— by RON WILKINSON — Just when you think you have seen everything, there comes a documentary that is so improbable that it refuses even the label of a doc. As the story goes, writer/director Vitaliy Manskiy was invited by the hyper-secret government of North Korea to make a documentary. [...]
Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Review: Hunt for the Wilderpeople
— by RON WILKINSON — “Never work with animals or children,” said W.C. Fields, but writer director Taika Waititi gambled on child actor Julian Dennison and won. Based on the book by Barry Crump, “Wilderpeople” is a charming road trip through the spectacularly beautiful New Zealand[...]
Review: Nuts!
— by RON WILKINSON — What is exactly the opposite of impotence in human males? As John Romulus Brinkley tells the story, one of his sadly stricken patients pointed out that the male goat was the obvious answer. “If I could just do what that goat does, I would be a happy man,” pled th[...]
Review: The Crossing
— by BEV QUESTAD — George Kurian, a documentary filmmaker and photojournalist based in Istanbul, was covering the war in Syria when he decided to document a group of Syrians on their risky defection to the west. The clandestine sea voyage from Syria to Egypt is illegal because Syria won[...]
Review: Starless Dreams
— by BEV QUESTAD — After seven years of trying, award-winning director Mehrdad Oskouei was given access to an incarceration facility for girls 18 and under in Iran. Gently asking them why they were there and what their hopes for the future were, he discovered a societal crime greater tha[...]
Review: Chapter and Verse
— by BEV QUESTAD — Sir Lancelot Ingram is a magnificently strong, handsome, quiet ex-con. He served eight years. Now, he is out, living in a half-way house back in the same Harlem hood that brought him to trouble. But this time, the bad guys are younger, operating the streets without rul[...]
Review: Maggie’s Plan
— by RON WILKINSON — When will Greta Gerwig move out of New York City? No doubt this quirky and totally Greta movie received a lot of support from the Big Apple for showcasing several city tourist attractions, but it did not do the story any good. Despite the overwhelming exposure for th[...]
Review: Almost Sunrise
— by BEV QUESTAD — We’ve heard that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in incurable. This documentary, featured at this year’s Human Rights Watch Film Festival, puts this assumption and the very description of PTSD into question. This outstanding doc follows two US veterans from t[...]
Review: The Wailing
— by RON WILKINSON — “The Wailing,” South Korean writer/director Hong-jin Na’s labyrinthine tale of possession, follows on the heels of his well-received “The Chaser” and “The Yellow Sea.” Incorporating elements of a number of western films, including th[...]
Review: The Witness
— by RON WILKINSON — There is something beautiful abut a documentary that takes on a life of its own. In 1999, filmmaker James Solomon began researching a scripted film for HBO based on a story that defined the mean streets of New York City. The story is that of the 1964 murder of Kitty [...]
Review: Weiner
— by RON WILKINSON — If you think you have seen all of the most amazing documentaries in the world, you have another think coming. This much everybody knows: Former U.S. representative Anthony Weiner was a rising star. He won seven terms to the US House of Representatives but resigned af[...]
Review: Unlocking the Cage
— by RON WILKINSON — Directors Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker (“The War Room”) have covered some strange stories but this one may be the strangest so far. Steven Wise is described as an animal rights lawyer. That is a significant understatement. He is not only fighting for increas[...]
Review: Dheepan
— by RON WILKINSON — “Dheepan,” Jacques Audiard’s winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, is a masterful tale of survival as well as a harrowing cautionary note about the perseverance of the violence of war. The story centers on Dheepan (Antonythasan Jes[...]