EPICENTRO (A-minus) - Hubert Sauper is guided by his senses as much as his sensibilities. He devastated us with "Darwin's Nightmare," a bleak examination of our destruction of Earth, and he more recently immersed himself with the culture of Sudan in "We Come as Friends." Here he plunks himself and his camera into the heart of Havana to study a narrow slice of life among Cubans.
Even more than his previous films, Sauper reaches for mood as opposed to any sort of true polemic. He appears to be on the side of the children of the revolution, building his narrative structure around the colonialist propaganda that has dominated Cuba since the 1898 Spanish-American War ("Remember the Maine!"). He is aware of the myths created, particularly through his own medium of cinema, and his film here reflects it more than dismantle it.
The genius of the film is the deep dive into the lives of a handful of subjects, including some adolescents who serve as conduits for the Communist Party line, now several generations removed from the 1959 overthrow of the Batista regime. The kids are smart and charming, a rarity in film. Several other characters, including street-smart Clarita, help sketch out the social structure of Havana and the hustle that is everyday living. Actress Oona Chaplin is on hand to provide theater and musical interludes. Sauper, meantime, soaks up the sights and sounds (waves crashing ashore burst wildly like fireworks), and in doing so he making no judgments as he observes both the poverty and the progress of Cuban society. He wonders: Is this utopia, and if so, how can you tell? Here the sum is greater than its parts as we are left with a mesmerizing mix that fills our senses.
AN HONEST LIAR (2015) (B) - James "The Amazing" Randi died last month at 92, so we revisited this overview of his life's work as a magician and debunker of frauds. Randi is a captivating subject, a former escape artist now bent over and grey from age but still full of spit and vinegar, and still admired by his younger acolytes.
This workmanlike documentary spends a lot of energy on Randi's rivalry with Uri Geller and with his dismantling of the scam televangelist Peter Popoff. But the final third takes a turn when it explores the mysterious immigration saga of Randi's longtime companion Jose Alvarez. It raises the idea of deception to the whole next level.
A bevy of talking heads are on hand to sing his praises, including Penn Jillette and Alice Cooper (Randi used to play executioner at Cooper's concerts, "beheading" the glam rock star). Clips from Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" and from "Happy Days" place Randi firmly in the pop culture milieu of a bygone era. This is a loving yet clear-eyed tribute to a distinct individual.
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