Produced & Directed by Megumi Sasaki Released by Fine Line Media USA. 86 min. Not rated Heres a superhero sequel movie worth seeing! The Vogels, mild-mannered retirees Herb the postal worker and Dorothy the librarian, thrilled viewers in director Megumi Sasakis first documentary feature, Herb & Dorothy (2008), and won more admirers after it was […]
Directed by Zachary Heinzerling Produced by Heinzerling, Lydia Dean Pilcher, Patrick Burns & Sierra Pettengill Released by Radius/TWC USA. 82 min. Rated R Just show up. That sound and practical advice applies for actors who schlep from one discouraging audition to another or when you really don’t want to go near a gym. Off and […]
Written & Directed by Tanner King Barklow & Gil Kofman Produced by Francis Krow Released by Seventh Art Releasing/Antidote Films USA/China. 90 min. Not rated Unmade in China tells a story that is both entertaining and unsurprising, tracking the trials and tribulations of Gil Kofman, an American director (The Memory Thief) trying to make a […]
Directed by Matthew Akers Produced by Jeff Dupre & Maro Chermayeff Released by HBO Documentary Films/Music Box Films. USA. 105 min. Not rated This celebratory and fascinating documentary tops off what have been two very good years for the Yugoslavian-born artist Martina Abramovic. Her 2010 blockbuster retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, “The […]
Directed by Andrew Shea Produced by Shea, David D’Arcy & Barbara Morgan Written by Shea & D’Arcy Released by Seventh Art Releasing USA/Austria. 90 min. Not Rated Portrait of Wally is a real-life thriller that starts out as an historical legacy from the Holocaust, then ratchets up into a contemporary scandal with rich villains suavely […]
During its final days, the Tribeca Film Festival world premiered three New York-centric fine arts documentaries. The most penetrating of the trio, Wagner’s Dream is an engrossing look behind the curtain of the Metropolitan Opera, and is the perhaps best film about that art form, fictional or otherwise, though it may have that field all […]
Produced & Directed by Manfred Kirchheimer Released by First Run Features USA. 82 min. Not rated Veteran documentarian Manfred Kirchheimer (most recently 2007s Spraymasters) employs the folk anthem Which Side Are You On in his newest film, assuming youre already sympathetic to the causes that will be championed. The octogenarian German-born and NYC-trained cameraman/director has […]
Directed by Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb Produced by Panahi Released by Palisades Tartan Iran. 75 min. Not Rated Farsi with English subtitles There have been movies heralding musicians, painters, photographers, and poets who persevered against oppression and restrictions, but this very unusual, deceptively simple documentary passionately reveals the essence of a filmmaker. This soulful […]
Written & Directed by Wim Wenders Produced by Wenders & Gian-Piero Ringel Released by Sundance Selects Germany/France. 106 min. Rated PG English & German, Russian, Italian, French, Slovenian, Korean, Spanish & Portuguese with English subtitles Pina opens at the proscenium stage of the Wuppertal Theater in western Germany and then quickly plunges the audience into […]