douglasgreenberg

This series is awesome. It explains the complex systems that make American life work. Things like our food system, transportation system, power and manufacturing. Not just by telling. But showing them in their entirety, in action, doing their everyday work.

Why oh why did they only made 4 episodes?

Yul Kwon is an intelligent and thoroughly engaging host. And there are so many rocks left unturned. Things like our water system, health care system, Wall Street system and (one particularly dear to my heart as a tax attorney), tax system. These are just a few. The concept is fantastic. The opportunities are endless. Somebody, please get this guy back in production.

Sadly, the story of 9/11 is one that's often been stolen - by politicians using it as a backdrop for endless grandstanding, by conspiracy theorists convinced of cover-ups, by real (and fabricated) heroes seeking lionization, and by so many others who have manipulated it for their own agendas.

Now, finally, a single documentary gives us the real story. "16 Acres" is a documentary on the decade-long planning process of rebuilding the World Trade Center site. It shows the massive number of stakeholders who together create a cacophony of input. Design decisions must be made in a tug-o-war between victims' families, residents, the media, an alphabet soup of govt agencies, politicians and private interests.

As one person says, it's an impossible job. Not only because of the number of voices. But because the public expects to do with buildings, what buildings just can't do - heal a wounded nation, renew American confidence, console those in grief, etc.

Watching it all unfold - you might hope that for once, people could just unite and be understanding of one another. Instead, sadly, they doggedly pursue their own interests, as if wearing horse blinders to everyone else.

The process is ugly. But in the end, it produces something beautiful. Not because the design is most ideal. But because it represents compromise. A truly American compromise, which could only have come from the manifold voices, all shouting at each another until finally something emerged.

Now, thanks to this documentary, that is what 9/11 will forever mean to me. My highest rating.

An enjoyable, albeit formulaic documentary of another fallen skateboard star from the 1980s. Rising Son, similar to Helen Stickler's 2002 documentary, "Stoked! The Rise and Fall of Gator", chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of a 1980s skateboarder, in yet another cautionary, VH1-esque tale about the dangers of fame.

The film's subject, Christian Hosoi, is a flamboyantly charismatic skateboarder who captures the energy and youth spirit of early professional skateboarding. We watch as Hosoi's style-driven aerial acrobatics, exhibitionism and campy, vibrant-colored clothing make him an overnight celebrity and fashion icon. Then, just as suddenly, trends change and Hosoi descends into the fathoms as he succumbs to a drug addiction. Years later, in jail and at rock bottom, he finds his salvation in religion.

Overall, Rising Son is a likable, television quality documentary about a youth celebrity's misadventure, steep fall from grace and sobering redemption. Disappointingly, it lacks the skillful organization and power of Stickler's film.

While "Stoked!" was a cogent biography of the fame-addicted Gator, 'Rising Son' is but a piecemeal collage of Hosoi, stapling together stock footage and repetitive sound bites from a hodge podge of interviews. Often, it's like a garage party of old skateboarders endlessly reminiscing about their Hosoi, the mythologized version that they like to remember. Nevertheless, it's still an interesting, highly watchable documentary - even if it's flank steak next to Stickler's sirloin.