KING CORN may take a whimsical approach to its subject matter, the impact of corn on the American economy and population, but it’s deadly serious when it comes to pondering its implications. Expanding waistlines, the demise of the family farm, and what exactly goes into high fructose corn syrup all come into play as the… Read More »
SICKO — DVD
Click here to listen to Michael Moore interviewed for BOWLING FOR COUMBINE.My favorite moment in Michael Moore’s SICKO is one that had nothing to do with Moore directly. He merely recounts the story. A man unhappy with having his claim rejected by his insurance provider informed said provider that Moore’s new documentary project was an… Read More »
WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?
The question raised by WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY?, and it’s a loaded one, isn’t the eponymous one, but rather why it is that it’s a performance artist that is the one protesting against the commercialization of Christmas, and not the actual ministers of the kid from Nazareth. It’s more than just the orgy of gift-buying… Read More »
PROTAGONIST
When Jessica Yu was offered financing to make a documentary about the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, she pondered the limitations of creating a biography about someone when the source material about his day-to-day life was thin at best. Instead, she came up with the radical idea to make a film about why his work still… Read More »
THE PIXAR STORY
There is nothing short of a giddy delight in watching the fine folks who founded PIXAR living out their dreams in ways much larger than even they could ever have imagined. It covers all the usual ups and downs of any show biz story, but PIXAR is not just any show biz entity, and the… Read More »
YOUNG@HEART
YOUNG@HEART’s filmmaker, Stephen Walker, settles the question of whether 70-, 80-, and 90-year-old singers can cover punk, rock, and alternative music with the very first scene of his exhilarating documentary. In it, 92-year-old Eileen Hall is getting to the heart of “Shall I Stay Or Shall I Go” by The Clash with a verve and… Read More »
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
What Errol Morris is doing with STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE is more than a mere and mundane retelling of the abuses committed by American military personnel at Abu Ghraib. There is certainly that, but Morris, whose non-fiction features are as quirky as they are perceptive, goes beyond uncovering the whats and whens. He addresses the far… Read More »
NO IMPACT MAN
What is so accessible, even endearing, about Colin Beavan and his quest to become the NO IMPACT MAN is that he, like most of us, didnt have a clue about what he was getting into. The fact that his commitment and then his overarching passion for living lightly on the land of Manhattan for a… Read More »
DAUGHTER FROM DANANG
Gail Dolgin and Franco Vicente’s heartrending documentary DAUGHTER FROM DANANG shows not only the long-term effects of the Vietnam War in very personal terms, but also looks at how fragile the bonds of blood and family can be. Both insights are disturbing, but in the able hands of these filmmakers, the story of one family’s… Read More »
PINA
Just as the subject of his film, Pina Bausch, broke new ground in defining dance, so Wim Wenders has broken new ground in bringing Pinas remarkable choreography to the screen. Wenders, the author of such sublime, emotionally resonant films as WINGS OF DESIRE and PARIS, TEXAS, as well as the documentary, THE BUENA VISTA SOCIAL… Read More »