Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
I'm glad I got to know about this influential rap group that contribute heavily to the rap scene in the 1990s. The group's music is the main star of the film as it literally paints throughout the group's history. It convincingly illustrates the geniuses of the group when at the time, rap groups like Run DMC and De La Soul really took risks and made their craft into an art-form. The film presents both the high and low highlights of the group's career very well and takes it advantage in fleshing out the crew member's personality in both charming and interesting ways. Its now among the list of favorite music documentaries I ever seen like Don't Look Back and Some Kind Of Monster.
4 out of 5 stars
Being Elmo
Talk about a tearjerker. For such a small and simple premise of following a well-known puppeteer Kevin Clash, his story is so rich, interesting, colorful and whimsical just like any Muppet movie or TV show. You do feel for his passion as he seeks out this art-form and battle against obstacles and criticism for his interest. When you look through this history, it is so interesting to see the progress of his art-form when perfecting the creation of a puppet from giving it material to giving it personality. At times, the emotional parts can go overboard to where it can be a bit corny. The production behind this film is kind of obviously low, but it is a well-made and heartfelt film.
3 and a half out of 5 stars
Sucker Punch
How I describe this is that it is like watching a beautiful train wreck happening in super Zach-Synderish slow mo. While it is such an eye-candy, the film is so bad and even unappealing sometimes there is no word for it. This is the first of Synder films with an original story in which Synder himself has WRITTEN and it is like it came from his elementary school notebook (no surprise if it is). Schoolgirls fighting giant robot mini-gun wielding samurais, nazi zombies, dragons and an trainload of robots.... are cool... if they had any relevance or matter to the main story. Building on Inception's reality within reality concept, the film's layer of reality serves no real connection to each other and both the drama scenes and the action scenes are criminally boring. Not mention the film does no justice in placing lazy covers of classic songs like Eurythmic's Sweet Dream and Iggy Pop's Search and Destroy. If you like train wreck movies, this movie could be for you.
1 and a half out of 5 stars
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