7 years ago
documentary 10
“Evergreen: The Road to Legalization” Barely Scratches The Surface of Marijuana Legalization
Surprise, surprise: a documentary that chronicles political maneuverings to legalize marijuana in Washington state plays it mellow. For 80 minutes, Riley Morton's new film, Evergreen: The Road to Legalization, tries admirably to avoid taking the rah-rah road a...
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“Citizen Koch” A Political Documentary That’s Not Angry Enough
“Money is a weapon,” says Buddy Roemer, a Republican candidate running in the 2012 presidential elections who was never invited to take part in the GOP debates throughout his candidacy. One main reason for Roemer, known for his opposition to the unrestricted f...
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“Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.” An Intimate, Bittersweet Portrait Of A Star’s Conflicted Father
Airing this month on HBO, Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr. is an intimate documentary portrait of the father of one of the most famous actors of our time. Robert De Niro, Sr. was a well-regarded abstract expressionist painter in the 1940s and 50s wh...
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“Fatal Assistance”: Lethal Charity
230,000 dead. 300,000 wounded. 1,500,000 homeless. The January 2010 earthquake has taken an unbelievably cruel toll on the struggling Haitian community. One might think surviving this nightmare is enough of a blessing. Raoul Peck, a Haitian born documentary fi...
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“Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me”: This Broadway Baby is Still Here
During the course of Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, the veteran Broadway actress repeatedly reminds us that she is 87 years old. We wouldn’t believe it otherwise. Sure, she forgets an occasional lyric in rehearsals and onstage, but forgetfulness isn’t age-specific....
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Berlinale Review: ‘Happy To Be Different’ Takes a Look At Homosexuality in Fascist Italy
A couple of weeks back, Russian (p)resident despot Vladimir Putin reiterated his position as a valiant bastion against the negative propaganda with which the homosexuals try and proselytise amongst the motherland’s youths, in anticipation of the Sochi Winter O...
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Berlinale Review: ‘Iranien’, An Experiment in Diplomacy
Mehran Tamadon, a French-Iranian atheist, set himself up for an uphill battle when he came upon the idea of gathering four Iranian clerics, who also happen to be firm believers in the existing system of an Islamic Republic, and spending two days with them in a...
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“The Last of the Unjust”: Mythology and Reality, Thoughtfully and Harrowingly Exposed
Culled from the very first interviews Claude Lanzmann conducted for his landmark Shoah, The Last of the Unjust focuses on one man in isolation, Benjamin Murmelstein, last of the Elders of the Jewish Council of the Theresiensadt ghetto near Vienna. The film pre...
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‘Tim’s Vermeer’ Is A Passable Documentary
Where is the line between art and technology? Is there even one at all? In the realm of cinema, we tend to dismiss the idea that there is any such separation. Movies would not be possible without advanced mechanical (and digital) techniques. But what about the...
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Sundance Review: ‘Rich Hill’ Finds Beauty In Small Moments
A visually sumptuous look at life in a small town.
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