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Reviews
Velvet Prisons: Russell Jacoby on American Academia (2019)
inspiring documentary about an academic dissident in neo-liberal America
The next best thing to reading Russell Jacoby's provocative books (The Last Intellectuals, The End of Utopia, Social Amnesia, etc) is to watch this appreciative portrait of the man and his feisty work. The documentary is filled with splendid sallies at academic shibboleths and fads in this age of relentless commodifying of everything in sight, yet at the same time underscores how valuable a scholarly life can be. The "life of the mind' truly matters to Jacoby (and some others like him) and the underlying enthusiasm is infectious. He cares about clearly communicating ideas and showing how they are relevant to how we live our daily lives. Velvet Prisons should be required viewing for anyone contemplating a university career in these hard and cynical times. The low budget shows at times but the doc is guaranteed to stir heated debates among anyone who ever spent time on a college campus.
The Milagro Man: The Irrepressible Multicultural Life and Literary Times of John Nichols (2012)
Splendid engaging portrait of a rebel novelist
John Nichols is best known for his novel 'The Milagro Bean Field War' and the Robert Redford movie made of it in the late 1980s. It's an excellent novel but 'The Magic Journey' - second installment in his 'New Mexico trilogy' - is for me one of the ten best American novels of the last century. His novel 'American Blood' comes close enough, and there are others. Nichols is unjustly off the media radar these days but this wonderful documentary shows you what you are missing. You could not pick better company than Nichols for the hour and a half that this biographical treatment of an immensely talented WASP rebel runs. If you have always appreciated his novels and ecological nonfiction, you will be delighted with this film. if you were unaware of Nichols, you will run out and grab his novels. Kudos to the filmmakers.
American Road (2013)
outstanding journey into the American soul
A must-see and an extraordinary surprise. Way beyond any expectations I brought to it. This remarkable and riveting film beguiles you at the start and never lets go all the bittersweet rollicking way to its strangely upbeat end. The film examines both the experiences of individual Americans (Twain, Guthrie, Kerouac, etc) on the road and the road that America as a nation has taken since the Pilgrims hit shore. Superb narration. I got even more out of watching this very rich documentary a second and third time. This is one for your shelves and that you will go back to again and again. The music selections are great too. A classic that deserves the widest recognition.