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Gay Republicans? WTF? Unfortunately, this
doc doesn’t really examine why exactly some gay Americans
choose to be a part of a political party that actively and
vociferously opposes their lifestyle. Instead the film more
or less takes for granted that “gay Republican” is an
oxymoron and chooses to focus on the internal rifts of the
Log Cabin Republicans, the only openly gay delegation in the
Republican Party. It focuses even more narrowly on what
happened during the 2004 election when the so-called “defense
of marriage” amendment was introduced with Bush’s
support. While it includes some very worthwhile and
intriguing personalities, it plays more like an extended
news segment than a comprehensive look at gay Republicans as
a whole. The film has definite merit, but it could’ve
benefited more by being less implicitly polemical and more
explicitly objective. What indeed makes a gay man or woman
choose the party that says being gay is a sin?. —Kristopher
Monroe |
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“Paper Chasers” seems to be an attempt
at documenting the behind-the-scenes of various
entrepreneurs in the world of hip hop, from clothing to
music and almost everything in between. But it turns out to
be a frustrating mess of unfocused interviews and footage.
The film never decides what it wants to be. Does it want to
be a reality show about making a documentary? There sure is
a hell of a lot of footage of the filmmakers and their
squabbles. Does it want to be about what the hip hop
industry has become? What it can be? Where it’s going? A
self-help, how-to-make-it guide? It would’ve been great if
it had charted the rise and/or fall of the various
personalities it includes, like Ludacris, Fat Joe, Master P
and the folks at FUBU and various record labels. It turns
out to be an hour and a half of an assortment of sometimes
conflicting messages and snippets of personal anecdotes, any
one of which would’ve made a great movie. Too bad we don’t
get enough of them. —KM |
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