Film Review: "Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror" ("사이버 지옥: N번방을 무너뜨려라") (2022).

From Netflix comes Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror (사이버 지옥: N번방을 무너뜨려라). This crime documentary film directed by Choi Jin-sung. Anonymous and exploitative, a network of online chat rooms ran rampant with sex crimes. The hunt to take down its operators required guts and tenacity.

The criminal case, The "Nth Room" case (n번방 사건), involved blackmail, cybersex trafficking, and the spread of sexually exploitative videos via the Telegram app between 2018 and 2020 in South Korea. A man nicknamed god god (갓갓, later revealed to be Moon Hyeong-wook) sold sexual exploitation videos on Telegram channels and groups. A copycat crime, known as the "Doctor's Room", (박사방) was operated by a man using the screen name Doctor (박사, later revealed to be Cho Ju-bin), who is accused of blackmailing dozens of women, forcing them to take sexually exploitative videos, with some involving rape. The number of confirmed victims is at least a hundred and three, including twenty-six minors. It was revealed that the victims' pictures were shared and sold to over two hundred and sixty thousand IDs (narrowed down to about sixty thousand users, taking into consideration overlapping profiles) and were anonymously paid for in cryptocurrency. In October 2021, Cho Ju-bin was found guilty of his crimes and sentenced to a total of forty-two years of imprisonment. He coerced twenty-five victims into filming sexually exploitative content between 2019 to 2020. Cho reportedly said that he wanted to apologize to his victims. In November 2021, Moon was also found guilty and sentenced to a total of thirty-four years. He coerced approximately twenty victims into filming sexually exploitative content between 2017 to 2020. At total of three thousand-seven hundred and fifty-seven people linked to the Nth Room crimes have been arrested and two-hundred and forty-five of them have been imprisoned, as of December 2020. The videos created in the Nth Rooms are still being sold worldwide via foreign messaging platforms and the dark web.

Choi Jin-sung paints a vividly disturbing pictures of Baksa and god god, using their own words and actions against them, but wisely and compassionately makes this film as much about the victims. This is a powerful and dramatic story, and it’s hard to imagine anyone watching it won’t be riveted as the details pile up. The probing new documentary from Netflix looks at the true story of the infamous Nth Room criminal case and the heroic people who took it down. This latest Netflix documentary, which like most of the streamers docs employs a variety of hokey and staged dramatizations, is a film that won’t easily be shaken. The story is powerful enough to justify the experience, but the film hardly does right by the material with its overproduced delivery. Who knows how many more victims are out there? It’s a chilling realization and a truly heartbreaking one at that.

Simon says Cyber Hell: Exposing an Internet Horror (사이버 지옥: N번방을 무너뜨려라) receives:

FN Epee Open Club Competition.

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Film Review: "Our Father" (2022).

"Is he yours?" This is Our Father. This crime documentary film directed by Lucie Jourdan. After a woman's at-home DNA test reveals multiple half-siblings, she discovers a shocking scheme involving donor sperm and the popular and controversial fertility specialist Doctor Donald Cline.

American medical doctor and fertility specialist, Dr. Donald Cline, became notorious following a fertility fraud investigation where he was found to have inseminated patients without their knowledge at his fertility clinic near Indianapolis, which led to him being the biological father of at least ninety-six people. Cline received an undergraduate degree from Indiana University and his M.D. from Indiana University's medical school. After interning at Methodist Hospital, he was in the United States Air Forcefor two years and was in inactive reserve for twelve years until he received an honorable discharge. In 1979, he opened a clinic on 2020 West 86th Street in the Indianapolis area. Investigations started after Jacoba Ballard took a DNA test and found out she had seven unknown siblings. She would later learn that her biological father was her mother's fertility doctor. He acknowledged using his sperm to inseminate patients without their knowledge at his fertility clinic near Indianapolis, making him the biological father of over ninety people. After the investigations, Cline was given a one-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice. He was not charged any further, as there was no law in Indiana specifically prohibiting fertility doctors from using their own sperm. A high proportion of the children he covertly biologically fathered have auto-immune disorders. Cline's own condition of such a disorder, rheumatoid arthritis, would have excluded him as a sperm donor at his fertility clinic. In December 2017, Cline stood trial in Indiana. He pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstructing the criminal investigation into his actions for lying to investigators about using his sperm and was given a one-year suspended sentence. However, because he had not violated criminal law at the time he was given a $500 fine for obstructing justice by denying the allegations. He did, however, lose his medical licence. In 2019, Indiana became the first US state to make it a criminal offence for fertility doctors to use their own sperm without their patients’ prior knowledge and consent. However, no federal law is in placer for this offence. Currently, Cline's exact location is unknown, with the doctor, who is now in his eighties, keeping a low profile since the fertility scandal came to light.

The film delivers an absorbing cautionary tale about the shocking fertility scheme concocted by Dr. Donald Cline, the flawed response and investigation of Indiana District Attorney and ultimately the verdict of the Indianapolis court that failed to bring justice to Dr. Cline's victims. Instead of a rehash of an event that could be easily researched, the film takes the events from less than a decade ago and fills in people’s gaps in information and debunks commonly held beliefs about the event.

Simon says Our Father receives:

Film Review: "A Hero" (قهرمان‎) (2021).

From the director of A Separation (جدایی نادر از سیمین) comes A Hero (قهرمان). This Iranian film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi. Rahim is in prison because of a debt he was unable to repay. During a two-day leave, he tries to convince his creditor to withdraw his complaint against the payment of part of the sum. But things don't go as planned.

The film was inspired by the true story of Mohammad Reza Shokri, a man who returned a bag of cash he found while on a leave from a debtors' prison in Shiraz. This inspired the documentary, All Winners, All Losers, by Azadeh Masihzadeh. Masihzadeh attended a workshop taught by Farhadi on documentary filmmaking at the Karnameh Institute in Tehran. In the course, Farhadi assigned his students to research and film a documentary about people who had found and returned valuable objects to their original owners. According to Masihzadeh, while most students in the class took subjects from a list of excerpts from news media Farhadi provided them with, she found Shokri's story herself in local media in her hometown of Shiraz as the subjects Farhadi named were already taken by other students. In 2018, All Winners, All Losers was screened at the Shiraz Arts Festival. In August 2019, before filming A Hero, Farhadi asked Masihzadeh to sign a document stating that the idea for All Winners, All Losers belonged to Farhadi. Masihzadeh obliged, which she has since said she did under pressure. A lawyer for Memento Films later pointed out that the document had no legal value. In October 2021, after seeing A Hero and finding it strikingly similar to her documentary, Masihzadeh filed a complaint to House of Cinema's Iranian Alliance of Motion Picture Guilds. which then ruled in Farhadi's favour. Farhadi denied the allegation of plagiarism and sued Masihzadeh for defamation, and then Masihzadeh sued Farhadi for copyright infringement. Masihzadeh claimed that she discovered the story herself and that it had not been reported in national media at the time, while Farhadi's lawyer argued that the story had already been reported in media, providing links to two news articles from 2012. The manager of the workshop has told media that she shares Masihzadeh's recollection. A fellow student who attended the workshop also testified in support of Masihzadeh in court, while some other students have signed a statement in support of Farhadi denying the allegation. In March 2022, a judicial investigator allowed Masihzadeh to proceed with her legal action against Farhadi, but rejected her claim to revenue earned by Farhadi. In early April 2022, a court acquitted Masihzadeh of defamation charges for "insufficient evidence", which Farhadi could appeal. The same day, it was reported that a judge found evidence Farhadi violated Masihzadeh's copyright.

Farhadi's strength lies in his ability to cast adept performers able to convey the subtle complexities of his prose, and what the cast achieve here is exciting as it is troubling.

Deeply philosophical with human entanglements, culture, tradition, class and morality, the film is a complex drama with a great narrative pull that is a richly rewarding experience.

Simon says A Hero (قهرمان) receives:

Also, see my review for Everybody Knows (Todos lo Saben).

Film Review: "Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres" (2022).

From Netflix comes Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres. This documentary film directed by Suzanne Joe Kai. The life of rock journalist Ben Fong-Torres takes center stage in this documentary on how the legendary Rolling Stone writer and editor defined an era.

On January 7, 1945, American rock Journalist, author and broadcaster, Benjamin Fong-Torres (born Fong Chan Ho) was born. He is best known for his association with Rolling Stone magazine (until 1981) and the San Francisco Chronicle (from around 1982). Born in Alameda, California, Ben's father Ricardo (born Fong Kwok Seung), changed his surname to Torres and posed as a Filipino in order to immigrate to the United States due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. The family later adopted the hyphenated surname, Fong-Torres. In 1966, Ben graduated from San Francisco State University with a B.A. in radio-TV-film, was a writer and senior editor of Rolling Stone nearly from the magazine's inception. He conducted interviews for Rolling Stone of entertainment figures including Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, comedian Steve Martin and Linda Ronstadt's first cover story in 1975. He also profiled Marvin Gaye, Sly and the Family Stone, Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney and Rodney Dangerfield. A Fong-Torres interview with Ray Charles was awarded the Deems Taylor Award for Magazine Writing in 1974. Ben was also a rock DJ for San Francisco radio station KSAN-FM in the 1970s. He later hosted a live, weekly entertainment and talk show, Fog City Radio, on NPR affiliate KQED-FM. On television, he is the five-time Emmy Award-winning co-anchor of the Chinese New Year Parade broadcast on KTVU (Fox) in San Francisco. He has published several books, including: Hickory Wind, a biography of Gram Parsons; The Rice Room, a memoir; The Hits Just Keep on Coming, a history of Top 40 radio, and two compilations of past articles, Not Fade Away and Becoming Almost Famous (published in May 2006). In November 2006, his book with The Doors (The Doors By The Doors) was published by Hyperion, and he published The Grateful Dead Scrapbook (Chronicle Books) in 2009. In 2011, Fong-Torres published Eagles: Taking It to the Limit (Running Press). In November 2013, Willin': The Story of Little Feat (Da Capo Press), was released. From July 2005 to April 2019, Fong-Torres wrote the bi-weekly column "Radio Waves" in the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Datebook. He has been a contributing editor to Parade magazine, and has served as Senior Editor for Qello, an app and site that streams music concerts and documentaries. In 2007 to 2008, he hosted Backstage Sundays on San Francisco's KFRC-FM, and he was a DJ on BossBossRadio.com until 2016, when he became program director and DJ for Moonalice Radio. In 2004, Ben was inducted into the SF State Alumni Hall of Fame and delivered the commencement address in 2005.

The film is not just a documentary, it is a documentary of celebration. It is not a lionization, it is an exploration. But most importantly I think it is a film that Ben would be proud of.

Simon says Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres receives:

Series Review: "Meltdown: Three Mile Island" (2022).

From the director of The Most Dangerous Animal of All comes Meltdown: Three Mile Island. This documentary directed by Kief Davidson. This gripping four-part documentary series tackles the near catastrophe at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania through the lens of chief engineer and whistleblower, Richard Parks, as well as the community it impacted. Insiders recount the events, controversies and lingering effects of the worst nuclear incident in U.S. history.

At 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979, the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant history, The Three Mile Island accident, took place. The accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. On the seven-point International Nuclear Event Scale, it is rated Level 5 – Accident with Wider Consequences. The accident began with failures in the non-nuclear secondary system followed by a stuck-open pilot-operated relief valve (PORV) in the primary system that allowed large amounts of nuclear reactor coolant to escape. The mechanical failures were compounded by the initial failure of plant operators to recognize the situation as a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). TMI training and procedures left operators and management ill-prepared for the deteriorating situation. During the event these inadequacies were compounded by design flaws, including inconveniently arranged instruments and controls, the use of multiple similar alarms, and a failure of the equipment to clearly indicate coolant inventory level or the position of the stuck-open PORV. The accident crystallized anti-nuclear safety concerns among activists and the general public, and resulted in new regulations for the nuclear industry. It has been cited as a contributor to the decline of a new reactor construction program, a slowdown that was already underway in the 1970s. The partial meltdown resulted in the release of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine into the environment. Anti-nuclear movement activists expressed worries about regional health effects from the accident. Some epidemiological studies analyzing the rate of cancer in and around the area since the accident did determine that there was a statistically significant increase in the rate of cancer, while other studies did not. Due to the nature of such studies, a causal connection linking the accident with cancer is difficult to prove. In August 1979, cleanup at TMI-2 started and officially ended in December 1993, with a total cost of about $1 billion. Meanwhile, in 2019, TMI-1 was shut down due to operating losses and is being decommissioned at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion. The decommissioning is expected to be completed in 2079.

The informative but disturbing four-part docu-series reveals how close the Three Mile Island accident came to becoming a horrific catastrophe. The series delivers an absorbing cautionary tale about the partial nuclear reactor meltdown, the flawed response and the investigation that was critical of TMI management. Instead of a rehash of an event that could be easily researched, the series takes a familiar event from the past half-century and fills in people’s gaps in information and debunks commonly held beliefs about the event.

Simon says Meltdown: Three Mile Island receives:

Also, see my review for The Most Dangerous Animal of All.

Film Review: "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" (2022).

"Enter a new dimension of Strange" with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Michael Waldron, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and produced by Marvel Studios. It is the sequel to Doctor Strange (2016) and the 28th film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Doctor Strange journeys into the unknown, who, with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.

By December 2018, after the release of Doctor Strange, Derrickson was confirmed to direct the sequel. In July 2019, at San Diego Comic-Con, Feige and Derrickson officially announced the sequel, revealing the title to be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and its May 7, 2021 release date. In October 2019, Jade Halley Bartlett was hired to pen the sequel. However, in January 2020, Marvel Studios and Derrickson announced that he would no longer direct the film due to creative differences. By early February, Raimi was hired to replace Derrickson and Waldron was hired to rewrite the film's script. In late March, pre-production work was taking place remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with filming still on track to begin in May 2020. However, in early April, Disney shifted much of their Phase Four slate of films due to the pandemic, moving the film's release date to November 5, 2021. It was shifted again to March 25, 2022. In early October, it was confirmed that pre-production work had continued and revealed that filming would start in London, England by the end of the month or in early November. Although a national lockdown in England was announced from November 5 to December 2 due to increased COVID-19 cases, film shoots were not impacted. By November, Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Rachel McAdams would reprise their roles with Xochitl Gomez cast as a newcomer. At the same time, principal photography commenced, under the working title Stellar Vortex, and took place throughout Norway, England, Iceland, Italy, as well as New York and Vancouver. Increased restrictions were implemented near the end of December and another lockdown in England was announced in early January 2021. Filming resumed by mid-March. The production did not suffer any COVID-19-related setbacks when filming resumed in early 2021, though Cumberbatch had to pause filming temporarily after being in close contact with a member of the production who had a false positive test. In October, the film's release date was once again delayed to May 6, 2022.

Most of the cast, with the exception of Olsen, seem to be zigzagging in confusing fashion from good to lukewarm and back again.

Despite its shortcomings, the film still manages to do enough to get by, even if it's apparent the Marvel Studios formula is starting to feel rusty and in need of a serious reinvention.

Simon says Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness receives:

Also, see my reviews for Ash vs Evil Dead and Spider-Man: No Way Home.