Secret Agent Gal Movie Reviews

Thrive follows the money to reclaim our future, wealth - 5 stars

Everyone can Thrive, according to a new, leading edge documentary impressively researched and organized by business executive Foster Gamble. A wake-up call with a plan, it’s now on DVD and screening nationwide. Steve Gagne directs.

Change is imperative. Nothing less than transformation – personal, social and global – will enable humanity to thrive, according to Gamble, co-founder of CASSonline.org.

Daring to follow the money, Gamble and his wife Kimberly Carter Gamble analyze underlying causes of scarcity and suffering worldwide.

The heads of three famous families have manipulated world wealth as part of a global domination agenda for centuries, Gamble asserts. Not everyone in these families is corrupt, he adds.

The Bank for International Settlements (called “the central bank of central banks”), international central banks, and national central banks control resources. Big banks, corporations and governments lie beneath central banks in a “pyramid of power.”

Elite central bankers control finance, energy, food supplies, education, the media and other systems. By keeping countries and citizens in debt, they effectively stifle human potential with the help of corporate-owned media, governments, major foundations, the IMF and the World Bank.

Many national economies have been harmed, according to the film. The elites are actively seeking to destroy the U.S. economy, experts say.

The number of global elites is tiny, says Gamble. In the U.S., the ratio of citizens to these elite bankers is a million to one, he maintains.

Individuals can exercise power in many ways. Bank locally. Buy and invest responsibly. Seek out news from independent sources. Take part in mass, critical actions. The Thrive website lists suggested actions.

Express your uniqueness, says British author David Icke. Fear of ridicule is one way the global elite gets us to impose its norms on one another.

Free, unlimited, clean energy is the film’s central, revolutionary theme. Two elegant designs, the torus and the Vector Equilibrium (VE), can be used to produce free energy and promote international well-being, Gamble explains.

The torus (or flower of life) is an energy pattern that appears in nature and across cultures. The VE is the underlying structure of the torus, a 64-sided pattern that is “the blueprint by which nature forms energy into matter.”

What does all this mean? “Goodbye Exxon Mobil, goodbye oil, goodbye coal, goodbye linear transmission of electricity,” says Steven Greer, M.D., Director of The Disclosure Project.

Did you know that Dr. Royal Rife invented technology that cured cancer in the 1920s? Have you heard of Nikola Tesla, who invented a technology that produced free, unlimited energy in 1901? The work of both men was destroyed, and their reputations were ruined. Archival footage shows government agents seizing revolutionary technologies.

For those who doubt futuristic exposes like this one, detailed information sources are listed on the film’s website.

Prominent scientists and thinkers are interviewed, including: Nassim Haramein, cosmologist and inventor; Paul Hawken, environmentalist and entrepreneur; Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development; Vandana Shiva, environmental activist and eco-feminist; and Elisabet Sahtouris, evolutionary biologist and futurist.

How can the world thrive? Gamble integrates progressive, conservative and libertarian ideas into a model for change:

Stage 1 – Reform. We would reform current systems to “bring integrity and healing to our current condition.”

Stage 2 – Limit Government Control to enhance the “protection of individual rights and the commons.”

Stage 3 – Voluntary Cooperation would flourish as people live by “rules, but no rulers.”

Economic reform in Stage 1, for example, includes: stop bailouts; dismantle the Federal Reserve; withdraw support from the IMF, World Bank, and Bank for International Settlements; refuse international taxes, and monetize debt.

Following these steps would transform the arts, economics, education, environment, governance, health, infrastructure, justice, media, relations, science, spirituality and word view.

Gamble acknowledges that he was born into the wealthy Procter & Gamble family, but has forged his own career path.

Integrity, freedom and compassion can become the world’s guiding principles, says Gamble. Bold and honest, this film offers hope and a blueprint for change.  

If you like Thrive, you might also enjoy: 2012: Time for Change; I Am; Happy.

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Thrive   2011  /  PG-13  /  2 hours, 12 min

Cast Overview: Foster Gamble, Duane Elgin, Nassim Haramein, Steven Greer, Jack Kasher, Daniel Sheehan, Adam Trombly, Brian O'Leary, Vandana Shiva, John Gatto, John Robbins, Deepak Chopra, David Icke, Catherine Austin Fitts, Kimberly Carter Gamble, G. Edward Griffin, Bill Still, John Perkins, Paul Hawken, Aqeela Sherrills, Evon Peter, Angel Kyodo Williams, Elisabet Sahtouris, Amy Goodman, Barbara Marx Hubbard

Director:  Steve Gagne

Genre:  Documentary, Current Affairs, Science & Nature

 

Mighty Macs: future Hall of Fame coach inspires women champs - 3 stars

A coach with drive and vision sees national champions in her diamond-in-the-rough women’s basketball team in The Mighty Macs. It’s a true life drama about the pioneering 1971-72 team from Immaculata College in Pennsylvania.

Tim Chambers’ heartfelt directorial debut stars Carla Gugino as Coach Cathy Rush and Ellen Burstyn as Mother St. John.

Before Title IX passed, funding for girls’ and women’s athletics was scarce. At all-girl schools like Immaculata, a fervent belief in strong, empowered women thrived.

The film conjures Catholic school life during the exciting and chaotic 1970s. Chambers succeeds at capturing history with just a few embellishments.

When a fire destroys their own gymnasium, the Macs are forced to practice at area schools. Chambers first saw the team in the basement gym of his elementary school, Saint Anastasia.

“The way they came in, the way they practiced, their movement and cohesiveness, was so cutting edge for the time,” Chambers told The Philly Post. “Cathy Rush’s swagger and style and leadership were etched in my mind forever.”

Despite a season of wins and losses, the team receives an at-large bid to compete in the first national women’s basketball tournament.

Gugino (Night at the Museum; Entourage) plays the feisty new coach who tests mother superior’s patience with new ideas and approaches. Rush’s own basketball career was cut short when, after an outstanding freshman season at Oakcrest High School in New Jersey, her team was terminated. In those days, women’s sports were considered a frill.

Dauntless Rush accepts a salary of $450 for her first season (“I would’ve worked for free,” she tells Mother St. John). The resourceful coach is given one beat-up basketball and homespun team uniforms made by Sister Sunday (Marley Shelton).  

Rush toughens the team mentally and physically. A newlywed who loyally attended N.B.A. games officiated by her husband, she is determined to see women excel. At the start of the season, Rush asks each player to toss all she knows about basketball into a trash bin. Let the real training begin.

Rush foreshadows what we’ve come to expect in women’s college athletics. Demanding training, ever-evolving strategy and a fierce determination to win are common today.

Oscar winner Burstyn plays the tough, plain-spoken mother superior desperate to save the financially strapped college. As the only female on the college’s board of directors, she becomes sympathetic.

“Jesus likes to dance” embodies Sister Sunday’s philosophy. Shelton (Pleasantville) is fascinating as a young nun who has second thoughts about her vocation. The actor brings emptiness, yearning and energy to an unprecedented film character.

As Rush’s assistant coach, Sister Sunday helps guide and encourage the players. She reveals a zesty spirit – and her past – in a bar scene with Rush. In real life, there was no Sister Sunday.

Unfortunately there is scant development of the movie’s remaining characters. This is where The Mighty Macs falls short of films like Hoosiers and Coach Carter. Corny dialogue doesn’t help.

Dashing David Boreanaz (of television’s Bones) can’t overcome his weakly scripted role. Ed Rush resents his wife’s new career, and then suddenly changes his mind. The players’ roles are thinly written. Biographical sketches at the films’ end reveal more about them.

Rush was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. She served as Head Coach at Immaculata from 1972-77. The Macs won national titles in 1972, 1973 and 1974. The college went co-ed in 2005, and now has women’s and men’s Division III basketball teams.

If you went to Catholic school, you’ll enjoy The Mighty Macs’ goodness and warmth. If you follow women’s sports, you’ll appreciate this portrayal of a pioneering, underdog team.

If you like The Mighty Macs, you might enjoy:  Hoop Dreams; Hoosiers.

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The Mighty Macs    2009  /  G  /  1 hour, 38 min

Cast Overview: Carla Gugino, Marley Shelton, David Boreanaz, Ellen Burstyn

Director:  Tim Chambers

Genre:  Drama, Sports

Miss Representation: as media disses women, women speak out - 5 stars

The media trivializes and sexualizes women for profit according to Miss Representation, this year’s most important documentary by far. The disturbing eye-opener from Jennifer Siebel Newsom was featured at Sundance 2011, and recently premiered on OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The film is filled with in-depth interviews and interspersed with images from print, television, the internet, rock, rap and hip hop videos. Women are seen in cat fights, vying for a man, and doing combat while barely dressed. They are portrayed as decorative, stupid, gold diggers, catty, manipulative, vindictive, and not to be trusted especially by other women, according to Jennifer Pozner, Executive Director of Women in Media & News.

“This notion that women are natural enemies vying for the prize of being most beautiful or the love of whoever is so counter to women in real life,” says Pozner.

“Not only are girls seen as objects by other people, they learn to see themselves as objects,” says Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D. (Killing Us Softly). “Self-objectification has become a national epidemic,” according to Caroline Heldman, Ph.D., an Associate Professor of Political Science at Occidental College.

Depression, eating disorders, lower ambition, and lower cognitive function results from self-objectification, Heldman says. Girls are less likely to run for office or to vote, she adds. Self-mutilation (hacking or cutting) among female teens is cited as a growing problem.

Digitally altered photos of women create a “more extreme and impossible” image of beauty, according to Kilbourne. Girls “end up measuring themselves against an impossible standard.”

Media content powerfully shapes society, say experts. It influences brains, lives and emotions, especially in children. Profit-hungry media outlets are seen as disregarding social responsibility.

Oscar winning director and producer Paul Haggis (Crash), believes women become “cartoons” as male studio chiefs and filmmakers “see the world in a certain way and so we often replicate the world that we grew up in.”

“We are a nation of teenage boys,” according to Carol Jenkins, Founding President of the Women’s Media Center. Advertisers target men aged 18 - 34 who are less likely to watch television. Thus hyper-sexualized female images abound in advertising and programming.

Deregulation has enabled a few powerful conglomerates to control the U.S. media. The boards of directors of these conglomerates are overwhelmingly male. In an internal memo, former Disney CEO Michael Eisner wrote, “To make money is our only objective.”

Anything goes in television programming at all hours thanks to relaxation of FCC restrictions on adult content.

Electing more women to public office will allow them to shape public policy with their perspectives, insights and experiences. “Women make up 51% of the U.S. population yet comprise only 17% of Congress. Female presidents have been elected in 67 countries, but not in the U.S.” The film is filled with such alarming statistics.

“We’re shortchanging voices that are urgently needed in public forums,” says Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, NJ. Devanshi Patel, a student who ran for Youth Governor of California, offers a refreshing perspective. “Leaders are just servants to people,” she told her mother.

Aren’t sexy women strong? Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Emily Browning (Sucker Punch) portray women who exploit their sexuality in order to be empowered, says M. Gigi Durham, Ph.D., author of The Lolita Effect. Such a heroine is “very much objectified and exists for the male viewer.”

Meanwhile the series Commander in Chief, which starred Geena Davis as the first woman president of the United States, was cancelled after one season. Oscar winner Davis says that “only 16% of protagonists in films are female.” Davis, the founder of See Jane, disputes the myth that “things are getting better” for women in film.

The media ignores older women, Miss Representation asserts. “Women in their teens, 20’s and 30’s are 39% of the population, yet are 71% of women on TV. Women 40 and older are 47% of the population, yet are 26% of women on TV.” Feminist organizer and activist Gloria Steinem explains, “A patriarchal system values women as child bearers. Period.”

“Only 7% of directors and 10% of writers in film are women,” according to the film. “The average number of news stories about women and girls is less than 20%.”

Strong women are described in news reports according to how they look or how emotional they are. What they say or do is virtually ignored, as seen in media portrayals of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Many prominent women detail their experiences. Powerful images of women in entertainment flash by. These include Oprah Winfrey; Judi Dench; Jada Pinkett Smith; Ellen De Generes; Glenn Close; Sandra Oh; Mariska Hargitay; Julianna Margulies; Tina Fey; Edie Falco; Meryl Streep; Annette Bening; Julianne Moore; Naomi Watts; Gabourey Sidibey; Salma Hayek and Charlize Theron.

Newsom ends Miss Representation with a call to action and a vision of a better world for our daughters and sons.

If you like Miss Representation, you might enjoy: The Whistleblower; The Kids Are All Right; Fair Game.

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Miss Representation    2011  /  NR  /  1 hour, 25 min

Cast Overview: Corey Booker, Margaret Cho, Katie Couric, Geena Davis, Rosario Dawson, Dianne Feinstein, Jane Fonda, Paul Haggis, Lisa Ling, Rachel Maddow, Nancy Pelosi, Condoleezza Rice, Gloria Steinem, Daphne Zuniga

Director:  Jennifer Siebel Newsom

Genre:  Documentary

The Insider: Russell Crowe fights Big Tobacco in real-life thriller *****

 

A whistleblower (Russell Crowe) forces Big Tobacco to reveal the dangers of cigarette smoking in the fact-based thriller The Insider (1999).

With non-stop suspense, the film follows tobacco scientist Jeffrey Wigand (Crowe) and CBS news producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) as they create a 60 Minutes expose. Wigand faces death threats and loses his job and family. Bergman challenges the network and legendary newsman Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) to air the segment despite litigation.

Director Michael Mann’s film is in the spotlight this week as five tobacco companies filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday. They are challenging part of the 2009 law which imposed federal regulations on the tobacco industry. The F.D.A. has mandated that they print graphic warning images on cigarette packages as of September 2012.

The Insider is an iconic look at American journalism. Like All the President’s Men (1976), it explores moral dilemmas in journalism and in life with outstanding character development and pacing. The relationship between a journalist and his source is intimately explored.

Wigand reluctantly tells his story and is sued by Big Tobacco for breaking a confidentiality agreement. Bergman assures Wigand that he is making a tremendous difference by speaking out. According to HealthNews.com, “Tobacco smoke contains a deadly mixture of more than 7,000 chemicals and compounds, of which hundreds are toxic and at least 70 cause cancer. Smoking causes more than 85 percent of lung cancers. . . . One in three cancer deaths in the U.S. is tobacco-related.”

A whistleblower on the edge of nervous exhaustion, Wigand cannot ignore the serious public health hazard. Before speaking with Bergman he warns a tobacco company executive about “ammonia chemistry.” He’s incredulous when the company chooses profit over safety.

Crowe’s acting is raw and fully dimensional, foreshadowing his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Dr. John Nash in A Beautiful Mind (2001). Wigand loses virtually everything: his career, his reputation, his wife and children, and his home.

Crowe becomes the consummate hero as The Insider never flinches from looking at personal agony and danger. Wigand rails against Bergman. “I have to put my family's welfare on the line here, my friend! And what are you puttin' up? You're puttin' up words!” he shouts.

 

Pacino is a pit bull here as Bergman fights to air the 60 Minutes interview. “You pay me to go get guys like Wigand, to draw him out. To get him to trust us, to get him to go on television. I do. I deliver him. He sits. He talks. . . . Is it newsworthy? Yes. Are we gonna air it? Of course not. Why? Because he's not telling the truth? No. Because he is telling the truth.”

Privately, Bergman worries that his source has sacrificed in vain. His wife (Lindsay Crouse) prompts him to re-examine his personal and professional values. Forced to take a leave from work, Bergman walks along the beach near his vacation home. Ocean waves roll in. It’s a timeless image of a man with all the perks of success pausing to breathe and re-evaluate his career. This is one of Pacino’s many memorable characters, reminiscent of Lt. Vincent Hanna in Heat (1995) and Arthur Kirkland in … And Justice for All (1979).

Plummer portrays Mike Wallace as ego-driven and power-hungry, a journalist whose will to investigate powerful special interests is compromised. Plummer conveys charisma and gravitas as the 60 Minutes star. Wallace objected to how he was portrayed when the film was released.

Diane Venora (who played Al Pacino’s wife Justine in Heat), gives a brief but moving performance as Liane Wigand. Philip Baker Hall plays legendary investigative journalist turned CBS executive producer Don Hewitt. Hewitt died in 2009.

Finally the full interview appears on 60 Minutes, but only after The New York Times reveals CBS’ financial motives to suppress the story. The Wall Street Journal clears Wigand’s name after a tobacco industry smear campaign. Wigand reveals that the manipulation of ammonia causes addiction as nicotine is more rapidly absorbed into the lung. This boosts its affects on the brain and central nervous system, he said.

Mann wrote the excellent screenplay with Eric Roth. Dante Spinotti’s cinematography is superb, especially during a scene where a suicidal Wigand sits alone in a hotel room. In a panoramic shot, the mural-covered walls swirl around the hero. Music is used as dialogue to convey deeper meanings.

The Insider was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor (Crowe) and Best Director. Wigand went on to teach high school science and was nationally recognized for his work in the classroom. Bergman became a producer for the PBS show Frontline. He’s also a professor at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

If you like The Insider, you might enjoy: Page One: Inside the New York Times; The Soloist.

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The Insider     1999  /  R  /  2 hours, 35 min

Cast Overview:  Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, Christopher Plummer, Michael Gambon, Diane Venora, Bruce McGill, Philip Baker Hall, Lindsay Crouse, Gina Gershon

Director:  Michael Mann

Genre:  Thriller, Drama, Biography

 

Terri: John C. Reilly feeds teen's big, hungry heart ****

 

Terri stands apart from The Art of Getting By and Submarine for one reason: John C. Reilly. The coming-of-age dramedy hinges on Reilly’s Mr. Fitzgerald, a vice principal who cares about kids in trouble. Jacob Wysocki stars as Terri, a huge oddball with a confused, hungry heart.

Reilly’s straightforward, unforgettable character walks his talk. He owns his own disappointments and shortcomings. Mr. Fitzgerald doesn’t pretend to have it all together, but he knows enough to share his homespun philosophy. When obese Terri lands in his office for daily tardiness, he sets up a weekly meeting to mentor the pajama-clad, good-hearted teen.

Terri’s inner monster is big, odd and misunderstood. He lives in a messy old house with Uncle James (The Office’s Creed Bratton, very good here) who’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Terri takes care of his uncle tenderly.

Trapping mice in the attic is necessary and gives Terri something to do. Glum and bored, he loiters in the woods each morning, watching his offering of dead mice on a log. When a raptor arrives, Terri yelps with excitement. It’s the first revelation of the big boy’s spirit.

An encounter with the bird of prey also sets this movie apart. The raptor is said to symbolize vision, power and guardianship. Connecting with nature is another way the boy heals. Mr. Fitzgerald suggests a new life perspective: “I like this person. I look forward to these days.”

Wysocki is extraordinary, an actor of imagination and warmth. Terri makes slow and painful progress. He aches, stumbles and has wise insights. He wants to fit in as he struggles to be himself. Patrick Dewitt’s understated dialogue rings perfectly. “The feeling is no feeling,” Terri tells his mentor.

 

Terri hangs out with two other outcasts, publicly shamed Heather (Olivia Crocicchia) and hair-pulling misanthrope Chad (Bridger Zadina). The trio reveals risky delight, a weird foray into friendship and experimentation. All three succeed with plain-spoken honesty. Director Azazel Jacobs captures odd beauty in this and other scenes.

Mr. Fitzgerald talks about life and possibilities from his heart and his gut. Reilly makes the character unique as a caring, competent man who admits his own shortcomings. The unapologetically odd vice principal grows on us throughout the film.

Terri finds Mr. Fitzgerald passed out in his car one Sunday morning in the school parking lot. He’s had another fight with his wife. The two share quality time, raiding aspirin from the nurse’s office and shooting hoops. The school’s motto towers above them in the gym: Pride. Tradition. Excellence.

In The Art of Getting By and Submarine, mentors are marginal and never fully developed. Here youth and age are both honored. Mr. Fitzgerald throws Terri a lifeline, and the teen gives him the opportunity to practice his life’s calling. There’s a boy within the man, and a man within the boy.

When Fitzgerald betrays the boy’s trust it’s devastating. He transforms the moment by apologizing. “Life’s a mess, dude, but we’re all just doing the best we can.”

In an imperfect world, Terri ends with a quiet, transcendent moment. This is not a feel-good movie, but one that celebrates flawed humanity and hope.

If you like Terri, you might enjoy:  The Art of Getting By; Submarine; Cedar Rapids.

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Terri     2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 27 min

Cast Overview:  Jacob Wysocki, Creed Bratton, Olivia Crocicchia, Bridger Zadina, John C. Reilly

Director:  Azazel Jacobs

Genre:  Drama, Dramedy

 

Queen to Play *****

 

A sensual encounter over a chessboard inspires a hotel chambermaid to shine in Queen to Play, a soulful dramedy where a working class woman transcends personal and social limits.

When Helene (Sandrine Bonnaire) spies a couple (Jennifer Beals and Dominic Gould) playing chess on the balcony of a room she is cleaning, she cannot look away. Their connection is intimate and playful. Obviously in love, they match wits hungrily. Playing chess is a continuation of their lovemaking. Helene is hooked.

As travelers with fascinating lives visit the lovely island of Corsica, Helene has watched them. Can the quiet, modest wife and mother conjure adventures of her own? She begins to explore chess. The beauty of the carved wooden pieces, the strategy behind the moves and the power of the Queen fascinate her. Chess becomes Helene’s inspiration and path to empowerment in Caroline Bottaro’s impressive feature film debut.

Resolved to embrace more of life, Helene buys her husband Ange (Francis Renaud) an electronic chess board for his birthday. The problem is he doesn’t play. “Maybe you will learn,” she suggests. Hard-working Ange is too tired to listen to his wife. When Helene wears a silk negligee to bed, he doesn’t even notice.

Sleepless Helene plays chess in the middle of the night. As she plans her moves, she sees new possibilities in life. Then she reaches a plateau. She now needs a coach to help her master the game.

People talk. When reclusive American widower Dr. Kroger (Kevin Kline) agrees to teach chess to his part-time house cleaner, Helene spends more and more time at his home. She returns home late, leaving Ange and her 15-year-old Lisa (Alexandra Gentil) to prepare their own dinner.

Neighborhood gossip reaches Ange. Suspecting the worst, he follows Helene to Kroger’s home.  What he spies through the window stuns him.

Helene is not having an affair, but she is sharing her mind and spirit. Ange reels with resentment. Life imitates chess as Helene and Ange begin to redefine their relationship. They think, consider and move differently, especially in an encounter at the kitchen table.

Bottaro’s chess-like plot and character growth fascinate. In an emblematic scene, Helene comes to life as she mops the hotel floor, becoming the Queen on a huge chessboard. The film observes class and feminism delicately, never losing personal relevance and vibrancy. Watching her mother take risks, Lisa finds new respect for her.

 

Bonnaire (Vagabond) achieves sensitive ardor in an exquisite performance. She plays perfectly off Oscar winner Kevin Kline in his first French-speaking role. As Kroger becomes Helene’s mentor and friend, Kline bristles with wry humor, masculinity and unpredictability. Chess, like anything else, reveals insight into self and others.

Telepathy grows between teacher and student. In an intriguing scene, Kroger and Helene play a sly, verbal game of chess. With just the hint of a caress, the two appreciate each other as man and woman.

Helene wins game after game, so Kroger encourages her to enter a local amateur tournament. The professor remains involved and irascible. “When you take a risk you may lose,” he tells her. “When you don’t take a risk you always lose.”

With undertones of feminism, Queen to Play never preaches. Bottaro keeps it real and honest. The filmmaker co-wrote the script with Caroline May.

As Helene learns to believe in herself, she finds her true voice. Queen to Play is based on Bertina Henrichs’ novel La Joueuse d’echec (The Chess Player).

If you like Queen to Play, you might enjoy: An Education; Shopgirl; Mademoiselle Chambon.

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Queen to Play    2009  /  NR  /  1 hour, 36 min

Cast Overview:  Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline, Francis Renaud, Jennifer Beals, Dominic Gould, Valerie Lagrange, Alexandra Gentil

Director:  Caroline Bottaro

Genre:  Drama, Dramedy, Foreign Film

Language: French with English subtitles

Waste Land ****

 

Dirt, diamonds, sugar, string, wire and chocolate syrup comprise the images of photographer Vik Muniz. Bringing garbage to life throughout the world, his work has been called witty and bold. When Muniz travels from his Brooklyn studio to his native Brazil to visit the landfill Jardim Gramacho, a deeper human transformation begins.

Arriving at “the city of garbage,” Muniz meets the catadores, pickers of recyclable materials. Jardim Gramacho was then known as the world’s largest landfill, taking in 70% of Rio de Janeiro’s trash. Some 3,000 pickers retrieved 200 tons of recyclable materials there each day. “It’s funny how you get used to the smell,” someone remarks.

With genuine excitement, Muniz collaborates with his subjects. He photographs them, sometimes in poses that suggest artistic masterworks. The pickers then arrange PVC and bottle caps to create huge floor collages. Muniz photographs them from high above. He loves to play with perspective. Images emerge at a distance from seemingly random, scattered objects.

Waste Land is more than another art documentary. Director Lucy Walker makes the pickers’ perspective central, adding much heart with their stories against the backdrop of society’s waste.

Zumbi specializes in paper recycling. Rescuing discarded books from the landfill, he’s read The Da Vinci Code and The Art of War. “I don’t want my son to be a picker,” he says. He dreams of establishing a community library.

Tiao, the president of the pickers’ association (ACAMJG), is held up one day. The groups’ wages for an entire week – $6,000 – is gone. The landfill is surrounded by favelas, communities where the drug trade thrives. When drug dealers go to war, bodies are sure to be dumped amidst the trash mountains.

 

Magna arrived at the fields a year ago when her husband lost his job. She calls her work interesting and dignified. “It’s better than turning tricks in Copacabana,” she says. Auntie Irma has worked at the landfill for 30 years. She serves beef stew, juice and coffee to the pickers, rain or shine.

A native of Sao Paulo, Muniz sees beauty in the lower middle class. Unfortunate circumstances could send anyone to the garbage fields, he realizes. “It could be me.” Muniz interviews his father Vicente, who built his family’s home at a time when the area had no running water or sewage system.

Tiao travels to London with Muniz and his team to attend the show. He knows he will return to the landfill. Meanwhile he gazes at the sights and learns about art. He becomes a fan of Jean-Michel Basquiat who was once homeless. Tiao begins to imagine a better future.

Muniz shares a quarter of a million in profits with the association. As the landfill is scheduled to close in 2012, the pickers study in retraining programs.

Dreams are realized. Zumbi’s library has opened, equipped with 15 computers. Irma runs her own cooking business.  Magna is now a single mom who works in a drug store. Suelem, who posed Madonna-like with her two children, has remarried and feels fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom.

The photographer distributes a framed portrait to each subject. The art becomes a focal point in each shanty, evoking admiration and spirited conversation. “Sometimes we see ourselves as so small,” Irma says. 

Walker was assisted by co-directors João Jardim and Karen Harley. Cinematographer Dudu Miranda shows Jardim Gramacho from many perspectives, including aerial views that evoke an eerie peace. 

Muniz wanted to change people’s lives with his art. Now he asks, “Who am I to help anybody? I feel like I’m being helped more than they are.” His Pictures of Garbage show attracts over a million viewers in Brazil.

If you like Waste Land, you might enjoy: Cave of Forgotten Dreams; Man Push Cart; I Am.

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Waste Land    2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 38 min

Cast Overview:  Vik Muniz, Fabio Ghivelder, Tiao, Zumbi, Irma, Suelem, Magna

Director:  Lucy Walker

Genre:  Documentary, Art

 

Top Movies: American Culture and Citizenship

 

Top Movies: American Culture and Citizenship is a resource for teachers, learners and anyone interested in the highest values of American culture and citizenship. 

Do you have more movie titles to suggest for this list? Please leave a comment!

 

Win Win (2011)

The Blind Side (2009)

A Civil Action (1998)

Hoosiers (1986)

Inherit the Wind (1960)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

Local Hero (1983)

Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)

October Sky (1999)

Regarding Henry (1991)

The Right Stuff (1983)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

 

The Art of Getting By ***

 

In The Art of Getting By, Teflon slacker George (Freddie Highmore) is paralyzed by dread. Loneliness and death haunt him. Worse still, everyone insists he must get a job someday. George’s philosophy consists of three words: What’s the point?

A modern day Peter Pan with less charm, George never wants to grow up.  He carries The Stranger by Albert Camus everywhere. He refuses to do his homework. (The original title of the film was Homework.)  Principal Martinson (Blair Underwood) gives George an ultimatum: complete all his homework or no diploma.

Highmore (Toast; August Rush) seems hemmed in by the film’s sometimes stilted dialogue and story. "I'm obnoxious. I'm deeply disrespectful," George says.

Emma Roberts – niece of Julia Roberts – creates real nuance and a screen presence worth checking out. Still, we never understand what Sally sees in the misanthrope. “You have issues,” she says. The two start hanging out after George takes the rap for smoking on the school roof, allowing Sally to escape undetected.

Sally is embarrassed by her boozing mom (Elizabeth Reaser) who is searching for a new boyfriend. The two friends assume the role of grown-ups when Mrs. Howe flirts with George.

 

George's mother (Rita Wilson) and stepfather (Sam Robards) are distracted and stressed out with money problems and each other. When his mother learns that George hasn’t been doing his homework for months, she is genuinely stunned.

This freshman outing by writer-director Gavin Wiesen is an interesting but bumpy training run needing better dialogue and deeper character development. The Art of Getting By will attract audiences of slackers, as well as teachers who struggle to understand them.

The film has a flat quality as it insists on meaninglessness. There is not one, single spiritual moment.  George and Sally’s foundering parents seem more clueless than their kids. Everyone trudges along, convinced that grades, jobs and money are all-important.  No wonder the next generation is so disillusioned.

The highest aspiration George can manage is turning his frenzied sketches into art. Unfortunately, he freezes when asked for his point of view. Too terrified to do his art homework, he can’t imagine taking his friendship with Sally to the next level. It takes an overly-convenient emergency at home to wake George up.

Wiesen beautifully observes a few emotionally complex scenes. George and Sally pass each other like strangers on a New York street. Cinematographer Ben Kutchins zooms in on their faces at a Valentine’s Day dinner.

Some of George’s teachers believe in him, especially a pissed off art instructor Harris McElroy (memorably played by Jarlath Conroy). One instructor speaks plainly at a disciplinary meeting: “You don’t respect us, so why should we respect you?” Alicia Silverstone plays a concerned English teacher.

George begins to hang out with Sally’s friends. Sasha Spielberg and Marcus Carl Franklin play rich adolescents who have mastered the art of underage drinking and clubbing.

The Art of Getting By could serve as a how-to for young artists.  Here’s what George learns about unlocking his inner Basquiat:

“Figure out what you want to say and say it,” Harris tells him.  “Look in the mirror and listen to your gut.” George’s final class project must be honest and fearless.

“Be resourceful,” George’s stepfather tells him. This advice rings hollow as the adult inhabits his own world of secrets and lies.

Knowing what to paint “is the hardest part,” says Dustin (Michael Angarano of Snow Angels), George’s self-involved mentor. Examining the slacker’s original doodles, he insists: “This is what you should be painting.” Producer Andrew Levitas provides the film’s excellent artwork and plays student Javier.

The Art of Getting By has a tedious, depressed feeling that is buoyed somewhat by its closing act.

Interviewed by MovieLine, Roberts said, “There are so many high school romance films that have all this teenaged, heightened emotion. That’s not how it happens.”  For her, the film’s coming-of-age theme means “you need to figure out who you are for yourself, not for your friends or your family or your teachers. You kind of need to figure that out for you.”

If you like The Art of Getting By, you might enjoy: Hesher; Everything Must Go; Win Win.

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The Art of Getting By     2011  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 24 min

Cast Overview:  Freddie Highmore, Emma Roberts, Michael Angarano, Elizabeth Reaser, Sam Robards, Jarlath Conroy, Ann Dowd, Marcus Carl Franklin, Sasha Spielberg, Rita Wilson, Blair Underwood

Director:  Gavin Wiesen

Genre:  Drama, Dramedy

 

Forks Over Knives ****

 

More energy, weight loss, longer lifespan and lower risk factors for heart attack, stroke and cancer are the benefits of a vegetarian diet according to Forks Over Knives.

Lee Fulkerson writes and directs the film which advocates empowering ourselves by taking a preventative dietary approach to health.  Skyrocketing rates of obesity, diabetes, heart attack, stroke and cancer in the U.S., despite a huge investment in healthcare, point to the effectiveness of dietary change.

Nutritional scientist and former dairy farmer T. Colin Campbell believes that health care costs in the United States could be cut by billions if Americans switched to a whole foods, plant-based diet.

 

Campbell authored The China Study, where comprehensive research reveals that “degenerative diseases like heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, and even several forms of cancer, could almost always be prevented — and in many cases reversed — by adopting a whole foods, plant-based diet.”

A renowned surgeon who heads the Breast Cancer Task Force at the Cleveland Clinic, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., found that “many of the diseases he routinely treated were virtually unknown in parts of the world where animal-based foods were rarely consumed.”

Fulkerson plays guinea pig as he consults the team of Matthew Ledderman M.D. and Alona Pulde M.D.  After just a few months on their whole foods, plant-based diet, Fulkerson saw tremendous improvement in his test measures of good and bad cholesterol, blood vessel inflammation (associated with heart attack and stroke risk), and blood pressure.

Several inspiring case studies are featured. Ruth Heidrich (then in her 40’s) successfully reversed her breast cancer (which had metastasized) by joining John McDougall, M.D.’s clinical study and going on a low-fat vegan diet.  She continued aerobic and weight-bearing exercise. Today the 70-something athlete competes, writes and teaches.

San’Dera Brantley-Nation, a mother diagnosed with diabetes, works with Esselstyn and his wife to change her diet. Keeping a journal, Nation achieves impressive weight loss and reverses her diabetes.  Ironically, she works in an endocrinology office and faces the skepticism of her own medication-centered physician.

Processed foods, touted in the U.S. since the 1950’s, act as a “pleasure trap” that only partly fills one’s stomach. Triggering the body’s sensors with natural and artificial stimulants, they induce a low-grade addiction, according to Terry Mason M.D., a Chicago urologist and, until recently, Chief Medical Officer of the Cook County Health and Hospital System. Eating natural foods which are much higher in bulk would alleviate these effects, he added.

An added benefit of the vegetarian way is a significantly lighter footprint on the earth’s environment.  The clearing of much of the Amazon forest to make way for cattle grazing is shown as a case in point.

While some criticize such plant-based diets as too extreme, Forks Over Knives can be seen as too conservative.  For instance, the differences between organic and conventional food supplies are not detailed. If one is eating pesticide-treated vegetables in abundance, wouldn’t that increase one’s risk for cancer?

The widely reported tainting of U.S. wheat, corn, soybeans and canola with pesticides and genetic modification are not mentioned at all here. One eye-opening claim that is offered: erectile dysfunction signals the “first early warning sign” of vascular disease.

Future films in this genre could address the social pressures facing healthy eaters. How does one gracefully bow out while most indulge in the pizzas, birthday cakes and drinks after work that are so integral to our social traditions?

First Lady Michelle Obama is shown speaking about the childhood obesity epidemic. More of a “wow” factor could have been achieved by including cameos of the many movie stars who espouse vegetarian, vegan and/or whole foods diets. For instance, Russell Brand, President Bill Clinton, Steve-O and Anne Hathaway are now finalists for  PETA’s Sexiest Vegetarian Celebrities List of 2011. Demi Moore, Madonna, Clint Eastwood and The Beach Boys all drink an organic apple cider vinegar (ACV) drink, according to the website of author and educator Patricia Bragg, N.D., Ph.D.

Forks Over Knives can inspire viewers to renew their commitment to a healthy diet, and even begin the shift to vegetarianism. This documentary joins a number of recent films on whole foods and diet, including Food, Inc.; Food Matters and The Beautiful Truth.

If you like Forks Over Knives, you might enjoy:  The Beautiful Truth; Happy; I Am.

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Forks Over Knives     2011  /  PG  /  1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Lee Fulkerson, T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr.

Director:  Lee Fulkerson

Genre:  Documentary, Health, Mind and Body