Reviews - Page 137

Giving you our points of view on the latest docs in release and on the circuit.

Review: ‘Andy Irons: Kissed by God’

/

Andy Irons: Kissed by God (USA, 100 min.) Dir. Steve Jones, Todd Jones Program: Special Presentations (World Premiere)   Catch some waves with Andy Irons: Kissed by God. This emotional roller coaster of a film breaks through sports documentary conventions and delivers a raw study of mental illness. The film mines a deep archive of Irons’ footage to chronicle the rise and tragic fall of the all-star surfer. From the moment the camera opens on his brother Bruce, a former pro surfer himself, who does everything he can to hold himself together while remembering his brother, Kissed by God asserts

Read More

Review: ‘The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man’

/

The Bill Murray Stories: Life Lessons Learned from a Mythical Man USA. 70 Minutes Dir. Tommy Avallone. Special Presentations (International Premiere)   Bill Murray’s habit of engaging with strangers in unusual ways — joining karaoke parties, taking a cab driver for a ride or reading poetry to construction workers— has been extensively chronicled on the internet and confirmed by the star. As Murray told an audience at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Bill Murray Day in 2014, “it’s something I do consciously — when I’m conscious.” Is Murray a subject worthy of an entire documentary? Maybe just a short, facile

Read More

Review: ‘Playing Hard’

/

Playing Hard (Canada/USA, 90 min.) Dir. Jean-Simon Chartier Programme: Special Presentations (World Premiere)   “Entertainment is philosophy in motion,” says gamer Jason Vandenberghe towards the end of Playing Hard. The film sees Vandenberghe realize his dream by leading the team at Montreal’s Ubisoft video game empire in creating the entertainment he always wanted as a child. Vandenberghe talks intensely about the potential for gaming to provide outsiders like himself outlets of escape with virtual communities of like-minded geeks. His excitement is palpable as the Ubisoft team readies his game from concept through completion. Even if the “philosophical” elements of his

Read More

Review: ‘Mr. SOUL!’

/

Mr. SOUL! Dir. Sam Pollard & Melissa Haizlip USA, 102 minutes Special Presentations (International Premiere) Mr. SOUL! weaves together two stories; the development of SOUL! the television show, and the personal evolution of producer and host Ellis Haizlip. SOUL! was a nationally televised weekly variety show that aired from 1968-1973, featuring prominent and emerging Black artists including poets, classical, pop and jazz musicians, dancers and political figures. The show was broadcast on public television across a post-Civil Rights Movement America, showcasing the diversity and talent of Black artistry and providing a platform for radical Black politics. SOUL! upended the traditional

Read More

Review: ‘4 Years in 10 Minutes’

/

4 Years in 10 Minutes (Serbia, 62 min.) Dir. Mladen Kovacevic Programme: World Showcase (North American Premiere)   For many, summiting Mount Everest is synonymous with Achievement with a capital A. It may not pose the technical mountaineering challenges that other mountains do, but its height, its history and its iconography have made it archetypal. The first to reach the top, the first to reach it from its different approaches, the first to reach it from each country, the longest to stay at the top: these are all talked about as heroic achievements. And Everest is not just a feather

Read More

Review: ‘Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie’

/

Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie (USA, 90 minutes) Dir: Andrea Blaugrund Nevins Programme: Special Presentations (International Premiere)   An involving doc operating on various levels, Tiny Shoulders reveals surprising facts about one of the most recognized women in the world. She’s not a flesh and blood woman, but according to Nevins’s film, 98% of the people in the world know who Barbie is. The movie begins with the doll’s origin story, which at least partially counters the anti-Barbie tirades of feminists like Gloria Steinem, who says in the film, “I am so grateful I didn’t grow up with Barbie. Barbie is

Read More

Review: ‘My War’

/

My War (Canada, 98 min.) Dir. Julien Fréchette Programme: Canadian Spectrum (World Premiere)   Does the fog of war also cloud over a war documentary? That seems to be the case with My War, Julien Fréchette’s jumbled, uninsightful documentary about Western volunteers who signed up to fight ISIS in the Syrian conflict. The film opens with the funeral service for William Savage, a 27-year-old American who died in Syria fighting alongside Kurdish forces against the Islamic State in Syria. It bounces to a group of Kurdish soldiers in the field in Syria, arguing whether killing is a religious obligation or

Read More

Review: ‘Behind the Curve’

/

Behind the Curve (USA, 96 minutes) Dir: Daniel J. Clark Programme: Special Presentations. (World Premiere)   In Behind the Curve, director Daniel Clark could have gone for savage mockery in the depiction of people who believe that planet earth is not a “spinning ball flying through space.” Instead, Clark’s amiable doc is affectionate toward its characters, who have devoted their lives to the proposition that the world is flat, sometimes conducting elaborate experiments to prove it. Clark’s tone, enhanced by witty animation, recalls Jonathan Demme’s humane approach to American nuttiness as he presents us with a gallery of West Coast

Read More

Review: ‘Don’t Be Nice’

/

on’t Be Nice (USA, 96 min.) Dir. Max Powers Programme: Artscapes (North American Premiere)   Filmmakers, programmers, and critics often credit documentary subjects for speaking truth to power. This turn of phrase describes a person who stands up and says what’s right in defiance of the establishment. The subjects of Don’t Be Nice don’t just speak truth to power—they slam it. Slamming truth to power is far more effective, emotional, and empowering. This invigorating film by Max Powers profiles the members of Brooklyn’s Bowery slam poetry team as the group vies in the national competition. The team features five members—Ashley,

Read More

Review: ‘The Silver Branch’

/

The Silver Branch Ireland, 75 Minutes Dir. Katrina Costello. Programme: International Spectrum (International Premiere)   Patrick McCormack is an Irish farmer and poet who lives in an area in the west of Ireland called the Burren (from the Irish word “boíreann” meaning “rocky place”), a famously picturesque area of lunar-like limestone landscapes, which includes a natural park that has Iron Age and pre-historic sites. If McCormack were a rapper, you’d say he had great flow: The rhythm of his sentences matches the editing of Katrina Costello’s lush natural images, while dreamy music is supply interwoven. The film, The Silver Branch,

Read More

1 … 135 136 137 138 139 … 185
0 $0.00