Media

A shocking chronicle of institutional dysfunction, “The War on Kids” likens the American public school system to prison and its disciplinary methods to fascism. At least now you know why little Johnny won’t get out of bed in the morning.

Arranged in sections that range from merely interesting to downright horrifying, this provocative documentary suggests a system regulated by fear and motivated by the desire to control. Tracing the evolution and application of zero-tolerance policies on drugs and violence, the director, Cevin Soling, amasses overwhelming evidence of institutional overreaction. When an 8-year-old can be suspended for pointing a chicken finger and saying “Pow,” we know that common sense has officially left the building. Impassioned interviews with educators, authors and medical professionals — and some very perceptive students — warn of the consequences of surrounding children daily with armed security guards and surveillance cameras.

“They don’t really prevent anything; they just take pictures of it,” says Jessica Botcher, a student at Columbine High School. Those pictures, however, are electrifying: an armed SWAT team terrorizing high school students in South Carolina; a tiny, terrified girl being handcuffed by burly police officers. Offering neither balance nor solutions (a segment on the overuse of medications like Ritalin is especially powerful, but especially in need of counterargument), “The War on Kids” questions what kind of citizens we are producing. Parent or child-free, we all have a dog in that particular fight. [Review by the NY Times]

Reflecting a social networking-saturated youth culture where YouTube speaks directly to millions of kids, OMG/Hahaha offers a deeper, digitally filtered view into a seemingly superficial psyches of the MySpace generation. Edgy and intimate in the tradition of cutting edge film making inspired by Gus van Sant and Greg Araki, Morgan Jon Fox’s (Blue Citrus Hearts) film weaves a simple narrative together via part video blog, part improvisational narrative, and part pseudo documentary.  Omg/Hahaha is a pastiche of the lives of a diverse set of gay, straight and trans teens living in Memphis, TN.  One teen’s video blog frames the various stories and troubles from breakups, dying parents, unexpected pregnancy to homophobia.

A unique idea for a movie sucks you in (so to speak) from the very beginning and makes you feel like you’re watching, not a movie but a documentary or a MySpace vlog.  In fact, that was the very idea of director Morgan Jon Fox.  Some was scripted, most was improv, and together it makes for a pretty good film.  I think the younger generation would prefer this more than the ‘older’ folks, and I say ‘older’ with the utmost respect.  OMG/HaHaHa has a lot of internet lingo (like the title) written on screen as a running narrative throughout the picture (there is no narrator, per se, but rather a series of text message-like notes in place of where a narrator should be).  So if you’re not up to snuff with your internet dictionary, you may miss the point of a lot of scenes. What I found most fascinating was how comfortable these gay and transgendered teens were with themselves, and others, and their being out of the closet -- especially in a Southern US city.  As it’s quite apparent that the "actors" are really gay, if they aren’t out yet -- they will be outed by this film, that’s for sure (your gaydar will be going off). Check out the deleted scenes, as well.  Those are pretty good. [Review from azovfilms]