By Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters. January 19, 2005. Movie Mix:Black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson's inability to be anything but his own man was unforgivable to white America.
By Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix. January 14, 2005. Movie Mix:A new doc, 'Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst' alludes to parallels between the taking of an heiress and the taking down of the towers.
By Matthew Scott Kelemen, AlterNet. January 14, 2005. Movie Mix:Once upon a time, according to 'The Assassination of Richard Nixon,' an American dreamer tried to kill the 37th president.
By Zahed Amanullah, Altmuslim.com. January 10, 2005. Movie Mix:A 'chilling' new film explores the complex lives of the men behind the horrific crime on 9/11. But how is it being received in the West? And the Muslim world?
By Matthew Scott Kelemen, AlterNet. January 6, 2005. Movie Mix:Alejandro Amenábar explores the life of right-to-die activist Ramón Sampedro in 'The Sea Inside.'
By Scott Foundas, LA Weekly. January 4, 2005. Movie Mix:Due to esoteric, shifting, and sometimes just plain discriminatory rules, many of the year's most intriguing documentaries aren't in the running for the Oscar.
By Camille Dodero, Boston Phoenix. December 20, 2004. Movie Mix:In 'Growing Up Fast,' documentarian Joanna Lipper offered a piercing look at teen motherhood. Now her book lets six young mothers tell their stories in their own words.
By Ella Taylor, LA Weekly. December 2, 2004. Movie Mix:The 'Incredibles' is the latest installment in Hollywood's chronicling of the individual in an increasingly corporate world.
By Stuart Klawans, The Nation. November 22, 2004. Movie Mix:The Spanish master's latest – an offbeat film noir touching on the struggles of the politically disempowered in post-Franco Spain – may have something to tell us about the next four years in America.
By Dana Larsen, Cannabis Culture. October 20, 2004. DrugReporter:Russell Bennett's virtuoso solo performance in 'The Reefer Man' wows audiences with a moving tale of one man's love for marijuana.
By Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters. October 15, 2004. Movie Mix:'Team America,' Trey Parker and Matt Stone's much-ballyhooed parody of Jerry Bruckheimer-style action pictures, is aptly violent, delirious, and outsized (in its miniature-puppet way).
By Heather Kuldell, Creative Loafing (Atlanta). October 7, 2004. DrugReporter:On the new reality show 'Cold Turkey,' a houseful of chain-smokers competes to quit using only – gasp! – willpower.
By Stuart Klawans, The Nation. October 6, 2004. Movie Mix:Two meticulously produced new films, one mainstream and the other decidedly not, make use of digital toys. That's about where "Tarnation" and "Sky Captain" comparisons end.
By James Westcott, AlterNet. October 5, 2004. Rights and Liberties:Naomi Klein's documentary focuses on the worker-run factories in Argentina, which are filling the vacuum left by corrupt managers.
By Evan Derkacz, AlterNet. October 4, 2004. Movie Mix:Thirsty for the trappings of corporate power? For the Yes Men, all it takes is a suit and a laser pointer.
By Matthew Scott Kelemen, AlterNet. September 29, 2004. Media and Technology:"Going Upriver," George Butler's documentary about John Kerry, tells the story of Kerry's two wars – Vietnam and the peace movement.
By Noy Thrupkaew, The American Prospect. September 22, 2004. Media and Technology:Michael Moore-bashing, conspiracy theories, and more at the first conservative film festival.
By Noy Thrupkaew, The American Prospect. September 17, 2004. Media and Technology:Two new Asian films – 'Hero' and 'Last Life in the Universe' – are visually stunning. But only one makes you fall in love.
By Nora Rockwell, AlterNet. September 16, 2004. Movie Mix:The RESFEST, a cutting-edge traveling digital film festival, seeks to take film to new heights – and lows – incorporating media like advertising, movie trailers and music videos into its populist gaze.
By Robert Jensen, WorkingForChange.com. September 14, 2004. Movie Mix:A new documentary earns kudos from major newspapers for doing the kind of reporting they failed to offer to their readers.
By Stuart Klawans, The Nation. September 10, 2004. Movie Mix:While paying attention to the physical and emotional costs of cigarettes, a new documentary about a tobacco scandal is all about family.
By Heather Havrilesky, AlterNet. September 9, 2004. Movie Mix:Not even Vincent Gallo's penis – appearing now in 'The Brown Bunny' – can upstage the theatrical self-indulgence that makes Gallo an archetype of the troubled artist.
By Noy Thrupkaew, AlterNet. August 26, 2004. Movie Mix:A new film tracks the backroom machinations of Bush advisor Karl Rove: puppetmaster, Svengali, man behind the curtain.
By Denise Caruso, AlterNet. August 23, 2004. Movie Mix:Whoever controls the seed controls the food. And as a new film documents, the dangers of monoculture, industrial agriculture – and Monsanto – bode poorly for the future of food.
By Stuart Klawans, The Nation. August 13, 2004. Movie Mix:In the remade 'Manchurian Candidate, gone are the Communist brainwashers of the 1962 film. The global capitalists of Jonathan Demme's version implant orders by the more up-to-date method of drilling into the brain.
By Chinyere Tutashinda, WireTap. August 9, 2004. WireTap:“Police brutality wasn't new to us as an issue, but when Amadou Diallo was killed, we found that we had to do something for our own sanity,” say the directors of a new documentary running this week on POV.
By Ian Williams, AlterNet. August 2, 2004. Movie Mix:According to Robert Kane Pappas's new documentary, 'Orwell Rolls in His Grave,' it's 1984 all over again.
By Neelanjana Banerjee, Pacific News Service. July 30, 2004. Movie Mix:The idea that kids across America will be quoting two Asian American guys, slapping Harold and Kumar stickers on their drug paraphernalia and watching this movie over and over makes me feel like we have really arrived.
By Baylen J. Linnekin, AlterNet. July 16, 2004. Movie Mix:Toeing the government line on the drug war has allowed filmmakers to avoid revealing the humanity of their subjects. 'Maria Full of Grace' bucks the trend.
Film Fantasia