Swamp Dogg is not the typical musician and this is not the typical documentary about a musician. The movie, directed by three people: Isaac Gale, Ryan Olson, and David McMurry, and written by four: Andrew Broder, Isaac Gale, Paul Lovelace, and Ryan Olson. The mosaic quality of film, messy, imaginative, zig-zaggy, fits the subject. The off-beat title — note the passive voice as well as the reference to an activity that we drop in on now and then as we meander through Swamp Dogg’s life and his past, which meanders now and then, too.
A pause for some non-meandering, linear background. Swamp Dogg is the stage name for a musician, songwriter, and producer named Jerry Williams. AllMusic writes: “Raunchy, satirical, political, and profane, Swamp Dogg is one of the great cult figures of American music.” His career spanned Southern soul, “eccentric” electronics, acoustic roots music, and rap (he was an early producer for Dr. Dre). His music was often provocative, with commentary on sensitive social and political issues. He now lives in the San Fernando Valley, sharing a house that has a pool with musicians Guitar Shorty and Moogstar and hanging out with performers and artists like Johnny Knoxville, SpongeBob’s Tom Kenny, and Mike Judge.
Copyright 2024 Magnolia Pictures
Swamp Dogg and his housemates and friends spent a lot of time sitting by the pool, casually chatting. These moments are surrounded by archival footage, including what looks like a bare-bones public access show hosted by a fan and some home movies made on one of the earliest videocameras. Those unfamiliar with Swamp Dogg will begin to understand his influence when we see him wander through a hallway in his home, passing a dozen or more gold records framed on the wall.
Those who then wonder why we are unfamiliar will get a sense of it when we see some of his work, like the album cover with him riding a giant rat. (One of the film’s highlights is when his friend, apparently not understanding how editing photography works or even that it exists, asks him where he found that giant rat.)
This movie is a pleasure on several levels, first as the discovery of a fascinating musician and his role in a remarkable variety of hit songs, second as a emblematically American version of a resolute original with a wildly generative and generous life, and third as a near idyllic story of a life of creation and support of others who want to create. It is also a story of loving family; Swamp Dogg’s neurologist daughter Jeri Williams’ love for her father is wonderfully touching.
And yes, that pool does get painted, and the final image is chef’s kiss.
Parents should know that this movie includes strong language and references to sex, drugs, and alcohol. There are references to sad deaths and family dysfunction.
Family discussion: Which of Swamp Dogg’s productions do you like the best and why? Would you like to live in a house of musicians?
If you like this, try: “Dolemite Is My Name” and “Muscle Shoals”
Rated PG-13 for strong language, some sexual references and thematic elements
Profanity:
Strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:
Alcohol
Violence/ Scariness:
Mostly off-screen depiction of a military coup, characters captured and beaten
Diversity Issues:
None
Date Released to Theaters:
March 28, 2025
“I had you as a head down sort of fellow. Anything for a quiet life.” Jonathan Pryce as the headmaster of a posh private school in Buenos Aires is disappointed to discover that the English professor he thought wanted to hide from the world and, especially, from his feelings, might have started out that way but due to an outside influence, had become a head up sort of fellow who was increasingly less quiet.
That professor is Tom Michell (Steve Coogan), who is joking-not-joking when he tells the headmaster his career has been “steadily working my way down,” and then adds, “geographically speaking.” Both are Brits who have ended up in Argentina just as it is on the brink of a military coup in 1976. The headmaster explains that there is “trouble in the streets and the economy is in free fall,” but their school is a haven where wealthy families send their sons. He tells the faculty it is also a haven from any conversation about politics. “Whatever strong opinions you may have, keep them to yourselves and don’t bore the rest of us.”
The coup happens and the school sends the students home for a week until the country calms down. All this means to Michell is a chance to go to Uruguay for a chance to drink and perhaps find some ladies. A lonely colleague from Finland (Björn Gustafsson) comes along, telling Michell, “I like you.” Michell responds, more wry than bitter, “Do you? I don’t.”
They go to a bar and Michell meets a beautiful woman who takes him for a walk on the beach. They come across a Magellanic penguin drenched in oil from a spill. Only because he wants to impress (meaning, have sex with) the lady, Michell agrees to clean off the penguin. The lady then leaves and Michell is about to discover that penguins are very loyal and this one will not leave him.
That is how Michell ends up hiding a penguin, later named Juan Salvador, in his room. The flightless bird is quickly discovered by the maid and her granddaughter, Sofia (Alfonsina Carrocio) who gives him his name, from the Spanish version of Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
The setting makes this more than the typical “grumpy or grieving person finds solace, hope, and connection with an animal” movie. Screenwriter Jeff Pope, who worked with Coogan on “Philomena,” “The Lost King,” and “Stan and Ollie,” took the real-life story of a 23-year-old teacher and adapted it to Coogan’s strengths as an actor. This is one of the best performances from someone who is not given a chance to show all he can do often enough. At first he is remote, though not humorless. He tries to reach his “privileged and spoiled” students by explaining sarcasm. Then, as it becomes harder to pretend to ignore the atrocities around him, especially after Sofia is taken, the poetry he shares with his students begins to tend first toward loss, then courage, integrity, even rebellion. There’s a wonderful moment when Michell is on the phone with the local zoo, saying he will kill the bird if they won’t take Juan Salvador, quickly gesturing to the penguin reassuringly.
The combination of horrific national tragedy with the personal story of someone unconnected to the community does not always work. But people do struggle to work through their own losses and sometimes they do find connection in unexpected places that help them reconcile emotions they thought were too painful to acknowledge. There is so much warmth and humor in this story that we cannot help feeling touched by the story and maybe even thinking about a penguin of our own.
Parents should know: This movie occurs during a brutal military coup and while much of the abuse is off-screen, a character is “disappeared” and the end credits acknowledge that thousands were captured and killed during this period. Characters use strong language, drink alcohol, and mention sex
Family discussion: When did Michell’s feelings about the penguin begin to change? Why did everyone want to talk to the penguin?
Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy
Posted on April 24, 2024 at 5:31 pm
B +
Lowest Recommended Age:
Middle School
MPAA Rating:
Not rated
Profanity:
Some strong language
Alcohol/ Drugs:
None
Violence/ Scariness:
News images of violence including January 6, 2021
Diversity Issues:
A theme of the movie
Date Released to Theaters:
April 26, 2024
This is a very scary movie, and the scariest part is that the people it is about will never see themselves in it. At less than 90 minutes, it can only touch the surface of some of the issues behind the undermining of democracy by a toxic stew of billionaires seeking less regulation and more tax cuts, white evangelicals who have been persuaded that a holy war will put a stop to whatever previously gave them a sense of cultural primacy, and power brokers who recognize that their views are in the minority and the only way they can get the authority they want is a combination of disinformation and voter suppression. But it does a very good job of documenting history that will surprise even the most sophisticated political observers.
For example, most people tend to think that abortion fueled the uprising of white evangelicals groups that had previously had very little interest in politics and did not tie voting to faith. But directors Stephen Ujlaki and Christopher Jacob Jones make it clear that abortion was not the precipitating factor. It was a few years before, the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) could deny tax-exempt status to schools with racially discriminatory policies. This struck at the heart of the evangelical groups led by people like Jerry Falwell, but they knew advocating for segregation was not a winning argument. They finally figured out that they could get the rank and file excited by using extremist language about reproductive health.
Later, attacks on various “woke” concepts like same-sex marriage, inclusion, and combatting climate change created opportunities for the wealthy to agitate the white evangelical base on their behalf.
This is a very traditional documentary, archival footage and experts. But the experts are exceptionally well chosen, starting with a blonde woman who begins by telling us that faith is the center of her life. We expect her to be one of the Christian nationalists the movie is about. Instead, she is a former official in the Trump-era Department of Homeland Security who, we see later, was aghast when President Trump refused to make the threat of domestic terrorism a priority. A minister whose faith leads him to support policies that help the poor and marginalized, another who was trained by a Christian nationalist group but left, and journalists and scholars with have deep knowledge in this area make some well-documented assessments. Longtime Republican consultant Steve Schmidt says what these people are working toward is Margaret Atwood’s “Handmaid’s Tale.” We learn about the “multi-facted operation of tremendous sophistication” used to spread mistrust and disinformation, funded by the ultra-wealthy and promoted by FOX and Sinclair Broadcasting, based on data mining of church rosters, not just of the names of members but of their most personal information and shared confidences.
But nothing is as chilling as the footage where we hear evangelical leaders and their political consultant counterparts say what they really think. They insist “America was founded as a Christian nation” (not true), that that concept of separation of church and state is not based in the Constitution but in a “stinkin’ letter” (Representative Lauren Boebert) (also not true), and that we need a “war” to impose a particular white Christian Protestant religion on everyone. And they answer a question many outside the white Christian evangelical world ask, why people of faith are so committed to Donald Trump, who promises to support them but whose life violates some of the values they say are essential; there are many in this group who do not want a man who follows Jesus. They want a chaos agent to undermine the most fundamental foundations of democracy, because democracy means majority rule and they know they cannot win that way.
Parents should know that this film includes discussions of bigotry, Christian nationalism, voter suppression, and abortion, with some footage of the insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Family discussion: What surprised you in this movie? Who did you find most trustworthy and why?
If you like this, try: “Slay the Dragon” (about gerrymandering), “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” “Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook,” “Answer the Call,” and other documentaries about attacks on democracy
“Still,” “American Symphony,” “1619,” Ross McElwee Winners at Critics Choice Documentary Awards
Posted on November 13, 2023 at 12:50 pm
Copyright Apple 2023
I am so honored to be a voting member of the Critics Choice Documentary Awards committee, though the choices are all so outstanding it is difficult to choose between them. Last night, the awards went to many of my favorites from this year, including “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” which won best feature, best director, best editing, best biographical film, and best narration, by Fox himself. Director Davis Guggenheim and editor Michael Harte made exceptional use of their subject’s extensive archive not just to illustrate but to comment on and illuminate Fox’s story. At the ceremony, the Pennebaker Award was presented to acclaimed documentarian Ross McElwee. The award, formerly known as the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award, is named in honor of D A Pennebaker, a past winner. It was presented to Kopple by Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s long-time collaborator and widow.
Nominees and winners of the Eighth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards
Best Documentary Feature
“20 Days in Mariupol” (PBS)
“American Symphony” (Netflix)
“Beyond Utopia” (Roadside Attractions)
“The Deepest Breath” (Netflix)
“The Eternal Memory” (MTV Documentary Films)
“Judy Blume Forever” (Amazon Studios)
“Kokomo City” (Magnolia Pictures)
“The Mission” (National Geographic)
“Stamped from the Beginning” (Netflix)
WINNER“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” (Apple TV+)
Best Director
Maite Alberdi – “The Eternal Memory” (MTV Documentary Films)
For Father’s Day: Documentarians Make Movies About Their Own Fathers
Posted on June 16, 2023 at 3:03 pm
Copyright Asset 1999Once you’ve watched the feature films with the most memorable fathers, take a look at these documentaries from a small but impressive sub-genre, movies made by directors about their own real-life fathers, mostly famous, some contentious or sorrowful, all thoughtful and illuminating, reflecting one of what can be life’s most complicated and freighted relationships.
Tell Them Who You Are: Oscar-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler is profiled by his son, Mark. In one memorable scene, the elder Wexler tries to direct his son. It does not go well.
Five Wives, Three Secretaries, and Me Tessa Blake tells the story of her father and, as the title indicates, eight of the women in his life. By the way, those wives all get along together just fine.
Quincy: One of the most talented musicians and producers of the last half-century is profiled by his daughter, writer/actress Rashida Jones.
My Architect: the son of Louis Kahn explores his father’s legacy. Roger Ebert wrote, “The movie begins as the story of a son searching for his father, and ends as the story of the father searching for himself.”
The Man Nobody Knew: The life of CIA spymaster William Colby is explored by his son. He was controversial in life, revealing abuses by his agency including assassination plots, and his son’t suggestion here that his death was a suicide is still being debated.
