Bloggish review blog

Under discussion:

Africa Unite  (2007)

I'll admit I was skeptical about "Africa Unite." I didn't think I would find the film very interesting, since I'm not a huge fan of reggae, nor do I understand rastafarianism. But I was pleasantly surprised by Stephanie Black's documentary about a huge concert and African unity conference in celebration of Bob Marley's 60th birthday. While the film serves mostly as rasta propaganda, there are parts of it that I found touching, inspiring and on the whole very informative about the subject matter.

One of the threads the documentary follows is the story of a 70-year-old Rasta from Jamaica, whose community raises the money for him to attend the conference/concert in Ethiopia. For this man, who has spent 50 years in the Rasta faith, this trip is the opportunity of a lifetime. It tugs a little at the heartstrings to see the man so impressed, excited and inspired by the message of African unity preached at the conference, and by his visits to sites such as Emperor Haile Selassie's Cathedral.

Another point I found particularly interesting was the in-depth description of Rastafarianism, and the Rastas' worship of Selassie, who ruled over Ethiopia from World War II through part of the 1960s. Selassie's message of personal freedom and inner resolve still resonates in the Ethiopians today, as well as people like Marley, who furthered the cause of an Africa without borders and separate governments. While I don't really advocate the worship of one particular human being, I do find Selassie to be an inspirational character, and the documentary does a good job of explaining why.

I was a little disappointed, however, that there wasn't more concert footage from the film. I feel like "Africa Unite" might have been a more effective film if it had been almost exclusively a concert movie, interspersed with information about Marley, Selassie, Rastafarianism and the conference. As it is, the majority of "Africa Unite" is footage from round table discussions and conference attendees. While some of these vignettes are interesting, they don't add together to make an interesting film. It serves more as a long, narrationless news report.

I couldn't see renting or  buying this film, even if I was a big Bob Marley fan. It's not quite a concert film, not quite an interesting documentary. It's something of a mashup, and never quite coheres. While I did find "Africa Unite" informative and inspirational, I also found it lacking in several areas.

Under discussion:

The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things  (2004)

It was hard for me to watch "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things." I don't usually take well to films about child abuse (for obvious reasons), but I was willing to give this one a shot. I shouldn't have.

Asia Argento's directorial effort is based on the "autobiographical" novel by J.T. LeRoy, who is in fact not a real person, but a character devised by writer Laura Albert. It's the story of Jeremiah, a little boy taken from his foster home to live with his completely drug-addled and unfit mother, Sarah (Argento). After going through several boyfriends and one husband, who rapes Jeremiah after Sarah scarpers, the boy is left in the care of his strict Christian grandparents (Peter Fonda and Ornella Muti). After three years living and preaching under their creepy but more stable care, Sarah takes Jeremiah back and pulls him with her on her fast journey to rock bottom.

First of all, I have a hard time figuring out why any social worker would think Sarah was capable of caring for a child, seeing as how she's obviously gone off the deep end from the very beginning of the film. Secondly, I can't figure out why Sarah would want to have her son around, since he's obviously nothing but a burden to her. It's possible she wants the boy because he's the one person who truly loves her, but towards the end of the film, Sarah says that Jeremiah has caused her no end of trouble, and that she got along better on her own. The whole premise and logic of the film seems deeply flawed to me, not to mention Argento's one-sided, stereotypical and almost cartoonish representation of Christianity.

There are parts of the film that are well-shot and interesting, and it seems clear from the soundtrack (Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Subhumans) and the oddball cameo roles (Peter Fonda, Winona Ryder and Marilyn Manson to name a few) that Argento is trying to make some kind of cheeky, badass punk rock film. But it's hard to consider the artistic value of a project when the subject matter is so disturbing. Meth labs and neglected children do not a masterpiece make.

I watch movies for two reasons, reasons I suspect are universal: entertainment and artistic merit. "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" is certainly not entertaining, and it hasn't got enough style to be considered a work of art. At the very least, this film could have served as a slap in the face, a cold stab of cruel realities we often ignore, like abuse and drug addiction, if J.T. LeRoy had been a real person. The fact that the story the film is based on was part of a major literary hoax takes away almost all its credibility. So instead I found myself subjected to one domestic horror after another, not in the service of telling someone's life story, but simply an exercize in sadistic, poorly realized fiction.