Change Your Image
douglasgreenberg
Reviews
America Revealed (2012)
Fantastic Show - Bring it back!
This series is awesome. It explains the complex systems that make American life work. Things like our food system, transportation system, power and manufacturing. Not just by telling. But showing them in their entirety, in action, doing their everyday work.
Why oh why did they only made 4 episodes?
Yul Kwon is an intelligent and thoroughly engaging host. And there are so many rocks left unturned. Things like our water system, health care system, Wall Street system and (one particularly dear to my heart as a tax attorney), tax system. These are just a few. The concept is fantastic. The opportunities are endless. Somebody, please get this guy back in production.
16 Acres (2012)
Superb Documentary
Sadly, the story of 9/11 is one that's often been stolen - by politicians using it as a backdrop for endless grandstanding, by conspiracy theorists convinced of cover-ups, by real (and fabricated) heroes seeking lionization, and by so many others who have manipulated it for their own agendas.
Now, finally, a single documentary gives us the real story. "16 Acres" is a documentary on the decade-long planning process of rebuilding the World Trade Center site. It shows the massive number of stakeholders who together create a cacophony of input. Design decisions must be made in a tug-o-war between victims' families, residents, the media, an alphabet soup of govt agencies, politicians and private interests.
As one person says, it's an impossible job. Not only because of the number of voices. But because the public expects to do with buildings, what buildings just can't do - heal a wounded nation, renew American confidence, console those in grief, etc.
Watching it all unfold - you might hope that for once, people could just unite and be understanding of one another. Instead, sadly, they doggedly pursue their own interests, as if wearing horse blinders to everyone else.
The process is ugly. But in the end, it produces something beautiful. Not because the design is most ideal. But because it represents compromise. A truly American compromise, which could only have come from the manifold voices, all shouting at each another until finally something emerged.
Now, thanks to this documentary, that is what 9/11 will forever mean to me. My highest rating.
Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi (2006)
Enjoyable, but no 'Stoked!'
An enjoyable, albeit formulaic documentary of another fallen skateboard star from the 1980s. Rising Son, similar to Helen Stickler's 2002 documentary, "Stoked! The Rise and Fall of Gator", chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of a 1980s skateboarder, in yet another cautionary, VH1-esque tale about the dangers of fame.
The film's subject, Christian Hosoi, is a flamboyantly charismatic skateboarder who captures the energy and youth spirit of early professional skateboarding. We watch as Hosoi's style-driven aerial acrobatics, exhibitionism and campy, vibrant-colored clothing make him an overnight celebrity and fashion icon. Then, just as suddenly, trends change and Hosoi descends into the fathoms as he succumbs to a drug addiction. Years later, in jail and at rock bottom, he finds his salvation in religion.
Overall, Rising Son is a likable, television quality documentary about a youth celebrity's misadventure, steep fall from grace and sobering redemption. Disappointingly, it lacks the skillful organization and power of Stickler's film.
While "Stoked!" was a cogent biography of the fame-addicted Gator, 'Rising Son' is but a piecemeal collage of Hosoi, stapling together stock footage and repetitive sound bites from a hodge podge of interviews. Often, it's like a garage party of old skateboarders endlessly reminiscing about their Hosoi, the mythologized version that they like to remember. Nevertheless, it's still an interesting, highly watchable documentary - even if it's flank steak next to Stickler's sirloin.
The Iceman and the Psychiatrist (2003)
Chilling
This 3-part series blends stock footage together with interviews of Richard Kuklinski, better known as the Ice Man, a notorious mafia killer. From behind bars, Kuklinski shares his experience as a professional hit-man on camera. The result is slow at times, and somewhat repetitive, but it is a chilling look at an extremely dangerous man.
Kuklinski earned his title, Ice Man, by freezing his bodies to confuse their time of death. The nickname, it turned out, was a good one. Not just because of his clever techniques. But because of his total lack of emotion.
At the start of the program, the Ice Man is asked how many people he has killed. He smiles softly, then stares pensively for a moment. He guesses maybe 100 people. He doesn't really know for sure. At this point we're a little confused. Kuklinski comes across as thoughtful, honest, and adjusted. Not the monster we expected. He has a gentle sense of humor. Disturbingly, he even seems like a decent man. How could he have killed that many people?
As the program continues however, Kuklinski talks about his career. Slowly, this psychological puzzle of a person starts coming together. As he goes into the killings, which were in many cases, bloody and horrifically disgusting, Kuklinski shows almost no emotion. The interviewer asks if he feels remorse. He pauses, then shakes his head no. The interviewer wants to know if he liked doing the murders. He thinks again, then shakes his head no. If he had the choice, he says, he'd prefer to have not killed all those people.
As it goes on we begin to understand what the Ice Man is. And he is truly frightening. Kuklinski is no movie villain. He is a sane man. A stone cold sane man. A sane man with no regard for human life. We could be his best friend. It wouldn't matter.
In the third segment, which is the most interesting, a forensic psychiatrist diagnoses Kuklinski with antisocial disorder and paranoia - a deadly combination of constant edginess, including the need to get immediately even with people who challenge him, and a complete lack of fear. Although this may sound like an admirable kind of toughness, we just don't get that feeling from Kuklinski. It is creepy how vacant he is. Even he is confused by his own lack of feelings.
Although the Ice Man is now dead - he was alive when this documentary came out. And it must have felt very good to know that he was behind bars.
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (2004)
Perfect
What a perfect documentary. What a master Ken Burns is. Unforgivable is the story of the indestructible Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion, whose legendary style downed even the toughest white contenders inside the ring, and sent almost every white American into a frenzy of racial contempt for him, outside the ring.
Jack Johnson is such a rich subject; it seems we could never tire of him. He was the rags to riches American dream. He was the champ who repulsed an entire generation of whites - refuting their fundamental belief that blacks were by nature inferior beings. He was the pioneer that paved the way for future black athletes, who had formerly been relegated to Negro leagues. And he was the social trailblazer as well, integrating with whites in unprecedented and often dangerous ways.
Now Burns has reconstructed his life in and outside the ring through this wonderful collection of photos, interviews, film reels and archival documents. In short, I've seen no other documentary that so pungently depicts the black struggle to be accepted, and indeed, free in America.