Sundance. The Order of Myths.

"Many here were looking forward to Margaret Brown's second feature after her well-regarded music doc Be Here to Love Me: A Film About Townes Van Zandt, but Brown surpassed expectations with her remarkably assured The Order of Myths," writes AJ Schnack at indieWIRE. "Beautifully shot by Lee Daniel and Michael Simmonds and expertly edited by Brown, Michael Taylor and Geoffrey Richman, the film examines the time-honored tradition of Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama, where celebrations remain segregated between white and black residents."

"Handsomely shot and intelligently edited, with none of the maddening sloppiness that distorts too many nonfiction projects, the film explores the secret societies, the fancy-dress balls and the celebratory parades for a story that is at once very site-specific and seemingly simple and as big and richly complex as the United States itself," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times.

It "may find an audience," suggests John Anderson in Variety, "but it will likely be because of the derisive nature of its portraiture rather than the weightier issues of race and class that helmer Margaret Brown attempts to grapple with - when not making some easy targets look ridiculous. Film's concern with entrenched sociopolitical attitudes is commendable, but snideness will more likely be the factor that broadens its appeal."

For Michael Ryan, writing at Hammer to Nail, this doc's far superior to Traces of the Trade.

Posted by dwhudson at January 25, 2008 5:19 AM