Trembling Before G-d

I was in the mood for a documentary last night, and one that felt familiar enough that I could passively watch and not get lost at all. So I picked this one, which in many ways felt similar to other docs. on the same subject, but with one glaring difference.

I've seen a lot of docs. about how Christians treat those who are homosexual, and this was the first one I saw about how Jews treat members of Judaism who are gay. Specifically it deals with how Hasids and Orthodox deal with this "problem." I was sad to see how those who are ultra religious can all act so similar, I've prided myself in the way homosexuality is viewed by the Jews, but was always looking at Reform, not Orthodox. Just like how Christian people are pushed out of their faith, so are religious Jews. A big difference though is that Jews keep to themselves, they don't try and force anything onto anyone, and thank G-d for that.

Its sad to see people pushed away like this, for something they cant help, and is just a part of them. It was important that they show this, Christians and Muslims shouldn't be the only ones bearing the brunt of the blame for being on edge with homosexuality. Listening to these people talk just reminded me of how far we've come, but also just how far we still need to go. Religion may never change, but at least on the government side we can fix the inequality.

It was straightforward in its message, it wasn't shot great, but docs. don't have to be, so long as the message is strong and well supported I can overlook the way something is shot. 7/10 stars.

Director: Sandi Simcha Dubowski

The Horseman

I was in the mood this morning for something that wouldn't require a lot of brain power to watch, just something with action and some fighting, so I popped in "The Horseman" It indeed had action, but was much more gruesome than I had expected.

Christian is a man on a mission, his teenage daughter had disappeared and when she turns up in the morgue with cocaine, and heroine in her blood, as well as several semen samples on her, he goes out to find her killers. He systematically makes his way through the people who had anything to do with his daughters death, and last few hours. He is sent a tape in the mail, it is a porno, with his daughter being the doped up star just hours before she was dead. He uses this as a frame to work off of to find all involved. Along the way he comes upon a girl (Alice) who needs a ride down the way he's going, and as they drive together they share little bits of their lives. You would think that this is a story of redemption, or at least eventually, but it never gets to that point.

They get stuck on the revenge aspect of the story, and all the different ways someone could torture another person before finally killing them. This was an extremely violent movie, I'm not often caught off guard, or will wince when something happens, but I many times in this had trouble keeping my eyes on the screen. There are buckets of blood in this, and I'll have trouble thinking about an air pump for athletic balls again without this movie coming to mind.

The acting is all around okay, nothing extraordinary, but nothing overly amateur about it, it is obviously an indie film, so they work with what they have. Peter Marshall who plays Christian does a great job as the father out to find the killers, and is scary in the role. He plays the homicidal maniac at times with yells and screams, his eyes intense and glowing, and at other times plays it with a quiet smoldering when he tortures and kills people you might think he was merely doing the dishes. In both of these ways he is very successful, but because of that it makes the character work for me a little less. There are anti-heroes of course, but this man is cold and calculated, so it makes it hard for me to like him, let alone be on board with what hes doing.

They shot digital, and it works for the film, they keep the contrast high, and are unafraid to let black take over the frame. The makeup as well did a great job, and in that same vein the FX crew did a great job, it must be fun to work everyday with that sort of blood and gore...and fire.

If you aren't in a good mood, this will not help, I don't actually know what mood you would have to be in to want to watch this. The story is okay, nothing great, and I hate to say it, but not in the least original, they don't even bring something new to the table, or add some twist, it is just like so many other movies Ive seen about a father out for justice.

There is only one way for this sort of story to end, so from the first few minutes you know exactly where its headed, not to say the ride isn't one that takes you places. Enjoyable as it could be, but wish there was more differences than other movies of the same story. 6/10 stars.

Director: Steven Kastrissios

Starring: Peter Marshall, Caroline Marohasy, Brad McMurry, Jack Henry

Batman: Under the Red Hood

I was a little sceptical going into this movie, I was excited to see it, don't get me wrong, but there were a lot of ways that this could have went wrong, and just happy to say that I didn't run into many.

Batman is continuing his effort to rid Gotham of the criminals who call it home, when trying to stop a few thugs from delivering "Amazo" to Black Mask (the current Gotham kingpin) he watches as they are assassinated at long range by a sniper. Following the sniper and chasing them down only enhances the mystery. He moves like someone that Batman has known in his past, he's been trained, and been trained by the best. As Batman discovers more about the identity of the Red Hood, the sniper who killed the thugs, he finds a new enemy. The Red Hood is setting himself up to be the new kingpin in town, but not for the reasons you might think.

The story here is a combination of two separate Batman stories, one an older and very well known one, the other newer, but still a nice addition to the animated Batman film library. The older story is that of the loss of the second Robin at the hands of the Joker. Batman was unable to get to Jason (Robin) in time. The Joker beats him to near death with a crow bar, and then blows the building up. The second story they bring into this movie is the reemergence of the Red Hood. Many criminals have taken up the mantle of the Red Hood to hide their real identities at times, even people like the man who would eventually be known as the Joker. A man calling himself the Red Hood is in Gotham, and he is taking no prisoners as he rises to the top. I wont go into detail on that much further lest give away key elements of the story.

As I said I was a little wary going in, trying to take these two stories, one of them being very iconic and putting it to celluloid is a difficult notion considering the fickle nature of fans like me. With this in mind I can say that they certainly satisfied my idea of what this story should look like. I was so glad they had Black Mask in this, he is often ignored because he is a new villain and not well know, but in the last several years has been a very important character in the nature of how Gotham and its underbelly functions. The Joker is beefier than I would have expected, and I was not a fan of his voice. The voice wasn't bad, it just wasn't the Jokers voice, I can understand they wanted to distance themselves, even if only slightly from "Batman: The Animated Series" but they should have kept Mark Hamil as the Joker, his voice is the perfect fit for it, and he has been doing it for the last twenty years, I'm sure they would have been happy with his performance.

Gotham is just as dark as it should be, with a little more color than we saw in "Batman: Mask of the Phantasm" but not pushing the limits like they very easily could have. The architecture of the buildings was spot on, as was the design of the Batcave and the various other locations we see in the film. I didn't like the look of Ras al Ghul's lair, but that's a minor complaint. The voice cast did a fantastic job, other than the Joker they all perfectly fit as I thought they should. The is a violent movie, and at times very bloody, the Joker cuts a mans throat with a shattered glass, a mans head explodes when attacked by the Red Hood, a few people are brutally set on fire, in that way it pulled no punches, pun intended.

The story (thank God) is not a look at super villains, or how bad ass Batman is, (and he is) but delves deeper into the psychology of Batman and all the thought that has went into building these characters for the last several decades. What makes Batman who he is? What makes the Joker what he is? And how are these two connected? Is it a mistake that Batman doesn't kill? All questions that they play with in this story, this film is by no means a children's movie simply because its animated, I still think for the most part its okay for kids to watch this, but like Harry Potter it wasn't originally intended for children.

Batman's greatest failures are on display here, should he ever have let the second Robin be Robin in the first place, and what if there was no changing him to begin with? These are the kinds of stories that they should be putting in these smaller animated Batman movies, and they do, at least for this one. Because of the Animated Series, and Mask of the Phantasm this movie had a groundwork of other dark Batman animated shows and movies to help it along. Without the other animated works that have been made in the last 15 years this story wouldn't have surfaced, and if it did it wouldn't have been the story it is here.

This was a well made and well timed venture, and I'm really glad not only that I saw it, but that someone allowed them to make it. 8/10 stars.

Director: Brandon Vietti

Starring: Bruce Greenwood, Jensen Ackles, John Di Maggio, Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Isaacs, Wade Williams, Jim Piddock

Cropsey

Everyone has heard the urban legend of the killer who grabs kids from the streets and from their neighborhoods and takes them away. He chops them up and buries them, sometimes with a hook for a hand, sometimes a blunt and bloody ax. This is where that legend originated.

Two filmmakers, both of which grew up on Stanton Island, and who both grew up with this story come together and try and piece together the truth. We start out with a quick history of the island, and how it was a dumping ground for the rest of NYC. After hearing peoples interpretation of the story from those who live on the island we move on to the actual story of the missing children on Stanton Island. The disappearance and ultimate discovery of the body of a young girl with down syndrome is the spark that ignites the fire which illuminates the other disappearances that had been happening, but some how kept quiet for a decade.

The introduction of the center of the island brings a big piece of the puzzle together. In the center of the island is a large wooded area, the only one left on the island since it had been suburbanized. Two groups used this land, one was a hospital for those with deadly infectious diseases, mainly tuberculosis, and the other was a mental institution known as Willowbrook. Seeing footage of how the mental institution was run, and how its "patients" were treated we get a very good idea of the horrors that must have went on there. Children who were mentally and physically challenged left in their own filth, sometimes naked, or bound so they couldn't move, all of this exposed by Geraldo (believe it or not) Even after this terrifying expose, the hospital continued to run for another decade before it was finally shut down.

People started to live in the abandoned building, many ex-patients, which brings us to Andre Rand, the man arrested and convicted with the abductions and murders. At this point in the film it quickly became like many others I've seen, the story of a wrongfully accused man being incarcerated and how the train was rolled against them. They never push the idea hard that he's innocent, but they certainly hint at it a lot, (Odds are he's guilty) but there are and were so many problems with the prosecutions case, so many holes and strange occurrences that he should never have been found guilty. With there being so much inconclusive evidence and conflicting statements its a shame to see someone lynched out of social justice, even if he is guilty.

The interviews in it aren't great in terms of ascetics, in content they were great. There was little lighting, the camera was either to close, or two far, and made people look not as nice as they might otherwise have looked. The backgrounds were distracting and to busy. The story twists and turns at the beginning, and I was glad to see that, in the second half when it turned into the "mind of a killer" thing, mixed with the "Trial gone crazy" I started to tire of it a little.

Its a very interesting story, and they did a great job with it, there weren't to many points that I felt they went off topic, or took unnecessary tangents to explain anything. The whole idea of urban legends is that they arise questions instead of answer, and this movie is like that, at the end I have more questions than when I went it. Having just finished reading "Devil in the White City" which has a very unique Chicago serial killer, it was interesting to see this uniquely NY serial killer, and even more specific Stanton Island killer. I give it 8/10 stars.

Directors: Barbara Brancaccio, Joshua Zeman