Year:  2010
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Directors:  Micki Dickoff, Tony Pagano
Appearances:  Edgar Ray Killen, Ben Chaney, Carolyn Goodman, Rita Bender, Jewel McDonald, Deborah Posey, Buford Posey, Dave Dennis, Florence Mars, Jerry Mitchell
Run time:  87 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     The movie Mississippi Burning probably did more to keep the murders of James Chaney, Matthew Schwerner and Andrew Goodman in the public eye than any trial ever could.  Neshoba: The Price of Freedom comes to DVD February 1st from First Run Features, and it gives those murders, and especially the trial some 40 years later, the documentary treatment. 

     When it comes to comparisons, however, this film has much more in common with the 1996 film Ghosts of Mississippi.  Not that Ghosts of Mississippi was a very good film.  It wasn’t.  But it did feature a fantastic performance by James Woods as Byron De La Beckwith, the man who went on trial for the murder of Medgar Evers 30 years after the civil rights activist was killed.

     And throughout Neshoba, I was constantly reminded of James Woods playing De La Beckwith every time Edgar Ray Killen made an appearance.  This real-life killer is every bit as scary as the actor was.  A Baptist preacher who was widely known in Neshoba county to be the mastermind behind the murders, Killen actually agreed to be interviewed for this film.  About to go on trial for the 40-year-old killings, Killen maintains his innocence.

     At the same time, however, he can’t help but let his true nature show.  He remains a vicious, angry, utterly vile racist.  He continues to hold opinions about black people that would have been shocking to some even in 1964.  And while many in the community support Killen (mainly, it seems, because he is a preacher and must therefore be untouchable), it’s not clear whether any of them actually like him.  Even if you took the racism and murder OUT of the equation, he would still be a bitterly unpleasant old man.

     The story of the three murdered young men is sad, their families all make appearances and fight to see justice done after four decades, and that’s all compelling.  The town appears to still be split along racial lines, even in 2004, where many of the white people think the old murders should just be left alone and many of them (most of them very old men now) express racist views as horrible and disturbing as those of Killen himself, which is frightening and interesting.

     But it’s Killen himself who makes this film mesmerizing.  His complete lack of compassion or consideration for the victims of this murder, his continued ignorance and bitter hatred of black people, and his defiant stand against anyone who dares to question his goodness in any way.  He may be 80 years old, but this former KKK collaborator remains one of the scariest people I have seen on film.  He will almost certainly die in prison, and some of his views will die with him.  But judging by the legacy he and his ilk have left in Neshoba county, it will be many generations before this awful stain is erased for good.

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Year:  2010
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Nev Schulman, Angela Wesselman-Pierce
Directors:  Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Run time:  86 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     It’s hard to write a review of Catfish without revealing the major events and moments that give the film its power.  This is a documentary about facebook, essentially, and the unique ability it has given modern people to deceive each other.  Nev Schulman is a photographer in New York City.  When a little girl makes a painting out of one of Nev’s photos and mails it to him, he begins to have an online “friendship” with her through facebook.

     Eventually, his friendship with little Abby blossoms into a friendship with the rest of her family – her mom Angela, her older brother, her father and her smoking hot 19-year-old sister Megan.  Nev actually begins an online relationship with Megan, with dirty text messages and suggestive phone conversations and all that.  It’s at this point that his brother Ariel and their friend Henry decide to make this story into a documentary.  Nev’s online relationship with this entire family has basically become a second life for him, and he’s never even met them.

     Then everything slowly unravels as Nev begins to realize that all is not as it seems.  He has never spoken to Abby.  Megan sends him songs she claims to have recorded just for him, but they are other people.  And Nev decides to drive out to Michigan to confront the family and find out just how much of this is real and how much is a facebook invention.

     Here’s where giving the details is dicey.  Those of you who have seen the movie will know what I’m talking about when I say that it seems a little too easy and a little too gentle toward the end.  I’m not 100 percent convinced that the movie is as real as it purports to be.  The special features involve a question and answer session with Nev and the film makers, where they seem very intent on defending the real nature of the movie.  But frankly, I don’t think it matters.  Whether it’s entirely real or a little bit staged and massaged, the devastating effect is the same.  Catfish is almost as much of a thriller as it is a documentary.

     I have a little bit of a complaint when it comes to the tone set toward the end of the movie.  It’s…overly compassionate.  And when, during the interview in the special features, Nev and the others suggest that we all fake out lives on facebook to some degree, I feel like it misses the point.  It feels to me like an attempt to justify their compassion.  I think it might have been better to just let the movie stand on its own merits without deconstructing it so much.  Too much deconstruction here could possibly ruin what is otherwise a really interesting, really good film.

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary
Countries:  Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, UK
Language:  English 
Director:  Lucy Bailey
Run time:  94 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Sometimes a documentary gets me fired up, like I’m going to leap up and do something to fix what’s happening in the world.  Like I learn about how my food is killing me, and I eat different food.  Or, I discover that Japan is slaughtering dolphins and whales with impunity, and I…join a facebook group or something.  There’s not always a lot you can do, outraged though you may be.

     And such is the case with Mugabe and the White African, out December 14th from First Run Features.  Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe since 1980, has a controversial “land reform” program that began almost a decade ago.  The program is really land redistribution, as the government confiscates land from corporations and wealthy Europeans and redistributes it to poor black farmers who have never before had a chance to farm or own their own land.

     At least, that’s the theory, and that’s the Mugabe party line.  In reality, foreign landowners and corporate titans are not the targets of the land redistribution.  It turns out that only white people are kicked off their land, and the farms don’t go to the poor, or even to farmers.  They become the property of Mugabe’s cronies.  The girlfriend of his interior minister.  The cousin of his head of security.  And so on.  The farms go untended, no farming is done, and it’s well known how disastrous the economic conditions in Zimbabwe have become, in large part because of these fundamentally foolish land takeovers.

     Watching Mugabe and the White African made me upset.  This wanton racism and disregard for the welfare of his own country made me sad.  But there wasn’t much I could do about it.  Instead, I got a chance to watch the story of Mike Campbell, a white farmer in Zimbabwe who had an opportunity to actually effect change.  Whether he did or not…I’m not going to ruin the end of the film.  I hope you watch it.  Know that it will fill you with impotent rage and sadness, but that it’s worth the ride.

     The main reason to watch Mugabe and the White African is not for any kind of activist reason – it’s simply because this is a really, really good movie.  In fact, it’s a great movie.  The story of Campbell and his family is fascinating.  We see them at the depths of despair as Mugabe’s thugs close in on their property.  The Campbells take their case to an internationl tribunal elsewhere in Africa, and we see them frustrated and angry as their case gets delayed again and again in an attempt to put them off.

     The determination and bravery of Mike and the rest of his family are inspirational.  Through intimidation, the Campbells continue to surreptitiously videotape the aggressors at great risk to themselves.  Through a horrible beating suffered by Mike, his wife, and his son-in-law at the hands of Mugabe’s thugs, their resolve is only strengthened.  Through setback after setback, they keep fighting for justice to be done.

     It’s that story, and the footage that accompanies it, that makes this a memorable and powerful movie.  Just knowing this kind of thing is happening on the other side of the world is enough to make your blood boil, but to actually see it for yourself is something else entirely.  Mugabe And The White African was shortlisted for the documentary film Oscar last year, the prize that was eventually won by The Cove.

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  Germany
Language:  German w/ English subtitles
Starring:  Pina Bausch, some assistants, dozens of teenagers
Directors:  Anne Linsel, Rainer Hoffman
Run time:  89 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Dancing Dreams, out November 16th from First Run Features, does two things.  It pays tribute to a giant in the world of dance and choreography, Pina Bausch.  It also shows teenagers with little or no experience in the world of theatre and dance blooming and flourishing through their experiences with the art world.

     The documentary follows 40 teenagers who were selected to perform Contact Zone, a dance piece created by Bausch.  Most of them didn’t know who she was, and most of them had never participated in anything like this before.  Over the course of a year, they learned to dance, to act and to perform on stage.  What’s most fascinating about the film is the growth we can see in the kids.  We can follow them from their unsure, nervous first steps to their confident (but still nervous) debut performance a year later.

     Pina Bausch herself appears very little in the film.  Most of the training and rehearsals are overseen by two other dance pros, and Bausch shows up now and then to check on the progress and chain smoke cigarettes.  I learned more about Bausch from the special features than I did from the documentary itself, but the documentary isn’t really about Bausch, it’s about the 40 kids coming into their own and mastering a complicated modern dance piece.

     Pina Bausch died in 2009, shortly after the movie was completed.  In a way, that makes Dancing Dreams something of an elegy to her life and work, but it wasn’t conceived that way.  I will admit that before seeing this movie I knew nothing of Pina Bausch or her work, and now all I really know comes from the little “biography” special feature on this disc.  If you want to learn all about Pina Bausch and her life and career, there are books, and wikipedia, and so on.  Don’t watch this movie for her.  Watch Dancing Dreams for the kids.  It’s totally worth it.

Years:  2010
Genre:  Comedy, Stand-up, Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Subject:  Sam Kinison
Starring:  Dennis Leary, Ice-T, Lewis Black, Chris Rock, Jay Leno, Ron White, Kathy Griffin, Lenny Clarke, Norm MacDonald, George Lopez
Run time:   60 minutes
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     I don’t think I would get Sam Kinison if I just watched a bunch of his stand-up.  He seems to be more concerned with volume than he is with actual jokes, he’s so bitter and angry it’s hard to laugh, and his persona is more frightening than humourous.  Sure, I get that shock value is sometimes more revolutionary in the comedy world than the material itself is, but Kinison sure didn’t seem like he was doing anything for shock value.  He really appeared to be playing himself – an unstable, furious screaming maniac.

     That’s why Back From Hell is such a great documentary to showcase Kinison.  I actually need to hear from Lewis Black and Chris Rock.  I need Dennis Leary to explain to me what made Kinison so great.  And after listening to all these gigantic names in the comedy world, and appreciating their appreciation for this man, I can actually understand his brilliance, and I get it.  Well…almost.

     Off the top, I want to state my one big complaint with The Michael Moore Collection, out November 2nd from Alliance Films.  And that is simply that it doesn’t include the one film that put Moore on the map, the one big success that generated the rest of his succes.  that of course is the magnificent documentary Roger And Me.  But then, you can go buy that one for like eight bucks on DVD these days, and place it next to this collection on your shelf.  So do that.

  The Big One (*******7/10)

Year:  1997
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Michael Moore
Archival appearances and interview subjects:  Bill Clinton, Steve Forbes, Garrison Keillor, Phil Knight, Studs Terkel, Rick Nielsen, dozens of others
Director:  Michael Moore
Run time:  91 minutes

     The Big One is not really a follow-up to Roger & Me, nor is it a documentary like the others in Michael Moore’s canon.  It follows him on his book tour as he goes across the country talking to people who are recently out of work, people who are trying to unionize and people who are generally pissed off at the way they are being treated by huge corporations.  In a sense, it’s a movie about companies that lay off massive amounts of workers while recording record profits.

     But really, it’s just a series of vignettes from a series of towns.  Sometimes it’s Moore speaking, sometimes he’s trying to get in to confront a CEO at a big company, sometimes he’s just jamming with Rick Nielsen of Cheap Trick.  He plays pranks on his handlers.  He jokes with Phil Knight of Nike while trying to convince him to visit his sweat shops in Indonesia.  And he bites the Random House hand that feeds him.  All of it is entertaining, all of it is interesting, but there’s no gigantic statement like those in his other films.

  Bowling For Columbine (**********10/10)

Year:  2002
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Michael Moore
Archival appearances and interview subjects:  George W. Bush, George H. W. Bush, Charlton Heston, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Marilyn Manson, Dick Clark, Dick Cheney, Chris Rock, Bill Clinton, dozens of others
Director:  Michael Moore
Run time:  120 minutes

     I have a small personal connection to Bowling For Columbine.  There’s a scene where Michael Moore interviews the mayor of Sarnia, just down the road from Windsor and Detroit.  He’s trying to figure out how so many people are killed with guns every year in Detroit, but just across the river in Canada it almost never happens.  During that interview, you can see a little model replica of the Bluenose II, our famous Canadian sailing ship, in the mayor’s office.  I was one of the people who presented the mayor with that replica, while touring Canada with the Bluenose II.  So…that’s neat.  For me.  Probably not for you.

     Anyway, Bowling For Columbine was the movie that solidified Moore as a voice for a country, for a generation and for a cause.  It also was the movie that made him public enemy #1 for a certain right-wing faction of doubters, an animosity that was further fueled and amped-up by his follow-up, Fahrenheit 9/11. 

     This is a documentary that, every time I see it, makes me laugh.  The opening scene, where Moore goes into a bank and walks out with a gun is hilarious.  And scary.  Many other moments in the movie are very funny, and many are very sad.  The security camera footage of the Columbine school attacks never fails to make me cry.  Same goes for the scene of the airplanes flying into the World Trade Centre.  So I laugh, and I cry, and I watch this movie at least once a year.  And it remains as good as ever.

  Fahrenheit 9/11 (**********10/10)

Year:  2004
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Michael Moore
Archival appearances:  George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Britney Spears, Ben Affleck, Stevie Wonder, Al Gore, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, George H. W. Bush, Ricky Martin, Saddam Hussein, Osama Bin Laden, Dick Cheney, dozens of others
Director:  Michael Moore
Run time:  122 minutes

     The ultimate indictment of the Bush-Cheney administration, Fahrenheit 9/11 explores the relationship between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family, the relationship between the military and big business, and the relationship between the attacks of 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq.  And of course many other details that are shocking and terribly sad.  If Michael Moore wasn’t already a lightning rod before this movie came out, he became the ultimate polarizing celebrity figure in America once it was released.

     This is the one Moore movie you hear those who hate him reference the most.  This is the proof, they say, that he fudges facts and presents a biased view and that he just hates conservatives and that’s his entire raison d’etre.  Whenever you hear someone say that, ask them one question – have they actually seen the movie?  More often than not, they haven’t.  The logic is usually quite simple.  I refuse to watch anything by that left-wing nutjob!  He’s so awful, I wouldn’t stoop to it!  So…how do you know?

     The truth is, Moore deals in facts.  Yes, they are presented in a certain way, to create a certain opinion.  But they are, nonetheless, facts.  And the facts he presents in Fahrenheit 9/11 are, in no uncertain terms, earthshattering.  No matter how you want to spin them.

  Sicko (*********9/10)

Year:  2007
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Michael Moore
Archival appearances:  George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Hillary Clinton, Billy Crystal, dozens of others
Director:  Michael Moore
Run time:  123 minutes

     Sicko is Michael Moore’s take on the American health care system.  A system which, at the time the movie was made, was broken and disastrous.  Since the movie was released, the Americans have engaged in a massive, knock-down drag-out health care debate that resulted in some serious changes to their system.  Not the monumental, system-altering changes Moore advocates in Sicko, but there has been a start.

     I can’t say how much influence the film had on the debate, or on the health care reform itself.  I could suspect that in the end, it did more to polarize the debate than anything.  Republicans, after all, would be hung in effigy by their base if they were seen to be supporting anything that Michael Moore advocates.  But the film itself changed the minds of millions of people.  And it presented the problems, and the solutions, to the Americans’ health care crisis in a simple, easy to understand and entertaining way.  And what more do you want from a documentary?

  Capitalism: A Love Story (**********10/10)

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Michael Moore, Wallace Shawn, people of America
Archival appearances:  George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Henry Paulson, Timothy Geithner, dozens of others
Director:  Michael Moore
Run time:  120 minutes

     Capitalism: A Love Story is Michael Moore’s finest work.  This is the best film he has ever made.  It is as sad and contemplative as Bowling For Columbine, as angry as Fahrenheit 9/11, and as political as Sicko.  But more than anything, this film is his breakout hit, Roger and Me, writ large.  That movie was done on a small scale – one man trying to get some answers from the boss of GM as Moore’s hometown of Flint, Michigan sputtered and died.  Capitalism takes that same concept and applies it on a much, much larger scale that encompasses all of America, its financial system, and the philosphy of capitalism itself.

     In fact, Capitalism uses some footage from Roger And Me, and Moore returns to several themes from that classic film.  He goes to the GM headquarters again – of course he is turned away once more, 20 years later – but this time he is not going after the big guys.  This time he might actually have some advice for the auto maker, and he just wants to get his advice to the people who need it most.  And of course, at this time, GM is one of the companies which need it the most.

     I have seen a lot of people (Moore himself included) talking about this film before it opened.  And they have all said that it is an indictment of capitalism as a flawed and evil system.  Yes and no.  I didn’t get the sense that Moore wants the entire system of capitalism to be torn down.  I think it’s more of a lament for the old days, and a sad look at the way “capitalism” has become something entirely different than it was one hundred, or seventy, or even thirty years ago.  I certainly think Moore wants the current system to be torn down.  And I think he’s right.  But I don’t necessarily think that the point we’ve reached is the necessary and obvious end result of capitalism itself.

     Instead, Moore presents our current financial situation as the obvious end result of deregulation, of capitalism unrestrained, of a governmental system overrun and essentially taken over by capitalist financial entities who, in many cases, hold more power than the president.  As Moore (and most other people) sees it, this all began with Ronald Reagan in the 80s, as he tore down the regulations that kept banks and Wall Street and others under wraps. 

     Moore doesn’t attempt to explain the financial collapse of the past year.  Well, he does make an attempt, but it’s a pretty half assed one.  Instead, he makes it clear that we’re not supposed to understand.  We’re not supposed to understand credit default swaps and derivatives and all these other terms that have been thrown around all over the news.  It’s like the theory of relativity.  Everyone’s heard of it, 2% of the world has a basic knowledge of what it means and how it works, but there are only about six people alive who really, truly, understand what it’s all about.

     Capitalism features a few of the stunts that made Moore famous.  But it appears that his heart really isn’t into it.  Even that works for this movie though, as he pulls up an armoured car to a series of banks asking for the bailout money back on behalf of the taxpayers.  He wanders about, as though in a daze, making a half-hearted attempt to convince various security guards that he is there to make a citizens’ arrest of the bank CEOs.  More than anything else, in this movie Moore seems to feel as defeated as the rest of his country.  He hates the way things have turned out.  He hates the fact that there is a company that deals only in buying foreclosed homes dirt cheap and selling them at a massive profit.  He hates the fact that major corporations take out life insurance on their employees, without telling them, and then cash in when those employees die.

     Moore hates all of this.  But what is he to do?  The forces that created the climate that created the meltdown are still as strong as ever, living off all that bailout money and laughing all the way to the bank.  The policies which make the richest 1% of Americans worth more than the poorest 95% combined still exist, and the gap is widening every day.  In fact, the richest of the rich are making absolutely certain that this gap widens.  But not just by making more money.  It actually makes them richer when the poor get poorer.  So that’s in their best interests as well. 

     The movie turns around in tone when Moore makes an excellent point – the reason that this gap has been allowed to exist for so many years, and that people have still bought into the system that created that discrepancy, is that people have always thought “that could be me”.  You know, I live in the land of capitalism, the free market, and opportunity.  And that means that even I, a lowly working-class American, could someday be as rich as the guys who run Goldman Sachs.  However, with the recent meltdown of the financial sector, Americans are starting to realize that this carrot on the stick was never really there.  No, in fact.  They can’t ever become that rich.  They will never get there, and they aren’t meant to.

     So Moore talks to some people who have risen up to fight the system.  Workers who barricaded themselves in a window and door shop until the Bank of America paid them what they were owed.  Familes who forced their way back into their empty, abandoned, foreclosed homes and refused to leave.  This is all very good.  It’s hopeful and impassioned and ferocious.  Just like Moore’s movie.  At the end of the movie though, he suggests that all of the people in the theatre (and now, with the DVD release, in their living rooms) rise up as well.  He tells them not to take this any more.  And although Canada is nowhere near as bad as the U.S., this certainly applies to us as well.  I just have no idea how to do that.  What is it I can do to buy out of this system?  How do I fight the system until it comes to get me too?  I would like a few more ideas on that front.  Because after watching Capitalism, I am ready.  I’m totally ready to rise up, and be a part of the solution.  I just need someone to tell me how.

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  Iceland
Language:  English (dubbed voice – originally in Icelandic)
Narrator:  Kate Winslett
Interview subject of note:  Temple Grandin
Director:  Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Run time:  103 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     When my step-son was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, the first thing we did was order a bunch of books about it and read them.  We also consulted a number of doctors and specialists about the condition, trying to learn more about Asperger’s and about our son.  I would say that’s probably what any parent would do in the same situation.  what I would not say is that doing this research was an act of “courage”.

     And really, this is pretty much what Margret Ericsdottir is doing in A Mother’s Courage: Talking Back To Autism, on DVD October 26th from First Run Features.  She’s looking for answers and information about autism, after her son is diagnosed with the condition.  (Autism and Asperger’s are not the same thing, but both fall under the umbrella term ”autism spectrum disorders”.)  She visits specialists and doctors and autism spokespeople (most notably Temple Grandin, who was herself the subject of a terrific recent film).  But really, she’s just gathering information, like any parent would do.

     So I’ll just get my complaints out of the way first.  “Courage” is a pretty big stretch, and makes for a self-serving movie title.  And the soundtrack (some great tunes by Sigur Ros) is invasive.  OK.  Done complaining.  The rest of the documentary was fascinating to me, but I think only because I have a personal connection to autism and autism-related disorders.  I found that I learned a lot that I hadn’t discovered through my own research, and I have even begun implementing some of the techniques I saw in the movie.

     (For example – I find that my stepson now focuses more on his homework, and finishes much faster, when I associate a noise with a word he’s supposed to study for his French dictation.)

     I found the interview with Temple Grandin to be particularly interesting, although most of what she said is widely available information on autism – for example, kids who have a particular sensitivity to texture, or to noise, or to something else – but she’s a terrific and compelling spokesperson for the condition. 

     All this being said, I don’t think people who aren’t connected in some way with autism will get much out of the film.  It shows the struggle families go through trying to connect with their kids, and the difficulties they have in getting an accurate diagnosis and proper treatment.  But mostly, it’s the kind of movie where the biggest impact it will have will be to serve as a comfort for families who are equally conflicted, knowing they are not alone.  In this regard, the impact of A Mother’s Courage is huge.

Year:  2010
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Director:  Ken Burns, Lynne Novick
Run time:  4 hours
DVD distributor:  Paramount Home Entertainment

     Some documentaries transcend their genre, like Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Capitalism: A Love Story.  And some documentaries transcend thir medium itself.  Ken Burns has made two of them – his Civil War and Baseball are both bigger than movies, bigger than television.  And their box sets are bigger than my dining room table.  Baseball was an 18 1/2 hour documentary series that I purchased many years ago.  It has its own shelf in my living room.

     Actually – I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent here.  About ten years ago or so, I discovered that if I worked at a local CD store, I could get discounts on CDs and DVDs, and could special order anything I could find.  I took the job there for one reason – Ken Burns’ Baseball.  At the time, the box set cost a heck of a lot of money, and if I worked at this store, I could save almost $100 with the discount.  And I did.  And I saved.  And the first thing I bought was the PBS Ken Burns Baseball box.

     I love Civil War, and I love Burns’ Jazz series, but for me the ultimate achievement is Baseball.  At almost 19 hours, it’s impossible to imagine a more complete documentary, examining every facet of America’s National Pastime.  But what makes the documentary remarkable, a staggering achievment, is that it remains fascinating and brilliant and thoroughly entertaining through every minute of the 19 hours!  Imagine anything else that comprehensive that can be that interesting through such a long run time.  Betcha can’t.

     Now, almost 20 years later, Burns adds a four hour, two-part bonus to his magnum opus.  The Tenth Inning, on DVD and Blu-Ray October 5th, is split into two parts – 1990-2000, which details the achievements of international superstars like Seattle’s Ichiro, the ongoing greatness of Ken Griffey Jr., the lockout, and of course the dramatic 1998 home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.  Which, of course, leads to a comprehensive and fascinating look at the steroid era.  Because everything Burns does is comprehensive and fascinating.

     The second part, 2000-2010, is even more interesting.  The aftermath of the historic home run chase and the investigations into steroids.  The mercurial and controversial career of Barry Bonds.  And the relationship that baseball has with world events, such as 9/11.  And of course, my personal favourite moment – the incredible 2004 comeback from 0-3 by my Boston Red Sox as they took out the Yankees and won their first World Series since 1918.

     The interview subjects are fascinating, and a long list of sportswriters and players are involved.  One of them is Keith Olbermann, who I included in the preview clip up at the top of this review.  Why, you may ask, was that the clip I included?  Well, it was the only one I could find.  See, Major League Baseball is very tight with their baseball clips.  You can find them only on mlb.com, or on DVDs.  Like The Tenth Inning.  And so you should.  In Blu-Ray if you have it, because no sport looks as awe-inspiring in high definition as baseball.

     A must for fans of the game, and a no-question must-have for those of us who already own the original box set, The Tenth Inning is so remarkable that being a baseball fan isn’t necessary, at all, to enjoy it.  I have been talking about this series for a week now, and I have met many people who say they were never baseball fans, but got totally sucked in by this documentary when it was on television.  It’s the gold standard for box sets, documentaries, television and movies in general.  And The 10th Inning is a perfect addition to the perfect series.  So…get it, is what I’m saying.

Year:  2006
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Directors:  Robert Altman, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorcese, Robert Benton, Tim Burton, James Cameron, Chris Columbus, Wes Craven, Cameron Crowe, Frank Darabont, Jonathan Demme, Nora Ephron, Richard Donner, William Friedkin, Ron Howard, Terry Gilliam, Lawrence Kasdan, Spike Lee, Barry Levinson, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, David Lynch, Adrian Lyne, Garry Marshall, Penny Marshall, Sydney Pollack, Rob Reiner, Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Brian Singer, Oliver Stone, Robert Zemeckis, David Zucker
Actors and Jerry Bruckheimer:  Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Beals, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, Ossie Davis, Robert Englund, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Elliott Gould, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Hopper, Michael Keaton, Leslie Nielsen, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Roy Scheider, Wil Wheaton
Run time:  4 hours
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     On the second disc of Directors: Life Behind The Camera, Kevin Bacon is interviewed.  That means that THIS, more than A Few Good Men, more than Mystic River is THE movie to use to play “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”.  I’m not going to list all the participants here.  I have already done so above.  But just look at that list!  Is there an actor or director or wardrobe adviser in the entire world who hasn’t worked with one of those people?  I think the game now ought to be “two degrees of Kevin Bacon”, thanks entirely to this documentary.  That is, unless you play the game without including documentaries.  Or voices in animated movies.  Or some other crappy, obscure rule to make the game harder but less fun.  In which case, you are a party pooper.

     OK, on to the film itself, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon aside.  If you’ve ever thought about making a film, if you’ve ever thought about acting or holding a camera or even knowing a little more about the movies you watch, this documentary is invaluable.  It’s a bit of an effort – there are many menus.  In each one you have the option of playing “all directors” or one at a time.  I recommend “all directors” – even the ones I don’t much care for (Tony Scott, Adrian Lyne) have something really interesting to say.  They talk about their starts in the business, the actors and how they get a certain performance out of a certain person, their favourite movies and the relationship between a director and a script.  And they all have a totally different take.

     The actors are interesting also – they appear on the second disc, talking about the styles of the various directors.  DiCaprio talks about James Cameron and Titanic, for example.  And they all have interesting anecdotes.  I won’t divulge them all here, because I think you should watch this.  But Jennifer Beals tells a funny story about a young boy who was a body double for her in Flashdance, and had to shave his legs for the part, much to his embarassment.  Kevin Spacey sheds some light on the scene in The Usual Suspects where everyone cracks up during the police lineup.  Dustin Hoffman explains some of the inspiration for the lines in Rain Man.  Brad Pitt talks Thelma & Louise, the list goes on and on.

     And what an incredible list it is.  There are other movies, documentaries, where directors talk about their craft.  Recently I reviewed a terrific documentary about documentary film makers called Capturing Reality.  A couple of the participants in that movie could have been great in this one as well, particularly Werner Herzog, who has done some terrific feature films as well as documentaries.  But I wouldn’t dream of bemoaning the fact that he is missing, or that the notoriously reclusive Terrence Malick is missing – they’ve got just about everyone else! 

     Another great film about film is called A Personal Journey With Martin Scorcese Through American Movies.  This is one of the DVDs that made me absolutely excited about movies, that made me go out and buy some of the great American classics like High Sierra and The Bridges At Toko-Ri.  That might be the most interesting and watchable of all documentaries about directors and film.  And Scorcese (along with the hilarious Garry Marshall and the reticent Clint Eastwood) is one of the most entertaining and fascinating directors interviewed in Directors: Life Behind The Camera.

     At the other end of the scale is a movie I once picked up called Directed By John Ford, where we get to see the iconic Western director at his crusty, close-mouthed best.  “Why were so many of your movies shot in Monument Valley?”  “What a stupid question.  Shmalawsssns.”  There’s not much of interest in that one – unless you want to watch Ford be cranky.  Which I kind of do.  And there ARE interviews with John Wayne, Henry Fonda and Jimmy Stewart, which are FAR more informative than those with Ford himself, most of which consist of only seven or eight words.

     Directors: Life Behind The Camera is somewhere in the middle.  It’s very good, and incredibly full of information.  But it isn’t the kind of DVD I can’t stop watching, like the Scorcese one.  In fact, it often encouraged me to stop watching, because another menu would pop up and I would have to navigate around again.  Then again, it gets the best information and the best stories out of the very best the movie industry has to offer.  And that in itself makes Directors a DVD that is totally worthwhile.  There’s four hours of stuff here – think of it as a project in loving movies, one that you can absorb over the course of a few weeks, or a lifetime. 

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Political
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Director:  Jean Bodon
Run time:  58 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Before a few days ago, I had never heard the name of Leon Blum.  This man was thrice the Prime Minister of France.  He was a leader in the Popular Front, a socialist movement that had great power in France before the second world war.  He was taken prisoner in World War II by the Nazis, and lived through the end of the war in the Buchenwald concentration camp.  He was Jewish.  And I had never heard his name until I got Leon Blum: For All Mankind on DVD from First Run Features.

     This is a man whose life ought to be celebrated.  Moreso than it already is, I guess.  I assume that the reason I didn’t know his name is that he is not celebrated enough.  Or maybe I have been reading all the wrong history books.  In a tight 58 minutes, director Jean Bodon has presented the man’s entire life, as described by a number of French historians and a very few surviving contemporaries.  It’s a fascinating look at the life of a fascinating man.  So watch it.

     That being said, you will get a little more out of the experience if you understand French.  The subtitles are short and concise, and they move the story along efficiently.  But they do leave out a lot of what the speaker is saying – for example, one of the stories is about one of Blum’s friends who was executed by the Nazis.  From the subtitles, that’s all the story you get.  But the person telling the story goes into more detail – the man was taken out into the woods and shot three times in his head as he exited his car.  Small details, I know.  But they do give the story more life.  And this is a story that deserves as much life as it can get.

Year:  2004
Genre:  Documentary, Political
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Howard Zinn
Featuring:  Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Tom Hayden, Marian Wright Edelman, Matt Damon (narrator)
Directors:  Deb Ellis, Denis Mueller
Run time:  78 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Howard Zinn was an absolutely fascinating man.  He lived a fascinating life, and just hearing about it is totally enthralling.  That’s You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train, the commemorative edition of which comes out September 21st from First Run Features.  Zinn’s story is told through the words of his contemporaries, notably Noam Chomsky (Manufacturing Consent), and Daniel Ellsberg (The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers).  Yes, I’m putting movie titles in as though these intellectuals were movie stars.  To me, they are.

     There is one movie star involved with this project, and it’s Matt Damon who narrates.  The rest of the participants (novelist Alice Walker, activist Marian Wright Edelman, politician-activist Tom Hayden and many others) are just really smart people who appreciate the life of a really incredible man. 

     Zinn was many things in his life.  Activist, historian, author, playwright, professor, and now documentary subject.  You Can’t Be Neutral On A Moving Train takes us from his early days as a bombardier in the second world war through his involvement in the civil rights uprising in the southern United States to his tenure at Boston University and his vehement anti-war stance, especially concerning Vietnam. 

     His early experiences in bomber aircraft, one of which was the early use of napalm dropped on a French town near the end of World War II, shaped his anti-war philosophy over the next fifty years.  After watching this documentary, I had to go out and buy a copy of A People’s History Of The United States.  Zinn’s book depicts the struggles of Native Americans, slaves, women, African-Americans and unionists, struggles that weren’t traditionally included in history text books at the time.  And perhaps still aren’t.

     I’m not going to summarize the entire documentary here.  I’m just going to say – watch it.  The best thing in the film is not the admiration you can feel from Chomsky, Ellsberg and others.  It’s listening to Zinn himself speak.  Old footage of him speaking at anti-Vietnam rallies is powerful stuff.  More recent footage of Zinn speaking out against the Iraq war may be even more powerful.  He says, “the question isn’t whether Iraq will be a democracy when the war ends, it’s whether America will be one”.  Wonderful.

Year:  2008
Genre:  Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Holocaust survivors
Director:  Andrew Jacobs
Run time:  97 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Not a lot of the participants in Four Seasons Lodge tell detailed stories about the Holocaust.  Of course, they don’t have to.  Just imagining what survivors of that event had to go through is scary and sad enough on its own without hearing it directly.  Four Seasons Lodge is a documentary about a number of senior citizens, Holocaust survivors all, who meet every summer to party together at an idyllic retreat in the Catskills.  And by party, I mean senior-citizen style (cards, dancing, a little bit of drinking, laughing and more cards.  Maybe some shuffleboard, although I didn’t see any.)  This isn’t the documentary version of Cocoon.

     Oh, some of the old folks tell stories.  Some of them briefly mention what they went through at the hands of the Nazis, they reminisce about family members who were killed, and they talk about some of the horrible events.  But I get the feeling they’re holding back and not telling everything, and some aren’t willing to talk about it at all.  But then, Four Seasons Lodge is not about the Holocaust.  It’s about old people having fun and enjoying their remaining years.  They just happen to be enjoying those remaining years with the few remeaining people who have shared the same horrific experiences that shaped their lives up to this point.

     What you get, then, is a film about a wonderful, charming group of elderly people who are having a really good time, at least for a few months every summer.  And it’s a life-affirming, sweet and moving movie that makes me happy just as much as it makes me think.  Four Seasons Lodge is out August 17th from First Run Features.

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Avery Klein-Cloud
Director:  Nicole Opper
Run time:  78 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Off And Running could be a movie about many different subjects.  It could be about same-sex couples, or interracial adoption, or same-sex parents, or a black girl growing up in a white environment, or the life of a high school track star, or adoption dilemmas, or any number of those things.  In the end, it’s about all of those things (a little bit) but more about adoption than anything else.  I must say though, a documentary about a black distance runner (Avery Klein-Cloud) adopted by two white Jewish lesbians has a lot going for it before it even begins.  That’s a lot to deal with.

     This movie really hit home for me because I too am adopted.  And so is my sister.  The quest to find my birth parents and get answers about my origin has never really interested me.  In fact, the only time I have ever thought about it is when my sister brings it up.  I’ll probably never go on that search, because I truly don’t care.  My parents are my parents, my life is what I make it.  My sister, on the other hand, always had a deep need to find out.  She I wouldn’t go so far as to say she was obsessed about it, but she certainly cared an awful lot more than I did, and made a considerable effort to track down her birth family.

     And in this way, I see a lot of my family in Avery’s family.  Her older brother Rafi, a mixed-race child who was born a drug addict and adopted from a rehab centre as a baby, is very close to Avery.  They talk a lot about it, but he doesn’t really see the need to discover his biological origins.  For Rafi, his parents are his parents – he has two moms and a sister and a little Korean brother and that’s his family.  He thinks he will create his own life, regardless of what happened before he was adopted.  For Avery, it isn’t that simple.

     One of her biggest questions involves her African-American heritage.  When she hangs out with her black friends, she doesn’t really fit in with “black culture” (if such a thing can be defined) because she has never known it.  But she also doesn’t feel at home with the white Jewish culture in which she has been raised.  Because of her skin colour, she of course sticks out like a sore thumb in the Jewish schools she has attended.  So Avery has a real crisis of identity, one that her two moms and even her brother have some trouble understanding.

     After making contact with her birth mother, and then losing that contact, Avery begins to have real troubles.  She becomes somewhat self-destructive, dropping out of school, slipping in her performance on the track, and basically running away from the only home she’s ever known.  This all comes to a conclusion that could not have been scripted in a Hollywood movie because it would have seemed just too coincidentally perfect and no audience would buy it.

     Off And Running momentarily touches on the lesbian aspect of the story – Avery’s moms go out of state to finally get married, but Avery is not there.  It touches a little on the track-star aspect of Avery’s persona, as she competes in a few meets and gets ready to choose a university scholarship.  But really it’s the story of a black girl growing up in a white Jewish family searching desperately for her place in the world.  And it’s a positive, amazing, loving and thoughtful movie that is honest almost to a fault, and compelling throughout.  Avery and her family are beautiful and likeable and charmingly together.  A fantastic documentary, Off And Running is available right now through First Run Features.

     The Hert Of The Peleton is a three-disc box set, out August 17th from First Run Features, that includes three bike racing documentaries.  Yell For Cadel, which follows Australian superstar Cadel Evans as he trains for, and competes in, the Tour De France.  Hell On Wheels, which follows several different riders and teams as they compete in the Tour.  And Blood Sweat And Gears, the story of an American “clean” cycling team.  It’s probably a must-have box set for cycling fanatics.  But it’s not a must-have for documentary fans like me.

  Yell For Cadel (****4/10)

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Cadel Evans
Directors:  Maarten Van Cauwenberghe, Steve Decraene
Run time:  52 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     Watching Yell For Cadel is kind of like reading someone’s diary.  Sometimes there’s an interesting passage that you might want to read again.  But mostly it’s something you skim, because people write stuff in their diaries with no context, and so it’s often difficult to understand why you would care about your sister’s hair appointment.  Or whoever’s diary you stole.

     What I mean by this is that very often the documentary leaps to the next scene without providing any context, and suddenly Cadel Evans is holding a puppy, and you don’t know where the puppy came from or why it’s on the screen, and you want to skim ahead to see more cycling.  The movie is a backstage look at the Tour De France from the point of view of Cadel Evans, an Australian cyclist who was one of the favourites going into the Tour De France this year.

     The movie follows him from stage to stage as he competes in the race.  They have gone to great lengths on the DVD case and throughout the movie to make the end of the Tour a surprise.  Does he win?  Doesn’t he?  I won’t divulge the final result here, because they have obviously tried very hard to maintain the drama in the documentary.  But maybe you follow cycling and already know.  Or maybe you have google and want to find out easily.  Or maybe you don’t care.  I’ll leave it up to you.

     I had a hard time with Yell For Cadel because I didn’t really feel his passion or his pain or any of those things that you get at the Tour De France.  I saw him being charming, which was nice, and I saw him biking (a little bit) which was okay.  And I saw his trainers and crew joking around and having a good time, although I was often lost without the context.  But there is little flow in the film, and it’s edited poorly.

     As it turns out, however, it’s the poor editing and sloppy attention to detail that give this movie its best moments.  Mostly, it’s the subtitles.  Although Evans himself speaks English, of course, being Australian, many of the people around him speak other languages, and they need subtitles.  So when Evans is holding the puppy, he’s talking a different language to the people around him.  And apparently, in that language (I believe Belgian), he said “oh no, the dog pied on me!”

     There are countless moments like this – bad grammar and words substituted for similar ones that would have made far more sense.  It made me laugh though, because it made me wonder.  Is Evans’ Belgian that bad that he actually did say “pied” in Belgian?  It would be decidedly clever if they translated the phrase that way.  Or did the people who wrote the subtitles just not pay any attention?  Or was their English this bad?

     I don’t know.  Either way, it made the movie worth watching.  I couldn’t get into the story of Cadel Evans, because I felt that unless I was one of his road crew, and I was watching the movie to reminisce about our time at the Tour De France, there was little there for me.  But I did look forward to the next set of subtitles.  Those, and the scene-splitting text that appears on the screen to set up each following stage are priceless also.

  Blood, Sweat And Gears (******6/10)

Year:  2009
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  David Millar, Mike Friedman, Magnus Backstedt, Christian Vande Velde, Jonathan Vaughters, Matt White, Doug Ellis, Lara Pate, Danny Pate, Will Frischkorn, Allen Lim
Director:  Nick Davis
Run time:  93 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features
DVD extras:  Short film: Millar’s Tale, Short film: Behind the Scenes at the Tour, Photo gallery, Film notes, Director biography

     When I think of cycling, I think of two things.  Lance Armstrong and steroids.  Not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily seperately.  So it’s nice to see a cycling documentary that makes little mention of Armstrong.  I believe the first time I heard his name was about an hour into the film, and even then only in passing.  And Blood Sweat & Gears is about an American cycling team, one that is attempting to compete in the Tour De France without the assistance of performance-enhancing drugs.  You would think Mr. Armstrong would be top of mind for them all the time.  But he apparently isn’t, or he’s been edited out of the movie very effectively.

     But the drugs factor prominently in the movie.  It opens with the forming of the team, where cyclists have come together to prove that cyclists can be successful without drugs, something akin to a “natural” bodybuilder competing against the others.  A longshot, at best.  But these guys believe in their mission, and they think they have a shot to bring some legitimacy back to their very, very tainted sport.  Many of the cyclists on the team are no-names, others are disgraced former drug users, and some are at the tail end of successful careers.  But they all believe in the mission, and they come together as a tight unit.

     Then all that appears to be forgotten.  The second half of the movie has almost no mention of steriods whatsoever.  Or the lack thereof.  Instead, it’s just a story about a team trying to make it to the Tour De France (and the method for making it to the Tour is labyrinthine and strange).  And once they do make it to the tour (I hope that isn’t too much of a spoiler), the film focuses on the team as they meet the brutal 21-day challenge that is that famous race.  A dramatic finish to the race and some interesting twists and turns along the way make for a compelling finale.

     I really enjoyed watching a team prepare for this arduous event.  I learned a ton about cycling, the non-tour events, and the bizarre process by which teams get invited to the Tour De France.  I thought that was very exciting and really cool.  And I really thought the idea of a totally clean cycling team was an interesting and inspirational story.  But the two stories never seem to co-exist.  I don’t know why that bothered me so much.  But Blood Sweat And Gears felt to me like two different movies.  Both were good, but they just didn’t fit together to make a greater whole.  It’s still fascinating, but it’s choppy and uneven.

  Hell on Wheels (*****5/10)

Year:  2004
Genre:  Documentary, Sports
Country:  Germany
Language:  English
Starring:  Lance Armstrong, Eric Zabel, Jan Ullrich, Rolf Aldag, Andreas Kloden
Directors:  Pepe Danquart, Werner Schweizer
Run time:  123 minutes
DVD distributor:  First Run Features

     The Tour De France is tough.  Really tough.  It’s mentally draining as much as it is physically draining.  It’s one of the ultimate tests of endurance a human being can attempt.  No other race in the world is as demanding.  Boy, is it ever hard to do.  Few people who have not competed could possibly comprehend the difficulty that is involved with competing in the Tour De France.  No one could ever imagine….OK I GET IT!  The Tour De France is very, very difficult.  I’m there.  I follow.  Now tell me something else.

     Hell on Wheels told me little else.  Except that the Tour De France is awfully tough.  But then, I already knew that.  So what I saw was a bunch of guys, each speaking a different language, suffering their way through the famous race.  They are sore, and exhausted, and can barely walk after each stage.  They discuss their pains, their plans for the next day, and once I have read the subtitles we move on to another guy from another country who says pretty much the same thing.  It’s tough.

     When I wasn’t watching big-time cyclists discuss their pains and their mental state and their hopes for the future, I was watching an elderly French guy wax poetic about the Tour.  Which was kind of neat.  This guy is really excited to talk about the greatness of competing in the Tour De France.  He has some interesting perspectives on what makes it truly special (he feels it’s the ultimate sport for actually involving spectators – Lance Armstrong comes to you when you’re watching.  Miguel Indurain comes to you.  He also makes the dubious statement that the Tour De France is bigger than the Olympics and the World Cup of Soccer combined.  That’s…debatable.  At best.  But at least he’s enthusiastic!)

     I like a lot of elements of Hell On Wheels.  I like the enthusiasm, and the determination of the riders, and the behind-the-scenes stuff that sheds a little more light on this race.  But, only a little.  They could have achieved the same results by having the old man recite a poem, then showing pain and suffering on the faces of the riders for a little while.  Then roll credits.  Done.  And that wouldn’t have taken two full hours.

Year:  2007
Genre:  Comedy, Documentary
Country:  United States
Language:  English
Starring:  Doug Benson
Guest appearances:  Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Jeffrey Ross, Dave Navarro, Marc Emery
Director:  Michael Blieden
Run time:  90 minutes
DVD distributor:  Alliance Films

     Super High Me is the kind of movie I would expect, in that it appears to have been made by a total stoner.  And of course it was.  Out July 6th from Alliance Films, this is the story of Doug Benson, a “pot comedian”, who decides to smoke weed, nonstop, every day for a month.  And then he documents the results.  Obviously a story inspired by Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me, where he ate McDonalds for a month every day to see if he would die.

     The biggest difference in the two movies is that Spurlock’s movie ended.  Yes, he did in fact almost die.  And it became abundantly clear that eating nothing but McDonalds day in and day out was no way to live.  So what are the effects of smoking marijuana that much?  Well…I’m not totally sure.  Benson appears to suffer no specific health-related ill effects, but he does also seem to be getting an awful lot stupider.  But we never really see the measurements or the final results of his experiment.  It seems like halfway through, the movie just…forgot what it was about.  Figures.

     The first half is reasonably coherent, as Benson talks to a bunch of pot activists including Canada’s own Marc Emery.  (Well, he’s now of course America’s Marc Emery, as our friendly federal government actually extradited Emery to the States recently to stand trial on charges of selling seeds or some stupid thing.)  A few people start talking about legalization, about activism, and about the protests they have planned in support of the legalization of marijuana.  But again, this movie has a short attention span and very few of these conversations are anything more than superficial.

     The thing is, Super High Me kinda works.  Benson’s a pretty funny guy, and while most of the movie plays like an ad for his stand-up routine, that’s OK because his stand-up is decent.  But the rest of the movie is what I would expect from a bunch of stoners.  Unfocused with no clear goal in sight.  What does smoking marijuana for 30 days do to a person?  Likely, it makes them eat a hell of a lot more McDonalds.  And thankfully, there’s a movie out there that tells us precisely what effect that has.