Movie Log 2007: #58-61

24 Hour Party People - This could have jumped from very-good to great had there been less Happy Mondays, and a lot less "tell, don't show" that they were some sort of geniuses. But I liked the way the movie intercut archival footage, and the Howard Devoto cameo was priceless.

Punk's Not Dead - This documentary was well-meaning, but in the end I'm not sure it proved its titular thesis. It's nice that bands like the Adicts and Buzzcocks are still touring. But then they spend most of the film talking to organizers of the Warped Tour, and some rep from Hot Topic, and the likes of Good Charlotte and My Chemical Romance; and give just a little attention to the organic DIY scenes still popping up around the world (the Russian kids look like fun).

Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea - Another feel-bad documentary, this one about the troubled saline lake and the people who still live near its ghost resorts. For a couple of condo payments, we could by a big swath of land in the desert....cool! But after seeing this I'll never eat tilapia again.

Maxed Out! - How the credit industry preys on underinformed consumers (and especially people who have previously filed for bankruptcy), who then get get into debt cycles that ultimately lead to suicide in some cases. Meh...I felt bad for maybe three people in the film. The elderly woman who was talked into having her 40-ish retarded son transfer their mortgage (signing in block letters he had to copy) to one they couldn't afford was particularly heartbreaking. But most of the people they talked to just blithely "got some credit and lost they damn minds" to paraphrase Chris Rock, and then cried victim. The only real nod to any sort of personal-responsibility plan is in a DVD extra. This could have been something more than Super Size Me for banks.