Bright Lights is a documentary from Fisher Stevens about the incredible mother-daughter relationship between Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. This doc provides unprecedented access to the behind the scenes lives of the two screen legends as Debbie battles some health issues in her old age. Carrie Fisher is my idol -- for her books and being a brave face of Bipolar disorder and less for Star Wars, though Leia is a legendary badass -- so this was very exciting for me to see Carrie in action after reading all of her books. One aspect that I knew very little about was Carrie as a singer and part of her mothers nightclub act. Fascinating, entertaining, touching, fun, and funny! 5/5 Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary is a new film that explores the life and music of famed jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. While the subject matter, footage, and interviews make for a fascinating look at Coltrane it is also fairly standard, by-the-book documentary that formally has nothing new or interesting to deliver. That said, the film itself is a compelling watch. 3/5 Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind the Clown is a new documentary about actor, director, humanitarian Jerry Lewis. The film primarily focuses on Lewis' style and philosophy, his evolution as a clown/actor/artist and his work as a director, his success in France, and his philanthropy. The doc features a lot of hilarious footage that make it a fun watch. However, it completely avoids getting personal about Lewis. The doc completely side steps around Lewis' personal relationship with Dean Martin, framing it as strictly professional. While it touches on his health problems and addiction to pain killers, the film never really touches on anything about Lewis' personal life such as love interests, never mentioning his two wives nor his children. And, while the film is rife with great clips, it merely teases the audience about Lewis' failed/never released Holocaust film, it never delivers with any clips. 3.5/5 Unlocking the Cage is a new documentary that follows the group NonHuman Rights Project that has set about to save incarcerated Chimpanzees by filing a Writ under Habeas Corpus. The argument being that Chimps (and Elephants and Dolpins...) can indeed communicate, are self-determining and autonomous beings, and are capable of empathy therefore they should not be incarcerated for medical testing or in improper enclosures in which they are isolated and treated poorly. Obviously the problem is in legally assigning personhood to a nonhuman. The argument is that the personhood would be equivalent to that of a small child--no legal rights that go with adult personhood and none of the responsibilities that go along with that personhood. This doc is a bit hard to watch if you're sensitive to witnessing the poor treatment of animals. 4/5 Beware the Slenderman is a very intense new documentary from HBO. It was was shot over the course of 18 months after a 12 year old girl was stabbed 19 times by her two classmates who were trying to please Slenderman. This film is terrifying. Not because "Slenderman" is scary, he's really just your average modern day boogie man; he's basic folklore. He's the Pied Piper... This film is terrifying because 1- teenage girls are just about the scariest creatures out there and 2- mental illness. This film gets 'real' very quickly. Beware the Slenderman follows the year long court case in which in would be determined if the two accused 12 year olds would be tried as adults or children. So, watching this as the mother of a teen girl I was simultaneously reminded I'm already somewhat living in a horror movie and that I would hate to see anything bad happen to my daughter or worse, because of her. Terror, indeed. Secondly, as a person with mental illness this documentary terrified me because of how we treat and deal with mental illness and criminality. This film sorta punched me in the guts in a way I was not expecting...at all. 5/5 Sonita is a very powerful documentary about a teenage girl living illegally as an Afghan refugee in Iran who is facing being sold into marriage. Instead, she breaks the law (women cannot sing) and she becomes a Hip Hop artist. Sonita's bravery is astonishing. I'm a big fan of Iranian cinema and this is no different. I'm a fan. This is an excellent documentary. Show your sons and daughters. 5/5 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 Tickled is one of the most intriguing and strange documentaries I've seen in a while. This is a film about a journalist from New Zealand who stumbles on a weird website about "Competitive Endurance Tickling" and in doing so, inadvertently happens to uncover a very tangled and twisted plot of blackmail and threats, reaching far beyond investigating a strange youtube video and the production company behind it and others like it. This is super fascinating and bizarre. 4/5 |
LindseyHere is where I post new reviews as I see films throughout the year. Archives
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