MOVIE: No Other Land (2024)

by benmweilertNo Comments
No Other LandYear: 2024Rating: Not RatedLength: 92 minutes / 1.53 hours Documentaries like No Other Land (2024) are not fun. They are necessary. Sure, I’d much rather watch a documentary about street art or an octopus, but a film like this shows just how bad it is in a war-torn part of the world that maybe gets a few minutes a day on a news broadcast. Bringing the human aspects of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians into focus paints a picture that’s hard to ignore. There’s a reason this movie won several awards for its content because it’s necessary viewing to understand what’s happening in that region. What’s initially shocking is how long the territorial conflict between Israel and Palestine has been happening. That the Palestinians have put up with this treatment for decades isn’t really about their persistence but more about the fact that they have nowhere else to go (thus the title of this documentary). It’s depressing to see...
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MOVIE: Spotlight (2015)

by benmweilert1 Comment
Spotlight Year: 2015 Rating: R Length: 128 minutes / 2.13 hours For many years, the running joke about the movies that have won the Best Picture Oscar is that they only won because another film should have won years prior. Spotlight (2015) is this generation's All the President's Men (1976) in that it is an excellent film about investigative journalism that broke open a huge cover-up, changing the world forever. Both films deserved to be Best Picture, but Spotlight manages to take an uncomfortable subject and be frank and open about the problems that we still see in today's society. Since most of the movie is comprised of uncovering the truth behind the sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, it's surprising how gripping and well-paced the film ends up being. Part of the genius of this film is the high-energy dedication these four journalists have in uncovering the terrifying truths that had been lurking in the shadows for decades. While such a subject could easily create a...
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