Mel Kramer Archives | Deep Focus Review Movie Reviews, Essays, and Analysis Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:18:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://www.deepfocusreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cropped-DFR-Favicon-5-32x32.png Mel Kramer Archives | Deep Focus Review 32 32 Commune https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/commune/ https://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/commune/#respond Thu, 10 Jul 2025 18:11:17 +0000 https://www.deepfocusreview.com/?post_type=reviews&p=29188 Note: A newly restored version of Commune arrives in limited theatrical release on July 11 and expands in the weeks to come. Click here for showtimes and additional information. Commune is also available on some streaming services, including Kanopy. Say “commune,” and images of flower children, vegans, New Age remedies, and free love advocates come to mind. Jonathan Berman released Commune, his portrait of a famous cooperative living experiment, in 2005. The documentary follows Richard and Elsa Marley, who founded the 80-acre Black Bear Ranch in 1968 on the site of an abandoned mining town in Siskiyou County, California. Nestled in the wilderness, ten miles from anywhere, they started their would-be utopia on the principle of “free land for free people.” Their counterculture haven provided a new way of life for those resisting the US government’s demand for social conformity, the FBI’s mission to dismantle progressive movements, and the general unrest of the 1960s. Berman’s engrossing film returns to theaters not just to celebrate its twentieth anniversary but also to comment on the parallels between then and now, and how those who disagree with their government respond to unpredictable times by dropping out of conventional society.  What’s fascinating about the […]

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