“Your reality is already half video hallucination. If you’re not careful, it will become total hallucination. You’ll have to learn to live in a very strange new world.” – Media philosopher Brian O’Blivion in David Cronenberg’s “Videodrome” (1983)

So far, the bulk of gifted documentarian Ondi Timoner’s work has dealt with the forces that persuade human beings to give up some par of themselves, whether it be in pursuit of creative growth, God, or fame. Her latest film, takes that as far as it can possibly go. Unlike her remarkable “DiG!,” about the cultish neo-psychedelic rock band, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, or “Join Us,” about an actual religious cult, this time the cult is not just a few fanatics, it’s you and me.

I first praised the Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning “We Live in Public,” opening Friday at L.A.’s Nuart Theater (with special Q&As Friday and Saturday nights), back in June when I saw it at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The screening was capped off with the then somewhat surprising appearance by the documentary’s antihero, Internet entrepreneur and self-styled conceptual artist Josh Harris. Having returned from an idyll in Ethiopia, he said that his next project was something he called “the Wired City” and that, in his view, a typical human’s life in the future is going to be something like the present day existence of “a Purdue chicken.” He also said he hadn’t seen the movie and wasn’t sure when he would.

READ THE REST AT PREMIUM HOLLYWOOD

Noting the passing of the death of Robert S. McNamara.

In a really creepy bit of timing, The House Next Door has just posted a lengthy (I’ve only read about half, so far) but I’d say very worthwhile consideration of documentarian Morris’s entire film career by Jason Bellamy and Ed Howard, including an appropriately skeptical consideration of McNamara’s attempts at self-rehabilitation in this film. You can also see if I was one of those critics Ed and Jason mention who took him at face value in my review from late 2003.

Up to now, I’ve been a no-show at the several cinephile exams that have been hosted over the last couple of years at Dennis Cozzalio’s legendarily brainy film geek blog, Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule. Well, before splitting for a hard-earned vacation, Dennis has posted a new exam on film-related matters, up in honor of the cartoon dog genius, Prof. Peabody, which you’re all encouraged to take.

I’ve posted my responses in the comment thread over there already, but now that I’m a SLIFR slacker no more, I thought I’d make ‘em do double duty here because we know that my opinions matter, or something.

Here goes….

1) Favorite Biopic

“Lawrence of Arabia” – an obviously great film and a rather pedestrian choice given that I really like biopics, sometimes the cheesier and and more ridiculously fabricated the better. Therefore, quasi-demi-honorable mention is alluded this triumvirate of absurdly wrong biopics – “The Jolson Story” (it’s amazing how much Al Jolson’s life was just like the plot of “The Jazz Singer”!), “They Died With Their Boots On” (the love affair between Custer and the Indians your socialist history teacher doesn’t want you to see!) and “Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story” (he didn’t just appear in action movies…he lived them!).

2) Dyan Cannon or Tuesday Weld?

It’s close, but I give it to Dyan Cannon for being hilarious onscreen and genuinely wacky offscreen.

3) Best example of science fiction futurism rendered silly by the event of time catching up to the prediction

The Jetson’s treadmill? I’m drawing a blank here.

4) Annette Funicello & Frankie Avalon or Troy Donahue & Sandra Dee?

Frankie & Annette – I grew up watching those movies on channels 5 & 9 (I think) out here up to age 10 or so. Not that those movies are in any sense “good” (I wonder if I could sit through any of them now?), but F&A at least have a certain amount of charm and sense of humor, which I really can’t say about Troy Donahue, at least.

5) Favorite Raoul Walsh movie?

Not really “White Heat,” and no, definitely not “They Died with Their Boots On”… The winner is “The Roaring Twenties” – by far. Just a magnificent entertainment. I need to see that one again some time soon.

6) Sophomore film which represents greatest improvement over the director’s debut

This is tough, but I guess I’m going to say Polanski’s “Repulsion” as it’s brilliant and “Knife in the Water” left me feeling merely 90 minutes older after it was done. Though, that was in college and I might have a very different reaction now. (Another possibility is “Rushmore” – though I loved “Bottle Rocket” quite a bit, so it’s dicey.)

7) Ice Cube or Mos Def?

Mos Def – because he convinced me he was actually English in “Hithchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

Favorite movie about the music industry.

Many, many fun movies in this category, but I guess I’m going to have to go with “Nashville.”

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The talk might be all peace — well, the prospect for it — love, and closing down Gitmo in Washington. And in Hollywood, post Oscar annoucement, the main matter of concern for those not attending Sundance might be that now we all really do have to see Benjamin Button even if — like me — you’re kind of dreading it.

But via cinephile newsmeister David Hudson, we learn that, as per Anne Thompson, fists are flying in Park City, Utah. Well, one fist flew, anyway. And not just any fist but one belonging to well known critic John Anderson and his target was Jeff “the Dude” Dowd — and if there’s any film fans reading who aren’t at least dimly aware that producer’s rep Dowd, a sort of super-agent/salesperson for independent films, was the model for Jeff Bridges’ “Dude” in The Big Lebowski, I’d be surprised.

Beyond noting that Park City during Sundance really is a stressful environment and, given the constant lay-offs in the print media and open season on movie critics, this might not be a good time to antagonize them. I will also say that I and my laptop practically lived in the place where the not-quite brawl apparently took place: the friendly and fairly intimate restaurant/bar of the Yarrow Hotel, where most of the press screenings are held and which became a beloved refuge for me during my single ten-day Sundance stretch back in 2005.

Technically a private club because of Utah’s unsurprising blue laws, it’s not a very big place, so the altercation must have been a sight to see. Also, given the genuine niceness of the staff — who  collectively allowed me to click away for hours with fairly minimal purchases of coffee, burgers, and the very occasional post-writing beer — I’m glad there wasn’t too big a mess and they now have another good story to tell about those crazy people from Hollywood.

This one’s pretty much for film geeks only (though the video below is recommended for all music fans)….

So, some time back, my highly esteemed blog-friend Brian Doan tagged me with the “12 Films” meme, which basically calls for the taggee to name 12 films he or she really wants to see, but hasn’t. Though I making any kind of selection found it a daunting task — I have two DVRs filled with movies I “really need to see” plus a NetFlix queue which is, I think, about 350 films long (a few are repeats of favorites or movies I want to take a new look at that I’ve seen before, but mostly not). I responded (eventually) with six films, with the other six to come…eventually.

But now, Brian has again tagged me again, with the dreaded “Alphabet” meme, calling for a listing of 26 films, one for each letter of the alphabet (”the” and “a”, etc., don’t count) we like or feel some personal connection or are favorites, or whatever. Since I still had a deficit of six films as yet to list in the original films-I-want-to-see meme, and to prove my point about the infinite nature of the first (especially considering my pretty omnivorous tastes), I have decided that I’m going to mutate this here ‘net virus and make it a list of 26 films I really want to see, but haven’t, in alphabetical order. I won’t be tagging anyone else with this, for I fear the viral responsibility. However, of course, anyone who wants to play is more than welcome.

The only trend I noticed here is a few notable films I’ve yet to see from directors I’m supposed to be sorta kinda expert on like Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock.

I should add that this was especially challenging for those less popular alphabet letter, as I’ve actually seen both Xanadu and Z (and wouldn’t even think of listing the former unless it was cut down to the one nice dance number with Gene Kelly and Olivia Neutron Bo…I mean Olivia Newton John — I love musicals too much to give it a pass and, while I’m not wholly immune to camp, my love of bad movies knows bounds, lots and lots of bounds). But okay, I admit the idea was born when I realized I’ve had Louis Malle’s Zazie dans le Metro on my DVR for a couple of years now. My musical tastes saved me elsewhere….

I have put asterisks next to films whose unseen status may be questioned by some (including me) or where I have a comment.

So, here goes….

Avanti
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia*
Cockfighter**
Diabolik
The Emperor of the North
Five Graves to Cairo
Green for Danger
Hallelujah, I’m a Bum
I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
Kagemusha***
Lifeboat
Mississippi Mermaid
Night of the Generals
One of Our Aircraft is Missing
Pistol Opera
Quo Vadis
Robin and the Seven Hoods****
The Spook Who Sat by the Door
Two for the Road
Used Cars
Verboten!
Wee Willie Winkie*****
X: The Unheard Music
YiYi
Zazie dans le Metro

And now, by way of thanking L.A.’s greatest all-time punk rock band for saving me….and, by the way, this is the first time I’ve seen this piece of film, which may or may not be in the X doc listed above. Why can’t more rock videos be this simple? Great stuff.

See asterisks below the fold…

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A great man, and a living embodiment of the American liberal tradition in every sense. I’m just sorry he didn’t live to see the election — at least I hope I’m sorry he didn’t live to see it.

I’m sure the testimonials will be pouring over the next few days, but we’ll start with how I got the news, via Dkos diarist NuisanceIndustry and an excellent remembrance of the old rabble rouser, who was a radical because he was a “premature” champion of things that are now liberal and sometimes even conservative orthodoxy early, by John Nichols at AlterNet.

Here’s Studs talking about another well known writer and activist from Chicago….

“Obama can’t be a moderate!” Studs said in one of his last interviews. “He’s got to remember where he comes from! Obama, he has got to be pushed!….

“I’d ask Obama, do you plan to follow up on the program of the New Deal of FDR? I’d tell him, ‘Don’t fool around on a few issues, such as health care. We’ve got bigger work to do! Read FDR’s second inaugural address!’” he told a Chicago reporter. “The free market has to be regulated. And the New Deal did that and they provided jobs. The government has to. The WPA provided jobs. We have got to get back to that. We need more reg-u-la-tion.”

“This place will make Abu Ghraib look like the Four Seasons. We’ll need a car battery, some wires, and someone who can REALLY point at genitalia.” – Montgomery Burns, “The Simpsons”

What a difference a few digital photos can make. Mass kidnapping, physical and psychological torture of mostly innocent men, and a few odd murders by U.S. forces came to light during the spring of 2004 – all because of some pictures of prisoners and army personnel engaged in a grotesque form of psychosexual roleplaying. There was an investigation, and punishment was meted out to the very unsuccessful and amateurish military interrogators deemed responsible for the outrages at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (“The Fog of War,” “The Thin Blue Line ”) is a master of far more effective methods of interrogation, and he is here to remind us that, at least in the eyes of the U.S. government, the real crimes of the “few bad apples” was not what the pictures depicted, but the existence of the pictures themselves.

At its best, “Standard Operating Procedure” is comprised of interviews with the former residents of the repurposed prison that had been the scene of some 30,000 murders under Saddam Hussein. The interviews come from an array of sometimes extremely sympathetic former U.S. military personnel, many of whom have served jail time, and one contractor who all explain how they basically wandered into hell and were handed a pitchfork.  The best-known interview subject is Lynndie England, who became infamous for her bizarre camera poses next to suffering, naked Iraqi prisoners. Even those prone to distrust the government version of this fiasco-within-a-fiasco were inclined to judge Ms. England harshly.  However, as Morris makes clear, a photograph is a discrete moment in time and tells you very little about the moments that precede and follow. The sickening pictures of England smoking a cigarette and pointing at an unclothed man’s penis and of her standing arm in arm with boyfriend Charles Graner behind a naked human pyramid are worth at least a thousand words each, but there are millions more words left out of the photos.

Read the rest at Bullz-Eye.com.

In a March 2008 interview with David Brancaccio of PBS, documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson) makes an obvious point we almost never hear:

The stated goal of Osama bin Laden and the goal of most terrorists is not to capture territory. It’s to use violence to provoke an overreaction by liberal democratic societies, to force us to undermine our own principles. In this case, you would have to say in the words of George Bush, mission accomplished.

In similar fashion, Gibney’s Oscar-winning documentary takes a direct, factual approach to the story of Dilawar, a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver with no known connection to terrorism or violence of any kind, who was swept up by Afghan fighters and turned over to U.S. custody in 2002. G.I.s at Bagram Airbase were fed get-tough rhetoric that emanated from the White House, but were given almost no specific instructions other than “the gloves are off.” The result: within five days Dilawar was dead after days of beatings, sleep deprivation and being held in crucifixion-like “stress positions.” In other words, the luckless newlywed and father was tortured to death.

Read the rest at Bullz-Eye.com.

UPDATE: Just a quick note for the benefit of HBO subscribers that I just found out that Taxi to the Dark Side is premiering tonight on HBO and, while you’ve probably already missed that, many more showings are scheduled. It definitely deserves a place on your DVR, though you’ll miss the DVD extras….