Ed Jagels should have resigned a long, long time ago,

Wow. Just wow. As others have commented, a compelling portrait of a monumental Miscarriage of Justice. Rabid Kern County. CA prosecutor Ed Jagels makes his career on convicting ordinary middle class white people (yes, I said it) of child molestation on trumped-up and poorly investigated charges. What is more amazing than the fact that good people spent decades in prison for crimes they did not commit is the fact that the a-hole at the top -- Ed Jagels - not only never was forced to resign, but was actually re-elected several times. Even well after the first of the convictions were overturned, and the children who had been forced to testify falsely that their OWN PARENTS molested them recanted their testimony in court. Every one of them. The film, exec produced and narrated by Sean Pean sensitively and powerfully focuses on the true victims of this travesty, and, although Jagels made me quite mad the film rightly did not spend much time on the topic of what a jerk he is. This is about the deep effect this unforgivable injustice played in the lives of the parents, and the children forced to lie. I mean, what could be worse than to be brow-beaten into lying and saying that the most important person in your life -- your mom, or dad -- molested you?
Comment Comment | Permalink

Is the ending really all that mysterious?,

I am always wary of "cult classics". They can typically be amazing or amazingly bad.

I think Geoff Murphy's highly personal take on End of Days (precipitated by the Evil Corporation) is somewhere in between, more on the Amazing side, but maybe not a masterpiece as some have proclaimed it. Bruno Lawrence plays a scientist/researcher who awakens one morning to find that, apparently, he is the only one left on Earth, due to the catastrophic failure of an Energy Project he was working on. Or, is it something else? Speculation about the meaning of the The End of the film -- which has run rampant, apparently -- seems to tie together with the meaning of the Beginning of the film. It all relates to something called "The Effect" which has possibly wiped out the entire population of the Earth, except for Lawrence's character. The rest is worthy of saving for those that haven't seen this nifty Apocalyptic Sci Fi drama. In any case, I write spoiler-free reviews. What I will say is that Lawrence is wonderful in a role that requires an Actor's solo acting chops to be on display, as they were (in spades) for Will Smith in I am Legend. Great stuff.