Crip Camp

Crip Camp ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Directors: James Lebrecht, Nicole Newnham. Cast: Larry Allison, Dennis Billups, William Bronston

Netflix is bound to go all the way to the Oscars with this beautiful heart-warming, inspirational and illuminating documentary.

Executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, this is really a piece of history we don’t hear enough about.

It’s a film of two halves. The first part centres around the ‘Crip Camp’ from the title (Camp Jened is the real name): a sort of hippie summer camp for 20something handicapped people where back in the 60s and 70s they’re all able to experience what real freedom actually is and where the idea to create a movement for equal rights for disabled people (‘crippled’ is the term used over and over… clearly showing how times have changed) generated from. The treasure trove of archive footage to support this section is spectacular, uncensored, honest, joyous (There’s a wonderful moment where they talk about an infestation of gonorrhoea which is just hilarious).

And when there isn’t any specific archive to show, the makers cleverly integrate evocative footage from the time which perfectly captures the mood.

Then about half way through, the film changes gear, opens up and the small story of this incredible group of campers becomes an historical document about the national movement partly initiated by them to bring about equal rights for disabled, from simple things like easy access to building or public transport to more serious thing like access to schools and so on.

By the time the ending comes along their success story feels a bit forced: sadly we know there’s a lot more to be done, but considering where it all started from, there’s still a lot to celebrate. The final 5 minutes are both uplifting and very moving at the same time.

The beauty of this film is its ability to always bring a smile on its audience, never really dwelling on the sadness which in theory one would think (wrongly) comes with the subject. 

Inspirational. Bravo Netflix.

Airplane!

Airplane! (1980) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker. Cast: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen

My enjoyment of “Airplane!” tonight was a bit dampened by the fact that I must have seen this film about 50 times and that we’ve probably shown it to my son a little bit too early (he was more concerned about those Jehovah witnesses being punched at the airport than amused by it), but putting aside my feelings tonight, I still remember my first 10 times or so watching this back in the 80s. Even dubbed in Italian (where some of the nuances of certain jokes and most of the double meanings got lost in the translation or changed with other non-sensical stuff) it was one of the funniest thing I had ever seen. The jokes come in fast and thick as the film-makers throw everything they have at you: slapstick, satire, spoofs, crass jokes, vulgar double meanings, hilarious details half-hidden in the background and sight gags at such a rate that even if you miss something or if you don’t laugh at one or two of the jokes, surely you’ll be laughing at the third one possibly just a few seconds away.

It’s easy to forget  what this must have been like when it was first released, from the Auto-pilot (and all the jokes surrounding him) to Leslie’s Niesen’s dead-pan deliveries, to the dozen of ingenious visual gags peppered throughout. It’s relentless and to watch this with a crowd was an experience in itself as people laugh so hard that it was easy to miss the next couple of silly gags.

Hard to tell if the pacing and the jokes are still funny today for new generations, but I’m willing to bet that if we get a whole bunch of teenagers and young people who’ve never this before in a theatre, they’ll still be pissing their pants, like we did back then. 

Surely, this must be one of the funniest movie ever made… And don’t call me Shirley

Home Alone 2

Home Alone 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Director: Chris Columbus. Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara, Tim Curry.

I ended 2020 watching “home Alone” and now I start 2021 with its sequel.

Let’s all be honest, this is basically the same film all over again: same beats, same devices and dynamics, same sort of characters, same jokes, same ending, same music.If this isn’t the perfect metaphor for how this new year feels (same old same old) then I don’t know what is…

If you love the first one you’re bound to like this one too and gloss over all the similarities and lack of originality. After all little Macauley is still very likeable and even though he’s grown a bit, he hasn’t (yet) lost his charm. However if you’re looking really closely, you’ll find that actually the jokes are a little bit more forced and slightly less funny and the fact that the film goes through the motions makes it feel not as fresh and surprising as the first one was.

The cheese factor believe it or not is even more pronounced in this one (I didn’t think the pigeon lady worked as well as the old guy in the first) and John Williams must have written this score in his sleep as it seems virtually identical to the original. Tim Curry is a nice little addition as the slimy hotel manager, but alas there’s very little of him. There’s also a vomit inducing cameo from Trump (who apparently forced himself into this film) which today is as distracting as ever.

Having said all that, it’s still an enjoyable ride, especially if you are a kid, with New York serving as a beautiful backdrop (with a freaky shot from the Twin towers which made us all shiver a bit). My 8 year old son laughed out loud all the way through (though some of the “slapstick” violence this time felt a bit strong, nastier and less cartoony than last time) and seemed to have the time of his life. They obviously carried on making another sequel after this (which we won’t be watching) but by the time they got to it they had lost their star and the film suffered from it proving that little Culkin was really the magic ingredient behind it all.

Home Alone

Home Alone ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Director: Chris Columbus. Cast: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern, Catherine O’Hara

Who would have thought back in 1990 that this film would have become an undisputed Christmas classic?

Yes of course, it is crass, silly, puerile but none of that seems to matter mainly because Macaulay Culkin is just too irresistible. One wonders if the film would have worked just as well with somebody else in the part of Kevin.It is of course a film aimed mainly at children and it has no pretences to be anything else: good old fashion family entertainment and judging by my son’s reactions it works today just as well as it ever did.He was transfixed, laughing, jumping excited, basically all of the right emotions at the right time. Today we take most of it from granted, but some of the films inventions (the mannequins dancing in the house pulled by strings, the VHS tape played to speak to the pizza delivery boy and the two goons and all the traps set up by Kevin) are actually quite clever. Once the slapstick comes into it, it all gets a bit Tom & Jerry, but that’s part of the fun too.

And then, played to the splendid iconic soundtrack of John Williams, there’s the more sentimental side of the film which is as cheesy as it can be, but hey, it’s Christmas after all… Who cares? Watch it with your kids and it’ll be a winner.Putting aside all the cynicism, I’m glad we’re ending the year with this.

Boys State

BOYS STATE (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Director: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss. Cast: Ben Feinstein, Steven Garza, Robert MacDougall 

Something between a documentary and a reality TV show turns out to be an fascinating account into a week-long annual program in which a thousand Texas high school boys seniors gather for an elaborate mock exercise: building their own state government.

What comes out is an astonishing portrait of American today: this is a microcosm of political division, masculinity, racism. It’s terrifying, infuriating, gobsmacking, exciting and even moving at times..

What this amazing documentary does (and I call it documentary because to call it “reality TV would diminish it, and this piece of work should really never be undermined!) is actually appealing to both the believer and the cynical in equal measure. I started watching this almost with two fingers in my month ready to vomit and shaking my head in disbelief more often that I thought it would be possible, and yet, by the end I somehow managed to come out of depression and I was actually left with a glimmer of hope for the future.I hope you’ll give this a go: it is an exciting, enlightening, revealing and moving piece of work. It might not be the best documentary of the year, but it’ll certainly be one of those who’ll stay with me for longer.

Very highly recommended.On Apple +