Jess Friedmann
The Pundit 2006 Reviews »
Roky Erickson probably should’ve died young. He’d be remembered as he was then: a snake-hipped, baby-faced rocker howling and shrieking on stage. After You’re Gonna Miss Me, it’s impossible to think of him as anything but middle-aged, jowly, filthy, with fingernails overgrown and hair matted into one giant dreadlock. In the grips of schizophrenia and psychosis. As he is now.
While Roky’s journey from 13th Floor Elevators rock idol to recluse is the ostensible focus of the film, You’re Gonna Miss Me is not standard music doco fare. Closer to Capturing …
The Pundit 2006 Reviews »
There’s a nifty aphorism that states: ‘In war, truth is the first casualty.’ Passabe, filmed in East Timor four-years after independence, takes up this premise to explore the repercussions of historical discrepancies on the town of Passabe, where 74 pro-independence villagers were massacred after the referendum.
After a clumsy first five-minutes that includes a cringe-inducing slow motion recreation of the massacre, Passabe hits its straps and finds a more naturalistic pace. Scrupulous about ensuring all voices are heard, the film-makers interview victims, perpetrators, the village priest, tribal elders, ex-militia members and …
The Pundit 2006 Reviews »
I saw Ben Barka get killed is a fairly uninspired crime flick masquerading as a postmodern genre piece. It gets off to a promising start with a neat parody of ’40s noir, with petty crim Georges Figon narrating the discovery of his own dead body by hard bitten detectives in a smoky, moonlit room.
Unfortunately, most of its conceits fall flat. The clever-clever touches, such as having writer Marguerite Duras (a brilliant Josiane Balasko) occasionally address the camera, are distracting and don’t really add much to the story. They also interrupt …
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