Good Hair

First Hit: Although not necessarily a well filmed or a cohesive documentary, it was very informative and definitely shed light on black women’s hair.

Chris Rock isn’t an effective documentary interviewer and at times the questions were more about making either a joke or a blatant impactful statement lacking thoughtfulness.

However, his being unafraid to ask point blank questions; like when he asked Maya Angelou about the her first time to use a “relaxer” was something the audience wanted to know and is the kind of questioning which propelled this film.

There is a multi-billion dollar industry for black hair products and services that I didn't know existed. People spending $1,000 - $3,500 for weaves when they may be only making a teacher’s salary was almost jaw dropping. The harsh chemicals to straighten hair can be and are dangerous but they're sold by the case load.

To learn how much time and effort women spend on their hair which cannot be touched was amazing. The scenes which discuss this and the look in the men’s eyes when they were asked if they ever touch their woman’s hair were insightful as well as hilarious.

Al Sharpton talked extensively about the importance of hair care and how James Brown took him under his wing in this department. The interview segments with Ice-T were direct, funny, and to the point about the impact of hair care in the black woman’s world.

The event which is the center point of the film is the annual Bronner Bros. Hair Show in Atlanta Georgia and the hair styling contest that makes this event the apex of black hair care. Rock interviews the contestants and we see each of their performances.

Rock isn’t the best in-depth interviewer but he has the wherewithal to ask hard and direct questions and because Rock is a comedian, we get a large number of laughs in along the way.

Overall: Not a great documentary, but a very interesting and eye opening look into another world – black hair care.

Capitalism: A Love Story

First Hit:  Michael Moore, in his own funny yet insightful way, reminds us that our unquenchable thirst for more stuff may lead our nation into consumptive oblivion.

Michael has a way to telling stories.

Generally I like the intent but I’m not always enamored with how or the way in which he tells the story on film. However, in this film his way of storytelling makes a very sad and horrible set of events seem interesting and accessible to a wide audience. He is not afraid to point fingers at both Republicans and Democrats alike, because they both approved the bailout.

Both parties approved the deregulation that led us into much of our national financial problems. Yes, the brunt of the deregulation blame is squarely with the Republicans (Reagan) but it is also the influence of election contributions to members of both parties and their re-election mentality which drove numerous bad decisions and “we the people” get to suffer for it today.

I do wish we would have gotten more information about some of the exotic financial instruments that major financial institutions use on Wall Street, but we didn't. The picture presented is that Wall Street financial companies are a basically a sophisticated gambling casino, which bet and lost our money and now we have to pay their debt. 

The film presented a plethora of charts which were thrown on the screen but they went by so fast I couldn’t digest what they all meant and there was little explanation about each one. The grandiose attempts to get into AIG, GM (one last time), and other major financial houses is typical Michael Moore and, at times, funny.

I really enjoyed his driving in an armored car to these financial companies trying to get the tax payers, “our”, money back. And I enjoyed the police crime scene tape being wrapped around the buildings.

Some of the interviews were very enlightening and gave a wonderful perspective of how corrupt our government officials are when it comes to taking care of their personal needs versus our needs.

However, the truth of the story is this, capitalistic greed and our consumptive nature have driven us to this point and each of us needs to pay attention to our government and the freedoms they allow our financial businesses.

Michael Moore did a wonderful job of creating a picture of how we got ourselves into this financial mess. Although he doesn’t and couldn’t cover everything, the point he brings home is that capitalism has been trouncing our economy. And if we don’t come together and take our democratic ideals, as a nation, and really look at what a few have done, we’ll be in more trouble soon.

Overall: This film was entertaining and provocative and I left the theater shaking my head at our government’s inability to curb its own interests over their constituents interests.

The September Issue

First Hit: Ended up feeling sad about Anna Wintour. If I felt the way she appeared to feel during this film I would have quit my job a long time ago.

Anna Wintour is supposedly the Grand Dame or Grand Poobah of fashion.

As shown in this film, she's created an intimidating circus life around her which has little bearing on happiness, just a state of being miserable, arrogant and pushy.

The film is about her and about how the largest issue of Vogue (September of 2007 at 5 lbs and 840 pages) made it to the market, as if the number of pages is what is important.

The film begins with Anna making a statement that people who look down at fashion are simply afraid. To me that sounded like someone pumping up their own bubble of illusion because they were fearful that others would see meaninglessness in her world of fashion.

I personally don’t give a rat’s ass about fashion, and to think that my not caring about fashion makes me afraid is simply absurd. I understand that fashion is important for some people but for others it holds no interest and to state that the latter people are afraid is simply a stupid statement. It doesn’t cross her mind that some people fashion has no interest and never will. Early on in the film she indicates that jeans purchased for hundreds of dollars are that much better, from a style and importance standpoint, than jeans purchased from Kmart.

I wondered if it was about the expensiveness of high fashion is what she thinks makes it important. Watch her reaction when she states her siblings think what she does is "a bit silly". The film moves along to watch the infighting between Anna and Grace her creative director.

Grace, a former model and is earthier in her life and outlook than Anna, creates some very interesting and visionary pictures and themes for Vogue which were fun to watch develop. 

When her pictures are on the screen you know you are looking at creative talent. That her pictures take over the September issue is not coincidence.

Directed by R.J. Cutler this look into the fashion world was surprisingly telling. Many of the people seem unhappy in the film and when the publisher announced to the staff that this particular Vogue would be the largest yet, the applause and response is muted and uninspired. Anna appears awash in her job and it seems as if there is little joy in her life. Her posture, look, and eyes belie any words she states about liking her life. I just don’t buy it, nor do I buy clothes because they are in fashion.

Overall: This film is well shot, but the subject and subject matter expert (Anna) is uninspired and comes off as just a job and it is the only thing she knows.

No Impact Man

First Hit:  A surprisingly engaging film with an interesting concept about what one family discovered while attempting to live without negatively impacting the environment.

One of the truths of this film is that any one person has a low probability of dramatically affecting global change in the world.

But one can change themselves and through that discovery others may gain and grow from observing them. Colin Beavan is a New York City resident and for a living writes history books. His wife, Michelle Colin, also writes for a business magazine.

Colin decides that he wants to see if he can live one year and have no environmental impact (or virtually none) and write a book about his experience. His wife decides to go along with it which also meant that their very young daughter was also part of this experiment.

I cannot remember and name all the major criteria they followed during this year long experiment, however some of them are: No buying anything new (could only purchase used stuff). No disposable diapers. No TV. Only buy food that is locally grown (within a few hundred miles of NYC). No taxis, buses, buses, or airplanes (Bicycles, walking and kick scooters are the transportation mode). No toilet paper, No Starbucks (triple shot Iced Venti coffees) and no eating out.

Then after 6 months, no electricity. The wonderful thing about this film is you get one on one time with both Colin and Michelle as they talk about the struggles and joys of reducing their carbon footprint.

Colin learns early on that food choices get dramatically reduced when he cannot buy the type of vegetables he normally would buy because in winter there are only root vegetables grown in New York.

Michelle laments early on about not being able to buy clothing and purses on a whim but also shows awareness of how buying the newest thing isn’t such a big and important deal. I loved watching Michelle struggle openly about numerous subjects and how her innate joy and optimism came to the forefront in the end.

Their daughter really enjoyed the extra time with her parents and watching the family wash clothes together in the tub was priceless.

I commend Colin and Michelle for taking on this project and it has inspired me to be even more cognizant of my own meager consumption and to look for ways to be more planet friendly. In this way they accomplished more than their original goal because everyone who sees this film may see ways they can be more conscious about how they consume. The inexpensive way this documentary was shot was perfect and fit the mood of the subject. I also appreciated the open and frank discussions Michelle and Colin shared with the audience.

Overall: This was a very interesting and fascinating film which can have long term impacts on anyone who sees it.

World's Greatest Dad

First Hit: A poorly constructed story with very little character building and ultimately unsatisfying.

There are brief moments in this film that are funny. There are a couple dramatic moments that are captivating. But when filled with all the other scenes and edited together, it was a terrible 99 minutes.

This film barely holds itself together; actually maybe it didn’t. Robin Williams plays Lance Clayton a high school teacher who is a single father raising a high school son named Kyle Clayton (played by Daryl Sabara). Kyle goes to his father’s school, and says he hates everything. I mean everything except porno. Kyle loves internet porno and the film gives the impression she spends all his spare time masturbating, obsessing about sex or occasionally playing a video game with his quiet and thoughtful friend Andrew (played by Evan Martin).

Early on one gets a sense of where this film might, but doesn’t, go. It is the beginning scene when Lance goes to wake up his son for school and walks in on him masturbating while choking himself with a strap to enhance his orgasm.

It is an interesting way to begin a film, but the interaction and dialog fall flat and the film runs a mediocre course until Kyle dies by performing this same act. This unknown and hated kid all of a sudden becomes a beacon of light for all the other kids in school because of a counterfeit suicide note written by his father to hide how the boy really died.

There are other characters in the film, like Lance’s girlfriend coworker Claire (played by Alexie Gilmore) and coworker Jason (played by Jermaine Williams); however they add little to the story. The longer Lance continues to drive the fantasy about his son Kyle, the more his conscious gets the better of him and, in the end, he tells the truth. Didn't we all see this coming?

Bobcat Goldthwait wrote and directed this and I’ve got to say it probably sounded better on paper than the resulting film. I could almost see Williams try to embolden his role to have some meaning, but the script and direction didn’t allow for it. There is no character building therefore we have no idea why or how Sabara’s character developed into this sex obsessed hateful boy. We’re just dropped into this story and expected to believe him with no historical perspective or developmental storyline. It just didn’t work. Jermaine William’s character was only there to make Williams character jealous and it was either bad acting or scripting, but it didn’t work and he wasn’t believable. Gilmore was amusing to watch but seemed more like putting oil and vinegar salad dressing on a Jello mold salad – it didn’t work.

Overall: There were hints of a good and interesting idea for a film, but the execution sinks it after the first 15 minutes.