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2020 DOCUMENTARY THREAD


Dolfan in NYC

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2 hours ago, RIPPA said:

The Ripper

I just saw a short doc on the Yorkshire Ripper on REELZ.  I'm guessing that this Netflix doc will talk more about the political climate during the murders than it will talk abut the actual killer himself.

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3 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

I saw the same one JT. Pretty grisly. This seems more interesting than the actual life and crimes of Peter Sutcliffe though. 

I agree.  The most interesting facet of the crimes was the social climate in Britain that allowed the crimes to occur.  I'm looking forward to the Netflix joint.

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14 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

The cops interviewed him nine times in five years. How does that happen? 

Who really knows?  I would think it was a similar social zeitgeist that allowed Jack The Ripper to remain at large or for the Atlanta Child Murders to remain unsolved for as long as they did. 

The victims of the crimes need to have some semblance of worth to everyone in order for society to put the proper pressure on law enforcement to solve the crime, and me even saying that somewhat unfairly paints law enforcement officials with a broad brush.

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Fuckin' hell. The Reagans part 2 was a brutal takedown of racist dog-whistle politics and drew exact similarities with his political strategies and that of you-know-who... down to the slogan. 

The vacant, unbending gaze (mask, really) of Nancy Reagan will hopefully not haunt my dreams tonight. 

Edited by Curt McGirt
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1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

Fuckin' hell. The Reagans part 2 was a brutal takedown of racist dog-whistle politics and drew exact similarities with his political strategies and that of you-know-who... down to the slogan. 

The vacant, unbending gaze (mask, really) of Nancy Reagan will hopefully not haunt my dreams tonight. 

 

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Belushi was the next thing on after The Reagans. As an oral history I thought it was pretty good; it was particularly nice to hear Carrie Fisher (which makes me wonder just how the hell long they've been working on this if her interview wasn't something prior). Harold Ramis chiding the interviewer for not telling him he was being taped initially was a funny start to things. There is certainly not as much dirt as in Bob Woodward's Wired (haven't seen the film thankfully) and probably for its benefit. Belushi, needless to say, was the man.

Errol Morris' doc about Timothy Leary, My Psychedelic Love Story, is gonna be showing soon as well 

 

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The Reagans needs to be way more than four parts -- at least six, probably. I don't think they'll even manage to squish Iran-Contra into this series. What is very satisfactory is Ron Jr. dropping the motherfucking hammer on his dad though. Also, the series' message can probably be summed up in the credits bit of this episode where Nancy does a ride-along with the cops while they bust a trap house and she complains about the floors being unvarnished

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1 hour ago, Curt McGirt said:

The Reagans needs to be way more than four parts -- at least six, probably. I don't think they'll even manage to squish Iran-Contra into this series. What is very satisfactory is Ron Jr. dropping the motherfucking hammer on his dad though. Also, the series' message can probably be summed up in the credits bit of this episode where Nancy does a ride-along with the cops while they bust a trap house and she complains about the floors being unvarnished

They could do a 10 part series and still not scratch the surface on The Reagan’s. 

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Yeah. It was good, though they cleaned up a bit of the dirt somewhat. The We Got The Neutron Bomb book has more of that, at least the punk period.

Just finished My Psychedelic Love Story. It's as crazy as the trailer I posted makes it seem. This woman grew out of affluence and seemingly knew everyone and name drops them at will; it gets almost eye-rolling after awhile. If any of it is true then it's all gotta be true and it's wilder than any fiction. The only part I don't get is how men were so attracted to her because quite frankly she looks like a less pretty Patti Smith. 

EDIT: Jesus. I'm watching The Reagans again (while listening to music, I'm not that masochistic) and I forgot the part about the ketchup. I'd always been told as a kid by my parents that Ronnie thought that ketchup was a vegetable. What I never knew was that it was classified as a vegetable while they gutted the School Lunch Program at the same time as buying thousands of dollars of new china for a dinner with Hosni Mubarak. 

Let that one sink in for a minute

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On 11/18/2020 at 8:15 AM, J.T. said:

Citizen Bio on Showtime is fucking awesome.   If you didn't hate big pharma enough already during this pandemic, you will after watching this shit.  Yes, ultimately you may make vilifying judgements about Aaron Traywic's motives, but you may also begin to question why for profit health care always seems to be needlessly cost prohibitive. 

Biohackers may seem weird but when you watch them work and listen to their ideas, you can't help but feel that cyberpunk loop slowly closing around society.  

We've already got powerful corporations, alternate facts, always on internet that follows you almost everywhere, and cost effective global surveillance, right?  Back alley body modification is right around the corner.

Dr Adder will see you now.

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The Reagans makes for some infuriating viewing even though I remember most of it. I think the only thing I hadn't heard of or seen before was Ronnie's canned answer about Jackie Robinson, which was bizarre to say the least. 

How are Tyrnauer's Studio 54 and Roy Cohn docs? I should get on those.

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I only saw the last half of the Roy Cohn documentary and the main thing that surprised was even at his death when it is clear he was suffering from AIDS that people kind of dismissed this illness.  I mean maybe it was the circle of friends he hung out with but the idea that nobody could see how gay he was.  Especially when it was basically Roy Cohn trying to support his gay lover in the military that ended up killing McCarthyism

 

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Macho was pretty sad. I think he was probably undiagnosed bipolar and there's no way in the world four decades worth of cocaine helped that.

Spoiler

As far as his murder goes, I'm glad his mother feels better, but there's no way that ever comes to trial. It's the same thing as Brody. If the FBI tells you in a roundabout way that they can't/won't do shit, then it's not gonna happen. The cab driver being killed right after that says it all. 

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Yeah, I watched Macho this morning and it really gets rough towards the end.  I agree totally that he was probably undiagnosed bi-polar and the drug use did him no favors.  I'm glad they went in depth about the psychology after the Rosario fight.  That's when it really changed.

The commentary about his fight with Caesar Chavez shined a new light on the action in the ring.  It really does look like a switch flips in Macho's head and he decided to somehow turn the fight into a opportunity for penance and accepts the beating everyone thinks he deserves..  It is total self flagellation.

I feel badly for his wife, Amy, and his mother.  They did what they thought was best, but it ended up enabling Macho's bad behavior.   Like Rudy Gonzalez said, "Once you have a demon in you, it doesn't want to leave."

Edited by J.T.
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