Above all else, Michael Moore’s sincerity enables his films to be so compulsively watchable. Whether or not you agree with his politics, he is a born documentarian and effective entertainer – emphasis on the latter. Where to Invade Next sees Moore returning to his comedy roots after angrier movies such as Fahrenheit… Continue reading
One of the more amazing things about Amy, Asif Kapadia’s tragic and sad documentary about the late singer Amy Winehouse, is just how much footage of Winehouse there was. Today we can all shoot video on the fly with smartphones, but Amy begins in 2001, when Winehouse was only eighteen. Much… Continue reading
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon is a fast-paced, often hilarious look at the magazine the defined lewd, counter-culture humor. Most contemporary audiences likely know the name and its association with such timeless cinematic comedies as Animal House, Caddyshack, and Vacation. But in its heyday the… Continue reading
As the story goes, director Crystal Moselle met the “wolfpack,” otherwise known as the Angulo brothers, by chance in Manhattan in 2010. Struck by their Reservoir Dogs-esque black Ray-Ban sunglasses, leather coats, and waist-length hair, she became friends with the group and soon uncovered the kind of story documentary filmmakers dream about.… Continue reading
Citizenfour, director Laura Poitras’s immensely detailed and not-so-accessible account of the Edward Snowden data leak, is most important in the context of a historical document. Sometimes mind-numbingly tech-y, but always thrilling in an understated way, the film takes place over eight days during June of 2013. Poitras’s unprecedented access and detailed interviews… Continue reading
Amir Bar-Lev’s Happy Valley is about hero worship, first and foremost. When the Jerry Sandusky scandal rocked Penn State University to its core in 2011, it sent a tight-knit community that viewed themselves as a notch above the rest in terms of morals and decorum into a downward spiral. For anyone that… Continue reading
Roger Ebert once wrote that “movies are like a machine that generates empathy.” The Great Invisible is like the embodiment of that. Margaret Brown’s look at the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig calamity and its ongoing effects along the Gulf Coast is a sobering, frequently enraging account of corporate greed and the toll… Continue reading
Ivory Tower is a competent, slickly-produced documentary that takes a hard look at the cost and perceived benefits of higher education in the United States. That the price of college has been on a steady rise for decades hardly qualifies as new news, but the toll it is taking on… Continue reading
This is going to be a tough one. I can’t even pretend to be unbiased. Roger Ebert is someone I have idolized since I was a kid. What started out as “wow, this guy gets paid to watch movies? Awesome!” evolved into a true appreciation of his writing and thoughts… Continue reading
A part of me really wishes I was some sort of gatekeeper for Beatles memorabilia and stories. It seems like every week we get a new photo, story, anecdote…something. I want to have the basement full of stuff that’s gradually being released. A perfect companion piece would be Good Ol’… Continue reading