Smashingly entertaining and very moving 8 hour adaptation of the Dickens’s classic, made for the BBC.

Terrific performances in just about every role, with special note given to Gillian Anderson’s amazingly
complex Lady Dedlock. But Dennis Lawson and Charles Dance are also great, and the supporting cast
is full of actors who get Dickens’ tone just right; a touch larger and more colorful than life, but always
real enough to believe in, care about, be frightened by or pity. I also liked that the young leads were
played by actors who really did look young, so their naiveté never comes off as forced or phony.

Beyond that, the photography is beautiful, as is the production and costume design. Full of directorial
quirks that make the story feel energetic and modern, without feeling intrusive. The hand held cameras,
swish pans, zooms serve to feed the energy of the story. Only towards the end of the series is there a little
too much of some of these tricks, causing them to lose some power, and become a touch annoying. But
standing against all the very strong elements, that’s a very small fly in the ointment indeed.

Two thirds of a great film, let down by a final act that gets a little too didactic and simplistic in it's ideas,
and too obvious in its twists.

At an isolated asylum U.S. soldiers are either faking madness to avoid war, or are really crazy, or some of both.
There's also an astronaut who's mission had to be scrubbed when he had a last minute breakdown in the
capsule, (wonderfully played by the brilliant and often sadly underused Scott Wilson).

A top military psychiatrist, played by Stacy Keach, is brought in to try to figure out who is who, madman or
faker. But very quickly it's clear that Keach's own character, Kane, has more than his own share of demons.

The film is an unique and often successful mix of tones, from high comedy (one of the inmates is trying to
stage Shakespeare with an all dog cast), to deep philosophical talk, to action, to mystery. And in the end it
is a very religious film, most of all.

The cast is great from top to bottom, and the cinematography is very strong as well.

Some critics see this as an overlooked masterpiece, one of the best films of it's time. Although others are
far more tempered, and some downright scornful.

But for me the almost sophomorically simplistic nature of its final central themes and arguments damages
the wonderful, often loony and bewildering complexity of what has preceded it.

Still this is well worth seeing. A film that strives for greatness and comes up a little short will always win my
heart before the mass of films that don't strive at all.

I really enjoyed this. It’s a fascinating meta look at film-making.

An obsessed, driven director (Werner Herzog) is trying to make an almost impossible film about an obsessed, driven man
trying to do the same impossible thing the film-maker is trying to do – drag a 320 ton boat over a mile of forest.

Most people see this as an out-and-out masterpiece, which makes me feel I need to see it again. I found it always
interesting, but less emotionally compelling than two other great films about difficult filmmaking dreams gone awry;
‘Hearts of Darkness’ about the making of ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Lost in LaMancha’ about Terry Gilliam’s never
completed ‘Man of La Mancha’ film. There’s a distance in this film that worked to a point, but kept me from being
emotionally caught up in Herzog’s dream, or fully understanding it.

The Criterion Edition also contains Les Blank's wonderful 20 minute short "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe". In it's
quirky, funny way I find this has more to say about the need for madness and art to co-exist than the main
feature.

The first half is interesting, mostly interviews with friends and
neighbors of the Franks before and during their time in hiding. But so
much of that basic material is familiar to any who have read the diary,
or know the play that there were few revelations, and I wasn't sure
what the fuss was about.

But it is the second half of the film, that fills in with tremendous
detail what happened to Anne and her family and friends after they were
discovered, and after the diary ends that is overwhelmingly powerful.

I've struggled with many films and books about the Holocaust. It's all
almost too much for the mind to take in, reducing human suffering to
insane numbers, or piles of dead bodies that the brain can set up a
sort of emotional firewall around. That's why the most powerful piece
of art about the holocaust I'd encountered before this was Elie
Wiesel's "Night" – by reducing the nightmare to one specific young
boy's experience I could finally feel the emotional impact of the fact
that all these numbers and photos of mass graves were real human
beings.

'Anne Frank Remembered' has that same kind of power; by focusing the
holocaust to one family's very specific experience, it paradoxically
makes the enormity of all the suffering real and present.

And yet, like Anne Frank herself, this documentary, while
overwhelmingly sad, also sees the good in people. As much as I wept
(and boy did I weep) at the cruelty and death, I also wept at the
courage and love shown by the friends and family who kept Anne alive,
and the survivors who carry the memories of those who survived and
chose to still embrace the world instead of running and hiding. How I
wish I had that kind of courage and strength.

A truly important document of the human experience.

The first half is interesting, mostly interviews with friends and
neighbors of the Franks before and during their time in hiding. But so
much of that basic material is familiar to any who have read the diary,
or know the play that there were few revelations, and I wasn't sure
what the fuss was about.

But it is the second half of the film, that fills in with tremendous
detail what happened to Anne and her family and friends after they were
discovered, and after the diary ends that is overwhelmingly powerful.

I've struggled with many films and books about the Holocaust. It's all
almost too much for the mind to take in, reducing human suffering to
insane numbers, or piles of dead bodies that the brain can set up a
sort of emotional firewall around. That's why the most powerful piece
of art about the holocaust I'd encountered before this was Elie
Wiesel's "Night" – by reducing the nightmare to one specific young
boy's experience I could finally feel the emotional impact of the fact
that all these numbers and photos of mass graves were real human
beings.

'Anne Frank Remembered' has that same kind of power; by focusing the
holocaust to one family's very specific experience, it paradoxically
makes the enormity of all the suffering real and present.

And yet, like Anne Frank herself, this documentary, while
overwhelmingly sad, also sees the good in people. As much as I wept
(and boy did I weep) at the cruelty and death, I also wept at the
courage and love shown by the friends and family who kept Anne alive,
and the survivors who carry the memories of those who survived and
chose to still embrace the world instead of running and hiding. How I
wish I had that kind of courage and strength.

A truly important document of the human experience.

The first half is interesting, mostly interviews with friends and
neighbors of the Franks before and during their time in hiding. But so
much of that basic material is familiar to any who have read the diary,
or know the play that there were few revelations, and I wasn't sure
what the fuss was about.

But it is the second half of the film, that fills in with tremendous
detail what happened to Anne and her family and friends after they were
discovered, and after the diary ends that is overwhelmingly powerful.

I've struggled with many films and books about the Holocaust. It's all
almost too much for the mind to take in, reducing human suffering to
insane numbers, or piles of dead bodies that the brain can set up a
sort of emotional firewall around. That's why the most powerful piece
of art about the holocaust I'd encountered before this was Elie
Wiesel's "Night" – by reducing the nightmare to one specific young
boy's experience I could finally feel the emotional impact of the fact
that all these numbers and photos of mass graves were real human
beings.

'Anne Frank Remembered' has that same kind of power; by focusing the
holocaust to one family's very specific experience, it paradoxically
makes the enormity of all the suffering real and present.

And yet, like Anne Frank herself, this documentary, while
overwhelmingly sad, also sees the good in people. As much as I wept
(and boy did I weep) at the cruelty and death, I also wept at the
courage and love shown by the friends and family who kept Anne alive,
and the survivors who carry the memories of those who survived and
chose to still embrace the world instead of running and hiding. How I
wish I had that kind of courage and strength.

A truly important document of the human experience.

The first half is interesting, mostly interviews with friends and
neighbors of the Franks before and during their time in hiding. But so
much of that basic material is familiar to any who have read the diary,
or know the play that there were few revelations, and I wasn't sure
what the fuss was about.

But it is the second half of the film, that fills in with tremendous
detail what happened to Anne and her family and friends after they were
discovered, and after the diary ends that is overwhelmingly powerful.

I've struggled with many films and books about the Holocaust. It's all
almost too much for the mind to take in, reducing human suffering to
insane numbers, or piles of dead bodies that the brain can set up a
sort of emotional firewall around. That's why the most powerful piece
of art about the holocaust I'd encountered before this was Elie
Wiesel's "Night" – by reducing the nightmare to one specific young
boy's experience I could finally feel the emotional impact of the fact
that all these numbers and photos of mass graves were real human
beings.

'Anne Frank Remembered' has that same kind of power; by focusing the
holocaust to one family's very specific experience, it paradoxically
makes the enormity of all the suffering real and present.

And yet, like Anne Frank herself, this documentary, while
overwhelmingly sad, also sees the good in people. As much as I wept
(and boy did I weep) at the cruelty and death, I also wept at the
courage and love shown by the friends and family who kept Anne alive,
and the survivors who carry the memories of those who survived and
chose to still embrace the world instead of running and hiding. How I
wish I had that kind of courage and strength.

A truly important document of the human experience.

While many see this as the best of the 4 series, and it does have some actual
dramatic punch as well as black humor in dealing with the sick absurdity that
was WW I, the season itself seemed a bit more inconsistent to me than Black Adder
the Third. A couple of episodes seemed flatter, or repetitive.

That said, there are unarguably brilliant moments, and the last episode, is a brave
and powerful way to wrap up this usually very silly (in the good way) series.

While many see this as the best of the 4 series, and it does have some actual
dramatic punch as well as black humor in dealing with the sick absurdity that
was WW I, the season itself seemed a bit more inconsistent to me than Black Adder
the Third. A couple of episodes seemed flatter, or repetitive.

That said, there are unarguably brilliant moments, and the last episode, is a brave
and powerful way to wrap up this usually very silly (in the good way) series.

5 part documentary mini-series about the politics of Newark, NJ over the course of 2008, culminating in
the night of Obama's election.

The 'star' is Newark's absurdly charismatic mayor Corey Booker, whom the series paints as a man truly on
a mission to help his city, without turning him into a one-note saint.

Yet, by following several story lines; a young, poor woman trying to get her life together as she's moves
away from drugs and gangs and tries to become a force for good despite awful obstacles, the new Director
of the police department who seems very effective, but is fought and resented within the department for
coming from New York, and taking power from the existing Chief of Police, and several other well chosen
character fighting, each in their own way, for change, we really get a mosaic of a modern city and it's terrible
problems.

It has been called a real-life version of 'The Wire' ad nauseum, but that really is good description.

There are arguable flaws. It can feel a bit one sided, or at least myopic at times. Since we usually only follow
one character in a given situation, it's hard to know what the other side's point of view is. (For example, we so
rarely see the Police Director's rival - the Chief- we barely know what he looks like, much less whether he has any
validity in his complaints.

But I was willing to accept that as part of the nature of the series. It's not meant to be 'fair and balanced', it's a
study of a handful of individuals and their experiences, a group of character studies of people trying to change
their city, not objective reporting. Looked at in that way, this is powerful, engrossing, moving stuff.