Few screenings at festivals are more sublime than compilation pieces that shed new light on a director or series of films you genuinely admire; few are more disappointing than such pieces that don't accomplish that feat.
What should you watch at documentary's premiere festival?
Jesus, you just won't believe the hit you've made around here. You are all we talk about, the wonder of the year. Oh what a pity if it's all a lie. Still, I'm sure that you can rock the cynics if you tried.
When it comes to comic books, I've always been a D.C. guy.
Documentaries outshone narratives and smaller films eclipsed headliners.
It's never the common elements of these stories that get to you--it's the personal, authenticating details.
In ninety-five minutes, director Steve Mims traces the origins of educational reform, drawing a line from Clayton Christensen's meta-narrative about "disruptive innovation" to battles over the administration of public universities in Texas, Louisiana, Wisconsin, Virginia, and North Carolina.
The oddest thing about Nichols's Spielberg mashup is that its strengths and weaknesses are the exact opposite of what you might expect from the creator of Mud and Take Shelter. There are moments of iconic beauty and visual terror, but the writing is plodding and the slow pace eventually makes one realize just how little story there is to unfold. .
Still, it's hard to overstate just how deeply resentment of Duke runs in North Carolina, how much class, race, and gender divisions made people not just want to believe the accusations were true but assume they must be.
Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! isn't exactly Men With Guns--it doesn't deliberately push mainstream audiences away--but neither is it the follow up to Boyhood that I was hoping for.
