in which I take exception to Michael Atkinson

Went to The Grand Illusion to see Favela Rising, a documentary about the musical group/social movement, AfroReggae. It's a very interesting, inspirational story about a political grassroots organization that arises out of the drug culture of the Brazilian slums. Shot in the high-contrast color of City of God, it's always visually interesting as well. My complaint about it, perhaps shallowly, is that there's not enough music, and most of the concert footage has music recorded later and dubbed over it. I also suspect that what is presented to us as the lead singer's comeback concert after a terrible surfing accident is actually a pre-accident concert. I have nothing to base this on; only that they present it while a voiceover talks about his return to performing, but never actually say that this is footage from that show.
Final shot: freeze frame. Followed by skyline of Rio for credit sequence.
Then I saw The Hidden Blade, which I enjoyed greatly. I kept thinking of John Ford during it, and when I looked up Michael Atkinson's Village Voice review this morning, that was his headline. However, he seems to except it from the "tavern yuks" of Ford, but what I thought of most was how the humor usually doesn't quite work, in the manner of Ford's humor. Major exception: the Japanese learning how to drill like Western soldiers. Incredible sensei sequence, as well. And I'm always a sucker for movies where the love cannot be expressed until the last train pulls out of the station, and maybe not even then (that would be me, without the excuse of class codes). However, there was a little too much "I washed me face and hands before I come, I did" in the last scene, even for me.
Final shot: tableau.