Reviews - Page 84

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

Yeh Freedom Life Review: Working Class Romance in New Delhi

On a typical afternoon, Neha Beauty Care & Training Centre is appropriately raucous with marriage talk. “I said: What else is love if not this madness?” Sachi, an emotional and playful beautician with nervous bravado, declares in half-jest. “Craziness is what love is!” She works at the beauty parlour in the dully chaotic, sedating interiors of New Delhi’s working-class Ambedkar Nagar district, the simultaneously shadowy and luminous setting of Priya Sen’s Yeh Freedom Life. Sachi’s family does not approve of her relationship with Sai, who is also a woman. Parveen, the film’s other protagonist, traverses a similarly torrid terrain of

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Pray Away Review: Ex-Ex-Gays Denounce Conversion Therapy

“Shortly after coming out, a gay person said bluntly and directly that I had blood on my hands,” says Randy Thomas in the documentary Pray Away. “He said, ‘What do you think about the blood on your hands?’ I said, ‘Right now, all I know is that I’m afraid to look down at my hands.’” Thomas, the final vice-president of the now-defunct Exodus International, makes this powerful confession towards the end of director Kristine Stolakis’s film. Thomas is one of several former members of Exodus International, which beckoned LGBTQ people to leave the “homosexual lifestyle” and walk a straight path

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Cannes 2021- Bigger Than Us, clumsy as it is, will inspire young activists

As part of the 2021 festival, Cannes dedicated a sidebar to “Cinema for the climate.” This group of mostly non-fiction films tackled various storylines that somehow relate to environmental causes. This, combined with a 20€ charge for each attendee meant to offset our carbon footprint, was but one message drowned out during these COVID-sensitive times. While the irony of worrying about plastic pollution daily when spitting into polymer vessels to ensure that a plague didn’t spread wasn’t lost, we humans are occasionally gifted with the ability to keep several things in mind at once. On its surface, Flore Vasseur’s Bigger

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‘We Are Many’ Harnesses the Power of the People

The power of the people resonates strongly in We Are Many. This long gestating—and long shelved—doc from director Amir Amirani chronicles the global protests against the USA’s invasion of Iraq. We Are Many chronicles the lead-up to the fateful day of February 15, 2003 when approximately 30 million people worldwide joined their voices in a resounding anti-war protest. The doc offers perspectives from many participants who rallied for change and found the world to be ruled by two different and, sadly, seemingly opposite powers: the will of the rulers and the will of the people who elected them. We Are

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For Madmen Only Review: Spotlighting the Man Behind the Comics

Whether it was his desire or not, Del Close ended his career being known as the man behind the men and women of comedy. Adored by many in the business and respected as a pioneer of modern-day improvisation, Close never took the spotlight but is heavily responsible for the comedic landscape of today. Some of the greatest comedians and comedic actors of this era, like John Candy, Bill Murray, Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and many others, remember Close as a comedy teacher and major influence on their careers. A man only known to the cognoscente, For Madmen Only

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Cannes 2021: ‘Val’ Is One of the Best Biographical Docs in Recent Memory

He emerged on the scene with implausibly good looks, the stuff of matinee idol dreams. He studied in one of the most prestigious acting schools in New York, did plenty of theatre, and was wooed by Hollywood. He was considered a problem on many sets, would do films that were critically acclaimed or sometimes do quickies just for the money. There was a superhero film along the way, a western, gangster films, and more. As age caught up with him, his looks faded but there was still plenty to admire about what he could accomplish when given the chance to

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All the Streets Are Silent Review: The City That Never Sleeps

Trust a Canadian to make a documentary even if he’s miles from home. Montreal born and bred Jeremy Elkin identified with New York as a youth and, in particular, the amazing street culture that emerged there in the Eighties. Montreal had a small skateboarding scene—it’s hard to build up one in the snowy downtown—and a slightly bigger hip hop culture. For Elkin, travelling down to New York to skate in the Eighties and be part of the exciting club environment must have been the best thing he’d ever experienced. Now, 25 years later, he’s made a doc that evokes the

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Naomi Osaka Review: Doc Series Plays a Mean Forehand

Naomi Osaka serves a mean forehand. The public attention to the tennis player’s success, however, has been sharply backhanded. The Netflix mini-series Naomi Osaka, directed by Garrett Bradley (Time) offers a window into the world of a young athlete whose raw power on the court took the world by storm. Shot over two years in an intimate verité style with commendable access to the usually media-shy Osaka, Bradley’s doc captures the drive it takes to win. Naomi Osaka, however, is also an essay about the costs of fame. Osaka’s story and success offer perspective on the personal and existential toll

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