Change Your Image
lemonaidkid
Reviews
I Need That Record! The Death (or Possible Survival) of the Independent Record Store (2008)
Arrested adolescence is not a valid business model
This documentary would lead one to believe that the problem with independent record stores is "capitalist greed". What it inadvertently points out is that many of the indie record store 'types' interviewed don't have the drive and seriousness to make a small business succeed. For every great indie vinyl store that I've frequented over the years, I've been to a baker's dozen with overpriced, poorly organized stock, obnoxious hipster clerks and a filthy, depressing shop space. And why the hell is a Communist America-hating academic like Noam Chomsky being interviewed here? I love indie music, punk rock and have collected vinyl (& styrene) records since 1961, but this film did not speak to me. I was actually glad to see most of these losers unemployed by the end of the film. And worst of all it made authentic American rock heroes like Ian M. and Lenny K. look kinda pathetic by appearing with this parade of losers.
Lakeview Terrace (2008)
Another liberal bomb fails to detonate at box office
Two stars only. Would be zero stars if not for Samuel Jackson's usual quality performance and a brief, classy turn by Ron Glass in a small role. Much like "American History X", this film attempts to show Americans who hold traditional, conservative values to be some kind of psychotic monsters. Jackson's character here is a career cop from South Central who now lives and works in the suburbs where he is trying to make a better life for his two children since the untimely death of their mother/his wife. A loving but strict disciplinarian who constantly corrects his teenage daughter when she reverts to Ebonics in her conversational language, he is more of a Bill Cosby/Dr. Huxtable figure than any sort of amoral "Training Day" Denzel. His 'tough love' treatment of a shotgun-wielding perp amply demonstrates his value system: Tough, fair, and family-centric.
The sleazy, self-absorbed mixed couple who move in next door are almost a right-wing caricature of what's wrong with liberals in general and insufferable Berkeley types in particular. The Patrick Wilson (that creepy pedophile from "Hard Candy") character is a poster boy for that particularly annoying breed of white-guilt liberalism that immerses itself in African-American culture to somehow "prove" a lack of racism. Despite the hip-hop music, greenie cars, global warming platitudes, and African-American wife, he is a selfish, spineless jerk who makes for a whiny, inconsiderate, littering neighbor. The dishonest and morally bankrupt behavior of this couple render them pretty much unlikeable on any level, even as Jackson's character inexplicably seems to lose his moral compass (Why? Ask the screenwriters...it's just not that obvious or believable).
The ending, where Jackson behaves in a criminal and almost comically unprofessional and clumsy manner (for a 28-year LAPD veteran) is really beyond the pale. We are grabbed by the scruff of the neck and told to cheer for the morally corrupt liberal yups who are being "victimized" by a straw man that bears no resemblance to the character that Jackson played during the first 2/3 of the film. This turnaround reminded me of Edward Norton in "American History X" who, as a supposedly fascist skinhead, talked like a center-right common-sense conservative at the dinner table. I guess the message in these films is that if one is out of step with the current politically-correct orthodoxy (no matter if your beliefs are held in defense of morally-grounded family values), You are a dangerous, evil force who must be destroyed. Just ask Juan Willaims...
Pleasantville (1998)
Worst "message" movie of the 90s
Deserves a "1" rating for excellent b/w photography and color effects. Otherwise this is a "0" and a stellar example of the subliminal and pervasive 'Frankfurt School' leftist subversion that has tainted Hollywood product since Stalin was old enough to grow a mustache. The real shame is that generation after generation is now being sold a bill of goods on Cold War-era America that is driven by the same tired Old Soviet Bloc propagandistic nonsense that HUAC had been vilified by 'the press' for investigating back then. I wish someone would make a fact-based film about the Army-McCarthy hearings and finally show on which side the "decency" REALLY resided in that affair.