election/bamboozled

ELECTION (dir. Alexander Payne, 1999):
fantastic. reminds me of an alternate (funnier) american beauty. oh politics. i wouldn't have pegged it as alexander payne, although it does seem to fit in his body of work somehow (more on this when i think of it). stylistically, payne borrowed a bit from tarantino and wes anderson, or at least that's what i thought. the cast was superb. i didn't know reese was so funny.
final grade: A-

BAMBOOZLED (dir. Spike Lee, 2000):
started out hilarious (and also insightful---aka good satire), then delved into almost campy melodrama (aka bad satire that completely undermined what the first half set up). the montage at the end would work as a stand alone short, or a full on feature (i'm sure there are enough examples in cinema's racist past--and present). it touches on a lot of points, spreading a wide net, but like most movies destined to spark debate, doesn't elaborate on either why it's there or what there is to do about it. but it raises the issues, which is important nonetheless. as far as the videography, i can't decide. the closeups look great, but everything else just looks exactly like cheap video. i don't know if that helped it much, but it was only a minor distraction (more proof that if the story/characters/style works, you don't have to shoot 35mm). and of course, my major spike lee qualm bothered me again---music. it was just bad. so bad that where i should have been affected (and could have been by the images alone), i was just scoffing at the music.
final grade: B-