"Terror's Advocate" (2007)

"One can see a predilection for fringe characters throughout Schroeder’s career: More, with 1960s counterculture; General Idi Amin Dada, about the infamous Ugandan dictator; and Barfly, based on the writings of skid row’s poet laureate Charles Bukowski. Schroeder doesn’t necessarily align himself with his subjects, nor does he exploit or malign them. Instead, he is fascinated by the performance and construction of extreme individualism."

Read my full review of Terror's Advocate here at The L Magazine online.

http://www.thelmagazine.com/5/24/Film/feature6.cfm?ctype=2

"Finishing the Game" (2007)

"But racial politics seem to have got the better of Lin in Finishing the Game, as he spends so much time mocking cultural stereotypes that his characters rarely get the chance to move beyond them into any nuanced performances. Though reminiscent of Christopher Guest’s films (and the fake Dirk Diggler documentary featured in Boogie Nights), Finishing the Game lacks Guest’s subtle eccentricity, as well as his ability to render idiosyncratic characters with simultaneous strangeness and familiarity."

Read my entire review of Finishing the Game here at The L Magazine online.

http://www.thelmagazine.com/5/23/Film/feature7.cfm?ctype=2