7 years ago
documentary 10
“Merchants of Doubt”
Nobody has ever won a game of Three Card Monte, magician Jamy Ian Swiss says at the outset of Merchants of Doubt. What made the game such a cornerstone of the street economy in the New York City of my youth were the shills - upstanding-looking folks hired by t...
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Being in This House: Albert Maysles and the Ghosts of “Grey Gardens”
On March 5, the film community reeled at the news of the death of Albert Maysles at the age of 88. Maysles, along with his brother David (who succumbed to a stroke in 1987), was responsible for some of the most indelible classics of American nonfiction cinema,...
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“Seymour: An Introduction”
Mild-mannered octogenarian Seymour Bernstein is considered a New York legend among the few who know him. Decades earlier, the once-promising musician gave up a calling as a concert pianist due to crippling performance anxiety and became a renowned piano teache...
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“The Wrecking Crew”
Director Denny Tedesco calls The Wrecking Crew “the most expensive home movie ever made,” which pretty well sums up the movie’s strengths and limitations. Shot here and there over the course of decades, it’s a grab-bag of interviews and archival footage intend...
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“The Life and Mind of Mark DeFriest”
The story of Mark DeFriest is a truth stranger than fiction. In 1980, DeFriest was sentenced to four years in prison for minor theft at the age of 20, but his fight-or-flight instincts kicked in and he fled from jail. Recaptured only a day later, DeFriest’s me...
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“Compared to What: The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank”
No great shakes as a documentary but a hugely entertaining repository of zingers, Compared To What? The Improbable Journey of Barney Frank follows the indefatigable representative from Massachusetts’ Fourth district during the waning days of his 40-year politi...
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“My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn”
When news of Liv Corfixen’s making-of documentary on her husband Nicolas Winding Refn’s critically lambasted Only God Forgives landed, there was a smattering of discontent over whether or not Refn was “deserving” enough of a (second, following Phie Ambo’s 2006...
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“Deli Man”
The very short history of documentaries with “_____Man” as a title format has nearly inspired a fully-fledged subgenre of their own. Films like Grizzly Man, Winnebago Man, and Big River Man evoke certain expectations of humanist character studies and sympathet...
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Interview with Amanda Rose Wilder of “Approaching the Elephant”
Amanda Rose Wilder’s first feature, Approaching the Elephant, is set in the first year of the Teddy McArdle Free School in New Jersey. It’s wall-to-wall footage, no narration, all black and white. But it’s not really about alternative education. Instead, the d...
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The Oscar-Nominated Live-Action Short Films
Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards Oscars in three categories dedicated to short films. Every year, viewers at home use the giving of these awards as a good time to get a snack or go to the bathroom. It’s ironic that people don’...
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