The words “my” and “mine” are — technically — possessive cases of the pronoun “I.” I say “technically” because the line between ownership and association becomes blurred when one is… Continue reading "God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya (Mitevska, 2021)"
Luca is a heartwarming tale of friendship, fear, intolerance, and acceptance set in the Italian Riviera. If I know America like I think I know America, too much discussion about… Continue reading "Luca (Casarosa, 2021)"
My favorite film from the 2021 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival was Television Event, Jeff Daniels’s retrospective about the making and impact of ABC’s television movie, The Day After. By… Continue reading "Television Event (Daniels, 2020)"
I judge art documentaries by one of two standards. Does the film tell me something I don’t know about the subject? Is it entertaining or engaging in its own right,… Continue reading "Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman (Stratford, 2020)"
I don’t think you need to know Sophocles’s twenty-four hundred-year-old play to understand Sophie Desraspe’s very loose adaptation of it. You certainly don’t need to know it in order to… Continue reading "Antigone (Desraspe, 2019)"
People speak of love, don’t know what they’re thinking ofReach out to each other through the push and shoveSpeak in terms of a life and the learningTry to think of… Continue reading "2020 Top Ten"
The beginning and ending of Another Round are very strong. Thomas Vinterberg’s portrait of an alcoholic culture is quite effective at varying its tone — demonstrating the highs as well… Continue reading "Another Round (Vinterberg, 2020)"
James Erskine’s Billie is a little gem of a documentary, more oral history than biography. That is arrives streaming this week with little fanfare is mildly surprising but entirely shocking.… Continue reading "Billie (Erskine, 2020)"
The Croods: A New Age unfolds like an American football game where a perennial 5-11 team (I’m looking at you, Washington) grabs a first quarter lead. For a short while,… Continue reading "The Croods: A New Age (Crawford, 2020)"
Alex Gibney is the rare documentarian who usually ends up convincing me regardless of whether or not I start on the same side of his arguments. Taxi to the Dark… Continue reading "Crazy, Not Insane (Gibney, 2020)"
