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Reviews
Buddy (2005)
Finally! A documentary that DOCUMENTS THINGS
This movie was simply excellent. It firmly follows the political legacy of Cianci from its genesis to its supposed end. Facts are presented plainly, without heavy-handed interpretation. The amount of primary footage from the Cianci era used in the film is astounding. Interviewees include aids to Cianci, executives of the Providence Phoenix, fellow politicos, the FBI agent who investigated Cianci, University of Rhode Island and Brown University professors, and common citizens of Providence. The documentary is extremely informative (though probably less so if you are a life-long Rhode Islander) and entirely entertaining, without looking like a rock concert (like Fahrenheit 9/11.) I'm a fan of Cinci myself, however I do have to say that the movie was very kind to him. The worst impression one gets about him is that he was lonely and sad. He could have been portrayed much worse. All said and done, this movie is well worth the kazillion dollars to go see it at Providence Place.
The U.S. vs. John Lennon (2006)
A nostalgia-fest for 60's children, but a useless documentary
The title of this film is extremely misleading. I figured that the documentary would cover the CIA, FBI, and federal government's investigations into John Lennon's political activities, revealing little known unclassified documents and giving us some idea as to the depth that the probe into Lennon's activities went. Instead, the movie dragged on for an hour and a half serving no other purpose other than that of a drive down memory lane for Beatles fans. All information presented in the film would have already been known by anyone who was either alive during the 60's or is functionally literate. Even the montaging is poor. The ceaseless clips of Lennon and Yoko could easily have been put together by a high school AV department. Essentially, I went into the movie expecting to learn something I didn't know, but instead came out bored stupid and amazed that even I, a child of the 80's who had no personal experience with the Lennon era, already knew everything the movie had presented, and then some.