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We spout opinion, comment on the current zeitgeist and overanalyze pop culture and mainstream movies. Whether in the form of lists, survey questions or straight editorials, we hope to make thinking deeply about film a fun and stimulating activity for all.

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"The City Dark" Will Make You Scared of the Light

By Christopher Campbell
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January 18, 2012 10:23 AM
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Reviews

This review was originally published during the 2011 SXSW Film Festival on March 13, 2011.

By Christopher Campbell
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January 17, 2012 7:57 PM
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Reviews

It may be sacrilege to say this as both a devout Frederick Wiseman fan and a heterosexual male, but “Crazy Horse” doesn’t really do a whole lot for me. This latest documentary from the man behind such nonfiction classics as “Titicut Follies,” “High School” and “Welfare” takes us to the eponymous Paris cabaret, at which nude women perform tacky, cheeky dance routines that seem appropriate for an early ‘90s Playboy video, if only they weren’t so kitschy. With a faux fly-on-the-wall perspective, we look in on the making of the club's new show, Désirs.

By Christopher Campbell
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January 4, 2012 1:38 PM
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Reviews

With 2011 going down as a year for nostalgia in cinema, one leftover not to be overlooked is the documentary "It's About You," a fittingly retro film of John Mellencamp during the making of his 2010 album No Better Than This. For that, Mellencamp was nostalgic himself, going old school with mono recordings produced using antique sound equipment and other outmoded methods at various historical settings such as Sun Studios and The First African Baptist Church. In accordance with this vintage concept, photographer Kurt Markus and son Ian shot the film mostly with Super 8 cameras and no additional crew, and the result is what I'd call a sort of "period piece" documentary.

By Christopher Campbell
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November 29, 2011 7:45 PM
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Reviews

Is this really a good time for a documentary that sides with a jailed billionaire? Cyril Tuschi’s extraordinary “Khodorkovsky” is not even the first nonfiction film I’ve seen this season that sympathizes with the rich. But it is a very different sort of doc than “Unraveled,” which infuriatingly (yet still captivatingly) allows the corrupt American lawyer Marc Drier to tell his story and claim victimhood (read my review from DOC NYC). Tuschi’s film is about a once-wealthy protagonist, the former head of Russia's Yukos Oil Company, who seems more legitimately a victim, one who might even be able to win over a few Occupy protesters. Maybe.

By Christopher Campbell
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September 17, 2011 8:29 AM
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1 Comment

Near the end of "Moneyball," I realized that I hadn’t scribbled down many notes about the film. This is perhaps a testament to how captivating the story is, or at least the way screenwriters Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian and director Bennett Miller tell it. But my lack of active engagement is also fitting to the apparent message of the movie, which tells us to just enjoy the show.

By Christopher Campbell
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July 25, 2011 4:47 AM
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Robert Greene's new vérité wrestling film, "Fake It So Real," kind of has a catchphrase, which is fascinating because I can't recall the last documentary I saw that has one. Unfortunately, this phrase is possibly alienating to homosexuals. It's complicated because the offense stems from the world being observed, and to an extent it's probably intended as a kind of innocent self-satire to begin with, but it still rubbed me the wrong way. Not the film, which is simply a window through which we witness the unsurprisingly homophobic indie pro wrestling scene in North Carolina, at least not at first. While watching it, though, I tweeted that I was doing so, and later I was re-tweeted by someone who added a double shot of this apparent 'memorable quote' from the doc: "Solar is gay!"