Coming
soon to the History Channel…Ok, probably not, but the people filmed in this
riveting documentary from directors Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov are far
more interesting to watch – and learn from – than all the talent-challenged
loggers, fishermen, miners, moonshiners
and duck hunters on the cable station combined. And they’re real, too.
The people in question are the indigenous people living in Bakhtia, the heart
of the Siberian Taiga, a culture that hasn’t changed much in centuries and,
quite frankly as the movie proves, are better off because of it. The film takes
the time to unfold at the pace of the people it is portraying, no small feat
given the rural locations and lack of ‘progress’ the villagers have seen, so it
may take viewers a bit of time to get
used to the way the directors tell the story. Having Herzog act as narrator
helps a lot.
From
now on, any directors, producers, screenwriters or actors thinking about doing
a movie about young people should be made to watch this delightful double
feature from Oscilloscope Laboratories. The films are very different in style
and tone, but they share a common thread that most teen movie makers don’t –
they don’t condescend or talk down to their subjects or their audience. As a
result, they create an excruciatingly honest portrait of what it’s like to be
young. Only the Young tells the story of three teens living in a small
California desert town and the day to day struggle they go through just to
feel comfortable in their own skin living in a world that seems to want nothing
to do with them. The interaction between the teens is fascinating to watch,
thanks to the ‘fly on the wall’ perspective of the film which lets them be
themselves without playing to the audience or to the directors’ idea of what
the audience wants. In Tchoupitoulas, we follow three brothers on a very
different kind of late night adventure through the French Quarter of New
Orleans. The film manages to find a fresh way to look at the city by painting
everything the boys see with a sense of wonder that makes even the seediest
aspects of the city shine like gold.
It
may not have the cliff hanger endings of the real classic movie serials, but
this action-packed cop drama still has enough energy to keep you hooked from episode
to episode. It’s the story of a pair of true blue detectives on the trail of a
femme fatale who is trying to steal a pair of ancient golden hands that are the
key to unlocking a hidden treasure. The story isn’t important once the action
gets started; it’s just an excuse to get the good guys and the bad guys in a room
so they can start beating the heck out of each other (be sure to note that they
hardly ever throw anything but roundhouse punches to the jaw when they fight). The evil woman
steps in at the last minute and either sets a bomb or tries to poison one of the
cops in such a diabolic way that they’ll never get out of it alive…until the next episode.
