JustCuriosity Reviews

Join or Die (2023)

An Important Documentary on America's Social Fabric

[9/10 · 25 March 2023]

Join or Die was enthusiastically received at its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. As a political scientist, I appreciate what the film makers have done. They have taken the theories of Professor Bob Putnam, a relatively obscure political scientist (who I read in grad school), and presented them in a highly accessible way for the general public.

Putnam's argument is essentially that America's divisions today are rooted in the decline of our social capital as fewer Americans join clubs and organizations. Whether or not, he has found the true cause of our divisions is debatable. It could also be argued that people join fewer organizations, because they have less free time, because of increased economic inequality. Thus he may be mixing up the cause and the effect. That said, it is an important debate and one that the American public should be more engaged in.

I'd also add that the pattern that Putnam is describing is only likely to continue to grow as we turn from in-person networking to online social networks. Online networks can never fully duplicate the relationships that are developed from face-to-face contact. Sadly, I expect the pattern that Putnam describes to continue.

The documentary is well worth watching for all those trying to understand the problems in our civic culture today. The film makers have done an excellent job of taking a complex academic debate and making it accessible and available. I hope the film is made widely available for the public and for students reading Putnam in academic settings.

Going Varsity in Mariachi (2023)

A Sweet Endearing Documentary about High School Mariachi Competitors

[9/10 · 18 March 2023]

Going Varsity in Mariachi was lovingly welcomed in its Texas Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. This is the story of kids from a poor community trying to find themselves in a musical form that epitomizes their Hispanic heritage. They are also using it as an opportunity to escape poverty and access higher education. Folks in the theater were tearing up as they watched this beautiful film.

The story is a simple one and sometimes those make the best films. As an educator, I loved the hard work and dedication of their teacher. The students faced a variety of challenges that are typical of young people - mostly seniors - trying to find their place in the world. They are struggling to prioritize as they transition from children to young adults. The film takes us through their year of struggles and Mariachi competitions with all of its ups-and-downs. Sometimes simple straight-forward stories are the best. This is a very enjoyable film that tells an uplifting tale of education in Texas at a time when public education and educators are under attack. Highly recommended.

The New Americans: Gaming a Revolution (2023)

The Confusing Frenetic Examination of America's Online Financial Future

[7/10 · 18 March 2023]

The New Americans was well-received at its world premiere at SXSW Film Festival. It attempts to explain the world of grassroots day trading among a subset of younger Americans. It explores their world on forums like Reddit and their efforts to compete with the big hedge funds - particularly around Gamestop and Cryptocurrency. It also links this to the dark world white supremacy and January 6. The film paints a well-edited story in which finance has become a game driven by memes and message boards. It is unclear if the participants are pioneers of new world, hucksters making a fast buck, or a completely lost generation.

The problem is that the argument is messy and unclear. It is unclear at times whether they are cheerleading or critiquing this world and the outcomes. Sometimes they seem to be portraying it is a heroic attempt to take down the big hedge funds traders. Sometimes they seem to be painting much of it a corrupt pyramid scheme. While it is entertaining to watch, it is often baffling. In order to present in an accessible manner there are way too many anecdotal interviews with participants and far too little scholarly analysis. The connections between the retail traders, white supremacists, cryptocurrency and going off the gold standard remain a bit mysterious. In the end, the argument is confusing and troubling. The directors are well-intentioned, but the result while entertaining, is a bit unsatisfying. There is the potential for a good film here, but this one doesn't feel like it is finished.

Riders on the Storm (2023)

An Important Documentary about Afghanistan at a Crucial Juncture

[10/10 · 18 March 2023]

Riders on the Storm was warmly received in its world premiere at SXSW Film Festival. The filmmakers use a cinema verite approach to examine Afghanistan in 2021 when the US pulled out, the government collapsed, and the Taliban took over. The creative lens that the film makers use to examine daily life in Afghanistan is the traditional ancient Afghan sport of buzkashi. Buzkashi is a competition in which horsemen compete in a soccer-like competition in which the "ball" is a dead headless goat. In a sense the sport shows both the traditional and the modernizing aspects of Afghani culture.

The film profiles a leading Afghan athlete, Khaiber - a sort of Afghani Tom Brady - as his team plays for the national championship. The filming of the competitions are quite powerful. The sport will likely strike Westerners as rather primitive, but it has its own beauty to it. This part is almost anthropological in its behind-the-scenes examination of sport and its athletes.

Then the film shifts from a sports documentary to one about the collapse of the government and the takeover by the extremist Taliban regime. It shows Khaiber and his family as they experience the violence and religious extremism as Afghanistan is transformed and they have to make critical decisions about their own future.

Because of the nature of the society, even before the Taliban takeover, the voice of Afghan women is noticeably absent. Interestingly, their absence probably says more about their status than their words would have.

The film is a valuable examination of the modern-day tragedy playing out in Afghanistan. It is highly recommended for all those trying to see behind the curtain into the realities of life in today's Afghanistan.

Satan Wants You (2023)

A Provocative Documentary about the origin of 1980s Satanic Panic

[9/10 · 16 March 2023]

Satan Wants You was well-received at its world premiere at SXSW Film Festival. Satan Wants You explores the story of how a book by Michelle Smith and her psychiatrist Lawrence Pazdur supposedly based on her recovered memories produced a worldwide panic about supposed Satanists torturing children. Much of this panic turned out to be utter nonsense that made millions for therapists and TV shows. The history of how this happened is absolutely fascinating. It appears as if it may have been initially well-intentioned, but the result destroyed many lives. It also shows how easy it is to manipulate human memory. It suggests the need for great skepticism about any recollection based on so-called recovered memories.

The film reconstructs the time and events through interviews with the participants and video from the period. It is an enjoyable and provocative historical examination. While the originally Satanic Panic finally died out, it has reappeared again in recent years in the more politicized version of the QAnon conspiracy. This film is recommended to those who are intrigued by history and the nature of human memory. It is truly a story of how the road to hell can be paved with good intentions.

A Disturbance in the Force (2023)

An Enjoyable "Making of" of a Cult Star Wars failure

[9/10 · 16 March 2023]

A Disturbance in the Force was enthusiastically received at its world premiere at SXSW Film Festival. This is a film for all of us who grew up on Star Wars; I saw the first Star Wars film in the theater when I was 7 years old. It examines the mysterious "Making of" the Star Wars Holiday Special (broadcast once in the U. S. on November 17, 1978 on CBS). The film provides the autopsy of a disaster when sci-fi people were working with variety show people in an failed attempt to produce Christmas special for kids (mainly to promote Star Wars merchandise for Xmas). This entertaining documentary, which doesn't take itself too seriously, explains how this well-intended project produced an epic failure. In so many ways, the making of a failure is much more interesting than the making of a success.

The script and acting of the Holiday Special are horrendous. Lucasfilm has refused to make it available so it is only available in the form of Betamax copies of the original broadcast that originally circulated on VHS and DVD and are now available on YouTube. Lucasfilm is too embarrassed to release so that it has become an underground cult classic. Through interviews with the participants, the film tells the hilarious story of the making of this beloved campy failure that centers on Chewbacca trying to get home to his family to celebrate the Wookie Holiday of "Life Day."

This is a fun documentary that all true fans will appreciate. After seeing it I watched the original special on YouTube. It is unwatchable, but good, because it is so bad.

Confessions of a Good Samaritan (2023)

A Intriguing Documentary about the Nature of Altruistic Behavior

[8/10 · 15 March 2023]

Confessions of a Good Samaritan was well-received in its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. Penny Lane takes us on circuitous journey through her decision to make an altruistic kidney donation to a stranger. She explores the nature of altruism in a humorous and revealing manner. Strangely, the journey seems a bit self-absorbed as she tries to explain and justify her own altruistic behavior. Her actions are laudable and selfless even as she seems deeply neurotic and insecure about what she is doing and why. Still, the documentary is entertaining and engaging. It would be a useful supplement for Philosophy classes on Ethics. Recommended for those interested in reflecting on the nature of self and selflessness.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (II) (2023)

Inspirational Biography of Michael J. Fox's Remarkable Journey

[10/10 · 15 March 2023]

Still was warmly and enthusiastically received at the SXSW Film Festival. An overflow crowd gave the film and its subject a standing ovation. Unlike your usual Hollywood Biopic, Still is an inspiring story of young, and perhaps somewhat superficial, movie star journey from celebrity to hero.

The creative presentation shows the present-day disabled Fox struggling with the consequences of Parkinson's Disease and uses that as a jumping off point for his telling the story of how we went from struggling actor to mega Hollywood star. Then it journeys through his diagnosis with Parkinson's which he initially hid from the public as well as his struggle with alcoholism. Eventually, it shows the evolution of his role as he emerges as inspiration to millions who struggle with Parkinson's and many other disorders. His extraordinary fundraising efforts are a celebration of the human spirit. His dignity and decency in the face of an incurable disease are truly inspiring.

The creative format of Guggenheim's film is fascinating, because he uses a mix of clips from Fox's TV and movies along with a series of recreations framed by modern day interviews to tell Fox's story. It is told with great humor and grace.

For anyone of a certain age, Michael J. Fox was a cultural icon. Back to the Future is one of the iconic cultural markers of the 1980s. And Still really is in and of itself, appropriately enough, a journey back in time. In a time where we seem to lack heroes, Michael J. Fox is one and this film provides a great tribute to him.

Food and Country (2023)

A Valuable Documentary that Fits Together a lot of Pieces of the Food Puzzle

[9/10 · 15 March 2023]

Food and Country was well-received at the SXSW Film Festival. It is an extremely well-research documentary that explores the nature of food production and distribution within US capitalist system. The film uses cases studies of smaller independent farmers, ranchers, fisherman and restauranteurs to explore the complexities of our food system. It shows how our system was structured historically to gradually consolidate food production into a oligopoly of large producers who are able to mass produce inexpensive food.

This system has all sorts of implications. It reduces the quality and healthiness of the food supply. It undermines the business model of small farmers - and particularly small-scale African-American farmers. It negatively impacts the environment. It undermines small restaurants trying to produce healthier fare at reasonable prices. It also undermines the wage scale for workers in both agriculture and restaurants.

Through a series of case studies against Food and Country intricately lays out all of these impacts on human life and health against the background of the pandemic in 2020-2021 which exacerbated all of these long-standing issues. It focus on the smaller scale solutions such as organic farming and farm-to-table production that cuts out the middle-scale wholesalers. It sets up, but doesn't fully examine ways in which the reform of the food system can produce greater economic and social justice in the broader society.

This film does an excellent job of exploring the nuances of a very complicated and underexamined system. It is recommended for those who want to gain a more systematic understanding of how we are all shaped by what eat.

Plan C (2023)

A Powerful Story about the Struggle to Access Abortion

[9/10 · 14 March 2023]

Plan C was enthusiastically received in its Texas Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. This film documents the increasingly Kafkaesque world of abortion access in which the right to abortion access has been increasingly restricted - and nowhere more than here in Texas. Plan C focuses in on the courageous efforts of activists to provide access to abortion pills in states where the medical procedures are now increasingly difficult to attain. This is a case where what is right may not be the same as what is legal. And the laws restricting abortion are inherently classist and racist, because low-income women often lack the means to travel to other states to attain the procedure at a medical facility. This is a courageous film of doctors and activists standing up to unjust citizens through acts of civil disobedience. The film captures their struggle for justice against laws that seem to have come out of the Handmaiden's Tale. Everyone who is concerned about reproductive justice should see this film.

Pay or Die (2022)

A Powerful Documentary on the Price of Insulin

[10/10 · 14 March 2023]

Pay or Die was enthusiastically received at its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. The film uses the powerful personal stories of those who have been unable to pay the ridiculously high costs of insulin so that they can stay alive and manage their type 1 Diabetes. Insulin is an extremely inexpensive drug to manufacture making the behavior of big Pharma particularly reprehensible. They focus in on younger patients who are often unable to afford insurance and in some cases have actually died as a result of rationing their insulin. They show patients who have to go to Canada to attain their drugs at a reasonable price where access to medication is treated as health care not as a profit-making business. It is no exaggeration to say that audience members were in tears watching this modern-day American tragedy play out on screen.

Pay or Die also focuses on the activists fighting back and trying to change state and federal laws to make insulin more accessible and affordable. The fact that access depends on different laws in different states is a failure of our highly inefficient and decentralized Federal health care system. While the reforms are imperfect, some states, including amazingly Texas, have begun to change laws to make improvements and public pressure has begun to force drug companies to lower prices.

The film makers also made sure to point out that insulin is only the tip of the iceberg. Insulin is crucial, because unlike a lot of drugs loss of access is life-threatening within a few days. But they want us to realize that many other vital drugs are also too expensive (sometimes even with health insurance) to attain. This applies to life-saving cancer treatments among many other drugs. Pay or Die is an urgent call for universal access to accessible life-saving medications. Our health care system is an American tragedy. Pay or Die is an urgent call to begin to address some of its devastating tragic flaws. I urge everyone to watch this important film and then act on its message so we can begin to save lives.

Joan Baez I Am a Noise (2023)

A Remarkable and Incredibly Honest Autobiographical Portrait

[9/10 · 11 March 2023]

Joan Baez I am a Noise was enthusiastically received at its North American Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. The film appears to start out as a tour film of Baez last tour in 2018 at age 78. But it really becomes and incredibly honest and intimate behind-the-scenes examination of her life as well as her music. She shares intimate details of her relationship with Bob Dylan and her husband David Harris. But really the focus in more on her and her struggles with depression and anxiety - subjects that are often hidden from public view. There was clearly a lot of darkness behind her beautiful voice. Some of the parts of the film related to the dysfunction in her family are deeply disturbing. The film also journeys through the connections between her music and her political activism.

The showing was greatly enhanced by Baez's presence at the end of the premiere in which she was enthusiastically welcomed. Clearly, she is a transcendent figure whose music has influenced generations. The film is a powerful record of her life. I also hope that it will give those suffering from mental illness more space to speak about their struggles. Highly recommended for fans as well as those who don't know much about her.

The Lady Bird Diaries (2023)

A Beautiful Intimate Portrait of Lady Bird

[9/10 · 11 March 2023]

Lady Bird Diaries was enthusiastically received in it's world premiere at SXSW Film Festival in Austin. It is a beautiful picture that presents Lady Bird's perspective through excerpts of the audio diaries that she kept while she was First Lady. It provides her perspective and her and her family's struggles during the 5 extremely difficult years of his Presidency. Of course, she speaks to all of the powerful events of the era from the assassinations, civil rights, legislative successes to Vietnam. Special attention is paid to her role in environmental and beautification work. She was a remarkable and underestimated individual.

At the end of the screening, Luci Baines Johnson spoke from the audience and was clearly grateful for the amazing showcase that the film had given her late mother's voice. The film is a loving and supportive film meant to highlight Lady Bird's role rather than provide a critical view of a complicated and difficult presidency. It was certainly carefully edited from about 123 hours of original tapes. It was very enjoyable for those of us who love history and politics. It certainly brings to life the Lady Bird's remarkably inciteful and caring voice. It also shows how incredibly difficult those years were for her and her family thrust into the Presidency under the worst possible circumstances.

Shouting Down Midnight (2022)

A Celebration of a Glorious Uplifting Bittersweet Failure

[8/10 · 13 March 2022]

Shouting Down Midnight was received with great excitement at its world premiere at SXSW in Austin, Texas. For those of us who were part of the fight against these oppressive laws in 2013, it was inspirational and uplifting and brought people back to the exciting events of the Wendy Davis filibuster almost a decade ago. The film is beautifully made and edited with much love and care and really tries to contextualize the filibuster moment within the larger decades long struggle for reproductive rights in Texas. For me, it brought back an excitement and joy of those iconic moments that are part of Austin progressive history. The film tried to build on the enthusiasm, mobilization, and activism of that moment. It focused on some of the activists who were inspired by the moment and have gone on to continue the fight.

But it was also a celebration of what was really a glorious failure. The bill passed, and while parts of it were eventually overturned by the Supreme Court, it remained part of the long downward spiral of reproductive freedom in Texas. In a way, it seemed deeply detached from the current reality in Texas where abortion has already been banned at 6 weeks from conception. All the invocations to organize and vote seemed a little hollow at this moment when the battle is about to be lost in June's upcoming Supreme Court ruling which will likely lead to the outlawing of abortion in this state in the coming months. While a beautifully made documentary, I found it terribly bittersweet. It is trying to celebrate a brief victory on a long road of failure and despair. The film preaches to a choir that is searching for hope when there is really none to be found for those who care deeply about this issue. Of course, hope is a necessary component of activism, but maybe this movement also needs a bit more hard-headed realism and bit less celebration of the glorious failure of a just and righteous cause.

Your Friend, Memphis (2022)

A Beautiful Account of a Young Man's Struggle to Overcome his Disability

[9/10 · 12 March 2022]

Your Friend, Memphis was very warmly received at its World Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. It provides a powerful documentary account of an ambitious young man named Memphis DiAngelis who dreams of big despite the limitations created by his disability, cerebral palsy. He wants to build a life for himself beyond the limitations of a group home that many people like himself end up in. He seeks to achieve a normal self-supporting life as he struggles for more. He is an endearing, emotional, idealistic dreamer. The filmmakers capture his life over about 5 years of young adulthood mostly here in his hometown of Austin, TX.

Too often people are seen only through their disability and the limitations that it imposes. Memphis wants to do more than just survive. His parents struggle to both support and encourage his ambitions while trying to restrain his expectations. We see both his successes and his failures. The portrait is intimate and allows us to get below the surface of a person with a severe disability and see the human being below. Memphis can be seen as both a heroic inspiration and at times a warning of genuine dangers. There are no easy answers for Memphis. His story is specific to a person with physical disability, and yet, there is a more universal quality in that each of has to struggle with our abilities and limitations.

What We Leave Behind (2022)

An intimate Portrait of a Grandfather and the Impact of Migration

[9/10 · 12 March 2022]

What we Leave Behind was well-received at its world premiere at Austin SXSW Film Festival. It is a beautiful intimate portrait by a granddaughter, Iliana Sosa, of her elderly grandfather. But it is more. It is an examination of man aging with dignity in a third world country far away from most of his family. He builds a house so that his family will have a place to come home to. Even more it is a film about migration as his children have migrated away from his home in rural Mexico to the United States and as he seeks to remain connected to them even though they have departed and made new lives for themselves far from his home. He provides a link and a bridge to where they came from and what they have lost as they have moved on to what they clearly believe to be a better place. The film is fascinating, personal and thought-provoking and tries to go below the surface of the issue of immigration along the U. S.- Mexico and find the human side of what has so often become a contentious hot button political issue.

I Am Richard Pryor (2019)

A Powerful and Disturbing Documentary about a Troubled Comic Genius

[8/10 · 16 March 2019]

I am Richard Pryor was well-received during its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. The film paints a powerful picture of a transformative comic figure. Through footage of his performances and interviews with his friends and colleagues it presents a full picture of Pryor's dark and troubled life. It starts with his deeply troubled and traumatic childhood and shows how those events surely shaped his life which included both his genius and also his aberrant destructive behavior including his heavy drug use. His talent and his comedic influence as both a purveyor and a shaper of the complex times in which he lived are examined. The film is well-constructed as it covers the arc of his career which went through a number of stages as both a comic and actor. Fans of his work and students of comedy will greatly enjoy this film.

The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash (2019)

A Beautifully made Documentary about Complex Musical Genius

[9/10 · 16 March 2019]

The Gift was warmly received at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. Through a combination of Cash's musical performances (with an emphasis on his famous 1968 recording at Folsom Prison), autobiographical audio tapes of Cash speaking about his life late in his life, photography and interviews with his family and friends, this documentary draws a remarkable and complicated portrait of Cash's difficult and remarkable life. It presents a complete picture of his life including his rise from poverty, the tragic death of his brother, his troubled first marriage, and his struggles with addiction. And yet, the audience also sees his remarkable talent and his efforts to confront his traumas through his music. The film also captures his activism on behalf of Native Americans and the deep and powerful role of his Christian faith in his life and his music which spanned genres and generations. This documentary is extremely well-made and serves as a fitting tribute a musical icon. It will be enjoyed by both hard core and casual fans of the "Man in Black."

Sakawa (2018)

A Troubling Documentary on the relationship between the Developed and Developing World

[7/10 · 16 March 2019]

Sakawa seemed to be positively received in its North American premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. This Dutch-produced documentary profiles young internet fraudsters in Ghana who desperately engage in variety of online sex schemes with lonely Westerners. Sometimes they perform online sex acts and attempt to get the Westerners in the US, UK, Canada and elsewhere to send them money or plane tickets. It is a disturbing and troubling picture of what desperate people in the third world will do when they have no real economic opportunities. It reflects the international hierarchy of politics and economics played out in a very a disturbing human microcosm. These young people have become human commodities as developed countries continue to exploit the developing world economically in the post-colonial era. The documentary is made in a cinema verité style and lacks any real contextualization. The documentary could have been strengthened by some expert analysis of the history of colonization, economics, and the international sex trade in order to help the viewers gain more nuanced understanding of the tragic events rather than just an emotional picture. Sakawa is provocative and well-filmed, but feels like an incomplete experiment.

Apollo 11 (I) (2019)

Apollo 11 takes you on a Remarkable Journey

[10/10 · 14 March 2019]

Apollo 11 was warmly and enthusiastically-received at the SXSW Film Festival. It is a remarkable documentary that takes us back in time 50 years ago to one of the greatest technological achievements in world history. I was born 6 months after the Apollo landing, so it is literally a journey to the time of my birth. It was a very dark time in our history when the country was divided by civil rights and the Vietnam War and yet the moon landing was a joyous unifying optimistic moment of technological triumph that brought the country and the world together.

The documentary captures the moment with the original archival video and audio tapes of the time - most of them filmed by NASA itself. There is no real suspense for the audience in that we all know exactly what happens and yet it takes us back to that moment when know one knew if the mission would succeed or if the rocket would blow up and kill the astronauts on the launch pad. The only narration is provided by some of Walter Cronkite's news live broadcasts on CBS and mission control's audio. You can't always tell what you are seeing or clearly understand the audio, but that's fine, because it lends to the authenticity that takes us back to these incredibly dramatic moments. Space is truly our final frontier and captures our imagination like little else. But the real events are more powerful and dramatic and science fiction films can truly capture. This is a must-see documentary for anyone who believes we can still dream big and achieve great accomplishments.

The Hottest August (2019)

One of the Worst Documentaries I've ever seen

[1/10 · 14 March 2019]

The Hottest August was received with confusion and bewilderment at SXSW Film Festival. It is an incoherent film and the director should find another line of work. It was supposed to be about climate change, but it wasn't. Basically, the director walked around Brooklyn (mostly along the beach) during the month of August 2017 and asked ordinary people what they thought about the future. The various individuals (who are all unnamed until the credits) talked about their anxiety about economics, race, and occasionally about the climate. Some gave sophisticated intellectual answers, some gave vaguely racist answers, and some offered total incoherent nonsense. Some just talked about ordinary challenges that they were facing in their daily lives. The film could be called a slice of life, but mostly it is bad film-making. The interviews are directionless, and the film is poorly edited. While some of the individual interviewee are interesting and insightful, there is no argument tying together the different interviews or any apparent order to the order in which they were edited together. A film requires a narrative and this one doesn't have one. Frankly, I'm surprised that the SXSW staff accepted the film. I've seen hundreds of documentaries and this is among the worst that I've encountered.

For Sama (2019)

A Shattering film about the horrific Siege of Aleppo

[10/10 · 14 March 2019]

For Sama received a standing ovation at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW Film Festival. It also received the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature. It is a remarkable film. Each of us tries to go through his/her daily life and pretend there is no place in the world where human beings are being routinely slaughtered as occurred in Aleppo. Waad Al-Khateab is a hero. She and her husband - a doctor - stayed in Aleppo through the worst of the siege. He saved lives and she documented the horrors for the world to see. For Sama presents some of the most unflinching war coverage that I have seen. The beauty of the film is that she presents it as almost a love letter to her infant daughter Sama who was born in Aleppo in the months leading up to the siege. She is trying to tell her story and the story of her city (one of the oldest continuously populated cities on the planet). The contrast between the horror of parents try to care and protect an infant while simultaneously trying to save lives and document the horror is breathtaking and heart-wrenching. It is as if you set a love story amidst the flames of hell. This is a story that needs to be widely viewed and it will be since it has been picked up by PBS and will air on Frontline in the coming months. Everyone who loves children and hates war (and I really hope that is everyone) should see this film.

Autonomy (2019)

A Fascinating film about the future of Self-Driving Cars

[9/10 · 14 March 2019]

Autonomy was warmly-received at its world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. The film was produced in cooperation with Car and Driver Magazine and has done an excellent job of providing a serious examination of the many (almost endless) questions that are raised by development of self-driving vehicles. They raise many provocative questions about the economics, political, legal, safety, cost, ethical implications, and cultural reverberations. They seriously examine what driverless vehicles will mean. Of course, they can not answer all these questions, but just asking them is a significant step forward. The film moves rapidly and is highly engaging. I highly recommend it to anyone who is trying to think seriously about this really important technological development that is likely to have immense implications on daily lives in the next decade or so.

Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins (2019)

A Beautiful Tribute to one of the Funniest people who ever Lived

[8/10 · 13 March 2019]

Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins was warmly and lovingly received by liberal Austin at the SXSW Film Festival. The film is a loving tribute to one of the funniest political commentators who ever put pen to paper. Ivins was a daughter of Texas who made it her mission to challenge conservative Texas with wit and witticism. She used humor to skewer her enemies. This biopic relies heavily on her words and particularly on archival speeches and presentations. Her wit has become legend such as when she describes Pat Buchanan's 1992 Republican Convention as "It probably sounded better in its original German." The film is clearly meant as a tribute and so it sugar-coats some of the rough spots (although it does touch on her struggles with alcoholism). It verges of liberal hagiography, but still captures so much of her larger than life personality. For all her love of life, her death in 2007 from cancer at only 62 is sobering. Watching the film in 2019, one can not help but wonder what Molly Ivins would done with a Twitter account in the era of Donald Trump. Sadly, we will never know, but we can imagine. Recommended for her fans and admirers.

Community First, A Home for the Homeless (2019)

An Inspiring Film about a Community-based Project to House the Homeless

[8/10 · 12 March 2019]

Community First, A Home for the Homeless, was enthusiastically received at its world premiere at Austin's SXSW. In Austin, Mobile Loaves & Fishes is a universally beloved project. Their work in support on behalf of meek and the suffering is truly God's work. This short film explains their beautiful Community First project which seeks not only the house the chronically homeless and disabled, but provide them with what they are truly missing - a loving and sustainable community. The President says that we have a national emergency at the border; we have a national emergency in the streets of America every night that a homeless person goes unsheltered. Community First is addressing that crisis every day that it takes in a chronically homeless individual. The picture that they are presenting is perhaps a little sugar-coated, but if we ever needed a little sugar-coating, this inspiring project certainly deserves it. Most importantly, the film deconstructs our stereotypes of the chronically homeless and shows how with a little TLC they can becoming functional and contributing members of society.