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Corndog2000
Reviews
The Real World Movie: The Lost Season (2002)
One of the best made-for-TV movies in recent memory.
The truly great made-for-TV movies, in my opinion, all have one thing in common: organic to the plot is a reason why the footage would be on a television screen (think Without Warning). This movie, of course, had an obvious reason why it had to be on television: it's based on a TV show. But what's amazing about the movie is how much that device tints the film itself.
All of the scenes in the kidnapped house utilize the creepily steady pan of the obtrusive cameras (the effect is quite Kubrick at times). Add to that some split screen shots that would make Mike Figgis proud, and you've got a dizzying few of reality.
Ultimately, The Lost Season indicts the viewer for intruding upon people's lives. Too fittingly, most of the viewers indicted were Real World fans.
The movie trails off at the end (as the most innovative movies often do), but the guilt of the viewer stays.
King of the Jews (2000)
A Rorshach test for religious intolerance.
This is not an easy film to forget.
Quite some time ago, I attended an evening of Rosenblatt's films. Mainly, or so I thought, to see the award-winning Human Remains. But the film I found myself awake all night thinking about was King of the Jews.
The film forces us to look in the eyes of our own religious intolerance, whether Jew or Gentile. I almost thing the film may be more poignant for Christians than for Jews, as the knowledge that the film is coming from "the other side" makes it even more personally challenging.