Review of American Hardcore (2006) by John B — 19 Oct 2007

American Hardcore offers an interesting look at the american hardcore punk scene from the early 80s, arising as a counterpoint to the Reagan years that continued legacy of, in my suspicious mind, the current abuses of privacy in the name of security made by governments that have long forgotten that they are designed to serve the people of their nation in place of their current bend towards self-serving kinghead.

Dare to be different, and their stormtroppers will descend upon you.

More than that, though, the aged members of the once vital band scene identify that the people who mistook this as a call to violence became what they hated, and as the numbers of their incitement grew the era died in self-disgust.

...and the suits are still telling us all what is right and wrong...

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The Death of Mr.Lazarescu was correctly identified by roguebooks as one that is hard to watch, and indeed I was agonized at the slow downward spiral towards the titular foreshadowed end.

While it is a great look at how a medical system can be overtaxed, weakened by arrogant professionals and inhouse ego wars between different levels of caregivers, it wouldn't be classified as entertaining in the slightest, and not powerful enough to put your "need to observe the important social commentary" hat.

It sat there for a month while other movies came and went through the mail. I had to take three sessions to get through it, in this case feeling I had to watch it all to decide what I felt, as opposed to a schlock film like Pathfinder which I could confidently turn off after 30 minutes and know the score.

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Last entry I rated a HBO film called "Citizen X", but neglected to write about it in the entry. I noticed the next day, but thought it would be fun to see if anybody else noticed. Based on no commentary to that effect, I assume nobody did/cared.

No big deal, until you consider that I had a $1000 prize to send to the first person that noticed. The offer is off the table.

What's cool about it is that I can relax the small amount of angst I had developed at my greatly reduced entry quality of the past year or so. I can go back to my original intention of using this as a place to identify films I might like, that I might not hear of by conventional means.

By the way, you tomatoes are generally sucking at your recommends lately too. Not to say it's personal, but your top score picks are leaving me puking lately.

BUCK UP, FUCKERS! I rely on you for entertainment. My scores would never steer the discerning person that was somewhat exactly like me wrong, so what's your excuse? heh heh.