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Jasper Mall 2020
It's Frederick Wiseman's Russian Ark, guided by a Kiwi Joe Exotic.
This movie is an elegy for End Stage Capitalism. It's the last gasp of a pre-COVID society that failed us on every level, from 2019 Alabama to 2021 Texas. I hope that if this is the end of shopping malls -- an institution I love more than any rational person should -- it is the precursor to a more equitable and just society.
It may have been tempting for…
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Better Luck Tomorrow 2002
With shades of movies like GoodFellas, Menace II Society and Brick (which came later), Better Luck Tomorrow is an expertly-crafted crime story by an extremely talented filmmaker, Justin Lin.
Mostly because of my distaste for all things MTV, it took me a full 20 years before I was able to see this movie. I'm really glad I pulled the trigger on it, and not just because Jerry Mathers shows up in the first 10 minutes.
The movie starts in media…
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The Most Hated Man on the Internet 2022
It goes without saying that Hunter Moore is one of the most despicable, execrable people of the internet era. But what do we make of the infrastructure that supported him? Girlfriends who didn't speak up. Police officers who didn't listen. Magazine writers who unwittingly fed his celebrity. Twitter FOR FUCKS SAKE giving Moore free reign to terrorize people and call violence upon them.
But perhaps worst of all is The Family, Moore's band of internet trolls who acted as his…
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Comedian 2002
It's one thing to be funny. It's another thing to entirely to be a Comedian. Such is the thesis of this portrait of two stand-up comics.
One of the comics is Jerry Seinfeld, one of the greatest, and inarguably most heralded comic of the last three decades. The other is Orny Adams, a young, brash upstart. The contrast between the two drives the film.
While Orny is a nobody, he boldly demands respect, gets upset by hecklers, blames crowds for…
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