Change Your Image
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Reviews
Control Room (2004)
Shows real people dealing with real issues.
This film does a great job of following a couple of Aljazeera journalists and a US Marine Lieutenant press officer as they do their jobs during the US invasion of Iraq. We see these highly intelligent, dedicated people wrestle with difficult issues in a way that is a credit to our species.
The Aljazeera journalists we see are shown doing their jobs, trying to explain the US invasion and subsequent actions to an audience of 40 million Arabs, and the Marine officer tries to explain the US position to the journalists, but even more importantly we see these people trying to understand each other, and that is a cause for hope.
At one point we see one journalist, Hassan Ibrahim, being asked by another Arab "who could stop the United States from doing whatever it wants", and Ibrahim answers "The United States will stop the United States. I have absolute faith in the Constitution."
At another point we see the Marine officer, Lieutenant Josh Rushing explaining how disturbed he feels when he realizes he was much less bothered by images of dead Iraqis than by those of dead Americans, and how he realizes that Arab feel the same way about Iraqi casualties as he does about Americans.
I recommend this film to anyone who wishes to really think about the issues involved.
Kyojin to gangu (1958)
Could have been made yesterday
The themes of people working themselves to death in a desperate struggle for "success" is as relevant today as it was over 40 years ago. And the analysis of popular culture in US/Japan seems right on.
The young protagonists' choice between personal integrity and loyalty to the mainstream society continues to face us every day.
The Center of the World (2001)
Good, and reasonably realistic
I found the movie to be well made and the story pretty good, and holding it all together was a constant feeling of "I can believe this."
There was very little in the movie that seems unreal to me.
As the first comment says, more movies should be made like this - an intelligent exploration of how we feel about sex, love, feelings, desire, etc.