7 years ago
documentary 10
Looking for Solutions
in “Where to Invade Next”
Note. This review was originally published as part of our New York Film Festival 2015 coverage.
Just the mention of Michael Moore is enough to send some viewers into spasms of protest. The Oscar-winning documentarian has a history of provoking the right side ...
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Kent Jones on “Hitchcock/Truffaut” and Opening Up Cinephilia
Kent Jones may be best known as a New York-based film critic and programmer, serving as the editor-at-large of Film Comment for a decade before eventually becoming the director of programming for the New York Film Festival. But Jones' love of cinema has manife...
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“Hitchcock/Truffaut” Functions As A Serviceable Primer
With Hitchcock/Truffaut, Kent Jones, one of our greatest living film critics and programmers, has once again forayed into documentary filmmaking. Hitchcock/Truffaut is adapted from a 1967 book of the same name written by François Truffaut—a book that has long ...
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“Very Semi-Serious” Is Only Semi-Okay
Documentarian Leah Wolchok’s Very Semi-Serious is a semi-okay movie. It isn’t good. But it isn’t bad. It also, amazingly, isn’t just simply “there.” The film has perspective and an idea of what it wants to say. It’s also quite entertaining for the first hour. ...
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“In Jackson Heights” Is Galvanizing and Unsettling
The opening rooftop shot of In Jackson Heights gazes down at a street block that contains several intersections within a short distance. It’s as much an indication of the New York community’s overlapping cultures as the subsequent montage of life in the area, ...
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“Junun” Is A Beautiful Tribute to Artistic Collaboration
Editor's note: We are thrilled to announce that MUBI, the curated online cinema that brings its members a hand-picked selection of the best independent, international, and classic films, is now sponsoring Movie Mezzanine. One of MUBI's current selections is Ju...
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“All Things Must Pass” Is A Warm and Wistful Music Doc
Last week, I went to a record store for the first time since I can’t even tell you when. It’s something I should do more often, as I’d kind of forgotten the sheer time-killing enjoyment of aimless browsing and flipping through the stacks for discoveries and su...
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The Kingdom of the Sick on Film in 2015
If we ask the movies of 2015 to tell us what a person dealing with mental health issues looks like, who looks back at us? It could be Sarah Silverman’s character in I Smile Back, a suburban housewife afflicted with addiction and possible manic depression. Or i...
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Interview: Davis Guggenheim of “He Named Me Malala”
In just the time from seeing He Named Me Malala at a press screening in early September to talking with director Davis Guggenheim in early October, the documentary has already become more urgent. Certainly, the Syrian refugee crisis calls out for a humane resp...
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NYFF Review: “Where to Invade Next”
Just the mention of Michael Moore is enough to send some viewers into spasms of protest. The Oscar-winning documentarian has a history of provoking the right side of the political aisle with films like Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Moore has incur...
Read more →