FILM REVIEW: CITIZEN KOCH

A scene from Citizen Koch.

To divide they spend

By John Esther

Since the birth of this nation, the rich have held great sway over our government. If it were not for the people participating in the democratic process, namely voting, there would be no stopping the rich from infiltrating every aspect of government – starting with the campaign process. 

However, that changed in 2010 with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens vs. United. A backhanded ruling engineered by the rich neoconservatives, the ruling essentially diluted the influence of working classes in the political process by equating unlimited and often undisclosed campaign contributions with free speech. 

Embolden by the new ruling, billionaires such as Charles and David Koch (AKA the Koch bros.) started this new weapon in class warfare against the working classes in Wisconsin with the 2010 election of Governor Scott Walker, a staunch Republican fixing to dismantle the unions in his state. As a result, a recall movement is born in 2011. People realize the importance of unions. 

Then the Americans for Prosperity from Virginia steps in, becoming Walker’s biggest donor while recruiting Teabagger dupes to back a policy clearly against their best self-interests. Meanwhile Republican members of public unions begin to question his and her longstanding beliefs regarding the GOP just like former Louisiana governor and US Congressman Buddy Roemer did as he ran a different kind of campaign during last year’s Republican primaries. 

Capturing this whirlwind of activity leading up to the historical failure in 2012 to recall Walker, co-directors Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water) cohesively illustrate what happens when the bad financial powers-that-be cannot be stopped. 

FILM REVIEW: BELLFLOWER

A scene from Bellflower.

Until it is struck

By Don Simpson

Bellflower follows best friends, Woodrow (Evan Glodell) and Aiden (Tyler Dawson), as they get their two-man imaginary gang “Mother Medusa” ready for a global apocalypse. To prepare for the end of days, the duo builds weapons of mass destruction, such as an honest to goodness flame-thrower and a tricked-out car named MEDUSA. Woodrow and Aiden, Mad Max fans since they were kids growing up in Wisconsin, are not violent guys in practice, they just really dig the cinematic concept of absolute annihilation.

Woodrow meets Milly (Jessie Wiseman) during a alcohol-fueled cricket-eating contest and it is love at first bite, that is until…well, I will just say that if you have been through an emotionally devastating break-up, you will know that heartache sometimes feels like the end of the world. And rather than Woodrow just crying a few tears in his beer, Bellflower spirals into a bitter and jaded tale of betrayal, infidelity, and violence that unleashes the menacing apocalyptic fantasies within Woodrow’s subconscious.

Painfully discussing the highs and lows of love, as well as revealing the horrors of acting on impulse alone, writer-director Glodell utilizes some not-so-traditional cinematography techniques (thanks to cinematographer Joel Hodge), magnificently penetrating sound design, and a seemingly haphazard non-linear plot structure to convey Woodrow’s psychologically decaying perception of the uncompromising world around him. Glodell does not rely on his cinematically artful bells and whistles alone to sell Woodrow’s breakdown; he also depends on his own mad thespian skills while portraying (with ugly and brutal realism, I might add) Woodrow’s amazing transformation from nice guy to raging monster.