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Before you start whingeing on about why the acclaimed documentarian Errol Morris decided to give the evil Steve Bannon a soapbox as the subject of Morris’ new documentary, hold on.

“American Dharma” is a great example of why more speech is better, as a rule. And why letting even demagogues – and sometimes especially demagogues – explain themselves and face critical questioning is a revealing process.

In this instance, Bannon exposes himself in the film as a man with nothing much to offer in the way of ideology. He’s got confidence in spades and cynicism to spare, all in the pursuit of destroying the establishment and its institutions.

Also Read: Toronto So Far: 'First Man' and 'A Star Is Born' Lead a Crop of Films With Heart and Dazzle

But under even the most gentle questioning from Morris he is revealed to have no plan as to...

Today, the zombies from George A. Romero's classic 1960s horror film rise once again in ten separate first issues of Double Take's Ultimate Night of the Living Dead comic book series. Daily Dead recently chatted with Jeff McComsey, writer of Z-Men and Rise, who discussed expanding on Romero's living dead world, further exploring the characters of Johnny and Barbara, and much more.

Do you have fond memories of watching Romero's Night of the Living Dead in your formative years?

Jeff McComsey: I saw it at a pretty young age, probably in the mid-’90s. I remember we rented it on VHS and watched it a couple of times. It wasn’t until I was in college and we watched a bunch of old movies when we really got into it. And now since I’ve watched it professionally, I’m still impressed with what Romero did.

The folks at One Way Static Records must have chanted “Candyman” five times while looking in the mirror, because their latest release is the soundtrack to 1992’s Candyman, a film based on Clive Barker’s Books of Blood short story, “The Forbidden.” Making its vinyl debut, the eerie soundtrack by Philip Glass is available to pre-order, and we have song samples and a look at the gatefold and cassette cover art.

Press Release - “One Way Static Records is really proud to be bring you their latest release, A release where we had the chance to work with two icons in their own respective fields!

Today we present to you the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to Clive Barker’s 1992 ‘Candyman’ composed & performed by Philip Glass.

Clive Barker who wrote the story for Candyman is a multi talented artist, painter, director & producer. The extent of his work is endless. Spawning Nightbreed,...

Actors, Directors, Films – there is room for all of the deserving at The Overlooked Hotel.

Thirteen Days – a tense political thriller/historical drama – is as deserving as any. Let’s build a case for it…

The Cuban Missile Crisis was as fraught and potentially explosive a stand-off as any during the Cold War. Alongside proxy wars and political posturing, we had here a genuine and perilous game of brinkmanship, brought to life with startling verisimilitude by director Roger Donaldson and an exceedingly accomplished cast including Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, Dylan Baker and Kevin Costner.

We begin with high-altitude surveillance revealing medium range ballistic missiles being positioned on Cuba by the Soviet Union and the seemingly impossible decision then placed on the relatively young John F. Kennedy as to how to respond. An invasion or airstrike ran the risk of turning the Cold War very warm, very quickly, but to not...

For the past month, Shia Labeouf has been embroiled in a very public plagiarism scandal. This week, the controversy came to a head when Labeouf announced via Twitter that he is "retiring from all public life." The whole scandal has been bizarre, messy, and hard to follow, so we're breaking it down. Here's what happened: Dec. 16: Labeouf Is Publicly Accused of Plagiarism Earlier that week, Howard Cantour, a short film directed by Labeouf, debuted on the internet. Soon after, news broke that Daniel Clowes was accusing Labeouf of lifting dialogue and characters from his graphic novel, Justin M. Damiano. Dec 16: Labeouf Issues an Apology Via Twitter Copying isn't particularly creative work. Being inspired by someone else's idea to produce something new and different Is creative work. — Shia Labeouf (@thecampaignbook) December 17, 2013 In my excitement and naiveté as an amateur filmmaker, I got lost in the creative process and neglected...

Daniel Clowes is reportedly considering legal action against Shia Labeouf regarding his apparent plagiarism.

The actor could face legal action after his short film HowardCantour.com lifted heavily without credit or legal rights from the Ghost World cartoonist's Justin M Damiano comic.

Labeouf has now been accused of more counts of plagiarism, both in his own comics and even in his apologies offered to Clowes.

"His apology is a non-apology, absolving himself of the fact that he actively misled, at best, and lied, at worst, about the genesis of the film," Clowes's Fantagraphics editor Eric Reynolds told BuzzFeed.

"No-one 'assumes' authorship for no reason. He implied authorship in the film credits itself, and has gone even further in interviews. He clearly doesn't get it, and that's disturbing.

"I'm not sure if it's more disturbing that he plagiarised, or that he could rationalise it enough to think it was okay and...

Tom Laughlin: ‘Billy Jack’ movie franchise comes to an end; U.S. government, Hollywood studios blamed (See previous post: “‘Billy Jack’: Tom Laughlin Revolutionized Film Distribution Sytem.”) In 1975, Tom Laughlin’s self-produced Western The Master Gunfighter — a remake of Hideo Gosha’s samurai actioner Goyokin, co-starring Ron O’Neal and Barbara Carrera — bombed at the box office after opening at more than 1,000 locations. Laughlin reportedly had spent $3.5 million to market the $3.5 million production, having hired John Rubel, assistant secretary of defense under Robert McNamara, to plan the film’s distribution tactics. Financially depleted and embroiled in more lawsuits against Warner Bros., Laughlin embarked on the Billy Jack series’ fourth — and, as it turned out — final film, Billy Jack Goes to Washington. A 1977 Frank Capra Jr.-produced reboot of Frank Capra’s 1939 classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Laughlin’s final directing effort was barely seen even in its drastically edited form.

Producers Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel and Louise Gund have announced that James Eckhouse, most recently seen in the world premiere of Jane Anderson's 'The Escort' at The Geffen Playhouse and best known for playing Jim Walsh on the original 'Beverly Hills 90210', will play the role of Robert McNamara in the Broadway bound production of All The Way by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan The Kentucky Cycle.

In 2003 legendary documentary filmmaker Errol Morris finally won a long-deserved Oscar for his feature length interrogation of Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense during America’s unfortunate war in Vietnam. Ten years later, Morris has made a sequel of sorts about Donald Rumsfeld, the man who held the same position for the Bush administration during September 11th and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Unfortunately this time the results aren’t nearly as satisfyingly remorseful. Instead, it feels like more spun truths and crocodile smiles from a man who specialized in those unique skills throughout his time in office. Fortunately, those qualities make The Unknown Known arguably just as fascinating as it’s sort of prequel, just in a very different way. Go on, hit the jump to find out why you lucky, lucky person. Morris walks Rumsfeld through his entire career from his early days working under Nixon and Gerald Ford,...

One of my most anticipated titles at Tiff, Errol Morris' documentary interview with Donald Rumsfeld called The Unknown Known now has a very effective teaser. A sort of follow up to Morris' Fog Of War - the Oscar winning documentary on Robert McNamara, another Us Secretary of State - and appearing as slickly edited and scored as always, the trailer establishes the setting of the two Gulf Wars and Saddam Hussein's position of power, before highlighting the twin constants of Morris' filmmaking: obsession and nuance. Rumsfeld actually calls the filmmaker out on a possible obsession with capturing Rumsfeld's obsession, while also declaring, "I'm cool and measured." Ok, this is going to be a subtle battle of wills, as well as some elucidation on the thinking of...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Chicago – One of the five documentaries nominated for an Oscar this Sunday is the incendiary story of “The Gatekeepers.” The film goes inside “Shin Bet,” the Israeli secret anti-terrorist agency. By interviewing ex-agency leaders, director Droh Moreh was able to gain insights into the moral failings of their activities.

By dividing the film into seven segments, Moreh breaks down the activities of Shin Bet post the Six Day War in 1967, in which Israel scored a decisive victory over Palestinian territories, including the disputed Gaza Strip. In this comprehensive interview with HollywoodChicago.com, Moreh talks about his process in procuring the interviews of the key Shin Bet leaders shown in the film, and the continuing influence over policy that the Isreali-Palestinian conflict has on geopolitics.

Ami Ayalon is Interviewed in ‘The Gatekeepers’

Photo credit: Sony Pictures Classics

HollywoodChicago.com: Congratulations on ‘The Gatekeepers’ being nominated for Best Documentary in the upcoming Oscars.

Sent to me by Robert McNamara from - The Louisiana Democrat. (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, December 14, 1859. Worth fighting a bloody civil war over.

One of the most enjoyable things about Spielberg/Kushner’s Lincoln is how subtle much of it is. You’d never really know much about the character Gloria Reuben plays...

“I’m a white male, age 18 to 49. Everyone listens to me…”

--Homer Simpson

Publishers resurrecting a popular franchise from the past will use any number of marketing friendly quotes to justify digging up an old icon to parade on the market again.

“We’re introducing it to a new generation of gamers!”

“It’s x like you’ve never seen it before!”

In all reality, there’s really only one reason that they pull the Lazarus routine on old gaming icons: to make a generation of old gamers wax nostalgic and open their wallets to relive the fond memories of their gaming past, when we were scrounging our allowances to hit up an arcade as opposed to balancing the family budget to make the mortgage payment. These were the carefree days of summer vacations, only having to clean our bedroom as opposed to a whole house, and having a weekly...

We all know there are historical inaccuracies littered throughout the world of Film and that any who believe everything they are told by Hollywood are, to put it bluntly, morons. It’s one thing to misrepresent an event in time completely, but in my own opinion there is nothing worse than Hollywood’s willingness to play fast and loose with the roles of individuals in their retelling of history. After all, these individuals misrepresented deserve better than to be portrayed as something they are not. Is it worth besmirching the memories of historical figures for a little extra value? Does Hollywood have no decency that they would risk upsetting descendents and falsely educating those stupid enough to believe what they are told?

Rather than go with the obvious, I’ve tried to go with lesser known historical figures, of course many of you will already know this information but here it is anyway…...

While 2K Marin's 1960's-set Xcom has been delayed until god-knows-when, the strategy gurus at Firaxis Games have their own take on Xcom due out this fall: the strategy-based Xcom: Enemy Unknown.  Check out the trailer via G4 after the jump. While the first-person Xcom is taking itself back to the days of Robert McNamara and the Cold War, Xcom: Enemy Unknown looks like a proper follow-up to the Xcom games of the past with its futuristic weaponry, strategic gameplay, and research elements.  It looks and feels drastically different to what 2K Marin has planned for the franchise, but no less polished. Xcom: Enemy Unknown will be released October 9th, 2012 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC.

The Oregon city is the first to use Ibm's app to help cities figure out how policy can affect the lives of their citizens. But can any algorithm quantify the whole experience of city living?

Can the complexity of cities really be reduced to a single set of equations, as the physicist Geoffrey West claims, or even 3,000 of them? Is it really true, as West’s numbers would indicate, that Corvallis, Oregon--a city of 55,000 two hours’ drive south of Portland--is the most innovative city in America? Perhaps there’s something in the water, or it may have more to do with the fact that West's model loves patents and Hewlett Packard’s Advanced Products Division is based there, along with its patent portfolio, one developed by thousands of researchers worldwide.

West’s conclusions are only as good as the data and the models (patents equal innovation) he has to work with.

Joyce McKinney, the focal point of Errol Morris' lens in Tabloid.

Errol Morris Digs The Dirt With Tabloid

By Alex Simon

When Errol Morris’ documentary The Thin Blue Line hit movie screens in 1988, it helped jump-start the rather tired genre back to life again. After a renaissance of the documentary film in the 1960s through the early ‘70s from the likes of The Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens), D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back), and Robert Drew (Crisis, Primary), the documentary film seemed relegated to late night spots on local PBS affiliates, narrated by boozy British actors in the downslide of their careers. Morris’ tale of Randall Adams, a man not only wrongly jailed for murdering a Dallas cop in the late ‘70s, but convicted due to the testimony of the man who actually did it, was an intoxicating blend of first-person realism, film noir detective story, and very real moral outrage.

Tabloid is the latest chapter in Errol Morris’ career long documentary ode to American eccentricity. His talent lies in finding remarkably odd and unique people and gently prodding them until they reveal life stories that would almost be too surreal to believe as fiction. Tabloid might not have the political significance of say Morris’ Oscar-winning Robert McNamara profile Fog Of War, but it just might be his most intriguing story to date. It’s a film that involves alleged Mormon rape, tabloid scandal, Bsdm, mime border crossing, dog cloning, and a three-legged horse. In short, it’s got everything you need for a giddy night at the movies. The fact that it all happened to the same woman Joyce McKinney just makes the material that much more intriguing. Morris has never found a more fascinating subject than McKinney and through her quietly created one of his best films. Hit the jump for more.

One of these headlines ran in yesterday’s edition of the New York Daily News; the other four we made up. See if you can spot the fact. A. Happy Days Mom Marion Ross Admits Vietnam War Architect Robert McNamara Gave Her Athlete’s Foot at Ymca B. Brady Bunch Mom Florence Henderson Admits Ex-Mayor John Lindsay Gave Her Crabs in One-Night-Stand C. Miami Vice Detective Olivia Brown Admits Richard Nixon Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman Gave Her the Measles at the Watergate Hotel D. Suddenly Susan Grandmother Barbara Barrie Admits Former N.Y.P.D. Commissioner Bernie Kerik Gave Her Nongonococcal Urethritis Backstage at the Tony’s E. Matlock Daughter Linda Purl Admits Ex-Governor David Paterson Gave Her Scabies on Cross-Country Train Trip...

We still don’t know very much about X-Men: First Class, the Cold War-era preboot in which a much younger gang of mutants puts on retro-fab bright blue-and-yellow costumes to fight Fidel Castro, Black Ops-style. So treasure the short, intriguing clip from the film that just hit the Internet, in which a young Professor X (James McAvoy) makes a presentation in CIA headquarters about the oncoming rise of superpowered individuals. Suffice it to say, the era-appropriate G-Men act like era-appropriate toolboxes. (Also, am I crazy, or is Oliver Platt the spitting image of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara? Maybe...

Call of Duty: Black Ops wasn’t perfect, but it featured a truly awesome mini-game, in which you play as John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, and Robert McNamara and try to fight off a horde of zombies attacking the Pentagon. (Between Black Ops and the new X-Men movie, the youth of America will officially never, ever accurately understand the Cold War.) For the upcoming Escalation expansion set, the designers have taken the whole zombie thing and run with it: In the new map called “Call of the Dead,” you can play as Sarah Michelle Gellar in her Buffy wardrobe,...

Call of Duty: Black Ops made a blip on our radar last year with its Zombie mode, which pitted the likes of JFK, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, and Robert MacNamara against hordes of the undead .  This year, they've really got our attention with the announcement of their 'Call of the Dead' mode, which will be part of their upcoming 'Escalation' map pack.  What is "Call of the Dead," you ask?  Check out the grindhouse-flavored trailer after the break. Call of Duty developers Treyarch have basically put together the most insane, yet completely amazing concept: four survivors fight off waves of frozen ghouls in Siberia.  However, those four survivors bear the likenesses of Danny Trejo...

He's tackled miscarriages of justice and Abu Ghraib. Now, Errol Morris turns his attention to the case of Joyce McKinney. He tells B Ruby Rich why this could be his final documentary

An innocent, beautiful girl from the Blue Ridge mountains, once crowned Miss Wyoming, becomes engaged to a young man, then flies to London to rescue him from the religious cult that has kidnapped and brainwashed him, sacrificing her virginity to make love with him in a desperate bid to restore his sanity. Take 2. A hussy in a see-through blouse is so obsessed with having sex with a Mormon man that she kidnaps him and keeps him in a cottage in Devon where she rapes him for three days straight, as he lies helpless, manacled to a bedpost.

What happened? It all depends on whom you believe. Joyce McKinney was put on trial in London in 1977, both by...

Former Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, was interviewed in a sad recounting of the errors and outright lies that made up the Vietnam War in the documentary, "The Fog of War." The film revealed what most of us already knew: Battling entrenched combatants on their home turf involves heavy civilian casualties, and imparts little good will, despite our politician's spoken intent, or a ground soldier's desire to serve his country with honor. So we repeat a bit of history in a sense with HBO's gut-punch of a documentary, "The Battle for Marjah. one of many Iraq and Afghanistan live-action documentaries, as this British production is a hopeless Catch-22 where we meet a fast-talking village boy smoking with adults...

Ever since dev studio Infinity Ward put out "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" three years ago, Activision's contemporary military first-person shooter games has electrified gamers all over the world. Prior to "Modern Warfare," the "Call of Duty" games re-visited various sides of World War II conflicts. Then, "COD4" transported gamers into a stunningly photorealistic world that had them tracking and taking out terrorists in a post 9-11 fictional construct. Sucessive games have upped the ante either in the graphics, gameplay or controversy departments so "Black Ops" has an intimidating legacy to live up to. If you're a "Cod" noob, here's what you need to know.

1. No "No Russian", No Problem

Since the game came out on Tuesday, "Black Ops" has already shattered the sales record set by 2009's "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2." That game sold 4.7 million units at launch but the U.S. and U.K. day 1 sales...

Back in January, the FEARnet editorial brain trust gathered to come up with our list of top 10 things we were looking forward to in 2010. Some panned out (The Walking Dead), some didn't (A Nightmare On Elm Street). But if you had told me on New Year's Day that I'd get to see John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara and Fidel Castro shoot zombies in the face, I promise you that would have topped our list. If you're a gamer, you know what I'm talking about. If not, allow me to explain. First person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops hit stores on Tuesday. The game features a polished single player campaign set during the height of the Cold War, but competitive multiplayer is where the...

While Treyarch targeted its anger at "Call of Duty: Black Ops" glitch exploiters this week, the government down in Cuba took aim at the game's makers, calling their latest sequel "doubly perverse" for a mission that involves an assassination attempt on Fidel Castro (don't worry, no spoilers here beyond that) and corrupting North American youth. I guess Castro's role fighting zombies in the game's multiplayer zombie mode couldn't redeem it in their eyes.

"On the one hand, it glorifies the illegal assassination attempts the United States government planned against the Cuban leader ... and on the other, it stimulates sociopathic attitudes in North American children and adolescents," an article on Cuba's state-run news website Cubadebate.cu said (as translated in an AP report).

Granted, Cuba's leader was the one on the receiving end of real-life assassination attempts, so you probably wouldn't expect to see his government releasing any five-star reviews of...

Another year gone by, another "Call of Duty" out of the gates. The latest entry in the immensely popular first-person shooter series is a Treyarch original, the same developer behind "Call of Duty 3" and "Call of Duty: World at War." Frequently considered a second fiddle to franchise creator Infinity Ward and their own entries in the series, the team at Treyarch has nonetheless gotten to see firsthand what "Cod" fans want and how to give it to them. They brought the benefit of all that experience into the development of "Call of Duty: Black Ops" and, well... let's just say the series' place in this crowded market as a gold-standard shooter is in no danger of being threatened.

The Basics

The story is simple enough, and best experienced firsthand. While you'll play as multiple characters, the real star here is special ops soldier, Alex Mason (voiced by Sam Worthington). Nearly...

Major Spoiler Alert: Continue reading and it will be the "end" of the unknown when it comes to the all new "nazi" zombie mode in Activion's Call Of Duty: Black Ops. We reported earlier in the week that it was a lock. The famous "nazi" zombie mode from World At War would be back but that is all we knew. Until today...

Our friends at Kotaku.com got their hands on some top secret test footage from Activion's newest foray into war. And it's a big one. Not only do we get a snippet of actual zombie blasting gameplay footage but we also learn our identities this time around. What do we mean identities? Aren't you just a nameless soldier ripping off one liners at the undead? Not anymore!

Along with the leaked gameplay footage we learn that you can take on the roles of John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon,...

Spoiler Alert. For Realsies. Don't come here yelling "Aw, You Ruined It!!!" because you've been warned. Okay, ready?

Everyone and their mother knew there was gonna be a zombie mode in the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops, but what we Didn't know was how we were gonna get it! Now we do ... and brother, is it a Doozy!

As first reported by Kotaku.com, leaked videos of Call of Duty: Black Ops in action are giving up Huge secrets, including the cut scene introduces you to the beloved post-game zombie mode.

"So, what's the big deal?"

Funny you should ask! This time when you fight the Nazi Zombie horde, you are no longer Soldier #2 ... you can now play as either John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara or Fidel Castro as you keep the Nz horde from breaching the Pentagon. The dialects are a little overboard but I'm Stoked.

If you can remember Nixon, you probably know the name Daniel Ellsberg. Either way you've almost certainly heard of the Pentagon Papers -- the explosive documents detailing government deception of the public during the Vietnam War, which Ellsberg leaked to the New York Times and other papers in 1971. The Most Dangerous Man in America, a new documentary by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, tells Ellsberg's story, from his early role as a top military analyst under Robert McNamara to his growing doubts and decision -- and subsequent struggle -- to expose the truth. After the alleged Gulf of Tonkin attack on a U.S. ship by North Vietnam, the Pentagon rushed to make the case for war. Daniel Ellsberg, who had just arrived at the Pentagon as a military analyst, played a key role -- digging to find an incident of...

October Country follows a year in the life of the Moshers, residents of New York State's economically depressed Herkimer Valley. Co-director Donal Mosher escaped the region to pursue a career in photography, though one of his most notable projects documents the travails of his family back home. In the original photo series "October Country," Mosher's images of modestly decorated households, empty factory lots, turning foliage and Colonial graveyards convey a post-rural, post-industrial landscape endowed with a eerily gothic splendor. Co-director Michael Palmieri brought his background in experimental and music video to coax Mosher's work into a cinematic dimension. The result, a breathtaking work, offers new aesthetic possibilities in depicting working class American reality. The film endows more empathy and dignity than could ever be found in white trash reality TV, while bringing touches of stylization (i.e. Halloween party scenes shot in ghostly slow-motion) not found in more vanilla strains of social observation documentary.

Roller derby chick flicks aren't novel. I have fond memories from the '70s of catching endless TV replays of The Kansas City Bomber, with its vaguely kinky girl-on-girl aggression (it starred Raquel Welch, who wasn't quite an actress but knew how to get mad). So I was primed to see Whip It, the first movie directed by Drew Barrymore, with Ellen Page as a 17-year-old small-town Texas high school student (Page, with her elfin girlishness, will probably be playing 17-year-olds when she's 37), who lies about her age in order to join the Hurl Scouts, a roller derby team based in Austin. Barrymore is such a nice, sweet person that you may wonder how she could possibly have directed a movie about demon women on wheels whose primary athletic activity consists of bashing each other's bodies. Here's how. Whip It is a nice, sweet roller derby movie. There's no edge to it,...

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

I was able to sit down for a couple of years and pump out a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right Here for free.

And now, you can follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp

Item #1 - The Office - Season Five Giveaway

I didn’t start watching The Office until this summer. I’m really late to this party.

While I don’t think it’s the funniest program to ever hit the airwaves I did find that it helped me get through the summer months and I have found its presence on my TiVo to be comforting when there is nothing left to watch.

It stands to reason whether or not it will keep its place atop my favorite program list as the fall season kicks into high gear but...

After the release of his Standard Operating Procedures, the director Errol Morris writes me: This movie seems to have incited controversy, almost as if I broke some sort of rule or series of rules. The ultimate mystery is people. They are often mysteries not only to others but to themselves. Almost everyone wants to dismiss the bad apples rather than look at them, as if there is nothing inherently interesting in their stories. Oh well. The words "to themselves" hold the key.

None of the opinions in the film are owned by Morris. They belong to the people on the screen, who actually appear in the infamous photographs from Abu Ghraib. There are a few very brief off-screen questions by Morris ("That was on your birthday?") but they're not penetrating, do not suggest opinions, are the sorts of things any attentive listener would say. Most of the reviews of the film get this right.