Category: Watch Movies!

By Joe Bendel. It is not easy to recruit a theoretical mathematician to a small college nestled in the middle of nowhere. You would think the administration and the police would be somewhat alarmed when said math professor turned up missing. However, many of Dr. Steven Haataja’s friends and colleagues were troubled by a perceived lack of urgency during the early days of his disappearance. The mystery only deepened further when Haataja’s body was discovered. The case became the central strand of Poe Ballantine’s eccentric true crime ode to his adopted home town. Inspired by Ballantine’s pseudo-memoir, Dave Jannette’s investigates Chadron, Nebraska’s most notorious missing person case in Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere, which screens as a Midnight selection of this year’s DOC NYC.

Theoretical math is a young, socially awkward man’s game, so the forty-six year old Haataja was already over the hill when he arrived at Chadron State College. They were still lucky to have someone with his qualifications. In his short time in Chadron, Haataja seemed to be making friends, despite a history of depression. Then one day he vanished. Months later, he was discovered, bound to a tree and unrecognizably burnt to death. Naturally, the Chadron police eventually determined it was suicide.

Yes, Haataja’s hands were apparently free, but it still just did not add up correctly for Ballantine. In the film’s centerpiece sequence, the author retraces Haataja’s alleged final steps under similar below-freezing, nocturnal conditions, finding it hard going, even without a recently mended broken hip. Unfortunately, there will be no definitive closure, just more questions. There is also an awful lot of Ballantine and his family, who are all quite pleasant, but often feel like a bit of a distraction from the existential mystery at hand. Still, Ballantine obviously feels a kinship with Haataja as outsiders who found an unlikely home in off-the-beaten-path Chadron.

Jannette constantly plays up Chadron’s idiosyncratic characters, including some who have no apparent connection to the case, but look suitably exotic on camera. There seems to be an effort to play to the Twin Peaks audience, while leaving some issues underdeveloped. Frankly, the material presented in Howling raises a red flag regarding known victims of depression who subsequently die under suspicious circumstances. How diligently are they investigated or are they commonly dismissed as suicides for the sake of convenience?

Although it would be quite a tangent to follow-up on, it is also rather disconcerting when a colleague explains his attempt to interest The Chronicle of Higher Education in the then missing Haataja was rebuffed because they constantly received similar reports of vanishing academics. You have to wonder just how many of them really do “turn up later.” Nonetheless, his use of the local newspaper’s Police Beat is undeniably funny and in its way, quite telling.

There is something about the Haataja case that is hard to shake off. It festers in the subconscious, crying out for a conclusive verdict, but remains maddeningly obscure. There is also a lot of anger in Howling that is not misplaced. Better as a true crime expose than an exploration of local color, Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere is recommended on balance when it screens this Saturday night (11/15) as part of DOC NYC 2014.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on November 12th, 2014 at 3:13pm.

By Joe Bendel. For ten years and counting, second and even third generation exiles have competed in a beauty pageant to represent a country they have never lived in. That nation is Tibet, still held captive by their Chinese Communist occupiers. Obviously, this is no ordinary beauty contest. While their numbers are small, their consciousness is high. Documentarian Norah Shapiro follows Tibetan-American Tenzin Khecheo as she competes for the tenth annual Miss Tibet crown in Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile, which screens during this year’s DOC NYC.

When most people think of Tibet, their mind’s eye pictures monasteries, temples, and snow-capped mountains—but glamor, no so much. Enterprising “impresario” Lobsang Wangyal sets out to change that with the Miss Tibet pageant, envisioning it as a means of empowering young women and providing a focal point for national pride. Despite his obvious slickness, the pageant seems to be taking hold, even though there is often controversy surrounding the swimsuit competition.

Much of Exile explores that tension between tradition and modernizing influences through Khecheo’s eyes. Initially insecure about her rusty Tibetan, she dramatically reconnects with her cultural heritage. One of the cool aspects of the Miss Tibet contest is the extent to which Tibetan music, customs, and history are integrated into the program. However, there are problems with the pageant that will come to light, adding a note of unexpected ambivalence to the third act (but be assured, all of the contestants are clearly a credit to Tibet).

In contrast, there is no equivocating in Exile when it comes to the realities of China’s occupation. Shapiro’s historical context might come from an illustrated children’s book (quite an elegant one, really), but it is still right on the money. In fact, part of the impetus for the pageant in general and Khecheo’s personal participation is to raise international awareness, since conventional protests have produced no results to speak of. Let’s be honest, how much do you think Obama had to say about Tibet during the APEC summit in China?

Khecheo’s personal development arc and the cultural synthesis the pageant represents are all strong stuff that easily sustain the relatively short (a hair under seventy minutes) Exile. Yet, it raises issues of double standards that could have been explored further. At one point, we learn a previous Miss Tibet might have been allowed to compete in an international pageant, but China insisted “Miss Tibet, China” must have been emblazoned on her sash. She refused. You wonder how often that sort of thing happens. For instance, if a fictitious country like “Palestine” is allowed to submit films for best foreign language Oscar consideration, Tibet should have the same right. Yet, if they put Pema Tseden’s latest film into contention, would the Academy accept it or bow to Chinese pressure? How many other such instances might there be?

Regardless, Exile does what it does quite well. It follows a highly engaging and likable POV figure in Khecheo through a surprisingly dramatic journey. Perhaps most valuably, it offers a fuller, more diverse picture of Tibetan identity, while also providing a timely reminder of Tibet’s captive nation status. Highly recommended, Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile screens this Sunday (11/16) and Monday (11/17) as part of DOC NYC 2014.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on November 11th, 2014 at 7:52pm.

By Joe Bendel. Although it mostly involved Army Rangers and Air Force support teams, four Navy SEALs also saw action during the Battle of Mogadishu—all four of whom would be awarded Silver Stars for their valor under fire. Perhaps you also heard it was a SEAL Team that dispatched bin Laden to a fiery eternity. With the first-time-ever support of the Naval Special Warfare Command, the history and service of the Navy’s commando force is chronicled in depth throughout Navy SEALs—Their Untold Story, which premieres on PBS this Veterans’ Day.

Conceived in conjunction with the companion volume co-written by former SEAL Dick Couch and co-producer William Doyle, the nearly two hour PBS special features a wealth of on-camera interviews with SEAL veterans who do not ordinarily do this sort of thing. They were there in the jungles of Viet Nam saving “Bat*21” and they have been all over Iraq and Afghanistan. Why would a division of the Navy be in a land-locked country such as the latter? They simply developed the expertise for covert missions.

Director-producer-writer Carol Fleisher takes a comprehensive approach, devoting considerable time to the SEALs’ WWII predecessors, the Naval Combat Demolition Units created by future Rear Admiral Draper Kauffman. For a while, they were generally known as just “Frogmen,” especially with the release of 1951’s The Frogmen, starring Richard Widmark, one of several touchstone films referenced in Untold. However, the SEALs were officially inaugurated during the early days of Viet Nam, to fulfill JFK’s prescient call for a flexible fighting force that would specialize in counter-guerilla insurgencies.

As viewers would expect, there are some extraordinary stories of courage in Untold. Frankly, it is amazing how often SEALs have successfully completed their missions, despite logistical snafus outside their control. Indeed, it is always respectful of the SEALs themselves. You would expect nothing less, especially since dedicated military supporter Gary Sinise serves as narrator. Strangely though, it seems to uncritically swallow most of the criticisms of the Iraq War, especially the highly debatable claim that Saddam Hussein had no relationship with Al Qaeda whatsoever. Of course, it is on PBS, so apparently certain articles of faith must be respected.

Untold probably features more original interviews with Congressional Medal of Honor recipients than any other television program up until now. That alone makes it worth seeing. It is also a timely corrective to all the controversy surrounding the decision of the fateful former SEAL Team Six member to go public. Regardless of the current media firestorm, Untold reminds viewers of the SEALs peerless decades of resourcefulness and sacrifice. Recommended as appropriate viewing for Veterans’ Day, Navy SEALs—Their Untold Story airs on most PBS outlets this Tuesday (11/11).

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on November 11th, 2014 at 7:05pm.