Bardlerx Strictly average movie

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

valis1949 SO CONFOUNDED BAD, IT'S KINDA GOOD.......The aims and messages of any political theory contrary to Capitalism are always dumbed down and joked up, and this is certainly the case with THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK (dir. Jordan Susman). Opposing views pertaining to the strengths and weaknesses of our political reality are always portrayed as the feeble musings of, 'American troublemakers'. If, "Get a haircut, ya Commie hippie!", works for you, you might just like this film. If your political outlook is a bit more sophisticated, I would recommend any film by Noam Chomsky as a cinematic antidote to the cracked Hollywood styling of THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK.

Emil Bakkum The film The Anarchist Cookbook tells an intriguing tale and deserves our attention. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to find that Amazon sells secondhand copies almost for free. The fundamental theme addresses by the film is the extent of violence that can be employed in order to attain ones political goals. Since anarchists reject the violence monopoly of the state, an anarchist setting was the obvious choice for the film makers. Note however that every person is confronted with this question, also the loyal elector in the democratic state. Do you support breaches of privacy? Long prison sentences? The death penalty? So actually the choice of the anarchist backcloth is more or less arbitrary, or perhaps an intended move in order to appease law-abiding citizens. Consequently the film did not evolve into an in-depth study of anarchist ways of life. If you want to delve into this theme, I would recommend the Swedish film Tillsammans (Together) instead. Nevertheless, The anarchist Cookbook gives a reasonable impression of the diversity in the anarchist ways of living. The story unfolds in a commune of squatters. It harbors a free socialist (who conducts a book shop), an advocate of free sex, and several libertarians. Of course the group embraces the vegan menu, and rather surprisingly, drugs are prohibited. The average group member in this commune is devoid of ideology, but simply loathes authority. This holds in particular for the main character Peter, or Puck, his anarchist alias. One day a man called Johnny Black joins the group. He wants to bolster the level of violence used by the group. Of course minor infringements are already common: shop lifting, vandalism, obstruction. But Johnny wants to step up the scale of destruction, and employ sabotage, explosives and physical assaults. Anyone who has spent some time in observing the extreme left, will confirm that such tactics do exist. Personally I have always had difficulty in understanding the sense in attacking common laborers and constables. Is it an expression of contempt? There have been times when some streets in Amsterdam were completely controlled by communities of squatters. They used reinforcements in order to turn the buildings into fortresses. Police raids were countered with the throwing of bricks and bottles, and sometimes the dumping of heavy appliances from the roof tops. Indeed these pockets of anarchy or autonomy were ruled by violent sections, who used repression to discipline the other group members. Johnny Black represents precisely this type, and manages to gradually seize power by means of the usual turnover and the introduction of his own comrades. Since Peter is a nihilist, he willingly adapts to the new leader. Others follow, including the socialist - which seems rather incredible, considering his principles. Under Johnny the commune starts to increase its means by the trading of drugs, and gets a criminal character. When Johnny forges an opportunist alliance with fascists, racists and nationalists, Peter decides to rebel. He betrays his former comrades to the FBI, and accepts a significant bounty in return (how far are you willing to go?). In the end we see him continuing his journey, traveling on a long straight road in the wilderness, towards the sunset. In conclusion I find the film satisfactory: the characters are steady (except for the socialist), the events seem possible, and dilemmas are elaborated on. For instance, after a police raid one of the group members is sent to jail, another to a mental institution, and Peter gets an ankle bracelet and is again brought under parental care. Although The anarchist cookbook does not evoke feelings of empathy, it is food for thought. If it is to your liking, consider also seeing Strawberry Statement.

mario10zeus Let's see, we have Anarchists, Nihilists, anti-government right-wingers, wealthy Republicans, Neo-Nazis, but no Democrats at all. Being a moderate Democrat which at times veers towards Centrism, I found this movie lacking a bit. While some scenes were smart, others came off as stupid, un-original, un-realistic and improvised. Puck lives with his friends in a Anarchist commune somewhere in Texas. These are Anarchist that resemble more flower children. One day, a Nihilist called Johnny Black shows up, offer everyone drugs and violence as a weapon and somehow becomes the leader. Later on, the Anrchist forge an alliance wit other anti-establishment groups such as Neo-Nazis. First of all, not all Anarchists are peace loving intellectuals. Many are upper-class spoiled brats that simply want to vandalize anything (Yes I know plenty of these, they do exist). Many do follow Anarchist theory but fail to realize it's utopianism. Johnny Red the early leader,constantly lionizes Sweden as an exemplary society but somehow Social Democrats are missing from the film's universe. Anarchists tend to be socially liberal and would NEVER form an alliance with Neo-Nazis. If Puck didn't agree with the system, he could of found ways to subvert it by integrating himself into alternative cultures and political movements (YES, lobbying does work). Other reviewers are correct in pointing out the similarities between this movie and SLC Punk and Trainspotting. Despite its plot's weakness, Anarchist Cookbook has a witty script and at moments stylish direction. Gina Phillips as the commune temptress, steals most of her scenes.

triplefried Every now and then a movie just plain WORKS. For me, this was one of those movies.Although the setup was a bit clunky at first, this movie ended up grabbing me by the gonads and did not let go until the very end. And what an end! The reversals of fortune were clever and literal.Thank god for the quote on the box about Animal House -- otherwise I never would have been able to quite categorize this film. But, yes, this is Animal House for a more lawless set of folks.A word too about the use of music. Without ever descending into music-video-land, this film made incredible use of music to move the story forward and propel the scenes. In fact, the scenes and the music fed off one another in a completely holistic way. Kudos to the director and his composer and music supervisor (and his editor!) for what was clearly a well-though out battleplan.