Sparrowhawk

This is an excellent documentary on a very disturbing topic. How disturbing? Well, read the other reviews. The majority of them are by Men's Rights guys waving the red herring flag of ONE case mentioned in the movie. It's the only thing they've got to try and discredit this film. Pretty sad that a bunch of grown men feel they have to crowd onto this site and post sad little rants, clutching their stones because OMG WOMINZ MITE GET RIGHTZ!!!!! Don't pay any attention to them. This is an important film that should be seen by as many people as possible, ESPECIALLY YOUNG PEOPLE. You're better than those panicked little toddlers.

This is an excellent film, filled with Andrei's dry, ironic wit and pointed observations. As the synopsis states, Andrei Codrescu, a Romanian poet who has never driven a car, takes lessons in order to get behind the wheel of a big red American car for a cross-country journey to find the soul of America.

Andrei is indeed an immigrant, and he is eager to let the audience know that his birth country was a hard place in which to grow up, but this is not a problem in the film (unless you don't like immigrants, I imagine.) It's his viewpoint AS an immigrant that gives the film its shape; indeed, if he'd been an American by birth, most of his witticisms would come off very different. His dryness and ironic tone are an acquired taste, but really, it's one that's easily acquired. For example, here's one of his bon mots: "Tourists are terrorists with cameras. Terrorists are tourists with guns." If that intrigues you, you'll love the movie.

He interviews hippies, religious communalists, New Age practitioners, Native Americans, inner city artists, famous poets - all kinds of people, all of them connected by the thread of spirituality and the inner drive to grow. The result is funny, sweet, and ultimately a valentine to his adopted land.