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)"
The most misleading word in the title of Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s new documentary profile of two of America’s most influential 20th-century writers may very well be “and.” Those with a… Continue reading "Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (Vreeland, 2021)"
When I was an undergraduate student several decades ago, I took a General Education class in “Social Problems” and was assigned to do a book report. I picked a book… Continue reading "A Once and Future Peace (Metzgar, 2021)"
Some of my favorite documentaries are about stories that change drastically as they are being filmed. Lauren Greenfield’s The Queen of Versailles is one example. What begins as a straightforward… Continue reading "Storm Lake (Levinson and Risius, 2021)"
This review will be one of those pieces where I spend 80% of the space being critical of the film in question but nevertheless recommend it. I don’t normally like… Continue reading "Hamlet/Horatio (Warner, 2021)"
The word “acceptance” plays a prominent role in The Passing On, Nathan Clarke’s new documentary about an African-American funeral director mentoring his potential successor. When James Bryant quizzes his mentee… Continue reading "The Passing On (Clarke, 2020)"
High School Musical goes to Bible camp. If you think that sounds like the most awesome thing ever, read no further and head over to Netflix. A Week Away is… Continue reading "A Week Away (White, 2021)"
Once Upon a Sea comes touted as “an extended reality” created by Adi Lavy. Virtual Reality videos are still new enough that we haven’t yet developed the critical language with… Continue reading "Once Upon a Sea (Lavy, 2021)"
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)"
