I always thought Jane Jacobs was from Toronto. Shows you what I know. This is an interesting documentary specifically about the battles between Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs over roads in New York and more generally about the urban renewal and how to plan cities in general. It’s interesting, informative and thought-provoking. As one of …
Tag: Documentary
Shut Up & Sing (2006, Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck)
Can you imagine being so angry at a band that you drove over their CDs with a tractor? I can’t imagine Jeff Tweedy doing something that will that would make me so angry I would drive over my Wilco CDs or light them on fire. I just can’t relate to it. At all.
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (2002, Sam Jones)
As a big fan of Wilco, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, it’s crazy it took me this many years to watch this movie. But it’s possible that the intervening years gave me some clarity with it, that I might not have had when I was first falling in love with this band (more than a few …
Icarus (2017, Bryan Fogel)
This is a maddening, over-stylized, over-thought, over-long documentary about a story that I paid basically zero attention to at the time, but which deserves a great feature-length documentary. This Oscar-winning documentary is not that film. SPOILER ALERT
Chronique d’un été – Paris 1960 (1961, Edgar Morin, Jean Rouch)
It’s funny that the opening scene of the film which ostensibly invented Cinema Verite appears to be staged.
Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez (2020)
This is a frustrating but also fascinating brief documentary series about Aaron Hernandez the NFL tight end who was convicted of murdering one person, charged with murdering two others, and credibly accused of shooting at least one other person. I paid no attention to this at the time so much of this was new to …
China Heavyweight (2012, Yung Chang)
Basically the Chinese boxing equivalent of Hoop Dreams, this film follows two boxing coaches and two boxers over a couple of years or so as they attempt to use boxing to get out of rural life in China and as one coach decides to come out of retirement.
The Panama Papers (2018, Alex Winter)
This is a rather workmanlike documentary about the infamous “Panama Papers” which exposed a Panamanian bank’s tax evasion services for the super rich and for politicians. I watched it on a plane three weeks ago so I am not 100% sure of my comments.
Children 404 (2014, Askold Kurov, Pavel Loparev)
Ever since we all started recording ourselves, there has been an absolute trove of material for filmmakers to use to cover basically any subject they want. I don’t know when this started exactly, but I feel like this must have been one of the earlier films to take full advantage of this new facet of …
Chicago 10 (2007, Brett Morgan)
The trial of 10 people after the demonstrations outside the 1968 Democratic Convention is certainly a notable trial in the history of civil liberties abuses in the United States. And it is a story that deserves to be told. But I’m not sure if this ADD movie is the right vehicle for it. Moreover, it …
OJ: Made in America (2016, Ezra Edelman)
I must say I paid relatively little attention to the OJ trial. I think I watched the car chase and I remember our French teacher bringing in the TV to watch the verdict, but that’s about it. My memory of the entire case is more about perceptions of what other people thought rather than facts. …
Command and Control (2016, Robert Kenner)
“I couldn’t calm down. I was on fire.”
Free Solo (2018, Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi)
I thought I wanted to see this movie in theatres. Watching it on the small screen, I think I’m okay with not seeing it in theatres. I’m not sure I would have been able to watch some of it in theatres because I have a fear of heights. SPOILERS if you don’t know anything at …
Danny Says (2015, Brendan Toller)
This is a fascinating documentary about a journalist/publicist/manager/etc. from New York who was tangentially involved in the careers of a number of major bands, from the Beatles to the Ramones. If you’re interested in the history of popular music, particularly punk, or if you’re interested in New York in the late 1960s and the 1970s, …
Central Park (1990, Frederick Wiseman)
Wiseman documentaries are a bit of a challenge if you’re in the wrong mood but at least when you’re in a theatre you have no distractions and you must confront the film without focusing on anything else. Watching one at home is a real challenge because it’s so easy to find something else to pay …
Cool It (2010, Ondi Timoner)
Weirdly, this film was recommended to me by a climate change denier. I assume he is now a former climate change denier. I wonder why this film, of all films, convinced him, or whether it’s just been the weather, if you’ll excuse my saying so.
Censored Voices (2015, Mor Loushy)
This is a compelling and moving documentary with a relatively novel format, which may not initially seem compelling but which is well worth your time. The film tells the story of Israeli soldiers’ experiences during the Six Day War through audio recordings made just after the war, which were suppressed by the Israeli government for …
Fyre (2019, Chris Smith)
This is a fascinating film about the disastrous Fyre Festival that we all heard about on social media. It’s a classic story of the problem with “fake it until you make it” mentality of entrepreneurship. If you’ve watched or read anything about fraud, you’ve probably heard this story before. But it’s also about the problems …
Catfish (2010, Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman)
Yes, I realize I’m getting to Catfish 8 years too late. In the meantime, there’s a show and the term has entered the lexicon. I.e. I know what this is about. So whatever shock I would have experienced seeing it when it first came out is obviously gone. This is unfortunate but hopefully it doesn’t …
Casino Jack and the United States of Money (2010, Alex Gibney)
This is an episodic yet frenetic documentary about Jack Abramoff and his lobbying scandal. I can’t say I loved the style of the film, which was a little over-reliant on pop culture cues, but the film takes a serious issue and makes it entertaining, which is something that should be commended.
The Case Against 8 (2014, Ben Cotner, Ryan White)
So any pretense to “objectivity” for a message movie “documentary” like this is thrown out the window. But if you believe there is a “both sides” to marriage equality you are likely not going to watch this documentary about the law suit to overturn California’s infamous Proposition 8, nor will you accept this film, which …
Screwball (2018, Billy Corben)
If I could describe this documentary about Biogenesis and Alex Rodriguez in one word, it would be “glib.” This is one of the glibbest documentaries I’ve ever seen. On the one hand, that makes for a pretty funny movie. On the other hand, the style is very over the top and the filmmakers appear to …
Wild Wild Country (2018)
This is a crazy story about a cult, but not necessarily the kind of cult you might expect (i.e. not a death cult). Perhaps the most remarkable thing about it is how much film there is of the cult. But the film is problematic; to paraphrase one critic, it’s incredible that at over six hours …
Evil Genius: The True Story of America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist (2018, Barbara Schroeder)
This is a documentary miniseries about an absolutely bonkers crime, which shouldn’t be called America’s Most Diabolical Bank Heist, but rather American’s Craziest Bank Heist, or America’s Worst Bank Heist. If you are interested in true crime, I would strongly recommend watching this, both for how it tells the story and how this particularly story – …
McQueen (2018, Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui)
This is a pretty conventional chronology + historical footage + talking heads style documentary about someone who may have been, in my ignorant opinion, one of the most interesting fashion designers in history. I know nothing about fashion, and I really don’t care about it. It was only in adulthood that I discovered that there …
Carcasses (2009, Denis Côté)
Carcasses is part of that trend in Canadian independent film in the early years of the 20th century to mix documentary style with fictional or plots, sometimes with people playing themselves. (I say Canadian trend because most of the films I have seen that do this are Canadian films from this time, or thereabouts. I …
Capitalism Hits the Fan (2009, Stu Jhally)
In the grand tradition of academic lectures being filmed for our enjoyment, this is a film of Richard Wolff lecturing from his book Capitalism Hits the Fan at the height of the economic crisis.
Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving the Police (2012, Andy Grieve, Lauren Lazin)
This is a fascinating and compelling documentary about guitarist Andy Summers’ life, focusing mostly on his time in The Police.
Candyman (2010, Costa Botes)
This is a messy, poorly made documentary about a really interesting story and a fascinating person, both of which deserve a competent film to tell their story.
Call Me Kuchu (2012, Katherine Fairfax Wright, Malika Zouhali-Worrall)
This is an absolutely devastating documentary about the situation for LGBTQ people in Uganda and the fight to make homosexuality legal again (as it wasn’t illegal until 1984 for me and 2000 for women). SPOILERS (though that’s obviously a relatively silly thing to say for a documentary about something you can just google)