Posted September 29, 2009
THE ART OF THE STEAL
Dr. Albert Barnes, founder of the Barnes Foundation.
The automobile industry in Flint. A former US Secretary of Defense. The National Spelling Bee. A man who lives with Grizzly bears. A collection of paintings? Though they may not sound like much, each are the synopses of some of the most fascinating documentaries produced in the last 25 years. The last of which, referring to the controversial displacement of Dr. Albert Barnes’ historic collection of Post-Impressionist paintings from his country home at the private Barnes Foundation – where his will stipulates the collection was always to stay – to a public museum in Philadelphia, is a bare-bones summary of Don Argott’s ingenious documentary “The Art of the Steal”. (more…)
Posted September 27, 2009
KANIKOSEN
A story about a crab-fishing boat laced with a Marxist agenda sounds almost too odd to be true, in the best way possible. Sadly, “Kanikosen”, adapted by Sabu (real name – Hiroyuki Tanaka) from a Manga comic based on a recently popularized 1920’s Proletarian novel, the title of which translates to “The Crab Canning Ship”, never lives up to its premise. In fact, the very otherworldly nature of said premise leads to the film’s fatal flaw – a nearly incoherent tone.
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Steven Strauss 
