Directed by Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson & Ben Timlett Written by Graham Chapman, David Sherlock, Douglas Addams, David Yallop & Alex Martin, based on the memoirs of Mr. Chapman Released by Epix/Brainstorm Media UK. 82 min. Rated R Featuring the voices of Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, and with Carole […]
Released by ShortsHD/Magnolia Pictures Animated program: 40 min. Live-action program: 106 min. This year’s Academy Award nominees for short films are a mixed bag of veteran animators and talented newcomers. Each category has some clear standouts and a few duds. Want to know which shorts to pick to win this year’s Oscar pool? Animated One […]
Written & Directed by Dror Moreh Produced by Estelle Fialon, Moreh & Philippa Kowarsky Written by Moreh Released by Sony Pictures Classics Hebrew with English subtitles Israel/France/Germany Belgium. 97 min. Rated PG-13 The Gatekeepers thoughtfully examines the difficulties of protecting a democracy from internal enemies. While Americans are more familiar from movies and TV with […]
Directed by Neil Barsky Produced by Jenny Carchman Released by Zeitgeist Films USA. 95 min. Not Rated Koch breezily looks back at the rise of New York City’s three-term 1980’s mayor, with insider views of the political and economic crises he pulled the city through and the ones that finally brought him down, while following […]
Directed by Sara Lamm & Mary Wigmore Produced by Lamm, Wigmore, Kate Roughan & Zachary Mortensen Released by Reckon So USA. 93 min. Not Rated Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin & the Farm Midwives tells two linked stories that are impressive but end up at cross-purposes: a biography of a steadfast hippie who helped found […]
Directed by Werner Herzog & Dmitry Vasyukov Produced by Christoph Fisser, Vladimir Perepelkin, Nick N. Raslan & Charlie Woebcken Written by Herzog & Rudolph Herzog Released by Music Box Films English & Russian with English subtitles Germany. 100 min. Not rated The documentary Happy People: A Year in the Taiga—which was shot not by director […]
Directed by Amy Berg Produced by Berg, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, Damien Echols & Lorri Davis Written by Berg & Billy McMillin Released by Sony Pictures Classics New Zealand/USA. 147 min. Rated R West of Memphis is a triumphant story of justice finally prevailing for three innocent men who spent 18 years in jail for […]
Directed by Michael Apted Produced by Apted & Claire Lewis Released by First Run Features UK. 144 min. Not rated With 56 Up, the granddaddy of longitudinal documentaries, impressively reaches grandparenthood. Michael Apted’s first job was as a researcher selecting a cross-section of 14 British seven year olds for the 1964 U.K. TV documentary Seven […]
Directed & Written by Jay Bulger Produced by Andrew Karsch, Fisher Stevens, Erik H. Gordon & Bulger Released by SnagFilms/Insurgent Media USA. 92 min. Not Rated Beware of Mr. Baker has all the usual ingredients of a typical rock ‘n’ roll Behind the Music bio, though it has lots of surprises and unusual brio, too, […]