The Dwarvenaut is a crowd pleasing bizarre sub-culture doc. It follows entrepreneur/artist Stephan Pokorny as he leads his Bushwick based company "Dwarven Forge" through their third Kickstarter campaign. Pokorny's company Dwarven Forge hand sculpts interchangeable miniature modular terrain for Dungeons & Dragons gaming such as dungeons, caverns, and "Valoria" a complete complex city with its own history and lore. The Dwarvenaut follows Pokorny to gaming conventions as he works to pull off a $2million Kickstarter campaign. Pokorny's passion, talent, and skill combined with his likability and quirkiness make this a fun and delightful film going experience where the audience is rooting for Dwarven Forge's success even if they've never played a game like D&D before. 4/5 Robert Frank Don't Blink is one of the best documentaries I've seen in a long time. Director Laura Israel follows Frank, allowing him to muse on camera more than she probes him with questions, in general letting Frank be Frank without the rigid boundaries of a straight-forward documentary. Director and photographer Frank is an fascinating subject. Israel expertly steers clear of presenting this doc as a linear, biographical, talking heads-style film instead presenting a meditation on Frank very much in the experimental and evocative style of an Agnes Varda film. I was very fortunate to catch a screening of Frank's Cocksucker Blues, Frank's never released documentary on the Rolling Stones during their Exile on Main Street tour. I saw it this last summer at the Telluride Film Festival and so this fell in my lap at the perfect time. I have to admit that, however, of Frank's oeuvre, I've only seen Cocksucker Blues and Candy Mountain. Candy Mountain was his only feature film and it's really quite a good 1980s rock'n'roll road movie with Tom Waits and Buster Poindexter. Now, I'm on a mission to see all the others. I can't recommend this film highly enough! 5/5 |
LindseyHere is where I post new reviews as I see films throughout the year. Archives
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