documentary review
Towards the final stretch of Selena y Los Dinos, director Isabel Castro’s documentary changes ever so slightly. And it does so into something that is genuinely intriguing for one of these celebrity biographies, something that I wasn’t expecting and hit me in the face like one of Selena
documentary review
“You can’t retire from your life”, says Diane Warren and boy howdy is she not doing that. Even if Warren’s particular branch of music hasn’t quite continued to command the cultural and commercial pull of the first two decades of the career, lord knows she keeps plugging
documentary review
I co-host and co-produce a radio show here in Melbourne called Strictly Soundtracks. As you may gather by the name, we discuss the music from film and television. It’s on Joy 94.9 if you care to listen, which you obviously should! On a recent Halloween episode, I put
music documentary
Taking a Depeche Mode superfan to IMAX that they had never been to before (and a real IMAX at that) to see a Depeche Mode concert documentary is a real treat that I recommend to others. You can replace Depeche Mode if you’d like. Although in the case of
documentary review
What happens when Ai Weiwei, one of the most prominent artist-activists of our time, decides to direct an Italian production of a Puccini opera? Of Turandot, no less, with its orientalism and famously tacked-on happy ending. Surprisingly, it all goes swimmingly! Well, except for the upcoming pandemic that any audiences
music documentary
Nobody needs me to sit here and talk about John Williams. We all know who he is and what he has achieved. He is that rare sort of below-the-line film technician that even casual filmgoers recognise not just the work of but his name, too. A symbol of an era
songs from documentaries
Kevin Macdonald divides his time between dramatic features and documentaries. Sometimes, as in the case of Touching the Void, he does both at the same time. I have admired films he has done in both mediums, but his Oscar-winning One Day in September will forever keep be hankering for more
documentary review
There is a bit in Zackary Drucker’s Enigma where the director off-camera exclaims “Amanda…!” to one of Amanda Lear’s answers in such an incredulous tone and it honestly made me laugh. Partly because it surprised me on account of it being rare to hear a filmmaker so brazenly