Reviews of "Capitalism: A Love Story," "Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg," and "Whip It," opening today, Oct. 2

Capitalism: A Love Story (Documentary)
Director: Michael Moore

Moore is the king of the advocacy documentary, and he has influenced a whole generation of film makers.  I have always had my reservations about his methods, although I support his causes and opinions.
For one, there is too much egomania in his films.  Okay, not that bad as these things go.  And, in Sicko, he kept this to a minimum to the benefit of the film and the cause.
But, he has also been guilty of stacking the deck and of pouring his scorn on low-level employees, many of whom are in the union jobs he claims to care so much about.
Not this time.  This time he has taken on the big boys (and they are mostly boys) in banking, finance and Wall Street, the big insurance companies, the bought-and-paid-for politicians, and the security thugs who protect their interests.  And, his guerilla sarcasm has never been put to better use.  He wraps Wall Street banks in crime scene tape, and asks them for our money back, after pulling up in a rented armored truck.  He tries to make citizen’s arrests.
Anyone who has been paying attention for the last couple of years will know most of what Moore has to tell us, but he has structured this film to use the facts to the best effect, and thrown in the sad human stories to add emotional impact, including some from his own life.  In other words, Moore working his strengths.
He considers this a kind of valedictory, a summing-up and icing-on-the-cake of what he has been doing for 20 years now.  Moore is thinking out loud of leaving the documentary arena and making theatrical films.  We’ll see.
Maybe this is a good thing, in one way.  After all these years of making movies, Moore still cannot make a cohesive and consistent case.  His film skills are barely better than when he started.  I know that this may only be important to critics.  We see so many inept and clumsy films every year, that craft becomes a blessing.
A couple of things that will probably stay with you long after you see the film: when did Jesus become a capitalist?; and, “dead peasant” insurance policies.  If that doesn’t have America going to the barricades (Moore actually makes the challenge), likely nothing will.
Being a provocateur, Moore does not miss any chance to piss off his critics on the right, this time giving them the club to beat him with.  The final music in the film is a swinging version of “The Internationale,” the Communist hymn, once the anthem of the Soviet Union and beloved of Old Left activists.
They will offer this as proof that Moore is and has always been a commie.  In fact, he is just showing them his ass, mooning the morons.  I want to know where I can get a copy of the music.
B

Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg (Documentary)
Director: Aviva Kempner

I an old enough to have heard the radio version of The Goldbergs, and follow it to television.  Beloved of the immigrant populations in New York, Jewish and not, it was also very popular in places where few Jews had ever trod.
There were many ethnic programs on radio in the 30s and 40s, including Life With Luigi.  It was a time when many Americans were one generation or less from the immigrant experience, and the whole country was needing a caring mother.
Molly Goldberg was the creation of Gertrude Berg, who would be a phenomenon in any age, but was unique in those long-gone days.  She wrote every script, from 1930 to 1955.  She produced and acted in the shows.  She was a savvy business head, and an artist.
This loving documentary, perhaps a bit too worshipful, covers her life and her work.  Director Kempner takes on the one horrifying and tragic element in an otherwise charmed life.  Berg’s husband on radio and TV was played by an actor named Phillip Loeb.  Loeb was a liberal activist who was labeled a communist by Red Channels, a corrupt and vicious publication whose entire focus was on red-baiting people in radio and television.  Before I digress unto eternity, suffice it to say that Loeb was fired under intense pressure from right-wing political groups and major sponsors.  Berg fought it as long as she could, then gave in.
Loeb committed suicide in 1955.  He is only one of the sad stories from the worst period, the lowest point of American history, certainly in my lifetime.
This film is a period piece from a bygone era.  It is worth seeing just to fill in a cultural and political story which has devolved to a trivia question in our time.
B


Whip It
Director: Drew Barrymore
With: Ellen Page, Alia Shawkat, Marcia Gay Harden, Daniel Stern, Kristen Wiig, Juliette Lewis, Drew Barrymore, Jimmy Fallon

I went into this movie expecting nothing much, drawn by the presence of Ellen Page, who is one of my fave young actors.  I hope she is able to avoid the temptations of the wild life and the bad role choices for money.
She plays Bliss, a high-school girl in Bodeen, Texas, whose mother (Harden) is obsessed with beauty pageants for her daughters.  On a shopping trip to Austin, she is exposed to some women from the roller derby, and is smitten with the whole idea.
The movie concerns her single-minded pursuit to get on the team, the Hurl Scouts, in the local league.  To do this, she has to lie to her parents, abuse her relationship with her beast friend (Shawkat, from Arrested Development), and fake her age to the team.
What a surprise.  I like this movie a lot.  Not just the girl-power thing, or the obvious follow-your-dream stuff.  The script is funny, the women, especially Wiig and Lewis, are terrific, and Barrymore does a fine job directing her first theatrical film.
Back in the 50s, roller derby was one of my guilty pleasures.  It was on TV a lot, and the men weren’t half as interesting as the women’s teams.  Rough, violent and hysterical, RD has been bubbling under the radar for decades.  Maybe this movie will change that.
I must take this opportunity to remember the late Midge “Toughie” Brasuhn, captain of the Brooklyn Red Devils from 1949-1953, and my first female sports hero.  You were the best.
B+