'Beautiful' doc tells ugly tale about eating
<b>Reel Life mini-review: "America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments"</b>
This eye-opening documentary on America's obsession with body weight begins with independent Chicago filmmaker Darryl Roberts going for a routine checkup and deciding that he should go on a diet to reduce his weight.
Just when you're thinking that "America the Beautiful 2" could be a Michael Moore home movie, the doc expands into some good, old-fashioned, muckraking investigative reporting with Roberts - known mostly for his romantic comedies "How U Like Me Now" and "The Perfect Model" - throwing some light on women's obsession with looking thin, the absurdity of using the body mass index (BMI) as an indicator of fitness, and a quiet conspiracy between the government and the weight-loss industry to keep the public hooked on profitable diets and health fads.
Roberts travels around the country interviewing high school students who've developed eating disorders while striving to be Kate Moss clones. He interviews his own half-sister, whose doctor has scared her into losing weight before he says she can have a baby.
Best of all, Roberts, who actually majored in accounting, gets the figurative goods on the U.S. government's subsidy of high fructose corn syrup, a major factor in causing that obesity Michelle Obama has pledged to combat.
"America the Beautiful 2" offers much more illuminating information about the war between the will to be thin and the natural compulsion to eat, and each successive revelation is deceptively underplayed without bombast or theatrics.
So, the low-key Roberts is no effusively outrageous Michael Moore, nor does his economy-sized budget afford him a lot of technical slickness. But to allow criticism of surface shortcomings to lessen the valuable information here would be simply criminal.
Roberts' 2009 doc "America the Beautiful" evaluated the nation's ridiculous, self-destructive obsession to achieve beauty. "America the Beautiful 2" reveals to us the capitalistic man behind the curtain when it comes to the booming diet business.
Get ready for "America the Beautiful 3" in which Roberts takes on the media's sexualization of children and objectification of everyone else.
"America the Beautiful 2: The Thin Commandments" opens at the Music Box Theatre, Chicago. Not rated; for general audiences. 104 minutes. ★ ★ ★
<b>I go, you go to "Hugo"</b>
Well, Mr. Gire, I got sidetracked and outvoted by the family to see "Hugo." I read your 4-star review, gave it a go, and left amazed and captivated. An absolute work of art!
"The Descendants" will be next weekend. But "Hugo" was absolutely worth it. - Best regards, Bruce Steinberg, St. Charles.
Dear Bruce: Hey, if you're going to be outvoted by a family who wants to see Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," you have a family with excellent taste, I'd say. You won't be disappointed in "The Descendants" (if you loved Alexander Payne's last movie "Sideways").
Meanwhile, if you can stand the embarrassment of going to "The Muppets" without a toddler in tow, you will be rewarded as well. Then there's the animated "Arthur Christmas" as a North Pole metaphor for how company executives with opposite skill sets can work together for the common good.
All in all, Bruce, the holiday movies appear to ringing out the old year in style. - Dann
<b>Mean Martin's movies</b>
Join me and film historian Raymond Benson when Dann & Raymond's Movie Club presents "The Mean Streets of Martin Scorsese" 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, 500 N. Dunton St., Arlington Heights. We'll have clips from "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," "New York New York," "Goodfellas," "The Departed," and a truckload of other films.
Free admission! Go to ahml.info for details or call (847) 392-0100.
<b>"The Interrupters"</b>
The After Hours Film Society presents Chicago filmmaker Steve James' "The Interrupters," a documentary about ex-convicts who hit the Windy City streets and try to persuade gang members not to kill each other along with innocent bystanders. It's at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave., Downers Grove. Tickets cost $9 ($5 for members). Zak Piper, director of production at Chicago's Kartemquin Films, will be a guest speaker. Call (630) 534-4528 or go to afterhoursfilmsociety.com.
<i> Daily Herald film critic Dann Gire's column runs Fridays in Time out!</i>