Reviews - Page 79

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

‘John Lewis: Good Trouble’ Is a Timely Call to Action

John Lewis: Good Trouble (USA, 97 min.) Dir. Dawn Porter “I feel luck and blessed that I am serving in our country,” says Congressman John Lewis in Good Trouble. “But there are forces today that are trying to take us back to another time and darken progress. We’ve come so far and made so much progress, but as a nation, we’re not there yet.” Congressional representative and civil rights leader John Lewis receives a timely profile in John Lewis: Good Trouble. This upbeat portrait from Dawn Porter (Bobby Kennedy for President) unpacks the significant life and career of the Representative from Georgia. Good

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‘Hamilton’ Is a Triumph

Hamilton (USA, 160 min.) Dir. Thomas Kail Let’s get the suspense over right away. Hamilton, the genre-busting hip-hop musical about one of America’s Founding Fathers, is a triumph. Thomas Kail’s film documents the original cast (with one minor exception) performing at the Richard Rodgers Theater in 2016, a year after its stunning arrival on Broadway. It offers us a trip back to Obama’s presidency, when it seemed possible to re-imagine history to star members of diverse communities—Blacks, Latinos, Chinese—as key figures in the American Revolution. Those times seem far longer than five years ago, but one of the pleasures of watching Hamilton is

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Hasan Minhaj, Dave Chappelle and John Oliver tell the truth

In this time of turbulence, with cries of “defund the police” echoing throughout North America while the coronavirus rages, surely we need comedy. That’s one thing television has always done well, starting with I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners to the Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore shows to Seinfeld and Friends. The intimacy of the small screen and our current close relationship to TV, whether on Netflix or HBO, remains one of the strengths of the medium. But comedy has changed a lot since the non-political coziness of earlier hits. Things are different now. The best comedy is no longer the equivalent of comfort food. While some comedies are still apolitical, many

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New Ella Fitzgerald Doc Celebrates Black Excellence

Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things (USA, 89 min.) Dir. Leslie Woodhead Ella Fitzgerald’s soothing ditties never fail to raise one’s spirits. Her sturdy voice and upbeat tunes enliven Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things. This film is cut from the same cloth as many other celebratory music docs that are cut and paced for television. While Ella Fitzgerald: Just One of Those Things treads the cradle to crave formula for biographical filmmaking, the music it celebrates is too toe-tappingly good to resist with staples like “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” peppering

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‘Who Farted?’ Review: It’s a gas

Who Farted? (Canada, 51 min.) Dir. Albert Nerenberg, Nik Sheehan “I have never been a fan of farts,” observes Albert Nerenberg, who narrates Who Farted? and serves as its onscreen guide. “They have always seemed gross or juvenile.” Nerenberg and Nik Sheehan let one rip in Who Farted? the doc bills itself as “the world’s first climate change documentary comedy.” (2040, funny as it is, isn’t really a comedy.) Who Farted? has a brand of humour that, as its title suggests, is an acquired taste. However, the mix of below-the-belt comedy and investigative filmmaking is surprisingly effective. The doc is light and funny, but also a

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‘Stage’ Offers Tasty Morsels for Foodie Film Buffs

Stage: The Culinary Internship (Canada, 78 min.) Dir. Abby Ainsworth Foodies eager for fine dining likely won’t be hitting restaurants any time soon. For sophisticated eaters who crave one elaborate and delicately tweezer-placed edible objet d’art after another, take out simply doesn’t do. Fortunately, the world of food documentaries offers an all-you-can-eat buffet of food porn to satisfy any cravings. Abby Ainsworth’s Stage: The Culinary Internship is the latest gastronomic documentary available for curbside pick-up. At a quick 78 minutes, one spends less time in the kitchen than one does on the first few courses of a three-hour meal at Alo. However, the Toronto-based

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Under the Same Sun’

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Under The Same Sun (Canada, 97 min.) Dir. François Jacob Program: Canadian Spectrum One of the highlights of the recent Human Rights Watch Film Festival was the Armenian documentary, I Am Not Alone, using television and coverage live-streamed via cell phones to capture the country’s 2018 anti-autocratic revolution when journalist-turned-prime minister Nikol Pashinyan toppled the country’s autocratic government. Under the Same Sun, directed by François Jacob (A Moon of Nickel and Ice) briefly touches on those same events, although it could not be more diametrically opposed, either in its resigned tone and elliptical, poetic esthetic. The subject is the century-old, ongoing

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Hot Docs Review: ‘Immortal’

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Immortal (Estonia, 60 min.) Dir. Ksenia Okhapkina Programme: The Changing Face of Europe Set in an industrial town of post-Soviet Russia, Immortal is glued together by a hypnotic stream of moving train units and long shadows on snowy surfaces. Every image bathes in the blue haze of a permanent night. Shot during winter, the debut documentary feature of Ksenia Okhapkina (Come Back Free, 2016) is a hypnotizing and chilling depiction of Russia’s societal mechanisms. The town of Apatity is a former concentration camp. Set in the Arctic circle, it feels like the end of the world. It’s cold, dark and the snow

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