After decades of documentaries criticizing the puzzlements of the American way of life—opposition to gun control despite a decades-long mass murder crisis (Bowling for Columbine), abiding lust for capitalism despite catastrophic results for the vast majority (Capitalism: A Love Story), opposing free public healthcare as a basic right comparable to free public education (Sicko)—Michael Moore […]
With a robust showing of documentaries and foreign and American-made films in 2015, there are more than enough to choose from for a top 10 list. The options make for a more spirited end-of-the-year discussion than usual and are also why so many of the awards and nominations that have been announced thus far have […]
This year brought filmgoers three top-notch biographical films on troubled women pop stars: Amy, Janis: Little Girl Blue; and What Happened, Miss Simone? Amy Winehouse and Janis Joplin took too many drugs and flamed out early. Nina Simone, though, soldiered against high odds on into old age, battling the twin tormentors of mental illness and […]
In The Emperor’s New Clothes, comedian Russell Brand and filmmaker Michael Winterbottom join forces to explore the origins and impact of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the growing disparity in wealth distribution. Polymath Brand is a flamboyant and controversial figure, equally as famous for his short-lived marriage to Katy Perry and overcoming drug addiction […]
It wasn’t really that long ago when many had to rely on dial-up Internet service, when listening to live-streaming audio sounded like an underwater long-distant phone call, and podcasts and streaming video on demand were merely ideas on the horizon. In the breezy Dreams Rewired, perspectives on the rapid-fire technical developments of a century ago […]
It was once believed that birds were messengers whose flight and song could be interpreted to foretell the future, but over time, as the world became increasingly industrialized, we lost the connection we once shared with their world. Through her documentary, director Su Rynard hopes to call our attention, once again, to what the songbirds […]
Onstage, Janis Joplin wailed the blues, drank whiskey, and drove the crowds wild. Offstage, she drank whiskey, slept around, and died shooting smack in 1971. But Joplin believed in music, worshipped it, seized its power to communicate and transport. Her love of music was the purest thing in her life, and Janis: Little Girl Blue […]
Frame by Frame combines vérité, interviews and never-before-seen archival footage to showcase four Afghan photojournalists documenting their war-torn country. The documentary opens with photojournalist Massoud Hossaini rushing to cover another suicide bombing and segues into historical television and radio reports over a montage of compelling historical photographs. This sets the scene of the country’s complex […]
The behind-the-scenes documentary I Am Thor is about a heavy metal singer who dresses up as, yes, the Nordic god Thor, bends steel bars, vanquishes foes onstage, and smashes bricks with sledgehammers. So, essentially, he’s the band GWAR before GWAR. He almost made it in the halcyon 1980s when He-Man (who he uncannily resembles) and […]