Brown presents a complex, provocative view ...
Comment
08/08/08
The Order of Myths (2008)
100 %
Reviews Counted: 18 Fresh: 18 Rotten:0 Average Rating: 7.6/10
Theatrical Release: Jul 25, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: As winter turns to spring, Mobile, Alabama, buzzes and flutters with the floats, parades, masquerade balls, and secret mystic societies of Mardi Gras. The oldest Mardi Gras celebration in America, this time-honored ritual has always been racially segregated. Filmmaker Margaret Brown,... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Reviews
1 - 18 (sorted by date)
Less a vitriolic critique than a considerate, despairing depiction of the intractable sway exerted by long-held, unpleasant traditions.
07/27/08
On both sides of the Mobile Mardi Gras divide, people seem to be edging toward a desire for reconciliation, but there remain significant differences about what that might entail.
07/25/08
Top Critic
Ostensibly about Mobile, Alabama's annual Mardi Gras tradition, which dates back to 1703, Margaret Brown's documentary is actually an examination of the racial divide in a city that claims there is none.
07/25/08
Wise and soberly affecting documentary about the separate but unequal Mardi Gras festivities that take place each year in Mobile, Ala.
07/25/08
Top Critic
This microcosmic look at race relations is a great reminder that, even in the year of Obama, we remain a nation divided between black and white.
07/24/08
To say each group takes this tradition seriously can in no way convey the absolute nuttiness and frenzy that filmmaker Margaret Brown has captured.
07/23/08
Top Critic
Quietly shocking, The Order of Myths is a deft, engrossing cross-section of Mobile life, heavy on local color and insight.
07/23/08
Top Critic
A nice gesture, but in the sequel I'd like to see these refined rednecks really shaken out of their comfort zone. How about taking these folks north of the Mason-Dixon Line to see how the other half of the country lives before they miss out on the 21st C.
07/22/08
The camera effectively pictures the two separate but equal Mardi Gras and contrasts the faux-baroque finery with some urban scruffiness.
07/21/08
Entertaining, mind-opening docs open every month, but none has broken through to a wide audience. Now comes the latest winner, Margaret Brown’s penetrating The Order of Myths.
07/21/08
Top Critic
Provides a good feel for the fun and exciting parts of Mobile's Mardi Gras as well as the undercurrent of "traditional" racial segregation that still exists today.
04/17/08
Revolutionary advances have been made in racial equality, but in Mobile segregation - the most interpretable symptom of racism - has its last stronghold in Mardi Gras.
03/18/08
Smartly edited, utterly engrossing, and as intelligent an examination of American race relations as I’ve seen.
03/11/08
Editors Michael Taylor, Geoffrey Richman and [director Margaret Brown] have stitched the material together to make a lively and revealing portrait of life in the New South.
01/30/08
Top Critic
Top Critic1 - 18 (sorted by date)
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