Mark Jenkins

'Bidder 70,' Still Raising His Hand To Be Heard

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

In its final months, the George W. Bush administration hastily organized a mineral-rights auction for federal land in Utah, much of it near national parks. Environmentalist and economics student Tim DeChristopher attended the sale and — impulsively, he says — bid on and won 22,000 acres he had no intention of exploiting.

The feds came down on him like a ton of oil derricks.

'Augustine' And Her Diagnosis Get Another Look

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Onstage, in front of an audience, the young woman seemingly goes into a trance, overcome by a power that shakes and contorts her. The commotion appears profoundly sexual; she grabs at her crotch as she writhes. When the woman reaches some kind of release, the spell is broken, and she becomes calm. She leaves the stage to enthusiastic applause.

This isn't one of those New Vaudeville acts; it's what passed for medicine in 1870s France.

'In The Air,' A Sense Of Stakes For A '70s Youth

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 02 May 2013 21:03:00 +0000

In the opening minutes of Something in the Air, the protagonist carves an "A" (for anarchy) into his school desk, and participates in a street demonstration that ends in a punishing flurry of police billy clubs.

'Arthur Newman': A Bored Man's Bland Ambition

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

Being a movie actor is glamorous servitude. On the silver screen, the actor's presence is necessarily bigger than life — yet it's often yoked to parts that are much smaller.

The dreary Arthur Newman inspires such musings not just because it's about role-playing, but also because its two principals are so clearly acting — if for no other reason than they're famous Brits playing ordinary Yanks.

In 'Paradise,' Pursuing Something Less Than Love

Mark Jenkins — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:03:00 +0000

The opening sequence of Paradise: Love doesn't really have anything to do with what follows, but it does establish director Ulrich Seidl's unflinching eye. At a pavilion somewhere in Austria, a group of cognitively challenged children, many apparently with Down syndrome, ride bumper cars under the supervision of Teresa (Margarethe Tiesel). There's no hint of sentimentality, no attempt at reassurance.

In fact Teresa, a corpulent middle-aged divorcee with a surly teenage daughter, clearly needs a vacation — and the Alps or the Baltic won't do.