Sicko

I wanted to pair this with No End in Sight. It took longer to get to, but was similar: another nominated documentary, another guy telling me things I know. Really, Michael Moore, you think health care is a problem in this country? You think I didn't know that after my leg almost fell off and I had to triangulate three doctors in Orange County who didn't understand that my health insurance was fully transferable under my mother's work plan? Yes, I've been through it. I know it sucks. I know almost all of Europe has much better plans; that's not news, it's been well-documented for years.

I give him credit, however, for not taking the spotlight as much as he has done before. He focused on other people, and gave a lot of stories about how ridiculous things get. He's making his case, not as an impartial observer, but as a rabble-rouser, which is his real position. But that's okay. He's trying to get something positive done, and he's very clear in this that America's health coverage is s--t and we could do much better. Other countries that don't have the resources are thriving. Get on the ball and think about it in November. Yes, yes, I get it. Don't we all? I guess we need him to make this obvious to everyone else.

No End in Sight

I realized recently that I hadn't seen any new docs this year, after plowing through a ton of great ones last year. 2006 might have been The Year of the Documentary, but I wanted to see some of the touted ones this year. This one is another Iraq doc, done by Charles Ferguson, who is not a normal filmmaker but just a concerned guy who had the cash to make this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/movies/26ferg.html?fta=y

I didn't need another doc to tell me that things are f----d up over there or that it was a big mistake. Kinda knew that, people. But this is interesting for its detailed list of how things went bad after Baghdad was "freed" and its impressive talking head cast. Ferguson managed to get interviews with a lot of key people who were over there, including Colin Powell's number one assistant. This is very in-depth on details that most didn;t pay attention to. The conclusion? Power brokers like Rumsfeld and Jerry Bremer didn't just f--k up, they really, really, really, really, REALLY f----d up after they thought it was over, even though they had people working for them who said otherwise. Terrific.