watching tv with the red chinese is an independent drama film about a group of chinese exchange students who arrive in new york in 1980 , eager for what america has to offer .

they make friends including a literature teacher named dexter and his girlfriend suzanne .

as they try to adjust to the new york city atmosphere , they become disillusioned with america , eventually buying a firearm for self-defense .

watching tv with the red chinese

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the first half of shimon dotan ' s watching tv with the red chinese is a virtual compendium of high - culture references , topical concerns addressed almost in passing , and narrative fracturing devices .
— trailer for watching tv with the red chinese . when tzu ( james chen ) , wa ( keong sim ) and chen ( leonardo nam ) come to new york city in the summer of 19
ross pretends being in a shark attack , watching tv , walking a dog etc . hilarity ensues
watching tv with the red chinese is a movie starring ryan o ' nan , leonardo nam , and gillian jacobs . in new york city in 1980 , dexter mitchell plays half - willing big brother to his neighbors , a trio of exchange students from the people ' s republic of china .
television is america . . . as seen by three visiting graduate students from communist china in the early 1980s . in an innovative first novel whisnant juxtaposes the fast pace of television and commercial jargon with reflective narrative to depict an america whose inhabitants are both subjects and audience for the camera . the red chinese watch american tv . we watch them watching - - and see ourselves .
watching tv with the red chinese is a film about how being dipped into a chaotic moment in american history affects three naïve foreigners hoping to experience life in the u . s . while remaining separate from it . it’s especially frustrating , then , that the film depicts so little interaction between the chinese men and the pop media that’s supposed to provide them with a cultural bridge . no time is spent on actually watching tv—instead , characters rant about it ( “tv has corrupted them , ruined their minds ! ” ) in the same way they monologue about charles bukowski and the beatles . it’s as though they know this is too small a production to afford the rights to these entities’ work , so they’re determined to suck the joy out of them in some other way .
in “watching tv with the red chinese , ” tzu , chen and wa , three proud young communists , arrive in new york in 1980 to pursue higher degrees in systems science . dexter ( ryan o’nan ) , an english literature graduate student living across the hall , becomes their cultural guide , decoding american customs and activities , like halloween and football .
television is america . . . as seen by three visiting graduate students from communist china in the early 1980s . in an innovative first novel whisnant juxtaposes the fast pace of television and commercial jargon with reflective narrative to depict an america whose inhabitants are both subjects and audience for the camera . the red chinese watch american tv . we watch them wa
jean - luc godard once famously observed , “all you need for a movie is a gun and a girl , ” which is both a witty observation about cinema and a telling insight into his perspective on american culture as a european artist . girls , guns , and the way american life looks to outsiders all figure into shimon dotan’s film watching tv with the red chinese , an . . . read more
on the surface , the story of watching tv with the red chinese is a simple one , documenting several months in the lives of literature teacher dexter mitchell ( ryan o’nan ) , his on - again - off - again girlfriend suzanne ( community ’s gillian jacobs ) , and the three chinese students ( leonardo nam , james chen , and keong sim ) recently arrived to america who move into his building . but the film , based on the novel by luke whisnant , is a lot meatier at the core , serving as an examination of how we perceive ourselves and others through the veil of culture , both geographical and pop ( with a side order of destiny versus free will ) .
the first half of shimon dotan’s watching tv with the red chinese is a virtual compendium of high - culture references , topical concerns addressed almost in passing , and narrative fracturing devices . by contrast , the second half seems almost devoid of ambition , turning instead to a far more straightforward depiction of not - so - complex romantic geometry and impending violence . that the opening act is no more satisfying than its stripped down successor is largely the result of a dilettantish quality on the filmmakers’ part , the idea that cataloguing items of cultural and social significance is akin to addressing them and that constant editorializing on the proceedings is the best way to forestall criticism .
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75 % or higher after a set amount of reviews ( 80 for wide - release movies , 40 for limited - release movies , 20 for tv shows ) , including 5 reviews from top critics .
dotan pads the first act of the film with a loose narrative structure that jumps back and forth through time and hits on each vignette with all the disjointed continuity of a round of speed dating , which gets a little disconcerting since the audience isn’t yet familiar with all the players . billy the filmmaker says at one point early on that the medium of any art should be its message , that “images and concepts should always take precedence over story . ” for a moment , one fears that dotan feels the same way , but as the film eases off and lets the narrative breathe , with its hints of impending tragedy , all the pieces start to come together nicely .
after being mugged by a pair of african - american assailants , one of the three chinese men , chen ( leonardo nam ) , not only becomes terrified of anyone with black skin , but determined to protect himself against what he views as an inherently violent american culture . as he starts dating the onetime lover of his friend and neighbor dexter ( ryan o’nan ) , he finds his relationship with both that individual and his fellow chinese students becoming hopelessly strained . furthermore , the woman’s psychotic ex - boyfriend begins threatening chen , causing him to turn his fear of violent retribution into a wary resignation to inevitable gunplay .
when monty is throwing eggs at dexter , a few figures move through the frame and are obviously on the side of the street closest to dexter . these figures are then seen again in the very next shot on the opposite side of the street , running through the shot .
follows the intertwining stories of walter dishman , a melancholy parole officer struggling with the doldrums of married life , and three eccentric ex - convicts recently placed under his supervision .
the film takes place in new york in the fall of 1980 , a pivotal time for america , which was transitioning from the “me” decade into the “me” decade with money , and a pivotal time for the city , which had yet to clean up its act after the grimy decadence and burgeoning class divide of the ’70s . in other words , tensions were running kind of high , culminating in nothing less than the symbolic death of the peace movement through the actual assassination of john lennon .
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it’s an effective backdrop—with such uncertainty in the air , the characters are pressured into a kind of myopia . dexter takes on a brotherly role with the chinese , teaching them english and football , and introducing them to his friends , but his feelings for all of them turn on a dime when one of them , chen , snatches suzanne out from under him . suzanne herself is so fickle that she rebounds between men like a ping - pong ball . ( yes , in a pre - aids society , love was a lot freer , but all the historical context in the world can’t endear the audience to someone who makes little effort to rise above it . ) chen comes to fear all black strangers when he’s mugged and beaten by two of them . dexter’s filmmaker friend billy , making an artsy documentary about the three chinese , and suzanne’s creepy stalker ex are both similarly single - minded .
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i was at a giant used book sale , and this title jumped out at me . since it was only $ 2 , i decided to give it a try . it was well worth it - a well - written story about 3 chinese students who come to study in america complete with social satire on american in the late 1970s .
overall , the film rises above the usual trappings of low - budget productions and succeeds with a smart script and able performances from the cast of ( mostly ) unknowns , whether you’re looking for sociopolitical commentary or just a small tale well told .
so , yes , the characters are slightly underdeveloped , but much like an apple in a still life , in this case they don’t have to change so much as exist within the whole . in a step that adds to the whole artistic metaphor , director shimon dotan bookends the film with cartoon imagery that blends into the shots , perhaps in order to reinforce the idea of a fluid , unfixed reality—a theme in many of the characters’ heady conversations .
a teen runaway falls in love with a fellow heroin junkie . but the two are far too deep in their drug addictions for love to offer any hope .
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many of the film ' s crew played small parts in the film . nat osborn , the film ' s composer , played michael , dexter ' s student . sameer butt , the producer for the film , played the blind man , and netaya anbar , the film ' s co - writer , co - producer , and editor , had an uncredited cameo as a woman in the police station .
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a cautionary tale of innocence lost , delivering a prophetic message with the benefit of 20 / 20 hindsight that a generation ago america might have already been ' a culture in decay . '
three couples head to the desert to help their friend heal after the death of his mother . they would do anything for him - except for the one thing he wants .
the conversations feel artificial , overly concerned with re - creating period detail or interjecting relevant philosophical life concepts , like a constantly rehashed theory of alternate universes built on different
what if ?
scenarios .
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we know this will not end well because the movie , directed by shimon dotan and adapted from the novel by luke whisnant , opens with a notice that something disastrous has happened and tells the story through flashbacks , jump - cuts and foreshadowing . if there was any intent to assess america at the end of the carter era , it’s hard to see : rubik’s cubes and reagan masks never become more than crude cultural markers . this is the first feature i’ve seen to use howard cosell’s announcement of john lennon’s murder as a plot point .
it’s hard to say whether the story’s summer of sam - lite urban - hothouse setup ( here , john lennon’s assassination serves as a pivotal point ) would work on its own ; dotan’s initial indulgent fragmentation certainly doesn’t add anything except confusion , and from the occasional use of black and white to esper’s quoting of marshall mcluhan , it’s often wincingly pretentious . the film has a talented cast—nam and jacobs have shown off their comedic gifts in , respectively , the perfect score and community , but their roles here aren’t guided by personalities , just the needs of the plot . jacobs’ character in particular comes across as a series of irrational impulses , as she sleeps with , then breaks things off with different guys seemingly just to steer the film toward its tragic conclusion .
life of the party sets up an intergenerational , interfamilial odd - couple buddy - comedy scenario that it never makes the most of .
all of dotan’s thematic concerns are thus packed into less than an hour of screen time , ensuring that , despite their occasional intellectual provocations , none are dealt with in any kind of satisfying depth . instead , we get a jumble of ideas and actions that may mirror the larger fragmentation of a culture , but don’t give us any insight into the nature of that disruption . but the film has other ideas , new directions to explore , and in the second act we get a slow - burn melodrama that leads inexorably to violence—the latter result inevitable given the frequent , if brief , glimpses of a gun that permeate the film . ( see chekov’s maxim . )
he also introduces them to suzanne ( gillian jacobs ) , his sometime girlfriend , and billy ( michael esper ) , a film student who figures that their perspectives on america , formed largely by what they see on television , will make a great documentary ( thus the film’s title ) . when chen ( leonardo nam ) is mugged and then starts seeing suzanne — violence and sex , just like on tv ! — the film resolves into a conventional melodrama .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
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the film nicely captures the grad - student vibe : beer - fueled bull sessions about science , religion , probability and destiny ; fragile , self - absorbed egos preening even as confidence wavers .
newlyweds alex and alice host a new year ' s eve party for their closest friends at a remote cabin in the mountains . however , when an unexpected guest shows up , the group ' s facades begin to crumble .
one has to wade through a lot of eye - rolling comic marginalia to get to the film’s pained beating heart .
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still , the film nicely captures the grad - student vibe : beer - fueled bull sessions about science , religion , probability and destiny ; fragile , self - absorbed egos preening even as confidence wavers . the performances are uneven , though mr . nam makes a sympathetic stranger in a strange land . ms . jacobs is also good as the doe - eyed , exasperating suzanne , whose fickle sexual behavior drives dexter , teaching a poetry class , from a sweetly purring byron to a snarling bukowski .
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tale of life , love and the pursuit of happiness . . . in cleveland . nine vignettes about love : an old war hero defends the honor and memory of a long - lost love ; a man ' s past comes to light in . . . see full summary »
a virgin finds himself in an awkward love triangle after he gets into the habit of loaning out his van to his friends for their sexual encounters .
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the timeline jitters out of order , dropping viewers into a scenario it takes far longer than necessary to discover is straightforward and self - seriously soap operatic .
jose stern , an erstwhile indie - rocker relegated to playing children ' s birthday parties , is on the verge of turning 40 and at a crossroads in his life .
in new york city in 1980 , dexter mitchell plays half - willing big brother to his neighbors , a trio of exchange students from the people ' s republic of china .
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about a tight group of friends living in a small , forgotten , wisconsin town . the story revolves around kevin and his fight to find a new life for himself after 30 years of going nowhere .
less a story loosely bound by cause and effect than a kind of scrapbook of memories , all of which convey the concerns of being super smart and mostly confused in a culturally mixed manhattan , circa 1980 .
review : jean - luc godard once famously observed , “all you need for a movie is a gun and a girl , ” which is both a witty observation about cinema and a telling insight into his perspective on american culture as a european artist . girls , guns , and the way american li… ( more )
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director : shimon dotan writer : netaya anbar & shimon dotan ( screenplay ) ; luke whisnant ( novel ) starring : ryan o’nan , leonardo nam , gillian jacobs , james chen , keong sim release date : jan . 20 , 2012 ( limited )
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directors : jamie babbit , robert c . banks , and 5 more credits »
sadie ' s death propels a former basketball champion , a deaf beauty , a drug addict , and an aspiring actress into an unlikely romance and a desperate quest to appease drug - lord william spinks .
a man recruits his cousin to find out who is behind his dog ' s suspicious death .
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dotan takes this iffy story and makes it nearly unwatchable by jumping back and forth in time , using screens within screens and bouncing between color and black - and - white .
this quirky indie has an off - kilter , shaggy appeal and a filling story .
ryan o ' nan , gillian jacobs , leonardo nam , james chen , keong sim , michael esper , peter scanavino , ron c . johns , idara victor
self - absorption is director janicza bravo’s focus , though it’s a topic that’s less examined than indulged .
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i liked this book . it ' s more like a short story , and a quick read . i read it in a day . that said , when our book group met to talk about it we didn ' t have a lot to say . it wasn ' t a deep , thought provoking book , but it was fun . it would be perfect for an airplane trip .
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the set-up is a 1995 crime thriller film directed by strathford hamilton and starring billy zane .

it was based on a novel by james hadley chase

the set - up ( 1995 film )

football on film : i . d . ( 1995 ) - the set pieces
the set up aired on the television channel showtime on july 23 , 1995 in the usa .
miramax circumvents ' kids ' controversy : movies : independent company is set up to distribute the graphic teen film , avoiding potential problem for the disney - owned firm .
miramax circumvents ' kids ' controversy : movies : independent company is set up to distribute the graphic teen film , avoiding potential problem for the disney - owned firm . - latimes
in 1995 mgm set up a website for the film
hackers
which was promptly hacked . the wording
this is going to be an entertaining fun promotional site for a movie
was changed to
this is going to be a lame , cheesy promotional site for a movie
. mgm left the hacked site up during the theatrical run .
let’s get this straight from the outset : i . d . ( 1995 ) is a superb film . not from a purely critical perspective – unless a nomination for the golden alexander at the 1995 thessaloniki film festival counts – but there is a perfect bleakness to it to underpin all the tightly - spun testosterone .
in 1995 mgm set up a website for the film
hackers
which was promptly hacked . the wording
this is going to be an entertaining fun promotional site for a movie
was changed to
this is going to be a lame , cheesy promotional site for a movie
. mgm left the hacked site up during the theatrical run . : movies
o’connell , even if his original vision for the film wasn’t realised , has been reassured by the film’s cult following .
steven soderbergh ' s atmospheric , film - noirish and experimental b / w film was a mystery - thriller tale of sad romance .
finally , the two boys threatened to set the curtains on fire . ignoring her , elias pushed lukas’s hand into the curtains , and set the room ( and their mother ) on fire . it was not clear whether elias also perished in the blaze .
richard iii is a 1995 film adaptation of the play by william shakespeare , directed by richard loncraine and starring ian mc kellen . it was based on an acclaimed royal national theatre stage production by richard eyre that also starred mckellen .
with the headline : film review ; in a hell of drugs and despair .
with the headline : film review ; johnny depp with a don juan complex .
during the beginning of his search ( conducted like the film blow - up ( 1966 ) ) , mikael became suspicious that he was being tracked and someone had hacked into his computer .
joanna robinson is a hollywood writer covering tv and film for vanityfair . com .
the waves lapped around his corpse near the surf line , as the sniper packed up his killing gear and walked off .
in the conclusion , lisbeth provided mikael with
reading material
during the last few weeks of his incarceration . the material consisted of hacked documents proving that mikael had been set - up . mikael ' s next issue of millennium exposed wennerstrom for using his companies to commit serious financial crimes ( setting up cartels for drug trafficking and gun - running ) .
red - dressed lilly gathered up the strewn cash , descended in a caged elevator , and calmly drove away .
the film is about the idea of andy kaufman , about how artists channel their influences and keep the dead alive .
i bet every time brad pitt teases angelina jolie about this bomb she fires up a copy of cool world .
: how many times i gotta say it ? there ' s no percentage in smartenin ' up a chump .
tyrell , who only serves as the executioner of the princes in the original play , becomes richard ' s dragon in the film .
i used to consider
hackers
a guilty pleasure , but now i just unabashedly straight up love that movie . phreak ( the puerto rican guy ) is my fave , providing the heart and soul of the film , in my opinion .
[ in fact , vanger ' s secretary dirch frode had employed a hacker / researcher to do a background check on mikael and continually monitor his computer during the trial . the researcher concluded regarding the recent case :
blomkvist ' s totally clean . . . i think he was set up .
]
a childhood acquaintance from simon ' s past , gordon moseley , was actually the victim of simon ' s bullying and torment - and simon was revealed as the real villain of the film . in high school , simon had spread the lie that gordon was gay and had been seen being molested by an older boy in a car . afterwards , the accusation ruined gordon ' s life . gordon set up an elaborate scheme to get payback revenge over 20 years later , including possibly impregnating simon ' s drugged - up wife robyn during an alleged rape
aside glance / breaking the fourth wall : all of richard ' s soliloquies ( as well as a few asides ) are delivered directly to the camera . also , after shooting richard , richmond also begins to glance into the camera and smile , implying he may not be the perfect replacement he has been set up as .
not true . know someone who was involved . they just thought it was funny . edit : they also wound up liking the movie .
the dramatic tale was set in bombed - out , post - war berlin , germany , a divided city . berlin was the location of the potsdam conference of allied powers in 1945 . the main protagonist was :
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
a parody of a parody , the film is so soulless that it makes its predecessor seem like a classic in retrospect .
this is a new series on the set pieces in which adam hurrey casts his eye over the numerous attempts to depict football in films . you can read the first instalment , on when saturday comes , here .
and then the whole idea that the most important item in the world is an encryption key is pretty amazing . yeah , it ' s a bit fluffed up in the film ( naturally ) , but the substance in it is pretty solid and it ' s also really good and fun to watch .
ben affleck ' s directorial debut film was an adaptation of dennis lehane ' s novel gone , baby , gone . in the film ' s opening voice - over narration during the credits , private investigator patrick kenzie ( casey affleck ) spoke about how his job was to find missing people because of his connections in the tough neighborhood where he grew up ( in the working class area of dorchester near boston ) :
note : this is a two - volume set . to access volume 2 , please click here . two - volume etymological dictionary of the romance languages focusing on genesis , methods , and results .
the film ' s theme tied together puberty with blood , sexual desire and metamorphic body changes ( including possession and infection ) .
to sidestep potential conflict with miramax films ' family - oriented parent corporation , the walt disney co . , miramax co - chairmen harvey and bob weinstein have set up an independent releasing company to market and distribute the controversial
kids
- - larry clark ' s graphic portrayal of a day in the life of some amoral , sex - obsessed new york city teens .
steven soderbergh’s bracingly playful return to cinema is accorded a stunning transfer and little else , though the film itself is more than enough .
there’s virtually no actual football in the film whatsoever , but i . d . faces a similar - sized struggle for verisimilitude as any on - pitch drama does . many of the tense , scowling set - pieces and plot devices are based on supposedly real events in the experience of pc james bannon , who went undercover with millwall’s notorious bushwhackers in the late 1980s .
well they did make a sequel of sorts . look up hacker the kevin mitnick story , as a bonus master p is in the movie as an elite hacker . . .
latindex is an information system about scientific , technical - professional and scientific and cultural dissemination journals published in the countries of latin america , the caribbean , spain and portugal . the idea of creating latindex emerged in 1995 at the national autonomous university of mexico ( unam ) and became a regional cooperation network from 1997 onwards .
the set - up scenes have all the hallmarks of a made - for - tv docudrama about the disease of the week . we settle in confidently , able to predict what will happen : carol ' s problems will be diagnosed , the environment will be blamed , and there will be an 800 number at the end where we can call for more information about how to save the planet . but that isn ' t how
safe
develops at all .
“anybody who is familiar with the history of the pacific islanders in film , there’s cause for worry , ” said dionne fonoti , an anthropologist and filmmaker from samoa who was part of the trust . even the film’s young star , auli’i cravalho , a hawaiian teenager making her film debut , admitted that she wasn’t so starstruck by disney’s interest to approach moana without concerns . “i was wary , ” she admits . “i think that everyone can say they might be a little afraid of it , because when we have a film that is inspired by a culture we want to feel good about it . ”
and it’s not just murphy who already feels an emotional connection to moana . “i see all these little girls dressed up as moana for halloween , ” musker says . “young women who are dressing as moana even before the movie has come out , who just feel some connection to her as they see her represented in the film . ”
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…
“my view has slightly mellowed over the years , as people keep telling me what a good film it was , and i see the excitement that generations of students especially have expressed about it . middle - aged men have tattooed quotes from the film on their bodies , and teenage student women have parties to watch it . ”
in general though , they ' d need a strong plot concept to differentiate themselves from every other film that features a character that can hack .
the ' ghost ' suspected that mcara was murdered , after a frail and elderly resident ( eli wallach in a cameo ) told him the currents couldn ' t have carried mcara ' s body so far west to wash up on the beach where it did , and that a local woman named annabeth wurmbrand saw flashlights on the beach the night the body washed up ( but had fallen down stairs and gone into a coma a week earlier ) .
the film was hit by controversy again in september , when a maui costume featuring a tattooed body stocking was pulled from the disney store in the wake of complaints about “brownfacing” and cultural appropriation . “i think we did the right thing as far as the costume was concerned and maui was concerned , ” the 15 - year - old cravalho says . musker calls the pushback “understandable” given the historically bad treatment of pacific islanders on film .
and not to say that the movie isn ' t flawed , but due to the outstanding nature of the film ' s good qualities , the flaws and cheesiness just give it vulnerability and make me love it more .
all kids lie about wearing condoms ,
he said .
i did . . . but the consequences were less catastrophic then . ' kids ' is a hard - edged wake - up call .
i used to consider
hackers
a guilty pleasure , but now i just phreak ( the puerto rican guy ) is my fave , providing the heart and soul of the film , in my opinion .
one of the major breaks in the case of harriet ' s disappearance was a set of intriguing multiple photographs taken during a children ' s day parade in 1966 in the town of hedestat , shot in rapid sequence and viewed as a film . the most important of the photos was the one seen from harriet ' s point - of - view - she was fearful of the startling sight of her teen brother martin vanger ( in a tell - tale blue striped sweater ) stalking her from across the street during the parade - after which she fled and disappeared .
the plot unfolded more completely when corporal tully was found murdered and pulled out of the river with a bullet in his gut . jake appeared to be the only one interested in solving the murder . the persevering geismer was often bloodied and beaten up , but he slowly put together the pieces of the puzzle :
movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75 % or higher after a set amount of reviews ( 80 for wide - release movies , 40 for limited - release movies , 20 for tv shows ) , including 5 reviews from top critics .
mr . depp , by contrast , gives yet another mesmerizingly sincere performance , this one colored by more obvious sexuality than he has brought to earlier roles . cast once again in the role of a precious innocent , he takes don juan demarco utterly to heart . the film introduces him as a would - be suicide , then lets him show off his seduction technique on a woman in a hotel who is waiting for her date . the sequence is preposterous , set up as feeble , bawdy comedy . but mr . depp , though sounding as much like dracula as a latin lover , is so supremely earnest and alluring he leaves no doubt that don juan ' s methods really work .
a film review yesterday about
clockers ,
directed by spike lee , misstated the starting date of a retrospective series of his films at the american museum of the moving image . it is saturday , not today .
what the film version of
clockers
can ' t do is see through strike ' s eyes as devastatingly as the book did . the film can capture only the bare bones of such a big novel , and in any case mr . lee takes a more extroverted approach to character . mr . phifer , a handsome actor with a permanently worried scowl , is clearly a neophyte , but he shows enough of strike ' s bluster to have a strong presence here . the film knows too much about strike to judge him , and enough to make him someone you can ' t forget .
man i loved hackers . such a fun , if weird movie . surprised they haven ' t tried to remake this or do some kind of sequel . even though it ' d probably cost the films entire budget just to get angelina jolie on the set and i doubt she has the nostalgia for this movie like i do .
the ' ghostwriter ' wrote the sentence on a piece of paper , passed through a number of hands to ruth , and shortly after , as he stepped outside with the original manuscript , he was run - down ( off - screen ) in the street ( the same thoroughfare in the film ' s opening ) . he was murdered like mcara , in order to silence him - or were both deaths just an accident ? his manuscript papers blew down the street in the wind as the film faded to white before the credits .
in the conclusion , brenner reprimanded general campbell , who still claimed he had done nothing wrong :
nothing is gained by my involvement .
he was planning on further covering - up his participation in the entire incident . brenner was steadfast as he confronted the general :
disney animation has come a long way since the days of “ zip - a - dee - doo - dah ” and “ what makes the red man red . ” but even disney’s early 90s renaissance was marked by criticism . “ it’s racist , but hey , it’s disney ” a new york times headline read of 1992’s aladdin , while 1995’s pocahontas inspired at least one scholarly paper about persistent , damaging stereotypes of native americans .
the hooligan film is a curious corner of the football genre . alan clarke’s tv drama the firm ( 1989 ) was the first dip of the toes into a sub - culture that plagued the english game at the time – gary oldman’s bex bissell setting the benchmark accordingly – but the big screen would eventually see some increasingly cartoonish depictions of football hooliganism .
with the police investigation eventually closed , and john’s life in tatters , i . d . still manages to leave us with an ambiguous ending , which avoids tying things up too nicely : football hooligan films , by definition , should surely be that rough around the edges .
director stephen frears ' complex post - noir crime - drama story ( with the tagline :
seduction . betrayal . murder . who was conning who ?
) set in los angeles was about three con artists whose lives were inextricably intertwined , especially the two females who were engaged in a deadly power - struggle love - triangle for the male ' s attention :
docuseek2 is a streaming video service featuring social issue and documentary films from independent distributors , including bullfrog films , icarus films , national film board of canada , and fanlight . note : when browsing the platform , you will see film icons next to each title . grayed out icons indicate berkeley does not have access to these titles . to view a list limited to titles owned by berkeley , click the
my movies
link at the top of the page .
there was only one twin - elias . the other identical twin lukas was killed in an
accident
( probably one that also disfigured the face of the mother ) before the events of the film . experiencing deep denial and guilt , elias was only imagining that lukas was alive .
the first impression given was that the simon and gordon did not know each other very well , yet gordon began to show up unexpectedly , and lavish inappropriate gifts on the couple , such as an expensive bottle of wine (
how do you think he got our address ?
) .
that just leaves dinsdale’s exceptional turn as detective constable john brandon – for which he [ citation needed ] won the international critics award [ citation seriously needed ] for best actor at the geneva film festival [ oh , come on ] .
because the new company , excalibur films , is not a signatory of the motion picture assn . of america , it is free to release the film unrated in the event it receives an nc - 17 from the ratings board , to which it will be submitted within the next 10 days . and because the $ 6 . 5 - million to $ 7 - million investment - - $ 3 . 5 million in worldwide rights plus the cost of prints and advertising - - is being picked up by the weinstein brothers , disney ' s policy of not releasing nc - 17 films isn ' t put to the test .
dieselpunk : the film lives and breathes this trope , both in an elegant and gruff way . probably the most british - flavoured rendition of the trope ever put on screen . it ' s not limited to the costumes , vehicles and atmosphere : even the individual architecture that ' s supposed to be really historical - e . g . the tower of london - is portrayed by shots of purely period public buildings , often 1930s functionalist structures . ian mckellen himself referred to the production design of the film as
being rooted in a semi - mythical portrayal of the late interwar uk
.
though
kids
created a major buzz at january ' s sundance film festival and drew a few glowing early reviews , the movie ' s reception at cannes fell flat . some viewers walked out of the screening , and attendance at the press conference was sparse .
the general was court - martialed and found guilty for failing to report and concealing the west point gang - rape . he subsequently withdrew from public life . the film ' s ending title :
today , nearly 200 , 000 women serve on active duty in the military services .
“it’s no secret i was unhappy at how this film turned out . i kept quiet at the time it was released , not talking to the press and so on , but i was in grief that a powerful cinematic vision had come out looking like a standard bit of british tv social realism . i’d trusted phil davis to direct it as he is such a superb actor , and this film had to stand or fall on the central performance , but he just couldn’t see the cinematic potential of the script . ”
murphy broke into tears when discussing how important moana felt , both to her and for and her culture . disney took up her proposal from five years ago that there be a tahitian - language version of moana recorded ( an industry first ) , and involved her in every step of casting its voice actors . non - english lyrics are included in the film’s score , thanks to the input from samoan musician opetaia foa’i , who worked in concert with composer mark mancina and songwriter lin - manuel miranda .
we talk a lot about the evolving relationship between technology and culture . in order to help our readers keep up with the fast - paced changes of our increasingly digital world , we’ve decided to analyze the valuable lessons about technology contained within the most educational material that we as a society have ever produced : hollywood films . today’s lesson :
hackers is a movie too awful to dislike . after i watched it recently i had a great laugh reading the reviews ( pro and con ) at rotten tomatoes . i bet every time brad pitt teases angelina jolie about this bomb she fires up a copy of cool world .
though
kids
is almost certain to receive an nc - 17 , eamonn bowles - - a former vice president at goldwyn involved in the release of the lawrence film and the new chief operating officer of excalibur - - says he ' d give it an
r .
with both spy groups teamed up , the rest of the film unfurls as a series of action sequences that spotlight vaughn’s ability to layer multi - stage mayhem and , perversely , derive no actual thrills from it . vaughn loves to especially home in on whiskey ( pedro pascal ) as he wields a rope lined with a laser edge that can dice foes , but shots of the statesman in combat favor darting pans that insistently follow the point of his whip like a dog that can only look at your finger pointing and never to whatever it is you’re actually pointing at .
in the film ' s tense conclusion , the two agents engaged in a fight - to - the - death combat atop his destroyed control center - lair in cuba . bond raced to disarm the transmitter - antenna of a large satellite dish communicating with a second , deadly rogue goldeneye satellite nuclear - weapon .
and cravalho , who grew up on stories of maui , was able to incorporate her own ideas of the demigod while also expanding on her hawaii - based knowledge : “i believed that maui and all of his amazing stories was hawaiian . what i didn’t know was he was actually shared all across polynesia . our maui in moana is actually just this awesome demigod that has stories from different places all around polynesia . he has the ones that i grew up with—raising islands out of the sea and slowing down the sun—but also others that i didn’t know . he’s different than i would have imagined , but so much , much more . ”
harriet ( taking the name anita vanger when she fled ) was found grown up and living in australia , although every year on her birthday from a different worldwide location , she had sent henrik a framed , pressed and dried flower ( he had thought they were coming from her taunting killer ) .
in the brilliant first two - thirds of the film , the focus was on the strange and random behavior of the mother ( a
bait - and - switch
directorial technique ) , not on what the twins were doing . they went to extremes to test and torment her - changing the film ' s mood to torture - porn . elias let a giant pet madagascar hissing cockroach squirm from his sleeping mother ' s chest into her mouth . in a ghastly and brutal torture sequence , the two twins tied their mother to her bed and demanded that she prove her identity , or tell them where their real mother was .
renny harlin updates the flynn classic swashbucklers by a ) casting a female , geena davis , as the lead , and b ) injecting more
boom !
into the mix with a lot of pyrotechnics . it almost works . its a brash , brawling pirate film alright and sorta fun alright but it somehow fails to connect . matt modine plays the flynn part okay , flynn in the supporting position instead of as the lead , which is disconcerting , but maybe what ' s missing more in the film is the objective : the flynn pirates took the gold too , but were actually
fighting for england !
or
freedom !
or some such and not simply the booty . . .
really , though , the movie is more about how the rise of technology impacts our lives , and our changing ideas and concerns about privacy . bennett was easily seduced by devlin because he spied on her describing her ideal man in a chat room , and filled in the details by going through her records . as she says , our entire lives are recorded on computers , from our work to our taste in movies . in 1995 , this was a shocking problem that people had to learn to deal with . in 2013 , it ' s basically how facebook works .
among the blissfully unaware hooligan footsoldiers is the nervous wreck gumbo – the film’s enduring and endearing cult hero , who jars gherkins for a living and who everyone “fucking loves” at one point or another – and , for some reason , a fire - eating extra who’s wandered in from a dexy’s midnight runners video .
not that i . d . is a relentlessly grim affair . it’s joyously quotable , which is surely a huge part of its cult status , and the rapport john builds with the shadwell hooligans ( and , initially , with his undercover colleagues ) can be genuinely charming , which indirectly explains why he gets so wrapped up in it all .
going out unrated takes the stigma off the film ,
harvey weinstein said .
it also enables us to circumvent theater chains that won ' t play nc - 17 movies because of clauses in their lease and newspapers that won ' t run their ads . because of these policies , we had to sell the martin lawrence nc - 17 - rated concert film ' you so crazy ' to [ the samuel ] goldwyn [ co . ] last year . it went out unrated and generated 400 bookings . if it was nc - 17 , they would have gotten 50 .
along the way , he met up with his brother who exclaimed about crs :
they just f - - k you , and they f - - k you , and they f - - k you . then , just when you think it ' s all over , that ' s when the real f - - king starts .
read between the lies
was the intriguing tagline for roman polanski ' s taut and increasingly - claustrophobic film about paranoia and power struggles . it had similarities to real - life political figures , including british prime minister tony blair and his wife claire , us sec . of state condoleeza rice , and the halliburton corporation .
the film concluded with ginger transformed into a monstrous ginger - wolf engaging in a killing spree , including a threatening showdown with her sister , who up until this point had attempted to rescue ginger from her animalistic urges . brigitte felt she no longer had a bond with her sister - she had a choice to either cure her sister with a syringe of
werewolf antidote
or to kill her with a knife , and chose the latter (
i ' m not dying in this room with you
) . she was intimately close to ginger - wolf , hugging her when she exhaled her last breath .
instead , todd haynes , the writer and director , has something more insidious up his sleeve . the movie starts out dealing with one problem ( environmental poisoning ) and ends up attacking another ( a blissed - out cult that charges big dollars to suffering people , who pay to hear the leader blame them for their troubles ) . and then there ' s another level . to some degree ,
safe
suggests that carol may in fact be responsible for aspects of her illness . her life and world are portrayed as so empty , so pointless , that perhaps she has grown allergic as a form of protest . in that case , the spa won ' t help either , because it is simply a new form of the same spoiled lifestyle .
historical villain upgrade : the movie . being based off of richard iii ( a play that makes a point of vilifying one side of a brutal grey and grey civil war and whitewashing the other ) made it inevitable , but the film goes beyond . rather than turning richard into a medieval tyrant , he gets turned into a nazi .
go see the net instead of this dog . the net , starring the girl from the bus .
it has got to be one of the cheesiest pirate movies to ever be put on screen , but by the end of the film you can appreciate it for what it was . the film feels like it is very self - aware of itself , which i love , and the action does not disappoint , even though it is very very over - the - top . the acting is not that great and the bad one liners make me cringe , but it is pretty funny to watch at times . the story is not original in any way , but it is kind of forgivable . i enjoyed some of this movie , but some scenes just bored me to death .
cutthroat island
is a guilty pleasure one time around , but that is about it .
one measure of how far mr . lee has come lies in this film ' s credit sequence , another of the show - stoppers for which he has long been praised . it ' s a far cry from the scrappiness of
do the right thing ,
in which rosie perez danced and boxed to the angry sound of public enemy ' s
fight the power ,
to the
clockers
montage of young black men whose fights have already been lost . replicating grisly crime - scene photographs , and softening their horrific look with gentle colors and a lulling score , mr . lee begins with a scathing sense of the futility that
clockers
will describe . the film ' s occasional billboard - level denunciations of guns and drugs are superfluous after that .
the three main sections of the film were told from different viewpoints : first tully , then jake , and finally lena . jake was warned not to get involved by various competing interests , and clearly cautioned by american colonel muller ( beau bridges ) :
when i was at west point , we put a uniform on a mule .
it opened with the hiring of a new unnamed ghostwriter ( ewan mcgregor ) for retired , semi - disgraced british pm adam lang ( pierce brosnan ) forced into foreign exile . the body of the previous writer of lang ' s autobiography and memoirs , mike mcara , mysteriously washed up on the shore of martha ' s vineyard ( supposedly he had drowned and had been drinking ) , when his vehicle aboard the ferry was found abandoned ( it was rumored
it was the book that killed him
) .
producer osnat shurer admits that the decision to make moana next in line to govern her village may be the one cultural inconsistency the film got away with . ( well , that and the plumeria flowers , which technically came to hawaii after its first contact with europeans . but the animators couldn’t resist adding a splash of color . ) “we could consider it a modern update , ” shurer said of moana’s future as chief , which is established in the story as an anchor keeping the adventurous girl chained to her island . but she also points out that there are women chiefs in samoa , and a “fluidity in the pacific islands of how gender is treated . and often a boy might want to be want to be considered a girl , a young woman might grow up in positions that were originally reserved for girls—and people accept it and people make room for it . ”
as he was walking along the deserted , blackened beach , he was whistling and relieved that his killing days appeared over . he was contemplating ending a life of brutality and violence ( by throwing his shotgun into the water and moving abroad ) . but then he was shockingly and depressingly assassinated by a single shot in the forehead from sniper fire - from a man named
j
( identified from his signet ring near the trigger , in close - up ) .
fine attention to detail and constant feedback from the oceanic trust helped shape the film on every level . notes from the trust on the kind of curtains in moana’s home , the pits used to cook food , and inaccurate lyrics about coconut husks all resulted in minuscule tweaks that would mean nothing to audiences unfamiliar with the culture , but made all the difference to the trust . a scene in which moana throws a temper tantrum and hurls coconuts down on the sand in anger was cut because , as fonoti puts it , she “raised a flag , ” calling the waste of the sacred coconut “absolutely offensive . ”
instead of using duct tape , the two superglued her mouth shut to keep her quiet . to feed her , elias used manicure scissors to split open her glue - hardened lips , causing her mouth to bleed . she started to pretend that lukas was still alive ( and set a place for him at the table ) and claimed that he didn ' t die in the
accident .
when she soiled herself and was momentarily freed , she attempted to escape , yet fell teeth - first into cement and knocked herself out - awakening again bound in the living room and surrounded by candles .
the mise en scène is completed by some appropriately gritty location choices – a millmoor here , a valley parade there – to provide the dystopian footballing backdrops for the violence and police malpractice . an ominous score composed by will gregory of eventual goldfrapp fame ( seriously , everyone’s involved in this film ) finishes off the whole menacing feel rather well . its writer vincent o’connell , however , was aiming for something rather grander :
under the influence of that thought , jack is soon trying to revitalize his marriage . this means , really and truly , a scene in which mr . brando blows popcorn around the mickler bedroom and ms . dunaway merrily catches it with her mouth . ms . dunaway doesn ' t quite act in this film , but she does behave like a good sport .
the p6 , that famous risc that ' s tripple the speed of the pentium . it made the powerbook 280c great
the clock on the square at the beginning shows 9 : 05pm , and the same clock at the end shows 10 : 16pm . the movie takes place in real time .
it was both a complex serial - killer procedural and a neo - noir , with themes of generational sexual abuse , sadistic violence against women , revenge , family secrets , corporate corruption , and nazi racism . it was the first adaptation of the millennium trilogy , a series of books by stieg larsson . there were a number of questions to be answered in the film as it told its story .
clockers
is well served by its lean visual style , well executed by the cinematographer malik sayeed and only occasionally interrupted by a lighting effect or dolly shot that ' s deliberately ostentatious . sometimes music swells into the action in the same needless way . but this film ' s most attention - getting moments are about matters of real substance . this time , that ' s the main hallmark of mr . lee ' s style .
i loved all the stupid bits , the pool on the roof , the sprinklers , the video game showdown , the crash and burn in the automated tv studio , the weird superhip hacker underground , the tormenting of bunk , penn jilette , and shaggy just being shaggy .
writer / director joel edgerton ' s twisting vengeance - based thriller ( his directorial debut film ) had some elements of fatal attraction ( 1987 ) , the hand that rocks the cradle ( 1992 ) , and michael haneke ' s cache ( 2005 ) . a suburban la couple had just relocated from chicago due to a change in the husband ' s work ( and after robyn had lost a pregnancy ) :
it’s those little esoteric touches that steer the film away from too many potentially naff generalisations . one episode of terrace abuse towards one of their own hapless players – “gerry edwards” , who scores a free - kick shortly afterwards , and is immediately cheered to the rafters – perhaps veers the wrong side of fantasy : “you’re playing on drugs , and i don’t mean speed ! ” , our anti - hero quips .
in the pre - title credits sequence , nine years before the events of the film , british agent 007 james bond ( pierce brosnan ) was working alongside british secret agent 006 alec trevelyan ( sean bean ) . their assignment was to destroy a soviet nerve gas factory at the arkangel chemical weapons facility , but the mission went awry and trevelyan was executed . as he was shot by general ouromov ( gottfried john ) , trevelyan called out :
for england , james .
kids ,
written by 21 - year - old harmony korine and acted by non - professionals , tracks telly - - a 17 - year - old
virgin surgeon
- - through a day spiced up by shoplifting , drug deals and sexual conquest . though nudity is limited , the camera records a panopoly of bodily functions , senseless violence and nonstop decadence in a world in which aids is barely an afterthought .
so he doesn ' t . which is all to the good for
don juan demarco ,
a film with serious potential to be third - rate . instead , it benefits not only from mr . brando ' s peculiar presence , but also from johnny depp , who again proves himself a brilliantly intuitive young actor with strong ties to the brando legacy . the movie is cheesy , but its stars certainly are not .
[ the film ' s plot twist hinged on the fact that lukas didn ' t exist , similar to m . night shyamalan ' s ending of the sixth sense ( 1999 ) , and numerous other films , such as carnival of souls ( 1962 ) , fight club ( 1999 ) , haute tension ( 2003 ) , identity ( 2003 ) , a tale of two sisters ( 2003 , s . korea ) , the machinist ( 2004 ) , and the uninvited ( 2009 ) . ]
after the fall and the breakaway glass was cleared , he opened his eyes and realized that he was experiencing the start of his own birthday party thrown by his living brother conrad . a grand ballroom was filled with guests , applauding him and celebrating his special day - on the 20th of october . conrad was holding up a t - shirt :
i was drugged and left for dead in mexico - and all i got was this stupid t - shirt .
van orton spoke briefly with his ex - wife , and greeted others , and then split the expensive bill for the experience with conrad .
in the hospital , the general had coerced and urged his daughter to forget the incident :
it never happened . none of this ever happened .
when the general met with brenner , he still believed that the rapists couldn ' t be caught , and that he had no other choice but to deny the rape . brenner presented him with the list of 6 names - the men in captain bransford ' s squad , who had been arrested and faced 20 years in prison . then brenner described that sexually - traumatized elisabeth had deliberately re - enacted or recreated the original rape incident from seven years earlier , just before her murder , to show her father first - hand what had been covered up :
this forbidden knowledge causes no end of trouble for bennett . on her vacation to mexico , she ' s romanced by the handsomely accented jack devlin , who turns out to be a hitman who wants to shoot her because she has become aware of basic html . she escapes , getting knocked out in the ocean and waking up in a hospital with a hilariously stereotypical mustachioed mexican doctor who takes a moment to ash his cigarette before consulting about her head injury , only to find out that her identity has been stolen . she ' s now ruth marx , a wanted felon , and everything that angela bennett owned has been sold off . worst of all , there ' s no one who can verify her identity , because she never , ever left her house or met with anyone in public . apparently no one thought to contact pizza . net , which could ' ve cleared things up tout de suite .
in the film ' s conclusion , vengeful myra had been shot to death by lilly , and then myra ' s face - blasted and disfigured corpse was made to look like lilly ' s . roy was called upon , as next - of - kin , to identify his mother at the phoenix morgue - he concealed that he noticed lilly ' s right hand did not have its tell - tale cigar burn mark .
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the collection is browsable and searchable . lecture slides and the full text of the lectures are available .
trevelyan was the villainous terrorist of the russian crime ring named janus syndicate , based in cuba in the mid - 1990s , and the mastermind behind the theft of goldeneye .
at the family dock ( witnessed by martin ) , in an act of self - defense in 1965 , harriet clobbered drunken gottfried with a rowboat oar and drowned him , and then fled in a car ( hiding under a blanket ) with the help of look - alike cousin anita ( who later died of breast cancer in england at the age of 37 ) , her closest friend . anita had covered up the fact that she had aided harriet in escaping the island . ( mikael realized he was mistaken . both anita and harriet were his baby - sitters . ) gottfried ' s death was blamed on his drinking and a fall into the lake .
he is to cut it into pieces . . . including the head and the fat . and the priest shall arrange them on the burning wood on the altar .
you know how some movies give away the twist ending in the trailer ? well , this movie gives away the twist ending in the title .
i would love to see a sequel but i would really hope the plot is decent . the idea of blaming hackers for a massive oil tanker virus for money was pretty smart . they have a million different ways they could use the idea of a tech virus with the huge amount of technology we are surrounded by today . hackers will go down as one of my favorite cult movies ever and i watch it every single time it is on tv so i would be seriously pissed if they screwed it up . hell i bet they could even get most of the original cast to be in the sequel and maybe even get a small cameo of angelina jolie to make it amazing .
once again displaying formidable skill with actors , mr . lee teases out an impassioned , claustrophobic intimacy between mr . phifer and mr . keitel , as the latter shows off his great improvisatory naturalness even when reciting scripted lines .
clockers
has more difficulty in managing the fine points of a convoluted story , especially one in which the action is often quietly internal . this film ' s ending ought to be heartbreaking , but its denouement about the murder is delivered too quickly and not explained well enough to have its full effect .
the hacked version of the website was actually the website . it was a promotional spoof not a real hack .
outside , christine was getting in a taxi on her way to her next game ( or
gig
) assignment in australia ( with a small
walk - on
role ) . after she revealed her real name was claire (
you don ' t know anything about me
) , nicholas invited her to dinner . she counter - invited him to join her for coffee at the airport - the film ' s final line :
would you like to have a coffee with me at the airport ?
only if the soundtrack to said sequel was equally as righteous as the original .
afterwards , kent met with brenner and sunhill on a training site , where she hypothesized :
i think this was a woman giving it out all over the post , and the one man who cared about her , the one who ' s willing to risk it all for her , is the person she doesn ' t want . and that ' s because she couldn ' t want anybody .
kent confessed to what had happened :
she owned my heart . she tormented me . she became my obsession . so i followed her and found her out there on the range , on display .
when kent came up to her after she had been rejected by her father , she threatened him - and was strangled to death by the spurned soldier :
his relative tameness here may merely be a function of desperate film editing . anyway , only occasionally is he seen behaving oddly or joking around . (
uh - oh , this is gonna be a good one ,
he says at the start of a bedroom scene with ms . dunaway , which mercifully fades to black . ) too often , he just appears distracted and goes through the motions , with the occasional wink to his celebrity presence .
you and me been going to the same bakery ,
he jokes to another character , who is said to have been putting on weight .
and he was right : it turns out that gatekeeper is actually just a big back door that gives its programmers ( and devlin ' s paymasters ) access to pretty much everything , since every single company in the world and also the fbi and new york stock exchange have been spooked into using it for security . with all that unfettered access , you ' d think they ' d be able to focus on , say , world domination , but they mostly just use it ruin sandra bullock ' s life , which makes me think that gatekeeper might ' ve been programmed by that weird nazi fetish model that actually did ruin sandra bullock ' s life . either way , she ends up bringing down the entire company using the virus from the beginning , after devlin makes the rookie mistake of trying to use the escape key .
also includes selected records of the fbi , civil conservation corps , the committee on economic security , and the department of treasury .
the collaboration of mr . price and mr . lee , who share a screenplay credit for
clockers ,
is anything but a likely one : while mr . price isolates the tiniest subtleties in street - wise behavior , mr . lee likes showing his audience slogans scrawled on walls . despite such obvious differences in scale , the film version of
clockers
emerges as a forceful , involving , tension - filled hybrid . and mr . lee , whose direction so often combines the very good and the galling , works with bristling efficiency , proving he needn ' t strew so many stylistic calling cards to make his fierce directorial presence known . ( a comprehensive two - week spike lee retrospective series begins tomorrow at the american museum of the moving image . )