Philadelphia Weekly's Sean Burns, echoing my sentiments exactly about the wondrous documentary "No End in Sight":
"Most semisuccessful documentaries tend to play exclusively to self-selected audiences, preaching to a choir that will happily fork over money so they can hear their own points of view recited back to them and applaud accordingly.It's so wonderful to see a doc, finally, that simply lays its cards on the table, and makes what amounts to a prosecutorial brief against the Bush Administration's handling of the Iraq occupation. And, all without dishonest editorial choices, stupid humor, or the director jumping out of the bushes to ambush one of the subjects. See this movie; it's the second great documentary about Iraq, after last year's different but equally good "Iraq in Fragments."My biggest beef with Michael Moore is that he’s not about to win over anybody who isn’t already on his side. All the dripping condescension and ethically dubious generalizations that his fans so adamantly excuse only make these pictures instantly dismissable to the very crowd that might benefit most from the movies’ messages.
Wouldn’t a sober, nonpartisan recitation of inconvenient truths do more to win over hearts and minds? Are the silly music cues, cheap shots and hammy star turns from attention hogs like Moore and his annoying acolytes Morgan Spurlock and Kirby Dick really necessary to make a point these days?"
Also in PW this week: A piece on Clockcleaner, "Philly's most hated band." The Kidd Chris t-shirt on the frontman is pretty much redundant.
Posted by Stephen Silver at August 9, 2007 05:24 PM