Louis Proyect

Tomatometer-approved critic
Biography:
I am a long-time socialist with a an interest in the problems of developing countries. Therefore, films made in Latin America, Africa and Asia are of great interest to me. I am also the moderator of a Marxism mailing list at www.marxmail.org.
Favorites:
1. Burn2. Strawberry and Chocolate3. Battle of Algiers4. Moolaade5. Sargeant Shakespeare
Publications:
rec.arts.movies.reviews,
Counterpunch.org
Critics' Group:
New York Film Critics Online
Location:
NYC
Movie Reviews Only
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92% | The White Tiger (2020) |
About as "anti-capitalist" as "Parasite", another overrated film. It is a world according to Hobbes, not Karl Marx. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jan 30, 2021
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100% | 'Til Kingdom Come (2021) |
Hones in on one of the three legs of the stool that Trump sat on. (The other two are white supremacy and nativism.) - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jan 30, 2021
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98% | Minari (2020) |
Basically, a home movie with superb production values and fine acting. Unfortunately, its focus is too narrow to be of much interest. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jan 30, 2021
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95% | First Cow (2020) |
The latest historically questionable, precious and obscure film by a director whose "indie" cred is hardly deserved. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jan 30, 2021
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94% | Nomadland (2021) |
Don't look for anything like "Grapes of Wrath". This takes old people in RV's roaming the country in search of low-paying jobs and makes it seem as cool as "Easy Rider". A total fraud. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jan 30, 2021
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86% | Marighella (2019) |
A throwback to the great political films of the 1960s, from Pontecorvo's "The Battle of Algiers" to Costa-Gavras's "State of Siege". - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jan 8, 2021
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83% | Mank (2020) |
A stylish but empty homage to TCM type films completely undone by trying to turn Mank into an Upton Sinclair supporter. Fincher just made that up to explain why he wrote "Citizen Kane" despite being Hearst's court jester. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Dec 15, 2020
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80% | Soros (2019) |
A fawning tribute to a billionaire who thought that political democracy could prevent a repeat of the 1930s when in fact his speculation helped bring it on. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Nov 21, 2020
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100% | Born to Be (2020) |
A powerful statement on behalf of transgender rights featuring a saintly doctor who is reminder of why people once dedicated themselves to the profession. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Nov 18, 2020
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68% | The Last Vermeer (2020) |
A film about the greatest art forger in history primarily but also about the thorny question of how to value art. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Nov 18, 2020
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100% | Nationtime (1972) |
An essential slice of American history when revolution was on people's lips, including mine. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Oct 25, 2020
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74% | Radium Girls (2020) |
Marred somewhat by a Merchant-Ivory aesthetic, it is still an earnest historical drama about how innocent young woman were pressured into exposing themselves to radium poisoning. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Oct 25, 2020
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99% | Totally Under Control (2020) |
Made in record time and under super-difficult conditions, Gibney and co-directors have made the essential film for the current crisis. Inside track for best documentary of 2020. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Oct 10, 2020
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No Score Yet | The Great American Lie (2020) |
A worthwhile film even if its stress on values does not get to the heart of class inequality: the capitalist system. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Oct 2, 2020
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100% | Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own (2020) |
Even if abstract monumental sculpture is not your cup of tea, this is an inspirational tale of a determined and gifted woman rising to the top. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Sep 29, 2020
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100% | Public Trust (2020) |
If Donald Trump ever stands trial for crimes against the public interest, this film should be entered as evidence. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Sep 27, 2020
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83% | We Are Many (2015) |
An inspiring film about the massive protests of February 15, 2003 that is also dispiriting in its depiction of how they did not accomplish their goal. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Sep 21, 2020
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98% | The Swerve (2020) |
A debut film that will likely get my vote for best film of 2020. Period. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Sep 21, 2020
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95% | For They Know Not What They Do (2019) |
They say a documentary succeeds when the subjects are compelling. On this basis, Daniel Karslake is a pure genius. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Sep 16, 2020
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100% | Watch List (2020) |
A strikingly realistic film about the hell that President Duterte is visiting on his people with a best actress of the year performance by Alessandra De Rossi. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Sep 5, 2020
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89% | Robin's Wish (2020) |
A poignant documentary about the rise and fall of a great talent. Given the horrors of Lewy Body Dementia, it is a miracle that he didn't take his life sooner than he did. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Sep 1, 2020
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100% | Made in Bangladesh (2020) |
A gritty, neo-realist story about women fighting patriarchy in the factory and at home. The film is truly inspiring and welcome in a period when things couldn't seem worse. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 29, 2020
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No Score Yet | Enter the Forbidden City (Jin Jing Cheng) (2018) |
A touching film about the characters in 17th century who helped create one of the world's great art forms. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 28, 2020
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93% | Epicentro (2020) |
Alongside the 1964 classic "I am Cuba", this stands as one of the greatest documentaries ever made about Cuba and reinforces the need to end end the embargo. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 28, 2020
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No Score Yet | Route One USA (1989) |
A look inside the soul of America by one of the great Marxist filmmakers. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 21, 2020
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100% | Dark Circle (1982) (2020) |
The best case for abolishing nuclear power plants is made: without the plutonium waste, there can be no nuclear weapons. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 21, 2020
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56% | Random Acts of Violence (2020) |
A slasher movie made more for philosophizing than fright. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 21, 2020
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78% | The 24th (2020) |
Worth seeing for its attempt to tell the story of how Black GI's exploded in rage after years of Jim Crow in the military but aren't there better examples of Black militancy that need a film treatment? - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 21, 2020
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73% | The Prey (2020) |
A throwback to the golden age of Hong Kong action films, made by an Italian no less. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 21, 2020
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100% | African Violet (Banafsheh Afrighaei) (2020) |
A warm and intimate character study showing another side of Iranian film. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 21, 2020
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No Score Yet | Hitchhiking to the Edge of Sanity (2016) |
A relatively static documentary becomes compelling by the nature of the story being told. Captures the manic energy and risk-taking of the 60s. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 19, 2020
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No Score Yet | Ruth Weiss: The Beat Goddess (2020) |
A relatively obscure figure from the beat generation gets a loving and eye-opening documentary. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 19, 2020
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95% | Song Without a Name (Canción sin nombre) (2020) |
Austere, minimalist art film that does justice to the subject matter, Peru's dark days in the 1980s when newborns were stolen from their mom. Not much has changed, I'm afraid. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 7, 2020
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100% | You Never Had It: An Evening With Bukowski (2020) |
Bukowski is brilliant at mythologizing himself in his fiction and demythologizing himself in this brief but wonderful documentary. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 7, 2020
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90% | Shanghai Triad (Yao a yao yao dao waipo qiao) (1995) |
A film that would persuade you to support Mao's revolution if only for wiping out the feudal-like criminal gangs. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Aug 3, 2020
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94% | Calm with Horses (The Shadow of Violence) (2020) |
An enforcer for a rural Irish drug gang is forced to make moral decisions that can cost him his life. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jul 29, 2020
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100% | Days of the Whale (Los días de la ballena) (2020) |
Superlative take on Medellin's mean streets redeemed by idealistic graffiti artists. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jul 25, 2020
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86% | Eating Up Easter (2020) |
Despite its tiny population (under 8000), this island has lessons that the rest of the world needs to take in. It is a laboratory in environmental sustainability that this film portrays vividly. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jun 30, 2020
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89% | Madagasikara (2020) |
A law professor begins a new career as a documentary filmmaker. His subject: how Western imperialism helped plunge Madagascar into abject poverty. An auspicious first film. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jun 26, 2020
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98% | The Last Tree (2020) |
A stunning portrait of a young African immigrant cast adrift in a ruthless British society, where even blacks reproduce racial discrimination. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jun 26, 2020
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95% | The Ghost of Peter Sellers (2020) |
A documentary that deserves to be studied just as much as Kurosawa or Godard in film school. As a negative example, it examines a 1974 Peter Sellers comedy as a textbook example of what to avoid. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jun 23, 2020
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75% | The Pollinators (2019) |
Our future is ultimately wrapped up in the survival of the humble honey-bee that pollinates 1/3 of the food we eat. A compelling and necessary film. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jun 18, 2020
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No Score Yet | Seadrift (2019) |
How seemingly natural allies would come to blows. Texans love capitalism, so did Vietnamese refugees. What could go wrong? Competition over resources that can't be privatized. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jun 18, 2020
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76% | Tommaso (2020) |
The greatest film by an American director since "First Reformed". Like Paul Schrader, Abel Ferrara makes his own rules. Thank god. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted Jun 2, 2020
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71% | Becky (2020) |
A wonderfully bloody variation on "Home Alone" and a real relief from the pandemic horrors all around us. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted May 26, 2020
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36% | The Dinner Party (2020) |
A brilliantly written, directed and acted Grindhouse masterpiece that mixes high and low culture. The best way to get your minds off the real horror all around us in the pandemic. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted May 26, 2020
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No Score Yet | Cooked: Survival by Zip Code (2019) |
A foreshadowing of the 2020 pandemic, with Richard Daley Jr., a Democrat, being just as unprepared as Trump and just as self-justifying. A necessary documentary. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted May 23, 2020
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90% | Blood Quantum (2020) |
A mixture of George Romero and Gillo Pontecorvo, not something you see every day. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted May 16, 2020
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92% | A Good Woman Is Hard to Find (2020) |
A mixture of Ken Loach and pulp fiction female revenge movies not without its flaws. But as a premiere from director Abner Pastoll, it is a most auspicious debut. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted May 16, 2020
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No Score Yet | System Error (2019) |
In challenging the paradigm of growth, the film is the perfect prism through which to see the apocalyptic period we have entered. - Counterpunch.org
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| Posted May 9, 2020
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