All posts tagged: Doc

‘Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald’ Review: Judd Apatow’s Netflix Doc

‘Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald’ Review: Judd Apatow’s Netflix Doc

Published by Daniella Wilson

As much as I adore Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared and The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Judd Apatow‘s greatest legacy may be the documentary project he started fairly late in his career. In the past decade, Apatow has directed or co-directed multi-part documentaries on Garry Shandling, George Carlin and Mel Brooks, as well as feature-length documentaries on Maria Bamford and Norm Macdonald, with the Brooks, Bamford and Macdonald projects all hitting streaming this year alone. In a documentary landscape wildly oversaturated with the stories of certain kinds of comics from a certain generation (or two), Apatow’s films stand out as the most thoughtful and thoughtfully made, puzzle pieces that will eventually come together as an indispensable record of a genre and its key artisans. Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald The Bottom Line A greatest-hits approach that suits its subject fairly well. Airdate: Friday, October 16 (Netflix)Director: Judd Apatow 2 hours 7 minutes Hitting Netflix one week ahead of Apatow and Neil Berkeley’s Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford …

Ava DuVernay’s Infuriating, Inspiring Netflix Doc

Ava DuVernay’s Infuriating, Inspiring Netflix Doc

Published by Daniella Wilson

On November 3, U.S. voters will cast ballots in midterm elections that will go a long way toward shaping or reshaping our government. The results will offer a pivotal snapshot of how the country is currently viewing the solvency of our particular brand of democracy. Ava DuVernay‘s new documentary for Netflix focuses on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, recent attempts to strip the 14th Amendment of its power, and the ways in which the 14th Amendment embodies and represents the ideals and long-term viability of the American experiment. 14th The Bottom Line Infuriating and inspiring in the right ways. Venue: New York Film Festival (Closing Night)Release date: November 27 (theatrical); December 4 (Netflix)Director: Ava DuVernay 1 hour 48 minutes Naturally, Netflix has set 14th for a brief theatrical run on November 27 ahead of a streaming premiere on December 4th. A sequel or companion to DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated 13th, the doc is a cogent, urgent clarion call, and Netflix is sending it straight to the scheduling equivalent of voicemail. I’m baffled, but I guess it …

Doc on Black-Jewish Relations in America

Doc on Black-Jewish Relations in America

Published by Daniella Wilson

The coalition between Blacks and Jews was integral to shaping 20th-century America, steering entertainment, sports and politics as two groups often “othered” within our cultural tapestry found power in unity. But where shared values and purpose led to joint fights against fascism and prejudice, events like the Crown Heights riots and the aftermath of the tragedies of October 7, 2023, exposed schisms. The relationship has been so crucial to the identities of both groups and to our country that Henry Louis Gates Jr. produced Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History, which premiered on PBS in February of this year. It’s a great docuseries, though one that feels like it’s barely scratching the surface of this interwoven history in four hours. Re/Pair The Bottom Line So-so as history, but a potent conversation-starter. Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF Docs)Director: Lacey Schwartz Delgado 1 hour 41 minutes It’s no surprise, then, that Lacey Schwartz Delgado’s Re/Pair, a new 101-minute documentary premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, feels important but short of essential. If you haven’t …

Engaging Doc Portrait of Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe

Engaging Doc Portrait of Soccer Star Megan Rapinoe

Published by Daniella Wilson

The career highlights and basic biographical details of U.S. soccer legend Megan Rapinoe are not hard to find. Considering she’s spent well over a decade as one of the most famous athletes in the world, that information can be located in countless profiles and interviews, her Wikipedia page, her own memoir. What Rapinoe, the new documentary by filmmaker Rebeca Huntt, aims to offer is something more intimate: a portrait of the star in flux, following her retirement from playing in 2023. On that level, it’s engaging and inspiring, thanks to Huntt’s relaxed approach and Rapinoe’s typically radiant presence. But its timing also renders it necessarily incomplete — a setup for a next chapter that, within the film’s 92 minutes, never quite comes. Rapinoe The Bottom Line An intriguing look at a star in flux. Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF Docs)Director: Rebeca HunttWriters: Rebeca Huntt, Gabriel Rhodes, Isabel Freeman 1 hour 32 minutes Compiling old home movies, news reports, game footage and interviews both existing and new, Rapinoe, premiering this weekend at TIFF, cuts a …

Victor Kossakovsky’s Soothing Tree Doc

Victor Kossakovsky’s Soothing Tree Doc

Published by Daniella Wilson

Cinematic lyrical poet Victor Kossakovsky (Architecton, Gunda) offers in Holy Wood Dust another distinctive non-fiction meditation on a theme, a work that’s eloquent even if the author’s message is not always explicitly articulated. This time the subject is trees, mostly living ones growing, or at least trying to grow, around the Dolomites in Northern Italy — though the focus broadens to incorporate trees grown on an industrial scale for the Christmas season, especially in Germany. While the cinematography, credited to DP Gianmarco Donaggio, roughly meets the same visually sumptuous standards one expects from Kossakovsky and his crews — the drone shots’ soaring spectacles are especially compelling — Holy Wood Dust feels a bit lacking in purpose and thrust. Perhaps it falls back a little too often on mini forest-school lectures from amiable botanist Stefano Mancuso, a key collaborator here, reeling off interesting tree facts to a gaggle of Italian school kids. Holy Wood Dust The Bottom Line Wood you like to see some trees? Venue: Venice Film Festival (Venice Open — Out of Competition)With: Stefano …

ID’s ‘OJ Unseen’ Doc Looks Back at O.J. Simpson’s Reality TV Attempt

ID’s ‘OJ Unseen’ Doc Looks Back at O.J. Simpson’s Reality TV Attempt

Published by Daniella Wilson

In 2006, O.J. Simpson starred in a hidden-camera prank show along the lines of Punk’d, hoping it would kickstart a career comeback. It was called Juiced. That fever dream-sounding couple of sentences actually describes a real thing. Juiced, however, never really saw the light of day — at least not in the way its creator intended. A leak of the show’s details led to outrage from the families of murder victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman and the public, derailing a planned DVD release. Juiced was briefly available via video on demand, but a decade after being acquitted of killing his ex-wife and Goldman, Simpson would not re-enter the spotlight via hidden camera hijinks. A few (mostly lightly watched) copies and clips of Juiced exist on YouTube, but it’s mostly a relic of an earlier era of anything-goes reality TV. Or was a relic, anyway: ID‘s docuseries O.J. Unseen: Exploitation of Evil tells the story of Juiced through a trove of behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the show and interviews with cast and crew …

First Reactions to Elizabeth Holmes Doc

First Reactions to Elizabeth Holmes Doc

Published by Daniella Wilson

“Shocking.” “Brilliant.” “Insane.” “What the f*** did I just watch?” Just some of the words used to describe You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim‘s new documentary about Theranos founder and convicted fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, by those who were lucky enough to attend the surprise screening of the film at the Telluride Film Festival on Sunday. After its Telluride screening, official critics reviews are imminent, but in the immediate aftermath of the premiere, various festivalgoers took to social media to express shock, bewilderment and extreme enthusiasm for the film. Taking place in April/May 2023, the A24 docudrama sees Fielder, Oppenheim and a film crew shadow Holmes 34 days before she’s sent to prison, following her January 2022 conviction of multiple counts of defrauding investors and wire fraud. To coincide with the screening, A24 released a teaser trailer for the film on Sunday, as well as a logline, which reads: “Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What …

Nathan Fielder and Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes have intense exchange in ‘You Can See Everything’ doc trailer

Nathan Fielder and Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes have intense exchange in ‘You Can See Everything’ doc trailer

Published by Miika Tikkanen

A24 has released an intense teaser trailer for You Can See Everything, an upcoming documentary about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes. While it only shows a single exchange between Holmes and Nathan Fielder, the brief conversation/staring contest already speaks volumes. Directed by Fielder (The Rehearsal) and Lance Oppenheim (Primetime), You Can See Everything follows Holmes in the weeks prior to the start of her 11.25-year prison sentence in 2023. It likely won’t end there though, with A24’s description stating that “what begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss.” Holmes was a prominent figure in Silicon Valley during the early 2010s due to her blood testing company Theranos. However, after a 2015 Wall Street Journal report revealed that Theranos’ tests were inaccurate, further scrutiny saw the company quickly unravel. Holmes was ultimately convicted of multiple counts of wire fraud in 2022, the court finding that she intentionally misled investors about Theranos’ tech in order to solicit millions of dollars in funding. Judging from You Can See Everything‘s …

‘Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff’ Review: Nanette Burstein Doc

‘Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff’ Review: Nanette Burstein Doc

Published by Daniella Wilson

If Carl Sagan‘s landmark PBS docuseries Cosmos offered a pleasingly populist point of entry for viewers curious about our place in the universe, a gateway to more rigorous exploration, Nanette Burstein’s Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff offers a pleasingly populist point of entry for audiences curious about Carl Sagan, leaving more rigorous exploration for the individual viewer. The 98-minute National Geographic film, which boasts Sagan’s widow Ann Druyan and Seth MacFarlane, the man behind Fox’s more recent Cosmos update, as producers, promises and delivers no intellectual rigor. It’s light, fast-moving and looks back at a time when public intellectuals were able to use platforms like The Tonight Show to promote ideas instead of upcoming commercial ventures. Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff The Bottom Line Brings a brilliant man down to earth. Venue: Telluride Film FestivalDirector: Nanette Burstein 1 hour 38 minutes Yes, you could say that it’s limited and limiting to come away from a documentary about a paradigm-shifting genius fixating on the sloppy, if ultimately gratifying, transition from …

A Delicious Coppola Mom-Daughter Doc

A Delicious Coppola Mom-Daughter Doc

Published by Daniella Wilson

A film some people hated when it premiered at Cannes but which many others (those of us with excellent taste) adored from the moment they saw it in 2006, Marie Antoinette is aging exceptionally well. It’s like one of those gawky kids who, by the time they get to university, turns out to be both a beauty and a brainiac. And given one of its sub-themes is parenthood, and mother-daughter relationships in particular, it’s moving to see Sofia Coppola‘s third feature finally whelping a making-of documentary long after the fact, made by Sofia’s own mother Eleanor Coppola, who shot 80 hours of behind-the-scenes footage back in ’06. Admittedly, the final product may not have the heft of Eleanor’s best-known doc, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1993), her deeply insightful account of her husband (and Sofia’s father) Francis Ford Coppola filming Apocalypse Now. But Hearts of Darkness didn’t have anywhere as many macarons, pugs or frothy silk-satin gowns as Making Marie Antoinette does, so who knows which one future generations will watch more? Making Marie …