244 Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie

Shot Mark and Ivy Matt finish out our docu-athon this week with the dispassionate Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie, narrated by William Shatner. Its lack of emotion coupled with a minimalist straight forward narrative is argued to be its drawback, while Matt argues the opposite. As an engineering project, Trinity and Beyond takes the viewer through the lab bench proving grounds of the Pacific and Nevada as the United States hones the weaponry which re-defined geopolitics. As a hardware nerd, the film offers quite a bit (or at least as much as it can in 90 minutes), however as a passionate member of the human race, there's little to glom onto .

Download: 244 Trinity and Beyond

243 Crumb

Continuing with the docs this week, Matt and Mark review the cult documentary Crumb from 1994. Less a film about the man and his art, its fulcrum is Robert Crumb's dysfunctional upbringing and its creative aftermath. What Robert Crumb channels is the artistic byproduct of his autobiographical torture, accented by interviews with his neurotic/psychotic brothers. While funny and witty, Crumb in the end fits the asshole artist stereotype, going to prove that turmoil and resentment often offers the best muse.

Download: 243 Crumb

242 Exit Through The Gift Shop

The week(s) Matt and Mark are still in full doc mode and review the Banksy film Exit Through The Gift Shop. A meta-documentary of sorts, Bansky deconstructs the art hype machine with the human graffiti equivalent Thierry Guetta, an OCD film maker turned street artist. A film so deftly wrought, the ability of the viewer to discover the edge of the hoax and the beginning of reality is seamless. Banksy sets fire to the trash heap of post-modern philosophical mental masturbation and lights his cigarette with it.

Download: 242 Exit Through the Gift Shop