** "They arrest you for standing up for human rights - 1984 has arrived and is alive and well."

Fascism, Facebook, The FBI, And French Criminalization In The Service Of Snooping On People's Stuff - Roger Waters and political commentator Rick Sanchez weigh in.

** "Look like a girl, act like a lady, work like a dog, and think like a man..."

Radha Mitchell Talks Take My Hand, Finding Neverland, And Kerouac's Lover In Big Sur - the Australian actress discussing as well her grandmother's advice on surviving the film world. And her latest film, 'Take My Hand' - delving into the mental and emotional toll of disability.

Along with a look at her upcoming portrayal in A Natural Selection, a class conscious psychological thriller opposite Malcolm McDowell, her character 'struggling to raise her daughter by taking a job at a billionaire's lavish estate - only to realize she's been lured there for sinister purposes...'

** "Normalizing violence on the world stage - the gaming industry and further blurring the line between entertainment, and recruitment and military propaganda..."

UK Desk: Theater Of War filmmaker Matthew Alford discusses 'the fascinating and controversial world of military recruitment through video games - and the historical evolution, ethical implications and political impact of this digital recruitment strategy...'

"...A painting I did several years ago of two historic revolutionary figures done in a single canvas - they continue to be a major pain-in-the-ass to the rulers of the capitalist system. These legendary individuals provided humanity with a critical analysis of this system that has proven applicable to this day -I enjoy painting images of revolutionaries. With my brush I give grandeur to those who would otherwise not receive it under the savage system we live under...'

A Conversation With Artist Carlito Rovira. The self-described Puerto Rican 'Young Lord for life' delves into discovering painting in prison, and his political inspiration creatively from 'the revolutionary struggle of the Young Lords as a youth, when 'during the McCarthy era, it was the McCarthy era on steroids in Puerto Rico - and that is what I want to be remembered by, that I was an artist but I was a revolutionary artist...' 

Rebel Ridge Review: Marked Safe For Subversive Scenario

Sugar coated is the name of the game in Hollywood, not only to appease the popular palate for substance when it might exist, wrapped up in subliminal action and horror - but to bypass the meaning-averse Hollywood East and West Wall Street corporate entities calling the shots. And writer/director Jeremy Saulnier pulls this off nicely with Rebel Ridge, a subversive action thriller shedding stylish light on the offscreen dark descent into deep state authoritarianism in progress.

The setting of the ironically titled Rebel Ridge is the remote rural, deep south Louisiana town of Shelby Springs. And as a frantic mysterious black man, former soldier Terry (Aaron Pierre), is apparently racing the clock to raise bail for his cousin, about to be sent off by the local authorities to a state prison where his life will be in danger after testimony he gave implicating his potential assassins there. To save him by posting bail, Terry has sold all his possessions including his car, to come up with the thousands in cash he's carrying by bike to the courthouse - and while now homeless and living in the woods. 

But the local authorities, steeped in corruption and headed by a vicious cop played by Don Johnson, have other sinister ideas in mind. Including setting up a virtual police state by enriching themselves legally off the exploited population, through a very real, apparently existing ploy across this country, known as Asset Forfeiture - enabling police confiscation of any property they choose from civilians on mere 'suspicion.' And subject apparently to utilization for both legal and otherwise purposes.

A split personality, class conscious action thriller, Rebel Ridge at its core is insurrectionary cinema. questioning the deteriorating political, ethical and racist core of this country. And Aaron Pierre's action hero ex-marine (The Underground Railroad and Malcolm X in Genius) ties it all up tightly, in covert rebellion referencing Watergate corruption - though action heroes on screen are more often than not military rebels rather than any controversial, too close for establishment comfort authentic revolutionaries. But with a subplot screaming for more, his unconventional sidekick is a local Chinese restaurant owner who was on the side of the Chinese communist soldiers in the north, during the 1950's Korean War. While in conclusion summed up inevitably, a marked safe for subversion scenario.
Prairie Miller
Read Rebel Ridge Review at Rotten Tomatoes HERE