kenmora Reviews

My Love Affair with Marriage (2022)

The Best of Indie Animation this year!

[9/10 · 15 October 2023]

An unabashed look at a developing woman's interior life as she boils over under the combined pressures of lingering Soviet-era oppression, then Rural, then Cosmopolitan, chapters of her life - all in a narrative knit together, in an almost tongue-in-cheek fashion, with her scientifically up-to-date biological development.

This faceted jewel of a film gleams with trials of human frailty, bravery, and contradiction that are brilliantly and moodily hand-crafted in a unique Indie-Animation style, all from traditional and originally hand-crafted materials. It stands in the Indie Canon, and the greater Animation Canon, as a film evocative of the brave editorial styles of the pioneering days of hand-drawn animation, AND a great contrast to the polish of mass-produced CGI.

Mama I'm a Thug (2003)

Wry humor, ghetto style

[10/10 · 6 December 2010]

Jim Lujan has real heart in his stories, and in this age of "Wiggas" and posers he uses his sharp wit to satirize a generation that plays tough but folds like a house of cards.

Funny stuff, and just one of his outstanding "Ghettomation" shorts worth checking out. Part of a wave of animators inspired by Bill Plympton and Ralph Bakshi, this short from the DVD "Bench Warrant" illustrates just how much you can do with ghetto style and great writing.

I'm not sure why only this short is listed, but I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more from this prolific animator from the "hoods" of Whittier.

Fuel (2008)

I'm absolutely sold

[10/10 · 16 April 2008]

This was the only film to inspire a standing ovation, to a packed screening, at the 2008 Beverly Hills International Film Festival.

As a Hybrid owner I'm amazed that more manufacturers don't make alternative fuel cars. When this film illustrated the argument for Soy, Cane, and Algea based diesels fuels I determined right then and there my family's next car would run on bio-diesel.

The film is funny, entertaining, very informative, and while it shows the dark side of how we got to our present state of petroleum dependence, it doesn't wallow in the negative, but instead cheers us on to seek fuel alternative that are already here, right now.

For instance, I had no idea that any diesel engine could run on bio-diesel without any adaptation! Also, the amazing advances in Algea based bio-fuels can also produce plastics with a fraction of the environmental impact.

If you see no other environmental documentary, you must see this one! I doesn't lament, it shows us the way.

Woman (2007)

A timely documentary, artfully told.

[10/10 · 15 April 2008]

In 'Woman,' filmmaker Ziad Hamzeh, whom I was privileged to meet at the 2008 Beverly Hills International Film Festival, portrays a remarkable Arab woman's story.

Shot with complete faith in an extraordinary message, 'Woman' does not dazzle, or pummel the viewer with high-powered graphics, but rather focuses and complements the theme of universal human rights told by someone from a culture misunderstood by both "The West" and the repressive elements of her own culture.

This film depicts an individual's gentle triumph over discrimination, who is now spreading the word to women and men of every culture to look beyond the veil, not of stereotypically depicted Arab woman's dress, but of the pop-culture representation of Arab women depicted in our media.