Movie Junction

2009 has been a mixed year for documentaries. After having seen a couple of documentaries this year, I can’t think of one that stood out from the rest, or at least left a lasting impression on me. That changed when I received a copy of Megumi Sasaki’s “Herb & Dorothy” (2009), a documentary that did not receive any critical attention. In a year where environmental and politically charged documentaries (Iraq and Afghanistan wars) outnumbered documentaries in any other category, “Herb & Dorothy” was a pleasant surprise. At its core, “Herb & Dorothy” tells a simple tale of Herb and Dorothy Vogel, who managed to amass a huge art collection on meager incomes. Herb Vogel worked as a USPS postal worker and Dorothy worked as a librarian in New York City. They set aside Herb’s income to buy art and used Dorothy’s income for living expenses. Between the two, Dorothy was the spokesperson in dealing with the media and artists. Surprisingly enough, none of the Vogels’ co-workers were a...

The impact of deep-sea fishing on marine life has been a subject of intense controversy and countless debates over the last few years. Environmental activists argue that deep-sea fishing not only endangers various species, but it also renders certain species to a point of extinction. This fact is supported by the evidence that as a result of commercial fishing, certain species of fish like orange roughy, hake, eel, and skate, and mammals such as whales and dolphins are at a brink of extinction. On the contrary, lobbyists of the fishing industry claim that this evidence is skewed and that nature is taking its normal course. As a result, they continue to fish and explore in deep oceanic waters with questionable practices. The director of 2009’s “The Cove,” Louie Psihoyos, along with his friend, Jim Clark, formed the Ocean Preservation Society (OPS) in 2005. Both of them have been professional deep-sea divers for almost thirty years now. According to Psihoyos, the degradation of ocea...

Bella Fleck is a well-known American banjo artist who has won nine Grammy awards. More so, he has been nominated in more categories than any other artist in the history of Grammy nominations. Sascha Paladino’s documentary “Throw Down Your Heart” is an adventure trip that Bella and his crew undertake to various countries in Africa to understand the heritage of the African Banjo and its influence on the music community. Moreover, it is Bella’s quest to reach out to musicians at the grassroots level to produce new music. The first destination on the trip is a remote village, Jinja, in Uganda, a country in the Eastern region of Africa sharing its borders with Kenya and Tanzania. Here Bella meets a local musician and the two of them jam for a few minutes, where the latter uses a unique violin-like instrument. Soon after, he is welcomed by his friend, Haruna Walusimbi, who takes him to a village named Nakisenyi for another jamming session. On reaching the village of Nakisenyi, Bella wit...

Before watching the John Huston’s “The Dead” (1987), the same day I watched a Bollywood movie, Ashwin Kumar’s “Road to Ladakh.”  After watching “The Dead,” I realized both movies had striking similarities.  First, both movies have short run times, “The Dead” running about sixty-five minutes (excluding the credits) and “Road to Ladakh” running about forty-five minutes.  Second, the only thing you remember about these movies is their ending.  Of course, that does not say much about either of the movies. “The Dead” was John Huston’s last directorial effort, and the studio released it posthumously.  Huston created a ton of classics in his first decade of directing with “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1946), and “The African Queen” (1951) that have managed to rank high in the list of critics around the world.  Although he continued to make good films, his later filmmaking efforts did not match the earlier efforts in his firs...

"Mad Men" Season 2 on DVD arrives with very high expectations after a smashing first season. Mathew Weiner´s Mad Men Season 1 won numerous awards notably bagging six Emmy Awards with Jon Hamm winning the best actor award for playing the central character of a high profile advertising executive, Don Draper. Through 13 episodes of Season 1, we saw various story arcs with a focus on developing the character of Don Draper and other supporting characters such as Peggy, an upwardly mobile secretary, Betsy, Draper´s suburban wife, and Peter Campbell, a junior but rival account executive. Does season 2 deliver on the high expectations built up after Season 1? Lets examine that. [SPOILERS AHEAD] Here is my rundown of significant narrative developments that happened in Season 2: 1)At the start of the season, Don gets a physical exam with a doctor where it is revealed that he has high blood pressure. Further, we also get more insight on Don´s past and the consequence of using...