Month: January 2001

Tobacco farmers and liquor manufacturers get subsidies. Marijuana growers and cocaine smugglers get arrested. If the hypocrisy of the ‘war on drugs’ infuriates you, then you’ll end up with a feeling of smug satisfaction after Traffic, Steven Soderbergh’s stark and unflinching depiction of both the naive cluelessness and outright pretense that characterizes drug warriors from local cops and the DEA right on up to federal judges and national politicians.

You Can Count on Me should never have been made, but thank the gods The Shooting Gallery — which also brings us its self-titled film series of way-below-the-radar indies — took a chance with it. We need more films like this one to remind us that movies aren’t always supposed to be about being big and bad and loud, but also about being fragile and quiet and observant of the tiny details and emotions that make up a human life.

You know those people who have no capacity whatsoever to form memories, so that they have to keep a daily diary just to remind themselves what they did yesterday? That’s the audience Finding Forrester is shooting for. It’s a small demographic, of course, but it’s nice to see filmmakers eschewing the Hollywood blockbuster thing and aiming for a niche crowd.