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Review

Manically opinionated, unpredictably explosive, and unrepentantly irreverent, the very funny lesbian comedian Reno tackles the still tender September 11th disaster with this barbed personal account of the day and the insanity of its political aftermath.

Hollywood director Nancy Savoca (Household Saints, Dogfight) films the witty one-woman show recorded in New York only months after the event in an unobtrusive style, allowing the audience to be front and center with Reno. In a stream-of-consciousness flow, Reno, who lived quite close to the World Trade Center, mixes poignancy with hilarious asides and thoughts as she recounts the day. With comments on her neighbors, friends, mother and strangers, she takes the surreal happenings and turns them into barbed satire. She comments on her own conflicted feelings of patriotism with mainstream America's rallying around the flag, she dissects and skewers Bush's self-righteous politics and the public's reactionary response to the tragedy. An unforgettable, even cathartic stand-up show by a sharp-tongued woman who would do Lenny Bruce proud.

Raymond Murray