Culturopolis

Seeing the first children’s movie in a long time that doesn’t turn my stomach, The Ant Bully , I am only reminded of how noxious and base the majority of swill made for children is; the cinematic equivalent of Cheez Wiz. I am personally not a fan of the Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell genres of lad-yukks, but so many children’s films are virtually cut from the same cloth: an inane series of fart jokes and casual violence and abject stupidity. The Ant Bully , thankfully has the strength of character to actually say something (though there is also the requisite potty-humor), and offers insight into our culture of bullying individualism and isolation in the human world contrasted with the community and cooperation of the ant world. The message about bullying, and how might does not make right must be a real muddle for parents to explain to their wee things post-screening when the subject of Iraq comes up. It’s ironic how the moral lessons we teach our children are so rarely our own. It a...

ESCAPE FROM BEVERY HILLS (This review of Wassup Rockers was not published in print because the distributor canceled its Atlanta opening) In their skin tight jeans and scoliosis posture, the South Central, L.A. kids in Wassup Rockers could be any alienated band of outsiders from the Fifties juvenile delinquents to the British punks. But the most fascinating feature of the Latino high school skate punks chronicled in Wassup Rockers is their hybridity, a blur of previous generations' musical and sartorial fascinations and their own; a mix of Dogtown skate punk; anemic, black-haired Ramones screw-up; and Latino cool. With Quiceanera we seem to have entered a new era of Latino chic. Charismatic pretty boy Jonathan (Jonathan Velasquez) leads a gang of Salvadoran and Guatemalan cohorts: Milton (a.k.a. Spermball), Porky, Louie, Carlos, Eddie and Kico who prowl the streets of South Central as the Hispaniclicious subjects of Larry Clark's ( Kids , Bully ) adoration. The antiestablish...

FILM YESTERDAY'S NEWS Woody Allen digs into his clip files for his latest Scoop ART THINKING BLOBALLY, ACTING LOCALLY The High's showcase of New Photography is a large-scale smash

FILM WATER-LOGGED Shyamalan loses his touch with surreality in Lady in the Water NATURAL PORN KILLER Sérgio Machado tries to dress up Lower City as art-house fare ART AUTHENTIC ARTIFICE Chris Scarborough delights in really fake imagery

FILM DARK HORIZON Richard Linklater goes back to the drawing board in A Scanner Darkly ART TALK ABOUT THE WORK On the eve of the National Black Arts Festival, artists see a changing landscape in Atlanta

HARD ROAD Fact blends with fiction in docudrama The Road to Guantánamo EVERYDAY PEOPLE Fall to Grace FULL MOON RISING Landscapes shows a folk artist fully embracing the vision thing