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savinhill
Mar 28, 2010

Zwabu posted:

I thought this movie was a pretty interesting watch, but I felt the filmmaker gave too much credence to the imposter guy's viewpoint, to the picture he painted. The only guy who is indisputably a villain in the story is the imposter, there's really no evidence to support the picture the dude paints and the implications about the family aside from some really odd behavior, and the guy has every incentive to make those implications to take some of the heat off of him. I felt like the director gave this point of view too much weight, probably because it made for a more "shocking" twist about WHAT MIGHT HAVE REALLY HAPPENED.

Yeah, I agree. It was a good doc and the Imposter dude's life story in general, and his time in America specifically, were captivating enough without throwing in the whole cheap & sensationalist "did the family really do it" angle.

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SSJ_naruto_2003
Oct 12, 2012



Anyone have fairly recent documentaries along the lines of Inequality for All? I'm a masochist I guess.

Goobish
May 31, 2011

Just watched Going Clear and..

Stare-Out posted:

Too bad they didn't mention anything about the people who have, indirectly in most cases, been killed by scientologists through things like locking sick people up with no access to (real) doctors or medicine and pushing depressed people enough for them to kill themselves and calling them weak to boot because they couldn't shake their depression through means prescribed by scientology.

Agreed. I was really waiting for them to delve into some of those stories and was disappointed. Does the book go into this at all?

Years ago I found a thing on YouTube about a Scientologist lady who became psychotic, and later died from abuses of Scientologists. I don't remember details, but it always stuck with me and I've always wondered if it was true. Wouldn't be surprised now that I know psychologists and psychiatrists are "Suppressive People."

I am convinced L. R Hub was bipolar at best.

UltimoDragonQuest
Oct 5, 2011



Goobish posted:

I was really waiting for them to delve into some of those stories and was disappointed. Does the book go into this at all?
There are various wrongful death stories in the book where people were denied professional care. A couple were even audited by people in the Miscavige family. The scariest thing about all of this is how many people at the top really look like true believers and not simple con men.

savinhill posted:

Yeah, I agree. It was a good doc and the Imposter dude's life story in general, and his time in America specifically, were captivating enough without throwing in the whole cheap & sensationalist "did the family really do it" angle.
The digging was dumb and embarrassing but the family's reaction is so strange that using the imposter to help the coverup sounds as reasonable an explanation as being that desperate to believe.

mobby_6kl
Aug 9, 2009

cloudchamber posted:

It's full of some really interesting footage but it's basically a piece of agitprop so it feels really dated watching it now.

Ok seriously this time, just came across a review of In Country that makes it sound pretty good:

http://www.avclub.com/review/real-soldiers-reenact-horrors-vietnam-documentary--217555

Kull the Conqueror
Apr 8, 2006

Take me to the green valley,
lay the sod o'er me,
I'm a young cowboy,
I know I've done wrong

Goobish posted:

Years ago I found a thing on YouTube about a Scientologist lady who became psychotic, and later died from abuses of Scientologists. I don't remember details, but it always stuck with me and I've always wondered if it was true. Wouldn't be surprised now that I know psychologists and psychiatrists are "Suppressive People."

Are you thinking of Lisa McPherson?

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
This thread got me to watch The Jinx. I'm not sure what I just watched or how to feel about it.

BogDew
Jun 14, 2006

E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli

Goobish posted:

Agreed. I was really waiting for them to delve into some of those stories and was disappointed.
Despite the doco being utterly compelling I did get the feeling they were playing it as safe as possible. Nothing in there hadn't come out in the press before and I guess they wanted to be utterly sure what was being said was completely factual so mentioning events like Lia McPherson or Sally Miscavage without solid proof would have veered the doco into sensationalist.

UltimoDragonQuest
Oct 5, 2011



Terror At The Mall is very well made but unpleasant to watch. 4 terrorists shot up a Kenyan mall and most of the attack was caught on video. It's about 80% security camera footage with voice overs from the survivors shown on tape.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

UltimoDragonQuest posted:

Terror At The Mall is very well made but unpleasant to watch. 4 terrorists shot up a Kenyan mall and most of the attack was caught on video. It's about 80% security camera footage with voice overs from the survivors shown on tape.

We talked about it a few months ago here. It might be the single scariest film I've ever seen, to be honest.

Dr.Caligari
May 5, 2005

"Here's a big, beautiful avatar for someone"
The 'recommend me' thread didn't have anything, so does anyone here know of a good documentary on the 'satanic panic' of the 80s? Book recommendations are ok too

Alfred P. Pseudonym
May 29, 2006

And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss goes 8-8

Dr.Caligari posted:

The 'recommend me' thread didn't have anything, so does anyone here know of a good documentary on the 'satanic panic' of the 80s? Book recommendations are ok too

Paging Dickeye to the thread

SixPabst
Oct 24, 2006

Raxivace posted:

We talked about it a few months ago here. It might be the single scariest film I've ever seen, to be honest.

Agreed. The most :wtc: thing was how completely inept the Kenyan police were. Fantastic doc though.

UltimoDragonQuest
Oct 5, 2011



The official police response was shameful but the end of the standoff looped around and became hilarious. It was 4 gunman in a supermarket, not an impossible scenario where throwing up your hands is understandable.

SeanBeansShako
Nov 20, 2009

Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.
That plain clothes cop and those volunteers were fecking heroes of the hour. I still feel bad for the poor guy shot under the statue :smith:.

Ropes4u
May 2, 2009

SeanBeansShako posted:

That plain clothes cop and those volunteers were fecking heroes of the hour. I still feel bad for the poor guy shot under the statue :smith:.

I will likely never forget that dude. I am guessing he was so scared he didn't think it through.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

The worst part of it is that it took like 9 shots to actually kill the poor man.

Otto von Ruthless
Oct 1, 2014

SaltyJesus posted:

I just watched The Overnighters. So the big twist is that he cheated on his wife, and he's gay? Here's a man making good the pillars of his faith, compassion and charity, but oh no! he also made some fairly trivial moral failings, that casts the whole thing in an entirely different light!

E: I don't mean that as a commentary on the film, which I think is good. I don't presume to know what was the director's authorial intent for including that twist. I can see how it might have been meant as an "everybody is hiding something" parallel etc. but most reviews online are treating it as this movie redefining twist which is ridiculous.

Allyn posted:

Finally caught The Overnighters and it's one of the better docs I've seen for a while. Really amazing storytelling and there are some really cool shots in it too.
I can't see any reason for not including that twist. If you're there filming and that happens, you can't just choose not to include that. It's too big a thing and that would, itself, be too selective. The film's major strength was giving you a very strong first impression and constantly asking you to re-evaluate it, firstly by considering whether his compassion is naive to a fault, and then whether his moral failing -- trivial though it may be -- affects your view of him. But in fact, the most important reason for including it is revealed in the closing captions: in an almost tragic turn, a man who's spent the last 5~ years standing on principle to support these men who came here looking to support their families now has to turn to that very industry which spawned it. He's now stuck in this community where he never really felt welcome, purely to support his family, just like every man who stayed in his church and its parking lot. "You and I are more alike than you know," he says earlier in the film. And now they aren't just alike: he's become one of them.

I think it also sheds some light on some of his other behavior I think it's probably the case that part of the reason he was so sympathetic towards the registered sex offenders is that he equates his own sexuality with their crimes. It's pretty clear that he sees homosexuality as a sin in and of itself, not just because of the dishonesty towards his family or something like that, and I think that kind of mindset could lead you to lumping all sexual sins together. It also seemed to me that the church was fairly fundamentalist - not a lot to go on for that point, but one thing that stood out to me was he was packing away some anti-evolution books as he was leaving the church.

People Stew
Dec 5, 2003

This may have come up already, but does anyone have any recommendations for documentaries about the cold war?

Any aspect of it really. Spies, intelligence and counterintelligence, defectors from either side, espionage, weird or spooky nuclear devices, etc.

I watched part of Atomic Cafe a few weeks ago and it has been stuck in my brain ever since. Anything about that era would be great, not necessarily about nuclear war.

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD
Sep 14, 2007

everything is yours

Prickly Pete posted:

This may have come up already, but does anyone have any recommendations for documentaries about the cold war?

Any aspect of it really. Spies, intelligence and counterintelligence, defectors from either side, espionage, weird or spooky nuclear devices, etc.

I watched part of Atomic Cafe a few weeks ago and it has been stuck in my brain ever since. Anything about that era would be great, not necessarily about nuclear war.

I forget who produced it but:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SuSbJ-zlos

Knock yourself out.

Also make sure you watch Radio Bikini if you liked Atomic Cafe.

Mister Mind
Mar 20, 2009

I'm not a real doctor,
But I am a real worm;
I am an actual worm
Here's a New Yorker article by Oliver Sacks about monologist Spalding Gray, his injury in an automobile accident, and his eventual suicide. If you can find it, you should definitely watch Swimming to Cambodia.

It's just a guy, sitting at a desk, telling a story about this time he had a small part in another film, and it's one of the most loving amazing movies I've ever seen.

Jonas Albrecht
Jun 7, 2012


Atari: Game Over is half an okay documentary, and half a good one for all the wrongs reasons. The okay half deals with the rise and fall of Atari, and the video game market crash of 1983. It's interesting enough, and hearing people talk about their work on games for the 2600 parallels what we now associate with Indy gaming today. Though the way this documentary frames the event, you'd think video gaming ceased to exist after 1983. I suppose that's unavoidable though, since Nintendo's rise and domination of the market reduces Atari's entire story to a footnote when viewed historically.

The good for all the wrong reasons part is the excavation of the ET landfill, a longstanding urban myth. It's part unintentional comedy, part unintentional lambasting of nostalgia. It's a parade of stupid poo poo like comparing the dig to archaeology straight out of Raider of the Lost Ark, playing up the danger of what could be in the landfill, and endless twee nostalgia poo poo. It peaks with a guy driving a Delorean to the dig site, his life sized ET doll riding shotgun. Also George RR Martin has 3 seconds of screen time where he contributes nothing, but they couldn't resist adding it in. The end this part by trying to debunk the perception of ET as the worst game of all time, which is an easy enough point to make, but can't resist trying to declare it a good game and that its massive returns and expensive license had nothing to do with Atari's reversal of fortune.

Oh, and it is chock full of bad Lord Privy Seal moments.

spankmeister
Jun 15, 2008






Yeah I enjoyed watching it but agree with your criticism. The actual dig stuff was okay because if nothing else it sort of confirmed the myth.

nonathlon
Jul 9, 2004
And yet, somehow, now it's my fault ...

Mister Mind posted:

Here's a New Yorker article by Oliver Sacks about monologist Spalding Gray, his injury in an automobile accident, and his eventual suicide. If you can find it, you should definitely watch Swimming to Cambodia.

It's just a guy, sitting at a desk, telling a story about this time he had a small part in another film, and it's one of the most loving amazing movies I've ever seen.

Swimming to Cambodia is pretty good. Spaulding Gray is a racouteur, and I still remember from years ago another monologue of his where he gets a contractor to survey a house he has bought. The contractor returns and says, "Welp, it's not good. You see, what we have here is cancer of the house."

"Cancer of the house".

Party In My Diapee
Jan 24, 2014
Does anyone know if there's coming more Louis Theroux docs, or if the mental hospital and transsexual episodes were it for now?

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

spankmeister posted:

Yeah I enjoyed watching it but agree with your criticism. The actual dig stuff was okay because if nothing else it sort of confirmed the myth.

The whole "myth" aspect of it confuses me, because as far I knew it was an agreed upon fact that Atari buried a bunch of crap until people went and actually dug all of it up. Suddenly it was an "urban myth" that was "finally confirmed" etc.

Allyn
Sep 4, 2007

I love Charlie from Busted!

Back To 99 posted:

Does anyone know if there's coming more Louis Theroux docs, or if the mental hospital and transsexual episodes were it for now?

Those were it for now but he said on his Facebook page that his long-awaited Scientology doc is due out later this year. (Also sorry to be that guy, but transgender, please :()

Kojiro
Aug 11, 2003

LET'S GET TO THE TOP!

Jonas Albrecht posted:

Atari: Game Over is half an okay documentary, and half a good one for all the wrongs reasons. The okay half deals with the rise and fall of Atari, and the video game market crash of 1983. It's interesting enough, and hearing people talk about their work on games for the 2600 parallels what we now associate with Indy gaming today. Though the way this documentary frames the event, you'd think video gaming ceased to exist after 1983. I suppose that's unavoidable though, since Nintendo's rise and domination of the market reduces Atari's entire story to a footnote when viewed historically.

The good for all the wrong reasons part is the excavation of the ET landfill, a longstanding urban myth. It's part unintentional comedy, part unintentional lambasting of nostalgia. It's a parade of stupid poo poo like comparing the dig to archaeology straight out of Raider of the Lost Ark, playing up the danger of what could be in the landfill, and endless twee nostalgia poo poo. It peaks with a guy driving a Delorean to the dig site, his life sized ET doll riding shotgun. Also George RR Martin has 3 seconds of screen time where he contributes nothing, but they couldn't resist adding it in. The end this part by trying to debunk the perception of ET as the worst game of all time, which is an easy enough point to make, but can't resist trying to declare it a good game and that its massive returns and expensive license had nothing to do with Atari's reversal of fortune.

Oh, and it is chock full of bad Lord Privy Seal moments.

I saw this too, it came across super-wanky, to be honest. Very self indulgent. I actually got sick of it and turned it off by the time it got to the dig and they were interviewing the people there who started all excited and after 5 hours of watching people dig were going "It's boring and too hot here." Well no poo poo, you came out to watch a loving dump get dug up, what did you think would happen?

SeanBeansShako
Nov 20, 2009

Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.
It is quite self indulgent, plus I winced every time dude who grew up in the eighties made a pop culture reference or when they had to talk to the guys doing the work.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.
Just watched Whitey on Netflix. Is... is that legit? Because it's got pretty frightening implications.

Viginti
Feb 1, 2015
I assume that they didn't just make it all up for the movie, although given the current state of documentaries who knows? It's a pretty crazy story though and far more fascinating than the 'Gangster History' that I thought it was going to be; not sure why its advertised as a Whitey film when he's far more of a catalyst than an actual character. I wonder how much of this will be covered in Black Mass, I sort of like the idea of that being his personal story and this being a chronicle of the ripples he caused though, so I'll be fine if the answer is none of it. Given that they cast Adam Scott as hero cop and Edgerton as corrupt cop I can't imagine they'll have huge screentime but I would love it if they do.

MonsieurChoc
Oct 12, 2013

Every species can smell its own extinction.

Viginti posted:

I assume that they didn't just make it all up for the movie, although given the current state of documentaries who knows? It's a pretty crazy story though and far more fascinating than the 'Gangster History' that I thought it was going to be; not sure why its advertised as a Whitey film when he's far more of a catalyst than an actual character. I wonder how much of this will be covered in Black Mass, I sort of like the idea of that being his personal story and this being a chronicle of the ripples he caused though, so I'll be fine if the answer is none of it. Given that they cast Adam Scott as hero cop and Edgerton as corrupt cop I can't imagine they'll have huge screentime but I would love it if they do.

I wonder if they'll go with Whitey as informant or Whitey as never an informant. It's a huge difference.

Uncle Boogeyman
Jul 22, 2007

If you're interested in the story, you should definitely read the book Black Mass. Movie doesn't look too good, but the book is a great quick read.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

I thought the "straight" part of Atari: Game Over was decent and the gimmicky part about the stupid E.T. cartridge excavation was lame.

I realize that a lot of times those gimmicks are supposed to be the "hook" that creates or maintains interest or provides a thread for the story to be told around (in this case of the rise and fall of Atari), but the ET thing seemed really contrived. I thought the story of Atari was interesting enough to be told straight with perhaps more anecdotes and interviews having nothing to do with buried cartridges.

My interest is greater though since I played the Atari classics growing up and through adolescence (mainly the coinops, never had the home system) and it was a huge part of my youth. I vaguely seem to remember hearing or reading about the E.T. burial thing but it certainly wasn't any kind of prominent myth or urban legend even among video game fanatics like me.

Lurdiak
Feb 26, 2006

I believe in a universe that doesn't care, and people that do.


My issue with it is that I've never heard it referred to as a myth before the marketing for this doc came up. Everyone who grew up in those days knew it had actually happened and there wasn't any reason to doubt that a company buried a bunch of worthless plastic in a landfill somewhere.

Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

Lurdiak posted:

My issue with it is that I've never heard it referred to as a myth before the marketing for this doc came up. Everyone who grew up in those days knew it had actually happened and there wasn't any reason to doubt that a company buried a bunch of worthless plastic in a landfill somewhere.

Exactly what I was saying. I seem to remember some video game documentary a decade or so ago (With Tony Hawk of all people hosting it!) talking about this.

Jonas Albrecht
Jun 7, 2012


That's weird. The first time I heard of the landfill was in an article talking about the dig. It talked about it as an urban legend.

mod sassinator
Dec 13, 2006
I came here to Kick Ass and Chew Bubblegum,
and I'm All out of Ass

Jonas Albrecht posted:

That's weird. The first time I heard of the landfill was in an article talking about the dig. It talked about it as an urban legend.

No there are newspaper stories from the 80's about when and where the games were buried: http://atariage.com/forums/uploads/post-4470-1112335019.gif The urban legend thing only came about in recent years I think to hype the excavation, etc.

Snooze Cruise
Feb 16, 2013

hey look,
a post
This is the age of the internet. Just like how Slenderman can become an urban legend despite it being invented on this site for everyone to see, a landfill full of video games can become an urban legend despite it being a thing that was actually reported on in the 80s. Any fact and fiction can become a "fact or fiction"

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Raxivace
Sep 9, 2014

mr.capps posted:

This is the age of the internet. Just like how Slenderman can become an urban legend despite it being invented on this site for everyone to see, a landfill full of video games can become an urban legend despite it being a thing that was actually reported on in the 80s. Any fact and fiction can become a "fact or fiction"

"When the legend becomes fact, print the legend" I guess. Or something like that.

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