Movie Review: Let Fury Have the Hour Dan Koelsch, December 14, 2012December 14, 2012 The documentary Let Fury Have the Hour, written and directed by Antonino D’Ambrosio, opens in New York today. The film chronicles the creative response to the directions our politics and culture starting taking in the 1980s, and it features interviews with a bevy of artists. Read my review after the break. Through artists of all different media, including street artists, musicians, poets, and more, the film details how art has become a form of protest and public awareness as a reaction to the changes in Western culture. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher helps usher in a new wave of individualism and consumerism that destroys the natural ideas of community. It’s a pretty stark portrayal, and necessarily so to help explain the artistic movements it created. From punk rock to rap to street art, art became a way for people to express their frustrations with the system we are stuck in. An outlet from a political system that doesn’t want to hear your voice and a culture that wants you to conform.Photo courtesy of CAVU PicturesI find documentaries hard to review, but there are a few criteria I look for when watching. It has to be engaging, intellectual, informative, and have a clear message. Thanks in part to sharp imagery and a soundtrack provided by the artists interviewed, the film definitely gets your attention. However, it’s a bit light in the other areas. There aren’t a lot of hard facts, and the only interviewees I recognized (out of 50) were Public Enemy’s Chuck D, Rise Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, and comedian Lewis Black, so it’s hard to verify their credibility. The film heavily skews to covering music as opposed to other forms of art, and there is not much focus overall. I’m not sure what the message is supposed to be, other than to keep making art. Not exactly ground-breaking stuff. The heavy-handed introduction to Reagan and Thatcher really caters to liberals, clearly throwing away any desire to appear objective or comprehensive.While there are some nice ideas trying to get through, the film is bogged down by lacking focus and pandering to the far left. Even I had to roll my eyes a few times, and I’m practically a Green Party member. It’s a shame that the film prefers style over substance, because a real discussion about art as a creative response would be fascinating. Maybe then more people would consider themselves a citizen of the world.Rating: 2.5/5 Stars Learn more about the documentary at LetFuryHaveTheHour.com, Facebook, and Twitter. Reviews Let Fury Have the HourMovie Review
Blu-ray Reviews: “Love Me Tender”, “Bus Stop”, and “Niagara” July 30, 2013July 30, 2013Today, three classic movies come out on Blu-ray for the first time: Love Me Tender, Bus Stop, and Niagara. Read my review of all three after the break. Read More
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter Review June 23, 2012June 23, 2012I haven’t read the book that Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is based on, and I never plan to. You shouldn’t have to do homework to enjoy a movie, and the idea is ironic considering this film rewrites history. It’s a joke that lasts for 90 minutes, but does it rely… Read More
Tron Legacy Soundtrack Review: A New Breed of Film Score December 7, 2010December 16, 2010When people think about how film scores are done, they usually think of the works of people like John Williams, Alan Silvestri, and Danny Elfman; orchestral pieces that still hold up today. However, with the release of the highly-anticipated soundtrack for TRON: Legacy, all that is about to change. The… Read More