Man on Wire
What is it about the French embrace of whimsy that is so particular to their culture? Man on Wire is a documentary (BBC/Discovery) of Philippe Petit, a man whose life’s dream was to wire walk (we might...
View ArticleWaltz With Bashir
Waltz With Bashir is a unique, arresting piece of work. As a documentary, it mostly trucks with events locked in memories, rather than assembling found footage or archival documents. A fellow Israeli...
View ArticlePaper Heart
Paper Heart is a story about a documentary being made starring Charlene Yi. It’s not the documentary, it’s a biopic of the documentary — the events portrayed happened to Yi before the filming of Paper...
View ArticleThe September Issue
The fashion universe in America centers around — maybe even depends upon — exposure in Vogue magazine. It’s the flagship of Condé Nast’s publishing empire, and for twenty-one years, it’s been under...
View ArticleThis Is It
Michael Jackson’s death this year elicited a lot of strong responses in the world, from deep mourning to disdainful pedophile jokes. When this film was announced, the cynics of the world eyed it as a...
View ArticleFood, Inc.
By now, most of you with an interest in this topic will have read Fast Food Nation or seen its odd film adaptation, or enjoyed the gastronomic minefield of Supersize Me. Food, Inc. is less about the...
View ArticleAnvil: The Story of Anvil
On the surface, Anvil: The Story of Anvil looks like nothing more than a retread of Spinal Tap, even to the point of wondering, “are these guys actually real? I have never heard of them.” Anvil draws...
View ArticleThe Cove
Taiji, Japan has had a terrible secret for years. If you have heard of this movie, you probably have an inkling as to what that secret is: dolphin slaughter. While Japanese whalers have gained...
View ArticlePlease Remove Your Shoes
Please Remove Your Shoes is a tiny little documentary centered around the historical failures of the FAA and airlines in managing effective air travel security (Exhibits A & B, Pan Am 103 and 9/11)...
View ArticlePin Gods
Pin Gods is a tiny little documentary about three guys, Bob, Tony, and Sonny, going on the Pro Bowlers Association tour in 1993 (or it may be 1994). It was shot on video by various sources and then...
View ArticleStanding in the Shadows of Motown
Motown was built on the backs of many great and undervalued performers, and this film concerns itself with the truly unsung musicians who were The Funk Brothers, the studio band in the 1960’s, truly...
View ArticleLost In La Mancha
If you don’t know what this film is, it is a documentary by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe about the rise and fall of a film that could have been, but was not. This film would have been The Man Who Killed...
View ArticleWinged Migration
If you just ask someone what Winged Migration is about, they are forced to say, “well, it’s about migrating birds, and they follow a bunch of different flocks all over the world, and boy are their arms...
View ArticleSpellbound
I recently read the book Bee Season, and the notion of a real documentary about eight contestants in the 1999 Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee was too compelling to resist after reading that...
View ArticleShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway
Filmmaker Dori Berinstein knows her stuff. She began this documentary at the beginning of the 2003-2004 Broadway season, choosing four musicals to follow through to the 2004 Tonys. She chose Wicked,...
View ArticleWar/Dance
Cynically, I thought War/Dance would be one of those documentaries that is nominated just by virtue of being about Africa (see also: Holocaust). It focuses on a group of Acholi tribe primary school...
View ArticleBigger, Stronger, Faster
Christopher Bell grew up watching big muscle guy movies of the 1980’s, with Stallone and Schwartzenegger, pro wrestlers, and basically the USA kicking tail all over the place. In his film, he...
View ArticleAmerican Teen
One of the brilliant posters for American Teen echoes the iconic poster for the movie The Breakfast Club, including its overly dramatic tagline. While “Heart-throb” Mitch seems a little shoe-horned...
View ArticleReligulous
My companion exhorted me, before the movie began, and after we had had animated conversation with many folks in the theatre, “Don’t write a good review of this movie just because you like [Bill...
View ArticleI.O.U.S.A.
I.O.U.S.A. is not trying to be subtle. It is very, very careful to be factual, politically neutral, and revelatory – but subtle, no way. Director Patrick Creadon and advocates David Walker and Bob...
View ArticleStreet Fighter Documentaries King of Chinatown and I Got Next
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCrE6HGRgM4[/youtube] There is a trailer out for a documentary on Justin Wong, one of the most well-known US Street Fighter players. From what the trailer shows,...
View ArticleBehind the Scenes of the Halo 3: ODST Live Action Short
I’m a big fan of the Halo 3 live action shorts. You can tell so much work and attention to detail goes into each one that has came out. In the video above, you’ll see just how much work went into...
View ArticleBabies
Let the subject speak for itself. This philosophy worked brilliantly for Microcosmos and Winged Migration (though there was some narration) — those films give the feeling of living side by side with...
View ArticleSoundtracker
Rental with a good sound system When Gordon Hempton was 27, he abruptly abandoned his botanical career for his life’s passion, recording the audio of nature. His vocation occasionally borders on mania...
View ArticleWaiting for Superman
Documentarian Davis Guggenheim made a film in 1999 called The First Year, and here references how much he learned about the school system back then. Waiting for Superman exposes how much has changed...
View ArticleFreakonomics
If you have not read the book on which this documentary was modeled, I urge you to do so. Authors Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner have taken a ton of data and decided to look for the hidden...
View ArticleThe Dungeon Masters
For one year, between GenCon 2006 and 2007, filmmaker Keven McAllester followed three deeply committed dungeon masters through their everyday existence. These DMs are old-school, table-top dice-rollin’...
View ArticleStar Wars ‘Fan’aticism Taken to a Whole New Level
The documentary Jedi Junkies is concerned with a broad scope of the Star Wars culture that is beneath the surface of the mainstream. Incorporating surprisingly insightful commentary (especially when...
View ArticleKing of Chinatown
I like documentaries. Not enough to pick them out on my Netflix queue, but enough that I do not mind watching them in class or running across them on TV. So when my friends Celeste, Andy, and Fred told...
View ArticleExporting Raymond
I have often referenced “Everybody Loves Raymond” as the sort of tepid, mediocre sitcom that muscles out the hipper cool ones I love that get cancelled. It’s not terrible, it’s inoffensive, but, in my...
View ArticleReview: I Know That Voice!
Animation has always been a part of modern culture. It pushes the limits of film and story telling with thousands of hand drawn images falling in perfect secession in front of a camera and capturing...
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Academy Awards 2016: Amy
“I don’t think I’m going to be at all famous. I don’t think I could handle it.” This was the movie I watched only because I had to, because I’d watched all the other documentaries nominated for an...
View ArticleAcademy Awards 2016: Last Day of Freedom
Since I’ve been trying to watch a lot of the Oscar-nominated documentaries this year (just because it’s the one category I usually skip completely) I looked at Last Day of Freedom, the story that Bill...
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Academy Awards 2016: Five more films
I admit it: at the Awards viewing parties I usually use the Feature Length Documentaries section as a chance to get up and stretch my legs, take a bathroom break, and snag an appetizer, because most of...
View ArticleReview: Oscar-nominated documentary shorts (…that I actually saw…)
I figured I’d sneak in one last post for the 2017 Oscars. Last year I saw all the nominated documentary shorts, which was a first for me. Normally the documentary categories are when I get up to use...
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The 2018 Oscar-Nominated Documentary Shorts
It’s officially a tradition: for the past three years I managed to watch all the Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts. Mostly because, hey, short. (Come on, you can dominate a whole category in three...
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Review – Free Solo
Next up in reviews of Oscar-nominated films, guest writer Dennis Larsen has a look at Free Solo. Alex Honnold is a prolific free climber. He has taken on some of the worlds most difficult climbs and...
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Review – 2019 Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts
For the past few years I’ve watched all the Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts, officially because they’re timely and important films to watch. Unofficially it’s because they’re short, and I can knock...
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