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Reviews
Murder in the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story (2019)
secret history of destruction
Having grown up in the bay area in the 80s and graduating from punk to thrash,death and black metal,i have awaited this film since the book was released. It is fun and informative. Doesnt linger too long on any one subject and has segments on people no longer with us who were crucial, such as wes robinson, paul baloff and cliff burton.i imagine real fans will always want more and the scope of a documentary is limited by its own running time.for instance, testament was barely mentioned. Where was sadus? Or death angel. Robb flynn was interviewed , but i dont remember anything about vio-lence. Minor gripes when seeing your adolescent years on screen, i guess. Metal has for a long time lurked in the shadows and avoided being over analyzed, unlike punk. Finally there are a number of really good books, and films (like this one) about our dirty secret. Bang your head against the stage, indeed
Older Than Ireland (2015)
age before mediocrity
this is a wonderful,touching and insightful documentary about the life of a country,and apparently the thirty or so one hundred year old's ,in this movie,whose births roughly coincide with the independence of ireland .one of the highlights ,for me,was a man letting out a war whoop when relating his first sexual experience.another revelation was a women stating that the most important invention ever is the washing machine. these people are tremendously inspiring ,and somewhat lucky to have lived their lives in a less hurried,though still turbulent age. i saw this film in a small theater in san francisco .completely under attended ,and it's run was no more than a week. how unfortunate that the average movie viewer would prefer to see the new transformers movie or a new juxtaposition of car chases, gun fights and helicopter explosions than a truly human exploration of an advanced, yet independent, age that these people have reached. if you are truly interested in the human experience or universal truths that can be found on a cinema screen , this film is for you,