Saturday, April 22, 2017

Tribeca 2017- Day 3 ALPHAGO, PUBLIC IMAGE IS ROTTEN, SWEET VIRGINIA, HONDROS and a capsule for THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P JOHNSON before a longer review

I saw five films today and that was about it.

THE DEATH AND LIFE OF MARSHA P JOHNSON is a very good look at the probable murder of Miss Johnson back in 1992. Johnson was an advocate for gay rights felt she was being targeted by dark forces. While the film is strung as a look into Johnson's life it is actually a look at transgender rights in America. There is a lot to say and I'll have a full review soon.(Just know its a good enough film that I did not duck out as planned and stayed to the very end.)

SWEET VIRGINIA is a well acted great looking film noir that is deadly slow and cliche filled to the point that you know where the film is going after the set up. The plot has three men killed in a bar after hours. The killer is a hit man hired by one of the wives. The rest of the film is the fall out of the murder- which once we see the safe full of money is all but a done deal. We've been here before to the point that several people in the audience I saw this with were snoring loudly but no one woke them up. (Frankly I should have skipped out and gone to see MIKE AND THE MAD DOG instead)

ALPHAGO concerns the effort to create a artificial intelligence which can play the ancient game of Go. The film charts the battle between the computer and the champion player from Korea. Unremarkable and kind of on it's own wave length (the film didn't seem to be explaining enough for me) I grew disinterested and walked out. To me it was neither good nor bad rathe it wasn't interesting.

THE PUBLIC IMAGE IS ROTTEN is a portrait of the the group Public Image Limited and it's lead singer John Lydon. A very good look at Lydon and the group the film is going to play best for fans who really know the groups music. I know them more by reputation so I started to get lost as they started to speak of specific albums and songs. I liked it a great deal, I just wish I knew a bit more so I could have followed along. Recommended for fans or those who want to see what a cool guy Lydon really is.

HONDROS is a very good portrait of  photojournalist Chris Hondros who produced a fantastic body of work before being killed in a mortar attack in Libya. A look at Hondros' career the film is full of fantastic images (see above) which become truly over whelming on a big theater screen. The film is a stark chronicle of the cost of war and we see what happens when people clash. Despite taking an detour to follow up on the family in roadside  shooting in Iraq (its really good but slightly out of place) the film manages to give a wonderful accounting of one man's life and what he achieved in photography and in real life. It is most moving when we see how Hodros gave back and how because of him some of the people in his pictures were changed by knowing him. See the guy above- he was sent to college by Hondros and became a police chief. Recommended

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