AFTER INNOCENCE and others

I saw AFTER INNOCENCE today. I think I was working at the Brattle when the film played at IFFB last April and have been waiting for its release.

This is absolutely a one-sided film, but in my opinion that's what makes a documentary personal. If the filmmaker gives a counter example for everything s/he presents, the result is going to be more like analytical essay than a personal tesimony. I'd rather hear a subjective account any day. (Is it possible to be objective?) That said, I enjoyed the film and as always, learning about something that I wasn't previously aware of; in this case the criminal 'justice' system of the U. S. and exonerated prisoners. It was exciting to see some of the hard fought victories: repealing the death sentence or creating a compensation plan for exonorees, but also sobering to know how much could still be done. And how few people (I was one of 4 in the audience) are aware of this and other problems. 4/5

Also recently saw a few other movies that I didn't understand or care for much: WHISKY, BRIGHT FUTURE and TROPICAL MALADY. I'll just guess something was last in the translation (linguistic or cultural) so I didn't follow the stories very well and didn't find other aspects to redeem the films.

THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA

So I ended up seeing this on Wednesday night. Though it was only 2 hours long it seemed quite a bit longer. I think it suffers from too many plot twists that don't really add up to anything in the end. Also despite the fact that it is called the "three" burials, we only caught two. 2.5/5