.’s life insurance proceeds ought to be spent.
His widow (Rashad) thinks they should use the money to buy a home in a white neighborhood, since the five of them are currently cramped in a rundown, roach-infested apartment. Her daughter, Beneathea (Lathan), wants some of the money to pay for med school, while ambitious Walter would like to invest in a liquor store with his pal, Bobo (Nunn), and smooth-talking Willy (Ron C. Jones). After Lena hands the check over to her son, it’s just a matter of time before she comes to regret that ill-advised decision.
Helped immeasurably by his talented co-stars, Diddy comes of age as an actor here, delivering a memorable performance in an African-American literary classic which proves to be every bit as relevant today as the day it was first staged.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 131 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Director’s commentary, a “Behind-the-Scenes” featurette, and bonus reviews.

Lost in Beijing (Ping Guo) DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Features Chinese Revenge Drama Worthy of Jerry Springer

Ping Guo (Bingbing Fan) and An Kun (Dawei Tong), a young couple from the sticks, moved to Beijing in search of a higher standard of living. Thusfar, however, life in the big city has been a bit of a bust, since the only work she could find was in a sleazy massage parlor, and he had to settle for a dangerous job as a skyscraper window-washer.
The two made do until the fateful day her rich boss (Tony Leung Ka Fai) decided to force himself on her. Wouldn’t you know it, but An Kun just happened to be squeejeeing the plate glass of the room as Liu pounced on his wife, and he had to watch helplessly while dangling outside on the scaffolding.
Rather than report the assault to the authorities, An Kun comes up with the bright idea of asking the attacker’s wife, Mei (Elaine Jin) for money to keep quiet. But she says her husband would rather save face than pay blackmail. Then, angry that her husband had cheated on her, Mei suggests that the two of them sleep together, like their spouses had, implying that the rape had been consensual.
An Kun agrees and the two embark on a steamy affair. And that might have been the end of it, except that his wife misses her next period. Pregnant, the question becomes “Who’s the daddy?”
This is the intriguing, incestuous scenario which unfolds in Lost in Beijing, as messy a dysfunctional relationship drama as you could hope to witness on screen. And as complicated as what you’ve just read sounds, the plot only thickens as the baby’s birth approaches.
Without giving away any of this riveting romp’s unpredictable developments, suffice to say that our compromised protagonists find themselves in a complicated predicament about as easy to unscramble as egg drop soup. How do you say “Jerry Springer” in Mandarin?

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
In Mandarin with subtitles.
Running time: 113 minutes
Studio: New Yorker Video
DVD Extras: Theatrical trailer and a booklet interview with the director.

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Musical Horror Comedy Funniest Film of Year Thusfar

General Lee Roy (Robin Watkins), a rank and file member of the Ku Klux Klan, also happens to be the CEO of American Chicken Bunker, a leading chain of fast food restaurants. The General has decided to go forward with plans to build his next franchise atop a sacred Native American burial ground, in spite of the presence of a plaque warning that, “Desecrators will be cursed to the full extent of the ancient tribal law.”
Ignoring some very vocal local opposition, he proceeds to bulldoze the graveyard, unaware that disturbing the remains of the Tromahawk Nation will trigger freaky fallout no one could have ever anticipated. For, the spirits of the ancestors magically merge with the fowl being served at the restaurant, turning the birds into a revenge-minded horde of man-eating zombies.
This is the point of departure of Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, the latest offering from Lloyd Kaufman (The Toxic Avenger) of Troma Entertainment. This go-round, the legendary director has fashioned an alternately hilarious and shocking, gender-bending, genre-mixing, musical horror flick which defies description at every turn.
And while thoroughly entertaining you with everything ranging from blood-curling screams to gruesome displays of vivisection to a topless lesbian revue to bodily function humor to politically-incorrect ethnic jokes, the movie saves plenty of time to deliver some deadly serious messages about consumerism, sexism, racism and, above all, about animal rights .
The picture stars Jason Yachanin as Arbie, a recent high school grad who can’t afford to go to college because his mom’s retarded and his father’s blind. Meanwhile, his departing girlfriend, Wendy (Kate Graham), promises to remain loyal while away at school, only to fall in love with a gay, activist classmate, Micki (Allyson Sereboff).
The plot thickens after Arbie discovers that Wendy’s cheating on him when the two show up to picket the new restaurant on opening day. In an impulsive jealous reaction, he applies for a job there, and soon joins a staff with curious names evocative of famous fast food franchises. For instance, there’s store manager Denny (Joshua Olatunde), and co-workers Carl Jr. (Caleb Emerson) and Paco Bell (Khalid Rivera).
What ensues is a jaw dropping combination of silly, sexy and sadistic skits not to be missed. Accolades are in order for director Kaufman (who also plays Arbie’s elderly alter ego) for dreaming up a neverending array of imaginative ways to knock off the cast members in his high attrition rate production.
More importantly, he very powerfully drives home the point that it’s high time humans question the selfish practice of mass-production and harvesting of animal flesh merely for our consumption. I’m sure it sounds oxymoronic, but like a kinky cross of John Waters and John Woo, Poultrygeist is a sophisticated splatter flick as likely to enlighten as to keep an audience in stitches.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 99 minutes
Studio: Troma Entertainment

Hollywood Chinese

Film Review by Kam Williams



Headline: Asian Stereotypes in Cinema Explored by Enlightening Expose’



Asians have been portrayed just as unfairly as blacks by filmmakers, and also right from the inception of the movie industry. While many might think of D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) as the starting point of the dissemination of such racist images, the Chinese had by then already been smeared by an earlier silent picture entitled “Massacre of the Christians by the Chinese” (1900).

Over the intervening years, Asians have been generally presented in a

very limited fashion in accordance with several recognizable stereotypes popularized and perpetuated by Hollywood. The females tend to be very deferential and sexually available for white men, who they adore and place upon pedestals. Meanwhile, their males are shown to be either desexualized and submissive, or as dangerous and demonic, if they’re at all assertive.

The history of systematic cinematic mistreatment of yellow-skinned people is carefully recounted in Hollywood Chinese, an enlightening, encyclopedic expose’ directed by Arthur Dong. Carefully chronicling the screen characterizations of Asians over the past century, decade by decade, Dong shows how harmful and widespread the fallout from these movies has been.

He is assisted in this endeavor by both damning film footage and by the revealing reflections of luminaries like author Amy Tan, directors Ang Lee, Justin Lin and Wayne Wang, actors Nancy Kwan, James Hong and Joan Chen, and academic Stephen Gong. Mr. Going points out the movies are more than entertainment, for the have the potential to damage with the images they create.

Others speak about growing up hating themselves because of the way they were marginalized by the media. It is important to note in this regard, that in the early days many of the most famous Asian roles, such as Fu Manchu, Mr. Moto and Charlie Chan, were played in “yellow-face” by whites. So, you had Caucasian thespians totally misrepresenting a culture by speaking in an insulting, monosyllabic, pidgin English dialect that suggested they were capable of no deeper reasoning than your average fortune cookie.

The problem is that when Hollywood was finally ready to hire Asians to play themselves in lead roles, the industry still demanded that they mimic the previously-established prevailing archetypes. Thus, it is no surprise to hear one actress recount here how she had to depend on an acting coach to learn the unfamiliar mannerisms of the one-dimensional, cinematic version of the Chinese, and how to speak “Chinglish.”

The bulk of the interviewees regret that Asians, until relatively recently, never had the opportunity to tell their own stories. Consequently, they fear that they might never be seen as complex human beings with a full range of fears, feelings and emotions. Sadly, the simplistic message still delivered by Hollywood is that the West is masculine, and the Orient is feminine, almost as if the East wants to be dominated. An eye-opening documentary delineating how motion pictures have negatively impacted the Asian community, and how they are like to continue to effect impressionable young minds for generations to come.



Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 89 minutes
Studio: Deep Focus Productions

Iron Man

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Downey Delivers as Cerebral Superhero in “Marvel”-ous Adaptation of Classic Comic Book Series

Created by Stan Lee in April of 1963, Iron Man was first introduced in Marvel Comics’ “Tales of Suspense” (issue #39). By the legendary animator’s own admission, his crime-fighting superhero’s alter ego, wealthy industrialist/ inventor Tony Stark, was partially inspired by eccentric millionaire playboy Howard Hughes.
The character proved popular enough to warrant spin-offs not only into his own comic book series but into a TV cartoon as well. Now, with Iron Man, the movie, the product line benefits from a further extension into the realm of cinema.
This live-action adventure features Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role, with the oft-troubled star exhibiting an impressive range in an endearing performance guaranteed to resuscitate a career once on life support. For Downey manages to humanize Iron Man to a degree rarely, if at all, previously witnessed in such adaptations of macho superheroes to the big screen. Considerable credit in this regard must go to unheralded director Jon Favreau whose kiddie sci-fi, Zathura, was likewise sophisticated enough to engage the imaginations of children and adults.
Iron Man unfolds very much like the first installment in a pre-planned franchise, taking its own sweet time to acquaint us with the protagonist’s background rather than rush headlong into elaborate fight sequences. Along the way, a few subtle hints are also dropped about what might be in store in IM2 and beyond.
It is established at the outset that Tony Stark, the CEO of Stark Industries, is a filthy rich, womanizing genius. For he is conspicuously absent from the festivities at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas where he was supposed to be receiving an award for his company’s service to the Military-Industrial Complex as the country’s leading weapons manufacturer.
But the AWOL bon vivant was more interested in impressing and seducing an attractive reporter (Leslie Bibb) at his sprawling, oceanfront Malibu estate. Fortunately, his faithful, frustrated womanservant and secret admirer, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), is always around to get her boss’ nose back to the grindstone.
The plot thickens soon after he lands in Afghanistan to demonstrate his latest invention, the Jericho Missile, for the benefit of the U.S. military brass. En route, the Humvee in which he’s riding is hit by a roadside bomb, and he ends up in a cave controlled by terrorists. Tony can’t help but notice that his captors are already somehow wielding weaponry produced by his company. And worse, they now want him to put his brain to work on their behalf to build the next generation missile.
What the insurgents don’t know is that Stark’s more worried about the life-threatening shrapnel permanently imbedded in his chest. So, instead of working for them, he secretly uses the next few months to build himself a suit of armor containing a mammoth electromagnet to prevent any metal fragments from reaching his heart. Eventually, he uses this outfit to morph into Iron Man, escape, and return to the States where he makes the shocking announcement that Stark Industries will be shutting down its munitions manufacturing division.
This decision doesn’t sit with his possibly double-dealing, right hand-man, Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges), and it also strains his longtime liaison with Lieutenant Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard) from the Department of Defense. But Stark remains resolute and determined to learn exactly how his guns landed in the hands of the enemy, even if that means he must reluctantly don that Iron Man suit one more time to kill in the name of peace.
A ‘Marvel’-ously cerebral superhero with a functioning conscience.

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG-13 for intense sci-fi violence and brief suggestive content.
Running time: 126 minutes
Studio: Paramount Pictures

African American Lives 2 DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Second Season of PBS Genealogy Series Arrives on DVD

A year ago, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates hosted a groundbreaking series on which he and eight other African-American icons explored their roots via a combination of genealogical and DNA research. The show was so successful, that PBS brought him back along with eleven new recruits curious about their lineage.
This go-round, the luminaries include actors Don Cheadle and Morgan Freeman, poet Maya Angelou, Olympian Jackie Joyner-Kersee, DJ Tom Joyner, singer Tina Turner. Ebony/Jet publisher Linda Johnson Rice, fellow Harvard Professor Reverend Peter Gomes, comedian Chris Rock and belatedly-black author Bliss Broyard.
The format features four episodes, the first focusing on each person’s 20th Century relatives. Episode Two traces Civil War era ancestors, while the third goes all the way back to the Colonial Period. DNA testing is introduced during the final episode, which is when the participants learn what per cent African, Asian, European and Native American they are. Some then venture to their respective homelands.
Highlights include Tom Joyner’s learning of the legal lynching of two of his grandmother’s brothers for the murder of a white man and the reading from a slave ship’s log about captives’ deaths from sickness and suicide. Then, there’s Ms. Angelou’s heartfelt insights about her strong connection to the Motherland, even in absentia when she wistfully reflects, “I don’t think you can ever leave home.”
Ironically, probably the series’ most compelling moments revolve around Ms. Broyard, daughter of the late New York Times literary critic, Anatole Broyard. For her light-skinned father passed for white from the age of 17. She talks about how she never knew she was part African-American until his death.
As moving, informative and fascinating a four hours as you can hope to find attempting to reconstruct the genealogy of black families torn asunder during the days of slavery.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 240 minutes
Studio: PBS/Paramount Home Entertainment

Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is… (Season Two) DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: BET’s #1 Rated Reality Series Released on DVD

Picture a cross between The Beverly Hillbillies and Jerry Spitzer and you have a good idea of what to expect from Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is, the highest rated series on the BET Network. The popular reality show offers viewers an unblinking look inside the dysfunctional family life of Keyshia Cole, the Grammy-nominated R&B diva who burst on the scene in 2005 with her platinum-selling debut album, also entitled The Way It Is.
There’s a reason why this TV program is #1 with viewers, namely, it appeals to an even lower common denominator than I Love New York and The Flavor of Love combined. The only reason to watch this jaw-dropping train wreck is if you enjoy laughing at trashy nouveau riche putting on airs while making absolute fools of themselves.
Keyshia’s kin are so impulsive, ignorant and self-destructive that giving them their 15 minutes of fame in this fashion borders on a cruel form of exploitation. First, there’s family matriarch, Frankie, a toothless, reformed crack whore and recently-paroled ex-con with seven children by lots of different men. (“We don’t like none of her Baby Daddies.”) She has no idea whether Ken, a stranger claiming to be Keyshia’s father, is telling the truth, so she asks him to take a DNA test.
Then there’s sister Neffe, an alcoholic with three young daughters. She’s married, technically, but her hubby left her for her first cousin a year ago. At the start of the series’ second season, Keyshia essentially rescues her relatives by relocating them away from their toxic environment in Oakland to a sprawling mansion in suburban Atlanta.
But bad habits die hard, despite unequivocal house rules, such as “no conjugal visits.” So, it is no surprise when Neffe somehow ends up pregnant again. Too bad kindhearted Keyshia can’t bring herself to listen to her financial advisor who suggests that she worry about herself and forget about everyone else.
Slumming for couch potatoes!

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 154 minutes
Studio: BET/Paramount Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, plus two featurettes, “Frankie Reveals” and “Meet Keyshia’s Glam Squad.”

How She Move DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams



Headline: Preppie Returns to Ghetto Roots in Dance Drama Out on DVD



Raya Green’s (Rutina Wesley) dreams of becoming a doctor seem to be dashed when her elder sister dies of a drug overdose. Sadly, the tragedy leaves her overworked West Indian parents so strapped financially that they can no longer afford their surviving daughter’s prep school tuition.

This means Raya will have to return home and attend the local public high school. Worse, she’ll have to try to survive the streets of the same crime-infested neighborhood that took her sibling’s life.

Back in the ‘hood, Raya puts her ambitions on hold temporarily and focuses more on fitting-in than on excelling, so she won’t be ostracized as an egghead. However, when she’s exposed for dumbing herself down at the blackboard by her math teacher, her punishment is to tutor a truly struggling classmate twice a week after hours.

Trouble is, like oil and water, the personalities of hard-edged Michelle (Tre Armstrong) and relatively-refined Raya don’t mix. What’s worse, Michelle doesn’t appreciate it when the newcomer suddenly starts hanging out with her “Step” crowd.

Rava’s curiosity about the elaborately-orchestrated dance routines was piqued when she learned about the upcoming Step Monster Competition with a $50,000 grand prize. She figures that if she can find a team that will allow her to join, she just might win the seed money to get her out of the ghetto again.

Although its premise might sound suspiciously similar to that of Stomp the Yard, How She Move is superior in almost every way, especially in terms of character development, chemistry and choreography.

Be prepared to root for Raya for the duration of this satisfying saga, as she sheds tears, studies and stomps her way to the big stage, all while handling an array of pressing teen dilemmas in a refreshingly intelligent fashion for an inner city melodrama.



Excellent (4 stars)

Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexuality and drug use.

Running time: 91 minutes

Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment

DVD Extras: Three behind-the-scenes featurettes and a theatrical trailer.

Without the King

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: The Misadventures of Mswati in Swaziland

King Mswati III is a benevolent despot ruling the tiny African nation of Swaziland with a velvet-gloved iron fist. This last absolute monarch on the continent governs just about the only sub-Saharan country somehow untouched by civil war or ethnic cleansing over the last 30 years. In contrast to such war-torn lands as Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Sudan, Swaziland has enjoyed a relatively-peaceful existence.
This, despite the fact that its citizens have a 42% AIDS rate and the world’s lowest life expectancy at 31. Plus, most of the population has to survive on about 63 cents a day, and are thus very dependent on donations from international charities just to survive.
Meanwhile, the royal family lives in the lap of luxury, starting with the king. He has 14 wives, and picks another new one to add to his harem from the 75,000 topless young virgins participating in the annual Reed Dance, a weeklong celebration of chastity.
He also owns 7 palaces, a fleet of luxury cars, the media and sugar industries, and most of the developed real estate. Plus, he has $45 billion stashed away in a Swiss bank for safekeeping. Political parties are banned in Swaziland, so the miserable plight of the people isn’t about to change any time soon in the absence of a revolution.
Besides Mswati, the film focuses on the decadent behavior of his spoiled-rotten eldest child, an airhead attending college in California. Well aware of the exploitation of her father’s subjects, this future queen sarcastically appraises the situation shortly before the curtain comes down, vaguely promising to make some changes while rolling her eyes.
We’re supposed to buy the idea that the Swazis will be saved by Africa’s answer to Paris Hilton? Yeah, right. Proof-positive that despotism and decadence comes in all colors.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
In English and Siswati with subtitles.
Running time: 84 minutes
Studio: First Run Features

Pact, The DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Three Black Boys from Newark Overcome Odds to Become Doctors

Rameck Hunt, Sampson Davis and George Jenkins grew up in a Newark ghetto where only about 3% of the kids went on to college. And their own prospects probably weren’t any better, given that they were each raised by a single mom in a broken home in a neighborhood blighted by gang violence, drugs, poverty, unemployment and crime.
Yet, this enterprising trio of best friends had the wherewithal to sense that a ticket out of their bleak surroundings might only be an education away. So, before the streets could gobble up their future, they made a mutual pact, promising to support each other in their shared dream of becoming doctors.
Against the odds, all three succeeded in that quest, Sampson and Rameck, as MDs, and George, as a dentist, and this uplifting bio-pic highlights the considerable hurdles they had to overcome on the road to success. For both of Rameck’s parents were crackheads, and he recounts how he’d pray to God everyday asking that just one of them be able to kick the habit.
Sampson, we learn, did a stint in juvenile prison for armed robbery, and had a sister who was HIV+. And George talks about how the absence of a male role model meant he never learned how to do many things most boys take for granted, such as how to shave or tie a tie.
But ultimately, all three came through with flying colors and, despite their busy medical practices, remain very committed to creating academic opportunities for kids still stuck in the slums. In this regard, the film frequently focuses on the fortunes of Malique, their 12 year-old protégé who also serves as narrator.
Overall, an inspiring affirmation of the power of friendship, courage, determination, hard work and faith to sustain even those seemingly trapped in the most dire of circumstances.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 84 minutes
Studio: Spark Media

What Would Jesus Buy? DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Super-Size Jesus

This tongue-in-cheek documentary questions the degree to which America has commercialized Christmas. The film features Reverend Billy Talen, a colorful character who travels across the country accompanied by the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir, confronting frantic shoppers in malls right at the height of the holiday season.
Declaring Mickey Mouse the anti-Christ, this flamboyant man of the cloth mounts a soap box to inform anybody who’ll listen that “The Disney Company still presides over sweatshops all around the world.” He conducts impromptu man on the street interviews, asking folks to have a conscience about their purchases.
Unfortunately, his passionate pleas fall mostly on deaf ears and do little to discourage the determined consumers he encounters, despite his dire warning of the coming Shopocalypse. Instead, he’s mostly treated as a nuisance by mall security and local police who routinely either arrest him or escort him off the premises.
Nonetheless, the movie does drive home a powerful point, namely, that Christmas has lost most of its religious significance and come to revolve around gift-giving. Pointing out that most Christians spend more time worshipping retail items in malls than Jesus in church, he challenges believers to find something more meaningful to do than shopping.
He’s supported in this endeavor by several experts, including Harvard Professor Dr. Alvin Poussaint who laments how since birth we’ve been “conditioned to associate material goods with the symbol of love.” Ditto Reverend Andrew Young who makes a cameo appearance in which he reminds us of Christ’s teaching to “Feed the hungry, clothe the naked and heal the sick.”
But the real star of this show is the irrepressible Reverend Billy who is as hilarious as he is thought-provoking, and thus apt to keep you in stitches as you contemplate spiritual alternatives to material satisfaction. Merry Capitalism!

Excellent (4 stars)
PG for mature themes and mild epithets.
Running time: 91 minutes
Studio: Arts Alliance America
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, printable lyrics to the choir’s unique Christmas carols, and an 8-minute public access show featuring Reverend Billy and the choir.

Cloverfield DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Hair-Raising Horror Flick Arrives on DVD

Reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project, this cleverly-conceived screamfest was shot entirely with a shaky hand-held camera operated by one of the film’s central characters. A similarly limited-perspective proved compelling in Blair, which had been billed as based on a videotape supposedly found at the site of a slaughter.
Cloverfield opens with a cryptic statement that the top-secret tape you are about to watch is the property of the Department of the Defense. However, the initial half-hour looks more like a soap opera than a spine-tingling thriller. The fun starts in Jason Hawkins’ (Mike Vogel) spacious New York apartment with a bird’s eye view of the city’s skyline. With the help of his girlfriend, Lily (Jessica Lucas) Jason is greeting guests arriving for the surprise going away party he’s throwing for his brother, Rob (Michael Stahl-David) who’ll soon be moving to Japan.
Jason directs their buddy, Hud (T.J. Miller), to film the festivities, and to record individual farewells as a keepsake. Then, just when you’ve forgotten that this is supposed to be a horror movie, the building shakes and the power goes out. The partygoers rush to the window to witness chaos and devastation unfolding as far as the eyes, or should I say camcorder, can see: from flattened cars to flying projectiles to crumbling skyscrapers to fleeing pedestrians unleashing bloodcurdling screams while looking over their shoulders.
At this juncture, the movie morphs into a harrowing tale of survival featuring seasick cinematography, and it becomes pretty clear that some destructive unseen force has been released and is about to cause major mayhem all around Manhattan. And the only record of the desperate struggle which ensues is a chilling videotape, a spellbinding masterpiece also known as Cloverfield.

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images.
Running time: 84 minutes
Studio: Paramount Home Video
DVD Extras: Deleted scenes, alternative endings, outtakes, director’s commentary, “The Making of Cloverfield” and other featurettes.

Constantine's Sword

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Ex-Jesuit Priest Takes Critical Look at Violence Committed in the Name of Christianity

There was a precedent to Vice President Cheney’s remark made to Tim Russert on Meet the Press five days after September 11th that he would happily accept the head of Osama bin Laden on a platter. For over the course of several centuries, starting in about 1095, legions of Catholics had ventured from Europe to the Middle East with the intention of conquering the Holy Land in the name of Christianity, and all with the blessing of the reigning pope.
It was not unusual for soldiers participating in the Crusades to consider themselves virtuous for returning home with the head of a Muslim or a Jew on the end of a stick. Given that fanatical religious legacy, one can understand why someone might be inclined to examine America’s involvement in the region in a new light.
And just such an inquiry is the focus of Constantine's Sword, an informative look at the violent side of Christianity. The picture is narrated by James Carroll, a former Catholic cleric who abandoned the priesthood when he found himself plagued by nagging doubts about the historical links of his Church to papal-sanctioned ethnic cleansing.
He asks, “How did the Cross become a rallying symbol for persecution?” “How does one man who loves the Church confront its history of crusade and conquest?” “Why are intolerance, violence and war so deeply ingrained in religion?” It seems that he didn’t feel comfortable continuing to serve as a recruiter for a faith with so much blood on its hands.
Carroll, now married with two children, tackles these thorny issues by honestly reviewing the behavior of evangelical Christians from the time of Constantine all the way up to the present. He finds that proselytizing was popular not only in the Middle Ages but is still flourishing today in the U.S. Air Force Academy where pressure is being routinely applied to cadets to swear allegiance to both the United States and to Jesus.
With God as your co-pilot, especially “The right God,” it’s probably a lot easier to rationalize bombing godless heathen civilians back to the Stone Age without a second thought. A powerful documentary which makes the case that the faith-based fanaticism that has destabilize the planet has been fueled as much by the West as by radical Islam.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 96 minutes
Studio: First Run Features

The Souls of Black Girls

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Provocative Documentary Examines Image of Black Females Propagated by the Media

Why have African-American women become so maligned by popular culture that we have a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Karen Hunter, writing a best seller seriously posing the question, “Are black women necessary?” And how has this shocking state of affairs affected the psyches of the sisters of the Hip-Hop Generation shaped during the dominance of gangsta’ rap, an age marked by misogyny and an embracing of a European standard of beauty?
These are the questions posed by The Souls of Black Girls, a provocative documentary which suggests that African-American females are suffering from a form of self-image disorder. Produced and directed by Daphne Valerius, this provocative examination of a timely subject features sage contributions from such icons as actresses Regina Hall, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Juanita Jennings and Amelia Marshall, PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill, Public Enemy’s Chuck D, BET producer Darlise Blount, Essence Magazine fashion editor Pamela Edwards, historian Dr. Lez Edmond and cultural critic Michaela Angela Davis.
These famous faces share screen time with several representatives of the demographic being discussed, articulate teens who weigh-in with their heartfelt feelings on hot-button issues ranging from their dating desirability to skin color preferences to hair straightening to absentee fathers to promiscuity to their weights and shapes. The overall point being driven home is that they are generally frustrated by their inability to measure up to an unachievable ideal which places thin white females with hour-glass figures up on a pedestal.
Apparently, out of a sense of desperation to be seen as attractive, some girls compromise their values by engaging in binge dieting and unprotected sex in an attempt to mimic the lewd behavior of the scantily-clad dancers they see cavorting seductively in rap videos. Unfortunately, in those exploitative, masturbatory male fantasies, as Dr. Edmond points out, “Black women are very rarely presented as something to be respected.”
The film also asks, “Have black men abandoned black women?” with one expert suggesting that slavery might be responsible for that fragmented relationship. Others, however, see the phenomenon as a relatively-recent development, an outgrowth of a BET-led trend toward a sexualizing and debasing of the African-American female.
Ms. Hall bemoans that we have “a whole generation of lost women who don’t that it’s okay to be you.” Meanwhile, Jada reflects upon having herself gone “through a period of shame.” Fortunately, the participants are ultimately optimistic and offer positive solutions, such as Ms. Ifill who proudly asserts “My beauty has value” and finds satisfaction when greeted by young aspiring journalists who see her as a role model.
An overdue debate about who gets to define what is beautiful.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 52 minutes
Distributor: Femme Noire Productions

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Crime Saga Courtesy of Legendary Sidney Lumet Comes to DVD

Though well into his eighties, Sidney Lumet hasn’t lost his edge. Exhibit A is this masterfully-crafted, multi-layered murder mystery by the legendary director which earned the #3 spot on this critic’s Top Ten List for 2007.
At the point of departure of the tawdry tale of greed and betrayal, we find Andy Hanson (Philip Seymour Hanson) in the heat of passion with his high-maintenance trophy wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei). Despite pulling down a decent salary as a corporate executive in New York City, seems that he can’t make enough money to support both his heroin habit and keep her happy with her lavish lifestyle.
He comes up with a solution to the problem, namely, to rob a mom-and-pop jewelry store in a suburban mall. And he already has a place picked out, the one owned by his parents up in Westchester.
So, he enlists the assistance of his struggling brother in hatching what’s supposed to be the perfect crime. What Andy doesn’t know is that Hank (Ethan Hawke) is a shameless backstabber who has been secretly carrying on a passionate affair with Gina. Although initially hesitant, he agrees to enter the conspiracy because he’s several months behind in child support to his vindictive ex-wife (Amy Ryan) and doesn’t want to be denied visitation.
Needless to say, some of the best laid plans go awry, and the confederate (Brian O’Byrne) Hank hires to pull off the heist ends up mortally wounding their mother (Rosemary Harris) in an unanticipated exchange of gunfire. He dies at the scene, too, during the commission of the crime, which means it’s just a matter of time before circumstantial evidence starts to point at the grieving siblings.
With the cops, the triggerman’s widow (Aleska Palladino), a blackmailing mobster (Michael Shannon) and their own disconsolate father (Alberty Finney) all closing in, perhaps the best the despicable pair can hope for is summed up in the Irish saying from which the film takes its title: “May you be in heaven, half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.”
Vintage Lumet!

Excellent (4 stars)
Rated R for nudity, violence, drug use, profanity and graphic sexuality.
Running time: 117 minutes
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Extras: Director and cast commentary, “The Making of” featurette, and a theatrical trailer.

Jellyfish (Meduzot) ISRAELI

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Women’s Lives Whimsically Intertwine in Serendipitous Israeli Adventure

In recent years, some of the most intriguing, feminist dramas have been coming out of Israel. The character-driven Nina’s Tragedies and Close to Home come immediately to mind. You can now add Jellyfish to that impressive list, a surreal adventure which whimsically intertwines the lives of several women whose paths crisscross in present-day Tel Aviv.
The fulcrum of the plot is provided by the plight of heartsick Batya (Sarah Adler), a waitress working at the wedding of Karen (Noa Knoller) and Michael (Gera Sandler). Shortly past the point of departure, we learn that the couple’s plans for a Caribbean honeymoon are ruined when the bride breaks her ankle after accidentally locking herself in a bathroom.
So, they opt to take a room right on the ground floor of the beachfront hotel hosting their reception. Supportive Michael soon finds himself waiting hand and foot on his suddenly whiny wife, and it’s obvious that he must be more than a little annoyed with her when he has his head turned by the flirtatious poet staying in the penthouse.
Elsewhere, we find Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), a homesick nurse missing the five year-old son she had to leave behind in her native Philippines. It doesn’t help any that although she asked to be assigned childcare because she doesn’t speak any Hebrew, her agency hired her out to Malka (Zaharira Harifai), an elderly woman who is not only grouchy, but bigoted to boot. Despite Joy’s exhibiting the patience of a saint, Malka would prefer to live with her daughter, an actress busily preparing to appear in a production of Hamlet directed by an Arab.
These assorted threads are woven together ever so subtly via the meanderings of Batya, a forlorn soul who besides being left by her boyfriend has had the rent recently raised on her dilapidated apartment. The carefree slacker reacts by drinking water dripping from a hole in the ceiling, and by adopting a naked, freckle-faced, five year-old (Nikol Leidman) she finds frolicking alone along the Mediterranean shore.
But after bonding, Batya becomes frantic when the mute little girl disappears almost as mysteriously as she had arrived. Then, back at the resort, jealousy rears its ugly head as Karen starts to wonder why her husband’s new friend has so generously offered to swap rooms.
In Jellyfish, always of more consequence than the give-and-take of any of the superficial personal dramas are the complicated cultural and psychological issues simmering just under the surface. Like Amelie with an attitude, this sinister flick links strangers serendipitously, but with an almost shocking absence of naivete.



Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
In Hebrew, French and English with subtitles.
Running time: 78 minutes
Studio: Zeitgeist Films

Stalags (ISRAELI)

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Documentary Examines Nazi-Themed Pornography Popularized in Israel in the Sixties

Who would think that Israel would be the birthplace of Nazi-themed pornographic paperbacks laced with lurid tales of buxom blondes in SS uniforms torturing concentration camp prisoners and ? That is exactly what transpired back in the early Sixties, and right around the same time that Adolf Eichmann was being tried in Jerusalem for committing crimes against humanity.
This salacious genre of pocketbooks published in Tel Aviv debuted with “Stalag 13,” a title which sold over 800,000 copies. And that initial best seller was soon followed by other increasingly-perverse accounts of sexplicit cruelty which eventually escalated to descriptions of cannibalism and incest.
Released under several pseudonyms such as Mike Longshot, Ralph Butcher and Mike Baden, the stories were rumored to have been published previously overseas in English before being translated into Hebrew. Truth be told, however, they originated in Israel and specifically targeted Jewish readers.
The big surprise was that they found a wide audience, and not just in the dirty old man demographic. Historians believe that they managed to capture the imagination of Israeli society because discussion of the Holocaust had been suppressed due to the survivors’ general inability to talk about their horrific experiences.
Consequently, in the absence of authentic autobiographies by real concentration camp victims, these “Stalags” not only filled the void but, worse, were embraced as factual memoirs rather than repudiated as trashy literature. In Israel, the phenomenon only died down when the authors were successfully sued by the government for the distribution of anti-Semitic pornography.
Unfortunately, by then irreversible damage had already been done, as they had so permeated the country’s consciousness that some books were apart of the high school curriculum. Furthermore, as revealed by this informative documentary, tour guides of Auschwitz today still quote from the works of one of the repudiated writers to suggest that Jewish women willingly lavished sexual favors on their Nazi captors in order to be spared, when there were no anecdotal reports or official records of any such behavior of this nature.
A chilling expose’ which shows how Holocaust internees have been victimized twice, violated again by purveyors of smut who would stoop so low as to fabricate a pack of sadomasochistic lies for a quick buck.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
In Hebrew with subtitles.
Running time: 63 minutes
Distributor: Film Forum

The Dhamma Brothers

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Inmates Find Inner Peace thru Meditation in Death Row Documentary

A maximum security prison isn’t the sort of place you’d expect to find a bunch of men mutely contemplating their navels and the meaning of life. But that’s what we find Alabama’s Donaldson State Penitentiary, where Warden Stephen Bullard opted to allow Jonathan Crowley to introduce an East Indian brand of meditation known as Vipassana to volunteers plucked from among the institution’s most hardened criminals.
The participants adopting the ascetic regimen understood that the initiation meant that for ten days straight they would not be allowed to talk, watch TV, use a phone, have sex or imbibe intoxicants. Those able to meet the challenge discovered that they emerged from the program calmer and with a new sense of purpose when they rejoined the general population.
The Dhamma Brothers, directed by Andrew Kukura, Jenny Phillips and Anne Marie Stein examines the before and after mindsets of the cons converted to the Eastern spiritual path. This fascinating film focuses on a quartet of contrite individuals, starting with Edward Curry Johnson, a once-promising student-athlete who was being scouted by pro baseball when, against his better judgment, he foolishly took part in a gang-related homicide.
Then, there’s Death Row inmate Grady Bankhead, who confesses here to being a co-conspirator in a plot which left its victim with a severed head and a torso mutilated by about 80 stab wounds. I’ll spare you the details of the felonies committed by Benjamin “OB” Oryang or Rick Smith, but trust me, they’re no choir boys either.
Yet, they all made amazing transformations via Vipassana, despite the fact that none have much hope of ever being paroled. Based on their mild-mannered demeanors, it seems that they really have come around to accepting responsibility for their horrendous deeds while making peace with still having to pay their debt to society.
Unfortunately, midway through the movie, we learn that Alabama’s Commissioner of Corrections ordered the program disbanded when he learned that it was turning so many in the jail from Christianity to a mysterious religious practice he considered occult. Afterall, ‘Bama is in the heart of the Bible Belt, and as one unsympathetic local yokel says, “I don’t believe in Buddhism or any type of witchcraft.”
Perhaps the picture’s most astute observation is made by a concerned counselor who points to the Dhamma Brothers as “proof that people don’t need to be incarcerated for their entire lives to be appropriately punished for their crimes.” A timely argument to give cons a second chance, given the fact that the country simply can no longer afford to keep so many hopeless souls locked behind bars.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 76 minutes
Studio: Balcony Releasing

The 11th Hour DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Discusses the Perilous Plight of the Planet Due to Global Warming

Anyone who watches The 11th Hour is likely to come away convinced that saving the planet from extinction ought to be high atop every advanced and developing nation’s political agenda. Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, this chilling expose’ makes an even more convincing case than An Inconvenient Truth that time is of the essence, if there’s to be any hope for humanity to halt the trend towards global warming.
Where Al Gore’s Oscar-winner was essentially a “before” and “after” lecture delivered by the former Vice President standing on a stage pointing at a series of slides, this dire documentary features convincing contributions from a diversity of dozens of experts out in the field, including acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking, CIA Director James Woolsey and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev. Backed by damning film footage, their assorted observations combine to lead to the conclusion that there is a burgeoning crisis in terms of climate change which borders on irreversible if allowed to continue unabated.
The good news is that most of the blame for the predicament is placed right at the feet of the human race, which means the solution to the problem is also within our grasp. Ironically, it appears that the man-made technological advances associated with the Industrial Revolution simultaneously led to the runaway consumption of fossil fuels now causing the rapid depletion of natural resources.
As a consequence of the rise in the Earth’s temperature and the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere, we are witnessing a marked increase in such natural disasters as wildfires, drought, the melting of the ice caps, deforestation, air and water pollution, disease, the depletion of the ozone layer, etcetera. The segment of the scientific community consulted here has arrived at a scary consensus, namely that, left unchecked, this rapid degeneration will inexorably lead to planetary conditions which will no longer support life.
Overall, a cautionary tale sounding the alarm that we’re close to the tipping point of wholesale ecological disaster, if not already irreversibly past it.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 124 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
DVD Extras: “The Bonus Hour,” more than 60 minutes of extras exploring action plans for rescuing the planet.