Chimpanzee

Posted on April 19, 2012 at 6:00 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
MPAA Rating:	G
Profanity:	None
Alcohol/ Drugs:	None
Violence/ Scariness:	Sad offscreen death of a parent, non-explicit discussions of attacks and turf battles
Diversity Issues:	None
Date Released to Theaters:	April 20, 2012
Date Released to DVD:	August 20, 2012
Amazon.com ASIN:	1423153022

DisneyNature’s fourth in its series of nature documentaries released for Earth Day is gorgeously photographed, heartwarming, inspiring, and adorable. It combines astonishingly vivid and intimate footage of animal life with narration that sometimes crosses the line between accessible and intrusive. And this G-rated saga has a “Bambi” problem. The primatologists who appear at the end of the film are excited about sharing the unexpected and undeniably sweet story of an orphaned baby chimp who is adopted by an unrelated male. But that means the cute baby has to lose his mother first. It is handled discreetly, but we have seen how tenderly she cares for her son and how much he depends on her, so sensitive viewers of any age may find her loss and the baby’s abandonment by the other adults disturbing.

Narrator Tim Allen introduces us to newborn Oscar, whose tiny, wizened face is utterly captivating as he begins to explore the world around him. His mother Isha cuddles him, feeds him, and patiently teaches him how to survive in the jungle. They are part of a tribe led by alpha male Freddy, who provides protection and helps search for food. “The jungle itself is a living, healthy thing that does not want to be eaten,” Allen tells us. Nuts are hard to open and honey is guarded by bees.

As the area is cut into by development, food becomes harder to find. The chimps are threatened by an invasion from a nearby group of hungry chimps with “a formidable leader named Scar.” The choice of names and framing of the story unhesitatingly directs our loyalties. Scar “steals” but Freddy and his tribe bravely forage for food.

Like Sharks and Jets, the two groups have deadly battles over turf. Oscar is left alone. He is still too young to fend for himself and at first, he cannot find anyone to take care of him. Freddy becomes his adoptive father, but soon faces the work/life balance problem that is all too familiar. He is so enthralled with his new son that he begins to neglect his job of protecting the group. And Scar is waiting for his chance to return.

Allen’s commentary is sometimes corny and distractingly over-anthropomorphized. But director Mark Linfield and his crew were able to use the latest technology to bring us closer into the lives of these beautiful animals than even the scientists who study them have been able to get before. The breathtaking visuals and the brave and affectionate hearts of these beautiful creatures continue to draw us back in to the story. We see how the chimpanzees communicate and cooperate, how they use tools and teach each other survival skills, and how they use grooming to build community and define their hierarchy. Deep within the grand sweep of the African rainforest, illuminated by the gentle glow of bioluminescent fungi, Oscar and Freddy teach us that “humanity” is too narrow a term to encompass the love, courage, and compassion these chimps so clearly understand.

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An Inconvenient Tax

Posted on April 17, 2012 at 8:06 am

As you file your tax return today and listen to the candidates debate the “Buffett rule” and terms like “carried interest,” here is a look at one perspective on the complexity of the tax code.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA8t4kdgBu8

Trailer: “I Know That Voice!”

Posted on April 13, 2012 at 8:00 am

I love voice actors and I’m very excited to see what looks like a great documentary.

Bully

Posted on April 12, 2012 at 6:00 pm

This is a message for Alex. You are a great kid. You will be a great, happy, successful adult. And those high school boys who torture you so brutally on the school bus every day will spend their adult lives either clueless about why they will never feel as big and tough as they did in high school or horrified by the way they treated you.

This is a message for the school system. Do not put high schoolers and middle schoolers on the same bus. Do not tell two boys who are fighting to shake hands and apologize and send them on their way. Do not show parents who are agonized by seeing footage of their son being tortured on the school bus a picture of your new grandchild. And for the love of Pete, start teaching your students that neither inflicting nor tolerating abuse will be permitted in your school. If students cannot feel safe, they cannot learn.

This searing documentary tells five stories. Two of its subjects have already committed suicide, one only 11 years old. Another, overcome by the pain of continual abuse and feeling she had no other option, brought a gun on the school bus and found herself trapped by a judicial system that has zero tolerance for firearms but is helpless to combat sustained physical and emotional torture. Then there is Kelby, a confident young lesbian who has a few close friends but is otherwise an outcast. And Alex, who is what pediatricians call an FLK (funny-looking kid). He has a great heart (watch him with his mother and his little sister). But he was born prematurely and has a bit more than the usual middle school awkwardness. It is wrenching to see him come home every day and answer his mother’s anxious question about how things went with a noncommittal, “fine.”

I once heard a principal say that a lot of upset parents came through his office, parents who were concerned about their children’s academic or behavior problems. But, he said, the ones who put their heads down on his desk and sobbed were the ones who felt hopeless about their children’s sense of isolation and lack of friends. One of the most touching moments of the film is when Kelby’s father, a conservative Christian who had been anti-gay until his daughter came out says soberly that if you want to find out how little you understood about your life, have a gay child. His own friends had stopped talking to them. All of the parents in this movie are devoted, loving, supportive, and devastated.

Anyone who has survived adolescence knows what it feels like to be excluded or different. But as adults, until our children remind us, we sometimes forget how devastating those feelings are when you are too young to know that for the rest of your life it will not be as hard to find safe places and good friends.

The movie also made me think about the way we seem to perpetuate a bully culture. Whether it is the real housewives or politicians and commentators, we have enabled a culture of disrespect and partisanship that sets a bad example. I hope all middle schoolers and high schoolers will see this movie and begin some conversations about what all of us can do to bring us closer to a culture of civility and respect, or just to bring us closer.

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Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope

Posted on April 9, 2012 at 3:36 pm

B+

Lowest Recommended Age:	High School
MPAA Rating:	Rated PG-13 for some sex and drug references, language, and brief horror images
Profanity:	Some strong language and some bleeps
Alcohol/ Drugs:	Drug references
Violence/ Scariness:	Some images of horror in comic books and other media

There’s an old joke about a woman who goes to a therapist. “Why are you here?” he asks. “My family wants me to come because I love pancakes,” she answers. “Well,” he says reassuringly, “that’s perfectly normal! I love pancakes, too.” “Really?” she responds happily. “You must come over to my house. I have trunks full of them!”

While many people may tell you that they are fans of “Star Trek” or “Star Wars” or “The Big Bang Theory” or an obscure Marvel comic hero named Red Raven, there are the super-fans who go way past buying the box set DVDs and encasing their comic collection in mylar. They fill rooms with collections of mint condition action figures. They spend a year meticulously creating animatronic costumes for characters from a video game. They propose to their girlfriends with a “Lord of the Rings”-styled engagement ring, in front of 6000 fans at a Kevin Smith panel. And this is their movie, opening in selected cities and available everywhere via Video On Demand.

Morgan Spurlock, who made himself the star of documentaries that were very critical of big business and corporate brainwashing (“Super Size Me,” “Pom Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold”), stays off camera in this kinder, gentler tribute to the the consumers who find hope, inspiration, and home in their passion for superheroes, zombies, cartoon characters, games, comic books, and the rest of what the people behind San Diego Comic-Con call the lively arts. The fans are pretty lively, too, as Spurlock shows, following five attendees. Comic-Con is one of the only places in the world where you can arrive as a fan and leave as a professional, and two of the movie’s leads are would-be comic artists who bring their portfolios for review by publishers. One is a costume designer and maker who compares her effort to win Comic-Con’s annual Masquerade costume competition to the “friends on a suicide mission” plotline of the game she is bringing to life. Another is one of the country’s biggest sellers of comic books, hoping to sell one comic worth half a million dollars to keep his business alive. And one is there to pick up the “Lord of the Rings” engagement ring and propose to the girl he met at Comic-Con the year before at the Kevin Smith panel in the cavernous Hall H.

Interspersed with the journeys of these fans is commentary from other attendees, some in costume and some who like many at Comic-Con are the objects of fan-dom and fans themselves. Seth Rogan, Kevin Smith, co-producer Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, and more talk about the fans and, endearingly, talk about their own encounters as fans. And there is some rueful discussion of the Con’s journey from a few hundred people trading comic books in a hotel room in 1970 to 160,000 pop culture fans waiting in line for hours to see movie stars in Hall H. “We can’t use the loading docks anymore because f**ing Lucas owns them,” says a comic book dealer. There is thankfully little of the “look at the weirdos in the costumes buying action figures” commentary Comic-Con often receives, and it is nice to see affection and even respect for people who are passionate about the culture of fantasy and imagination. Spurlock balances the stories of his characters with the larger context, showing us that each of the attendees has a story and that Comic-Con is a place where stories and characters always matter.

Parents should know that this film includes some strong language, drug references, sexual references, scanty costumes, and some horror images.

Family discussion: What makes people into super-fans? What do you learn about people from the costumes and media figures that mean the most to them?

If you like this, try: “Trekkies” and its sequel

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