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<B>SOMETHING NEW</B>
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<p><b>Welcome to Sarajevo</b> - Ok I know its kind of high falootin' for TapeHead, but its a damn good--not to mention underrated--film.</p>
<p><i>Welcome to Sarajevo</i> is more a documentary than a war movie (or even war correspondent movie) because underplays everything--leaving out melodrama or fake sentimentality--and because of the fact that it intersperses the narrative with actual footage from the war. But this documentary feel gives it a kind of quiet power and allows it to take a stand, damn it. Its rare these days that a movie actually has the cajones to make an actual political statement overtly, as opposed to say <b>Hanks</b>' pseudo-liberalism or <b>Bruckheimer</b>'s crypto-conservatism. I don't entirely agree with what it says in that it tends to stereotype the entire Serb people, but at least it's trying to say something. Finally, it's good because it doesn't pull any punches with regard to the brutality of the war. There's lots of gore, which is mostly in the form of news footage of dead civilians, but this gives you actually feel some connection to the victims. </p>
This film was underappreciated when it was released in America because of its lack of American stars (with the exception of <b>Woody Harrelson</b>, whose <b>Hunter S. Thompson</b>-esque character is one of his best performances) and because it deals with its subject in such a detached, analytical manner. But I'll take an actual--if distant--anti-war film any day over the recycled cliches, translucent flags, home front montages, and manipulative orchestral scores of the overblown recruitment video that <b>Dreamworks</b> put out last summer.
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<B>SOMETHING OLD</B>
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<p><b>Fear of a Black Hat</b> - On the opposite end of the spectrum from <i>Sarajevo</i> is the so called Mockumentary. Its amazing how a single movie can become its own genre, but <i>This Is Spinal Tap</i> single-handedly created this subgenre, and so strongly introduced the style that 18 years after its release, people are still quoting the lines, and directors are producing Spinal-esque movies, applying the fake documentary to an ever increasing number of musical genres (see <i>Hard Core Logo</i> and <i>Waiting for Guffman</i> for examples). <i>Fear of a Black Hat</i> was the first of these <i>Spinal Tap</i> homages, and, unlike some of the others, it stands quite well on its own as a movie. </p>
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Granted, <i>Black Hat</i> is basically a remake of <i>Tap</i>: you have documentarians, tensions with girlfriends, dying band members, break-ups, and, of course, a failing tour. But the point of the film--and where it is at its most brilliant--is not the plot but exploring love hate relationship between rap's success and its violent anti-social attitudes. <i>Black Hat</i> relishes the contradictions, hypocrisy, bluster, and self-servingness of rap music and attacks it with gleeful satire but without ever betraying its respect for the genre (and in the process laying down some pretty fat-with-a-p beats). </p>
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Basically this film, like its inspiration, works because it caters to both the people who love the music it skewers as well as those who hate it, and while some of the humor is overly blunt--they didn't really need to name a character MC Slammer to make fun of <b>Hammer</b>--generally it stays clever and satirical. Now I guess they need to make the swing dance and brass band mockumentary and we'll all be set.</p>
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