On VOD: Goooooooooooooooooal! (and Michael Jackson)
The World Cup is nigh -- even I'm getting sucked in. Soccer movies, though, are rare and usually dire -- except when they're docs, and when they're global, and when they focus on the game as real people play it, anywhere they can...
Pelada (Cinetic Filmbuff)
This new documentary is credited to four directors, two of whom -- 20-somethings Gwendolyn Oxenham and Luke Boughen -- are in front of the camera, using the film to suss out what they should do with their lives now that their dreams of pro soccer have evaporated. Their answer: circle the globe and film soccer at its roots in pickup games from Tokyo rooftops to Bolivian prisons to Brazilian favelas. ("Pelada" is Portuguese for "naked," as in, without adornment.) Sports movies can come hustling a load of bullcrap, but this international portrait of a ubiquitous human pastime is pure as the driven snow, and thrilling.
World Cup Soccer in Africa: Who Really Wins? (New Video/iTunes)
Then, of course, the real politics of organized super-sports, as this on-the-fly documentary decries -- that the money spent by South Africa in preparation for the games is an atrocity in a nation and subcontinent where food and potable water is still a daily challenge for most citizens.
Maggie in Wonderland (Doc Alliance)
Another soul-fortifying doc, in the way only documentaries can be, records the workaday life of the titular Kenyan immigrant, an eccentric and indomitable middle-aged woman who more or less embodies the entire social conversation about Them and Us and the shrinking distances between. So, it's also a gently scathing view of fringe existence lived in one of Europe's most self-satisfied welfare states.
Michael Jackson: This Is It (Starz On Demand)
Entirely non-fiction, too, except for his face. Fine, if you like this sort of thing.
Wolf (Flix On Demand)
Not a document of anything but its own crash-and-burn production (director: Mike Nichols!), and therefore as fascinating as that one person who shows up at a costume party wearing something absolutely inappropriate... Jack Nicholson dons the face hair, but James Spader has the crotch snuffle down. The Benicio Del Toro Wolfman is a better film, frankly, though they both recall Spanish and Mexican exploitation movies from the '70s. This one is funnier.
Pontypool (The Movie Channel On Demand)
Three people in a cellar radio station in rural Canada, the zombie plague hits, and the very nature of rational thought is explicitly question. Don't miss it (only available until June 11), and watch for the Eugene Ionesco hints.
The Haunted World of El Superbeasto (Starz On Demand)
Like Tim Burton with tattoos on his scrotum, Rob Zombie's dedicated to revivifying every kind of silly pulp he enjoyed as an all-American brat. And so this rashly animated comedy features a masked-Mexican-wrestler superhero saving the world from Dr. Satan when he isn't shooting porn. See, already you know whether you're among the chosen.
Lions Love (The Auteurs/Mubi)
This ambitious service has launched an epic on-demand career-survey of Agnes Varda, rich in masterpieces like Cleo from 9 to 5 (1962) and Vagabond (1985). This 1969 underground time capsule ain't one of them -- rather, it's a freeform anti-movie, shot by a foreigner with a gimlet eye exploring the Hollywood scene in a year so ripe with tumult it's oozing, starring Warhol Factory star Viva as a nude layabout flanked by Jim Morrison, Peter Bogdanovich, Eddie Constantine, avant-gardist Shirley Clarke, the writers of Hair, monster movie historian Carlos Clarens, etc., as well as by Warhol calling from New York and Bobby Kennedy taking a bullet on TV. You hadda be there.
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Comments
What's with the low blows? Your credibility just deteriorated.
I resent your uncharitable comments about This Is It and Michael Jackson's face. You obviously have no class, Mr. Atkinson--but lots of piss-poor attitude. Bad, uncharitable writing. Clean it up!
STOP THE GLOBAL BULLYING OF MICHAEL JACKSON. What a sickening comment. It's pretty bad when a writer can't take a break from delighting in tearing someone apart even in the case of a tragic death and disfiguring skin disease. What a despicable comment. I hope Michael Atkinson is fired for this. I hope his superiors see how out of line his comments are. Apparently they couldn't when they edited his work. DISGUSTING. Is it even possible people are this cruel????
pelada is what brazilians call their informal football matches, the ones you play with friends every week, without proper equipment and in a field of whatever size and condition. its a common expression used throughout the country. it does mean naked, and maybe the name came from this, from the fact that these games are mostly played on naked (as in 'without grass') fields... but there's not a consensus on that. 🙂
the world cup is fun, i'm looking forward it! but i agree, most football movies are awful, this one seems interesting though...
Whoa, slow down there MJ overdefenders. The guy may or may not have had a disfiguring skin disease, but that has nothing to do with his far-more-disfiguring plastic surgery obsession, which is the heart and soul of the joke here.
When you consider his upbringing, he was a fantastically tragic figure, sure, but that doesn't mean he can't also be made fun of with impunity--that comes with the fame package. You need to either get some thicker skin or stop reading, watching TV, going to the movies, or talking to people, because jokes like this happen every day and you will wear yourself down to a nub trying to defend a TOTAL STRANGER for no good reason.
[And with that, the handsome young stranger stepped down from the soapbox and caught his breath before disappearing into the crowd...]
MJ overdefenders??? It so sad that people believe what they are cued to believe, that MJ was a tragic figure obsessed with plastic surgery, NOT! In truth, the 2 most overwhelming details of his life, which the history books will remember, are his artistic genius and his tremendous humanitarian efforts. They are spectacularly on display in the film "This Is It". And that is what should be reflected in a short blurb about the film. Especially considering the tragic nature of his death and vitiligo and the cruely inflicted upon him during his life, it is now appropriate to treat the subject with some respect. His family and fans are still grieving. I would offer BET's coverage as the example others should emulate.
cool, just has started, cool
Shirley Clarke's ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA is also available ob VOD:
http://www.realeyz.tv/en/shirley-clarke-ornette-made-in-america_cont2029.html
Check out realeyz.tv, there's lots of indie and docs on there.
STOP DISRESPECTING MICHAEL!!!!!
Joe's relationship with his wife & son is irrelevant, the point of having to find out what happened & how much the Estate is making is to assure the rights of Michael's kids & Katherine. Nothing is being disclosed by the Executors and someone is protecting Murray!
Branca has a history of embezzling money from Michael, the Executors will rape & pillage Michael's music, image & name with no opportunity for the children to have a say in their Daddy's legacy. So how can the Jackson family know the children's rights are preserved when the Executors are not letting anyone know the amount made since Michael's death! There are many hands in this death.
Thank goodness Joe Jackson is speaking out about the greed, corruption & abuse of Michael's career, Katherine cannot contest or protest. There's valid reasons why Joe is pushing for justice & the Executors to expose how much Michael is worth dead and who benefits because of it....he is pushing to disclose TRUTH! Support Joe! GOD BLESS.
***FOREVER LOVEU MICHAEL***
There can be no peace until there is justice.
Someone please stop the horns! I tried to give the World Cup a chance, but I'd even turn off the Superbowl if there was the same annoying background noise.
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