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They no like Borat

View image: Borat in New York, a town locate on the eastern coast of United States and America. In their reviews of "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" Anthony Lane of The New Yorker…

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Visit the Official Web Kazakhstan (and America)

View image Jagshemash! If you are confused about the difference between the fictional Kazakhstan, homeland of Borat Sagdiyev, as portrayed in "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" and the former Soviet Socialist Republic in…

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You like Borat? Or no?

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" is a uniter, not a divider. Critics, at least, are strongly united in liking Borat very much (with RottenTomatoes.com ratings in the 90s the week of its release).…

Interviews

7th time "Up" for Apted

In 1964, director Michael Apted interviewed a group of seven-year-old British schoolchildren for a BBC television documentary called "7 Up." Apted, now known for directing such features as "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Gorillas in the Mist," has since returned to…

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Los Dias de Los Muertos: Thoughts on the dead & undead

Just a few pieces from my Days of the Dead art collection that make me very happy. That's Catrina on the right. Meanwhile, in the rear center, the Virgin of Soledad is calming the "orrendas visiones" of Doña Micaelita Dominguez…

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Suicide watch

Bridge into the void... Today in the Chicago Sun-Times and on RogerEbert.com I have a review of Eric Steel's documentary "The Bridge," which has haunted me for two weeks since I first saw it. A movie that takes suicide seriously,…

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A presidential fiction

It's fiction. The indignation over the BBC British speculative fiction film "Death of a President" has died down substantially since the film received its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Some of those who were…

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Flagging Fathers

Ted Turner called. He wants his crayons back. I meant to see Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers" last weekend -- and I'd meant to see it at a couple of press screenings in the weeks before that. But... I…

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'The Departed' revisited

Jumpy: a scene from "The Departed." A few notes (and I took lots!) on seeing Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" for a second time: I actually enjoyed the film more the next time around, and I think the usual forces are…

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Milestones

My semi-trusty Amstrad, circa 1988. Scanners is only a little over a year old. If I recall correctly, it began on RogerEbert.com shortly before the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival in the fall, then shifted over to the new Sun-Times/Moveable…