Thursday, November 14, 2013

Phantom India (1969)

Director: Louis Malle
Run Time: 363 min.

"Louis Malle called his gorgeous and groundbreaking Phantom India the most personal film of his career. And this extraordinary journey to India, originally shown as a miniseries on European television, is infused with his sense of discovery, as well as occasional outrage, intrigue, and joy."
Phantom India film jacket

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Bully (2012)

Director: Lee Hirsch
Run Time: 99 min.

"Bully is a wrenching, potentially transformative look at an epidemic of adolescent cruelty and adult paralysis in the nation's public schools. . . . Bully weaves together five stories from different parts of America's heartland. Two are about the grieving families of boys who've committed suicide—a 17-year-old in Georgia, an 11-year-old in Oklahoma City. The rest are profiles of kids still toughing it out—a Mississippi teenager who has been jailed after pulling a gun on the kids who made her life a living hell, a lesbian Oklahoma high-schooler who is tormented not just by other students but by her teachers as well."
—Bob Mondello, NPR

We Are Legion (2013)

Director:  Brian Knappenberger
Run Time: 93 min.

"Like cavemen discovering fire, the group quickly split between those who wanted to continue illuminating important issues (including Wikileaks and the Arab Spring) and those who just wanted to watch the world burn. The Guy Fawkes mask adopted by Anonymous members (who reject the idea of a single leader on principle) is meant to intimidate as much as protect; theirs is an increasingly rare spirit of revolt. "Expect us," they say, though the meaning of that warning remains in flux; the evolution toward a consistency of ideals has proved as tricky as Knappenberger makes it engrossing and essential to watch."
—Michelle Orange, The Village Voice