America the beautiful Darryl Robert

12 years old,, Gerren Taylor became a leading model and then a year later was cast aside .


America the Beautiful(2008)

Director: Darryl Robert
Writer Darryl Robert




In capturing Garren's story, Director Darryl Robert brings to our attention the miriad ways in which women's bodies and minds have become the rightful property of the corporate world where money reigns supreme and men dominate the decision making process that determines women's clothes, make up, plastic surgery, perfumes, and the fashion industry where beauty pageants came into popularity right after women won the right to vote.

Women's response to the societal mandate to be "beautiful" is to copy the bodies of the thinnest woman in the world, the "ultra thin" models. These models of note must be unhealthily thin to fit into the designer;s clothes. This all reduces down to money.

The bigger the model the more money it costs to drape her in costly material . One shot of Garrren wearing the skimpiest short shorts must have been super cheap for the designer rather than a full length dress, or a pants suit. We are talking in the tens of thousands of dollars,, just for the material of designer's choice.


Peer pressure is at odds with this skeletal image. The twelve year old girl has been taught to embrace and love Barbie dolls, the stick thin doll with "boob". Girls who feel driven to be "grown up" want boobs. This contradiction is highlighted in America the Beautiful. It is not just the cost to life and pocketbook that informs on what women think will make them beautiful but the peer pressure is intense particularly for the adolescent. These same forces inform on the plastic surgery, depicted in all its grueling moments but also the source of the modern day anorexic or bulimic teenagers and adult who think thin is good, when in fact for them it is deadly.

Garren's mother's solution to this problem of beauty in the eyes of the world(no boobs, curves , bumps) versus beauty in the eyes of her peers, was to remove Garren from peer pressure.. She took Garren out of school and provided home schooling.

Garrren's mother is one person in the Documentary that I felt Mr. Robert did not depict with an even understated tone that he used with everyone else. .Garren;'s mother is a single mom. She is Black and a likely candidate for welfare as is Garren. financial security is what this is all about. Not education that might or might not lead to future well being, but money: a cushion for those times when Garren will be an adult and on her own.

Money is what drives Garren's mother And that is what the White educated Principal in Garren's school failed to understand. There is a definite culture gap that being Black in America, being female without a man to support and help in rearing of children Darryl brings to the screen as a silent undercurrent that will ring loud and clear to those who identify with this courageous, driven single mom who stepped into the world of the rich and famous without a road map in hand nor a supporting arm to lean on.

One of the most delightful moments was watching Garren wash the dishes after dinner. She was excellent super competent at this chore. Her actions were so real and natural I felt hypnotized like I was there with Darryl, having finished a lovely dinner provided by this child/girl and now getting down to the business of the day, (or was it night) having her talk to me , to you, to the camera as she washed the dishes.

What a wonderful person, what a delightful girl. At the end of the film when she was so unhappy I wanted to reach into the screen and give her a warm loving hug.

Why didn't Darryl do that for me? It would have been the right, the perfect ending to an almost perfect film

There is so much to learn, to discuss, to think about and talk about and to feel in America the Beautiful. Don't let it escape without seeing it. America the Beautiful 2008. See it. at the theater or rent it for home viewing with family.


Linda Z
Rotten-tomatoes Vine Witches Brew

Commentary on film: Jim Morrison and Hunter s. Thompson

The destruction of a nation,:


When the main character in a film commits suicide this is not an incidental event. Suicide informs on the nature of the subject as well as the state of the society in which the person lives.

One should not dismiss the action of self annihilation with a simply, well, he was sick or it was inevitable, without going back into the history of the victim to learn the origins of this deadly act. What in the person's life would lead to their premature demise done with a sane mind and a willing body?


The original sociological explanation advanced by the Father of Sociology, Emile Durkheim, was that suicide is a violent act against the self. But upon closer examination, it is clear this explanation is self serving. It blames the act on the victim and gives the motive of violence as well. But is suicide a violent act against the self or is it more to the point to say that the survivors of the act, the close friends and family members are the ones who feel violence towards the actor, the person who has deserted the ship of life, leaving the rest of us poor souls to carry on.

This is an important question for the film director,and producer to answer before making a film that focuses world attention on the personality of a suicidal victim. If the act is done with a weak mind, a mind that is living in a drug filled or psychotic state where reality, reason and meaning no longer apply to the person's judgement, then the suicidal act has a different meaning than it has when the person who does the deed is of sound mental capacity.

Jim Morrison of the Rolling Stone fame, is the most frequented grave site in all of France. He was an extraordinary hero and the film on his life was a testament to his life and death. While i watched it I couldn't wait for the agony of living to be over, finished: a tortured existence extinguished. In taking his own life, Jim Morrison did not effect a violent act of self destruction. To the contrary, he saved his sense of self, that was doomed to further torment by ending lis life.

The same is true of Dr.Hunter S Thompson who could not tolerate a simple life. There was nothing that informed on his capacity to go into a quiet space to recover and be replenished through self contemplation. To the contrary , The thought of being without constant stimulation, without a public to confuse and stimulate every moment was intolerable for Hunter. So much so, that he chose to end his life in the wake of just such a peaceful family moment, When, for someone else, all seemed right in the world. for Hunter to be calm, loved, and appreciated by his personal fold was deadly.

If the actor of the suicidal act is actually saving his soul, preserving his ego and sense of self, how can we fault or punish him for this act. It is a moment when we can see with a clarity not otherwise obvious who the person was and how it came to be that the only course, the way of the future, was no future at all.

With this in mind i urge movie makers and audience to appreciate the icons who could not continue to live beyond a specified moment. With their act of annihilation they offer insight into who they were and where we are and that is a gift we should use to understand, who we are and what the world in which we live is all about.

When a discharged solder kills himself, that is a moment to pause, to reflect, to cry and to know, why. War does more than destroy and maim the body, It reeks havoc on the mind and makes the men and women who go off to serve their country, inoperative citizens. One step away from suicide.

What film past or present takes on this delicate subject: the destruction of a nation, one person at a time.


Linda Zises