The Film:
You would think that between The Freshest Kids and Inside the Circle that there would be no need for another documentary about b-boying, or breakdancing as it's more commonly known. The Freshest Kids is a great documentary that traces the history of b-boying, while the equally impressive Inside the Circle examines the impact b-boy culture has had on young men in Austin, Texas. But the story that these two films just begins to explore is the global impact of b-boy culture, and how it has played out all over the world. And that's where director Benson Lee's Planet B-Boy comes in, joining the mix of inspiring documentaries about the effect breakdancing has had on the world.

Planet B-Boy starts out with a brief history lesson of the b-boy. A crucial part of hip-hop culture before it was even known as hip-hop, breakdancing moved into the mains...Read the entire review

Hey, blame Stroker Ace. If Burt Reynolds had just taken the role that James L. Brooks had specifically written for him - that of amorous astronaut Garrett Breedlove in 1983's multi-Oscar winner, Terms of Endearment - instead of sticking with Hal Needham's, um...ahem, Stroker Ace, where he appeared...in a chicken suit with Loni Anderson, there never would have been a need six years later for B.L. Stryker. Arts Alliance America has released the entire 12-episode series of B.L. Stryker: The Complete Series, one of the rotating installments that made up ABC's unsuccessful 1989-1990 re-booting of the venerable 1970s series, The NBC Mystery Movie. Anyone looking for anything more substantial than good 'ole Burt doing what good 'ole Burt did best - ten years prior to B.L. Stryker, that is - won't find it here, so your devotion...Read the entire review

Ahh, Banacek.  A short-lived series, only 16 episodes anda pilot were made over two seasons, but this was one of my favorite detectiveshows since I was first baffled by the mysteries 35 years ago.  StaringGeorge Peppard as the unflappable Polish detective who was proud of hisheritage and featuring mysteries that were down right impossible (or sothey seemed) this program is just as engaging and mind-boggling as it waswhen it first aired.  Previously released as two season sets, thecomplete series is now available in one handsome 5 disc set.

Thomas Banacek (George Peppard) is a cool, smooth, and slightly arrogantfreelance insurance investigator.  When some valuable coins or a testcar turn up missing,...Read the entire review

Author's note: This review is based on advanced screener discs - not the final shelf product. Subsequently, ratings on the video and audio are not final, nor is there any mention of extras not found on the discs (such as an episode guide or an informational brochure) nor of the disc's packaging. When and if I receive the final shelf product, I will amend the review.

Just in time for its 50th anniversary, Arts Alliance America has released The Donna Reed Show - The Complete First Season, a four-disc, 37-episode (!!!) collection of one of the most charming, accomplished sitcoms of the 1950s and 1960s. Starring Oscar-winner Donna Reed as the prettiest, most together TV mother of the family-obsessed '50s, The Donna Reed Show - The Complete First Season is a nimble amalgamation of professional gloss, smartly written lines, perfect casting, and some surprising ...Read the entire review

The Product:
From its humble origins as a commercial enterprise up and through the mid-'50s, art was always associated with one main locale - New York. Sure, the Europeans had their bastions of consensus classicism - Paris, Florence, Barcelona - but when it came to the new frontiers in Western works, Manhattan's snobbish boutiques were the place to be. Of course, this made creators from other parts of the country seem shallow and unimportant, their lack of Big Apple kudos sealing their critical fate. But all that changed when the Ferus Gallery opened in Los Angeles. Stealing some of the spotlight from aesthetic state neighbor San Francisco, this experiment in expression provided a port of call for a budding Left Coast unconventionality. Now, a new documentary on this Cool School of artistic thought illustrates just how important the simplistic storefront was to both those who filled i...Read the entire review

The Film:
Jackie Chan didn't really become a bankable star in the United States until the 1995 release of Rumble in the Bronx. Before that, Chan had more of a cult following of fans in the U.S. who appreciated his style of comedic adventure mixed with martial arts. But with the popularity of his films that were released domestically throughout the second half of the 90s, Chan's action comedies finally found an audience in America. The key thing to keep in mind, however, is that Chan has a loyal following because of the fact that what he does, he does better than anyone else. Even when he makes a film that is mediocre compared to his better movies, it still works because it is a Jackie Chan flick. Understanding that is key to understanding why Seoul Raiders doesn't completely work. It is a mediocre Jackie Chan film, only without Jackie Chan.

Hong Kong director Jingle Ma reunit...Read the entire review

THE FILM

"Never Forever" had all the opportunity in the world to fall in line with its romance-novel inclinations, to feed off melodrama and end up a tragic tear-jerker that flails wildly and distills the pain of life into bite-sized bits of mascara-smeared displeasure. Thank heavens writer/director Gina Kim isn't interested in reducing her feature to a puddle of pandering.

Facing the death of his father and the brick wall of his own infertility, Andrew Lee (David Lee McInnis) has become a shadow of himself, which frustrates his wife, Sophie (Vera Farmiga). When Andrew attempts suicide, it leaves Sophie flummoxed on how to put her marriage back together. Looking for a miracle cure, Sophie enlists illegal Korean immigrant Jihah (Jung-Woo Ha) to impregnate her, hoping to pass the forthcoming child off as Andrew's. Using Jihah for coldly sexual purposes, it doesn't take long for his ...Read the entire review

Another too-short season of six terrific shows finally make it to DVD with 30 Days - The Complete Second Season (2006). Executive producer/host Morgan Spurlock's spin-off to his successful Super Size Me documentary is even better than its hit-and-miss first season; Spurlock's team really hit their stride here. Episodes are informative, entertaining, promote intelligent discussion, and are at times alternately funny and heartbreaking. DVD distributor Arts Alliance America sent us check discs, not final product, so the official release version may vary from what's covered in this review.

30 Days' simple premise borrows from the old proverb, "Walk a mile in another man's shoes." For his film Super Size Me (2004) Spurlock endured 30 days of an all-M...Read the entire review

Bad Meat:

Some movies fight for theatrical release and miss, landing instead on DVD. Some opt to go straight-to-DVD on purpose, as a way of breaking in. If I'm not too late, I'd like to create a new category, 'straight-to-YouTube,' for movies like the Chevy Chase headliner Bad Meat. I guess BitTorrent would be a better option, but you get my point. Bad Meat is a crackpot comedy of such questionable quality that it makes similar grubby films like The Dark Backward look Oscar-worthy in comparison.

Buddy (Lance Barber) and Earl (Billie Worley) live a nasty life in a tiny trailer, in a junkyard, on the outskirts of their benighted hometown Butcher's Mill. Earl works at the bologna factory for such small money kindly bank tellers laugh at him. Buddy hangs out with rats and dreams up ways to score some dough. Scheming to kidnap their Congressman, Bernard P. Greely, (Chevy Chase) Buddy hopes to...Read the entire review

The Product:
Of the threesome, he was the most influential and important - at least at the time. Today, he is nothing more than a footnote in two giants' considered careers. When they first met, she was a struggling poet/musician and he was a directionless artist. In the cultured curator, the duo found a benefactor and believer. Now, more than three decades later, Patti Smith is the grand dame of the DIY movement, the godmother of punk and high priestess of founding rock iconoclast. Her partner, Robert Mapplethorpe, would become one of the art world's most skilled and controversial photographers. His glamorous glossed looks at everything from flower petals to pornography would set the cultural conversation for the '80s. But what of Sam Wagstaff, the influential New York entrepreneur who used his money and position to support everything from pop art to the rise of photography as a new medium? ...Read the entire review

Loosely adapted from Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie comic strip, Annie was a blockbuster of a Broadway show. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical, ran in New York for 2,377 performances over nearly six years, enjoyed a gargantuanly successful series of national tours, and has been almost continuously revived all over the world, including Israel, Japan, and Zimbabwe. A charming, completely engrossing documentary, Life After Tomorrow (2007) interviews about 40 orphans and various Annies from the show: ordinary little girls swept into the glamorous, high-pressure adult world of showbiz only to be tossed back into anonymity when as they outgrew their roles. Alternately funny and poignant, Life After Tomorrow has a unique perspective on the culture of former child stars: by interviewing dozens of different women (now in their late-30s and early-40s) who were thrown together ...Read the entire review

The Series:

The B.L. Stryker made for TV movies may not have reinvented the wheel, but they were decent fun. Airing TV from February of 1989 through the final episode in May of 1990, the shot lived series starred Burt Reynolds in the title role as a private detective who operated out of his boat which he kept docked in Florida. Created by Christopher Crowe (who was a writer on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Untouchables) and executive produced by Magnum P.I. himself, Tom Selleck, B. L. Stryker didn't stick around too long but it was fun while it lasted.

The series isn't hyper-stylish or particularly inventive but it affords Burt Reynolds a chance to strut his stuff in a recurring role and to build the lead character up a little bit, one episode at a time. Granted, by this point in his career Reynold's glory days were behind him, but he does do a good job...Read the entire review

The Film:
If you have ever been to Hollywood's Walk of Fame, most likely you've noticed the bizarre freakshow of celebrity impersonators and pop culture icons that parade up and down the street, posing for pictures with tourists, and accepting tips as their sole means of income. On any given day you're likely to see an Elvis Presley impersonator, maybe one or two Marilyn Monroes, and a whole bevy of people dressed as cartoon and comic book characters, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Hulk. But exactly who are these people that make their money, depending on who you ask, as either street performers or panhandlers? What could possible motivate someone to stand around in a foam rubber Hulk outfit in the blazing sun? Are these people quirky eccentrics, or are they human train wrecks dressed in brightly colored costumes?

Matthew Ogens' documentary Confessions of a SuperheroRead the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
There's an old Polish proverb about DVDs...

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: "Banacek"
Likes: Mystery shows, George Peppard
Dislikes: The lack of fun on TV today
Hates: Most TV Movies

The Story So Far...
Banacek (George Peppard) is a Boston-based freelance investigator, who solves disappearances for insurance companies in exchange for 10% of what they would have to pay out otherwise, which makes him independently wealthy and a magnet for a bevy of beauties who keep him busy when he's not on the case. A man of taste and refinement, he's aided by his driver Jay (Ralph Manza), and Felix (Murray Matheson), a rare-books dealer who serves as his analog version of Google. The Polish protagonist battled frauds ...Read the entire review

The Movie:
At first glance, "Plasterhead" looks like an utterly ridiculous horror film. A scarred man with plaster on his face isn't exactly the stuff nightmares are made of. After watching the film, however, "Plasterhead" turns out to be better than it has any right to be.

The plot: 4 college students taking a road trip to Miami become sidetracked when they find a purse. Maggie, wanting to return to the purse to the owner, convinces the other 3 to do so, so they venture to a backwoods town. The simple trip of returning a purse becomes a disaster when a local legend of a mangled truck driver named Ray Williams (AKA Plasterhead) begins to seek revenge on anyone and everyone he comes into contact with. Will the students make it out of the town alive?

As you can tell, "Plasterhead" is a rather typical paper-thin horror revenge story with cliched characters (the skank) who arrive at the wro...Read the entire review

It's a bit of a clich to say so (and a bigger clich to actually believe it), but it's true: the best and most important job out there is that of teacher. Especially if you're any good at it, which, let's face it, many teachers are not.

And that's the beauty of "Chalk," a low budget indie mockumentary out of Austin, Texas - it's a real-life answer to those sappy inspirational melodramas that have monopolized the "teacher movie" genre over the decades. Writers Mike Akel (who also directed) and Chris Mass (who also starred) are veterans of the public school system, churn out one of the finest valentines to the profession ever crafted, precisely because they refuse to sugarcoat the behind-the-scenes struggles of our educators. And yet, curiously, this very sense of dry, harsh realism allows "Chalk" to out-inspire such sappy (if enjoyably so) works as "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" and "Dead Poets Society" -...Read the entire review

Visions of Horror Volume One:
When I was a kid I would go crazy for the grab bags that were always available at coastal establishments; Duebers for Variety and The Pixie Kitchen mostly. The bags were cheap for my parents to buy, and promised so much. But they were always a little disappointing too.

Such is the case with short film collections on DVD, and it's mostly for two reasons. One, the more subjects per disc, the greater the chance of getting a few duds. Two, short subjects are usually tackled by first-time filmmakers, so the quality is almost guaranteed to be of a lower tier. Oh yeah, and like the grab bags, short-subject DVDs are by nature partially just tarted-up packages of junk that didn't sell.

Visions Of Horror Volume One rates a pretty high junk-to-gold ratio, while nevertheless maintaining a solid level of entertainment. It's nothing to beg your parents for, but when y...Read the entire review

The Crow started out as an intense and very well done comic bookseries written an illustrated by James O'Barr.  Well before the trendto turn comics into blockbuster movies gained its full head of steam, thecomic was adapted to the large screen, aptly titles The Crow (1994)staring Brandon Lee (Bruce Lee's son, he tragically died during filming)in the title role.  Another thing set this movie apart from many ofthe comic-based films that have come out recently:  it didn't suck. In fact its blend of action and emotion has turned it into a cult favorite.

That's when the story starts to go wrong.  Faced with a successfulmovie, the producers naturally wanted to...Read the entire review

Review:

I've started to become sick and tired of reality television, as these shows have become copies of one another and often consist of yet another set of people waiting to embarass themselves just to get on television or another set of B-list celebs trying to parade (or dance) themselves into another 15 minutes. While there's a few bright spots ("Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"), reality television has gotten lazier and duller since it first made waves several years ago.

I stepped into watching "Trapped With TV Guide" thinking that it sounded like sort of a cute concept. The series, which airs on the TV Guide channel, is sort of a cross between "Punk'd" and....well, TV Guide. The series essentially throws an everyday, average person into the middle of a scene out of a popular television show. The show is hosted by former "Growing Pains" star Tracey Gold, who introduces the skit...Read the entire review

In 10 Words or Less
Back on the case with Polish power

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: "Banacek"
Likes: Mystery shows, George Peppard
Dislikes: Bad acting, transfer problems
Hates: Slow pacing

The Show
Who's the Polish private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks? Banacek!

You're damn right.

Part of the NBC Mystery Movie series, which rotated TV movies featuring a number of unique detectives, "Banacek" starred George Peppard ("The A-Team") as the titular investigator, a self-made man who enjoys the good life thanks to his ability to solve cases considered to be lost causes by insurance companies who stand to lose a fortune. In return, he asks for 10 percent of whatever the insurance would have paid out, ...Read the entire review

The Film:

You don't necessarily need to be a foreign-film aficionado to know Roberto Benigni. Ever since he won an Oscar for his performance in La Vita e Bella a.k.a Life is Beautiful (1997), a film Benigni also directed, the charismatic Italian has been on the covers of cinema magazines all around the world. Certainly in English-speaking countries his star is now shining brightly.

Benigni's latest film La Tigre e la Neve a.k.a The Tiger and the Snow (2005) follows the deeds of a passionate poet (Attilio) who falls madly in love with a beautiful woman (Vittoria, Nicoletta Braschi) with a magnetic personality. Attilio, who also happens to be a university professor, befriends an outspoken fellow Iraqi-French poet (Fuad, Jean-Reno) and heads to Baghdad where the object of his desire has fallen sick. Operating a...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE

On their very first date at the beginning of "Flannel Pajamas," Stuart tells Nicole that he thinks her best friend is evil. He may have a point -- the woman in question is dating several men at once and is dishonest about it -- but is that really the sort of thing you tell someone you've just met about her closest friend?

The fact that Nicole lets Stuart get away with the comment foreshadows how their life together will be, and "Flannel Pajamas" is all about that relationship. Written and directed by Jeff Lipsky (his only film besides 1997's unseen "Childhood's End"), it's a verbose indie drama composed of little more than scene after scene of Nicole and Stuart talking. They date, they get engaged, they get married; sometimes they're clothed and sometimes they're naked; but always they are talking.

The couple, played by Julianne Nicholson and Justin Kirk, start out happ...Read the entire review

At times, ambiguity can be a true friend when enjoying and dissecting a psychologically challenging movie. Drawing viewer-specific conclusions is a true asset to a film because it calls for intense viewer investment. However, murky closure at the end can also weaken the overall potency of a film. Such is the case with Room, director Kyle Henry's venture into the downward spiral of a poverty-stricken wife. Though the film boasts a great combination of strong characterization and visual/aural style, Room's generated suspenseful energy withers quickly at the finale. This is a shame, because the build-up all the way to the end of this psychological exercise is actually pretty good.

The Film:

Julia (Cyndi Williams) has reached a rock-bottom state. Her, her husband and two daughters can barely afford to live in their Texas home. After coming home from her low-paying ...Read the entire review

"Conversations with Other Women" is a film presented entirely in split screen. Not only is this the first thing that must be said about the movie, but, it turns out, it is the only thing that must be said about the movie. The film is technically brilliant but emotionally shallow; take away the split screen gimmick, and you have a romantic drama that wouldn't be worth its running time.

Written by Gabrielle Zevin and directed by Hans Canosa (the two previously teamed up for their only other feature credit, the indie drama "Alma Mater"), "Conversations" follows a night in the life of a man and a woman - their names are never revealed - who meet at the wedding of his sister, her old friend. As the evening rolls on, we discover that they knew each other long ago, and after drifting apart, they welcome a chance to rekindle the old flame. Then reality sets in, with significant others and the matter of ...Read the entire review

Fan of the band Dispatch? Then this'll undoubtedly be enjoyable.

Never heard of Dispatch? That's even better. The story of Dispatch's rise and fall is an entertaining and inspiring story, whether a fan or not. Told through Helmut Schleppi's documentary The Last Dispatch, this journey illustrates the band's last week and a half leading up to their final concert, also known to be the largest independent film performance in history with well over 100,000 people attending. But this is more than a documentary; The Last Dispatch is a great portrayal of very well-defined personalities and how they mesh with one another. With fantastic stints of pure music for aural pleasure and terrifically personal conversations with the band members, The Last Dispatch raises above the typical documentary style chronology of events.


The Film:

Dispatch's flavor of music embodies a ...Read the entire review

The Movie:

A modest and surprisingly gentle documentary about -- of all things -- a high-dollar art theft, Stolen is a welcome excursion off the beaten path. First-time director Rebecca Dreyfus and seasoned cinematographer Albert Maysles (he of the celebrated documentary-making Maysles Brothers) ostensibly concern themselves with the biggest art heist in U.S. history, but end up with a sweetly quirky movie about the enduring nature of art.

The tale spins out from the night of March 18, 1990, when two men disguised as police officers forced their way into Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and fled with 13 paintings, including works by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet and a Vermeer masterpiece, "The Concert." Sixteen years later, the heist remains unsolved and the artworks are still missing. Meanwhile, the quietly elegant museum, founded in the early 1900s by renowned art collec...Read the entire review

The Movie

Much like the war raging currently in Iraq, there will be no shortage of films dealing with the thousands of stories stemming from the vicious violence of Sept. 11, 2001 -- it seems that as a nation, we're only just beginning to come to grips with the psychological wounds inflicted that day. 2006 saw the release of two major Hollywood films -- United 93 and World Trade Center -- which relied upon very different approaches to tonally similar material. Yet as soon as two years past the collapse of the Twin Towers, the damaging of the Pentagon and the downing of United Airlines Flight 93, documentaries and independent films have been tackling the difficult, emotional terrain of that fateful September morning.

Director Glenn Holston's affecting documentary Saint of 9/11 is one more sorrowful voice, a poignant portrait of Father Mychal Judge, a New Yor...Read the entire review

The Movie

It'd be easy to dismiss Kevin Jordan's Brooklyn Lobster as conventional, obvious and entirely predictable -- except for the fact that the charming little movie is also pretty warm, heartfelt and packed with strong performances. The story itself might be nothing new, but it's one that's delivered with an appreciable sense of sincerity and personality.

It's the story of a Brooklyn lobster house, a tiny New England-ish oasis on the outskirts of the world's craziest city. A neighborhood staple for over 60 years, Giorgio's seafood house is about to meet the wrecking ball -- unless the family can band together and devise a worthwhile scheme. But, of course, there's usually too much bickering going on to get much work done.

At this point you probably already know where Brooklyn Lobster is headed: the successful son and his beautiful fiancee fly in from Seattle; the devoted...Read the entire review

The Movie:
Nowadays there's an awful lot of talk about movies being "throwbacks" to earlier genre films. Horror movies are being referred to as in the vein of "grindhouse" or of the early slasher variety. While I can appreciate that and there have been some good movies to reference these styles, it's starting to get a little into overkill territory. Where the eighties had a glut of the slasher films on video, which ended up pretty much suffocating the genre until no one cared anymore, now the resurgence is starting again; except that "straight to video" has turned into "straight to dvd." Taking an opportunity to cash in on this is Wedding Slashers; molded in the same vein as those direct to video timewasters where the box cover art promised a movie that inside didn't even come close to doing the art justice.

All her life Jenna (Jessica Kinney) has longed to fall in love. Unfort...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE

A film like "Down to the Bone," about the stark reality of drug addiction, couldn't be set in spring or summer. To get the full impact, you need the desolation of winter: the barren trees, the bleak skies, the grayish slush on the sidewalks.

I feel chilly after watching the film, and not (just) because the heat in my apartment is erratic. It's set in the dark winter months in New York state, a time when even an optimist might find himself feeling a little hopeless. Directed by Debra Granik and written by Granik and Richard Lieske, the movie boasts a fantastic performance by Vera Farmiga and an exceedingly unhappy storyline. It's a movie you "appreciate" more than you "enjoy."

Farmiga plays Irene, a drab housewife and grocery store clerk who, when the film begins, is already deep in the throes of a cocaine addiction. Her husband, Steve (Clint Jordan), enables her and par...Read the entire review

The Movie

"Hey cool," thought I as I uncracked the wrapper on this When Do We Eat? DVD. "As a person with the last name of "Weinberg," surely I'll be able to appreciate the humor in a Jew-centric comedy that's got a few familiar faces and some very old schtick!" So in went the DVD and down went the lights.

Yikes.

Desperately shooting for that "My Big Fat Greek Wedding of the Jewish set" title, When Do We Eat? is a sluggish, arid, and entirely schizophrenic affair. Whether or not you "get" the Jewish humor, you'll be hard pressed to diagree when I assert that the humor found here is very basic, very broad, and (often) pretty darn bad.

Co-writers Nina Davidovich and Salvador Litvak don't even bother with "plot," but at least we get a premise: It's Seder time at the Stuckman household -- and get this: All of the family members are self-centered and perpetually-bickering...Read the entire review

ESPN isn't just the place to go for sports broadcasts anymore. Every now and then they explore the entertainment side of things and air a made for TV movie, which often have mixed results. The latest such endeavor to be released on DVD is Code Breakers which aired back in December of 2005.

The film follows the exploits of the 1950's cheating scandal that rocked West Point and the Army's football team. While some of the movie focuses on the field the bulk of it takes place within the class rooms where student soldiers were passing out the answers to tests on various subjects. This was all done in an effort to keep the football team together but needless to say the ends don't justify the means. Unfortunately this activity extended beyond the definition of cheating. It broke the Army's code of honor and was grounds for big time dishonorable discharge.

Early...Read the entire review

The Movie

Although I'd only seen him in a few comedy specials and a handful of Comedy Central "roasts," I liked Jeffrey Ross almost immediately. On the surface he's just another sarcastic white guy with some solid brains and some quick wit, but I didn't expect him to become the next big breakout comedy star. (Indeed, his few movie cameos have been fairly dire.) I figured Ross would continue playing the comedy circuits until he got tired of the gig and/or made enough coin to retire on. And that's probably all we'd ever hear of the guy.

So consider my surprise when I got finished watching Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie and felt that it was one of the best war documentaries I've seen in years. Sure, sure, it's always juicy to take a political side and dig in for something meaty like Gunner Palace or Fahrenheit 9/11, but as a guy who hates the war in Iraq -- yet trul...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Any diehard Boston Red Sox fan knows all too well the many humiliations that the team suffered for decades at least until the franchise finally shook off the Curse of the Bambino by becoming World Series champions in 2004.

In the annals of Red Sox ignominy, perhaps no loss is more crushing than Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. Pitted against the New York Mets, the Red Sox went into the 10th inning of that game with a two-run lead. The mood was electric, with Boston poised for its first World Series win since 1918.

Then came the inevitable. The Mets scored a run on three consecutive hits, and a wild pitch by Boston reliever Bob Stanley brought in the tying run from third base. What followed still haunts the collective memory of Red Sox Nation. The Mets' Mookie Wilson hit a routine grounder to Boston first baseman Bill Buckner. The ball rolled between his legs and...Read the entire review

THE MOVIE

It was a middle school in tiny Whitwell, Tenn., that set out to collect 6 million paper clips to commemorate the 6 million Jews killed during the Nazi holocaust. The irony of such an act coming from the rural South is not lost on Whitwellians in "Paper Clips," the documentary about their project.

One school administrator admits his own father is quick with a racist remark, and he notes that Southerners are easily stereotyped and discriminated against, too. The school's principal, a tireless, indefatigable old woman named Linda Hooper, says Whitwell (population 1,600) has no Jews, no Catholics, and only a handful of blacks and Hispanics. The project is extraordinary anyway, but particularly considering it's being spearheaded by a school of white Protestant redneck children. (I use the term "redneck" affectionately, at least as far as you know.)

The paper clip project, wh...Read the entire review