daily scream: end-of-life nightmare despair
2002’s Bubba Ho-Tep is on Prime in the US; not streaming in the UK, alas.
JFK
Oppenheimer movie review: a particle of concern, a wave of complicity
With human paradoxes at its nucleus, this is a riveting portrait, both intimate and epic, of the self-involved men who think they make the world go round… and too often, tragically, do.
MLK/FBI documentary review: suppressing dissent, American style
Beautiful in its style, enraging in its substance, this skewering of the FBI’s surveillance of the civil-rights icon is essential for understanding the near-term roots of white supremacy in America.
Apollo 11 documentary review: you are there, on the Moon (Sundance London 2019)
This astonishing assemblage of vintage footage, some never before seen, may be unspoilable (we know how it ends) but it’s still hugely suspenseful, and beautifully immersive visually and emotionally.
The Front Runner movie review: when politics turned tabloid (LFF 2018)
Snappy Sorkin-esque banter, 80s nostalgia, and Hugh Jackman in a bad wig yet still hot as hell. But also an enraging, ironic look at how a reality-TV resume ended up becoming a legit qualification for the American presidency.
Concussion movie review: heads up
A quietly horrifying, solidly entertaining medical procedural that makes no bones about the terrible damage American football causes to its players.
London photo: JFK memorial
I only recently discovered this memorial to U.S. President John F. Kennedy…
Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia documentary review: repeating history
A hugely entertaining biography of one of the great observers of the American century whose witty, bitter obstinance offers essential criticism of the U.S.
evening clickbait: I am a heroine of cinema; who’s the robot that won’t cop out?; Magneto killed JFK; The Representation Project; John Sayles cannot get his films funded; Melissa Leo, agent of awesome
Stuff I found on the Net today (and one from yesterday).
An Adventure in Space and Time review: making history
Mark Gatiss treats the legends of Doctor Who’s creation as only a longtime fan can, in a lovely tribute full of the exasperated acceptance that rose-tinted hindsight brings.
