EAST OF HAVANA
Unrated, 82 minutes

Some of the first rhyming you hear in “East of Havana”, a documentary about the Cuban hip-hop scene, is, “My first rule of duty is to survive / That’s how I conquered all my obstacles / I have overcome and the temptation has not reached me / If you want to believe in me / Just know I don’t owe any thing / I don’t fear anybody.” The lack of detail, the generic sentiments, and the absence of a unique point of view that makes this rap god awful are the same problems that make this documentary god awful.

There’s no reason it should be this bad. Two Cuban Americans return to Cuba to film three members of El Cartel, a hip-hop collective who claim they’re speaking truth to power. Magyori sells things on the street to make money, Mikki Flow likes his granddad, Soandry’s brother lives in America, and that’s as deep as things get. Context has been jettisoned in favor of hip hop that has all the depth and feeling of a high school poetry journal and slick, unmotivated camera trickery.

The filmmakers attempt to inject some urgency with the upcoming Annual Hip-Hop Festival, but in a hip-hop doc like last year’s “Favela Rising,” the stakes were clear: hip hop versus a bullet in the head from a corrupt cop or a tweaking drug dealer. The onscreen threats to the kids in “East of Havana” are black outs and boredom. When Hurricane Charley hits Cuba and the Hip-Hop Festival is predictably canceled, the kids cry, “Too many blacks together seems to be the problem,” ignoring the fact that the hurricane caused a billion dollars in damage. Cut to: the cameraman zooming in on the truly pneumatic rear ends of teenage girls dancing. That the movie was produced by Charlize Theron proves conclusively that she has more money than brains.

Grady Hendrix

FIRED!
Unrated, 71 minutes

When the actress Annabelle Gurwitch was fired from a Woody Allen play, she fell into a crisis of confidence as to her prospects in the business. After a few liquor-fueled, bathrobe-bound days in her home, she decided to probe her actor/comedian friends about their experiences getting the ax. Thus begins Ms. Gurwitch’s comedy documentary “Fired!”

The first third of the film is com prised of these stories, told by some very fine storytellers: Jeff Garlin recounts a failed stand-up gig during which his bags were packed for him by the time he exited the stage; Tate Donovan describes being fired from a film only to find that very movie being filmed outside his front door for three weeks; Andy Borowitz recalls his dismissal as a scriptwriter for the “Facts of Life” because his depiction of Tootie wasn’t “Tootie enough.”

But Ms. Gurwitch quickly takes a wrong turn. Perhaps emboldened or vindicated by her empathetic friends, she decides to consult a series of experts, including a grief counselor and employees of a corporation devoted to “outplacement services” on the emotional and professional impact of getting fired. This is where the comedy stops and the self-righteousness begins. Ms. Gurwitch is told by the grief counselor that losing a job is like losing a community, and should be mourned as a significant personal loss. But Ms. Gurwitch, by virtue of having made this film, has clearly already moved on to other endeavors.

She proceeds to further erode any sympathy, humor, or good will by visiting a barbeque in Michigan in tended to boost the morale of General Motors workers who have lost their jobs or are on the verge of it She never directly compares her situation to theirs, but by virtue of including them her film, she implies similarities between their or deals. Unfortunately for Ms. Gurwitch, they do not hold up. She is a perky brunette with an endless supply of famous friends and the ability to create work for herself (see, for example, this film and the book and off-Broadway show she produced out of similar material clips of which are used in the documentary); they are mid-level laborers in a shrinking job market to which they are wedded. Then, to put the final nail in the coffin, Ms Gurwitch brings in former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich and political strategist and sometime humorist Ben Stein to discuss the economics of the labor force, a topic she doesn’t appear fully prepared to discuss.

The concept behind “Fired!” is to shed humor on a wretched situation. But in the grand scheme of job losses, Ms. Gurwitch’s situation was never that wretched. In the course of trying to enlighten she veers wildly off-course, choosing to forgo humor and self-deprecation in favor of sobriety and self indulgence, losing her focus and that of her audience in the process.

Perhaps that’s why she was fired in the first place.

Erica Orden