SO CONFOUNDED BAD, IT'S KINDA GOOD.......The aims and messages of any political theory contrary to Capitalism are always dumbed down and joked up, and this is certainly the case with THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK (dir. Jordan Susman). Opposing views pertaining to the strengths and weaknesses of our political reality are always portrayed as the feeble musings of, 'American troublemakers'. If, "Get a haircut, ya Commie hippie!", works for you, you might just like this film. If your political outlook is a bit more sophisticated, I would recommend any film by Noam Chomsky as a cinematic antidote to the cracked Hollywood styling of THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK.

I brought this movie over to my friends, thinking that we would both enjoy it, seeing as SLC Punk wasn't that bad. Ha, this was nothing MORE than a rip off of SLC Punk, and to my knowledge, portrays anarchism in a very...fantastic way, if not childish way. If this movie were the real world, I'd have swung myself in the very OPPOSITE political direction from these...anarchists. Not much to it, seriously, and I would not recommend this to anyone who wants an inside to the anarchist lifestyle. SLC Punk at least made the lifestyle look a little real, whereas this movie makes it look a little ridiculous. I think the only good part of the movie was the hippie camp; Double D (I think that's his name) was pretty much the shallowest portion of the movie. I don't believe I've ever seen ANYONE fail to act like an idiot. And whoever he was...he accomplished just that. I usually don't crack down on movies like this, but this one had it coming. Please, even the first house party scene was a complete remake of SLC. This movie was bad; sorry to all those who are dearly in love with it, but my taste buds have been burnt.

There is a trend in American movies of late to try to make the audience feel superior to the people on the screen, or to just make them feel superior to everyone in society in general. It's a Nietzsche thing, and you're either on the bus or not.The brilliance of this film (and I do mean brilliant), is that it dares to ridicule the very people that should be its core audience. Unsuspecting viewers who think they are oh-so-cool because they're watching the Anarchist Cookbook (oooh...scary...hide it from the parents), must be aghast to find out that the film is an indictment of their childish mischief.Fight Club was all about making the viewer feel cool. This film deconstructs that feeling of cool. And it paid the price for it (judging by the ratings it has received.) This is a movie for thinking people. Not people who just think they're cool. In fact, that's what the movie is about: the difference between wanting to be cool and wanting to think for oneself. Brilliant.

This film represents what excellent movie-making is all about: the journey of a character to self-discovery. I can think of few films with so extreme of journey.In the beginning there is Puck. He is a self-proclaimed anarchist who thinks he knows it all. And the film wittily begins as an anarchist romp. The scenes have a disjointed feel to them, as it ping-pongs around from a satire of the Freddie Prinz Jr. oevre, to examinations of characters and their ideas of freedom.This wolrd is shaken up by the arrival of Johnny Black, the first person to arrive on the screen who actually knows what he wants. While the others talk, J Black does. And in the process, he earns the respect (no matter how begrudging) of the rest.And Puck is caught in between. The kid who acted like he knew everything, must now confront his complete lack of knowledge: about the world, about his friends, and about himself.Without revealing the brilliant twists at the end, allow me to say that this film explores trust, ideology, and friendship in a way that is funny and poignant. It's a shame more people did not see this minor masterpiece.