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12/06/05
Arthur Dong: Family Fundamentals
75 %
Reviews Counted: 28 Fresh: 21 Rotten:7 Average Rating: 6.8/10
Runtime: 75 mins
Synopsis: In his new feature documentary, Family Fundamentals, filmmaker Arthur Dong (Licensed to Kill, Coming Out Under Fire) continues his quest to understand American contempt for homosexuality and its effects on family, culture and the nation's political landscape. Armed with a digital... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Director: Arthur Dong
Reviews
A timely and incisive film about the untenable conflict between warring American values -- religious fundamentalism versus family love.
12/08/02
It's always disappointing when a documentary fails to live up to -- or offer any new insight into -- its chosen topic. Unfortunately, that's precisely what Arthur Dong's Family Fundamentals does.
10/20/02
So many documentaries like this presuppose religious bigotry or zealous nuttiness of its antagonists, but Family Fundamentals displays a rare gift for unflinching impartiality.
10/14/02
An earnest, heartrending look at the divide between religious fundamentalists and their gay relatives. It's also heavy-handed and devotes too much time to bigoted views.
10/11/02
[Dong] makes a valiant effort to understand everyone's point of view, and he does such a good job of it that Family Fundamentals gets you riled up.
10/11/02
Dong shows how intolerance has the power to deform families, then tear them apart.
10/10/02
As part of Mr. Dong's continuing exploration of homosexuality in America, Family Fundamentals is an earnest study in despair.
10/10/02
Top Critic
Dong doesn’t demonize the conservative Christians he talks to, but he doesn’t have to...
10/10/02
Dong never pushes for insights beyond the superficial tensions of the dynamic he’s dissecting, and the film settles too easily along the contours of expectation.
10/10/02
Compassionately explores the seemingly irreconcilable situation between conservative Christian parents and their estranged gay and lesbian children.
10/08/02
Using his audience as a figurative port-of-call, Dong pulls his even-handed ideological ship to their dock for unloading, before he continues his longer journey still ahead.
10/07/02
As in his other searingly intelligent docs, Dong presents the facts in an admirably clear-eyed way.
10/05/02
An incendiary, deeply thought-provoking look at one of the most peculiar (and peculiarly venomous) bigotries in our increasingly frightening theocracy
09/24/02
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