Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) There are a lot of obvious and superficial similarities between Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me and, from a few years ago, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. Both follow older...
View ArticleThe Battered Bastards of Baseball Review
RATING: ***~ (3/4) (3 STARS) It’s a shame “For the Love of the Game” is already spoken for as far as baseball movie titles go. I think Chicago Cubs fans could be a little peeved at the implication that...
View ArticleLet’s Talk About 2014’s Awesome Documentaries
“This has been a banner year for documentary filmmaking.” Fans of the genre—myself included—have been saying that on a yearly basis for a while, it seems, but I’d say it’s never been truer than it is...
View ArticleAmy Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) I remember where I was when I found out Amy Winehouse died. At a Subway in New Jersey, I can still picture what I was wearing, what kind of day it was, how the...
View ArticleThe Wolfpack Review
RATING: **~~ (2/4) (2 STARS) There’s a beautiful story somewhere in the mess that is The Wolfpack. There’s also an uplifting story, a terrifying story, a comedy, a tragedy, and who knows what else. So...
View ArticleBallet 422 Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) There’s a sequence two-thirds into Ballet 422, Jody Lee Lipes’ hands-off documentary chronicling a wunderkind choreographer’s attempt to bring a ballet from idea to...
View ArticleListen to Me Marlon Review
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) Listen to Me Marlon is a one-of-a-kind documentary. There have been plenty of non-fiction films — plenty even this year with Amy, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, and...
View ArticleWon’t You Be My Neighbor?
RATING: ***½ (3.5/4) (3.5 STARS) Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, from Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville, is something of a safe lob down the middle for the adult movie-going public in 2018. Nostalgia...
View ArticleAmerican Dream Review
About a decade and a half after producing and directing one of the most powerful and influential documentaries of all time, Barbara Kopple returned to the world of workers’ rights for American Dream....
View ArticleFYC 2018: Documentaries
This post includes mini-reviews of some of 2018’s documentaries with an eye on films various studios are targeting for the 2019 Oscars and other end-of-year awards (including the OFCS awards which I’ll...
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