Tag: Documentary Films
Only The Young / Tchoupitoulas | DVD Review
When it was announced that Only The Young and Tchoupitoulas would be released together in a single package, I was a little taken back...
Scatter My Ashes at Bergdorf’s | Review
Glossy Emptiness; Fashion’s Greatest Church
The measure of success used in the fashion industry is unlike any used in other commercial art. Rather than massive...
Bending Steel | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Carroll's Debut A Wonder-ful Metamorphosis
It turns out that being an old time strongman has less to do with bulging muscles, leopard skin leotards and...
Fuck For Forest | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Exploits For Earth: Marczak Gazes Into The Gutter
After the breakout success of his docu debut At the Edge of Russia, Polish director Michal Marczak...
15 Reasons To Live | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Zweig Somberly Celebrates Human Resilience
Occasionally, moments of epiphany can boil down the colossal essence of mortality into simple, elegant terms. For Alan Zweig, director...
Alias | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Latimer Drops Beat On Toronto's Rap Scene
Taking it's name from one of the four Toronto street rappers it peeks into the lives of, Michelle...
The Manor | Hot Docs 2013 Review
Polemic Crisis: Cohen Turns Camera On His Fam
Having flown the coop over a decade ago to work in the film industry as a digital...
The Central Park Five | Blu-ray Review
After years of acclaimed documentary mini-series, Ken Burns returns to the feature film with his daughter Sarah Burns and fellow colleague David McMahon, who...
No Place on Earth | Review
The Descent: Tobias Brings Recently Discovered Holocaust Tale to Light
For her directorial debut, producer Janet Tobias documents a harrowing discovery made by a spelunker...
Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner | Review
Family Portrait: Kleine’ Uses Husband as Subject for Light Documentary
Fans of director and actor Andre Gregory should be excited, and, overall, pleased with director...
Burn | Review
Putnam and Sanchez Help Fight Detroit's Inferno
It's no secret that the Motor City is in a state of concentrated shock. The decline of domestic...
My Amityville Horror | Review
Dysfunction Junction: Walter Revisits Source of Classic Horror Film with Mixed Results
Thanks to Stuart Rosenberg’s 1979 film adaptation of Jay Anson’s infamous novel, "The...
The Last Gladiators | Review
Fight Club: Gibney Finds Tragedy In 'Knuckles' Nilan
The assiduous docu director Alex Gibney wrapped three films back in 2011, all of which seem minor...
The Jeffrey Dahmer Files | Review
Twenty years after he was caught red handed, Jeffrey Dahmer continues to be a storytelling gold mine, but for newbie doc helmer Chris James...
Criterion Collection: Pina | Blu-ray Review
Wim Wenders' long imagined a Pina Bausch documentary with Bausch herself, a dear friend of the director, personally collaborating on the project. It was...
Off the Beat Track: First Run Features Grab Docu on Paul Bowles
Not sure if anyone has referred to him as the Stuart Sutcliffe of the Beat Gen, but Paul Bowles will receive some posthumous affection...
Interview: Alex Gibney (Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God)
A crime story that spans decades, takes place on multiple continents and sees the most noble of authority figures involved in a vast cover-up....
Google and the World Brain | Sundance 2013 Review
Legality Be Damned, Making Wells A Reality
Ben Lewis started as a commentator on the modern art world, but in recent years has made a...
West of Memphis | Review
Witch Trials Reborn: Berg’s Comprehensive Doc a Compelling Achievement
Amy Berg, Oscar nominated director for her first directorial effort, Deliver Us From Evil, returns with...
Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters | Review
Suburban Horror: Shapiro Dissects Crewdson
Ben Shapiro's new documentary on renowned suburban photographer Gregory Crewdson is a detrimentally revealing work the focuses on his latest...
Only The Young | Review
Mims and Tippet Find Faith In Punks
Another non-fiction tale of sun-kissed west coast kids, Only The Young follows a trio of good-hearted teenage punks...
How to Survive a Plague | Review
A Hitchhiker’s Guide: France’s Documentary a Masterful Ode to AIDS Activism
By focusing on the birth of the Activist group ACT UP in 1987, when...
Criterion Collection: The Qatsi Trilogy | Blu-ray Review
The Qatsi Trilogy is a collection of films made by Godfrey Reggio between 1983 and 2002. Each film offers an extraordinary and unforgettable cinematic...
Manufactured Landscapes | Blu-ray Review
Edward Burtynsky has for decades been lensing large scale photographs that document the often devastating visual impact of humans on our environment en masse....
Waiting For Lightning | Review
Bigger, Faster, Higher: Biography Of Way's Big Air
There have been plenty of quality biographical extreme sports docs released in the last couple years, with...
Chasing Ice | Review
Warming Up to the Idea; Visually Recorded Hard Facts Closes the Climate Change Case for Good
The name James Balog should be quite familiar if...
Girl Walk // All Day | Review
Dance Dance Revelation: Krupnick's Own Jubilant Mashup
In 2010, the one man remix act Girl Talk released his latest mashup record, All Day, in which...
The Flat | Review
Geneological Cryptography: Unearthing Incomprehensible Family Ties
As the only member of his extended family truly interested in decoding his mysteriously secretive grandmother's past, Israeli documentarian...
Brooklyn Castle | Review
Dellamaggiore Makes Major Moves: Despite Budget Cuts, Young Chess Players Are Building An Empire
Inner city public schools are generally not known for their successful...
Shut Up And Play The Hits | Blu-ray Review
At the pinnacle of the band's critical and financial success, the decision to lay LCD Soundsystem to rest was and remains a conundrum. James...
The Queen of Versailles | Review
Money Can’t Buy Class, Only Versace: Greenfield Scores a Grey Gardens Sized Gem
Documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield could very well have used the classic opening...
Criterion Collection: And Everything Is Going Fine | Blu-ray Review
Master monologist Spalding Gray, a proven stage and part time screen actor, as well as the man behind such cinematic creations as Swimming To...
The Nine Muses | DVD Review
After nearly a decade of focusing his energy on music history television docs, director John Akomfrah has returned to one of his favorite topics,...
Kumare | Review
Kumare is an Illusion, and Illusion is Truth
After growing up in the U.S. as part of a highly traditional Indian family, and later, graduating...
The Invisible War | Review
Sexual Assault Will No Longer Be Overlooked
It's horrifying to acknowledge that females in the United States Armed Forces are more likely to be raped...
El Velador | Review
Shooting Spree: Almada Documents Open Air and Closed Doors of War Zone
A documentary film that is a nearly wordless account, save for the Mexican...
Paul Williams Still Alive | Review
Kessler Gets The Rainbow Connection
Back when Paul Williams was a supremely popular songwriter, a regular on Johnny Carson, and a freshly awarded winner of...
The Man Nobody Knew Blu-ray Review
Looking back, William Colby was indeed a curious man. A behind enemy lines Army sky diver during World War II, and a globe trotting...
5 Broken Cameras | Review
Observational Politics: Burnat & Davidi’s Document of Strife
Assertively observational is one way to describe Emad Burnat’s debut, 5 Broken Cameras, winner of the World...
Cannes 2012: Room 237 | Review
Cinema 3.0 is in Full Bloom, and it's Turned some of us into OCD Madmen
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is firmly canonized as horror film...
Exclusive: Poster One-Sheet for Vikram Gandhi’s Kumaré
We've got your exclusive first look at the poster one-sheet for Vikram Gandhi's Kumaré - the 2011 Audience Award winner at SXSW and popular...
Patience (After Sebald) | Review
Retracing Steps: Gee's Cinematic Nod To Sebald
Director Grant Gee started his film career documenting the musical landscape by dabbling in music videos, and making...
2012 Hot Docs: The Punk Syndrome | Review
Meandering From The Group Home To The Stage
Punk rock is alive and well in Finland thanks to the seemingly miraculous rise of Pertti Kurikka’s...
Fightville | Review
Epperlein & Tucker Earn Technical Knockout in Match with UFC
By now, most won't need much of an introduction to the world of Ultimate Fighting...
Last Call At The Oasis | Review
Got Water: Yu Gets Fresh with the Viewer as Apocalypse Nears
Not only is there a looming water shortage, but nearly all of the so...
2012 Hot Docs: Low & Clear | Review
Drifting Further Apart, But Forever Bound By The River
J.T. Van Zandt and Alex "Xenie" Hall used to be the best of friends, spending every...
Inside Hana’s Suitcase | Review
Personalized Accounts From Within Auschwitz and Around The World
There certainly is no shortage of Holocaust docs. Not to say they aren't completely warranted, but...
The Greater Good | Review
A Solid Injection of Heedful Warnings
Amidst the long line of doctors and scientists stating their cases for and against the use of vaccines in...
