Just got back from seeing Chicago 10, Brett Morgan's documentary on the trial of Abbie Hoffman, Bobby Seale, Jerry Rubin, and others for "inciting violence" during the protests around the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. I'd judge it uneven but enjoyable. The archival footage was a somewhat dry and disjointed. I found myself feeling completely crotchety for thinking "does the music have to be so loud?" And some of the scenes of the protestors and police clashing are soundtracked by non-contemporaneous songs like Eminem's "Mosh," which was completely jarring.

But the animated courtroom scenes are pretty amazing -- particularly in the way they cut out noise to leave only signal, making them more powerful than actual footage. In fact, when the film ended the audience just gave a polite applause, but when the animator credits scrolled, it went crazy! I'm not saying that wouldn't happen outside New York, but sometimes you really do have to love how people behave in crowds in this city.

(Oh, and another reason to love it -- as the lights came up a straggly-haired dude in a black knit cap stands up and says, "Thanks for coming. Oh yeah, I'm Brett Morgan. G'night." Director guy's just sitting in the crowd, amongst us.)