good flix / part two

Capturing the Friedmans is a compulsively watchable commentary on the american family, the politics of sex in our culture / suburbia, the nature of hysteria...and more subtly on the voyeurism & documentary-culture which define:

the blogosphere.

reality television.

parasocial relationships / industry exploitation of celebrity culture.

i'm not a naysayer of any of these cultural realities. obviously i'm in the blogosphere with two feet...but the mcluhanesque idea that we only understand the ways our technology impacts us -- "in the rear view mirror and fading fast" -- seems particularly apt in this particular story.

the filmmakers have a tenderness for all of their characters -- and it would be easy for them to demonize several of the characters -- so the remarkable ability to maintain the full roundess of David (the amateur documentarian) and the Mom...

is amazing.

The final shot of Howard Friedman -- is a coup in the whole voyeurism subplot which involves YOU the viewer in a complicated ambivalent relationship with your own watching (a story line arguably initiated with David's dictum, "If you're not me, STOP watching this! This is PRIVATE!)

and on a MUCH lighter note --

but a great documentation of the *beauty* of how a cultural performance can give some otherwise marginal members of a group both a grammar and a voice for participation in (ultimately) the larger cultural millieu is --



Spellbound

and while we're on the subject -- the other must-see-andrew-list-of-documentaries-for-everybody?

Hoop Dreams



American Movie



and hands on a hard body



for a less universal recommendation, but a must-watch if you live in my geographical world --

Go Tigers is a great depiction of the complexities of how football culture interplays with everything else here in mideastern Ohio.