Louis Theroux: Inside the Manosphere

 

★★★—Eh, it was fine. Following around a bunch of boring douchebags who constantly do and say outrageous/stupid things gets old super quick. The doc doesn’t really take these losers desperate for attention to task in a way that’s worth watch. I think this could have been done better. It gives these guys too much of a platform, doesn’t go at them hard enough. For the most part it implies people who give these dudes the time must be really lost… what they touch on briefly at the end is that the people that watch, and are being influenced, are children. So, yeah, fuck these guys. We get a glimpse of this disturbing, dangerous world, but it could have been more. 

Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association

★★★★--Loved this well-done documentary about the American Basketball Association, an NBA rival with a different style of play that merged in the mid-1970s. There are many extremely engaging first‑hand accounts from figures like Julius Erving (aka Dr. J), George Gervin, Larry Brown, Artis Gilmore, St. Louis Spirits owner Daniel Silna, Dan Issel, Spencer Haywood, and Bob Costas, all of whom got their starts working for ABA franchises. Common, whose dad played in the league, narrates. Even if you know nothing about professional basketball, it's still a solid watch. 
 
Most interesting part is the business aspect, going through the successes and mistakes along the way that helped them survive and die out. A big win was that they acquired the second best player on the planet at the time, Julius Erving. He was the face of the league from 1971 to 1976. He is pretty universally considered one of the coolest people ever and was something of a proto-Michael Jordan, both on and off the court. They also nearly got the best, Kareem, but the league commissioner, George Mikan, a former pro and Republican politician, low-balled him, costing Mikan his job and probably ultimately killing the league. 
 

Erving was definitely the star of the doc, just as he was the star of the league. Dude is cool and charismatic as hell. A pretty safe choice as your marquee player, he was a black icon, but didn’t venture into racial politics, which I find disappointing but white dudes of that time were already well into that “shut up and dribble” mindset. 
 
It’s wild that the NBA still shits on this league that gave it the slam dunk contest and the three-pointer. The end talks about how the players from that league got screwed out their pensions until recently even though that was part of the agreement when the merger happened. Also, the NBA doesn’t count ABA stats, basically still arguing the league was inferior. It was not, and they even played about the same number of games each season, which makes things easy.
 
Just a couple little complaints. Something I hadn’t really noticed was the way some ABA teams made an effort to draft local college guys to boost ticket sales since people from the area were already fans of many of these guys since high school. I wish they had gone into this, but it isn’t even mentioned. It was something I noticed and then did some half-assed internet research to confirm it. There were several Indiana guys that played for the Pacers those years, guys from Notre Dame, IU, and Purdue, one from University of Evansville, and some regional players from various Michigan and Ohio schools. 
 

Another guy that stayed in the state where he was a college legend was Hall of Famer Dan Issel, who was one of the players that gets a lot of recognition in the documentary, and is still University of Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer. His three years on varsity (this was when freshmen weren’t eligible, which is stupid, this being 1967-70 were a pretty exciting time for college basketball even though those Kentucky teams always underperformed, losing in the round of 32 each of the three years he played at UK. This was during UCLA’s dominance with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor at the time) winning national player of the year in 68 and 69. Regardless, the SEC was still the conference to be in with Issel and Pete Maravich of LSU as the top two players. Maravich in just three years is still the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer with at a more-or-less untouchable 3,667 points. He averaged and incredible 44.2 per game and his pickup style game was practically made for the ABA. He was another of the league’s prime targets (which isn’t mentioned) but stayed in the NBA. 
 

Interestingly, Kentucky didn’t integrate until the year after Issel graduated. It wasn’t until he played in the ABA that he ever played with a black person. The racial aspect of the film, while interesting, was maybe a little overplayed, calling it “the first integrated workplace in the United States.” It’s not like racism wasn’t rampant then or now. 
 
The only other thing that disappointed me besides trying to keep local college players with nearby teams wasn’t a fault of the documentary. It was that more footage hasn’t survived, especially from the early years.
 
Lastly, loved that my beloved Indiana Pacers were featured. There was a great local PBS documentary about those championship teams that came out in the early 90s. My uncle played ball with two of the guys in the doc, Billy Keller (my uncle was on JV when Keller was the man there) and George McGinnis, both Indiana Mr. Basketball winners. My uncle, Bob Jones, career was sandwiched between the 1965 Washington championship led by Keller and the 1969 championship led by McGinnis. They drafted a third Washington guy in 73, a guy named Steve Downing who played at IU, but he ended up going to the NBA. Again, wished they would have focused on the local guys aspect a little more.

Arnold - 2023

In The Last Dance territory for personal propaganda, but it doesn't shy away from Arnold's faults. Sort of nice to see people like this owning up to the mistakes they've made instead of denying and calling out fake news. However, it does paint these faults in the most flattering light possible. 

This is Arnold's victory lap, after all. It's a heavily produced miniseries that primarily caters to dedicated fans. One of my favorite takes, from one Simon Abrams on RogerEbert.com reads:

“Schwarzenegger cocks a schticky eyebrow and puffs on evenly-lit cigars while admiring coffee table-sized books filled with high-resolution photos of himself from over the years.”

Oof. 

So, yeah, while he shares PR-friendly perspectives on various aspects of his public life, including engaging in an extramarital affair, notable omissions include any mention of his abusive father's voluntary involvement with the Nazis or how he was something of a, uh, Hitler enthusiast himself for a time. 

I've dealt with enough rich, famous people to know that a lot of them can be quite unpleasant. Arnold seems like he'd be an alright hang, but I don't think you'd really be having a conversation, if you know what I mean.

You have to expect that a little with people like this, minus the Nazi stuff, who worked their way up to the top of the world. They all have a competition in them that drives them. Arnold probably more than most. And he stays charming, at least. Plus he likes animals and is mostly vegan now. Which is dope. But I'm sure he's still an asshole. 

Can't Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World - Adam Curtis - 2021

★★★★★-Holy shit. A masterpiece six-part BBC documentary series from Adam Curtis about how our contemporary existence, which emphasizes individualism over collectivism, is completely shit, totally unfulfilling, and was designed as a way for the powerful elite to keep citizens in control. “All human beings live in a made-up dream world of stories, which give them the illusion that they are in control,” he says. “But really, there’s something else inside them that they will never contact.” Goes through all of the intricacies of how it got this way. I think this is supposed to be a kind of call to wake-the-fuck-up, but doesn't exactly offer a way out of the mess, not that it really needs to. The documentary is more impartial observation.

It really goes deep, discussing things like the fall of the British Empire, American imperialism, China's political crisis in the wake of the Great Leap Forward, and the resurgence of Russian nationalism. It goes through all this and more whilst telling individual stories that came out of those systems. 

All this has led the perpetual creation of conspiracy theories and grasping at dangerous national myths. This while also coming to a sobering realization in the failure of technology to emancipate society envisioned by techno-utopians. The result was a surge in populism in the West, culminating in Brexit and Trump, as people looked to radically alternative visions for the future, allowing for those in power to push beyond ethical boundaries that should have served as breaking points. Like I said, holy shit. 

Curtis first blipped on my radar in college when I stumbled upon his BBC documentary series Pandora's Box: A Fable From the Age of Science which aired in 1993. It deals with the consequences of political and technocratic rationalism. Also in six parts, each episode deals with a theme. They are: Communism in the Soviet Union, systems analysis and game theory during the Cold War, economy of the United Kingdom during the 1970s, the insecticide DDT, Kwame Nkrumah's leadership in Ghana in the 1950s, and the history of nuclear power. It blew my mind. 

At some point in the last year I heard an interview with Chuck Klosterman where he talked about Pandora's Box and Adam Curtis, focusing on this new documentary and how heavy it was. That shit is my brand, so I'd watch until my brain hurt, turn it off, and start up again the next day from where I left off. It took me forever to watch it. But holy shit, did I love it. As a guy who fancies himself a media theorist, I'm not sure if it is for everyone, but it is definitely my jam. 

One of the things I enjoyed most was the lesson of the oft-forgotten historical figure whose influence triggered ripples that continue into the present. Individuals like Michael X, Afeni Shakur and her son Tupac (who took on the persona of a character to create change only to live as a cartoon), Arthur Sackler, Jiang Qing (Mao Zedong's wife), Murray Gell-Mann, and others are explored to provide some context behind the turmoil that engulfs the world at present. 

It also details the struggles faced by those marginalized by society. Some examples. The story of a woman seeking a sex change in the 1970s that is forced to undergo demeaning psychological evaluation. The reality of the Ethiopian famine which led to Live Aid which is remembered as a kick ass concert but was really a scandal that throws us into the complexities of humanitarian intervention that resulted in the exploitation of the narrative for personal gain. 

Yeah, this mesmerizing series rocked me. The main point that I walked away with is that humans inhabit a simplified dream world that defies rationality. In an era of individualism, rather than attempting to alter this dream world, governments fight for its preservation. The allure of appealing to reason and effecting change on a grand scale is rendered obsolete as we are content with the dream, like in Brave New World. This controlling our collective rage (done on a global scale) is a means to consolidate power and eliminate political adversaries. The disheartening truth is that all endeavors to radically transform the world lead to profound pessimism with the responsibility lying on the individual, rather than society as a whole. As individuals turn inward, the management of this attractive yet pessimistically curated dream world becomes a hybrid amalgamation of psychology, economics, and finance. The dream world thrives as through its meticulous cultivation by the ruling class.

This is something I think about constantly as I recycle, eat a vegan diet, and just basically try and live simply. It's all just a drop in the bucket, my actions. It shouldn't be on us to change the world. Sure, we probably all do our part, some of us anyhow. But it should really be on the ruling classes to get the real problems figured out. But why do that when they can just distract us with bullshit while preserving the status quo. Yeah, if I were teaching a class, this would absolutely be on my syllabus. I've got like 12 pages of notes, but nothing I really say about it is going to do it justice. 

You can watch it for free on YouTube here. It will blow your mind. Plus, the soundtrack is incredible.

Fire of Love - Sara Dosa - 2022

★★★★★- Movie follows two volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft, a super cute married couple  that famously died doing what they loved. They try to unravel the mysteries of volcanoes and in the process capture true mesmerizingly beautiful imagery. 

I am 1000% sure Wes Anderson was really into their work. They were doing Wes Anderson type shots in their documentaries in the 70s. They’re even dressed like Steve Zissou half the time. Loved it

Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee

Running with the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee - Two Stars 

Charlie Russell 

2022 

From watching this documentary, which is entertaining, you never know that McAfee was a piece of shit rapist. The whole murderer he’s accused of is also painted in a very sympathetic light. If somebody poisoned my dog, I’d probably fucking kill that dude too, but the gist of this movie is he probably didn’t do it, if he did he was justified, and in the end who cares. 

Every other documentary I’ve seen about this guy, the famous Gringo one from 2016 and several others on YouTube, leads me to think this guy was a huge piece of shit.  I’ve long been on the fuck that guy train. That this movie is pro McAfee is pretty problematic and likely non-factual. 

Spoiler. At the end of the movie McAfee’s ex girlfriend, Samantha Herrera, says that she got a call from him a couple weeks after he was found dead and that he wanted her to run away with him. Since then, she has said in interviews, “What I said was I got a call from Texas from someone saying it was John, who said he was still alive in Spain. I told the film’s makers that I didn’t know if it was him or someone posing as him. I said that on film, but it wasn’t used.”

Trainwreck: Woodstock '99

Trainwreck: Woodstock '99. Dir Jamie Crawford in 2022. Love a documentary about a shitshow music festival. This one of two to come out in the last few years regarding Woodstock ’99. I order this on pay-per-view at the time and was extremely disappointed. I vividly remember the footage of things going to absolute shit during the Chili Peppers’ set. 

Tells the story of how corporate greed—rampant cost-cutting and overpricing food and water—, violence, sexual assault, and environmental hazards led to attendees setting fires and rioting after the final performance.

The lighting shit on fire portion of the show came about when a group anti-gun violence of peace promoters distributed candles for a candlelight vigil to be held during the Chili Peppers' performance of the song "Under the Bridge". Following said song, people used the candles to start bonfires, using the out-of-control mountains of trash to fuel them. 

The sexual violence stuff is super disturbing. Also disturbing is the way the main organizers put all the blame on the people attending the show. You can only push a crowd so far, and this crowd had had enough. 

Personally, I preferred The Ringer’s documentary, Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage along with their podcast Break Stuff: The Story of Woodstock '99, a little more.

Lenny Cooke is the greatest movie of all time

Lenny Cooke. "Like on Christmas Day, you think you’re getting this toy, and then Christmas comes, it’s not under the tree. It breaks you down emotionally. I broke down, realized I got bad advice. But you wonder, why not? Why didn’t my name get called?” Because you can't fucking play. 

Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, the guys who did Uncut Gems. Liked that better but this is apples to oranges. The film follows this high school basketball player, Lenny Cooke, for about a decade of his sad life. In 2001, when the film starts, Cooke is one of the top ranked high school basketball players in the country. At that time he has ladies hanging on him, asking what team he plays for and shit like that, living it up with his boys. 

He thinks he is going to get picked in the 2002 NBA draft, but goes unselected. From there, we see him play in a series of minor leagues, getting fatter as times goes on, before finally he quits basketball. By the end he is living in some shit town in Virginia with his fiancée, who is getting tired of his shit while working two job, and his many children.

This guy. The takeaway is he thought he was going to the NBA out of high school with no fucking game. The little bit we see when he played LeBron when he was a senior and LeBron was a freshman shows that dude would never be able to hang. Meanwhile, the idiots he surrounds himself with tell him he is a shoe-in to go pro. None of these people know anything. The people that do are to polite to say he is garbage now. 

The end is pretty brutal. Dude got fat and just lived off his glory days. No job and no prospects at 30. Goes to an NBA game and meets with Joakim Noah and Carmelo Anthony after. Basically to say, "remember how good I was, lets go out to get fucked up." Noah is like, "nah, man." Then he talks shit to his friends for not visiting him enough. Looks like a tight hang. 

Finally, there is a scene where they superimpose Cooke talking to his younger self at the Five Star Camp. Basically an old man rant. Dude is a horrible public speaker, but that is apparently what he is doing for a living now. 

Pretty hard watch. Like Hoop Dreams mixed with a documentary about meth or something. It is solid though. 

Sports Documentary: The Games of the V Olympiad Stockholm, 1912

Criterion Channel has all the official Olympic Game documentaries going back over 100 years. This is my new thing. I have seen exactly one of these prior. Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia. You know her. She did Triumph of the Will. Considered the great Nazi prapagandist. Technically that was the first official Olympic documentary. But giving this a viddy since it's available and seemed interesting. But it's kind of boring. Just watching people do the same thing, over and over, one after another, with a boring ass opening and closing ceremony.

Not exactly confident I could have won a gold medal if I were transported back in time to 1912, but compared to today's standards, these guys were like high school sectional athletes. The hurdlers were especially trash. Stuff happened like tripping and completely wiping out and still getting up to win the race to qualify for the finals. A guy sets the world record at 15.5 seconds for the 110m after knocking down like half the hurdles. I ran a 16 second in 10th grade and wasn't even the best on my team. I didn't even qualify for the finals in my sectional. The kid who won the sectional would have shattered this world record by over a full second. Men's gymnastics was a complete fucking joke as well. It has to be seen to be believed. It's more what I'd call a warmup than like a competition. 

Speaking of, there were a lot of sports that I know but had a hard time figuring out what the point of them were back then. Diving, for example, appears to be more like the long jump with a dive at the end. No flips or turns. Just swanning 30ft. That shit was done into a lake by the way. 

Picture is restored and looks amazing. I've read like 10 or so times why old timey, silent era film looks so good. Has to do with the size of the film. Can't really explain or understand it though. Just know it looks great. 

Some things of note. A dude dies from exhaustion during the marathon, which is fucked. Researching this race, found that another guy disappeared which is just insane. One Shizo Kanakuri, weak from the long journey from Japan, and having problems with the local food, lost consciousness midway through the race. He was found and cared for by a farming family. Being embarrassed from his "`failure" he silently returned to Japan without notifying race officials. Swedish authorities considered him missing for 50 years before discovering that he was living in Japan and had competed in subsequent Olympic marathons.

Also get to see Jim Thorpe after winning a pair of gold medals. He wins the pentathlon and the decathlon. Looked him up. That dude looks like a contemporary athlete. It's like a bunch of average dudes off the street and then this dude who looks like a damn super hero. Looks amazingly like John Cena. Dude is a stud. Wish there was more video of him in the film. 

One more guy of note that I'd never heard of that was super bad ass. One Duke Kahanamoku, born in 1890 under the Kingdom of Hawaii, just before the overthrow. A native Hawaii swimmer, he wins gold in the 100-meter freestyle. Won a total of five medals over three Olympics. The other two were in 1920 and 1924. Incredibly, was an alternate for the U.S. waterpolo team for the 1932 games. 

Dude's life was incredible. Was part of a landmark Supreme Court case resulting from an arrest he made where a civilian was tried for shoplifting in military court. It's complicated and he just made the arrest. Was an actor, the Sherriff of Honolulu, a Freemason, and a professional beach volleyball player. He basically single handedly popularized surfing in the early part of the century when he saved eight fishermen after a boat had capsized, killing most of the people onboard. He was able to drag the men to safety and get back to wreckage quickly with the use of his board. After that, lifeguards used surfboards as part of their standard rescue equipment. 

Legacy lives on too. Has statues all over the place in Hawaii, is in both the surfing and swimming hall of fames, had a comemorative stamp with his likeness on it issued in the 2000s, and was the subject of a Google Doodle a few years ago. You can read a little about him in the New York Times here. Dude is a total MVP. He knew how to party. 

True Crime: Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich is the greatest movie of all time

Were you ever sent three 12-year-old girls to sexually abuse as a birthday gift? I’d like to answer that question. But today I’m gonna have to assert my Sixth Amendment rights, my Fifth Amendment rights. Is it true that you forced Virgina Roberts to have sex with numerous friends of yours? Are you kidding? I assert my Sixth Amendment rights, my Fifth Amendment rights. 

Rotten Tomato Consensus: It lacks new insight, but by focusing on the stories of survivors Filthy Rich sheds light on the lasting impact of Epstein's crimes.

This mother fucker. Really effective doc. Epstien had a sexual abuse pyramid scheme going, got caught, should have gone away forever, and was given a slap on the wrist by a fucking douchbag who eventually got promoted into Trump's cabinet. This Alex Acosta prick. Fucking incredible. I totally want to murder this dude and Epstein and a bunch of other people based on this shit. Probably most of all Alan Dershowitz. 

One of the women, this Virginia Roberts, now Giuffre, has repeatedly said that Dershowitz had sex with her when she was underage. His move is to say she won't go on record because she is afraid of committing lible but that is bullshit.

In this doc fucking prick makes the statement "I challenge Virginia Roberts to come on your show, look in the camera and say the following words: 'I accuse Alan Dershowitz of having had sex with me on six or seven occasions.' She has never been willing to accuse me in public, so please accuse me on this show. I challenge you." 

Immediately cut to her saying "I was with Alan Dershowitz multiple times. At least six that I can remember. I was trafficked to Alan Dershowitz from Epstein... He's denied being with me. Is one of us telling the truth? Yes. Is that person me? Yes." 

He said the same shit in this New Yorker article from last year, "Alan Dershowitz, Devil's Avocate." It's his game to make you think she is lying or whatever. Fuck him. This article also makes the case that Dershowitz wasn't that great of a lawyer either. He was mostly hyped by himself and powerful friends. No F. Lee Bailey, for example. Again, fuck him. Great read by the way, the New Yorker piece. 

Gist of the doc is that the survivors of Epstein's sexual abuse/statutory rape/straight up rape reveal how they were manipulated and abuse by the billionaire who kept buying his way out of trouble. All of them were emotionally scarred and suffered greatly. Their stories are powerful and moving and gut wrenching. A must watch, but be prepared to be outraged. 

Also, something that wasn't in the documentary, just an FYI... Q: "Have you ever socialized with Donald Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18?" A: "Though I'd like to answer that question, at least today I'm going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth, and 14th Amendment rights, sir." How's that for making your blood boil. And, to be fair, he hung out with Bill Clinton, too, who has lied about it. Though no one is claiming they were forced to bone ole' Slick Willy. 

After watching the American Murderer: The Family Next Door, Epstein didn't seem so bad for about a minute and a half, which is fucked. Then you see the devastation and hear what these women went through again and again. Fuck. Never the same. These dudes are the fucking worst. 

Musical: David Byrne's American Utopia is the greatest show of all time

David Byrne's American Utopia on HBO directed by Spike Lee, filmed from the Broadway show. Love the shit out of David Byrne. I saw the touring show live in Indy at a great venue with really good seats. Fucking sick. Seen over 100 bands in my life. This was by far the best show I've ever seen. American Utopia was more than a concert. It was performance art, something of a TED Talk, and people just stoked to be jamming together.

Really solid and optimistic set. Some of the best of The Talking Heads, minus "Psycho Killer," the show is too positive for that. Definitely the best of his solo work. Some powerful covers in there as well. Some of the setlist includes "Lazy," "I Zembra," "Everybody's Coming to My House," "This Must Be the Place," which is my favorite, "Once in a Lifetime," and so on and so forth. 

I'm obsessed with this show. Listen to it all the time and watched a copy on YouTube at least three or four times. Sooooo, when this dropped on HBO last night, I was stoked, but I'd been enjoying the fuck out of it for a while now. It was great, don't get me wrong. But at one point I sort of asked if this was the best use of Spike Lee at this point. I felt that sort of anyone could have done this, and I thought he sort of fucked up one of my favorite parts, when Byrne dances like a wildman to "I Should Watch TV." It's really fucking sick, but Spike cuts away and we don't see any of it. What the fuck, man? Is this amateur hour?

But there were some cool flourishes, like some cool overhead stuff. Couple of times I was pretty impressed seeing the movement from above like that. Then we got a standard Spike Lee shot at the end when the band rides home on their bikes, this to remind us it is Spike 'fucking' Lee doing this shit, I guess.

The use of space and light is incredible and has to be experienced first-hand to truly be appreciated. That's why this fell a flat, to me. But totally still worth watching. Also made me miss going to concerts and being with the people I went to that concert with, truly some of my favorites and some of the best. But can't be there now or see them, so might as well enjoy this, I suppose.

True Crime: American Murder: The Family Next Door is the greatest film of all time

Shanann, if you are seeing this, just come back. This mother fucker. Netflix true crime documentary about Chris Watts killing his wife Shanann and their two children. Fuck. Made me sick to my stomach. Kills the wife and kids and goes to work, stashing their remains at the site. Wife's BFF though has the police at his house before he even gets off work. And in case the cop that shows up at the scene is some kind of idiot (which seemed likely), a neighbor of Watts tells the cop that dude "isn't acting right." These two are fucking heroes. 

Does it to be with his mistress, who looks a whole lot like his wife. My dude has a type. He definitely likes a brunette that sort of walks all over him, that's for sure. Except one is all, "be a better husband" and "fuck me," while the other is all "kill your family." That isn't confirmed, but that mistress seems fucking evil, like she was hiding her involvement. But that is conjecture and she never had her day in court or anything. Regardless, dude seemed completely possessed by his infatuation for this mistress and def killed to be with her. Dude is definitely evil as fuck. Mistress, probably. She is hotter, but loses a lot of points for being really uncool. 

Really well done documentary. Follows the story from the very beginning through the confession and trial. All with actual footage from body cameras, security cams, and the news. Also get texts and social media posts involving the victims, giving them a voice. However, again, made me a little sick to my stomach. It's not quite as heart-wrenching as Dear Zachary, but it's in the ballpark. It's not like he is super compelling or anything either, like with Robert Durst. Great, but never watching again. 

Won't You Be My Neighbor? is the greatest movie of all time

Want a good cathartic cry? Jesus is there a movie for you, Won't You Be My Neighbor?. Collectively, this is what we need right now. A message of radical kindness. Good god you are going to cry. More than once. Tearing up now actually. Yep. That's happening. Greatest movie of all time... Oh, and fuck Fox News.

Rotten Tomato Consensus: Won't You Be My Neighbor? takes a fittingly patient and honest look at the life and legacy of a television pioneer whose work has enriched generations.

Pros: This film is truly inspired and inspiring. Does a great job of tightly getting at what the saintly Fred Rogers was all about. We get to know him in a way that makes us care more for the man and, personally, inspires me to do better.

Cons: We find out he was a registered Republican which I am not sure I believe. I couldn't see him voting for Nixon (who supported cutting funding for PBS and the Vietnam War) or Reagan (recall a lot of episodes regarding King Friday's pursuit of an arms race during my childhood) and see Trump as the antithesis of everything Mister Rogers believes in. This is exactly the type of thinking that he makes want to reevaluate though... But I am more comfortable thinking of him as a swing voter. Fiscally conservative. Obviously socially liberal.

Gist here is that filmmaker Morgan Neville explores the legacy and life of beloved children's TV show host Fred Rogers, host of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It goes into detail about his personal philosophies and how they shaped his show and the way he dealt with children. Mister Rogers is truly what he appeared to be and this movie does a great job of illustrating this. And it has truly inspired me to do more. I am what you would call a kind person who really gives a shit. This movie makes me want to be better. Care more. Be kinder. The film fantastically details the man' limitless compassion which is totally contagious. Great documentary and Mister Rogers obviously wins the movie.

Some of the stuff that stood out. First, can't ignore that time that Rogers, in response to proposed budget cuts, went to the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications on behalf of PBS and talked about the need for the educational television that PBS provides. Talking to the chairman, Senator John O. Pastore, Rogers stressed that his show helped kids deal with their emotions positively which ultimately makes them well-adjusted adults as opposed to the more violent messages of some other shows. To illustrate his point he doesn't read his prepared statement, saying that he trusts that the chairman will read it, and instead recites lyrics to one of the songs from his show that is typical of one of his programs. Those lyrics were "What do you do with the mad that you feel? When you feel so mad you could bite... I can stop when I want to. Can stop when I wish. Can stop, stop, stop anytime... And know there’s something deep inside that helps us become what we can. For a girl can be someday a lady, and a boy can be someday a man." Pastore, who was sort of being an asshole up to that point, was really moved, saying "I think it's wonderful. Looks like you just earned the $20 million." It was extremely impressive and should be required viewing.

Something I wasn't exactly crazy about was that he urged actor Francois Clemmons, who played officer Clemmons and is homosexual, to stay in the closet and forbade him from frequenting gay bars. He thought this was more or less career suicide for Clemmons and saw it as potentially something that could tank the show. This was a black guy who, Christlike, Rogers shared a foot bath with on the show when black people and while people couldn't shit in the same can, and Rogers encouraged him to get married, which ended in obvious disaster. This all went down around 1970. Not exactly the most noble thing he ever did, convincing a guy who later became a surrogate son to ruin a woman's life, at least for a short time, by marrying her even though you're gay. That's not you just the way you are, if you know what I mean. One of many examples of a hero from a different time that did something that was pretty messed up. But Rogers eventually came around on the issue, and way before the general public, encouraging Clemmons to commit to a longterm relationship. And thank fuck. Of course he recognizes a mistake and completely corrects it.

The final section of the movie, the one where everyone in the theater was audibly sobbing, was the bit about Jeff Erlanger. Oh, man. This kid. Ten-years-old. Wheelchair. Diminutive. Undergoing a life-threatening surgery that may kill him. Family asks him if he wants to do something special because this is going to be tough on the little guy. Meet Mister Rogers. So Rogers meets him. They hit it off. Chill several times. Eventually Rogers invites him onto the show. This is 1981. Erlanger shows Rogers how his wheelchair works and why he was in it. They segue into what they do to cheer themselves up when they are sad. Oh god. End up singing a song together. "It's You I Like." And I'm sobbing. And they talk about what Mister Rogers used to do when he was feeling blue--make up stories, read, play--and how we all have to figure out what cheers each of us up in our own way.  And Jeff asks him it helped. It did. Then Rogers says, "I'm not feeling blue right now though!" and he laughs. And Jeff says, "me neither." And it is just so touching. The movie ends with Rogers being greeted by Erlanger when he is inducted into the TV Hall of Fame back in 1999. Try to make it through that dry eyed. Check it out.

Why Horror? is the greatest movie of all time

Great documentary that is totally recommended from one horror fan to another. This is director’s Tal Zimerman love letter to the genre and is much appreciated. A lot of it delves into horror’s popularity and why it has remained so popular from its origins in art and the written word to video games, comics, and film. He goes to great pains to show how fans are misunderstood. We are generally not the psychos that some of us appear. We just like being freaked out in a completely safe environment.

Something funny that Zimerman brings up is the movie Summer School with Mark Harmon which features these two horror fans that are basically the weird kids. In the film they do a lot of special effects and freak people out. It was a lot cooler than I am making it out to be. But I totally wanted to do that shit when I was a kid. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one as these characters were universally beloved among horror directors growing up at that time. Something else that is not quite as surprising but is cool is when they talk about the first movies that scared the shit out of them. Seems like more often than not that movie is The Exorcist. Yeah, I thought I was immune to horror before they rereleased it while I was in high school. No, I was not. 

Not only does Zimerman speculate on why we like getting scared, he even talks to scientists and psychologists about the phenomenon. The most interesting part of his research is what one professor calls the “Snuggle Theory” which explains why its good to go to a horror movie on a date. Your endorphins get amped up and you tend to seek comfort from the one that is closest, in essence. Sounds like pseudoscience but I’ll roll with it. 

The cameos he gets for the film are insane. big names like Eli Roth, John Carpenter, and George A. Romero do interviews, Elijah Wood does some narration, he also has lots of up-and-comers and many big names in foreign markets all talking about the “only genre that affects you the rest of your life.” Really makes me want to check out a con this summer and decorate my room with horror memorabilia. If you are fan of the genre, you’ll probably dig it.

The Karma Killings is the greatest movie of all time

More or less the Indian Making a Murderer, The Karma Killings documents the Nithari serial killings and their repercussions on the very poor community and the wealthy businessman that was seemingly wrongfully accused of being involved in. The documentary really stirs up the whole caste warfare aspect of the whole thing and the media's overreaction and the way they portrayed a probably innocent man.

The movie breaks things down into chapters to make it manageable. The murders, the investigation, the suspects, the trial, the sentencing, the aftermath, so forth. In the background portion we see the families of the 17 or so murdered children from the neighborhood of Noida in New Delhi. The killer strangled these little kids, had sex with them, and then ate them in some cases. Shit is completely fucked up and horrible

It all comes crashing down when a prostitute goes missing after visiting a client in the rich part of the neighborhood. The suspects who reside in the upperclass home are businessman Moninder Singh Pandher and his servant, the child murdering piece of shit, Surender Koli. They have some weird shit going on, Koli basically lies to Pandher's wife about the prostitutes he has over, but the movies portrays Pandher as a patsy in the situation. 

This seems to be the case as Pandher was out of town when all of the murders except for one were committed (and it should be noted that Koli had his own quarters and separate entrance into the main house). The police do have a confession for Pandher which was later proved to be complete fucking bullshit as New Delhi's finest had him sign two blank pieces of paper that they went ahead and filled out for him. 

Most of the movie covers the sensationalized news coverage of the event, lower class claims that justice wasn’t being carried out against the wealthy businessman, and Karin’s (Pandher’s son) eight year battle to clear his father’s name.

All in all, the program is a pretty fucking solid look into a devastating story that took a decade to play out. Totes worth checking out if you have Netflix.