Cartel Land

First Hit:  An eye-opening timely film about the Mexico United States border drama.

This is a film about two different issues: How the drug cartels in Mexico are taking over towns and intimidating the local citizens. Then there is the story on the Arizona side of the border and how citizens are out there protecting the area from the influx of Mexicans coming across the border illegally.

In the first story citizens want to take back their town by following a group, led by an MD, that is going out and arresting drug cartel members. This story gets worse as the government gets involved and we begin to see how the more things try to change, the more they stay the same. In the other part of the story, a vet who turned his own life around believes, with this friends, that he is saving the USA from influx of drugs and illegals coming across the border. He does his best to work with the US government but in reality he’s out there doing this thing. I would have liked more integration of the two stories, or separate the stories and make two films; both are interesting.

Matthew Heineman directed this film and some of the camera work during the raids on cartel personnel was fantastic. There are no holds barred as citizens walk up and hit the captured cartel members.

Overall:  This was a very interesting film reflecting the conflicts below and above the US border.

Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary

First Hit:  A fantastic film about the friendship and paths of these two amazing spiritual adventurers.

I believe that being a baby boomer helped me to see this film with fascination, wonder, and joyous recognition.

I can imagine that being born in the 70s, 80s, or 90s, these men and their exploits might be new news. However, as a baby boomer who did/used acid (LSD), mescaline, and other psychedelics, I smirked with a knowing smile remembering the great trips and the ones that scared the holy Jesus out of me. Like these two, this experimentation with drugs, along with my burgeoning meditation practice starting in 1967, created a crack within my consciousness wide enough for me to consider the larger picture of the whole and consider living in the now.

Just as with Ram and Timothy, many of our generation's spiritual practice was enhanced by the fissures created in perception by using drugs. Here, Timothy is nearing death and the now’s are pointing straight into the arms of death or non-breathing. Ram is sitting with Timothy and they just have a conversation.

The thrust of the film is their conversation of life's recollections, where they are now, and  how they might address the door of death.The film traces their friendship, kinship and paths to find a way to live from what they learn and not by the rules set up by our structured society.

We learn from each of them, how much they meant to each other’s own growth and how they face or see death. Leary is near death during the film and we have glimpses of him in his last moments. We also have Ram Dass learning how to live after suffering a major stroke.

The documentarian was very skilled at giving light to each’s path along with their communal path, our common path.

Robert Redford's narration was perfectly paced and toned. David Leach wrote the script for narrator Robert Redford. Gay Dillingham pieced together an amazing, funny, and insightful story from current and archive film.

Overall:  I left the film inspired to continue to do more spiritual work.

Amy

First Hit:  Very well crafted, visually arresting, and a finely produced film of Amy Winehouse’s short lived music career.

Three or four times during the first half-hour of the film I thought to myself, I’m so glad they put the words to the songs Amy was singing on the screen.

There were also occasions when the director used captions when Amy or some others, like Blake, spoke. To me the director did this for two reasons: 1) To show the power of her lyrics without getting caught up in deciphering the words in her musical pacing and 2) Her heavy cockney accent was at times difficult to understand, especially with some of the home filmed segments.

The captions made this film and story more accessible. This film starts with a brief show of her powerful voice when she sings “Happy Birthday”, and ends with her death. In between these two points, we get a deep view and listening to her heavily jazz influenced music stylings.

The film does not hold back on pictures showing Amy as high as a kite, make-up skewed, and holding on to either her ego, self-obsessed father, Mitch, or the love of her life Blake Fielder-Civil. Despite their pronounced lover for Amy, these men appeared to only care about themselves and what they could or would get them (fame, money, drugs, and booze). The people who really cared and loved her by their actions were her childhood girlfriends, Yasin Bey (Mos Def) and a few others.

Tony Bennett’s admiration of her singing ability and support meant so much to Amy. In the end it is a story of someone who misplaced what would really make her happy with the influence and behaviors supported by her hanger’s on.

Asif Kapadia did an outstanding job of putting together, phone video, still photos, and studio level video to create an amazing journey through Amy’s adult life.

Overall:  Well done story.

Testament of Youth

First Hit:  This beautifully acted film, especially Alicia Vikander, is a powerful story of how WWI affected a woman, family, friends and a country.

It isn’t often that I’m transfixed by an actor in a role, however Vikander as Vera Brittain, did just this. As Vera, a young woman who wants to be a writer and go to Oxford, she is independent, willful and driven. She spurns her brother Edward’s (Taron Egerton) friend Victor (Colin Morgan) as a suitor for her hand because she doesn’t have any intention of getting married.

However, when Victor and Edward’s mutual friend Roland (Kit Harrington) comes into the scene, things change, she is emotionally moved. Yet, despite her budding feelings, her primary focus is her career and she does find a way to get into Oxford. Soon after, her brother, Victor, and Roland are drawn into the war so she decides that she must do her part and becomes a nurse’s volunteer.

Through this experience she sees and experiences the travesty of war on human lives. The scenes, the pacing of the film, and the eloquence by which this story is told was deeply felt, moving, and sincerely touching.

Vikander was first rate and amazing. She was excellent in Ex Machina and again here. This actress is someone who will continue to grow and amaze on the screen. Egerton is wonderful and endearing as Vera’s brother. Harrington is strong as the shell-shocked lover. Morgan is endearing and wonderful as the heartbroken friend. Dominic West and Emily Watson were perfect as Vera’s parents. Juliette Towhidi wrote a wonderful screen play based on Vera’s own book of the same title. James Kent did an outstanding job in directing by showing the depths of WWI on a personal, family, friends, and country level.

Overall:  I was deeply moved by the film and this stemmed from Vikander’s performance.

The Wolfpack

First Hit:  Although not well structured, this film amazingly shows how one family, locked away from society, learned about the world through films.

This documentary highlights how the Angulo brothers; Bhagavan, Govinda, Jagadisa, Krsna, Mukunda, and Narayana journey from being home-schooled and raised almost entirely in a New York City Housing Authority apartment to where they go outside and begin interacting with the world.

There were years when they never left the apartment and at the most there were years where they went out as a group a half-dozen times. To while away their time, they created music and watched films. Then after watching the films, they would write down the dialogue and make reenactments in their apartment.

Their father locked them in the apartment and told them that he knew better than most people how they needed to stay away from society. He despises work. Their mother is loving, gets beat by their father, but perseveres through all the weirdness to give the kids a sense of strength.

The way the film is cut/edited together makes it more difficult to piece the whole story together. But I’m sure there wasn’t a lot of archive footage to use, but maybe some narration about how their story came together and where they are today would have helped.

Crystal Moselle (Director) did a good job of getting the boys to share, express and open up about how they were raised.

Overall:  It was, at times fascinating, and other times had me wanting more information.