Paste Magazine June/July 2010 : Page 99
BOOGIE MAN: THE LEE ATWATER STORYSTAGECOACH DARIA: THE COMPLETE ANIMATED SERIESFUEL D V D s DARIA: THE COMPLETE ANIMATED SERIES OUT NOW CREATORS: Glenn Eichler, Susie Lewis STARRING: Tracy Grandstaff, Wendy Hoopes, Julián Rebolledo NETWORK: MTV BOOGIE MAN: THE LEE DIRECTOR/WRITER: Stefan Forbes CINEMATOGRA-PHER: Forbes STUDIO: InterPositive The devil’s in the details What profits a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? That’s the implicit (and explicit) spiri-tual quandary at the core of Boogie Man, a gripping documentary chronicling the tumultuous life and miserable death of the infamous Republican strategist-cum-rockstar Lee Atwater. Atwater’s sins and successes are deftly edited into a rivet-ing, blink-and-you’ll miss narrative: his meteoric rise as a young-blood kingmaker of the GOP; his genius orchestra-tion of the so-called culture wars through the Southern Strategy and related ultra-negative political campaigns; his eulogy by then-Secretary of State James Baker as “Machiavellian… in the ATWATER STORY OUT NOW very best sense of that term.” There’s plenty of fodder for news junkies, including vintage (and outrageously vitriolic) campaign commercials, and ’80s TV footage of Atwater’s protégé, an eerily ageless Karl Rove. There’s also a genuine tragedy underneath these slick politics—the heart-wrenching story of a man consumed by his willingness to lie, cheat and betray in the name of fame and power. MICHAEL SABA STAGECOACH OUT NOW DIRECTOR: John Ford WRITERS: Ernest Haycox, Dudley Nichols CINEMATOGRAPHER: Bert Glennon STARRING: Claire Trevor, John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell STUDIO: Criterion / Walter Wanger Productions The legendary western that begat more legend By the time director John Ford had cast the role of the Ringo Kid for Stagecoach—loosely based on a short story 8.3 by Guy de Maupassant— both the genre he was working in (the Western) and the actor he snagged (a tower-ing Iowan named John Wayne) were entrenched in the backwaters of B-movie-dom. But when Ford’s camera zooms in on the Ringo Kid, saddle in one hand and Winchester rifle in the other, against the stun-ning and inhospitable Monument Valley land-scape, one can’t help but feel a rush. This 1939 landmark, crisply restored by Criterion, is a masterful sketch of surprisingly complex characters (town drunk, Southern belle, gambler gentleman, milquetoast midwesterner, brassy floozy, blowhard banker, etc.) thrown together on a journey through Apache country. It’s easy to marvel at leg-endary stuntman Yakima Canutt’s death-defying moves, and enjoy the soundtrack that recast American folk songs— or you can simply be gripped by the thrill of the ride. ANDY BETA 9.3 The OG alternagirl ur-text After nearly a decade of fever-pitched fan demand, MTV has released the legendary cult animated show Daria in one series-encompassing eight-DVD box set. Spanning 65 episodes, the pilot and two TV movies, this brilliantly realized and before-its-time portrait of teenage disaffection would be completely formulaic if it hadn’t, you know, done it first and best. Dysfunctional family life, moronic and status-obsessed peers, psychotic teachers—so goes the über-sarcastic Daria Morgendorffer’s quiet desperation in the suburban wasteland known as Lawndale. Watching this series makes it easy to locate a major point of origin for the beefy brand of irony that defined the aughts: the subdued— yet no less rapid-fire— wit of Daria’s titular outsider-heroine. It’s also painfully obvious that Diablo Cody owes this show’s creators several figures worth of back royalties. So when the crushing malaise of postindustrial life gets you down, remember the jangle that became a generation’s clarion call: La-la-laaa-la-la! MICHAEL SABA 9.2 FUEL RELEASE DATE: JUNE 22 DIRECTOR: Josh Tickell WRITER: Johnny O’hara CINEMATOGRAPHER: James Mulryan STUDIO: Cinema Libre Studio Begs for a higher octane From the documentary’s outset, Josh Tickell says that Fuel is his story—a claim that, at first, proves to be true. Within its first ten minutes, the 2008 Sundance winner journeys through Tickell’s formative years in Australia and Baton Rouge, where he discovers the benefits of alternative fuels and—beginning with a science fair project—the clandestine love affair between Big Oil and the U.S. government. Photos serve as evidence of how he thrives off his first taste of the conspir-acy; a pained witness, his mother testifies to oil-related water con-tamination and, in turn, birth defects throughout their Louisiana home-town. But as Fuel drills deep into politics, photos are replaced by charts better suited for USA Today, and the narrative devolves into generic commentary by Woody Harrelson. At its climax, when two scientific re-orts seemingly undo all f his efforts, Fuel reels ootage of Tickell walk-ng alongside an ocean hore, each step siphon-ng away more of his nitial gravitas and usto. CHRISTINA LEE 4.0 JUNE | JULY 2010 99 !Fuel photo courtesy of Cinema Libre Studio
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