documentary review
One of the more disappointing elements of any movie-watching experience, but especially so in documentary, is when a fascinating story is given such a stale interpretation. Take Drop Dead City, for instance. Co-directors Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn have at their disposal one of the most fascinating eras of 20th
documentary review
A visual essay about video stores playing at a film festival. What a concept! You’ve got to be careful with a film like Videoheaven. Alex Ross Perry’s near-three-hour movie starts with Ethan Hawke in Michael Almereyda's Hamlet (aka Hamlet 2000!) reciting the famous "to be
documentary review
We don’t necessarily need another documentary about The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Between features and home entertainment productions, general horror docs plus cast and crew biographies, Tobe Hooper’s horror masterpiece has been well and truly covered over its 50 years. Or at least that’s what it feels
documentary review
I had only just been commenting in regards to this film that India was experiencing a “golden age of documentary” and then during the Sydney Film Festival’s introduction, those very words were spoken. Payal Kapadia’s Night of Knowing Nothing, Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes (an Oscar nominee)
documentary review
There was a moment around midway through Iván Castiñeiras’ Gods of Stone (Deuses de pedra) film where I thought to myself, ‘You can really tell this was shot over 15 years’. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, although I think in the case of this 80-minute film, it does
documentary review
When I commented on Bill Morrison’s shoulda-been-Oscar-winning short film Incident from last year, I said that I was “surprised more filmmakers don’t use this, I guess, 24-style editing in documentary.” I was referring to the way single sequences unfold across multiple points of view to tell a story
movies about movies
Movies like Scala!!! don't always suit themselves to traditional reviews. This is a documentary about the famed Scala theatre and cinema in England, which has existed in some form since 1905. A Hard Day's Night was shot there! It's played over 4000 films and
documentary review
Movies about movies. Groundbreaking. Movies about the "psychology of film editing"? Okay, that's a bit different. I have enjoyed the films of Chad Freidrichs well enough; The Pruitt-Igoe Myth and The Experimental City have each covered two very different and historically curious moments of the 20th
documentary review
It’s easy to say that Asif Kapadia’s documentaries have been some of the most acclaimed of the last 15 or so years. His early collage-style non-fictions were critical and cultural successes, with Senna and in particular Amy (winning an Academy Award despite my own misgivings) proving to be
documentary review
Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome. As introductory lay-ups go, those famous lyrics from Bob Fosse’s Cabaret were too hard to refuse for me. It’s to the credit of director Bruce David Klein’s credit that he doesn’t always (does not always) succumb to such easy biographic impulses in Liza:
News
This is reDocumented, a new features blog where I document the documentaries. It will be an evolving format of short reviews, ideally some long-form pieces, and whatever else I choose to post. A review made entirely out of gifs? Sure, why not?! A listicle to tie into a new release?