David D’Arcy
Chi-Raq is a work of agitprop—preachy, strident, sentimental, even sacramental.
By the end of the documentary, you’re in no doubt that Whitey Bulger was beneath dignity. Though not in his own eyes. There’s even vanity left in a crook who trims his white beard so scrupulously.
Futurism, as the Italian proponents conceived of it, ended up not having much of a future. But its practitioners had some good days at the beginning.
Filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar takes what could have been a true crime story and conducts his own inquiry about human suggestibility. You may not be convinced that Pamela Smart is innocent, but you’re likely to conclude that she did not receive a fair trial.
Aaron Swartz is indeed a martyr, but there’s more here. The film identifies an ongoing battle over control of information as much as it explores a troubled life that ended far too soon.
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