The Rabbi Report

Keith Olbermann: The Last Courageous And Honest Man On Television

2008-05-15T21:19:15Z

This is one of Mr. Olbermann's occasional "special comments" from his week-nightly program Countdown with Keith Olbermann and you need to watch it. It aired yesterday and it's brilliant. It's truth spoken to power (albeit indirectly) like it is rarely seen on television in the United States (or anywhere else, for that matter) and it is genius. It's a bit long (12 minutes) but completely worth it. If you're even a little bit like I am, it will have you clapping, laughing, scowling and whooping at the ceiling. It's the news commentator's version of a beautiful jazz riff. It's goes, man! You just wish you were in the corner of a dark and smokey Greenwich Village bar, yelling "Go man, GO!" at the top of your lungs. Yes, it's that good. And while you're at it, if you like this, send an email to letters@msnbc.com and tell them that even if the barbarian hordes of the FCC, the GOP or Cheney himself descend on 30 Rock, the truth must be told and Keith must remain on the air.

Edwards Set To Endorse Obama

2008-05-14T22:24:00Z

In a somewhat surprising move, given his refusal to endorse on Monday, former senator John Edwards is set, momentarily, to endorse Senator Barack Obama at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is a major endorsement for Obama and should go some way towards courting the white, working class voters that so far seem to be eluding Senator Obama. CNN will carry the speech live. It's not like I really needed a push to support Obama. I think his campaign style has changed and his rhetoric has become more serious and purposeful and substantive. That said, this endorsement makes me even more determined that Barack Obama be the next president of the United States. More on the speech after its conclusion. UPDATE: Well, I think that was a fantastic speech, to be honest. I think it could have used a little more overt mentions of race, but my gut tells me Edwards will be speaking more overtly about race in the weeks and months to come. One question I have is, was this an audition for the VP slot? Conventional wisdom and my spies say no, that Edwards has his sights set on Attorney General (and wouldn't that be amazing?). Not only that, but Edwards isn't a sitting office holder and doesn't guarantee any staes (although he'd certainly help in the white, working-class South. However, a democratic ticket with two candidates running to the left of center, neither of which have military experience is a pretty bad idea, IMHO. Jim Webb, anyone?

ND/NF 08: Three Films Reviewed

2008-04-28T19:43:02Z

I was a bit disappointed that I didn't make it to more of the New Director's/New Films series which ended its 37th season on April 6th and all three of the films I saw were all worthy of distribution. They include Trouble The Water, a Katrina documentary co-directed by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal; XXY, Argentine director Lucía Puenzo's narrative film about a couple's struggle raising their hermaphrodite teenager; and Slingshot Hip Hop, a documentary about the Palestinian rap music scene in Israel, directed by newcomer Jackie Reem Salloum. Trouble the Water Directors: Tia Lessin, Carl Deal Executive Producers: Danny Glover, Joslyn Barnes, Todd Olson, David Alcaro Producers: Tia Lessin, Carl Deal Cinematography: PJ Raval, Nadia Hallgren, Kimberly Roberts Editor: T. Woody Richman (additional editing by Mary Lampson) Music: Davidge/Del Naja, Black Kold Madina U.S., 2007, 94 minutes Trouble the Water is simply the best Katrina documentary I've seen to date. No disrespect to Spike Lee (When The Levees Broke) or the other noble works that have come out since the disaster (Axe in the Attic and Katrina Diary to name just two) but this movie hits every note just right. Lessin and Deal went down to New Orleans just five days after Katrina hit with no clear idea of what they were going to find. To their good fortune -and ours-- they happened to meet Kimberly Roberts and her husband, Scott, a recently homeless couple at the Superdome. Prior to Katrina, the two had been living a very difficult existence in the impoverished Ninth Ward by selling drugs, something they touch upon in a one of the film's more moving moments. The disaster, as tragic as it was, ended up affording them the opportunity to learn more about themselves than they would have otherwise; one lesson being that they were living miserable lives and were grateful to make a change. Adding to that life-changing revelation is the fact that Kimberly, who had gotten hold of a video camera not long before the hurricane hit, ended up filming portions of her experience. Those clips, are both horrific and funny and much of it ended up incorporated into Trouble the Water. Hearing Kimberly's remarks over her often manic camera work is another of the film's amazing aspects. Her anxiety is palpable as the water rises inch by inch, engulfing their home. Though her regional dialect is at times hard to understand, the spiritual change she goes through over the ensuing days and weeks is very clear. As she and Scott confront the enormity of their situation, rather than lie down and give up, they rise above their circumstances. ]]> XXY Director: Lucía Puenzo Executive Producers: Fernando Sirianni Producers: José Maria Morales, Luis Puenzo Associate Producer: Fabienne Vonier Cinematography: Natasha Braier Editors: Hugo Primero, Alex Zito Music: Andrés Goldstein, Daniel Tarrab Argentina, 2007, 86 minutes XXY is the often moving story of an Argentine family's struggle in raising their intersexual teenager; the term hermaphrodite is no longer the appropriate argot. Alex (Inés Efron) has been raised as a girl for most her fifteen years but at the point where the story begins, she is moving away from that identity. Her refusal to take her myriad medications and her recent acting out is cause for much concern by her parents. The three live in a small town on the Uruguayan coast having fled from Buenos Aires years earlier. The father, Kraken, played by the wonderful Argentine star, Ricardo Darín, works saving tortoises from the nets of local fishermen and the film is filled with fine symbolic nuances like the fact that the only way to determine a tortoise's sex is by removing its shell. Both Kraken and his wife Suli (Valeria Bertuccelli) have worked very hard at keeping their daughter's circumstances discrete, something easier to do in their remote home. However, with Alex's budding sexuality becoming harder to suppress, so too is her secret. It is at this point where the story of XXY begins, when Kraken and Suli receive visitors into their home. The father of that family, Ramiro (Germán Palacios) is a plastic surgeon and wants to operate on Alex completing her gender assignment. However, Ramiro still remains an unevenly conceived character and some of his behavior late into the picture doesn't make much sense. Not only that, with Alex's parents still being so unsure about how they feel, it is puzzling as to why they would invite the family into their home in the first place. Another problem is Ramiro's relationship with his son, a sexually confused teenager. That character Álvaro (Martín Piroyansky) is another of the film's wonderful roles and it is a joy watching him discovering his own sexual identity through his relationship with Alex. The relationships in this film, at times both simple and complex at once, are XXY's greatest strength. The movie has a poetic beauty to it, reminding me of other recent character-based films like The Diving Bell & The Butterfly and Away From Her. At film's center is Alex and the choice she must come to terms with. Making difficult choices is an essential part of growing up; in Alex's case doing nothing at all might be the hardest choice of all. Slingshot Hip Hop Director, Producer and Editor: Jackie Reem Salloum Producer: Rumzi Araj Producer, Editor, Visual Effects Supervisor: Waleed Zaiter Original Music: DAM, PR, Abeer, Arapeyat & Mahmoud Shalabi U.S., 2008, 80 minutes Jimmy Carter kept coming to mind as I watched Slingshot Hip Hop, a first feature-length documentary by Palestinian-American Jackie Reem Salloum. His reputation has come under intense fire since his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid was published the Fall of 2006. His critics would do well to see Jonathan Demme's documentary Jimmy Carter Man From Plains. It makes a sober case for the plight of those refugee Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank. In no small way, Slingshot Hip Hop, makes as effective a case but perhaps in a quieter more down to earth way. As has been shown in so many documentaries and narrative films over the past few years, music can be an extremely effective tool of protest and Slingshot Hip Hop follows the first Palestinian-Arab rap band, DAM, and the movement they spawned. Heavily influenced by American black hip hop culture, DAM started up as a group of young men just having their kicks. It didn't take long for them to realize how powerful their existence was and that their message could be equally so. The nature of their lyrics necessarily changed and they started rapping about the struggle of the Palestinian, about selling drugs and the unfair treatment of women. They visited schools, talking to and inspiring legions of young kids. Their uplifting message attracted Palestinians of all ages to their shows, something rappers in the U.S. have lost site of. The arc of Slingshot Hip Hop regards a newer rap group, PR (Palestinian Rappers) whose members are virtual prisoners of Gaza, and their efforts to get their own music out. Watching these young people emerge as artistic personalities is an awesome experience to have caught on film. I was wondering what Jimmy Carter might have made of the documentary. I imagine he would have liked it very much indeed.

Photos top to bottom: Kimberly and Scott Roberts© Elsewhere Films; Arapeyat from Akka © Slingshot Hip Hop.

DVD Review - There Will Be Blood

2008-04-15T15:40:13Z

Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Movie: 6 stars out of 5. Brilliant DVD Quality: Flawless Sound: Be prepared for huge transitions from silence to bursts of sound, but then again, you've seen the film, right? Extras: 50/50. While it's no secret that Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood was among my favorite films of 2007 and repeat viewings don't change that opinion. Paul Thomas Anderson has turned in a wide screen epic masterpiece for the new century. TWBB and Andrew Dominick's The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (you just KNEW I was going to work that one in here, didn't you?) are a magnificent 1-2 punch for 2007 which was overall, one of the strongest years in recent memory, IMHO. As for the DVD, the transfer is gorgeous. Needless to say, the film is presented in widescreen, enhanced for 16x9 TVs and on my 50" Sony, it looks gorgeous. The 5.1 sound is great, with Johnny Greenwood's stark and painfully appropriate score ringing through as clear as a bell.]]> I was disappointed to see that there were no commentaries in this "special" collector's edition. I knew there wouldn't be any from Daniel Day Lewis, as he's famous for not being comfortable discussing his craft and that's perfectly reasonable. That said, I would have loved to have, say, Anderson with cinematographer Robert Elswit discussing the visuals of the film or Greenwood and editor Dylan Tichenor. I can only hope that they're saving them for the Criterion release that we all hope is coming! All in all, this is a brilliant film and if this is what's out there, that's what you get. It can be found for about $25 and for what you get, that's a bargain in my book.

For those in the US, to purchase this DVD and support this blog, click here: There WIll Be Blood For UK readers, you can order the Region 1 DVD from Amazon, here: or pre-order the reagion 2 DVD, here:

SXSW 08: Best. Tag Line. Ever.

2008-04-10T17:53:22Z

SXSW 08: Opening Night Parties

2008-04-07T23:55:58Z

On opening night, after the Texas Film Hall of Fame soiree, we headed back downtown for the SXSW Film Festival's opening night party at Buffalo Billiards. It's always a great night regardless of where it's help because like the opening of any other event where everyone's psyched to be there. Like the first night at summer camp, only with lots of booze. See if you can spot the indieWIRE and SXSW staffers in this pic: It's a great place to meet up with old friends as well as meet new ones, the ones you're going to be seeing at parties and screenings over the next 5 days. One of the films I really wanted to see but missed do to the influenza was Bi the Way, by Brittany Blockman and Josephine Decker, the latter of which I met at the party, along with her mom who was in town to support the film (and her daughter, natch). Maybe if I'm nice, they'll sent me a screener! After Buffalo Billiards it was off to the PureVolume Ranch, one of the many non-official week-long parties that turn downtown Austin into an artistic, booze-addled pub crawl. Not that there's anything wrong with that... More from opening night after the jump.... ]]> Philly/Woodstock programmer and co-director (along with Alex and Paul Cannon) of SXSW world premiere Natural Causes, Michael Lerman. No word on who the blond is. Cute, though.

SXSW 08 Pix: Are You Shitting Me? Really?

2008-04-07T03:12:34Z

This sign gave me visions of Joe Buck wearing a kimono while working in a massage parlor to pay off his modeling school debts. I think I need more sleep.

SXSW 08: Texas Film Hall Of Fame Awards

2008-04-07T02:35:26Z

NOTE: This entry has been updated to clarify the beneficiary of the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards and to complete a sentence I, uh, forgot to finish last night. So I'm a little behind in my blogging... Well, I have an excuse or two. First of all, I have a new gig! That's right, the Rabbi has gone and gotten hisself some legitimate employment. Or at least some legitimate part time employment with a really cool start up. It's a company called Cinelan and we're a short film distribution and syndication company. Check out the website and you'll see what I mean. It's really cool! The other reason is that I went and got myself sick with the influenza. That's right. The good money I paid for a flu shot this year did me diddly since I went and got sick, anyway. Not only that, but I got sick at the exact worst time. Smack dab in the middle of SXSW. Lovely. Thanks are due, however, to my angels of mercy Mike Tully and Agnes Varnum, who both came by with soup and medicines! Add to that getting stuck overnight in Fort Worth on the way down due to snow in Dallas and this has been a rocky trip. (Stay tuned for pix of the rattlesnake cakes that SXSW Film Festival producer Matt Dentler and I ate, though!) Not only that, I am trying to get my apartment in shape to be sold. HUGE job. So to paraphrase Crash Davis, I'm dealing with a lot of shit! Due to the aforementioned snow, I missed what was apparently a pretty amazing party at Lance Armstrong's house. This, I was not happy about. It was a pre-party for the Texas Film Hall of Fame awards ceremony, which I was able to attend the following night and it was a dandy of a night. An annual benefit for the Austin Film Society (and not an official SXSW do), the cocktails, dinner, ceremony and auction are held each year at Austin Studios, a couple of miles north of the downtown Austin area. This year's honorees were ZZ Top, Morgan Fairchild, Mike Judge, Jayne Mansfield (accepted by her daughter, Mariska Hargitay) and Urban Cowboy (accepted by Deborah Winger) and the night was hosted by non other that former CBS anchor and new legend (and born/bred Texan) Dan Rather. He's way cool! The evening went far more smoothly than most events of this size and it was actually pretty fun. Not only that, they served their pre-show cocktails in actual glassware, something some film companies should think about (I'm looking at you, Miramax!). Here, John Person and Eugene Hernandez have a chat before the ceremony. That's variety.com managing editor Michael Jones' hand on the left. Mariska Hargitay's speech in honor of her late mother was genuinely touching and towards the end she teared up pretty good. So did I. More pix after the jump. ]]> All in all, it was a very fun night and shit, I mean, Billy Gibbons actually looked dead at me! Twice! MC Rather, during his Blue Period: More Mariska: On the Red Carpet: And, outside the venue there was this: Which begs the following: What's the feckin' question?

BMW and Porn: Perfect Together?

2008-03-25T21:28:09Z

So BMW of Canada recently ran a rather innovative ad campaign on the cover of Vice magazine, using a technique that displays a glow-in-the-dark ad when for the BMW 1 series when the lights go out. This is pretty cool, actually. According to mediaincanada.com, Vice had to print the covers at a plant, ship them to somewhere else to add the ad and UV coat them, then ship them back to the original plant for binding to the rest of the issue. Wow. One very interesting aside...do you think BMW knew that the cover model on this issue of Vice was porn uber-star Sasha Grey?

The 2008 Cinema Eye Honors: Busby Berkeley Would Be Proud!

2008-03-19T23:36:09Z

My apologies for my lack in posting, of late. Been sick (more on that in a subsequent post...I know you're all waiting with baited breath) and got a new gig (ditto). Anyway, I am leaping (temporarily) over SXSW (I'll be back there, I promise) to write a little something about the triumph that was the first annual Cinema Eye Honors. Held at Manhattan's IFC Center, the evening was a triumph for all involved and came off with nary a hitch. Cinema Eye Honors co-chairs Thom Powers and AJ Schnack were consummate hosts and the show was well produced by Pamela Cohn. Coming in at just under two hours, the program even included a short panel discussion moderated by Powers with directors Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side), Esther B. Robinson (A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory), Manda Bala (Send a Bullet's Jason Kohn and Pernille Rose Grønkjær (The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun). There was one odd and profoundly disturbing facet to the evening, one noted by several of us in attendance. Wither the distributors? With the exception of IFC's Lizzie Nastro, no one remembers seeing anyone from any nominated distributor, including ThinkFilm (12 nominations), ~~Zeitgeist (9 nods)~~ or Magnolia (5). That's appalling behavior IMHO and just more fuel for the "distributors don't care about docs" argument. All of those companies are based in New York and how hard would it have been to send a rep or two to the IFC Center to partake in the celebration on this important night? If this isn't accurate (there were a lot of people there and it's possible we missed someone) please let me know and I'll correct the record. Apparently reps for Zeitgeist were in the house. My bad. Kohn's excellent film was the big winner on the night, picking up three awards, including Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking, as well as awards for its editing and cinematography. For a complete winners wrap up, check out indieWIRE's piece on the evening. Kohn also had many of the best quotes of the night, including screeds on good docs being over looked and making his film "out of anger." When he was at the Sao Paulo International Documentary Film Festival he saw Marshall Curry's Street Fight screen to a near empty house while patrons were viewing....inferior product, elsewhere and it pissed him off. He also pointed out that the Honors themselves were themselves born out of anger and he was right. I know, I was there. Over the course of a car ride at last November's Denver Film Festival, as AJ read the list of exceptional nonfiction films that had been excluded from the Academy's documentary short list, the level of disbelief and furor in the car rose. Well, AJ decided to do something about that and like a Busby Berkeley movie, 4 short months later, there we all were, gathered in a theater toasting the excellence in nonfiction filmmaking for 2007. Kick ass, AJ!

Jonathan Demme Introduces "Harold and Maude"

2008-03-11T03:37:20Z

What could be better than watching Harold and Maude on the big screen? How about a funny and touching introduction by Jonathan Demme who reflected on his long term friendship with the film's late director, Hal Ashby. At one point, taking an informal survey from the crowd, Demme asked who in the audience had never seen Harold and Maude before (a significant number) and who had never seen a Hal Ashby movie before (a relatively small number). Demme flashed a typically warm smile and warned the audience that they were in for quite a treat. Thanks to the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Young Friends of Film series, we got the opportunity to see the 1971 cult classic starring Bud Cort, Ruth Gordon, Cyril Cusack, Vivian Pickles, and Tom Skerritt in a small but unforgettable role. Also intrinsic to the movie's greatness, the amazing Cat Stevens soundtrack. By the way, Paste Magazine recently published the rumor that the soundtrack will be finally available for the first time; hard to believe but apparently true. Look for it soon.

New Iron Man Trailer=So Friggin' Hot It Hurts

2008-02-29T18:53:48Z

Once again I have to weigh in on the whole Iron Man thing. It's looking WAY cool. Robert Downey Jr. is perfect as Tony Stark and the effects look great. Color me excited! Of course, it better grab all the coin it can before Indy 4 arrives! Trailer #1

Revenge, Kimmel Style: "I'm Fucking Ben Affleck." Et Tu, Sarah!

2008-02-26T00:15:37Z

First there came "I'm fucking Matt Damon" and it was funny and we laughed. And now? Jimmy has gotten his revenge and what sweet, sweet comedy revenge it is. Sure, the song's not as catchy, but this one's got Huey Lewis and Harrison Ford!

Are You Fucking INSANE?

2008-02-24T19:27:43Z

So recently, I've been thinking that John McCain just might have a serious chance to win in November, along comes this douchebag...again. Please Ralph, don't do it! I don't think the country can take it.

Apologies For My Absence...New Gig!

2008-02-24T12:52:56Z

Sorry I've been so sporadic of late, but I've been concentrating on my new gig, working for a new short documentary publishing company called Cinelan. We launched it at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this month and it's a pretty cool new initiative. Check us out!