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Jesse HicksFeatures
Total freedom: Interview with Bob OdenkirkDerek and Simon is about two guys -- and now it's expanded to include some of their friends -- and their search for women to sleep with. [14 May 2007] James Frey and Memoir’s Addiction to RedemptionManipulation all the way down the line, before coming to rest in front of the people wanting to be manipulated. [3 February 2006] Reviews
Red Cliff (Chi Bi)Red Cliff executes a well-known scheme, with the overmatched insurgents trying to outwit and out-moxie a massive army. [22 January 2010] 
Black DynamiteWhile Black Dynamite occasionally tweaks blaxploitation, it also reverentially evokes a singular moment in U.S. film history. [20 January 2010] The WireIn David Simon's indictment of American capitalism, numbers -- say, crime stats and school test scores -- no longer have an epistemic value, they don't refer to any external reality. [27 January 2008] Breaking BadIn Walter's transformation, Breaking Bad marries ruthless capitalism with masculine aggression to produce a peculiar kind of alpha male. 
30 RockWith American Gladiators outdrawing its scripted predecessors, it's hard not to feel a pang of dread that 30 Rock, the most writer-centric sitcom in recent memory, might become the strike's first casualty. [17 January 2008] 
Curb Your EnthusiasmThe world of Curb Your Enthusiasm revolves around "Larry David," a self-absorbed lout whose inability to grow up should have left him friendless long ago. [27 September 2007] William Shakespeare’s As You Like ItThe play's untidiness -- it's one of Shakespeare's most mischievous -- virtually guarantees a final product distinguished by individual performances rather than dramatic consistency. [21 August 2007] Code MonkeysThe show wears its nostalgia on its sleeve, with some self-awareness and a barely conflicted sense of geek pride. [1 August 2007] Shark WeekShark Week attempts to educate while satisfying viewers' desire for thanatopic frisson -- that sublime realization that you're not at the top of the food chain. 
Big LoveBig Love generally handles the Henricksons' faith respectfully, but there's no forgetting that they are polygamists. [2 July 2007] 
PeacemakerSucceed, and you'll win the Nobel Peace Prize. Fail, and the Middle East will once again be consumed by violence. [22 June 2007] Lil BushLil' Bush barely tweaks an administration whose approval rating is 29%, and does so without offering any fresh insight. [20 June 2007] John from CincinnatiJohn Monad looks to be John the Baptist by way of Rain Man, with supernatural gifts and virtually unlimited credit. [14 June 2007] The WinnerFlat characters, lazy plots, and nostalgia for pop-culture detritus signifying nothing: these elements do not a successful sitcom make. [20 March 2007] 
Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams (2006)Jasmila Žbanic's film follows a mother struggling to raise her daughter in the aftermath of the Balkan War. [2 March 2007] The Naked Trucker and T-Bones ShowThe first episode's Naked Trucker seemed strangely passive-aggressive for a man with an acoustic guitar hiding his dangly parts. [31 January 2007] ExtrasAndy returns to the people who admire him unconditionally -- just because he's on TV. There's sadness in his smile as he hoists a pint with the madding crowd. [25 January 2007] 
South Park: The Complete Eighth SeasonSouth Park's eighth season is dubbed "the year from hell" by co-creator Trey Parker. [11 December 2006] 
Feast of Death (2006): The 'Demon Dog of American crime fiction' reaches out to offer what sounds like a prayer. [25 October 2006] The WireThis is the consequence of America's broken systems: a young boy staring into the darkness, wondering what else his future might bring. [20 September 2006] 
The 9/11 Report: A Graphic AdaptationThere is no grand, national narrative that can offer "closure," or even comprehension. [11 September 2006] 
Edmond (2005)Violence liberates Edmond from society's restraints, focuses him on fulfilling his own desires, makes him appealing to the opposite sex. [25 August 2006] 
The Eternal Present (2004)The Eternal Present forces the viewer to struggle with discontinuity, ambiguity, and outright contradiction in order to highlight the problems of consciousness, memory, and time. WeedsOnce more, Mom slips into her "Godmother" persona, wades into the tall weeds of moral ambiguity, ready to make one more compromise, one more sacrifice. [16 August 2006] The Great Yokai War (Yôkai daisensô) (2005)The Great Yokai War is only ostensibly about war, displayed here as a failure of imagination. [1 August 2006] A Scanner DarklyHallucination is not a private matter; it is a a subjective reality, backed with the force of unyielding belief, and it can become consensus reality. [27 July 2006] The Hidden Blade (Kakushi-ken: oni no tsume) (2004)Katagiri's masculine code is being replaced by an economy premised on gunpowder and shot. [14 July 2006] 
The Cult of the Suicide Bomber (2004)Martyrdom requires a level of self-abnegation that makes self-awareness impossible. [19 June 2006] Lady Vengeance (2005)Lady Vengeance offers its characters what was missing in Chan-wook Park previous vengeance films: the hope of redemption. [2 June 2006] 
On a Clear Day (2006)Frank's quest shapes a kind of secret fraternity for the men around him. They revel in his determination to do what seems impossible to them. [11 May 2006] 
Spring Break Shark Attack (2005)Given the opportunity to achieve some truly extraordinary, truly outlandish, Spring Break Shark Attack settles for something truly bad. [20 April 2006] 
The Sentinel - The Complete First SeasonAs The Sentinel can't decide whether it's a superheroic sci-fi drama or a police procedural featuring a walking, talking C.S.I. lab, it lingers somewhere in between. [17 April 2006] 
Our Brand is Crisis (2005)In equating his unpopular, arrogant candidate with democracy, in reducing the democratic process to the often ruthless work of electioneering, James Rosner fails his own professed ideals. [14 April 2006] 
Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) (2004)Like the forces of Light and Darkness, Art and Commerce work within a negotiated, often tense, Armistice, as they have for hundreds of years. [7 April 2006] 
Brad Stine: Tolerate This!Now, our recognition of truth is not based in its challenge to our preconceptions, but in its capacity to comfort us. That kind of 'truth' would be alien to Lenny Bruce; it suits Brad Stine perfectly. [29 March 2006] 
Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)Mrs. Henderson (Judi Dench) is 'old money', but age and wealth haven't dulled her tongue or tempered her personality. [23 February 2006] Manderlay (2005)Lars Von Trier resists few opportunities to deride the capitalist system that breeds a permanent underclass of wage slaves. [10 February 2006] 
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear (2004) - PopMatters Film Review )Assuming malicious intent in everything around you soon leads to paranoia, and a conspiracy-theory politics. [6 January 2006] 
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005)As polemic, The High Cost of Low Price succeeds in personalizing the effects of a system that allows the ruthlessness of Wal-Mart. [9 December 2005] 
The Colbert ReportWhat The Colbert Report ridicules, then, is our tendency to listen most closely to those with whom we agree, whose shining unrealities make us feel good. [7 November 2005] 
The OfficeIn Season Two, Michael morphed from clown to sad clown as viewers came to realize his insensitive hi-jinks were driven by his eternal loneliness. [1 January 1995] 
Dog Bites ManIt tickles, but rarely provokes the full-on belly laugh you'd expect from such talented performers. 
Lady Vengeance (2005)Lady Vengeance offers its characters what was missing in Chan-wook Park previous vengeance films: the hope of redemption. |
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