I Am Ready Warden- This Oscar nominated Documentary Short is a sobering look at a man condemned to death, who has accepted his fate as well as anyone can, and provides context and ruminations on how he got to death row before his execution. In a state like Texas, where even Richard Linklater explored the rate of executions, I Am ready Warden doesn’t argue the convicted is innocent, just that a split second mistake forever changed this man’s life. Last year we explored the prison complex system through the Netflix documentary Daughters, as well as A24’s Sing Sing. These films are different than ones in years past that fought to exonerate someone wrongly convicted, and now just want us to see the humanity behind tragic error. I’m impressed Paramount Plus is hosting this with audio description.
fresh: Final Grade: B+, Audio Description: B+
Soundtrack To A Coup d’etat- What would have been a powerful documentary about the United States’s involvement in African politics, is disjointed without audio description, relying heavily on a jazz laden soundtrack to push any desire you may have to sit through this forward. the film is not entirely in the English language.b. Really, save for the jazz vocal compositions, or news clips, there’s a lot left to be desired. Sadly, there’s no known audio description track, so i can’t recommend.
The Dead Don’t Hurt- Viggo Mortensen continues to choose interesting projects, with this Western of sorts being another feather in his cap. This follows seemingly a tried and true path, but finds a newer approach. Much like how Sergio Leone once breathed life into the genre with his spaghetti westerns, The Dead Don’t Hurt feels like an interpretation of the American West without that individual ever having set foot on the dusty trails. Instead, it approaches the genre from a different isolated angle, which will make this film at the very least an interesting experiment. For me, it didn’t fully pay off, despite two strong lead performances, and just didn’t have a quick enough pacing to match the QuickDraw of its lead.
Barely Fresh: Final Grade: C+, Audio Description: B+
