Brightest Young Things

Please, make it stop! My days are moving at a pace too fast for me to grab onto something and take a breath. And yet I can still set aside an hour to write about one of my favorite things, other than raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, FILMS! Because I was too madly busy with shit this week, I decided to ditch the theme and opt for something as random-ass as my life and all its little intricacies. Perhaps I shouldn’t be listening to Glass’s Einstein on the Beach right now as it seems to be making my heartbeat speed up to an unhealthy rate.

This week on I, Queue Genius: Stop asking why there are so many Salvadoreans in DC and watch this movie; also, a documentary more powerful than FarmAid, and finally, Sarah Silverman is going to hell!

Voces Inocentes (Mexico/USA, 2004). There was a time in the 1980’s when boys were literally and without notice plucked from their schools, dragged into a line and forced to march, at gunpoint, to the nearest "enlistment office" where they would be handed a uniform, a machine gun, and sent to camps for training. Some of them never again saw their families. This was the norm during the civil wars of El Salvador. Innocent Voices does not make any attempt to soften the truth about these not-too-distant realities. By basing the film on the memoirs of a man (who turned 12 in ES) now living in the United States, we get to look into this volatile time in El Salvador’s tumultuous history through the eyes of someone who lived, breathed and survived it. Innocent Voices rises above melodrama or bleeding heart criticism to become an important film about a nation that is so close to us and yet we care to know very little about. And by the way, I can really get into a film, but when 4 of us went to see it at the theatres, we came out with red, watery, swollen eyes.

IQG, I love those recent-history-real-life films. Try, Tsotsi (UK/South Africa, 2005), Hotel Rwanda (USA, 2004) and Schindler’s List (USA, 1993).

The Farmer’s Wife (USA, 2005). Thank you, Jesus (and viewers like you) for PBS! I never thought I’d say something like that. But as a lover of all things documentary, I credit the love affair to a single piece…The Farmer’s Wife. This amazing film follows Darrel and Juanita Buschkoetter, a farming couple from Nebraska who are struggling to keep their marriage and home alive while bringing in their crop. This is just the tip of the iceberg in this two-disc series that gets so deeply and intimately into the lives of this struggling family, that you cannot keep yourself from becoming attached. This was the first documentary I had seen that made me react with tears. It’s gripping, harsh, emotional, sincere, and, only at times, hopeful. Don’t watch this documentary if you want heightened real-life kapow tragedy. I mean, there’s a reason why it rings in at 390 minutes!

IQG, what other documentaries did it for you? Try, Jesus Camp (USA, 2006), Born Into Brothels (India/USA, 2005) and Capturing the Friedmans (USA, 2003).

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (USA, 2005). This lewd, crude, Jewd, woman is genius, BUT only if you watch her once or twice. Sarah Silverman makes absolutely no f*cking apologies for her language and subject matter, attacking everyone and everything from retarded children to AIDS to lesbians. The only warning I can give you, honestly, is that if you are one of the extra special dedicated members of HRC, NOW or the NAACP who believes that the world is out to get you, then you should DEFINITELY NOT watch this movie. Also, being intoxicated might help.

IQG, what other ridiculous movies have made you lose your doodoo with laughter? Try, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazahkstan (USA, 2006), The Aristocrats (USA, 2005) and Dave Chappelle: Killin' Them Softly (USA, 2000).

Next week on IQG, more movies, films, motion pictures, talkies, and flicks, 100% approved and recommended by yours truly! (Back to my life).