screwy reviewy: God Grew Tired of Us.

This is a movie, more of a documentary really, that follows some Sudanese refugees. It starts with their amazing story of a malnourished trek through africa and a camp they set up in Kenya with U.N. rations. From that camp, the U.S. snatches up some of them to pay taxes in the U.S., and we follow their experiences in america afterward.

The movie makes an excellent spectacle. We get to watch the new immigrants cook crumbled ritz cracker and milk soup(sounds really good actually. Shortly after, we see the culture shock of stores being "intimidated" by the groups of 3-6 dark men attempting to patronize their stores.

Well, we don't get to see it. This movie presents their tales like a fairy tale. They mention that one of them has a mental breakdown, and they mention that americans are bothered by their presence, and finally they mention; actually the principle subject mentions that the young sudanese who have immigrated "lost their way"; and we only see briefly those youngsters acting like idiots, saying they are from "Kansas city" and showing us their bling.

Of course, if you take a big group of immigrants and follow them, some will be great citizens, most will be minor contributors to society, and some will be thugs. This movie doesn't explore that reality, however, only making some passing references to it, and then showing the golden ones amongst them.

At first this movie comes with a cultural interest angle, asking "How do immigrants from a very different place adapt?" but when any negativity begins, the movie changes gears to say "War in sudan is awful", as if we didn't know. 2 halves of a movie glued together. The first half is better.