Newsletter

CAR-WINDOW SOCIOLOGY OF THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN MÉXICO EMERGES IN Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN Two seventeen-year-old Mexico City boys spend a summer together in the coming-of-age Mexican film Y Tu Mamá También, directed by Alfonso Cuarón. When the film begins, their girlfriends are about to leave for a vacation in Italy, though not before one […]

VIETNAMESE REFUGEES FIND HOPE OUT OF TURMOIL IN GREEN DRAGON Refugees generally leave a country in turmoil without a clear idea of what comes next other than a prolongation of their lives. In Green Dragon, the experience of some 134,000 Vietnamese refugees is condensed into short cuts of a few characters with myriad adjustment problems

A CROOKED WHITE LAWYER RUNS OVER AN HONEST BLACK TELEMARKETER IN CHANGING LANES African Americans are accustomed to being screwed by the power structure in American society. In Changing Lanes, insurance sales marketer Doyle Gipson (played by Samuel L. Jackson), a recovering alcoholic, is driving on the FDR Expressway to a child custody hearing when

THE CONTRIBUTION OF CRYPTOGRAPHERS IS DECODED IN ENIGMA During World War II British cryptographers at Blentchly Park, a manorial estate some sixty miles north of London, decoded German communications and saved thousands of lives, though their efforts were kept secret until 1975. In Enigma, directed by Michael Apted, those involved in codebreaking are honored through

PRISONERS CAN BE REHABILITATED, ACCORDING TO LUCKY BREAK Are British filmmakers trying to tell the world that prisoners can be rehabilitated? After the delightful Greenfingers (2001), we are now treated to the amusing Lucky Break. After fifteen years of bad luck, that is, unsuccessful robberies, Jimmy Hands (played by James Nesbitt) and Rudy Guscott (played

ETHNIC CLEANSING BEFORE YOUR EYES IN HARRISON’S FLOWERS Harrison’s Flowers, directed by Elie Chouraqui, raises the ante on the reality of ethnic cleansing over earlier efforts, notably Savior (1998) and Behind Enemy Lines (2001). Based on the novel Le Diable a l’Avantage by Isabel Ellsen, the film begins in New Jersey on October 9, 1991.

AN AMERICAN MILITARY COMMANDER REVISITS THE HEROISM & FUTILITY OF THE VIETNAM WAR When Ho Chi Minh read Vietnam’s Declaration of Independence at Hanoi in September 2, 1945, American planes provided overhead support to the cheers of the assembled throng; they had backed his struggle against the Japanese during World War II. The next time

BEST POLITICAL FILMS OF 2001 SELECTED Political Film Society members have selected the following as the best political films of 2001, with StanleyAwards going to the directors of each film: DEMOCRACY:             The Majestic (Frank Darabont) EXPOSE:                      Uprising (Jon Avnet) HUMAN RIGHTS:        Focus (Neal Slavin) PEACE:                          Lumumba (Raoul Peck) SPECIAL AWARD:      The

JOHN Q. ENCOUNTERS SICKNESS IN THE HEALTH INDUSTRY John Q. is an exposé about the 40 million Americans who have no health insurance and millions more who belong to health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that provide phony health insurance. The hero, John Qunicy Archibald (played by Denzel Washington), is a family man, a churchgoer, and a

RAMBO ARNOLD VANQUISHES COLOMBIAN TERRORISTS Collateral Damage, one of the films delayed by the events of September 11, is a Ramboesque movie about Colombian terrorism. Early in the story, Gordy Brewer (played by Arnold Schwartzenegger) stops to pick up his son and wife at a mall in Los Angeles that happens to house the Colombian