Senator Obama Goes to Africa DVD review (Metrotimes)

Barack Obama was recently called out by Hillary Clinton’s campaign for being disingenuous about how long he’s held presidential aspirations. While Clinton’s people took the ridiculous (and marginally insane) step of dredging up a piece of paper from Obama’s kindergarten class that found him saying he wanted to be president, they needed only to look at the senator’s well-documented trip to Africa in the summer of 2006, some six months before his campaign kicked off. Followed around by both news cameras and a documentary team headed up by director Bob Hercules (Forgiving Dr. Mengele), Obama’s trip to the land of his father was as politically expedient as it was heartfelt, and its timing was anything but accidental. Hercules manages to capture the effect of Obama’s inspirational forthrightness in this brief, 60-minute doc, but he also unwittingly paints a picture of a savvy and calculating politician. The booming directness of Obama chastising a corrupt Kenyan government – while in Kenya- is striking, as is his wonk-ish advocacy of a microlending project. However, when talk turns to him “leveraging visibility” and very publicly taking himself and his wife to get AIDS-tested in a notoriously test-shy part of the world, it’s clear that saving the world isn’t the only thing on his mind. Hercules’ narrative-free reportage allows Obama, his entourage and those with whom they come into contact plenty of room to shape the story, and the self-awareness that’s evident in such statements as “leveraging visibility” becomes a refreshing admission of the game that is being played. Only in Obama’s case, it’s being played for all the right reasons.

First appeared in the Detroit Metrotimes on Dec. 13, 2007. 

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Alvin and the Chipmunks movie review (Baltimore City Paper)

FIRST UNDERDOG AND NOW ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS. Whom, exactly, does Jason Lee owe money to? Thankfully, this installment on Lee’s loan is far more palatable than Underdog was; Chipmunks is enjoyable enough on its own terms–and faithful enough to the original cartoons–that the faint praise of “not as bad as you thought it would be” certainly applies. The first half of the movie is, essentially, the origin story for the Chipmunks, whose tree was cut down and brought–conveniently enough–to a record label’s front office as a Christmas decoration. After having his songs rejected again by that very label, struggling musician Dave Seville (Lee) ends up unwittingly transporting the Chipmunks to his house. Home-wrecking hijinks ensue, loving bonds are forged, a Christmas song is recorded and turned into a hit. In the second half, things get a little weird and unnecessarily complex when the record company executive (played by David “My Agent Needs a Talking To” Cross) deceives the “boys,” gets them away from Dave, and then exploitatively works them ragged. Whatever. Nobody’s going to Chipmunks looking for well-drawn plots. Director Tim Hill does a respectable-enough job of keeping the pacing fast without resorting to shamelessly hip MTV-style edits; in fact, despite the incredible CGI renderings of the Chipmunks, the whole affair has a decidedly traditional feel. The laughs are mostly good-natured, character-based gags that are often quite funny–that’s probably why you’ll get so icked out when Simon eats Theodore’s shit. 

First appeared in Baltimore City Paper on Dec. 13, 2007. 

Buck 65: Situation CD review (Broward-Palm Beach New Times)

Not to minimize Buck 65’s abilities as a rhymer, but it must be said: the greatest thing this man has brought to contemporary hip-hop is dirt. There’s dirt and noise and grime and spilled drinks all over Buck’s records, and his rough, full-throated voice is just part of it. The production work on Situation is among his dirtiest, with distorted drums, fuzzy bass lines, and … shit, there’s even a scratchy record at the beginning of “Way Back When.” Situation finds Buck 65 going old-school — all the way back to the ’50s. With rhymes that theoretically combine to make Situation a concept album about 1957, Buck creates a number of dark and desperate characters to tell a wide array of seldom-uplifting stories. “Mr. Nobody” is the most obviously creepy, being about a man “hiding in the bushes,” but the dead-ender protagonist of the following cut (“The Rebel”) is more extravagantly dark. Coming up with a batch of sublime, intricate lyrics and organic, challenging sounds to follow up 2005’s incredible Secret House Against the World album was a tall order; with Situation, Buck 65 more than fills it.

First appeared in the Dec. 13, 2007 issue of Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

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Che Guevara Where You Never Imagined Him DVD review (Metrotimes)

  

Cuban filmmaker Manuel Pérez Paredes doesn’t exactly set out to rewrite the Che legend with this documentary. The man does have to live in Cuba, after all, where it’s hard to imagine that criticism of Guevara would be tolerated much. However, by presenting rather intimate details of the revolutionary’s early life, Paredes manages to humanize the larger-than-life mythology that’s developed. From amazing home movies of baby Ernesto playing in his Argentinean home and vintage footage of his father wondering if an early case of near-fatal pneumonia wasn’t what led to his later asthma, the material Paredes has gathered paints a picture of Guevara’s early years that’s stunning indeed. By the time the viewer gets to better-documented periods (like the legendary motorcycle voyage through South and Central America and Che’s introduction to Fidel Castro in the mid-’50s), the archival visuals wear thin, as does the (understandably) hagiographic tone. Still, throughout the film, it’s easy to see how the shockingly charismatic Che was able to convince people of his righteousness. This DVD is of reasonable-enough quality, considering the general crappiness of the footage contained. It’s also worth noting that the “bonus” footage here totals almost twice the length of the main feature; a barely relevant short about North Vietnam is the worst of the lot, while two 1988 discussions with some of Che’s guerrilla fighters are riveting. 

First appeared in the Dec. 13, 2007 issue of Detroit Metrotimes. 

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